What is Joomla 1.6?

As most people know, version 1.6 is the next major release of Joomla after the huge success of version 1.5. Although the numbering is deceptive, version 1.6 can be really be considered a "2.0" release because there are fundamental changes to the framework under the covers that are quite different from 1.5. These changes effectively break compatibility with previous versions but there are also new goodies such as nested groups and more robust Access Control List (ACL) capabilities. Other factors to take into account is Joomla 1.6 requires PHP 5.2.4+ and MySQL 5.0.4+ so this means you need to ensure your host supports these before taking the plunge. For a full rundown on all the changes and features of 1.6, I highly suggest checking out the "What's new in Joomla 1.6" page of the official Joomla Documentation.

The installation process is pretty much identical to what you are used to with Joomla 1.5. Even the administrator looks almost identical except for a predominant blue and orange color scheme, and different icons.

Navigating around you will find the menu has been reorganized, so it may take a few moments to acquaint yourself with the feel. The best way to learn about the full capabilities of 1.6 is really to download it, install it, and take it for a spin. I won't go into a full review of functionality as this point, that's not really the focus of this blog post.

Should I start upgrading/migrating Joomla 1.6?

So here is the crux of the issue, should you upgrade to 1.6 at this time? My answer to this question is emphatically NO!!! (at least not yet)

Why the exclamation marks? Well, this is a question we get asked a lot, but really it's a no brainer. There are only two ways to use Joomla, first what I call "Bare-Bones Joomla" which is basically Joomla with no 3rd party extensions. The second is "Extended Joomla", which is Joomla plus a smattering of 3rd party extensions to enhance the core functionality and provide features that do not exist by default.

Bare-Bones Joomla Users

Even if you only use the base Joomla platform, I would strongly advise holding off on going 'live' with a Joomla 1.6 based site in the immediate future. Historically, based on past experiences of the Joomla 1.5 release, even after the 'final' incarnation of a particular release, there will be a lot of updates in the months to follow. I see no reason why Joomla 1.6 would deviate from this pattern and it's mainly due to the large amount of people who will inevitably install, and start pushing the limits of the platform. As you can see from the release history, Joomla 1.5 really didn't become 'stable' until the 1.5.9 time frame. Up until that point there was a bug-fix release almost every month. Now that's not to say that 1.5 was unusable up to this point, but it was 'fluid', and lots of things were being fixed during this time, not just security updates.

The other factor to take into account, is that even if you don't plan on using 3rd party extensions, you still have to worry about your content and how it is viewed. According to the Joomla 1.6 User Manual (incomplete), there is a planned migration script that will help migrate your content from 1.5 to 1.6, but it does not currently exist. If you have a large site that you can't manually replicate, the availability of a migration script is going to be a key factor in when you upgrade. Regarding templates, we'll cover how RocketTheme is handling this in a little while.

Extended Joomla Users

The vast majority of people use Joomla in conjunction with 3rd party extensions. There are currently well over 6 thousand great extensions out there as listed on the Joomla Extensions site, and most people use at least a few of those. Before switching your project to Joomla 1.6 you will need to ensure there are 1.6 versions of these extensions available. Also you may want to take into account the robustness of these extensions. Joomla 1.6 has a lot of underlying framework changes, so 1.6 versions of these extensions will probably need a few revisions of their own before they become as stable as the 1.5 versions you currently use. Combined with the same issues that a Bare-Bones Joomla user faces, an Extended Joomla user needs to be even more cautious when considering moving to 1.6.

Template & Extensions from RocketTheme

We have been carefully watching and evaluating Joomla 1.6 during it's beta phase, and now it has reached Release Candidate status, we're switching even more of our efforts to 1.6.

As has been alluded to above there are some fundamental differences in Joomla 1.6 that require some careful attention when migrating extensions (modules, components, and templates) from 1.5 to 1.6. One of those is the new JForms library that replaces the tried-and-true JParameter class that was used to control parameters in Joomla 1.5. Also, as the whole form handling has been modified, strategies we used to get around the limitations of 1.5 no longer work. As some of our extensions are 'sophisticated' in how they handle forms, this caused a bit of a speed bump in our conversion process. Anyway, the priority for us at this point in order of importance is the following:

1. Convert our 'main' extensions (those used in most of our templates) to Joomla 1.6
2. Convert Gantry Framework to 1.6
3. Convert all Joomla templates built on Gantry to 1.6
4. Convert the rest of our extensions to 1.6
5. Over time, convert our older pre-Gantry templates to 1.6
6. Create new extensions to replace aging Joomla 1.0/1.5 extensions

We are currently well on our way with #1 and #2 in that list. We intend on having a 1.6 release of our Gantry framework in time for the 'Final' release of Joomla 1.6 in the middle of January.

Gantry for 1.6

We have actually spent a lot of time working on Gantry for Joomla 1.6. What started as a simple port has become a pretty major release. We have gone ahead with the UI update we had slated for Gantry 4.0. This is more in line with the current WordPress style of tabbed panels rather than the current Joomla 1.5 solution of collapsable accordion panels. This UI is currently in need of some cleanup, or else I would show you some screenshots, I promise as soon as we have that cleaned up, i'll post an update. Along with this UI change, we've created our own Forms library based on 1.6's JForms that contains support for the sophisticated capabilities that you have grown accustomed to in Gantry.

Another paradigm shift that we've faced in Joomla 1.6 is that of template 'styles'. As you may know, we introduced the concept of per-menu template settings in Gantry for Joomla 1.5. This is a powerful capability that lets you 'override' the default settings but only for certain menu items, and subsequently their children via inheritance. This functionality allows you to easily configure any Gantry setting on any page, so you can create radically different layouts and looks for certain areas of your site with very little effort. In Joomla 1.6 there is a similar but inferior functionality called "Template Styles". This basically copies the settings from one template and creates a copy of it which you can then modify and assign to different menu items. There is no inheritance of settings, nor is there and cascading through child menu items like Gantry does. This presented a dilema for us, do we go 'backwards' and drop functionality that exists in the Joomla 1.5 version, or do we break the Joomla 1.6 user experience, and do things our way?

The solution we came up with is basically a compromise. We maintain the Joomla 1.6 styles UI paradigm, but we've enhanced the functionality for Gantry Joomla templates to function the same way as it does in Gantry for Joomla 1.5. So to the end user, it will appear they are just creating Joomla 1.6 styles, however, in reality, they are creating sophisticated Gantry inheritance-based styles. This is something we will take to a whole new level in Gantry 4.0 and beyond.

Gantry for 1.6 is shaping up to be our best Gantry release ever. We're really looking forward to making this available for everyone. After we have a working version, we'll begin work on the next big revision of Gantry that is slated to contain some big new features that is going to definitely set Gantry apart, exciting times!

Summary

To wrap up this rather lengthy blog post, I would like to summarize the opinions that we've covered:

• Don't rush to jump on the Joomla 1.6 bandwagon
  Unless you have a dire need for one of the new Joomla 1.6 features, you will be better of sticking with Joomla 1.5 for the next 6-12 months. You can already do 99% of everything Joomla 1.6 can with Joomla 1.5 and a few solid extensions. A client will most likely not care of even know if they are running on Joomla 1.5 or 1.6.
• Watch the development progress of extensions you use
  If you use 3rd party extensions, and most people do, you'll need to make sure those extensions have Joomla 1.6 versions and are 'stable' enough for your use.
• RocketTheme is aggressively developing for Joomla 1.6
  Don't worry about us, we're working hard to bring the best Joomla templates, and extensions up to par for Joomla 1.6. We're focusing on Gantry-based templates and associated extensions to start, but will over time port as much as possible over to Joomla 1.6. We also plan on releasing new extensions to replace some old ones that we no longer use.

Update 01/13/2011

We're working as fast as we can on providing 1.6 support. The order things will progress in are as follows:

1. Gantry core framework (90% complete)
2. Gantry core template (90% complete)
3. "Key" extensions that the majority of our templates make use of (75% complete)
4. Conversion of Gantry-based templates working backwards from most recent to oldest (requires #1, #2, and #3)
5. Conversion of older pre-Gantry based templates (requires #3)

Needless to say we have been working hard on 1,2 and 3 and are nearly there. As soon as we have these finished and they have passed our internal testing and quality control inspections, we'll be releasing them. Trust me we are not sitting on our heels here. We just have pushed the boundaries in Joomla 1.5 so converting to 1.6 is not as trivial for us as it may be for others.