DataSync Business News

Very few companies and organizations use static websites anymore. Almost everyone uses a database driven content management system to help organize their website, keep things uniform, and make it much easier to manage. There are tons of commercial and open-source content management systems available, but which do you choose? There’s PostNuke and its variations, Drupal, Plone, Joomla, and dozens more to choose from.

If you’re looking for a content management system that has a significant base of ready-to-go plug-ins and components such as forums, photo galleries, contact forms, directories and newsletters ready to go without a lot of custom web development, you should look no further than Joomla. Joomla’s wide adoption has meant that a lot of web developers have created a lot of free and open source plugins for use with the content management system and now the extensions that can be built have expanded dramatically because of the improved API built into Joomla 1.5

Joomla has always adopted the principle of extensibility, meaning that it is very easy to integrate additional functionality into the system, but the 1.5 version of Joomla offers a significantly expanded API so that developers can communicate with the Joomla Core system much easier and make better use of its functionality.

Before Joomla 1.5, there was no forum software available for Joomla, and developers had to do install other forum software such as phpBB and then do some rather un-elegant things to make them work together. Now there are forum tools that are written specifically for Joomla and install just as easy as any other component would.

Joomla 1.5 is still a relatively new product and developers are coming up with new and innovative plug-ins on a weekly basis, so only time will tell what these new application programming interfaces will allow developers to create, but there’s no doubt that Joomla has one of the best APIs available compared to any other content management system. If you’re looking for a content management system that you can build functionality on to, look no further than Joomla 1.5.

DataSync Offers Joomla 1.5 Hosting

It’s been less than two weeks since Joomla’s developers announced that a stable version of Joomla 1.5 was available and the new version of this open source content management system has received glowing reviews from many web developers. We at DataSync are proud to announce that we are now offering hosting for Joomla 1.5.

Joomla 1.5 features a number of useful new features, such as on the fly preview, better menu management, a new media manager, a significantly improved extension manager, and new authentication methods. If you’re still using PostNuke, DotNetNuke, or PHPNuke, it’s time to consider switching. Joomla 1.5 has thousands of components and modules available, an amazing developer community, and is one of the best content management systems web developers have available.

If you’re interested in DataSync’s Joomla 1.5 hosting services, have a look at our Joomla Hosting Services or sign up for a free demo.

The stable version of Joomla 1.5 recently was released to the public, and I’ve got a chance to implement it on a couple of different sites now. There are a few things moved around, but it’s still the same great content management system with a few great new features. Here are five features that might cause you to want to upgrade to Joomla 1.5.

On the Fly Preview – If you’re making changes to a page, you no longer have to save it before seeing what it’ll look like. Previously if you wanted to experiment with a page that you didn’t necessarily want to keep, you’d have to make a copy of it and then mess around with the copy so the original was intact. Now Joomla 1.5 offers a quick preview button that allows you to see what your new page will look like without having to save.

Improved Menu Management – Joomla’s menuing system received a significant overhaul in version 1.5. Previously you would have to click several buttons and configure things exactly how you wanted. With the new version of Joomla, you can add a new menu item with just three clicks.

New Media Manager – The media manager that is a part of Joomla received significant improvements in Joomla 1.5. There’s a vastly improved user interface that provides thumbnail and detail views of your content. You can also upload multiple files at once with easy and there are now some configuration choices that you didn’t have before.

Simplified Extension Manager – In Joomla version 1.0, there were separate installation pages for templates, components, mambots, and modules. Now there’s just one installation page that works with all of them. You just have to pick-out your file, and Joomla will determine what type of extension it is and install it in the appropriate place for you.

New Authentication Methods – In version 1.0 of Joomla, you were stuck with Joomla’s user accounts and had no other options. Joomla 1.5 now supports OpenID as well as LDAP, so you can integrate your existing user accounts with your new Joomla website. This is certainly a godsend for corporate intranet websites.

Joomla 1.5 has certainly made a number of significant improvements and is easily one of the top open source content managements systems available. Joomla 1.0 worked great, and now Joomla 1.5 has made what was good even better.

DataSync offers Joomla hosting as part of it’s productivity suite.

It looks like Joomla V 1.5 has finally come to fruition. From the Joomla Website:

It is with great pride that the Joomla! community announces to the world the immediate availability of Joomla! 1.5 Stable [Khepri].  As a community of contributors, we have been through celebrations and tribulations. We have had fun, and we have worked hard. We have learned from and helped one another. What started two and a half years ago with a letter to the community has grown into a great opportunity for both the Joomla! project and community to benefit from these efforts and to consider our future.

People have contributed enormous amounts of time and energy to make Joomla! 1.5 what it is today. Developers collaborated over long distances, around the clock, enthusiastically contributing to Joomla!. Hours writing code combined with intense discussions on everything from usability to extensibility have defined many developers’ lives over the last two and a half years. Countless others have identified and fixed bugs along the way.  Documenters have tracked changes to help make life easier for everyone who uses or develops in Joomla! 1.5. Translators for dozens of languages have prepared language packs.  Huge amounts of time and energy have gone into event organization, team management, and infrastructure upkeep.  Our forums are overflowing with those asking and answering questions about Joomla! 1.5, helping overcome problems and reaching out to newcomers in a concerted effort to be helpful.

DataSync Offers Joomla Hosting as part of its Productivity Suite