Design vs. Develop

A lot of people have been asking “when will there be a copy of Podcast Suite for Joomla! 1.5?” If you’re one of those people, I have some good news for you: we’re close to a beta! You can take a sneak peek at the code here. If you’re handy with SVN, you can also check out a copy and give it a spin. My hope is to get a beta out this month.

Recently, I recorded a Joomla! 1.5 video training series for Lynda.com. As of today, the videos are now live! This video series walks you through installing Joomla!, adding content, creating navigation, and adding extensions. You can sample some of the first videos on the site before subscribing to the Online Training Library.

After 2.5 years of development, Joomla! 1.5 is now available for download! Here are some of the new features:

• Beautiful SEF links based on your menu structure.
• FTP layer for installing third-party extensions: leave your directory permissions alone.
• Advanced Javascript-driven interfaces that clean up the administrator workflow.
• Better caching and lazy loading for better performance.
• Compatibility layer for older Joomla! extensions.

For those of you who are thinking of upgrading to the coming release of Joomla! 1.5 but are deterred due to the absence of the Solarflare template, your excuse is now bunk. HarryB has ported the infamous template for native use in Joomla! 1.5 (no legacy mode). Here’s the live demo. And in contrast to other modifications to Solarflare that attempt to hide the fact that they’re really just Solarflare with a different banner, this one proudly proclaims it:

(Thanks to OpenSourceCommunity for the tip!)