RocketTheme Blog

RocketTheme's main site has been updated to include a new, streamlined user interface that makes it even easier to take advantage of all it has to offer.

We have been working hard to create what we believe to be the best possible user experience for our customers. This includes completely overhauling the cart system, adding new purchasing options, and extending our level of support to include a giant library of documentation that makes it easier than ever to get up and running with your new template or extension for Joomla, WordPress, phpBB3, or Magento.

Many of these updates come from requests made by our community. Features like the single-template purchase option, extended documentation, a more flexible payment system for International customers, and corporate-friendly printable invoices are all features that are now part of our core user experience.

Below, we have outlined some of the changes you can expect to see while browsing the redesigned RocketTheme site.

Additional Purchasing Options

One of the new options you will find when browsing through our template library is the ability to purchase a single template, rather than having to sign up for a full membership.

This means you can buy a single template, and enjoy lifetime access to support forums, compatible extensions, and template files. You also receive one site license per purchase, enabling you to use the template on a live site, while also using it on as many offline production/development environments as you need.

We also throw in access to promotions and discounts provided by our third-party partners that can help you save money on things like hosting and SEO tools, at no additional charge.

Detailed Documentation

We have completely rewritten our documentation from the ground up in order to create a documentation library that is easy to navigate, read, and understand. These documents include written information, images, and (coming soon) video tutorials to make it easier than ever to hit the ground running with any of our products.

You can quickly access the docs from any product page, as well as from the main menu at the top of the site. Our library is sorted into a number of categories, each with an user-friendly Table of Contents that makes finding documentation a quick and easy process.

You can also search our documentation (as well as the entire site) using our powerful search system.

Improved Site Search

Need to find something on our site? We have added a brand new search function to our site that makes it easy to find what you are looking for. Our custom search system is built on top Elasticsearch, an industry-leading search utility.

Using the search bar located at the top of each page, you can search for just about anything on our site. We have included filters that make it easier to search within a specific platform, or page type.

If you are searching for a page in our documentation, just click the Documentation filter and only results found within the documentation area of the site will appear.

Platform and page-type tags also appear along with the search results to help you quickly identify the type of link discovered.

Updated Checkout System

We put a lot of thought and effort into making our checkout system incredibly easy to use. Just add a membership, or even a single template into your cart and hit Checkout. This will bring you to our four-step checkout system that will guide you through the process.

The new checkout system includes the following improvements:

• Ajax Registration Validation
• Visual Credit Card Input with Automatic Card Type Recognition
• Multiple-item Cart
• Advanced Rules System for Complex Purchase Combinations
• Animated Rocket Progress Indicator
• Printable Invoices
• Support for Company Info Including Tax ID on Invoice

We have also, by popular demand, switched to Stripe as our primary payment processor in order to better serve our International customers.

This change increases our available payment options to include:

• Visa
• Mastercard
• American Express
• Diners Club
• Discover
• JCB

Simple Downloads System

Once you are ready to download a template or extension, you can do so by easily clicking the Download link in the product page. This will take you to a window that gives a variety of different download options to choose from.

Simply click the red Download button next to the file(s) you wish to download, and that is it. You are ready to go.

New Forum

The forum has long been the heart of RocketTheme's community. It serves as our largest point of contact between our development team and our users, in addition to make it easy for members of our community to connect, collaborate, and share information.

Over the years, our phpBB forum has served us well, but there are a number of updates that have been requested by our members that could only be made possible by rethinking the forum from the ground up.

Without losing any of the great content that has been entered into the forum thus far, we have migrated to Kunena, a Joomla-based communication platform that is fast, feature-rich, and far more suited to the needs of our growing community.

It is also fully integrated into our main site, which makes it easier to find and share information from either source, without losing the superb user experience our customers have come to know from our original forum.

In addition to this background change, we have updated the user experience with a cleaner, easier to follow layout.

Refined Product Pages

There is a lot of information to convey on our product pages. Many of our templates and extensions have feature lists that extend well beyond anything you could explain in a single paragraph.

It is for this reason we have completely redesigned and refined our product pages to give you a quick, easily navigable overview of everything a product has to offer.

At the top of each product page, you will find a quick navigation menu that you can use to check out any available presets, demos, downloads, support, and documentation for the product.

A little higher up on the page, you can see a list of compatible platforms for which that product is made. In the case of a Joomla template, you will find a list of Joomla versions to which it is compatible, as well as which version of the Gantry framework you will need to order to use it.

We feel that this redesign will make it easier than ever to make an educated purchasing decision prior to buying any RocketTheme product.

More to Come

We couldn't possibly list all of the updates we have done to our site in a single post. Look for additional posts detailing specific updates, including some inside information on how we accomplished some of these changes, in future blog posts.

If you have any feedback, suggestions, or questions about the new site, please feel free to leave a comment below, or email us and let us know. We believe that these changes answer a lot of popular requests from our community, and will continue to work to make RocketTheme the best source of templates and extensions for years to come.

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