RocketTheme Blog

At the end of this month (December 31, 2014), Joomla is discontinuing support for Joomla 2.5. This has a lot of users that haven’t yet made the switch to Joomla 3 eager to do so.

RocketTheme has a library of 88 currently-supported templates for Joomla. We have been working diligently to bring all of these templates to Joomla 3.x compliance, especially with Joomla’s end-date of support edging ever closer.

RocketTheme’s Update Plan

We are pleased to state that all of our Gantry-powered templates have been updated and are fully compatible with the latest stable version of Joomla, 3.3. You can pick them up on our site, including Joomla 3.3 RocketLaunchers for which make rapid setup, customization, and deployment easy.

As for our pre-Gantry templates, which were produced on or prior to 2009, we are in the process of making many of these templates Joomla 3.x compliant as quickly as possible. For a list of templates that are set to receive this update, check out our Joomla Compatibility Matrix. Since these templates were created originally for a much earlier version of Joomla, there is a lot of work involved in bringing them up to current standards.

We expect these templates to be updated for Joomla 3 quickly, and are releasing updates at a rapid pace.

Continuing Support for Joomla 2.5 Templates

Some of our earliest supported templates may not be Joomla 3.x ready in time for the December 31 cutoff, but don’t worry. We are dedicated to continuing support for these products beyond Joomla’s support window.

In fact, we plan to actively support all of our presently-supported Joomla 2.5 templates throughout 2015, with our projected end date of support being on December 31, 2015.

This should not only allow for users that prefer Joomla 2.5, but that need a bit more time to perform updates on their end.

We expect our templates to be Joomla 3.x compliant much sooner than this date, but understand that some overlap in support is expected as people make arrangements to update their existing sites and perform recommended testing prior to deployment.

Why Joomla 3.3 is a Good Update

Joomla 3.3 (3.3.6 specifically, as of this writing) is currently the latest stable release of the powerful and flexible CMS. The Joomla Project has made giant leaps forward in terms of general usability and adoption of modern Web technologies, and it shows in Joomla 3.3.

One of the coolest features a user new to Joomla 3 might notice is that you will now have the ability to quickly access the edit page for modules from the frontend, including a quick-look description of the module, its position, and name so you don’t have to hunt for this information in the backend.

Joomla’s backend has also been entirely revamped, making navigation and content management more intuitive to today’s user.

With version 3.3, Joomla 3 has made great progress in terms of page speed, stability, expanded jQuery and microdata support, as well as raising the required PHP version to 5.3.10.

This requirement increase takes advantage of a critical security fix in PHP, in addition to enhanced cryptography that improves user account security.

RocketTheme is dedicated to providing the best level of support possible for all of our users, whether you’re using our latest Gantry templates or if you are still enjoying your experience on Joomla 2.5.

Updating Joomla 2.5 to 3.3 with a Compatible RocketTheme Template

If your Joomla template from RocketTheme is already Joomla 3.3 ready (check our Product Updates page) updating your existing Joomla install to 3.3 from 2.5 is not difficult at all.

You will want to make sure that you have updated your template to its latest version, as well as to back up your site data in the event that an unexpected issue occurs during the update.

It's important to note here that ALL of your extensions and modules should be Joomla 3.3 compatible prior to performing this update. If they are not, your site could lose functionality or fail to load properly after the update. Also, you will want to disable the Remember Me plugin prior to the update.

Once you have done this, simply navigate to Administrator > Control Panel and select the Joomla Update page. Alternatively, you can find this option by going to Administrator > Components > Joomla! Update.

This page may give you the option to update your current Joomla 2.5 installation to the latest release, but to update to Joomla 3.3, you will need to change an option. Simply select the Options button in the upper-right area of the page.

Here, you will need to switch the Update Server option to Short Term Support. Select Save and Close and you will be able to update directly to Joomla 3.3 (3.3.6 is the current version as of this writing). Just click the Update button and in a minute or two your site will be ready to go with the latest Joomla version.

Once you've made the update, your RocketTheme template should work seamlessly. In fact, we are continuing to update templates to take advantage of the latest features of Joomla 3.3 as they are added to the platform.

You can find out more about our latest product updates by checking out our Product Updates page, and/or subscribing to its RSS feed.

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