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Gantry 5 beta 5 is an important beta update leading up to the upcoming premium template release featuring the brand new Gantry 5 framework. Gantry 5 has been built from the ground up with tomorrow's Internet in mind, taking full advantage of the latest and greatest technologies the Web has to offer.

Like the previous beta release, Gantry 5 beta 5 focuses strongly on usability. A preset matching feature detects when a Configuration's style settings meet the criterea for an existing preset. If it does, this preset is highlighted with a star to let you know. This is a great way to find out, at a glance, which preset a particular Configuration is using.

Improved fonts support makes it easy to add font selection options for the theme in the Styles administrative panel.

The Configurations administrative panel has also been added, though it is still a work in progress. During this beta phase, the development team will be working to expand on this page's functionality enabling you to quickly and easily rename, duplicate, delete, and create new Configurations (traditionally called Styles in Joomla) with ease.

You can learn more about the latest updates to Gantry 5 by visiting our project roadmap.

Participating in the Beta

If you would like to contribute to the Gantry 5 beta, and directly assist in creating the next generation Gantry Framework, there are several ways to do so.

The easiest way to help out is by simply downloading the beta release of Gantry 5 via Github and trying it out for yourself. We have documentation available to help you get started in the all-new Gantry 5 administrator, as well as a Gitter chat room where you can talk directly with Gantry’s development team as well as other members of the community.

If you run across any issues or have any suggestions for improvement, you can submit an issue report on GitHub letting us know. Our team will review the issue and work on a solution.

If you would like to contribute directly to the project yourself, you can do so by making the change and submitting a pull request. Your pull request will be reviewed by the team, and if approved, will become part of Gantry 5. We recommend reaching out via the Gitter chat before doing so to avoid putting in the work on a problem that the team is already working on.

Keep in mind that even at this stage, Gantry 5 is in an early beta and it is not recommended for use on any live site. Doing so will undoubtedly come with issues as new updates are released that could potentially break functionality of your site.

Additionally, the current beta build does not include all of the features and functionality we have planned for the final release.

Gantry 5 is coming together very nicely thanks to our incredibly active and passionate community. We are working towards the next major phase of the beta coming soon, and look forward to seeing the incredible things the community creates with it.

Installing Beta 5 on Existing Gantry 5 Beta Installs

Gantry 5 and the Hydrogen template have undergone big changes since beta 4 was released. If you are running Gantry 5 beta 4 and the Hydrogen template released with beta 4, there are a few things you should be aware of when updating.

First, your TEMPLATE_DIR/custom directory should be backed up. The TEMPLATE_DIR/custom/compiled-css directory itself should be removed at this time as it will not work with the latest update. You can update Gantry 5 using the standard Joomla update process, but the Hydrogen template needs to be uninstalled and installed manually to accept all of the changes for beta 5. Here is a quick rundown of the steps we recommend taking when installing Gantry 5 beta 5 on an existing Gantry 5 beta 4 site.

1. Delete the TEMPLATE_DIR/custom/compiled-css directory in your installation.
2. Back up your TEMPLATE_DIR/custom directory. While we recommend deleting this directory entirely so you will see all the new changes, backing it up will enable you to replace any information you need to reinstall after the update/re-installation is completed.
3. Set a template other than Hydrogen as your default.
4. Uninstall the Hydrogen template.
5. Update Gantry 5 using Joomla's integrated update process.
6. Manually download and install the updated Hydrogen template for beta 5.
7. Make sure Gantry and Hydrogen are enabled and enjoy testing!

For more information about Gantry 5, please check out these other blog posts from our ongoing series:

• Gantry 5: Requirements and Details
• Gantry 5: Built from the Ground Up for Speed
• Gantry 5: Regarding Backward Compatibility
• Gantry 5: Incredibly Easy to Use
• Gantry 5: Reimagining the Layout Manager
• Gantry 5: Rethinking How Positions Work in Joomla
• Gantry 5: Meet the Menu Editor
• Gantry 5: Powerful New Font, Color, and Icon Pickers
• Gantry 5: Joomla Beta Released
• Gantry 5: Joomla Beta 2 Released
• Gantry 5: Joomla Beta 3 Released
• Gantry 5: Joomla Beta 4 Released
• Gantry 5 Coming to RocketTheme Joomla Templates in May

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