Struggling with Joomla Site Updates - Seeking Fellow Developers' Input
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- djSoft
- Rocketeer
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Hello Rockettheme Community,
Following my previous post regarding the future of Rockettheme's Joomla themes, I would like to reach out to my fellow developers and Joomla enthusiasts.
As a loyal member of the Developer Club since 2010, I have always appreciated the high-quality themes and support Rockettheme has provided. However, with the recent lack of updates and new developments, I find myself struggling to maintain and update Joomla sites effectively.
I am curious to know if anyone else is experiencing similar challenges. Have you faced difficulties in keeping your Joomla sites up to date without the usual support and new themes from Rockettheme? How are you handling client concerns and potential migrations to other platforms like WordPress?
Let's share our experiences and possibly find solutions or alternatives together. Your insights and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Antono
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- Matt
- Preeminent Rocketeer
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Re: Struggling with Joomla Site Updates - Seeking Fellow Developers' Input
Posted 9 months 1 week ago-
I reuse/re-style templates all the time for new site builds. Sometimes it's appropriate to just start with the base Helium template and migrate in specific particles from various templates as needed. I built a brand new site using Myriad (G5 version) the other day, a very old theme, totaling 3 clients sites I have running that theme and aside from the basic navigation and similar geometry (margins, paddings, everything squared) none of the sites look similar, in any regards, to each other.
I have a dozen or so active Joomla 3 sites running both Gantry 4 and Gantry 5 that I'm simply never going to upgrade; including PHP beyond the final release of 7.4 for my G4 sites (g5, J3 sites I have on PHP 8.0). I've upgraded them to the final J3 versions and I've hardened the administrator folder with htaccess protection. I also have file monitoring at the server level with my host and I'm alerted if any new files are added/modified (I ignore the various cache folders and Gantry 5s /custom/ folder within the theme files). I take weekly backups (automated) and store 2 months worth (automated) of backups. I expect these sites to live happily for years to come and my clients understand they're on a legacy system and that someday they should consider a new site build on a modern platform. "Upgrades" and "Migrations" only go so far... you can only repair your daily driver vehicle for so long... eventually, you just need to buy a new asset to replace an old asset; I think most clients/business owners understand this.
Joomla is still one of the most popular open source CMS's in existence and I suspect it'll continue to be well loved and supported into the future. That being said, if you look at CMS usage statistics the VAST majority (I think it's like 90%+ EDIT: w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-joomla ) of Joomla sites in the wild are still running J3 (this site included)... a lot of people never made the jump to J4+, myself included. Maybe that will change over time. There are thousands of tools available to web developers and you should use what works for you. My personal focus for 99% of the new sites I build is Grav, WordPress, and Shopify. At one point I was building things in as many as 6 different CMS's and it just became too much.
If I was to build a J5 site I would definitely start fresh, with a J3/J4 rocketlauncher and click the upgrade button for J5. You can defitely upgrade from J3 running G5, just make sure you clear out any J3 overrides in your theme's /html/ folder (compare with fresh download), you've upgraded the Theme and Gantry, and you've disabled any non J4/J5 compatibile extensions.
I'm still building new sites on Grav and WordPress with Gantry because it works for me. WordPress's plugin library is unmatched and I like flat file systems which both Grav and Gantry are. I prefer SCSS to CSS and can quickly customize all things Gantry (and Grav) via TWIG and YAML files and PHP/JS where needed. The backend is friendly enough that if my clients want to manage their own content, they can with a little direction.
Gantry saves all of it's configs in the theme's /custom/ folder. Aside from the Position/Widget particles and the Page/Taxonomy Outline Assignments you can migrate these configs (essentially migrating each Outline) between each of the 3 CMS's that Gantry supports to aid in migrating a site from one CMS to another.
Do what works for you. Pick tools that make your life easier and your clients happier. Evolve when you need to while also realizing that some things are just fine how they are, and don't need to be "upgraded". - Last Edit: 9 months 1 week ago by Matt.
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- Douglas Schneider
- Sr. Rocketeer
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Re: Struggling with Joomla Site Updates - Seeking Fellow Developers' Input
Posted 9 months 1 week ago-
At present, I still love Joomla and have all my own sites up to J4. I have two at J3 still, but only because I haven't found good J4 template replacements. Both run Joomlashack templates and Joomlashack never made the template jump to J4. I'm talking 10 sites in total.
Really, the issue is time. If I had more time, I'd probably have those up to J4 right now. But I have to dedicate that time.
I'm disappointed what happened to RocketTheme, because updates are scarce, so that worries me for this. However, it won't take me out of Joomla because I don't really see the reason to change over. Wordpress doesn't appeal because I don't see benefit.
So, for the foreseeable future, I'm Joomla, mostly on J4, at some point J5.
DAS -
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- Matt
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Re: Struggling with Joomla Site Updates - Seeking Fellow Developers' Input
Posted 9 months 1 day ago- The latest 10 templates all have J5 rocketlaunchers now
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- djSoft
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Re: Struggling with Joomla Site Updates - Seeking Fellow Developers' Input
Posted 9 months 1 day ago-
Hi Matt,
Thank you for the update regarding the latest 10 themes being upgraded to Joomla 5. This is indeed good news and much appreciated by all of us who rely on Rockettheme for our projects.
Could you kindly let us know if there are any ongoing developments or plans for new templates or unique features specifically for Joomla? It would be great to hear if there's any new work being done to continue enhancing our Joomla sites.
Thank you again for your support and the continuous improvements.
Best regards,
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- Matt
- Preeminent Rocketeer
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Re: Struggling with Joomla Site Updates - Seeking Fellow Developers' Input
Posted 9 months 1 day ago- AFAIK all themes with a 1.5.0+ or 2.5.0+ release are J5.1 compatible so long as Gantry is fully up to date. I'm not sure how many themes are going to get J5 rocketlaunchers but that's been the priority, getting those released. I don't have any information to share beyond that, my role here is to help support all the existing themes and active memberships.
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- djSoft
- Rocketeer
- Posts: 69
- Thanks: 13
Re: Struggling with Joomla Site Updates - Seeking Fellow Developers' Input
Posted 9 months 1 day ago-
Hi Matt,
Thank you for your response and for clarifying the compatibility with Joomla 5.1 and the current priorities.
As a long-time loyal member of the annual Developer Club for over 15 years, I, along with many others, have always appreciated Rockettheme's exceptional themes and support. However, due to the lack of information on future theme developments and updates, we no longer have an active subscription.
It's difficult for us to justify paying for a membership without knowing if there will be new themes or significant updates in the future. We value Rockettheme's contributions immensely and would like to continue our support, but we need to see a commitment to ongoing development.
Could you please provide a roadmap or plan outlining Rockettheme's future commitments? Knowing what to expect would greatly help us make informed decisions about renewing our memberships.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support.
Best regards,
Antonio
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- Matt
- Preeminent Rocketeer
- Posts: 22254
- Thanks: 3223
- messin' with stuff
Re: Struggling with Joomla Site Updates - Seeking Fellow Developers' Input
Posted 9 months 1 day ago- All of that is outside of my scope, I don't have any updates or roadmaps beyond what I've posted on these boards.
- SEARCH the forum first! These boards are rich in knowledge and vast in topics. This includes searching just the 'Solved' forums, using Google, and using ChatGPT
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