Should you upgrade your site design from Joomla 1.0.x to Joomla 1.5? I waited six months after the release of 1.5 before I made up my mind to give it a try. As with ANY new software, I try to avoid being an early adopter aka tester, especially if the testing involves a client’s website. I presently have eight websites using 1.5 and am extraordinarily OK with the upgrade.

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My first impression of 1.5 is that it is a very nice upgrade and has some really nice new features. The install was easy and extremely smooth, and I had the new site active in twenty mins. First thing I spotted is the icons and general look have changed for the better with a sleek, modern look. However, if I understand this upgrade correctly, the majority of the enhancements are under the hood and front end users won’t see these. This review investigates the Joomla 1.5 improvements you can see from the user’s view.

One of the most blatant enhancements is the article editor. The editor has been utterly revised and is now far easier to use. For example, in version 1.0.x, the editor screen was split into an introduction Text box and a Main Content box. In version 1.5, there is just one box for entering text. If you need to add a Read More link to an article, you put your cursor where you need the introduction text to finish and click the Read More button at the bottom of the screen. This alone is worth the upgrade!

In addition, it is way easier to insert images now. Just click the Insert Image button and you get a popup screen that shows the / images / stories directory. From here you can navigate to the image you wish to use, and then click on it to insert it. What’s more, you can upload images from this screen too ( Just ensure that you have configured the proper URL when you set up Joomla or the default image uploader will not work ).

Another obvious improvement is the installer. Now, there is only one installer and you may use it to install components, Modules, or plugins.

eventually, the Search Engine Friendly URLs feature in Joomla has been greatly improved to give you urls that reflect the article title. Actually, if you enter text in the article’s Alias field, Joomla SEF URL will pick this up. Just make sure not to use spaces in the text. This feature gives you total control over the look of the article’s URL.

Overall, I think version 1.5 is a great upgrade, but there is one caviat : lots of the Joomla extensions, which are the heart of the CMS, don’t work in version 1.5.

My advice is this : If you already have a version of 1.0.x up and running on a live site and it does everything you need, stick with 1.0.x. If , however , you are installing Joomla on a new site, begin with version 1.5. If there’s a plugin that is only made for version 1.0.x, you can still run it in version 1.5 by turning on the Legacy mode. Bequest mode permits you to run components, modules, and mambots that are made for 1.0.x.

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