Joomla Africa

Joomla 1.5 has been around for more than 18 months. It is stable and there are a wide variety of additional components, modules, and plugins to select from.

This brings the up the question should I upgrade to Joomla 1.5? The short answer is yes. There are a lot of benefits upgrading. 

Information on the Internet is probably doubling faster than any other area of human knowledge considering that there are 800 million people on the Internet everyday! A staggering amount of people using an interlinked resource!

You are most likely to use an anti-virus programme on your computer. As you know you need to keep the anti virus programme updated. This is due to new enhancements and new threats developed every day. If you do not do this, you may become infected with a virus and all the hassle that goes along with it.

Your operating system is another great example. Many people started with DOS 3.2 (long time ago), moved to Windows 95 (which was a great improvement with a user interface managed by a mouse), then Windows 98, going to XP, then vista and now yet another Windows - all of these building on the previous version – adding functions, doing security updates and more.

Every day new features are created, current systems enhanced and old technology being improved. We truly live in the age where change is becoming faster and quicker.

Your web site is much the same. Daily new features are developed and enhancements made. Security is beefed up, layout is improved, usability is enhanced and much more – this is how you can benefit from it all.

You have made the wise decision to use Joomla as your Content Management System allowing you to make your own changes to your web site when you want. Giving you complete control over your web site.

Currently you are running Joomla 1.0 that has been hailed as the best Open Source CMS (content management system). In 2008 the project team behind Joomla released a new version called Joomla 1.5 (note the change from 1.0 to 1.5). This marked a completely new coded CMS with a long list of enhancements and new features

What is the impact? t is about changing your current web site from Joomla 1.0 to Joomla 1.5. It is a completely new CMS giving you much more.

Is it absolutely necessary? The short answer is not required at this time. You will be able to function with your current web site. However, in a couple of months the current system will not be supported along with any extensions. Most extensions are currently (or have already been) upgraded to Joomla 1.5. The development and support on Joomla 1.0 will stop this year.

What will happen if I don’t make the change? Your web site will continue to work. However, if you want to add certain functionality, do some search engine work, etc. it might not be able to handle it. Basic functions will work, however your web site must work hard to improve the success of your business and that is good reason to move over to a new, improved version.

What are the main differences between Joomla 1.0 and Joomla 1.5?

There is a lot of technical improvement relating to the new code. For business the following items are important:
-    An improved user experience making your visitors stay longer, improving the possibility of potential sale (query)
-    Improved administrator interface allowing you to save time updating your web site
-    Improved search engine friendliness getting your web site indexed, attracting more visitors
-    Enhanced security using new and improved technology and coding techniques
-    Joomla 1.5 is now stable (it has been 18 months since launch)
-    New Extensions added (it was 2600 and now boasts over 5000 extensions to add functionality to your web site)
-    Improved Article Management saving you time to update your web site
-    Improved Image Management allowing you to manage images better
-    Improved Menu Management giving you an friendly interface to change and amend menu’s
-    A complete facelift for your visitor and for you to administer your web site
-    Joomla! has been separated into a three tiered stack to keep the internal structure clean and allow developers to leverage the different layers as necessary. This means more functionality will be available more frequently and working better allowing you to have a more streamlined on-line presence.
-    Continuous support on the new Joomla 1.5

From the Joomla.org web site:  “One of the more significant functional improvements are search engine friendly URLs, easily implemented within the global configuration. With SEF URLs in place, system generated duplicate content is eliminated, greatly improving site search engine optimization.”

Will I still be able to make my own changes? Yes you will. You are in control of your web site. You will be able to add or change content as needed.

All new sites to be created in Joomla 1.5. If you are running with Joomla 1.0 it is time to upgrade to the new version! We are able to assist with the migration from Joomla 1.0 to the new Joomla 1.5. We create a new template inline with your branding that is ready to be used with your new site! Contact Joomla Africa Joomla Web Design Contact Us.