Joomla 1.5: Review
Having waited six months after the release of Joomla 1.5, I decided to finally 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. Even though I had vowed to wait for one year before using 1.5, I gave it a try and now have two websites using it.
My initial impression is that Joomla 1.5 is a very nice upgrade and has some very nice new features. The installation went smoothly and I had the new site up and running quickly. First thing I noticed is that the icons and general look have changed for the better with a sleek, modern look. However, if I understand this upgrade correctly, most of the improvements are under the hood and front end users won’t see these. This review looks at the Joomla 1.5 improvements you can see from the user’s view.
One of the most obvious changes for the end user is the article editor. It has been completely revised and is now much easier to use. In Joomla 1.0.x, the editor screen was divided into a Intro Text box and a Main Content box. In Joomla 1.5, there is only one box for entering text. If you want to add a Read More link to an article, you put your cursor where you want the introduction text to end and click the Read More button at the bottom of the screen.
In addition, it is much easier to insert images now. Just click the Insert Image button and you get a popup screen that displays the /images/stories directory. For here you can navigate to the image you want to use, and then click it to insert it. What’s more, you can upload images from this screen too (Just make sure that you have configure the correct 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 can use it to intall Components, Modules, or Plugins.
Finally, the Search Engine Friendly URLs feature in Joomla has been greatly improved to give you urls that reflect the article title. In fact, 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 Joomla 1.5 is a great upgrade, but there are a few caviats. The Joomla 1.5 installation was not as smooth as the Joomla 1.0.x installation. If you are famliar with the Joomla installation, you should be fine. Also, many of the Joomla plugins, which are the heart of Joomla, have not been ported to Joomla or if they have, they are in beta.
My advice is this: If you already have a version of Joomla 1.0.x up and running on a live site and it does everything you need, stick with Joomla 1.0.x for another year. However, if you are just installing Joomla on a site, start with Joomla 1.5 unless there is a plugin you absolutely have to have and it is not available for Joomla 1.5.