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Joomla 1.7 – To learn, to join and to get inspiration

Posted by huyennt
huyennt
An online marketer at www.JoomlaShine.com. I write blog posts about Joomla-related stuff with the hope that th...
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on Monday, 22 August 2011 in Joomla Tutorials

Overview

With a sharp look & appearance very similar to 1.5, Joomla 1.7 also comes with anticipated features. Let´s see some of the interesting things we can do with the new version:

Cool new features

Flexible ACL (Access Control Level) capability

This concept might be the biggest and the most complex enhancement of Joomla 1.7. Joomla 1.5´s ACL is rudimentary and hierarchical with fixed groups, access levels and relationship between them. This structure is adequate for most small sites but limited for complicated cases. And yes, this limited sutructure has been superceded in Joomla 1.7: ACL now is flexible and not hierarchical. You are given supreme rights to create new users and define groups with whatever permissions and unlimited access level you wish.

Example:

You are able to give permissions to groups to see different content on a business website as below:
  • General public: Can see almost all content (product lists, business information, forum …), except confidential content for business staff and managers.
  • Staff: Can see content for general public and the specific content for them (Internal information, internal blog…)
  • Managers: Can see content for general public, for staff and specific content for themselves (Strategy, Revenue…).
What to remember?
  • You should be very careful with Joomla 1.7´s ACL as it can reveal your hidden content or lock you out of your website.
  • You can put a user in various groups.

Nested categories only

This flexible organization is similar to the K2 content construction works in Joomla 1.5. Now in Joomla 1.7, the limited Section-Category-Article paradigm is no longer an option. The only option is (Category) x n times - Article.

Example:

If your website is about Open Source products (templates, extensions) showcasing: In Joomla 1.5, the organization is:
  • Section: Joomla
    • Category: Joomla templates
      • Articles
    • Category: Joomla extensions
      • Articles
In Joomla 1.7, you can divide them in more details:
  • Category: Joomla
    • Category: Joomla templates
      • Category: Free
        • Articles
      • Category: Premium
        • Articles
    • Category: Joomla extensions
      • Category: Free
        • Articles
      • Category: Premium
        • Articles
What to remember?
  • You can create as many categories as you wish.
  • Each parent might have a lot of child categories, but each child category just has one parent, neither an article.

Built-in SEO features

In Joomla 1.6/1.7, there are some new handy SEO options that reduce the working load of SEOers when compared to Joomla 1.5. No more 3rd-party extension or digging into code to make your site SEF, now you just enjoy the convenience it brings you.
  1. Metadata options: Meta-tags are now available in multiple components (banner, contact, contact category, weblinks, articles, menu manager) & its categories. They are easily set up, edited and correct displayed on SEM.
  2. 301 redirection system: This feature allows you to create page redirects – 301 when there are 404 errors on your website and you need to redirect the traffic to the correct addresses. Especially, you can redirect to a shortening system such as http://bit.ly/ or http://tinyurl.com / which have become one of the popular options in the social media explosion.
What to remember?
  • Meta-tags are not set by default.
  • Some more SEO features are included.
Besides three improvements above, there are additional small changes that help you save time. Here is the changes list.

Should I upgrade to Joomla 1.7 now?

Since:
  • Upgrading requires you to convert your database to the new structure.
  • Joomla 1.5 is powerful and is supported for at least more than 1 year.
  • Many 3rd-party developers haven´t upgraded their extensions to 1.6/1.7 yet, or decided to go on with 1.5.
You might not need to jump on the Joomla 1.7 bandwagon if:
  • Your existing site is running well.
  • Your site is big with lots of 3rd party extensions installed and some of them haven´t had the 1.7 version yet.
Vice versa, welcome to Joomla 1.7 world when:
  • You definitely need ACL or nested categories.
  • You have a small site or your site doesn´t use extensions, only core Joomla.
  • You really want to try out its new features and don´t want to spend hours to fix the mess jUpgrade (The upgrading component) makes as it is not 100% automatic yet.

If you say yes to at least one of the points above let’s take a look at upgrade process. If you currently own Joomla 1.5, so you have to upgrade to Joomla 1.6 then use “One click upgrade” to Joomla 1.7. Here are the details. For upgrading from Joomla 1.6.x to 1.7.x you have to read this well explained tutorial.

Example:

I used jUpgrade v1.0.0 to upgrade my website from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 1.6 and I got about 80% the same as the old one (content, categories, menu, modules…). The upgrading process is simple and quite quick.

What to remember?

  • Turn off the firewall on your computer.
  • Enable the plugin "System – Mootools Upgrade" after installing jUpgrade.
  • Do not exit the screen until the upgrading process is finished.

Resources

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An online marketer at www.JoomlaShine.com. I write blog posts about Joomla-related stuff with the hope that they are useful for you in web design process.
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  • Strompreise im Vergleich

    Posted by Strompreise im Vergleich on Tuesday, 30 November 1999
    Joomla 1.7 - To learn, to join and to get inspiration - Blog | JoomlaShine ...

Comments

Guest
ravat Sunday, 28 August 2011

really nice........................................joomla templates.
but i think wordpress is more easy . after visiting zootemplates and joomla shine
i like it.

Reply Cancel
Bui Anh Tuan
Bui Anh Tuan
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Bui Anh Tuan Tuesday, 30 August 2011

You're right, Wordpress is easier to use, but Joomla has own benefits such as the great community and tremendous number of extensions. It really does extend the scalability of your website :).

barndog1946
barndog1946
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barndog1946 Sunday, 02 October 2011

I tried wordpress. I tried Drupal. I'll stick with Joomla. CUrrently run 1.5.23 and will keep it fo my site. I use Epic Pro and it is the absolute BEST template of the hundreds I have used. I will build my next site with Joomal 1.7 and continue with Epic Pro as it is the only template I will ever need. All the best features and no other company has support like JSN

Thanks for wonderful product

Reply Cancel
huyennt
huyennt
An online marketer at www.JoomlaShine.com. I write blog posts about Joomla-related stuff with the hope that th...
User is currently offline
huyennt Monday, 03 October 2011

@barndog1946: Thank you for your warm words about JSN Epic. Your interest motivates us to work hard to bring you more value everyday.

You can keep updated with new JSN Epic features and Joomla news via our Twitter page. Our address is http://twitter.com/joomlashine

Guest
Nii Thursday, 15 December 2011

This is useful thanks

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Guest
Guest Thursday, 17 May 2012

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