Dear Joomla developers and site builders all over the world! I'm very glad to announce to you that there will be a gorgeous Joomla event taking place in May. Have you ever heard about this - J and Beyond 2012?

J And Beyond 2012

J And Beyond - What is it?

J And Beyond is not Joomla! Day. This is an international conference with attendance of developers and site builders from all around the world. It will be take place in May 18th to 20th in Bad Nauheim, Germany.

If you have used a free JoomlaShine template and now you want to get more options with PRO Editions, this article is for you. I am going to show you the way to upgrade JoomlaShine templates from Free to Pro step by step. In this article, I use the JSN Teki template as example. Please note that upgrading other templates is the same.

Uninstalling JSN Teki Free

The first thing to do is to uninstall JoomlaShine templates Free.

Open the back-end of your Joomla site, go to Template Manager, and change the default template to make sure that the JSN Teki Free is not set to default. You know, you are not allowed to uninstall a default template.

Change the default template

I/ Joomla! 2.5

Joomla! have just released version 2.5.3. The functionality of Joomla! 2.5 made me feel very interested, and today I'm writing a blog post about the new features. My blog might not mention all of the new features, but I'll try to write this blog within my knowledge.

II/ New features in Joomla! 2.5

There are many articles written about the new features in Joomla! 2.5. I will go straight to the important functions which I think are very useful for users in Joomla! 2.5. This blog post includes two parts: one for Beginners and one for Advanced Joomla! Users.

A. For beginners

Smart Search

Besides the regular Search module, Joomla! 2.5 now supports Smart Search functionality. For content to be displayed in search results it must first be indexed by one of the Smart Search plug-ins. After the indexing of the content is completed, you can set configuration to display Smart Search via Module Manager with a module named "Smart Search Module".

Figure 1: Smart Search component

Joomla is one of the most popular Content Management Systems (CMS) in the world. It is well known for a free open source, a lot of Joomla templates, Joomla extensions and a friendly community. The name 'Joomla' is derived from the Swahili word 'Jumla', which means 'all together'.

Joomla has been developing continuously in 7 years. There are a lot of changes when compared to the first version. With the infographic below, you can see how it is developing, how attractive Joomla is and more.

Here you can download the infographic in original size

Edited by 10 march 2012

Spanish

Thanks to Hector from www.joomlabarcelona.es for translation the infographic file to Spanish.

Joomla! in Munchen - http://www.flickr.com

Joomla Day 2012 - What Are You Waiting for?

Recently, a guy - my roommate kept saying about Joomla over and over again until I got sick of it. However, I'm a little curious about this kind of thing. What the heck is it, anyway? Why do people take so much care of it? Then I do some Google search and finally find this: Joomla Day 2012 event - sounds interesting, huh?

What Is Called Joomla Day?

Joomla Day actually is occasion when Joomla users (including those who are newbies as well as addicts) gather together to spread the word about Joomla and share their passion for it.

Every year, Joomla Day event is hold in different places or nations and there's only one Joomla Day at a time in a specific location. So it's very exciting for Joomla users to prepare for this event in their local area.

From day to day in this event, you will experience different environment of making new friends, broadening your knowledge, updating new tracks, themes of Joomla community and especially beer (the funniest part, I think).

Before and after use JSN Template Sample Data

Working in the web development field for a long time, we often hear about how complex it is to configure a Joomla website. It takes a lot of time to achieve a result like the one presented on the demo site. The process becomes easier when you have some experience.

This inspired us to develop a unique JSM Sample Data function, which automates the whole process of making your newly-installed template look exactly like the one on the demo site. You are not required to have any advanced knowledge about Joomla CMS to use this function.

It should be easy to use.

Before starting to work on this feature, we put the users’ priorities first: understanding their needs and behavior. We put the best practices in usability for developing an intuitive user workflow. Thus, even the a Joomla user with basic knowledge about Joomla! is capable of using the function without any manual configuration. In general, files/packages are uploaded using an FTP client - additional, software which requires extra time and money. We simplified this process through a simple upload form built – in templates. The configuration process happens only in Joomla administration control panel.

Looking for the Joomla Service Providers is not so hard - Google does it all. You can also upload your project on freelancer marketplaces, where hundreds of experts are willing to take it over with reasonable price. However, ensuring that they can give you good service is another story. You might often get confused. I do.

JoomlaShine Team is amazingly happy to announce the launch official JoomlaShine Blog. To continue with delivering awesome Joomla templates and outstanding customer support we would like to give you more value with providing a great content. We understand that learning Joomla! CMS and building the website is not simple task with hundreds questions in mind. In this blog you will find the information that supports you in the right decision. Topics in the blog are chosen based on many requests from our existing customers. We understand well what the problem you are trying to solve and support you in coming articles.

Topics

• Joomla Tutorials – Learning Joomla! CMS is not a trivial. We aware about that and would like to share as much experience as possible to make your Joomla learning journey easier.
• Website Development Tutorials – Building a website takes a lot of effort and things to care about. You will find valuable content starting from choosing a right hosting company to the building a stable working website.
• JoomlaShine Documentation Portal – Making the product easy to use and clear to understand. That’s what you can find in articles of this topic.
• JoomlaShine News – Product’s release, important updates, special promotion programs is what you can expect in articles of this category.

We started this blog with four predefined topics which we believe you are interested in. However, it’s the only a beginning of our journey and so we’d like to hear your opinion about future topics. What are you wondering or interested in at the moment? Let us know through the comment box.

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