You can say a lot about how the internet has changed by looking at the foundation of how popular websites are built. As with any technology as it matures and standards are adopted it gets better. Today open source has come a long way to standardization.
As an ECMS Architect and developer I am on the fence when it comes to purchased products like Documentum, FileNet, and others. These are the best of the best for what they do. But they are expensive for small business and in many cases way overkill the need. It simply makes good business sense to look at alternatives when it comes to CMS design.
Joomla! is one of the most popular CMS formats for publishing content to the web and is one of these open source structures that has caught on like fire. Joomla! simple user interface for administration and vast community support has made it one of the best solutions for companies looking to stream line cost. Built-in flexibility and layout functions make fast setup a breeze.
Simply install the base, choose a template and populate it with content. A good developer can have a site up in a day. Fully functional with too many features to explore here within a week.
Xanluna! has been supporting this format for the past 4 years and if you are a follower of the site you will know we have changed our format so many times we quit counting. This change has been the result of 2 things. One finding just the right template and the other defining what works best. In other words to keep it simple!
Now we are taking a step forward again. You might say we are promoting our own dog food. When we decided to move forward with Xanluna! LABS Design Service, one of our goals was to provide are users a real and functional example. Xanluna! is more than a on-line magazine or portal. It is an education project unto its self. Each functional section uses different features and showcases possible solutions.
We have used templates from the most popular Joomla! template clubs for our base. These include; Joomlart.com, Yootheme.com, Rockettheme.com, Joomlashack.com and many others. Each of these template clubs provide templates that fit just about any site design. Ready to go right out of the box. With preset designs and layouts that are intuitive and functional. These clubs drive the best of Joomla! design because the template are the core of your presentation layer.
When you render your content to html format these templates determine placement, style, readability, function and form. This allows the site developer to spend more time focused on content then site design. Once the base is worked out, all you have to do is just publish your changes and new content as needed.
But there is one tiny issue that can clog up the works. Each of these great template clubs have their own developers and philosophy. They develop their own standards within and they don’t cross over to another club. Now this is good and bad. The good is these clubs drive for consistency within and generally all the templates that are developed and showcased at their respective sites work well. The bad is if you want to use an extension from say Yootheme.com on a template that was built with Joomlashack.com for example it may not work as expected.
This cross functional issue with extensions is not new and we see this all over the web, especially in the browser wars like between IE8.0 and FireFox or Safari, etc.
As a site designer this creates issues because you are constantly having to sort out compatibility. Now I can tell you these template clubs do a great job of staying on top of their code. Working out these compatibility issues but they all have one thing in common. They are first and foremost a business of selling templates. They all believe they have the best and in some cases they do. So the drive to be better than the other club is always there. This competition for new users and to be the best at their trade has driven out some of the best functionality you can find.
However finding just that right template can be a pain. I don’t know how my times I have purchased a template and work hours to sort it out and then come to the conclusion the extra work to beat to fit is not worth the effort. I strive for simplicity. Clean and functional without clutter. Some templates are truly a work of art, but we all strive for individuality on the web. That is what sets us apart from just another site.
Unless you are very good at writing PHP, HTML, CSS and have a good understanding of graphic design you are faced with limits. You are forced to use what is presented to you in these designs and making changes that define your individuality becomes complicated.
Another issue is speed. Load time with some of these templates can be extremely slow especially over a dial up service. Now fortunately the majority of users are now moving to broadband, but still load time is an issue. Consistent placement of content and layout is controlled by the template and how you use the structure defines where things will be. Keeping rows and columns of information within a table works well, but they clog up the renditioning process and slow down load time.
Most popular template designs have moved away from table structures and working out mathematical calculations on just where and how to place each piece of content. This extra effort to determine where content will lay on the page is time consuming and most developers dread this extra work of how to fit the template to the content that needs showing.
This issue has caused the popular template clubs to develop their own structure or format to maintain this consistency. Rocket Theme has ventured down a new road to consistency recently with their new Gantry 2 framework. This framework is based on the 960 grid system. This grid system insures all the content line up correctly and also insures that content objects reside where they are suppose to. Allowing for faster setup and changes to content location. There are many more benefits to mention here so I recommend you visit Rocket Theme and see for your self.
In the mean time Xanluna! and Xanluna! LABS will continue to push the envelope in design and showcase what we believe works best. When it comes to GPL and open source we think we have found the right combination.
Resources:
Rocket Theme - Template club
Joomlart - Template club
Yoo Theme - Template club
Joomlashack - Template club
Joomla! org - Home of the Joomla! project and code source
960 Grid - Home of the 960 grid project
Bitnami - Home of WAMP and other pre-installed Joomla! formats including MySQL, APACHE etc.
Xanluna! has been supporting this format for the past 4 years and if you are a follower of the site you will know we have changed our format so many times we quit counting. This change has been the result of 2 things. One finding just the right template and the other defining what works best. In other words to keep it simple!
Now we are taking a step forward again. You might say we are promoting our own dog food. When we decided to move forward with Xanluna! LABS Design Service, one of our goals was to provide are users a real and functional example. Xanluna! is more than a on-line magazine or portal. It is an education project unto its self. Each functional section uses different features and showcases possible solutions.
We have used templates from the most popular Joomla! template clubs for our base. These include; Joomlart.com, Yootheme.com, Rockettheme.com, Joomlashack.com and many others. Each of these template clubs provide templates that fit just about any site design. Ready to go right out of the box. With preset designs and layouts that are intuitive and functional. These clubs drive the best of Joomla! design because the template are the core of your presentation layer.
When you render your content to html format these templates determine placement, style, readability, function and form. This allows the site developer to spend more time focused on content then site design. Once the base is worked out, all you have to do is just publish your changes and new content as needed.
But there is one tiny issue that can clog up the works. Each of these great template clubs have their own developers and philosophy. They develop their own standards within and they don’t cross over to another club. Now this is good and bad. The good is these clubs drive for consistency within and generally all the templates that are developed and showcased at their respective sites work well. The bad is if you want to use an extension from say Yootheme.com on a template that was built with Joomlashack.com for example it may not work as expected.
This cross functional issue with extensions is not new and we see this all over the web, especially in the browser wars like between IE8.0 and FireFox or Safari, etc.
As a site designer this creates issues because you are constantly having to sort out compatibility. Now I can tell you these template clubs do a great job of staying on top of their code. Working out these compatibility issues but they all have one thing in common. They are first and foremost a business of selling templates. They all believe they have the best and in some cases they do. So the drive to be better than the other club is always there. This competition for new users and to be the best at their trade has driven out some of the best functionality you can find.
However finding just that right template can be a pain. I don’t know how my times I have purchased a template and work hours to sort it out and then come to the conclusion the extra work to beat to fit is not worth the effort. I strive for simplicity. Clean and functional without clutter. Some templates are truly a work of art, but we all strive for individuality on the web. That is what sets us apart from just another site.
Unless you are very good at writing PHP, HTML, CSS and have a good understanding of graphic design you are faced with limits. You are forced to use what is presented to you in these designs and making changes that define your individuality becomes complicated.
Another issue is speed. Load time with some of these templates can be extremely slow especially over a dial up service. Now fortunately the majority of users are now moving to broadband, but still load time is an issue. Consistent placement of content and layout is controlled by the template and how you use the structure defines where things will be. Keeping rows and columns of information within a table works well, but they clog up the renditioning process and slow down load time.
Most popular template designs have moved away from table structures and working out mathematical calculations on just where and how to place each piece of content. This extra effort to determine where content will lay on the page is time consuming and most developers dread this extra work of how to fit the template to the content that needs showing.
This issue has caused the popular template clubs to develop their own structure or format to maintain this consistency. Rocket Theme has ventured down a new road to consistency recently with their new Gantry 2 framework. This framework is based on the 960 grid system. This grid system insures all the content line up correctly and also insures that content objects reside where they are suppose to. Allowing for faster setup and changes to content location. There are many more benefits to mention here so I recommend you visit Rocket Theme and see for your self.
In the mean time Xanluna! and Xanluna! LABS will continue to push the envelope in design and showcase what we believe works best. When it comes to GPL and open source we think we have found the right combination.
Resources:
Rocket Theme - Template club
Joomlart - Template club
Yoo Theme - Template club
Joomlashack - Template club
Joomla! org - Home of the Joomla! project and code source
960 Grid - Home of the 960 grid project
Bitnami - Home of WAMP and other pre-installed Joomla! formats including MySQL, APACHE etc.
