Web Design and Web Development Blog from Webilicious in Tasmania

Mundaring Ecostay Website Launched

Neil Robertson 24 February 2012

New Joomla 2.5 Website

We recently launched a website for Mundaring Ecostay strawbale chalets. Online bookings using Rentalot Plus has since been added.

Web Design and Development

For the web design, the awesome "Momentum" template from RocketTheme has been installed and customised for this particular client with a seamless strawbale background image and a background image of the cottage itself. The main body and modules have been made transparent so that the cottage is visible in the background.

C6 Media Solutions created the logo.

Other features include:

location map using GMapFP also includes surrounding facilities and activities
social networking "share" and "follow" buttons
JoomPlace Testimonials for clients to leave feedback
the local weather
galleries using "SigPlus" image gallery which is fast becoming one of my favourite Joomla extensions

Nibbler Test Score

Out of the box, this website is already achieving a Nibbler test score of 8.0 which is excellent for a brand new website.

The strawbale chalet is very peaceful and is a great place to stay if you are looking for accommodation for yourself, friends or family or business in the local area. Contact Ross or Jenny Mars for details or to make a booking. Contact details are on the website.

Feedback is welcome!

Upgrade or Migrate to Joomla 2.5!

Neil Robertson 13 February 2012

Joomla 1.5

Release Date: January 2008
Support Ended: September 2012

Joomla 2.5

Release Date: January 2012
Support Ended: December 2014

Joomla 3.x

Release Date: September 2012
Support Ended: August 2023

Joomla 4.x

Release Date: August 2021
Support Ended: October 2025

Hotfixes

Some security hotfixes for Joomla end of life versions are available which can help secure websites with unsupported versions of Joomla until website owners are able to update to a supported version. Links for these can be found on the official Joomla website.

Joomla 5.x

Release Date: October 2023
Support Ends: October 2027

Joomla 6.x

Release Date: October 2025
Support Ends: October 2029

Joomla 2.5.0 was released on schedule on January 24th and since then has been updated to Joomla 2.5.1. Initial teething issues have been addressed and the new version is very appealing with several new features and time savers.

Akeeba Admin Tools to the Rescue

Updates from Joomla 1.7.4 to 2.5.0 that I tried using the built-in Joomla update utility failed but these issues were anticipated by Nicholas Dionysopoulos and addressed in his excellent Akeeba Admin Tools. Even the free version handles the upgrades flawlessly. Nicholas has offered to help incorporate his code into the core of the next Joomla 2.5 release so let's hope that his offer is accepted.

Update: As of Joomla 2.5.4, Nicholas's code has now been incorporated into the Joomla core update feature.

It's Safe to Migrate or Upgrade to Joomla 2.5 Now

Assuming all your favourite extensions are Joomla 2.5 ready, now seems to be a good time to upgrade from Joomla 1.7 or migrate from Joomla 1.5.

I have been busy updating my personal and business websites to Joomla 2.5 and have completed my first client migration from Joomla 1.5. It was easier than I thought.

ChronoForms Even Better Now

The trickiest part has been relearning all the cool tricks I had learnt in ChronoForms v3 as ChronoForms v4 has been completely rewritten and is even better than before!

Joomla 1.5 Security Updates

Remember that Joomla 1.5 security updates will only continue to September 2012 so Joomla 1.5 website owners should be thinking about migrating at some point this year. Joomla 1.5 websites will, of course, still operate after September but may be more vulnerable to hackers.

Happy updating / migrating!

Migrate My Joomla Website

Migrate from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 3.x

The cost of migrating from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 3.x depends on the number of third party extensions and whether there are Joomla 3.x equivalents, whether there is an equivalent Joomla 3.x template and other factors. A straightforward Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 3.x migration typically takes at least five hours and costs from around $450.

Migrate from Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

The cost of migrating from Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x depends on the number of third party extensions and whether there are Joomla 3.x equivalents, whether there is an equivalent Joomla 3.x template and other factors. A straightforward Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x migration migration typically takes at least three hours and costs from around $250.

Migrate from Joomla 3.x to Joomla 4.x

The cost of migrating from Joomla 3.x to Joomla 4.x depends on the number of third party extensions and whether there are Joomla 4.x equivalents, whether there is an equivalent Joomla 4.x template and other factors. A straightforward Joomla 3.x to Joomla 4.x migration migration typically takes at least four hours and costs from around $350.

Upgrade from Joomla 4.x to Joomla 5.x

The cost of updating from Joomla 4.x to Joomla 5.x depends on the number of third party extensions and whether there are Joomla 5.x equivalents, whether there is an equivalent Joomla 5.x template and other factors. A straightforward Joomla 4.x to Joomla 5.x update typically takes at least one hour and costs from around $88.

Upgrade from Joomla 5.x to Joomla 6.x

The cost of updating from Joomla 5.x to Joomla 6.x depends on the number of third party extensions and whether there are Joomla 6.x equivalents, whether there is an equivalent Joomla 6.x template and other factors. A straightforward Joomla 5.x to Joomla 6.x update typically takes at least one hour and costs from around $88.

Contact me for a quote.

The Importance of Website Updates

Neil Robertson 27 January 2012

There have been some repercussions for some of my Joomla clients after VentraIP updated their server fleet to PHP version 5.3.9 this week. Clients with older versions of JCE Editor found that some features (e.g. spell checker, insert image) would not work until JCE Editor was updated to the latest version.

Domino Effect

To further complicate matters, once JCE Editor was updated to the latest version, this caused issues with older versions of AcyMailing. This too was easily fixed by installing the latest version of AcyMailing.

Regular Reviews and Updates

If there is a lesson to be learned from events this week, then it is worthwhile conducting a regular review of your website and ensuring that extensions are kept reasonably up to date. This is also the best way to keep your website safe from hackers.

Let me know if you'd like a free review of your Joomla website showing your extension versions compared to the current extension versions.

Joomla Monitoring Update:

I have a myJoomla subscription and can now monitor Joomla clients websites for out of date extensions, out of date Joomla versions and also for malware. I am subscribed to the Joomla Vulnerable Extensions feed and when a vulnerability is announced, it is very quick for me to check which websites are affected and to update them.

Website Health Check

To find out how well your website is configured, order a Website Health Check for $90.

The Health Check includes:

check CMS and third party extension/plugin versions
check Google is seeing the website as responsive
check website page load speed
check robots.txt
check free space
check backup is enabled and suitably configured
check web hosting configuration and suitability
recommendations on how best to address any discovered issues

Note that no changes are made to your website during the Website Health Check without consulting you first.

The cost of a Website Health Check is refundable if you purchase a 12 month Website Maintenance and Backup Subscription within 30 days of the check.

Website Maintenance and Backup Subscriptions

	Economy	Business	Enterprise
Monthly Cost	$39 per month	$69 per month	$99 per month
Annual Cost	$390 per year*	$690 per year*	$990 per year*
Third party extensions	up to 10 extensions	up to 20 extensions	up to 30 extensions
Monthly Report	Yes	Yes	Yes
Free initial security audit (valued at $220)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Monitor new CMS and third party extension/plugin updates	Yes	Yes	Yes
High priority CMS updates installed within 24 hours	Yes	Yes	Yes
High priority third party extension/plugin updates installed within 24 hours	Yes	Yes	Yes
Non-critical CMS and third party extension/plugin updates installed quarterly	Yes	Yes	Yes
Monthly off-site backups	Yes	Yes	Yes
Non-critical CMS and third party extension/plugin updates installed monthly	No	Yes	Yes
Installation of web application firewall (e.g. Akeeba Admin Tools Pro)	No	Yes	Yes
Weekly off-site backups	No	No	Yes
Monthly malware scan	No	No	Yes

* Pay 12 months in advance and get 2 months free.

Joomla Best Open Source CMS Again!

Neil Robertson 17 November 2011

Joomla has won the 2011 Packt Publishing Open Source CMS Award ahead of Drupal and Plone. This is the third time that Joomla has been honoured with an award since the Packt awards started six years ago.

Joomla released new versions 1.6 and 1.7 this year and has been downloaded over 26 million times since counting started in 2007. It is estimated that Joomla now accounts for 2.7% of the world's websites from small personal websites and blogs to government and multinational corporations.

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