What’s New in Joomla! 1.7 And Should You Upgrade
Web designers everywhere are still getting used to all the new added features of Joomla! 1.6, but now Joomla! 1.7 is here. Web designers who enjoyed all of the brilliant new changes like Access Control lists and multiple themes to a single template may be expecting the same amount of updates to the 1.7 version. They will be sorely disappointed. Joomla! 1.7 has a few changes but nowhere near the amount as the previous update.
It took 3 years to produce Joomla! 1.6 after 1.5, but only 6 months to come out with 1.7 which is supposed to be the beginning of a 6 month revision to revision cycle. The down side is less new features, but that boon is far outweighed by the ability to keep on top of security through more frequent updating.
What’s New
One Click Upgrades – The headline of the 1.7 updates is the ability to install 1 click upgrades to the Joomla! CMS. WordPress has had this for some time, and now so does Joomla! If you are running Joomla! 1.6 you must make sure that you have the version 1.6.5 installed. From there, migration to 1.7 is one click away.
Faster Release Cycle – Joomla! will now be released in a six month release cycle. This is a breath of fresh air for website owners who want to stay on top of security issues and functionality upgrades.
Multilanguage Improvements – Improvements to the language switcher that came with Joomla! 1.6.
Predefined Search Options – The ability to create a menu items that pre-fill out the search fields so end-users can have a built-in search module for specific phrases.
Batch Processing – Copy & Move mass articles is now available in the same way as categories and menu items.
Should You Upgrade?
The answer is yes! Even if your website somehow could not benefit from the increased functionality provided by Joomla! 1.7, the security updates alone are well worth the update. Obsolete software is a prime target for would be hackers to try an exploit. Joomla! 1.7 provides the wonderful option of 1 click updating, so if you can get your installation of Joomla! to at least 1.6.5, you will be in great shape for easy upgrading in the future!
Joomla! 1.5 Users
Even though Joomla! 1.5 will be supported until April 2012, Joomla! 2.5 will be released January 2012, and will be supported for 18 months. Why put off till tomorrow what you can do today! It is recommended that you upgrade now at your own pace rather than be forced to do so later.
Where do I get Joomla! 1.7?
The latest release of Joomla! 1.7.1 was released on the 26th of September, and can be downloaded here: http://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5387-joomla-171-released.html
Hopefully, you have already upgraded your installation of Joomla!, but if you haven’t, then you have 7 months left for Joomla! 1.5 support. If your website is using Joomla! 1.6, then the support ended in August 2011, and upgrading now is extremely recommended.
