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[cgc0202 Friend cgc0202Join date: August 2007Posts: 2244Downloads:0Uploads:3 Thanks: 206 Thanked: 262 times in 1 posts]

#143318

One of the reasons why I advocated for the one template per month was based on my hope that with one template per month, Joomlart will then allocate part of its time to

1. improve technical support
2. “… spend more brain and creation on design as well as increase the variations of a design.”
3. “… come back to old template and give them a new life like we have done with JA Teline and JA Teline II”

The first one was at the top of my list, and if Joomlart has been listening, that of most members too.

The last two were copied directly from Hung’s response to the members agreeing to the one-template per month

Important">
by Hung Dinh 08-08-2008, 05:43 PM
http://www.joomlart.com/forums/topic/important-changes-to-the-ja-templates-club/

Was there really improvements? Or should I say, will the promised improvements be honored?

In this difficult times, I understand why Joomlart must explore other ventures. But embarking on such ventures must not be at the expense of the reason why members paid to subscribe here — the JATC Templates.

As many have voiced out, it is unfair to members who subscribed, and who agreed to the compact to what Hung promised:

[URL=http://www.joomlart.com/forums/topic/important-changes-to-the-ja-templates-club/Important changes to the JA Templates Club
by Hung Dinh 08-08-2008, 05:43 PM

some of them summarized above.

Please share your thoughts on the matter, but stick to constructive criticisms. If not, open your own feedback thread.

Cornelio

2 users say Thank You to cgc0202 for this useful post

1. Hieu Nguyen
2. instantinlaw

[SP Media Friend SP MediaJoin date: September 2014Posts: 477Downloads:0Uploads:12 Thanks: 38 Thanked: 70 times in 27 posts]

#313645

Well, it’s felt throughout the community here. It’s somewhat worrying that long-standing and involved members, like you and Phil, aren’t happy with the way things have been here.

Over the last two months, I’ve personally never seen so many threads asking the same things over and over. Like everyone, I’m holding hope that JA get their act together and make this place into what it should be. It’s still a little early to get any idea of how things will change now that there’s only one template that’s being released.

It may be a few months yet before we can tell that there has been definitive and much needed change.

[scotty Friend scottyJoin date: March 2008Posts: 2339Downloads:0Uploads:13 Thanks: 76 Thanked: 827 times in 595 posts]

#313650

In my opinion the styling of the templates has always been excellent at Joomlart. Out of the 65 there are available I think there is definitely at least one to suit everyone. Yes some are not to my taste but you can’t please everyone all the time.

It’s things like mootools and advanced template configuration options that I would like to see more. More module suffixes with each template. More little feature like the tooltip function in Trona. Why was that never used again? (Maybe it was – I didn’t notice). The use of Cufon has been an excellent addition and should be promoted more. It’s all these small things that make the difference for me. Not the initial ‘look’ of the template – I always intend to change that anyway.

[TomC Moderator TomCJoin date: October 2014Posts: 14077Downloads:58Uploads:137 Thanks: 948 Thanked: 3155 times in 2495 posts]

#313658

cgc0202;139911
Was there really improvements? Or should I say, will the promised improvements be honored?

As many have voiced out, it is unfair to members who subscribed, and who agreed to the compact to what Hung promised:

Cornelio

We’re only 8 days into the new “structure” . . . I, for one, feel it perfectly reasonable to allow some patience and latitude for Hung and his Team to put the things they enumerated in the plan into effect now that the time has arrived.

[Hieu Nguyen Admin Hieu NguyenJoin date: November 2005Posts: 678Downloads:36Uploads:0 Thanks: 69 Thanked: 61 times in 1 posts]

#313701

Hi,

I can see those who participate in this thread are already JoomlArt senior members. cgc0202, spmedia, scotty, tcraw1010… I’m sure you guys had been waiting patiently and always showing your supports to us for a long time.

For upcoming event at JA, all I can say to you right now is it’ll be a BIG CHANGE in our framework. And, u know, a template that many members still waiting for it this year, Teline III. 😎 Please be sure that we’re working hard for this, not just the look and feel, but also the core of all upcoming JA templates. I hope u guys will be pleased with it.

1 user says Thank You to Hieu Nguyen for this useful post

1. instantinlaw

[mfcphil Friend mfcphilJoin date: September 2007Posts: 2866Downloads:3Uploads:218 Thanks: 211 Thanked: 388 times in 133 posts]

#313704

Well for some of us Teline 3 is just a different version of an old template and is nothing new!!

[Hieu Nguyen Admin Hieu NguyenJoin date: November 2005Posts: 678Downloads:36Uploads:0 Thanks: 69 Thanked: 61 times in 1 posts]

#313705

<em>@mfcphil 140014 wrote:</em><blockquote>Well for some of us Teline 3 is just a different version of an old template and is nothing new!!</blockquote>

Sorry Phil, I don’t understand why u said that! Do u actually see Teline III? :confused:

[TomC Moderator TomCJoin date: October 2014Posts: 14077Downloads:58Uploads:137 Thanks: 948 Thanked: 3155 times in 2495 posts]

#313707

mfcphil;140014Well for some of us Teline 3 is just a different version of an old template and is nothing new!!

Well, for others of us, the Development Team might create something very cool that many of us will wnat to use. Many people loved Teline II – which could be argued was a revamp of Teline II. Nevertheless, it didn’t stop many from joining FOR Teline II. Why are you so quick to condemn something you haven’t even seen yet?

I, for one, would welcome an updated and new feature rich Teline III . . . in fact, there is an existing thread targeted for ideas for just that.

[cgc0202 Friend cgc0202Join date: August 2007Posts: 2244Downloads:0Uploads:3 Thanks: 206 Thanked: 262 times in 1 posts]

#313712

<em>@Hieu Nguyen 140009 wrote:</em><blockquote>Hi,

I can see those who participate in this thread are already JoomlArt senior members. cgc0202, spmedia, scotty, tcraw1010… I’m sure you guys had been waiting patiently and always showing your supports to us for a long time.

For upcoming event at JA, all I can say to you right now is it’ll be a BIG CHANGE in our framework. And, u know, a template that many members still waiting for it this year, Teline III. 😎 Please be sure that we’re working hard for this, not just the look and feel, but also the core of all upcoming JA templates. I hope u guys will be pleased with it.</blockquote>

Hi Hieu Nguyen,

I hope so, it has been more than a year that I have been waiting for radical improvement in Teline II so that it will even be called a “news-magazine” template.

When I have time, I will create a new thread what I consider to be a true “news-magazine” template. So far as I knew, Teline II is a good beginning, and has not equivalent st the moment, except the comparable news magazine template by RocketTheme. But, I opted for Teline II instead of the RocketTheme news-magazine template.

Actually mfcphil, all other templates of Joomlart could be considered like the previous ones in its basic core of scripts. The main differences among them are simple additions of unique extensions, and of course what the infamous Sarah Palin refer to as “lipstick” and whistles and bells. But, many users welcome some of them because one of them might easier to modify them to a template they might want.

This is partly because many users do not have enough background to string together those extensions, nor have the aesthetic skills to create a “good ball dress” — the artistic layout of the template.

It required additional scripts to create Teline II that differentiated it from all other templates, including the original Teline. The way I look at it, there are only two kinds of Joomla templates

1. Teline II
2. All other JA Templates (and in this group includes the original Teline)

If some think that the original Teline is in the same league as Teline II, then they do not understand understand what a news-magazine template truly is.

A webdesigner alone (without a good background in programming, including some scripting languages) may be able to create the Group 2 template, but not anything like Teline II. I am not sure of Joomlart staff are mostly webdesigners, and that might partly explain why they could not create a true “news-magazine” template.

I would gladly pay $200-300 for a single news-magazine template that could do the features of online commercial papers like New York Times.

In theory, without any script modification, I can emulate the basic layout of any other JA Template starting with Teline II (including adding the appropriate extension, hwere needed). However, it will require a great deal of script changes to convert other JA Templates to Teline II.

Supposedly, the JA News Component (not to be confused with JA News) might be able to do the aforementioned, but the “instruction manual” for JA News Component was not adequate enough for non-programmers like myself.

Cornelio

N.B.

By the way spmedia, if I criticize something, it is because I still have hope that the criticism will be heard, and if valid, something will be done.

For example, five months after my first year here (with a one year subscription), I left Joomlart because as I noted above, I consider the other templates essentially the same kind — it would be wasting my time to keep on waiting. So, I joined GavickPRO to get hold mainly because of their news template, which had many more innovative extensions that made it much better than the original Teline.

But then, Joomlart created Teline II, eight months after I joined Joomlart, so I came back.

[scotty Friend scottyJoin date: March 2008Posts: 2339Downloads:0Uploads:13 Thanks: 76 Thanked: 827 times in 595 posts]

#313714

When I have time, I will create a new thread what I consider to be a true “news-magazine” template.

Cornelio, a template serves only one purpose. It defines the module positions. It can do no more than that.

I’m not having a go at you or anything like that, I promise. I’m just curious what people want in Teline 3’s template that is not already in Teline 2’s template? Or is just a question of (re)styling Teline 2?

Are people confusing ‘templates’ with ‘extensions’?

1 user says Thank You to scotty for this useful post

1. TomC

[bennitos Friend bennitosJoin date: May 2008Posts: 1717Downloads:0Uploads:39 Thanks: 39 Thanked: 474 times in 407 posts]

#313721

I had enough possiblities with Teline II already here so not really waiting for a III version. Im not so happy overall with revamping the old ones as i believe they are all already useable just fine.

Same with the magento one’s i would not want to buy a template wich is just an upgraded joomla one.

Many people have asked for teline III so its only good that they are going to make it if there is a high demand, but in other cases i feel its a lack of creativity.

I would like to see a lot more possiblitities with the templates, module positions, good extentions (one’s who will be actually updated), more configuration options. A flexible template wich other clubs already have for some time.

And not only have them but have them well documented, well updated, change lists of updates etc etc.

I feel like joomlart has been milking out the old methods for too long now and is actually falling quite behind.

But I will wait with patience and see if the one template a month is not just a way to make time for the megento club (as things went quite downhill after that one started) and hope to see a great improvement in the months to come.

[mfcphil Friend mfcphilJoin date: September 2007Posts: 2866Downloads:3Uploads:218 Thanks: 211 Thanked: 388 times in 133 posts]

#313722

<em>@Hieu Nguyen 140015 wrote:</em><blockquote>Sorry Phil, I don’t understand why u said that! Do u actually see Teline III? :confused:</blockquote>

Don’t get me wrong Hieu, I am sure Teline 3 will be fantastic, and I know a lot of people are asking for it.

Just that I am looking forward to JA’s new templates, not just the remaking, of what seems to be JoomlArts flagship one 😉

1 user says Thank You to mfcphil for this useful post

1. Hieu Nguyen

[cgc0202 Friend cgc0202Join date: August 2007Posts: 2244Downloads:0Uploads:3 Thanks: 206 Thanked: 262 times in 1 posts]

#313723

<em>@scotty 140030 wrote:</em><blockquote>Cornelio, a template serves only one purpose. It defines the module positions. It can do no more than that.

I’m not having a go at you or anything like that, I promise. I’m just curious what people want in Teline 3’s template that is not already in Teline 2’s template? Or is just a question of (re)styling Teline 2?

Are people confusing ‘templates’ with ‘extensions’?</blockquote>

Scotty,

I was supposed to respond your post similar to this, but I could not post in some forums last July, until my membership was resolved. But, when that was resolved I have to deal with multiple issues, like the bugs resulting from the three rapid upgrades of Joomla, as well as issues (e.g., URL edirect) created by multiple Joomla sites in one domain wrt to my hosting service

Do you use your templates for something like the way large newspapers work?

The reason why iJoomla (if some people are still buying their news and magazine scripts) are selling is because no Joomla template company has produced any template with scripts that can do what their scripts can do.

Let us not have it in this thread because it deserves a thread on its own, but if you already have an existing Teline II site, see if you can do this (without modifying the script):

1. Place the same article in multiple categories, sections
2. Apart from the above, further classify the same article as part of a series (much like a journal would have v.1 #1, etc.
3. In a section with multiple categories, try to arrange the articles (without regard to their category) as you would be able to do with the JA News Frontpage

There are more, that is just a tip of the iceburg.

Please just try it, do not respond here. I will create another thread, in case you find the solutions I and many Teline II user would be interested to know the answers and solutions.

Some iindeed could be answered by using extensions outside of Joomlart but the main problem that I encountered with using too many third party extensions are the issues of compatibility among these extensions. When an incompatibility arises, the blaming game usually happens — they pass the problem to the other company — assuming of course that you were able to identify the incompatible extensions.

One example. There was incompatibility with some Joomlart scripts and the SIGPRO of Joomlaworks. I posted multiple threads here, as well as in Joomlaworks — no responses. It was only solved after a year when one Joomlart template user happen to have been interested with another topic that we were both interested with. Otherwise the issue would not have been resolved either by Joomlaworks or Jooomlart.

Before you arrived, after the big problems with Teline II, hot heads were flying in the forum — in regard technical support. The official policy of Joomlart that evenutally came out was that if it is Joomla, you must ask Joomla — it is none of their business.

Do you honestly believe that a majority of members here (including me) who could not even know how to change the size of the fonts would be able to distinguish where Joomlart ends and Joomla begins?

As important how fast the third party responds to an upgrade of Joomla,especially a security upgrade is critical..

In theory for example, I can superimpose iJoomla News and iJoomla magazine to solve the stuff I posted above, if I know what I am doing. But, that is not easy for the average Joomla template user with not much computer or scripting experience and background. I bought the iJoomla software, but I decided not to use them because during the transition from Joomla 1.0.x to Joomla 1.5.x, Merav, the owner of iJoomla has this attitude that she will not do anything until Joomla creates a stable version.

It took her more than six months to create a beta version. That is also true with extensions like Community Builder. Some of the extensions that I liked suddenly ceased being developed because the prime mover had other things to do.

Learning from those, I decided to limit the third party extensions that I used.

Even within Joomlart, there may already be extensions that will solve some of the problems, but with all the bugs and the rather unclear manuals and instructions, do not expect the average member to be able to do a good job with it.

Would it not be more efficient and cost effective that if those extensions are indeed solutions to the issues raised, they are integrated to the template? That will solve the gazillion questions from clueless members who could not to do this and that because like myself, the manual was not clear enough?

Of course, doing such will not eliminate the questions from members who wanted to move things around and want an answer right way.:)

Cornelio

[cgc0202 Friend cgc0202Join date: August 2007Posts: 2244Downloads:0Uploads:3 Thanks: 206 Thanked: 262 times in 1 posts]

#313731

<em>@mfcphil 140038 wrote:</em><blockquote>Don’t get me wrong Hieu, I am sure Teline 3 will be fantastic, and I know a lot of people are asking for it.

Just that I am looking forward to JA’s new templates, not just the remaking, of what seems to be JoomlArts flagship one ;)</blockquote>

To be frank, if Jomlart Staff or other members here think that creating these two templates one after another, instead of spending time creating a truly innovative news-magazine template then it may not be worth wasting time discussing.

JA Raite
http://template15.joomlart.com/ja_raite/

JA Beryl
http://template15.joomlart.com/ja_beryl/

If I want to spend the time, I can ever recreate a better one (i.e., with better user experience) using the current Teline II template.

mfcphil,

Apple makes only one class of iPhone (varying only in diskspace and upgrade version) — remaking and improving them the past three years. And yet they could not keep up with the demand, and everyone would like to make their own iPhone killer but so far no one has succeeded.

We do not know for sure how many of the members use Teline II, but based from the number of threads, it is very popular if not the most popullar. The other possibility that cannot be discounted was that it was so buggy, and the intructions were so unclear, there were so many complaints and request for help.

But look at it this way, how many commerce, or so so clones have been made the past year that can theoricatlly be replacing each other last year? When was the last time Joomlart improved Teline II? Never — it has been 1 year and 4 months since it first came out.

If indeed Teline II is the top seller, if I were Hung and the staff, I would have kept on improving on it, because they might nave been more adopters and good way to attract new members.

Again, let me repeat this, if you think Teline II is simply an upgrade of the original Teline, as Hung seemed to imply, but it is not.

I did not mean to imply above that Joomlart should not be producing other innovative templates, because they should.

Cornelio

[scotty Friend scottyJoin date: March 2008Posts: 2339Downloads:0Uploads:13 Thanks: 76 Thanked: 827 times in 595 posts]

#313739

Cornelio from reading your post above you definitely seem to be confusing templates and extensions.

Teline is a template. Ja_News is an extension. I think it’s a more advanced Ja News you are looking for rather than an upgrade to Teline 2.

The ability to have articles assigned to multiple categories has nothing, or could have nothing, to do with the template. This calls for much database work and and manipulation of the Joomla core via a component and goes way beyond what index.php is for.

A template simply tells Joomla that position A is here and to get the CSS from over here. Position B is here and get it’s CSS from over here, and so on… . It can’t control how articles are saved or how catogories and sections are controlled. Teline 3 (the template) will just be an update to the module positions and their styling. Maybe with some fancy Javascript thrown in.

To achieve what you wish to achieve will take a major overhaul of JA News. Something I doubt JA are willing to do, or anyone else, with Joomla 1.6 only around the corner.

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