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

#121800

Hello,

I wonder if there are any others here who have had experience with the iJoomla Products, either the Magazine or the News Portal.

I was attracted with the features of the iJoomla Magazine but after trying it, the 12 default templates provided might be good for small magazine sites, but it is not suitable for sites with multiple sections and subsections, just like the usual professional online news and newsmagazines.

In my long discussions with Merav the past few days, when I told her that the layout I really want is more like like their demo Science News template with features of their Magazine, she suggested that I shift to their News Portal instead (and features of the iJoomla Magazine will then be introduced) into their News Portal during the next few weeks.

This was how I came about that she introduced me to Joomla Art, and more specifically to the JA Teline template. I did like the aforementioned template a lot, after viewing the Demo page of Teline:

http://template.joomlart.com/ja_teline/

However, there is more room for improvement. Really professional looking news and newsmagazines online for example, New York Times, BBC News do not have the annoying features like unfinished sentences, and such space wasters like “read more” or “full story” when in fact, it is obvious that full story can be accessed through the headline.

The layout of BBC News has even provided a more elegant presentation of variations in lengths of headlines by using small images to go along side by side with the headline and separating the “summary news” (view link for BBC News).

The result in the case of BBC News is a very clean alignment of the left and right column in the two-column news modules. I assume that they force their writers also to modify the headlines shown in the front page so that the similar side-by-side two column presentation are just as neat and elegant like their news features (with images and short summary news.

I have seen some actual sites of JA Teline, and the uneven truncation of sentences destroyed the more controlled appearance of the JA Teline Demo

My questions are these:
Does the Joomla Art staff have any plans in the near future to address the issues I outlined above by revising the CSS that goes with the template?

Or, has anyone attempted to do these?

The precursor for this revision is the CSS for the form space alloted for the Search space at the top, which is restricted, you cannot write beyond the amount of space alloted. The beauty of such space restriction — both of the headlines and the accompanying “news summary text” is that it will force contributors to modify their headline and summary text — which should be separate — to conform with the space alloted.

This is what actually happens in real news and magazine print media where journalists had to summon their vocabulary not only to come up with the proper words but also alternate words and phrasing to stick to the space alloted — for both the front page and for other pages. [The full page is less of an issue

If this feature is specified in the stylesheet (CSS), then help will help save time for the Publishers and Superadmins from doing revisions of submitted articles for online publications.

The other major question that I have is this:

I assume that the JA Teline or for that matter any template just follows the Joomla format where the latest addition goes to the top. In contrast, the iJoomla News Portal has now the capability of the publishers and superadmins from prioritizing the ordering of articles added to give more prominence to the truly significant news or articles — just like what happens in professional online print or online media, or even radio and television news for that matter.

Is there any plan in the near future to revise the scripts to achieve such?

Finally, I registered for 1-year membership because I was hoping that other more innovative news and newsmagazine portals — suitable for large online sites — will be created by Joomla Art during that period, even much more elegant that the JA Teline.

If none are on the pipeline during the coming 1-year period, then my gamble has not paid. I could have just paid the minimum 3-month just to get the JA Teline (and some other templates that I like)

Before closing this request, I must state that I have looked at a few template sites but I opted to register at Joomla Art because I found the JA Teline template to the most suitable for my purpose and quite elegant in its simplicity — rather than the ad libitum templates filled with “whistles and bells” in the other template makers. There are indeed, quite a few innovative templates provided by RocketTheme, but I have not seen something similar to the JA Teline (although I should have looked more closely).

Having said this, there are many features of the JA Teline that could be improved, as stated in the previous thread and the need to provide more instructions for installations, etc. to help newbies, like myself. Indeed, I echoe the lack of support from the staff, as indicated by the other thread. I hope this will not be the case during the year that I registered.

Cornelio

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[dpk Friend dpkJoin date: June 2006Posts: 129Downloads:0Uploads:0 Thanks: 19 Thanked: 2 times in 1 posts]

#251076

I use Teline and some iJoomla projects–though not with Teline. I agree with cgc0202’s criticisms of Teline, but much of the criticism leads into wanting a mere template to offer functionality that iJoomla News Portal has, and this is just not possible unless JoomlArt partners with iJoomla or offers a similar product. This is quite a tall, complicated order that would probably, at least, require a special new pricing plan.

If we can discuss the iJoomla products seaparately here, I’d like to hear more about the news portal. I think iJoomla is great, but I get the idea from the feature list and demo that their news portal is similar to iJoomla magazine.

I tried iJoomla magazine once but found it added layers of complexity to Joomla (among other problems), essentially adding a new CMS within Joomla when it would (from a technical standpoint) make more sense (in terms of efficiency and usability) to hack the core, which I realize would create a lot of other problems. As it is, my view is that iJoomla magazine makes Joomla less manageable and doesn’t really add any really valuable features that can’t be acquired with (mostly free) extensions.

If you are a happy user of the iJoomla magazine or news portal, I’d appreciate hearing why you disagree with this. Is the news portal substantially different from the magazine component in terms of how it interacts with Joomla? I’d like to hae a reason to give it all a second look, especially since they’ve gone on to new versions and Joomla 1.5.

Unfortunately iJoomla does not have online demos of the Joomla backend with their components. (Right? I can’t find one.) If I could try before I buy, that would be great. I know they have a great “return” policy, but I’d rather not deal with it as a casual shopper–too much time.

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

#251102

I hope Cornelio was happy with the updated Teline 2 😉

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

#251498

<em>@mfcphil 55961 wrote:</em><blockquote>I hope Cornelio was happy with the updated Teline 2 ;)</blockquote>

I am very happy with JA Teline II. Very good beginning and a worthy evolution of my favorite (and only template used in Joomlart, the original JA Teline). I am installing so many of JA Teline II in many of my sites.:)

However, I am still learning how to use JA Teline II though. I have not learned to deal with its quirkiness, yet.

But, you have to remember that this was written the first day or second day, I think when I joined Joomlart because merav suggested it. I was so enamored with iJoomla at the time, because the two products really did many things to offer to a template, like the original JA Teline.

I will try not to get a swell head, but in so many posts here, I tried to campaign for this. I am just glad that Joomlart finally has started towards this direction, in the form of JA Teline II. There is more to be done, if you look at the potential of iJoomla News Portal and their iJoomla Magazine.

In my own private correspondence with merav, I told her that what I need is a hybrid of the features of the iJoomla News Portal and their iJoomla Magazine — actually, my preference is that some of the features of the iJoomla Magazine into the iJoomla News Portal

When I posted the original, if you looked at the date, it must have been the first day if not the second I joined Joomlart. I really liked JA Teline very much. It is only the Joomlart template I have used. There are a few others that I wanted, but never got a chance to use them.

But, I am one who is not always satisfied with what I got, especially if I know there is something better. In posting the thread, it is not to criticise Joomlart being wanting — but more the desire to prod them to challenge their capabilities.

The creation of JA Teline II is a testament to this.

As to the point raised by dpk, I gave up on the iJoomla News Portal or iJoomla Magazine for now. As indicated in the original post, I found the iJoomla Magazine templating cumbersome, complex and something that is not intended for the layperson. However, in the hands of someone who knows what he is doing, both iJoomla products do work, and work beautifully, even if not perfect.

My preference all along is like the Apple model — control everything from the innards of the computer, the software and the user experience. If something goes wrong, no one is to blame but Apple.

That was what I was hoping to happen here also. It is better if in this case, either there is collaboration between Joomlart and iJoomla.

Or, better still is for Joomlart to take the direction they have taken with JA Teline II. With this template, Joomlart has gone beyond moving around modules, changing the colors and what have you. With JA Teline II, really useful functionalities have been introduced that emulate those that you see in professional online magazines and newspapers.

JA Teline II has more room for improvement. And, I hope Joomlart will continue doing that.

One of the things that could be improved is a more thorough instruction manual. If this were available, more than likely, 90% of the questions asked in the forum will disappear.

In two of my posts, I believe either in late January or early February, I praised here some of the modular features adopted in Gavick Pro. My point there is not to belittle Joomlart, just like posting the one suggested in the original thread — but more to show that as good as Joomlart is in producing some templates, like JA Teline (and now JA Teline II), it should not keep its eyes closed and make sure to be aware of what others are doing.

Its goal must not be to copy but to find those done by others are really good, and improve upon it.

I do not know if it was an overzelous moderator, or whoever, both my posts here in relation to pointing out what Gavick Pro is doing, were both deleted. Sad really if we cannot take criticisms.

I will continue my posting of what I found to be useful functionalities, in relation to templates.

Cornelio

[Omar Ramos JAEC Omar RamosJoin date: September 2014Posts: 93Downloads:154Uploads:12 Thanked: 15 times in 1 posts]

#251772

I think it would be a lot better for both Joomlart and the Joomla Community if Joomlart were to integrate with jxtended Magazine/Catalog because I would like to support the Core Joomla Developers (all 4 jxtended developers are also Core Joomla Developers).

Also, since jxtended’s products are licensed under the GPL you are free to use the software on as many sites as you need.

Since these two products do not use the core Joomla Sections/Categories/Articles structure like iJoomla does you have a lot more power/flexibility to create a highly organized site.

About two weeks I didn’t really know too much about this “newcomer” to the Joomla extensions scene, but after investigating them and seeing who was behind the company I threw my support behind them 100%.

I think it would make for a good partnership :-).

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

#252027

<em>@omarram 56823 wrote:</em><blockquote>I think it would be a lot better for both Joomlart and the Joomla Community if Joomlart were to integrate with jxtended Magazine/Catalog because I would like to support the Core Joomla Developers (all 4 jxtended developers are also Core Joomla Developers).

Also, since jxtended’s products are licensed under the GPL you are free to use the software on as many sites as you need.

Since these two products do not use the core Joomla Sections/Categories/Articles structure like iJoomla does you have a lot more power/flexibility to create a highly organized site.

About two weeks I didn’t really know too much about this “newcomer” to the Joomla extensions scene, but after investigating them and seeing who was behind the company I threw my support behind them 100%.

I think it would make for a good partnership :-).</blockquote>

Hi omarram,

I responded to your other thread, where you gave the link to their site. I cannot exactly see the versatility of their magazine with the Demo. I am not good with scripting, but if need be, I would be willing to buy a 3-month Joomlart subscription for their group, if they would try it with the JA Teline II.

I would be interested to see a more versatile magazine format

Cornelio

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#314803

<blockquote>However, there is more room for improvement. Really professional looking news and newsmagazines online for example, New York Times, BBC News do not have the annoying features like unfinished sentences, and such space wasters like “read more” or “full story” when in fact, it is obvious that full story can be accessed through the headline.</blockquote>

Hello everyone, BBC News and New York Times, sorry I do not share your vision of what a news site that referred you for a very simple question on that page that you mention it, that have seen high, are due to her name is what sells his career in the news, not by design or as it should be the design of a portal for news, look at the page in Spanish of the http://www.mundo.es is much better than the other but alas it is also for his career as a newspaper outside internet.

It would be better to mention pages of news that does not belong to a great communication medium, and to see the success achieved with its presentation of news as is the case in Venezuela http://www.noticias24.com, http://www.radiomundial.com.ve (made with PHPBB3) http://www.noticierodigital.com (held in WordPress) http://www.aporrea.org all in the first places they visit in Venezuela as news portals. Or http://www.tmz.com United States, they share all these sites?, Are popular, are news, and has lots of graphics, highlighting articles, the size of the title of the news is great and the lyrics are easy to read articles also have many photographs.

In conclusion, in my humble opinion, the following should be taken into account:

1: THE TITLE OF THE BIG NEWS LYRICS
2: THE IMAGE OF THE ARTICLES OF THE COVERS SHOULD BE THE POSSIBILITY OF VERSE AT LEAST 300px X 200px. Resolution.
3. MUST HAVE PHOTO GALLERY AND VIDEOS.
4. THE MANY TIMES NEWS VIDEOS WITH ACCOMPANYING.
5: SEVERAL POSITIONS ads.
6: The biggest news SHOULD PUT SOMETHING LIKE MOST OUTSTANDING TELin II IN JA THAT WAS THE FRONTPAGE.

Otherwise the demo JA Teline 3, is well and is able to make some change would be excellent.
Thank you very much for being able to express my opinion and many successes with the staff concerned.

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