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Joomla 4 is out - when should you upgrade?
The long awaited Joomla 4 was released in August. Alongside it was the 'transitional' version of Joomla 3.10, intended to make the upward migration to Joomla 4 as simple as possible.
With Joomla 3.10 now nagging users about the new improved features of Joomla 4, many will be wondering about whether to upgrade or not, and when to do so.
Whether to upgrade...
There is no great urgency over this decision - without doubt Joomla 4 is an improvement on Joomla 3, hard though that may seem, but Joomla 3 will continue to be fully supported until August 2023, when it will officially reach 'end-of-life'. So no great rush is required, but ultimately the upgrade will be required.
Uprading from one major release version to the next is not quite as straightforward as the one-click (or even automated) updates of the minor updates - as with the earlier updates from 1.0 to 1.5, 1.5 to 2.5, and 2.5 to 3, the process is a migration rather than a simple update. Given the complexity of a major re-write to improve performance and to future-proof the new Joomla 4 core, the Joomla team have made this process remarkably straightforward.
When to upgrade
The more difficult question is 'when' to upgrade. Although migrating the core from Joomla 3 to 4 is straightforward, the question is complicated by any 3rd party components that may be deployed in your site. Although many 3rd party components are already Joomla 4 ready, some are not. Consequently the timing of updating may be dictated by the progress of 3rd party component developers in updating their plugins.
When are we upgrading?
Like many developers, we use a number of 3rd party plugins in our standard Joomla deployment. Most of these are Joomla 4 ready, but a small number are not, and in a few cases, the developer roadmaps indicate that some these will not be ready until the end of this year, and in a couple of cases not until early in 2022.
As a result, we will be holding off any routine upward migrations until we are happy that all the features that we have built into our Joomla sites over the last few years will continue to be available in the new Joomla 4 version.
Once we have reached that point, we will be offering upward migrations to all clients. In the meantime, if you would like to consider upgrading earlier, please talk to us so we can evaluate your specific configuration and advise on when to upgrade.
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All our hosting accounts now using Siteground Site Tools
All our servers and hosting accounts have now been migrated from cPanel to Siteground's proprietary Site Tools system.
Site Tools offer pretty much all the same functionality as cPanel but with a cleaner interface.
With the switch the access point for your account management has changed, and access to your hosting control panel is from here: https://www.mysitearea.com/
Your existing account login should work - if you encounter any problems following this transition, please raise a support request in the normal way.
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New Website for The Ancient Art of Advocacy
We are pleased to announce the launch of a new website - The Ancient Art of Advocacy.
The Ancient Art of Advocacy has been created to provide an informational resource for advocates, new, old or aspiring.
It is particularly aimed at aspiring barristers, particularly those transferring from other disciplines and branches of the legal profession, who have difficulty accessing a consolidated source of advocacy learning resources.
It contains a wealth of resources on rhetoric and advocacy skills, together with examples of rhetorical techniques and cases. It also contains a forum and other community features to encourage debate and collaboration on all matters advocacy.
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We are now Official Microsoft Ads Partners!
We are delighted to announce that we are now official Microsoft Advertising Partners, to complement our Google Partner status.
We have long been advocates of Micosoft advertising. Although Microsoft have a smaller market share and reach, in our experience they quite often provide a better return on investment simply because they are overlooked by many advertisers. Performance is as good, and often better than Google Ads, with lower average cost per click and generally less competition.
If Microsoft Advertising isn't yet part of your advertising mix, contact us for more information!
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Update for One Facility Services Website
Websites need more than a wash and brush up from time to time, and the One Facility Services website was no exception.
Built originally back in 2012 and based on Joomla 2.5 it had fallen behind technically, as well as starting to show its age visually.
So the site was migrated up to the latest Joomla version and the template was upgraded to be both fully responsive and mobile friendly, with the fonts and colour pallette updated to bring it in line with the parent company's branding without the need for major changes in design or site restructuring.
A perfect example of how an older site can be refreshed with the latest technology at minimal cost.
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