Our Blog
Read the latest news from Shape5

Last week we launched a new demo page to our site! The new demo makes browsing much easier, and highlights our latest themes as well. Each design has a large screenshot and product description in the main drop down menu, so now you can find just what you're looking for very easily and quickly. In addition to that we have grouped our Joomla and Wordpress products on the same page so you can see the full array of all Shape5 products in one consolidated area.



Lastly if you are logged into the main site of shape5.com and then visit the demo you will see a download button on the items that your current membership allows access for. So you can demo and download all in one place!

Be sure to check it out, and we hope you all enjoy the improvement!

We have received a lot of questions regarding the compatibility of Joomla 2.5 and our products. We realize that all the recent version numbers of Joomla ie: 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, and soon to be 2.5, can be very confusing. We'd like to clarify this and make it very simple to understand.

Will our products work with Joomla 2.5? Yes, absolutely they will work! Any product that works currently with Joomla 1.7 will work with Joomla 2.5 with no issues at all.

Will you need to install a component to upgrade your site from 1.7 to 2.5? No, the upgrade from 1.7 to 2.5 is very easily done from the backend of Joomla. No downloads or file extractions will be needed. No new installation will be created, it will simply upgrade your existing files. It's really that simple.

Will we continue to support Joomla 1.5 products? We will adhere to the Jooma life cycle of each Joomla version. Joomla will discontinue support on 1.5 in April 2012. This means that as of April 1, 2012 we will no longer be creating new 1.5 compatible products, and will focus on Joomla 1.7/2.5 products. We will continue support on 1.5 products through the end of 2012. Do not let the new version number scare you, the upgrade from 1.7 to 2.5 is nothing like 1.5 to 1.6+, and can be done in a matter of minutes. If you have not begun the move to 1.7+ we would highly recommend this so that your site stays up to date with the latest features and security updates.

What products do you offer that are compatible with Joomla 1.7+? Our list of compatible products can be found at the following url:

http://www.shape5.com/joomla/product_compatability/current_joomla_product_compatability_list.html

We will continue to convert older 1.5 products to the newer 1.7+ platform, so please check this page often. Any site shaper listed as 1.7 can simply be installed and upgraded to 2.5 when it becomes available.

We have updated the plugn and fixed the following issues:

1) Thumbnails do not get created if you use anything else but lower case in the file name.  CAPs, spaces, numbers, etc don't work

2) When using google chrome and adding attributes once your cursor hits the first attributes price box your done. Can't tab or even click out of that box.

 The plugin is available in the downloads area to club members only.

 Cheers!

The Phosphorus phpBB style is a very versatile and gives a wide variety of options. This month also introduces a new interface for the Vertex Framework and the ability to install modules! Vertex Framework for phpBB is truly turning the forum system into a CMS.    The framework is becoming quite polished, this month we've also revamped the admin to give it a nice slick look. 

Check out the demo available to get an understanding of what you can do with Vertex and this style. The Vertex admin area is visible even when not logged in, just click the admin menu item in the top right of the menu and you will be able to demo it without saving changes.

You can reference this blog post to check the status on the conversion process of all Shape 5 Joomla products.

Please note - 1.5 to 1.6 conversions can take a considerable amount of time, each template is different, but we expect to have all of our templates converted in the next few weeks/months. Site shapers will not be available until all of our templates have been converted and some issues with the JUpgrade component are addressed or another suitable upgrade component becomes available.

 

Our conversion page has moved. Click here to proceed to the new page.

The release of Joomla 1.6

Today marks the official release of Joomla 1.6 stable. The release brings us ACL out of the box, no longer installing 3rd party extensions to achieve this! It also gives us more powerful SEO options throughout to give you control on how your site appears in the search engines and many other features. For more info, demo and download check out: http://www.joomla.org/announcements/general-news/5348-joomlar-16-has-arrived.html

Although this is the newest release for the Joomla world and it's marked as stable we at Shape 5 do not recommend rushing to upgrade and convert over to it right away. Why do we say this, we do believe (as seen in many industries) it's best to wait a few weeks or so and see how this version plays out. Bugs can still arise and things may need to be ironed out before you take the jump to 1.6. The bug squad with Joomla has done a tremendous job ironing out as many bugs as they could find to this point, we are simply offering a word of caution that could be applied to any first release of software. In addition to this there are over 6,000 extensions currently available for Joomla 1.5 and very few have been converted and tested with Joomla 1.6. If you need Joomla for a bare bones system with no third party extensions then 1.6 may be right for you but if you need flexibility and access to thousands of extensions it's best to still use 1.5 for a little while.

So where is Shape 5 at in the whole scheme of things and 1.6?

Although we haven't said much we've been working hard and have the majority of our extensions converted to 1.6 as you may have already noticed in the downloads area, with only 3 pending conversion, with the exception of Virtuemart extensions. Over the next few weeks we will be hard at work converting and releasing our templates to the 1.6 platform and finalizing the rest of our extension conversion. Our monthly template release this coming Saturday the 15th will include a 1.6 ready version of the template. Virtuemart extensions will be converted after Virtuemart 1.5 becomes stable.

Ok that covers 1.6 but what about a framework for Shape 5?

As you may have noticed the template parameters area of our recent templates has become quite extensive! The eShopper template is the first release that includes a naming scheme, robust module layout, mobile version, custom widths, and so much more. These features will be carried in to future templates. This framework first released in eShopper gives unlimited possibilities and flexibility for site layouts. We just wanted to give you a heads up. No ETA is set but we are planning on an official release of a the Shape 5 "Vertex Framework" in the near future that will be packed with features! In the mean time our in-progress templates will include many of the features that will be included in the finalized framework.

The month of December brings us Christmas, a new year at the end and at Shape 5 a new PhpBB3 style and reworked update framework called the Vertex Framework.  The University PhpBB3 Style is designed for any type of college or university but can be used for any website. We have included the S5 MultiBox to display videos on the homepage.

What happened to S5 Controls?  We've decided to change things over to the Vertex Framework for several reasons.  It will be a name that most likely will be used in our templates released on other CMSs in the future where some features and functionality will be the same across the board.  For PhpBB it was a huge upgrade from S5 Controls and lastly we just think it sounds better :)

Vertex in PhpBB gives you the option of actually publishing modules or block code items to specific pages.  It allows you to create unlimited menu items via the backend of PhpBB to either PhpBB pages or external URLs.   You can also hide/show modules and block code to specific user groups!  Each module can be published to any position you desire that is included in the style itself.  

We are pretty excited about this and hope it really aids in boosting the forum administration for you and the experience your posters get on the frontend.  For more information on the framework click here

Our August Affiliate Contest has officially come to an end and it's time to announce our three lucky winners! It was a very tight competition but three emerged on top:

1st - bestofjoomla - www.bestofjoomla.com
2nd - webbyjoom - www.webbyplanet.com
3rd - surendranh - www.premium-joomlathemes.com

Thank you not just three affiliates but all who participated!

With the release of Jomsocial v1.6.290 there have been several updates to the templating structure from when we originally created our Jomsocial Elegance template.  We have just updated our Jomsocial template to be fully compatible with the newest version 1.6.290.  The template was completely rewritten from scratch based off of the new version.  This update should resolve any problems that were arising with formatting and functionality issues.

 

Several months ago PHP 5.3.0 was released. Most servers are still running PHP 5.2.x or less but some cases of 5.3.0 have started appearing in our forum boards, and like most new versions of software compability issues have come up. We are happy to announce that all Shape 5 Joomla 1.5 products, templates and extensions, are now updated to work with PHP 5.3.0.

If you are not running 5.3.0 on your server, don't worry, there's no need to update. If you are not sure if you are running 5.3.0 most likely you are not. If your template or extension is an older verion and is effect by 5.3.0 you will see messages about a deprecated function ereg() on your site. Note - these messsages will not appear in our updated files. If you run into these errors please post a forum support thread under the forum board pertaining to the product you are using.