Should I Join

[blunderdog]

About six weeks ago, after a couple of weeks of study and comparison, I purchased a membership in another club rather than JoomlArt. The themes are nice and I've been very happy with my choice except for one major problem. Many of my users only use IE and regardless of which flv player mambot I use, free, commercial, etc, the flash player will rarely show on the web site. If I hit the site with a freshly loaded browser it may show once or may show one of three videos on a page. In Firefox all works as expected every time.

I have found that if I return to the default Joomla theme I have no problems. It works equally well in IE and Firefox. I've played with another commercial theme I purchased from JoomlaJunkie and it also works fine but now I'm not sure I'll be happy with that theme.

Can anyone give me any assurance that themes from JoomlArt will work with IE and flv video. I cannot afford to join multiple theme clubs unless I can be pretty well assured that things will work in both major platforms for Windows machines.

The issues I'm having appear to be related to the theme css, or at least that is what I've been told. Is there enough similarity in construction between free templates here and the club templates that I can run a valid test?

Thanks for any input you can give. Its not that I do not want to support all the Theme writers, I just do not have the resources. If you'd like to look at the problem you can find it at my site (http://kelleyunderwood.com). Check out any article with videos.

[barbara12]

I've tried out most of the Joomlart templates including most recent and believe Joomlart does a great job with browser quality assurance, such as working in IE/FF. These templates are stable, yes and Joomlart's at the top of the game.

[Hung Dinh]

I've tried out most of the Joomlart templates including most recent and believe Joomlart does a great job with browser quality assurance, such as working in IE/FF. These templates are stable, yes and Joomlart's at the top of the game.
Thank you very much for the blunderdog's question as well the great input from barbara12.
Browser and template usability are of high importance to us during the process of template design.
As stated (http://www.joomlart.com/templates_club/club_portfolio/ja_polaris.html), "JoomlArt always keep our goals to make the templates both pleasurable and functional, appealing and usable with a text and css based layout. In fact, as you can see in most of our JA joomla template club, simple and usable design is the approach of our templates and is also the gold of our templates"...

Hope you will find our templates fulfil your expectations...

[blunderdog]

Can anyone specifically let me know that these templates work reliably with IE6 and IE7 and the use of AllVideos 2.1 and/or XEVideWide to play .flv video and with JoGadgets candy gallery. I've run through a lot of themes in the last few days and it is very hit and miss that free or commercial themes work with these plugins in IE. All works perfectly in Firefox.

[barbara12]

if anybody has specific IE6/IE7 experience w/ those plugins let him know...
but I will say as a happy Joomlart user (like most of them) it's not like there another template company doing a better job at browser compatibility than this guy/his team.
in my experience buying from most of the top 5 joomla template companies and some smaller ones, that the top dawgs like Joomlart are all significantly better - like 50 times better - than some of the free templates. some free ones yes I too had bugs and it was a pain, so I understand the skepticism and understand it would be great to hear from someone else with that exact config to vouch
all i'm saying is if any template company can do that joomlart can

[tonydel]

Why not join, they are running one heck of a sale for Halloween ;) ..

But on a more serious note, I haven't used the pluging you mention but I can say that the team here has been very helpful whenever I've approached them with questions about templates. I do have a slight problem with one of the templates in IE7 but I expected that and have even seen some of the others companies have problems in FF2.

I think the key thing to look at is not only the price of the template club but the community that comes along with it. JoomlArt is a lot more active than other ones, that I'll leave nameless, which is really good when trying to resolve an issue.

[towerone]

I have built a site using Pluto and it looked great. however i just installed IE7 and the template is broken. there are various threads on the subject (which strangely cannot be found by searching the term 'IE7' !). I have yet to see a credible response from JA on this - specifically when will a fix be available and which, if any, JA templates work with IE7.

[blunderdog]

I was going to join when I saw the sale but work got out of hand and I missed the deadline on the great deal. I'll continue to follow development and discussion

[Hung Dinh]

Hi all,
Thank you very much for all of your nice comments and feedbacks. As you may notice the recent increase in the number of the monthly templates as well as our commitment to IE7 and Joomla 1.5 We are doing our best to release bugs fixes and batches as well as provide more and more quality templates.
We are also recruiting more staff to provide a Templates Customization ( Logo placement, template tuning & modifications...) which will bring more benefit to Club members. Though I have had any specific date for this but this is certainly the next step of customer service improvement from JoomlArt

[gregory3]

Worth Every penny. I have had an issue or two with IE7 but I blame it more on IE then I do anyone else. Works fine in IE6 and Firefox. IE7 seems to hold on to cache sometimes after refreshing and not updating cookies correctly. I think Microsoft has still has some bugs to work out. But, if your looking for browser compatability and awesome support, you're not going to find any better in the joomla community.

[ShannonN]

I would suggest you join the templates are nice and the only concern is that, the template look you are shown on the demo site is not what appears when you run the template, it requires customisation.

I have asked before that we receive the template looking as it does when we view the demo, I consider this is one of the templates main selling point, you get what you see. however this falls on deaf ears, it takes nothing on the part of the designer to include the css neccessary to have the template appear as it did in the screenshot etc As I purchase these things based on look and feel of the demos it is disappointing to have to learn css etc to customize them to look as they do in the demo

Shannon

[Hung Dinh]

Hi ShannonN,
Our demo is totally made with no customization, we only make changes to the content and position of the modules. It means that you can total have a similar site from your AdminCP.

And of course, no code line is touched during the demo setting up..

[ErikThorsen]

I think the problem here is that people want a template that works "out of the box" on their own site. If that is what you want, without changing anything, then you need to put this into a clean install of Joomla I guess. That way no modules, components or anything else would interfere.

I have never had to change anything in the CSS or index.php files to make the template look like the demo, so I am not sure what you are referring to Shannon.

Yes, there are a few tweaks and settings you would have to do in the admin of Joomla but nothing you have to do in the css or php files as far as I can tell. The documentation explains normally most of it all.

Thanks HD and Joomlart for great templates!

[ShannonN]

I think the problem here is that people want a template that works "out of the box" on their own site. If that is what you want, without changing anything, then you need to put this into a clean install of Joomla I guess. That way no modules, components or anything else would interfere.

I have never had to change anything in the CSS or index.php files to make the template look like the demo, so I am not sure what you are referring to Shannon.

Yes, there are a few tweaks and settings you would have to do in the admin of Joomla but nothing you have to do in the css or php files as far as I can tell. The documentation explains normally most of it all.

Thanks HD and Joomlart for great templates!

You are correct when you say I want the template to work as per demo "out of the box" now being a novice Joomla user my host provides a fantastico based automatic install, I need the sample data in the install as without that I'm lost and will admit my lack of understanding.

The default install with sample data includes the default solarflare II template which when populated has its own module structure which when i add any other template that new template inherits the modules that were installed with sample data etc
Perhaps coming from a Deamweaver development with static sites and coldfusion, rather than a modular approach leaves me confused.

I still say this template when installed looks nothing like the demo, All the messing around with the installation of modules the repositioning of modules the huge amount of bugs in this one template (xenia) really makes the whole process of webdesign via templates a longer process than sitting down with JSAS, Dreamweaver and Joomlasolutions 1.0 extension etc and designing my own from scratch.

While I may be a bit rude or over the top with my criticisms it is out of sheer frustration, that after buying a series of templates i have to spend considerable time on them to bring them up to the standard they are on the demo etc

Again referring to a static web design and web design packs by pvii (projectseven) what you brought required no manipulation to see the same result as demoed.

Perhaps by expectations are too high or what I ask is in the too hard basket
Whatever, I'm under pressure to complete a site and have to do lots just to get it to the base design to start with
Thanks for listening guys you been a great audience :)

ShannonN

[ErikThorsen]

I totally understand what you are saying ShannonN. I think the major problem is that this template club might not be for people who are total new to Joomla. Of course, the best thing would be if it was but in my experience, the templates as so powerful and professional that I have a hard time following the structure and outline myself, and I have been working with Joomla since the birth.

Either way, I agree that it would be excellent to have the same setting as the demo site. Most likely, getting our hands on the sql base would solve all these problems and the site would be "up and running" like the demo in no time. At least that is what I am hoping it will be. :-)

I think we all appreciate your feedback here on the forum and critisicm is always welcome in a developing community.

This being said, I strongly recommend that you ( when/if ) facing problems ( I mean bigger problems and urgent ones ) to take a look to outsourcing. I am doing this to a lot of my clients with excellent results. Price is also cheap and you can get a lot done in a short period of time. And if you are really clever you ask a lot of questions to the one helping you out and you will learn a whole bunch.

I am still considering myself quite new to Joomla and Joomlart templates but I learn a good 3-4 new things every day, so it is very helpful for me. Just watching all the comments and questions are helping as well. ;)

See you around!

[ShannonN]

I totally understand what you are saying ShannonN. I think the major problem is that this template club might not be for people who are total new to Joomla. Of course, the best thing would be if it was but in my experience, the templates as so powerful and professional that I have a hard time following the structure and outline myself, and I have been working with Joomla since the birth.

Either way, I agree that it would be excellent to have the same setting as the demo site. Most likely, getting our hands on the sql base would solve all these problems and the site would be "up and running" like the demo in no time. At least that is what I am hoping it will be. :-)

I think we all appreciate your feedback here on the forum and critisicm is always welcome in a developing community.

This being said, I strongly recommend that you ( when/if ) facing problems ( I mean bigger problems and urgent ones ) to take a look to outsourcing. I am doing this to a lot of my clients with excellent results. Price is also cheap and you can get a lot done in a short period of time. And if you are really clever you ask a lot of questions to the one helping you out and you will learn a whole bunch.

I am still considering myself quite new to Joomla and Joomlart templates but I learn a good 3-4 new things every day, so it is very helpful for me. Just watching all the comments and questions are helping as well. ;)

See you around!

Outsourcing isn't an option for me as these two sites are only getting $400.00 aud each so I don't think i'm going to get anyone to do them at 200 each :)
I have to charge so little or i would not get the work.

Also the guys were kind enough to supply me with the full demo site and sql but it still looks nothing like the site demo :) I cannot change the prefix as requested more than once ( to xenia_) because my hosting demands it be set to my username when i create the account, i can create the site with username xenia, but this I can only do once :( so I cannot experiment on more than one site

I changed the template to xenia, uploaded the changed modules etc as directed and then imported the sql but still looks crap :)
what can I say I'm a noob
Shanny

[ErikThorsen]

Hello Shanny,

I actually didn't mean to outsource the entire thing, just to get some fixes done. I have done small stuff like 5 USD - 10 USD for fixing small issues.

If you want, you can PM me with some information about what you need/want done and I can see if I can help you in any way. Totally free of charge. Perhaps we both will learn something. LOL.

Cheers.

[ShannonN]

Hello Shanny,

I actually didn't mean to outsource the entire thing, just to get some fixes done. I have done small stuff like 5 USD - 10 USD for fixing small issues.

If you want, you can PM me with some information about what you need/want done and I can see if I can help you in any way. Totally free of charge. Perhaps we both will learn something. LOL.

Cheers.

Cheers I appreciate the offer and will pm you later

[goldenpencils]

I think the major problem is that this template club might not be for people who are total new to Joomla.

Erik, I have played with Joomla for 3 weeks and understand how to install Joomla extensions and template. Am I enough experience to join JA Club?

[ErikThorsen]

If you also know how to follow guidelines, intstructions and don't mind playing around a bit I would say that it is not a problem at all. I have a friend which started with Joomla 4 days ago. I gave him a short "introduction" course and he is much enjoying his JA templates..

[ShannonN]

I agree with Erik, ( who was the only one to take time to help me here, ( Joomlart don't seem to care much once sale is made, to busy counting profits it seems).

If you have the basic concepts down, yes go for it, however, if you want to really get the benefit out of it you need to learn a bit more, as I am trying to do. It is very powerful and flexible as it is modular in design, but coming from a static background it approaches things in a non intuitive manner.

I brought the Joomla instruction Guide from compass designs for twenty bucks and at 78 pages it seems quite good with screenshots and stuff, I needed more info on modules creating etc positioning so although I haven't had time to give it the works due to studies and work, I plan on spending a day with it soon

You may find it helpful aslo
Cheers Shannon

[goldenpencils]

Thank you, Erik & Shannon. I learn from you a lot. I've just been a member of JA template club and hope could get help from you as well as others here.

[ShannonN]

Thank you, Erik & Shannon. I learn from you a lot. I've just been a member of JA template club and hope could get help from you as well as others here.

What knowledge I have is small but I will always try to assist where possible, I understand teh difficulties you face

[mayous2004]

Hi,
I am a propective customer as well, so you might want to do 2 things 2 make our life easier.

1. can you compile and put together a section something like knowledge base/FAQ based on users expereinces so that we can look at the issue and the resolution and be on our own. This will really help us.

2. You want to provide us an option for a very minimal amount where in we can outsource and get our site much more like the demo site.

I understand its hard and tough to get the look and feel of demo site. but if you can put the effort we can all get benifited and its a win-win.