ParaInvite has joined the ranks and now supports the new Mootools Upgrade plugin from Joomla. Together with SIMGallery and SIMAnswers, we are happy to announce that SIMBunch is now fully compatible with Mootools 1.2!
With this release, I feel that we should start planning for the release of Joomla 1.6. As many of our users know, SIMBunch was one of the first to fully utilize Mootools 1.2 in our products (in fact, I believe we are the first - in SIMGallery). With our expertise in Mootools 1.2, we are in a favorable position to move on Joomla 1.6.
More information after the break.
For months we have waited for Joomla to officially support Mootools 1.2, and has "lobbied" hard for this to take place in version 1.5 (instead of having to wait for Joomla 1.6), thus we cannot be happier now that Joomla has officially adopted the new Mootools. Therefore, in order to fully concentrate our efforts in adding new features and not be bogged down by supporting legacy issues, we have decided that the best way forward is to halt development for Joomla 1.5.18 and below (ie. before Joomla releases the Mootools Upgrade plugin), and for Mootools 1.1.
So what does this mean to you, our users? First, we strongly recommend that you upgrade your Joomla version to 1.5.19 and above (the latest is 1.5.20 as of writing this article). You will have to ensure that your template provider has released a Mootools 1.2-compatible version of your template (some template providers have already updated their older templates, so you can simply just download and upgrade). If your template was designed yourself, you have to update your scripts to work with Joomla! 1.6. There are many resources on the internet on how this can be done, very easily (eg this and that ).
Most major components have also already moved on to use/support Mootools 1.2. Before enabling the Mootools Upgrade plugin from Joomla, make sure you have upgraded all your components (the ones that use Mootools), and that they support the new Mootools version.
"What will happen to SIMBunch's current products versions?"
Don't worry, when the next major update for any individual product is available, it will be released together with the current version, and will be available for download for quite some time to come. Also, all bug fixes and support will still be provided to the current versions as per normal.
All this is irrelevant, of course, if you are a new user, or is developing a new Joomla website, and your site is already using the Mootools Upgrade plugin.
Some existing users are confused as to what they should do to upgrade their SIMBunch products, especially with regards to the previous modifications made to templates, plugins and modules as illustrated in the Disable Mootools board on our forums. We will describe this in detail in a later article, so stay tuned! We have written an article to describe this in detail.