Drupals Garland Theme Inspires JoomlaShack and Rockettheme

I've had the opportunity to have a play with the joomlashack template builder during the beta stage and WOW I was impressed.

As someone with limited css knowledge but a clear idea of how I want a site to look I usually spend hours tweaking the css by trial and error until I found the correct line to edit.

Now with the template builder it is easy for me to find the correct thing to change and the builder ensures that I do it in a standards compliant way.

There are of course some improvements/changes that I would like to see but hey whoever said we had to get it perfect first time.

All in all I'd give this a 9/10 and I'm sure we will hear lots more about this tool in the months to come.

One man's useful tool is another man's unnecessary bloat.

From my perspective, including that type of color switcher in a template like RocketTheme has done is unnecessary bloat. However, it is a neat trick, and will likely attract new customers. Smart move by RocketTheme.

JoomlaShack's tool is pretty smart. The only thing I would recommend is to try and apply the same tool to more than just the MyTemplate template you have to purchase from JoomlaShack. If they can do that, I think they may have something really useful. I especially like it because it takes the customization out of the template package, which means that it does not have the unnecessary bloat.

I agree -

The Shack is right on track!

JTB is a much better strategy - hope most of their templates will work with JTB as an option moving forward. Even better if they will make some of their existing templates JTB compatible as well. Anyone know if that is part of their strategy?

RocketTheme's colour chooser is definitely neat, although it's in the wrong place. There is no sense at all in putting it into the frontend - but it's a perfect tool for the developer. So, my advice is to enable it during the testing phase, play with the presets and finetune the settings, then enter those in the template's configuration and switch the colour chooser off.

JoomlaShack's template builder is blazingly innovative. All I can say is 'wow'.

Kind regards,
Zorro

I agree with Cory, Shack's one keeps template and configuration separate, which allows the code to be lighter! In contrast Rockettheme's one is all in one package and they clearly state is not made for older browsers, like IE6 (they say it leaves out many effects...),which, at least in Italy, means more than 30% of visitors...
Did any of you try it with IE6? or at least, since I have IE7, do you know a way to test it with IE6 (virtualization, a web service, whatever...)
anyway, technology on joomla is making big strides (and many say innovation is not for OS...)

We had the same thinking in mind when Casey developed our Joomla Template Builder. The concept is to allow non-designers to create color schemes AND templates without Fireworks or Photoshop. My special favorite is the module builder that allows you to create curved corner modules with any color style you want.

Stay posted at Joomlashack for more of our templates to get added to the Template Builder!

Cory

As I understand the way that builder works it is entirely possible to make this work with other Joomlashack templates, Simplicity for one. One thing about this builder is that it is VERY light on graphics, as it uses mostly css for the colors to make for some quick loading sites!

That's great news, Barrie. I love the idea of the the template builder. You guys are doing great work!

Wow! That is really cool! Makes me want to sign up for Rockettheme again.

I think this is a step in the right direction for both end-user and designer. The end user can now make the theme any color combination they want and the designer can save time by not having to design all the different colored themes.

I hope to see a modular template tool in the future. That would be the ultimate.

Each of these tools are actually quite different.

While Rockettheme gives you chocolate or vanilla, Joomlashack gives you the scooper. I think the builder is better for creative types and Rockettheme's is better for someone who needs to have it done for them (at the cost of bloat). Personally, I like Joomlashack's method. It has nice Ajax features and good use of mootools across the board. At first I was a little overwhelmed but once I got the hang of it I had to by the template for it. Hope to see more in the future. Kudos to both of these guys!

The Joomlashack tool is absolutely brilliant in my opinion, really well done.
I'm a big fan of the light on graphics approach, I thought the 1.5 template they are giving away was superb.
Now all I want to be able to do is choose my own module positions

To answer what many are asking, here's the statement about templates supported by joomlashack's templatebuilder:
"The first thing you will need to do is purchase the "myTemplate" from Joomlashack which costs about 40 bucks. More new templates will be supported in the future as well as some existing Joomlashack templates"
...which apparently means there's only one template supported as of now...

interesting approach from joomlashack but
to be honest many of the 1.5 designs you can get
offer similar functionality already via the backend changing the site name, fixed and fluid width
plus the background color can be altered pretty quickly
my concern is it locks customers into joomlashack if was released as a component then I think
these guys would have hit the jackpot

I've got quite a few related site so this type of thing makes keeping the brand going whilst making sutuble changes to diferenciate them easy.

@tombea.How does this template customisation lock anyone into joomlashack?

Brian's right, every template maker could build a similar component or adapt their themes, that's the beauty of Open Source!

"to be honest many of the 1.5 designs you can get
offer similar functionality already via the backend changing the site name, fixed and fluid width
plus the background color can be altered pretty quickly "

I would respectfully disagree with this statement. While it's true you can get some templates that have built in params to change some aspects of a 1.5 template, there is nothing at all in the 1.5 template offerings that allow you to customize a template like this..... nothing that offers the creation of modules, with rounded corners to your specs, for instance... plus much more...