Joomla 1.0.12 or Joomla 1.5?

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Joomla Tips & Tricks

May

2007

Joomla 1.0 or Joomla 1.5?

Written by Steve Burge

Currently people building websites with Joomla are in an odd situation.

There's no upgrade path from Joomla 1.0.12 to Joomla 1.5, so we need to make a choice. Do we recommend the current stable version or do we ask customers to be patient and wait for the new, shiny updated Joomla?

Well, if I had a dollar for every time I'd answered that question .... :)

In fact, its such a common question that I drew up a small list of the advantages and disadvantages for each option.

More ideas about which one people should use are very welcome. Feel free to click here to suggest them.

Joomla 1.0.12 or Joomla 1.5?

	1.0.12 [-]	1.5 [-]
Current Status	Currently stable. No security problems and bugs are few and far between.	Beta 2. Currently it shouldn't be used for live sites. You'll need to wait for the Release Candidates in order to have a production worthy.
Future Prospects	Only security upgrades will be made, which means you'll be tied to the current set of features.	Very bright. It will take while for developers to update their products and take full advantage of 1.5's new features, but by choosing 1.5 you will have an easy upgrade path to future versions.
Components	Currently all of the available components on joomla.org are compatible with 1.0.12.	Quite a few components on joomla.org can run with Joomla 1.5 in legacy mode, but new components that take full advantage of the features on 1.5 are yet to be released.
Templates	All the free and commercial templates you'll find currently work with 1.0.12.	No commercial and only a few free templates have been released to but expect a rush of designs when the first Release Candidate is issued.
Why should I choose this version?	If time is not on your side, go with 1.0.12. Also, if you have a small site, the migration to 1.5 should be relatively painless.	If your project is not urgent, or if you're building a large, fully-featured site, its well-worth waiting the extra time to take advantage of 1.5's increased potential.

* If you would like to fill in the gaps in our table or suggest any changes, please use this form.

Comments

123

#1 Justin Whittaker 2007-05-10 15:45

Thanks for this. I have already seen a few websites using the new Joomla 1.5 and wondered how reliable it is now. Can't wait for the release candidates.

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#2 Klaus Nitsche 2007-05-11 00:44

As I see it, for production sites, there is currently no alternative to 1.0.12. As you describe, the code is relatively stable, and there's a wealth of extensions available.

While a direct upgrade path will not exist from 1.0.12 to 1.5, there will hopefully be a migrator component that will aid in getting your content into 1.5.

Going 1.5 at this time is a bit risky if you think about timeframes ... who knows when it'll really be there. And we'll have yet to see if we really have code-freeze.

Kind regards,
Zorro

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#3 Bookworm 2007-05-12 16:43

This statement about 1.5 is misleading "No commercial and only a few free templates have been released to but expect a rush of designs when the first Release Candidate is issued." Which implies that templates from 1.0x wont work in 1.5x. In fact all templates made for Joomla! 1.0x are 100% compatible with Joomla! 1.5x.
Quote from here http://www.joomla.org/content/view/3287/1/ "it is important to realise that all templates for Joomla! 1.0.x can be used in Joomla! 1.5."

Your statement is not wrong, just misleading.

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#4 Steve Burge 2007-05-12 17:07

Hi Zorro - its an interesting proposition for those of us doing business. Do we recommend clients for 1.0.12 which will mean immediate work and $ or persuade them to wait for 1.5? Fortunately most of our clients have made their own decision once we've given them this chart.

I wonder about an upgrade path ... Joe Eyezberg is pushing for one:
http://dev.joomla.org/component/option,com_jd-wp/Itemid,33/p,328/

I have a feeling that some tools were emerge, perhaps to do some migration work: importing users, importing content etc.

Hi Bookworm - thanks you're right. I've made that clarification in the chart.

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#5 rice 2007-05-14 16:58

I don't think any of my clients would be excited about launching a large Joomla! site on a beta release. I've gotta keep developing. I can't sit by for 3 - 7 months and not take any new projects. Most of the major Joomla! components are already making beta versions that are compatible with 1.5. Not too worried. At this point I'd still recommend using 1.0.12.

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#6 Fotis Evangelou 2007-05-15 06:55

Well, you forgot to add one more parameter in your blog post. The fact that Joomla 1.5 -besides the new API- does NOT offer categorization freedom (still tied to section/category model) and no ACL enhancements (still tied to the old model as well). I don't think these are gonna make it before v2...

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#7 Tim 2007-06-30 07:56

It is now June 30, 2007. Has anybody's mind changed as to the use of Joomla 1.5 over 1.0.12? My BIG question is how easy will it be to migrate from 1.5 beta 2 to RC1? Is it just a matter of overwriting files via ftp? (I'm sure it's not, but how will we 'upgrade'?

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#8 Steve Burge 2007-06-30 08:11

Hi Tim

I think the recent hullabaloo over the GPL has probably been a big shot in the arm for 1.0.12. The core and 3rd party developers can't help but have been distracted by this. I think is confirmed by the fact that 1.0.13 will be coming soon.

It will be quite a while before the real benefits of 1.5 become clear and until then theres no compelling reason to move. Upgrade won't be easy.

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