Like many web designers out there, I am slowly beginning the switch from Joomla! 1.5 to Joomla! 1.7. I actually just completed a very simple site using 1.7 and a professional template and I had really no trouble at all. That experience lit a fire under me and I dove right into my next project, one that will feature Virtuemart 2.0, which is also new and improved and a custom made template using Artisteer. Sounds great so far, right?

So I had no problems installing Joomla 1.7 and Virtuemart 2.0. That was all that went well. Next I tried to install two third party extensions that I use with Virtuemart.  One would not install completely and the other installed but then when I ran it there were issues with images not displaying.  Yes, these are both supposed to be compatible with 1.5 and 1.7.  This was a little discouraging, but I kept going thinking that I can deal with those two small problems later.

Next, I installed my custom Artisteer template that I created specifically for this project.  I was able to install it with no problem, but then when I assigned it to the site the problems began.  Some module positions were not displaying and therefore, the site would not display correctly. I spent about an hour trying to figure out what was wrong with no luck. I went to Google and found that other people were complaining of the same problem with Artisteer templates on 1.7.

Totally frustrated at this point I decided to revert back to the reliable Joomla! 1.5.25 and get on to building the site.  Within a matter of a few minutes I had Joomla 1.5 installed along with all the third-party extensions and the same Artisteer template and everything was working flawlessly.

The moral of this story is that, while Joomla 1.7 is an amazing open-source program, some third-party extensions are still either not compatible or a little buggy with 1.7.  So my suggestion would be to definitely consider using Joomla! 1.7 for your next project, but carefully look at what extension will be needed and make sure you test their functionality before you get too far into your site design. You might be better off using Joomla! 1.5 for certain projects.

Al Roberts
AWR Web Design, LLC
http://www.awrwebdesign.com

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