Well, like many, I guess, I was busting to get a look at Joomla 1.6 and see what it's all about.

Can't get XAMPP working so put Joomla 1.6, beta 1 and then beta 2, up on a free host.

Yes, I did read that it's not yet ready for this. I've never before got involved with a beta version of anything, so really didn't know what to expect.

I see that some of the help pages are not written yet and in some cases the 1.5 help is in place and not applicable.

Image file uploading doesn't seem to be working.

The global options are all there for articles but for menus, only the permissions are there.

I've spent quite a bit of time making sure I have the original configuration correct and struggled to get my head around the nested categories and their relationship to the menus.

It will be great when the help is completed and some tutorials get about.

Of course, while this basic, final user is busy getting the hang of the basics, developers are going their hardest developing plugins and updating existing plugins.

It will be difficult at present for anyone making training videos, since the controls are not all in place.

I'm particularly interested to find out about how search will work. The version 1.5 search works on sections. With no sections in version 1.6, and nested categories, I suppose there will need to be completely new search modules and plugins written.

JLJ generously wrote me a plugin to search individual sections in version 1.5. I really wanted to search individual categories so had to create corresponding sections and categories with the same name.

So I wonder where the new system, (version 1.6) will place me.

As far as I can see, there's little open discussion about Joomla 1.6. I guess Joomla developers are a quiet lot that just get on with the job and then, all of a sudden it arrives, completed on the table. Or maybe I'm just not looking in the right place.

Best wishes and thanks to all the hard workers,
Laurie.

Hey there Laurie,

There is lots of buzz about it on Twitter and also on the Joomla Bug Squad user groups.

Also sign up for the developer mailing list somewhere in Google Groups.

There is a huge amount of chatter and interaction between the developers and Joomla bug squashers.

In terms of search, have you tried JXtended's Finder component? Best search results i've seen in Joomla ever.

Peter

Thanks for that Peter. I see I'll have to look further than I have, for the conversations.

Oh, it's a steep learning curve!

I built my first website with Microsoft Publisher 98 and thought it was the duck's guts, for a week or two.

Then I learned to hand code a html site and built a few. Next I graduated to php sites using includes. Fairly basic, of course.

After that I got into Wordpress and now I find myself rubbing shoulders with people who create cutting edge technology on a system with four and a half thousand files in the package.

I'm just a bit out of my depth, you'll understand.

Hi Laurie,

1.6 Is still in beta and things can change and do quite often. Still a lot of work to do with 1.6 so don't get your ideas concrete at this stage. Use the Beta's to get a guist of things.

I can see a fair bit of what's going on in 1.6 as I look after the Aussie language translations but still have to keep quiet until they officially release a new package. When they do release a new package is the only time its set in concrete (until the next package)

It's good that your toying and testing with 1.6 as you will have a much better understanding come a release package.

The above reasons are why developers dont pump out even test plugins as yet.

Beta 3 will be released on June 14, 2010. << Roughly

Cheers

If you want to learn more about what's new in Joomla 1.6 and are in Sydney tomorrow night, come along to the JUG meeting.
www.joomladay.org.au/sydney-user-group/2...meeting-tue-8th-june

Your XAMPP issue could be because Joomla 1.6 now requires PHP 5.2.4 or greater and MySQL 5.0.4 or greater.

Joomla 1.6 is now in the hands of the bug squad, so if you want to get involved, there are some good instructions here:
people.joomla.org/groups/viewgroup/95-Joomla+Bug+Squad.html

The important thing to mention is that you don't need to be a coder/programmer to help out. If you can use the Jooma admin, then you can help.

If you want to get involved with testing, then I recommend watching Using Netbeans for Joomla Development - Jeremy Wilken www.vimeo.com/11981229

regards

Tim

Thanks Lenfitz and Tim. Appreciate you taking me seriously.

Great info and links.

I'd like to get up the the Canberra JUG some time and hope it will coincide with my child minding stint at Cooma during the school holidays, on some occasion.

I think my XAMPP problem is because I'm running Windows XP and need some new win32 file.

The FTP problems, having now read a bit on the Joomla forum, could be a host problem and not Joomla, or I may not have the FTP set up right.

Yes, great to fiddle with the new version and get the feel of it.

Thanks.