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The aim for us in creating the framework was to provide an intuitive resource for controlling and building joomla templates for seasoned developers as well as first time Joomla users. One of the main things we wanted to avoid was bloat and so any major version increment really needs to be seen in the context of what we want the framework to do, rather than needlessly adding features just because we can.

Something that sets the context for this containment of feature enhancements are some basic questions:

  • what does Joomla already do?
  • What doesn't Joomla already do?
  • what extensions are out there that already provide the functionality we are about to add?
  • Does the new feature simplify or add complexity to the framework.

There is obviously a balance between building options into the framework and also requiring that the end user install a million plugins just to recreate the functionality that we are after. So after careful consideration we have a roadmap for the v1.1 of the template framework which will be released hopefully in the next few weeks. All of the features below aren't final but it should give you a good idea of where we are headed. Rather than a revolution v1.1 of the framework is more of a refinement of the current version.

Zen Grid v1.1 Roadmap

  • Typekit support for font replacement.
  • More control over enabling and disabling font stacks and font sizes
  • Better control over the logo text option using font replacement
  • Improve the Grid Framework Error page
  • Ability to remove the tp=1 function in Joomla 1.5
  • Option to create better col spacing with 1 col and 15 col increments added
  • Ability to force empty space in grid rows.
  • Improved markup removing unnecessary inline styling
  • Implement a Zen Grid specific module chrome
  • Incorporate the links to the documentation from within the related parameter pane.
  • Increase modules per row from 4 to 6.
  • Improved core css and logic for functions.
  • Add check to see if framework and template are latest version and if an update is necessary.
  • Mobile redirect support
  • Better combining of css from template as well as JB extensions.
  • Plus new starter templates with a fleshed out css class decoder.

If you are using the framework and have some constructive feedback we would love to hear it. Feel free to post it here or on our forum.

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