Joomla template update: Rational Magic and new menu system
I am pleased to say that the latest version of Rational Magic (Joomla 1.5 template) is now available in the club. If you purchased an individual license of the template, you will soon receive an email with an update.
We have been hard at work on Rational Magic over the last month – doing some general refinements and adding some new features. The most exiting of which is our brand new menu system with the all new SuperDrop menu featuring a combined dropline and superfish menu!
What’s been changed in this version of Rational Magic?
Quite a few things have been changed in the core structure but the most notable changes are:
- Addition of page class suffix feature
- Various changes to core code and css tweaks
- SEO Optimization (The default Joomla content heading and component heading now display as and H1 and H2 respectively and a number of updates to the Joomla overrides to make the code much cleaner for search engines)
- New XHTML overrides for content pages
- Brand new menu system
Why the new menu?
The menu is always a big part of the template and with Joomla 1.0 it was always hard to work with Joomla’s core menu to get the styling needed. The traditional method was to build a separate menu system that modifies the output of the menu as required. This method works perfectly well in Joomla 1.5 as well, which is how we have been integrating a menu into the current 1.5 templates.
We have been meaning to re-write how the menu works in our templates for some time now and with problems creeping into the joomla 1.5 version of Rational Magic menu system we decided it was time to take advantage of the improvements in how Joomla 1.5 handles menus and build a tightly integrated menu for better performance and manageability.
The result is a vastly slimmed down version of the superdrop and superfish menu that uses much less css and has great control features to set it up just how you want it. The best part, is it is completely based on Joomla’s core menu, we are adding all needed markup dynamically to keep things extremely simple and maintenance easier.
So what is so cool about the SuperDrop menu?
The idea is that it works like a dropline menu where the sub-items display in a row below the main navigation (horizontally across the page) – and if there are any sub-items in these then they will slide out like the traditional suckerfish or superfish menu. Well, the best way to find out is to view the Rational Magic Joomla 1.5 demo and see for yourself. 
How do you get your hands on it?
It is now available for download in the JoomlaJunkie template club. Individual purchases will receive an email update with a link to download the latest version. All updates are free for our club members and anyone who purchased it from our site. If you are not a club member – sign up here.
Right now, there is a lot to be excited about if you are a JoomlaJunkie club member! If you are not yet a club member, then there’s something special for you too: We are currently having a festive season special so join the joomlajunkie club now and get yourself a personal, business or developer membership for less. Existing club members will be pleased to know that this month we are also having a 25% discount on all renewals. This won’t be repeated soon, so go ahead and take full advantage of the reduced rates. (Valid until 31 December 2008)
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Tags: Joomla, templates
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