In one of a series of guest posts here on the Alledia blog, Kyle Ledbetter of Joomlapraise.com asks whether admin templates are worth the effort.
Over at JoomlaPraise we make Joomla templates and extensions and have recently released AdminPraise, an administrator template for Joomla 1.5 that falls somewhere between a template and extension.
However, the question we’d like to ask is … do Joomla users want/need an alternate admin template? The admin template system is obviously in place for this reason, but no one really uses it. We’ve seen slight variations on the Khepri template, but that’s about it.
Advantages
With AdminPraise (click here to see the demo), our aim has been to make the entire administrative process easier on novices and advanced users. These are the main advantages of AdminPraise over a the default theme:
- Set Start Page: a link to choose which page you see when you login
- Page Memory: If you’re logged out, AdminPraise will remember which page you were going to visit
- New Control Panel: All New Control Panel featuring accordion div and all new icons
- iPhone Friendly: Alternate display optimized for iPhone Joomla Administration
Disadvantages
- Tutorials: The design of a new alternate admin template is that it won’t match all the help and tutorials that already exist.
- Important Information: Some admin templates I’ve seen (although not AdminPraise) strip out lots of information that could be useful to administrators, including the Joomla version and even the Joomla name itself.
Obligatory Commercial Bit
If you’d like to join JoomlaPraise to gain full access to all templates and extensions for a year, save 10% with the coupon: awesomeadmin.
Over to You …
Are we barking up the wrong tree? Do Joomla users want/need an alternate admin template?