I've just released v1.2 of our free JB Type plugin that sports some swanky new icons from the Iconic icon collection. This icon collection sports 136 lovely high contrast and very useful icons but for the sake of overload we have managed to cut down the new additions to 25 icons. You can see the new icons featured in our latest Joomla template release - Shop Ignition - or just go straight to the JB Type download or the JB Type documentation for the JB Type Plugin.

Please note that this plugin is not yet Joomla 1.6 compatible but we are working on it. Ill be posting some information regarding the 1.6 status of our offerrings in the next few days.

Be sure to check out a screenshot of the new styles after the jump:

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It is unavoidable that as Joomla! extensions develop, new features are missed by end users. You only need to look at Microsoft word as an example of an application suffers from feature creep - common requests for addiitonal features often include requests for features that already exists in the program.

There are some Joomla extensions that I am using that I know that I am not taking full advantage of. While the feature I found in sh404 yesterday is a new one (I think - I hope) it has still made me feel like I've been using a ferrari to drive to the supermarket.

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When I was looking at which template to use for March Joomla template, I couldn't quite decide whether to go ahead with the Project theme that I announced last week, or the Shop Ignition theme that you can see in this blog post. And so in the last few days I have decided to switch these template releases around so that the Shop Ignition template is now scheduled for release in March - hopefully sometime this week. And the Project template will be released in April.

It's been sometime since we released an ecommerce template - last one was in May last year with the Shopfront Joomla template, and so it's been quite exciting to dig into Tienda again - working with that component is certainly a very rewarding experience for a designer. The good news for hard-core virtuemart fans is that we will also be including styling for virtue mart via the K2 Mart shop extension.

Update - Rather than trying to wrangle Virtuemart into the Shopignition design we have decided to work with the Red Shop component which promises to offer a lot more flexibility and finesse from a design point of view. The Redshop features look awesome as well.

For a full preview of the Shopignition Joomla template check out the screenshot after the jump. (Update - Ive just added a screen grab of the product page)

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While it might seem strange to feature a site that specialises in using Drupal on this blog, I just cant go past the way this site has been implemented. I love the textures used in this design and the way that they have implemented that css "now you see me now you don't" trick, not to mention the pure scale of the design concept - awesome work.

This is certainly one of my favourite designs from the last few months - check out the full length view after the jump or check out the Phase2 site for your self.

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It's more than a year since we last dropped a new design on the main Joomlabamboo site and while i had planned to do this a few weeks from now I caught the realign bug and so have spent the last few days implementing the new design as well as some new content.

Last time we rebooted it took considerably longer than three days as we were shifting from Joomla 1.0 to Joomla 1.5 but it's amazing what you can learn in a year from building templates. The design itself has sort of been on the back burner - just simmering away and getting looked at every few weeks - until last week when I finally got some inspiration I felt I could act on.

One of the main things I wanted to do was to reign in a lot of the odd styles that existed between our various support areas. The beauty of Joomla is that you can do a lot with 3rd party extensions in terms of functionality but if you aren't careful you can lose the design cohesion that all in one solutions. So for me the solution was to effectively have two template designs and divide them on the site between "product display" and "customer support".

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We have just released some non-critical fixes and a small handful of feature updates for three of our Joomla Extensions.

JB Library v1.2.9 has just been released which adds jQuery v1.5.0 and v1.5.1 plus the ability to set the jQuery version to the latest which will always load the latest jQuery version via the Google repository. The image resizer has also been updated to fix a few small caching issues that have recently popped up in a small number of situations.

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Our March Joomla Template, called Project, is going to revolutionise the way you approach project management from within Joomla. Project is a simple, slick and fast loading Joomla template that will come with a Project Fork theme, a K2 Wiki-style theme and a custom skin for the new forum on the block - Ninja Board. Add into the mix a new Joomla admin template and you have, what we think, is the perfect way to run and manage projects and intranet sites from within Joomla.

Development has been progressing well despite the late release of the Lacuna Joomla template so we expect to have this release ready for you by the middle of this month.

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jQuery as you are probably aware is sometimes billed as javascript for designers. I don't pretend to be a javascript expert by any means, but what I love about jQuery is that it's possible to cobble together some simple code that will work around some design constraint without needing to have an indepth working knowledge of core javascript principles. Seasoned developers may take issue with this but ultimately I think it encourages people to use javascript first and then slowly begin to learn the deeper foundations of its logic.

I've used fixed elements in some of our templates (most notably the Insideout Joomla template) and you will notice I've attached position: fixed to the left sidebar on this blog as well. One of the limitations of the fixed elements is that they often don't play well with small screen resolutions and so this is where jQuery comes in.

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I'm very happy to announce that Joomlabamboo is now an official sponsor of the Joomladay in India. The lineup of speakers looks very interesting with some International guests scattered amongst the local contingent.

There are so many events on the cards this year and it while it would be great to attend all of them this is one that I am going to unfortunately have to miss. I'm fairly envious of my European and North American colleagues who can travel almost on a whim, but any travel from "downunder" and with the added complexity of having a busy family life makes any travel a serious undertaking. I'll certainly be looking forward to any videos or live streaming of the event.

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I know everyone is using Instagram these days to post old school photos to the web but I personally prefer the Hipstamatic app. Thankfully it also hooks up with Tumblr which really is a beautiful and easy way to connect and publish content. I know that the purpose of Tumblr is a little different to Joomla but wouldn't it be amazing if controlling your Joomla site was as easy as it is in Tumblr. And of course wouldnt it also be great if you could connect and create content from other apps on your phone, desktop or mobile device.

Anyway - checkout my contribution to the growing tumblogs over at Bamboolicious or check out some of the Hipstamatic shots from the last week or so.

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I've just released the update for both the Shopfront template and the Zen Simpleshop Joomla templates which make them compatible with Tienda 0.7.0. The folk at Dioscouri have added some nifty new stuff to this release as it creeps closer and closer to the Version 1.0.

If you haven't seen Tienda you can see it in action on the Shopfront demo site or checkout the information overview on the Tienda product page. Club members can download the new packages from the Shopfront Download page and view the changelog with upgrade instructions on the Shopfront changelog.

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It has been sometime since I last redesigned the Joomlabamboo site and for at least the last six months I've been itching to get in and do it again. Back in December I deployed the new template for our knowledgebase area and while I have some grand plans for a complete revisioning of the whole JB site I thought I would spend an hour or two and push the knowledge base template onto the blog and give it a tiny twist.

In the past I've really wanted to keep each area of the site within a uniform design but more and more I'm noticing companies that have a completely new design for the various areas of their site. I think if it's done well then it can make for quite an eclectic experience for the user and really help to personalise the different focusses that a site may have.

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