18 May 2010 |
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As with the last twinterview with Andrew Eddie, I have copied the transcript below for those who were not able to follow along live. If you are interested in following other Developer Interviews (with both Joomla and Palm webOS Developers), you can follow me at @twintrview or at the hashtag #twtv. 1. I know you have some big news for us today. Care to share your announcement with everyone real quick?Definitely, we have just released a Joomla admin template for the iPad named AdminPad. We have also optimized AdminPad for the iPhone, and I hear it works pretty good on the Palm Pre also. AdminPad looks & feels like several iPad apps with it is 5 themes, but we have also made several other innovations beyond the appearance. 2. What kind of innovations are you talking about for iPad and Joomla users?One major innovation is that you can decided whether AdminPad displays on the iPad ONLY or on all browsers & a fallback admin template. This was challenging since the ?template=blah function doesnt work on in the Joomla admin site, so we created it within AdminPad. We have also developed a couple of admin extensions to allow you to easily add an article directly from your iPad. 3. So you have built extensions that people can download and use in any site, with or without AdminPad? Like what?We have released the Quick Item module & Simple Content Editor from mobile devices which can be used in any Joomla Admin template. SimpleCE (Simple Content Editor) started as a bbcode editor and evolved into a simple html tag editor which works well in the iPad. Quick Item module is a quick way to enter an article directly from the Joomla admin cpanel like QuickPress from WP. The combo of these 2 extensions lets you finally add content via your mobile browser in your underwear on your couch I dont think you realize how long I have been waiting for that opportunity.I think it is safe to say that we all have :) 4. Do you think that AdminPad will be used by #Joomla administrators in their regular web browsers or just mobile devices?We are already getting plenty of feedback from both camps, those that want to use it only on iPad and those that love it so much they want to use it in the browser as well. AdminPad works great in browsers that support CSS3 like Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc. There are a couple of small tweaks needed since we really designed it for the iPad, which treats select boxes differently but it wont take much to get a seamless admin experience across those browsers and the iPad. 5. Are there any plans to make major updates to AdminPad, or perhaps to release other templates that work well in other mobile devices?Good question. We are already researching ways to make AdminPad behave even more like a native iPad app in a future version and we are working on iPad & iPhone templates for the frontend of Joomla. We are also just starting to learn Android (just downloaded SDK) so we can possibly create some Droid frontend and backend Joomla templates in the future, and possibly Projectfork themes also. 6. I have gotta ask- What are the best and worst things about developing for Joomla?The Joomla third party dev community is just awesome. They are extremely welcoming. If I ever need help on anything or a good laugh, I jump into a chat room with brilliant people around the world and bounce ideas or jokes off them. Meeting them in person at Joomla Days or at events like the CMS Expo is even better. Developing templates and extensions for the Joomla admin has been extremely challenging & rewarding. The admin is an area that has been largely neglected and criticized, so I gravitated towards it and we kind of created our own marketplace. Now you are starting to see other Joomla devs like JoomlaBamboo & Dioscouri developing for the admin, which is extremely cool. 7. What is the next big thing that you guys are planning on releasing? (or is that secret?)We are going to continue w/our 3 Joomla template releases per month at JoomlaPraise & keep pushing the boundaries of simplicity there. Projectfork 2.2 and 3.0 are underway on the project management front and we are going to involved the entire Joomla community in the development of AdminPraise3 for Joomla 1.6 and truly make it the "Joomla admin for and by the Joomla people." That is about it. 8. Last question.. Boxers or Briefs?How about boxer-briefs with Joomla logos on them? Haha.. Fair enough. Had to mess with you a bit. ;) Any last words for those following?All the admin goodies we discussed are available on w
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