While our AdminPraise templates have been the pick of the crop for some time (just look at all of the excellent reviews that we get), we recognize that people have grown accustomed to the straightforward look of the current backend, and don’t really like a lot of drastic changes that they don’t believe are necessary. So while Khepri2 has some pretty outstanding changes from the original, it very much incorporates all of the some feelings and straightforward use that came from our Mambo days (this is something our friend David Towers mentioned in 2008 when we first announced AP).
We’d like to think that these small improvements will allow some people to start warming up to the changes that are needed, while also making Joomla more intuitive for a majority of users. Here are some of those improvements:
Quick Access Sidebar
One of the first things that you will notice upon starting up this new template is the quick access sidebar on the left, and the condensed menu bar up top. We wanted to maximize the amount of screen real estate that was dedicated to actually using Joomla, while also creating a new experience for users.
The sidebar (currently) is dedicated to the components list, since those are the pages most widely accessed by administrators. By giving you one click (quick) access to your article list, polls, contacts and more, you will find your productivity increase dramatically. The smaller the amount of time you spend travelling (with your mouse) across the screen, the more time you will spend actually doing other things.
Productivity Modules
We’ve built several modules (that you’ll have to install yourself) to help make your time even more productive without changing any of the structure too much. You'll notice that the quick icons go across the page completely on the dashboard, with the other module positions built in below that. This puts more emphasis on the most important links while actually giving the other positions more space to do what they need to do (list popular posts, the activity log, to-do list and more).
Session Lifetime Bar
The Session Lifetime Bar makes itself at home right below the top menu, and generally just allows you to see how much time you have left before Joomla logs you out. This is great for when you are writing a long article and you don’t want to forget to save before you lose it all. On top of that, though, if you do get logged out, Khepri2 will send you back to the last page you were viewing for faster transitions back into work.
MyEditor
Have you ever wanted to switch to a different editor in Joomla while working on different articles, but were annoyed at having to close the article, go to the configuration screen(or your profile), and then go back to find the article again and pick up where you left off. Rather than losing your place, you can now install our MyEditor module and switch your editor in one quick step. Fewer page loads means less time wasted when you have a deadline coming up quick.
ActivityLog
Lastly our ActivityLog (the one we submitted to the Joomla Community to be added into the core) comes in very handy to see what you or your moderators have been working on and when. I’ve found this extremely useful when a client messes with settings and then something breaks on the front-end. No doubt they’ve forgotten what they’ve done, and trying to figure it out manually is always a time-waster. This module tells you exactly what happened and when, for very easy debugging (or checking on the status of articles and other projects quickly.
There’s Always More Coming
When we took a look at how other companies were making changes, while Joomla still kept the same backend as it always has had, we knew that this was not going to be a quickly solved problem. With this update to Khepri, we are hoping to see more attention given to the user interface of our favorite CMS, and greater improvements as a whale mode to the system.
In the meantime, we are listening to your feedback and will keep updating Khepri2 (and our other Joomla Admin Templates) as we see the need arise. Get your copy of Khepri2 (free) here, and let us know what you think in the comments below.
