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We shall shortly begin the migration of the ECA website onto the Joomla! platform. This will be a gradual process, the first step of which is to install Joomla! on the server and create a new front page. While this necessary first step is carried out, the website will be offline for a short time - hopefully a matter of minutes - but this will be done late at night, so will have minimum impact on readers. The blogsite will remain on line.

The changeover will happen shortly, perhaps in the next seven days. You will know when it has happened because the front page will be different.

This first step, as said, involves installing Joomla! in our web space, in a different folder to the current location of the ECA web pages. If we adopt the analogy of a house, the website that you're reading now, can be thought of as occupying the front room. Joomla! is going to be based in the hallway, right inside the front door (the root directory, in computing terms). The first step is to install Joomla! in the 'hallway', create a new front page and provide a link to enable visitors to access the existing pages in the 'front room'. The temporary interruption referred to above will be when the Domain Name Pointer is re-set to the 'hallway', Joomla! installed and the front page created.

After that, development of the website will be all done in the Joomla! environment, using a new site template - a temporary one at first, until a permanent template design has been chosen (there are literally thousands to choose from!). The existing pages will be the retained archive, although conversion may be undertaken (no promises!)

The principle difference between the current means by which the ECA website is produced and the Joomla! platform onto which it will migrate is that Joomla! is installed on the server. Currently, the web pages are created on the Webmaster's home computer and uploaded to the server. On the Joomla! platform, the web pages will be produced and maintained on the server. One by-product of this is that others can become involved in work on the website and it would prove easier to transfer the website to a new Webmaster, should the current WM ever get tired of webbing!

The Joomla! environment will also provide a more active/interactive environment than at present and one that is constantly evolving.

The Joomla! project is 'open source' which means that the Internet community actually produce the code which is available to all and is essentially free of charge. (The name "Joomla" is based on a Swahili word meaning 'all together'.)

This change is not a sudden decision, the Webmaster has been searching for an alternative to the ageing software currently being used. Lots of different systems have been looked at. Some, while apparently being just the ticket, have fallen down in one particular area, others were simply too expensive. Joomla! seems to fit the bill and is free of charge. The recent move of our domain to a new isp was made, apart from the cost-saving factor, with just such a change in mind (our previous isp not then offering the flexibility to install programming code on the server).

If you are interested to find out more about Joomla! follow the link:

Joomla!

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