Advanced Administrator Menu beta 2 is now available.  This version fixes several small issues reported by users and improves usability.  For more information see the Advanced Administrator Menu page at the Art of Joomla web site.

Advanced Administrator Menu is an extension for Joomla 1.5 that helps you reorganise your components menu.  If you have a web site that has dozens of components installed, the menu can get pretty long and disorganised.  Advanced Administrator Menu allows you to create new menus in which to group your components in more logical ways.  For more information see the Advanced Administrator Menu page at the Art of Joomla web site.

The Joomla Template documentation chapter of the Art of Joomla Developer Reference is now complete.  This is a unique and insightful online technical reference on the various options available to designers to customise Joomla's output.  Presented in a PHP-novice friendly way, the chapter looks at the inner workings of the Joomla template, the significance of the built-in System Template and the often forgotten Print View.  The chapter then looks at Joomla Template Parameters, Component and Module layout overrides, Module chrome and pagination customisation.  Finally, there is a detailed explanation about how to create your own error and offline pages.

This reference is excellent if you are just easing into Template design or customisation.  No prior knowledge of PHP is required.  The chapter is especially written for people with little to no experience in the PHP programming language.  It is also an excellent reference for experienced designers due to the thoroughness by which it covers the technical aspects of Joomla template construction.  Extension developers will also come away with an appreciation of the capabilities available to designers as well as ways they can customise their own extensions.

The Google Summer of Code has been a very reliable source for raising new developers and contributors for the Joomla project.  It's that time again in 2009 for Summer of Code to begin and Joomla has been granted 18 student projects amounting to a direct and indirect investment of US$90,000 from Google.  To further the investment in the project, New Life in IT has donated a subscription to The Art of Joomla Developer Reference to each Summer of Code student to assist them in their respective projects (nearly AU$900 in value).  The Art of Joomla Developer Reference is a growing, online resource of technical documentation that teaches developers and designers the art of building Joomla extensions.  Fostering the future generation of Joomla developers and leaders is an important part of why Joomla has become the most popular Content Management System in the world.

In conjunction with Joomla Day Brisbane 2009, New Life in IT will be running two excellent training workshops on 1 May.  There are only a few days left to secure the remaining seats for this unique training opportunity from Joomla core developer Andrew Eddie.  The morning session is everything you wanted to know about how Joomla does templating but were afraid to ask (excluding the elements of artistic design).  This session is especially tailored for people who do not know PHP well or at all.  The afternoon session is about unraveling the mysteries of the Joomla Framework as a development platform.  For more information see the Joomla Day Brisbane synopsis.  Those attending either training course will also receive a free 12-month subscription to The Art of Joomla Developer Reference.