JoomDev.com! Astroid Framework - A Framework specked with features

Details: Written by: Bjørn Ove Bremnes; Parent Category: Test & Reviews; Category: Template Reviews; Published: 11 January 2021

JoomDev’s Astroid FrameWork is advanced but yet easy to use modern FrameWork. It offers high-quality functionalities. It is fully compatible with the future of Joomla (Joomla 4).

The FrameWork is built with Bootstrap 4, a CSS FrameWork that is very popular. It is also full grid-based; this ensures easy designs out of the box with compatible CSS classes to maintain the structure. You can use all the CSS classes that Bootstrap offers to build a layout for your website quickly.

Extension info

Name:Astroid Framework
Type:Template
JED LINK:
Author LINK:

OUR RATING

Useful links to Joomla FrameWork

Joomla Developer http://developer.joomla.org/
Joomla API http://api.joomla.org/
Joomla FrameWorks Usergroup http://groups.google.com/group/joomla-dev-framework

What is FrameWork?

A web FrameWork (WF) or web application FrameWork (WAF) is a software FrameWork that is designed to support the development of web applications, including web services, web resources, and web APIs. Web FrameWorks provide a standard way to build and deploy web applications on the World Wide Web. Web FrameWorks aim to automate the overhead associated with common activities performed in web development. For example, many web FrameWorks provide libraries for database access, templating frameworks, and session management, and they often promote code reuse. Although they usually target the development of dynamic websites, they are also applicable to static websites.

From Wikipedia: Web framework

When you download the JoomDev.com Astroid FrameWork, you get the option of downloading either the QuickStart Package, which comes with an installer for Joomla that makes it easier to install it out of the box to a new site. Included in this package are two basic templates, Asteroid Template Zero and Astroid Template One. Or you can download the FrameWork with the default template Zero either separate or as one package for installing to an existing site.

To the current date, there are over 20 different templates available to the Astroid FrameWork, which means that there are templates available for a lot of professions, which ensures that no website will look the same.

You see this main window when you go to Extensions - Templates - Styles - And you go into the template called Astroid Template Zero.

When you go to Template Options (this is the same thing you need to do by default for all FrameWorks in Joomla, the easiest had to be taken directly into the Mainframe of the FrameWork, but by default. You need this extra step to ensure the Core styling options in Joomla, like changing the template’s name and Menu Assignment). You are then entering into an easy to understand interface with self-explanatory menus on the left and the workspace interface to the right, also with submenus.

All this gives us a good expression of an up-to-date and modernized way to organize the different options or categories.

As seen above, the interface of the Astroid FrameWork is straightforward to understand, and its power lies in the way of structure into submenus under each menu block.

The FrameWork offers connection to several different comment options. Not only to Facebook but also IntenseDebate. If you have comments attached to your content, it lets visitors a way to respond to your content.

It is easy to add inline CSS and JS to your site when using this FrameWork, and you can even attach external files directly in the “Custom Code” menu.

With the latest update of the Astroid FrameWork, you also get a smart function that minifies CSS and JS, and you can compile SCSS to CSS directly inside the template. Since SCSS is on the rise, this is a considerable advantage for website developers.

If you have several websites that use the same settings, you can easily export these.

In the Layout, it’s easy to structure your site’s layout and give it a look you want. You can do all from a simple look to a more advanced and intricate design.

If you have some social profiles, you can easily add Icons with links to all kinds of these and display them in a module on your site, and everything gets drawn automatically from the FontAwesome.com website out of the box.

Having easy readable and up-to-date documentation is essential for all website owners, either they are advanced or at the beginning of their Joomla carrier.

With JoomDevs documentation, I find it hard to find the information I’m looking after. There is a lack of beginner tutorials, and you need a bit higher knowledge of Joomla than a beginner has to get the full potential that documentation needs to have.

One other significant factor in having a good relationship with its customers is good support. Here is JoomDev on top with top customer care; they are quick in replying to questions in the support forum.

Conclusion

To give the complete overlook over a FrameWork like Astroid, we must come to mind the evolution that has been on the Internet for the last years. The Internets age is no more than a few decades old. Therefore, it’s good to see that it can become so adapted into the modern looks of websites like the Astroid FrameWork offers to control.

Though I have experienced some issues with the FrameWork, with some transmission to the updated version overall, I must say that it’s well worth my expectations to such a large piece of extension for Joomla.

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Three ways optimize the use of CSS in content with Joomla

CSS has from the age of the Internet been a part of doing websites. It is an easy but useful way to design an article. There are several ways to write CSS in Joomla, you can use an external file to store all CSS codes in, you can use an extension to include the code, or you can write CSS directly in the content. In this article, I will give some look into how I do it.

In this article, I will show you three different ways to use CSS in an article. The easiest thing is to use an extension to add CSS to the article. There are several extensions in the JED (Joomla Extensions Directory) that gives this opportunity. One of the popular is Sourcerer from Regular Labs. But its also possible to do in-line CSS coding in every article, but this can be very ineffective in large articles, the third and maybe most used is to put the CSS codes into the template as eighter an external file or in the CSS capabilities of the template itself. In modern template-Framework is this common, the disadvantage of this is that you always need access to the backend to add extra CSS in your site.

W3C CSS verified: W3c.org is setting the standards for CSS

1 Code directly as you go (Hard coding the articles)

If you prefer to do the CSS coding inline as you write an article, you must bear in mind that you will NOT be able to reuse the CSS on any other articles and you must repeat the same thing for every content with the same code. This could look like this:

<a href="/home" style="background-color:#ff0000;color:#ffffff;">Home</a>

This will output: Home

2. Use an external file

If you use an external file as a CSS source, it is normally located under the css folder in your template directory. And its usually called custom.css or user.css, the downside with this is that you need access to either FTP or bee logged in to the backend as a Super Administrator.

3 Use an extension to add CSS code in the article

If you want to use an extension to insert CSS in an article, you can not reuse the CSS codes without having it in every article that contains the same style.

What do I recommend?

A combination of the option 2 and 3, will give the easiest result and you can standardize some of the CSS styles in a file and add styles in that applies to certain articles at one addon at the end of the written article.