Image credit: Gisela Giardino

Morph’s journey to Joomla! 2.5

It’s been a challenging year to say the least! While Morph was our biggest achievement, it was also our biggest mistake. Let me explain…

Morph started out as an internal project for us to streamline our development workflow and help us release themes more efficiently. Somewhere along the line though, our focus shifted from creating themes, to working on Morph pretty much full-time.

Humble beginnings

When Andy and I first started building Morph, the fundamentals were pretty simple, but as the admin side (Configurator) got more and more advanced, we had to rely on outside developers to build the bits that were outside our coding skillset.

We first had Byron on board, and he did a great job with helping us take it up a notch. Then Byron moved on to focus on his own projects and Stian came on board for a few hours a week.

That worked well at first, as we were still within our comfort zones for 80% of the work needed to further Morph’s development.

This is where we should have taken a step back and re-assessed the situation…

First stop: Nooku

Based on Stian’s ninja-skills with the Nooku framework, and everything Nooku as a platform would enable us to do, we decided to port Morph to Nooku.

At the time, there were a bunch of obvious reasons for choosing Nooku. What attracted us most was the possibility of making Morph Joomla-version agnostic.

Mistake number one

Unfortunately the reality was that Nooku itself was still ever changing. As much as Andy and I both wanted to get stuck in and learn Nooku, there just wasn’t enough time to do so when juggling all the day-to-day operations of the business.

This meant that our knowledge was never up-to-date, and the only person who really understood the new codebase was Stian. Mistake number one.

Mistake number two

Since all our time and energy was going into building Morph, our release schedule for new themes was sporadic at best.

We don’t state that we release a new theme anywhere on our site and we’ve never promised to, but there is a certain level of expectation that comes with joining a theme club – and frequent theme releases is at the top of the list.

Due to the lack of new theme releases, the income from our site started a downward spiral. It got to the point where the site was not even able to sustain it’s own costs. Mistake number two.

This meant that we had to take on sideline client work, just to be able to pay the bills. Most of our friends and family think we’re absolutely mad – I mean really, who gets another job to pay for their day job??

Lesson learnt at this point

We poured an entire year of our lives into building the initial version of Morph, and another year of trial-and-error with Nooku, which in hindsight were expensive mistakes.

While features are fun to build, and it’s exciting to have a product that you can innovate on, it’s not what pays the bills.

Next stop: Joomla 1.6/1.7/2.5

After a year of desperately trying to get the Nooku version finished, we finally took the decision to rather just upgrade Morph to Joomla 1.7.

This was still outside the scope of our skills, so we teamed up with the guys from Techjoomla. In exchange for upgrading Morph, I am helping them redesign their site. Win-win for both of us.

A few months later, I pack my bag and computer and go from Cape Town to Port Alfred for two months of work with Andrew. We’ve decided to finish the Prothemer site and Morph 2.5 – and it’s much easier to do when you’re working in the same office.

Bomb number 1

We made great progress working with the Techjoomla guys, but towards the end of my trip, Andrew informed that he’d decided to pull out of the business.

The decision to do so wasn’t made lightly, but for the sake of Andy’s health, he had to make a change and I completely support his decision.

Bomb number 2

The second bomb came when Tess told me that she was also going to be focusing on her own projects, which basically left just me.

I must admit it was a tough couple weeks as I processed all the emotions I was feeling. A combination of excitement, fear, and an overwhelming realization of having my workload increase three-fold.

Flying solo vs partnering-up

While I liked the idea of flying “solo” for a change, a few weeks in I realized I needed to find some help if I wanted to get Prothemer thriving again.

Enter Thierry Muller, a good friend of mine, who I’ve had the pleasure of working with on a number of projects.

Thierry’s background is as varied as mine, but he’s been doing frontend web development for a bit over two years now. He’s an incredibly quick learner and we share the same work ethic and goals.

Simply put, we’re a good fit and we’re both super excited about what the future will bring.

Back to our roots

Thierry and I both agree that the only way for Prothemer to succeed is for us to focus on our strengths, and that means stopping the development of Morph.

Personally, this was probably the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make, but I know it’s the right one.

I also know with my whole entirety that Prothemer can be a success. It’s for that reason that I’ve never given up and fought with tooth and claw to keep the business moving forward – albeit at a painfully slow pace.

What does this all mean for Morph?

Considering how much blood, sweat and tears went into Morph, I was adamant to find Morph, as a project, a new home.

When thinking of a possible team that could take over Morph’s development, Ninjaforge was the first that came to mind, since they built the original Tatami concept on which Morph was built. We started chatting, and when the topic of them taking over Morph came up, they jumped at the idea.

Why this is a good thing for Morph

For Morph to really succeed, it needs a solid team of developers behind it. That is something we were never able to give Morph.

Ninjaforge is teaming up with Matt and his team from PeaceofCode, and Mark from Ninjaforge will be taking the lead on Morph.

We’re in the process of moving the sites GetMorph.org and TryMorph.com over to their servers, as well as moving the existing issue list from Github to their own internal development system.

The status of Morph

NinjaForge and PeaceOfCode have graciously agreed to take over the development of Morph 2.5 and they will be posting updates as the get closer to releasing the first alpha, but here is a summary of where things stand in the meantime:

• The installation process works on Joomla 2.5
• Configurator works on 2.5, there are just some small layout issues that still need to be resolved
• The Morph template is where it gets a bit tricky, as we’re currently working on resolving a bug with Morph’s module chromes. When resolved, we’ll be able to dig deeper and see what else is left to fix before we can release the first alpha version.

If you’re waiting for Morph 2.5, I would highly recommend that you follow the @jMorph twitter account, as that is where Danial and his team will be posting updates about their progress.

Matt from PeaceofCode is also working on a post that will summarize their plans for Morph. I’ll update this post with a link once it’s published.

The action plan for Prothemer

Our strategy for Prothemer is to simplify as much as possible – starting with a simple base and then grow slowly. Small and constant improvements being the key to success.

Prothemer will be a fresh start for our theme catalog:

• Ninjaforge will be taking over our existing Morph themelets
• We’ll be building our theme catalog up again from scratch

What this means for existing customers:
We will still continue to support our existing Morph customers until their subscriptions expire. After which, we’ll be switching to individual theme sales, rather than the club. More on that soon :)

For Prothemer, we are adopting the Warp framework for all our future themes. I’ll share more information about this when we get closer in time to release, but here are the main reasons for going with Warp:

• It allows us hit the road running with all the latest web technologies
• Warp has a reliable team behind it, taking care of things outside our own strengths
• It allows us to focus on what we’re good at – creating themes
• Warp is multi-platform, i.e. works on both Joomla and WordPress

Due to the massive change in focus, we’re starting over with the Prothemer site build – beginning with a clean slate.

The previous Prothemer site design and functionality was all geared around Morph and our themelets, which is no longer applicable. Our new site will be much simpler, as we’re not bringing any of the old stuff over into the new site.

To sum it all up

1.) After a long and slow (and somewhat expensive) journey with Morph, we’re in for a new fresh start – and it’s feeling good!

2.) The Morph project is being taken over by NinjaForge and PeaceofCode.

3.) We’re getting back into the driving seat and will be focussing our energy on what we’re good at – creating themes.

4.) Thierry Muller has come on board as my new business partner and I couldn’t be happier having him on board. Thierry will be introducing himself on our blog in the coming weeks.

5.) We’re going to be working hard on earning the trust back from our community, and our motto moving forward is A.O.W – “Action Over Words”.

We have a lot of work ahead of us, but neither Thierry or I are afraid of hard work and we both know that it’s going to take a lot of it before we’re done.

I’m incredibly excited to continue this journey with a fresh strategy and renewed energy!

Related posts:

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2. Enabling and working with module outlines (Morph developer tool) This screen-cast will show you how to use Morph‘s built-in developer toolbar to outline what Joomla module is positioned where. You will also learn...
3. The Morph framework for Joomla now available for round two of beta testing What a way to start the week! Monday night we pressed the button and made the Morph framework for Joomla available in beta for...

Source: What’s happening with Morph and Prothemer? on Prothemer

It all started in Malaysia last year, where I presented Morph on Joomla!Day. In the audience was Parth Lawate from Techjoomla, who after the presentation shared his excitement about Morph and our choice of licensing (GPL).

We had many more conversations, but it didn’t take us long to realize that the skills of our teams compliment each other. We quickly came to the conclusion that a collaboration would be both fun and mutually beneficial.

Fast forward a few months, and Techjoomla is now officially our 1st Morph Development Partner.

About Techjoomla

In 2006, Parth Lawate fell in love with Mambo and Open Source technology. He founded the company Tekdi Web Solutions to provide development services in the Open Source industry.

Since then, Tekdi has grown tremendously. The company now develops and supports several extensions for Joomla, as well as services for  Drupal, WordPress, Magento and Smartphone applications.

In January 2009, the Tekdi team decided it was time to open a separate business with a focus only on Joomla. Techjoomla was launched, and you can now get both Joomla extensions and training from them.

Keep up to date with the Techjoomla team on Twitter: @techjoomla

The Techjoomla and Morph team

The Techjoomla team members involved in the Morph development are:

Parth Lawate

Co-founder and director of Techjoomla and Tekdi Web Solutions.

Parth has been working with Joomla since the days when it was called as Mambo, and was a Google Summer of Code mentor for the Joomla Project in 2009.

Beside Parth’s passion for exploring new technologies, he is also an active problem-solver on the Joomla community forums. Follow and talk to Parth on Twitter: @parthlawate

Away from the computer, you will find Parth on his bike or hiking in the mountains…when he’s not reading a book, or cooking up a storm in the kitchen.

Ashwin Date

Co-founder of Techjoomla and Tekdi Web Solutions.

Ashwin has been involved in Open Source since the Mambo days, and actively participates in the development of Joomla by submitting patches and helping point people in the right direction on the Joomla community forums.

Project management, software architecture and user experience are some of Ashwin’s specialities. Beside being full of ideas for new products, he loves focusing on creating shorter turnaround times for projects while still maintaining high quality.

Ashwin is mad about biking! When he’s not outdoors, you’ll find him stirring the pots and making delicious food. Say hello to Ashwin on Twitter: @coolbung

Manoj Londhe

Developer at Techjoomla and Tekdi Web Solutions.

Manoj is a coder and developer at heart. He’s loves writing lines of code, and breathes Open Source. His motto “Let there be peace and free code pieces” is a sign of his mission to achieve excellence in open source development.

In his spare time Manoj keeps on writing, but not code. Instead, it’s paragraphs of stories…which he combines this with his love for coffee and piano music.

Talking about writing, Manoj is a complete Twitaholic and you can follow him on Twitter: @think_green99

Vivek Ghorad

Developer at Techjoomla and Tekdi Web Solutions.

Vivek has a passion for technology, and his professional mission is to create applications that can be used by anybody. He’s relatively new to Joomla, but his motto “favorite work never makes you tired” will take him far in the industry.

Away from the computer,  Vivek loves to play chess and listen to music. He’s active on Twitter, so follow and say hello to him at: @majorvvs

We’re incredibly happy to have the above team onboard! Go ahead, give a warm welcome to Parth, Ashwin, Manoj and Vivek to the Morph team, by saying hi in the comments below. Your comments and encouragement are always appreciated!

What about the status of Morph and the Prothemer site?

We have a few blog post lined up for you this week about Morph and the Prothemer website, so stay tuned.

To get notified about new blog posts, subscribe to our RSS feed!

No related posts.

Source: Welcome Techjoomla, our 1st Morph Development Partner! on Prothemer

As you might have seen by now, we’re only a few weeks away from re-branding Joomlajunkie to Prothemer. In preparation for this, we’ve changed, added and deleted a few things from our website. In this blog post we’ll talk about some of the changes, and more…

How to get notified about the Prothemer launch: On the ProThemer homepage, you’ll see the newsletter signup form. Add your email address to the list and you’ll receive an email when we go live. You can also follow us on Twitter: @prothemer, or keep an eye on our Facebook updates.

Last chance to download our Joomla templates

New recommended Joomla extensions

3 new services – Kickstart, Conversion & SEO

Kickstart your Joomla website development

Design Conversion for Joomla/Wordpress

Technical SEO Audit

Stay tuned for more information in the next few weeks.

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2. Recommended: People.Joomla.org now open and the vibe is great! Beside the newly released Joomla!1.6 beta, there’s another fantastic thing recently launched by the Joomla! team. The newly opened http://people.joomla.org has quickly become an...
3. Joomla blogosphere – Recommended reading Jan 25-31 We read so many good blog posts and articles from all the Joomla (and web development) bloggers out there, but figured ‘what’s the benefit...

Source: New services, recommended Joomla extensions, and more on Prothemer

As mentioned in our previous blog post, we’re doing some house cleaning to clarify our business offerings. This blog post tells you about the first steps we took a few months back; going GPL and creating a new online home for the Morph template framework.

Please note: Only Joomlajunkie members have access to support, as well as downloads of our commercial themelets. See plans and pricing.

So, what’s new?

Blog post: Welcome to Morph’s new home

Blog post: Morph for Joomla is now GPL and free

We hope you like the new direction, and we’re looking forward to having you on board for the journey ahead! If you have any questions or feedback, please comment below or contact us on Twitter. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Related posts:

1. New demo: The Morph template development framework for Joomla Good news for all Joomla website developers! We just opened the door to the new, improved demo of Morph’s Configurator! If you’re unsure about...
2. Meet Morph – the Joomla template development framework The time has finally come for me to publish the first official blog post of a series about our new rapid template development framework...
3. Preview: LeBlanc themelet for Morph Joomla template framework LeBlanc is a clean, minimalist style themelet with a strong focus on simplicity. Lots of white space and typographical details make this the perfect...

Source: The Joomla template framework Morph is now GPL and free on Prothemer

Yep, that’s right! There are some sweet changes coming up here, and part of it is to “clean our house to clarify business”.

What is being discontinued?

Why are we doing this?

Because our new site is almost ready for launch (yes, really!). Once it’s launched, our focus will be 100% on Morph (the template framework, themes, related services, etc) and our Joomla extensions.

Register for the newsletter and you will receive more info as we get closer to the magic launch date.

What does this mean for you?

• You can still download all our traditional Joomla templates, but only until the cut-off date of DECEMBER 15, 2011. After the cut-off date, our pre-Morph templates will no longer be available for download.
• Please note: an active JoomlaJunkie club membership is required in order to download the commercial Joomla templates. If your subscription has expired, you will need to renew your account before gaining access to the downloads. Remember to use the voucher code RENEW for 15% discount on any membership! (login here)

We’re incredibly excited about all the changes coming up, and the support we’ve received from our members in the process! If you have any questions or feedback, please comment below or contact us on Twitter. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Related posts:

1. How to setup a Mega Shelf Menu with Morph for Joomla Learn how to setup a mega menu with a difference, using Morph‘s built in Mega Shelf Menu jQuery plugin. Since nothing like this existed,...
2. The Joomla template framework Morph is now GPL and free As mentioned in our previous blog post, we’re doing some house cleaning to clarify our business offerings. This blog post tells you about the...
3. New services, recommended Joomla extensions, and more In preparation for the re-branding of Joomlajunkie to Prothemer, we've changed, added and deleted a few things from our website. Read more......

Source: Our traditional Joomla templates are officially discontinued on Prothemer