Sweet Home Chicago

Chicago has three Joomla meetings a month for you:

Original JoomlaChicago - Palatine
JoomlaChicago In The Loop
JoomlaChicago South

Founded in 2008, JoomlaChicago is a registered Joomla!^® User Group, with over 600 members. Each meeting has its own format, topics, speakers and focus, conveniently timed and located to suit most everyone! Come one, come all!  See listing of upcoming meetings.

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New Joomla Version 2.5 Released Today

Good news for Joomla users everywhere! Joomla version 2.5 was released today! If you're already running version 1.7, the update is easy as pie. If you need to migrate from 1.5, check this link for detailed instructions on the migration process. For even more assistance, JoomlaChicago will host a live learning session on Joomla 1.5 migration at the JoomlaChicago meeting in March (Palatine, March 14th). Here are some of the highpoints of this major long-term release of Joomla version 2.5:

• Advanced SmartSearch Capabilities
• Multi-Database Support For Enterprise
• Automatic Update Notification
• Powerful New JPlatform Release (under the hood, for more power, less footprint)
• Much more!

THANK YOU to all volunteers who helped Joomla 2.5 take flight today! Developers & engineers, UX pro's, designers, marketers, infographic artists, documentation writers and 3rd party developers ALL "came together" to make this long-term release possible!

Joomla 2.5 adheres to Joomla’s newly-adopted six-month release cycle that began with the previous  Joomla CMS release of Joomla 1.7 in July, 2011. Downloading the latest version of Joomla is the best way to ensure organizational and personal security needs are being met since it will have the most recent updates to protect against the latest security threats. 

Get Joomla 2.5 Now, And Take Your Site Even Higher: 

• Download Joomla 2.5
• JRelease Announcement
• New Features in 2.5
• Changelog

Want To Get Involved?
If you, or someone you know would like to get involved in spreading the good word about Joomla, either here in Chicago or at an international level, LET ME KNOW, we'll get you involved! You'll be happy to know, there's a group of over 70 people working on improving communications and "evangelizing" Joomla! If you want to join this group, contact John Coonen today.

 

 

We continue our downtown Chicago activities in DePaul University's high-tech conferencing center and offer a great presentation on Joomla! 2.5 by Kendall Cabe and other JoomlaChicago experts and attendees.

 

Date:	Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012
Time:	3:30 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Location:	DePaul Center 8th Floor, Room 8002 1 E. Jackson Blvd. Chicago, Illinois
Price:	Free

 

Click here to register for the JoomlaChicago Loop Meeting!

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Attend the Undisputed #1 Official Joomla!® User Group In the World! JoomlaChicago User Group.

You're invited to come learn how to build a better ecommerce solution for your business, using Joomla Content Management System (CMS). We'll discuss which ecommerce extensions work best with Joomla for commercial businesses, non-profits, fundraising and more.

Come join this lively FREE meeting on Joomla Commerce! Register NOW for the February JoomlaChicago Meeting!

Date: Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
Time: 11:00 am - 2:00 pm
Where: Durty Nellie's Pub in Palatine
Price: Free (thanks to our sponsors)

JoomlaChicago Meeting Agenda:

11:00 am - Joomla! KickStart for New Users: Content is King
11:45 - Joomla Site Showcase - see Joomla in action
Noon - Lunch & Business Networking
12:15 - Joomla ECommerce Presentation
1:00 - Joomla ECommerce For Advanced Users

If you're new to Joomla, or want a refresher on the Joomla basics, come at 11:00 am for our CMS KickStart program, focused on getting you up and running in no time. Then, stick around for lunch and business networking, to make connections with vital LOCAL area Joomla users who can help you grow your organization.

After lunch (which is free, thanks to our sponsors), we'll dig into Ecommerce solutions for Joomla CMS. The first interactive session will give you the lay of the land; the second hour will be more advanced. Don't be surprised (or intimidated) if we "dig into the code" during the pro hour, to help attendees discover what works, and what does not, when it comes to building Joomla Commerce sites for business, non-profit, government and educational use.

While we were in the midst of our JoomlaChicago meeting yesterday in Palatine, we got the good news that The Joomla! Project released the beta2 version of Joomla 2.5. You can download it and gie it a whirl at Joomla.org. While we don't recommend you use this beta version yet on your own live site, there's really no better way to get to know what's shakin' with the new version than giving it a test drive!