Many years we have developed extensions and sites thinking of a simple way to control all plugins, modules and templates in one place. Now this solution is implemented into all our 3 extensions in free platform with add-ons.

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Just to make it clear we call a Platform a free extension (FW Gallery, FW Real Estate or FW Food Menu) which has Add-ons. Add-on can be Joomla! Plugin, Module or extension specific Template, designed with its own system which can be still overwritten in the main Joomla! template.

Benefit 1 - Free extension

Despite demo website we have it was harder to get an idea if our porduct is the right tool for you. Now being completely free we offer functional Joomla! extension with some free an paid add-ons which extend functionality in a way you need exactly for particular website. Every add-on can be downloaded and installed separately adding its own parts to a platform and extending platform possibilities or changing its look.

Benefit 2 - Quick start

All you need to have the latest Joomla! installed and a free component. As soon as you install a platform you must link it to your account on fastw3b.com and you can instantly download and install all available add-ons instead of individual download and installation.

The next tool you may use would be Batch operations available in all our free extensions. Batch operations allow to input data in a very simple way to get a skeleton or your extension categories and items ready in few clicks. Just copy paste key elements following suggested format and you can add as many items as you need to fill in your website with data within minutes.

Benefit 3 - Centralized management

Add-ons section is now available in every extension. It helps to see all available and owned add-ons when you are signed into Fastw3b account by using Access Code. It is a fast and convenient way to track available functionality and design and update your add-ons in one place. Whatever is available or comes out would be listed in Add-ons section of your extension. No need to visit website every week to see what is new. All the information you need will be listed right there in your Add-ons section.

Benefit 4 - Ease of configuration

Add-ons has a huge benefit of selecting what exactly you need for a particular project. It does not only mean less add-ons it means less configuration in a platform. Add-ons architecture  helps to exclude parts of code that relates to a certain functionality and keep you platform clean. The only functions and settings you will see would be those that come from the platform itself and enabled add-ons. Pretty cool, right?

Benefit 5 - Designs

With a new concept we introduce a new design system which has its own set of layouts allowing to assemble design from different bits. This system is very important to provide another level of flexibility in data presentation. Now we can use totally different design approaches in different designs as they may redefine core layouts and have theis own CSS files which adds another level of flexibility and control. This year we plan to have a design release at least every other month.

Benefit 6 - Detailed demo and documentation

Since every Add-on is a separate unit with its own releases it will have its own page, example page on demo website and documentation section. Breaking down bigger product into smaller parts allow to take a closer look of every bit and its functional purpose. Through the years we had numerous situations when people asked in support about features we had for years just because they were poorly described or hard to find. Now when every add-on is a single item customers will have a chance to read all about it and browse documentation before they use it.

Benefit 7 - Quick releases

At this point we have platform and add-ons as totally independent parts which do not affect each other. Of course, platform is a ground for all add-ons, but changes in a platform will not affect add-ons and vice versa. So now it is extremely easy to release a fix or an update as we don't have to test the whole system from scratch as we use to do. We only test parts that relate to add-on or a platform and release a new version. Get ready for a regular monthly releases this year.

Benefit 8 - Customization independence

Customization has always been tricky in terms of future updates as there were simply no way to factor in all changes made in different files of different projects. With new concept all customizations can be wrapped as a customer add-on and keep all needed modifications there without affecting other parts. This innovation means no more worries about updates after customization. From now on update will never wipe out all changes made or break the main part. Forget to write the notes on which files to rewrite after updates and pray they don't break anything. It is all much simpler and safer now.

As you can see new concept came out as a result of our decade in Joomla! development with all out best practices and observations of hundreds of projects made through the years. We are happy to finally release it and share all the benefits of this innovation with our customers.

We are always glad to hear your comments and suggestion either in social networks or on our website.

Few days left in 2020 and we want to use this holidays period to thank our customers for their business and pass our warmest wishes to people we worked with and their families. Another year is about to end and new 2021 is on a horizon. Good time to look back and summarize all we will remember 2021 for and think of plans for the next 12 months.

The year started with introducing a new add-ons system which was designed to allow easy products configuration and modular structure to have only the parts our customers need and use. To help manage add-ons system we created a Dashboard section in Admin that allowed monitoring new add-ons and versions of those installed. This system helped to centralize development information and put all helpful links and references together for easier navigation.

Another challenge this year was a new documentation system which we managed to implement for FW Food Menu and FW Gallery at this point (FW Real Estate will be the first in the line in 2021). The problem with documentation is that few people read it using Ticket Support (which is good) to solve their issues. On the other hand frequent updates in many add-ons and regular products update make actual documentation quite a challenging process. In 2020 we tried to find a balance and solution for documenting our products and keep information actual. We are proud we found a reasonable way to do it which offers semiautomated approach to document generation and helps to keep release pace same high as before. As usual all our customers are welcome at our Ticket Support section and we do our best to provide fast and comprehensive replies as always.

Despite all our attempts to start more active blogging and promotion in 2020 we totally failed this part. As a little excuse/reason for this we may refer to a continuous search for the best product architecture to provide stable foundation for all extensions, designs and services that come with it. We thought it would mean changing the concept too often, but now we realize it would be much better and interesting if we involved our customers into the process and get feedback while polishing and testing final product design. Communication and promotion will become our key focus in 2021.

Looking back we can say that 2020 was a year of experiments and search for the best implementation of our ideas. We really found the answers and the next 2021 will be a year to present fruits of our work to the market. We are very proud that we could make our fully functioning main products free to all forever! We noticed that some features we previously supplied with the paid version were rarely used and people had to pay for things they never used. Also some features were used by few customers but everyone had to see them in settings which made configuration more complicated process. Also we could revise add-ons for our products and include small specific add-ons into bigger more popular items, lowering the price at the same time. We extended context help in administration area providing comments and notes while user the products rather than making people go to a different page and read it. Seems like it works much better this way.

This year was intense. If at the beginning of 2020 we had more questions than answers, now at the beginning of 2021 we have a clear plan on what needs to be implemented and how. We plan another fruitful year for our customers with lots of new designs and services along with regular products update. Stay with us, stay with Fastw3b!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!