Gantry 5.0 is now available for download! This release puts an exclamation mark on over a year of effort on the part of our team. It also raises the bar for theming frameworks made for Joomla, WordPress, and beyond.
Gantry 5 is open source, free to use, and actively supported by the RocketTheme team.
A Ground-up Rewrite for Tomorrow's Internet
Gantry 5 started as a ground-up rewrite of the popular Gantry framework for Joomla and WordPress. We wanted to do away with a lot of carried over legacy code and solutions to keep everything backward compatible.
We took a close look at user feedback we received with Gantry 1-4, and planned the new Gantry around what the Web would look like in years to come.
Gantry 5 uses the latest Web technologies. Our focus during development is on creating a framework that was as easy to use as it was powerful. Gantry 5 has became a different framework from anything else available today.
YAML-driven configuration and Twig templating are just a couple of the key features that make Gantry 5 work.
Community-driven Development
Gantry 5 is built with constant communication with the community. From the earliest stages of beta testing, its diverse user community contributed to its development.
Beta testing and submitting feedback, bug reporting, and even contributing code to the Gantry project are just a few of the ways our community made Gantry 5 possible.
Want to help shape the future of Gantry? It's not too late, development for Gantry is ongoing and we are continuing to create and add new features to the Gantry framework as feedback comes in. You can submit issues on Gantry 5's GitHub project, as well as join us in chat via Gitter.
Cross-platform Compatible
We wanted to create a version of Gantry that was truly cross-platform compatible, and not just a port from one content management system (CMS) to the next.
Gantry 5 not only achieves this, but it goes beyond anything we expected going in to the project. With no database requirements, and the same user interface on each platform, developers can build their themes independent of the CMS.
We're pleased to share that with this release of Gantry 5, we are able to focus our attention on building sound solutions for WordPress users, and beyond.
Look for more information about the Hydrogen theme for WordPress and how Gantry 5 will integrate with the popular CMS in upcoming blog posts.
Powerful New Tools
We have written over the past few months about some of the new tools introduced with Gantry 5.
Powerful new pickers for fonts, icons (pictured above), files, colors, and more are available in Gantry 5 and are easy to set up and use.
Gantry 5 is also the first version of Gantry to have an integrated Menu Editor. This enables you to take menu organization, module and particle injection, and styling to a whole new level. All without ever having to open a single code editor or edit any files.
The new Layout Manager is also a major change. It features drag-and-drop functionality, simple particle fields, and more. Without cutting any corners on versatility, it is the most user-friendly layout manager out there.
These are just a few of the dozens of new tools available to users with Gantry 5. You can find out more about these tools, and how they work, in Gantry's extensive documentation.
What's Ahead?
Gantry 5's development doesn't stop here. We are continuing to develop new features, address any issues discovered by users as they are reported, and expand Gantry 5's reach to include new platforms such as WordPress, phpBB, Magento, Grav, and possibly more.
The next step for Gantry 5 is full WordPress support. This includes testing a version of the Hydrogen theme that is optimized for WordPress, as well as any additional features required to help us make the most out of the WordPress platform.
We will provide updates on this blog, as well as through RocketTheme's Twitter and Facebook pages as development continues. Look for news on WordPress and Gantry 5 as early as next week.
In terms of documentation, we have plans to expand our existing documentation library to include more instructional video content, as well as to continue to build on our growing library of real-world tutorials and helpful guides for all of Gantry's users.
Gantry 5.0 is the jumping off point for a new generation of theming frameworks. We are thrilled with the overwhelmingly positive user response to Gantry 5, and look forward to continuing development for years to come.
Download the free Gantry 5 framework and Hydrogen template for Joomla today!