Gantry 5 RC3 (Release Candidate) is now available. Comprised of 290+ commits, 105+ issues, and 10+ pull requests, RC3 is the largest single update to Gantry 5 since the initial beta.
In a giant leap forward towards Gantry 5's first full release (5.0.0), RC3 focuses on implementing a large number of community-inspired improvements, bug fixes, and optimizations.
In this article, we'll take a quick look at some of the changes included in Gantry 5 RC3.
If you would like to give Gantry 5 RC3 a look yourself, you can download both it and the free Hydrogen template now. You can also take a look at the project roadmap, including a detailed changelog for Gantry 5 RC3 here.
New Gantry 5 Joomla Module: Gantry 5 Particle
Gantry 5 for Joomla now comes with a new module that allows you to create a Gantry 5 Particle and have it treated exactly like any other Joomla module.
This enables you to create a new module position in your layout, and assign a Gantry 5 Particle module to it, taking full advantage of Joomla's module system. This is optional, of course, as you can still place particles directly into your layout. This just gives you more flexibility when working with content that would benefit from Joomla's module system.
Automatic custom.scss recompilation
We added a new option in the Gantry 5 System plugin that allows you to switch between Development and Production modes.
When in Development, any change made to the custom.scss file will be detected by Gantry, triggering an automatic recompilation of the file. This makes it easy to make changes on the fly and have them appear on your site without any extra action required on your part.
In the future, more Development vs. Production actions will be tied to this same setting, such as Cache, minified vs. extended JS/CSS, etc.
Dependencies.scss
We have now consolidated the includes for Bourbon, Nucleus, theme mixins, and variables into a _dependencies.scss file. You can now just import it to have it all. Use @import "dependencies"; in your custom.scss file.
Offcanvas reworked
One of the biggest concerns addressed by the community has been about the difficulty of using fixed elements and/or backgrounds, due to the transform applied on the #g-container and used by the Offcanvas to animate. This is no longer a problem! We moved away from transform and instead are using left and right animations.
Menu animations
Thanks to the contributions by JoomFX, it is now possible to change the animations of the Menu dropdowns. You can choose between: No animation, Fade, Zoom, Fade In Up.
New Breakpoint
Thanks to the contribution of adi8i, the mobile menu now has a new independent breakpoint that can be customized to let the navigation menu switch to the mobile menu. These breakpoint settings can be found at the bottom of the Styles administrative panel in the Configuration Styles area.
Breakpoints are a great way to customize the user experience for your site on various devices, allowing for you to easily hook in to responsive points to provide an experience catered to mobile phones, tablets, and desktops.
Admin improvements
All cards in the Styles and Settings panels (including Swatches) are now collapsible, and their state will be remembered for the domain. On the next reload, collapsed/expanded cards will be restored.
Assignments cards are now wrapped into scrollbars to keep the page smaller. This is especially useful on large sites with an abundance of content. When using a filter, cards with no items that match your search criteria are hidden.
It is also easier to change the Module ID of a Module Instance particle through modal.
WordPress
Our work hasn't just been focused on Joomla, either. In fact, we have made great progress towards bringing Gantry 5 to WordPress. We have some work left to do, particularly in the Menu and Assignments area of the administrator, but we hope to start rolling out a CI Builds of Gantry 5 for WordPress soon.
We can't wait to get the community started on testing Gantry 5 for WordPress.