Well. A RocketTheme template with the Gantry framework proves too much for the SP upgrade migrate-template option so it is time for plan B.

Plan B is: install the original RocketTheme template in the joomla 1.6+ compatible version, then replace images, css files and settings back to my changed layout.

So first of all, I downloaded the most recent version of my RocketTheme template, and took the template-bundle for that, with Gantry included.

Installation went fine, and upon opening the template, I got the message that the package contained an older Gantry framework version, so I used the Joomla extensions updater to update the framework.

Opening the template again and setting it to default already showed an improvement of my website. The only thing I discovered is, while joomla 2.5 requires php5.2.4+ (although 5.3+ is recommended), the Gantry framework really needs php5.3.

And.... I'm on php 5.2.13.

So... it took a bit of refreshing before my template settings appeared, at first the tabs were just plain empty.

First things first, I contacted my webhost and they are going to upgrade my site.

Figuring I could always start all over after my site was moved, I decided to see what would happen if I started replacing my template stuff with my custom stuff, images, css, settings...

So with ftp I transferred my own template images, replaced the css files with the ones I made changes in and finally went manually through all template settings, putting them exactly the same as they are in my joomla 1.5.25 site.

So that worked. We're getting somewhere! Even my header with the built-in image rotator is working beautifully.

One minor problem: some menu items had a link to a non-exsisting menu image/icon. I don't use menu icons, so it didn't take too long to figure out the problem. Opening the menu items, I found that under the Fusion Menu Options, the Menu Image option was set to - not selected. By changing that to - use default, the problem was sold.

So now the site is starting to look like how it should.

So I guess now I'll wait until the site is moved to a server with php 5.3+, see how it looks than and then I will work on the rest.

A few things I already noticed:

• the site config, article config etc are all set back to default, so you've got to go through that all over again;
• I fear the same goes for specific menu item parms, overruling the article settings, although I'm not sure yet;
• I am totally missing the site's name in the black joomla bar in the back-end. I know you can see it in the browser, but having it in the black bar in big white font is much more visible and needed if you are working on more sites at the same time;

I'll be back.