Helix Ultimate 2.0

Helix Ultimate 2.0 is the successor of the very popular Helix Ultimate 1.x. It's a multipurpose Joomla Starter Template package that can be used as a standalone template or it can easily be used as a framework for a wide range of different website projects. From a technical point of view, Helix Ultimate 2.0 is a full-fledged, standalone Joomla Template. It package contains a template and Helix plugin.

We improved and redesigned many areas. These include changes in the MegaMenu, functions, UX, and overall design of the template. The current code is cleaner, faster, accessibility-friendly, and highly customizable. It’s comparatively beginner-friendly, and filled with lots of features to speed up the development process. That template in general doesn’t require the user to know CSS/JS/php code to build a powerful site(s).

Main features of Helix Ultimate:

• It can be used in Joomla 4.4.x and since v2.0.16 can be used on Joomla 5.0.x as well.
• Price: Free, can be used in commercial and goverment projects as well.
• Based on Bootstrap v5.x
• Google Fonts and OS Fonts support
• Font Awesome Free 5.15.2 (can be disabled)
• Layout Manager to add/manage columns and new module positions
• Drag-and-drop feature for both Layout and MegaMenu
• Menu Builder
• 9 predefined Headers with support for custom ones
• Offcanvas (Mobile) Menu styles with support for custom ones
• Full-width blog layout option in the blog settings
• Real preview mode for desktop, tablet, and mobile view
• Custom Code can be added from Template Options
• Translation & Multilanguage Ready
• Improved Accessibility compare to v1.x

 More information about Helix Ultimate 2.0 (blog post).

Technical Requirements

Installing the Helix Ultimate Template and Helix Ultimate QuickStart package requires a server (Linux / Apache), but it can be installed also locally on your computer with WAMP/JAMP/XAMPP/MAMP software. Please make sure your system meets the following requirements:

• PHP 7.4, PHP 8.0, PHP 8.1 and PHP 8.2
• MySQLi 5.6+ or MariaDB
• Joomla 4.4 or Joomla 5.0.x
• upload_max_filesize = 4M (or more)
• memory_limit = 128M, 256M, or 512M
• max_execution_time = 180 (but 300 or more is recommended)
• cURL library - your server must work with curl or url_fopen.
• OpenSSL Libraries - must be enabled.
• PHP file_get_contents() function - must be available/unlocked.

Notice! Helix Ultimate template can be installed and used on Joomla 3.10.x (legacy), Joomla 4.x, and Joomla 5.0x.

The above values can be changed in cPanel or inside php.ini or .htaccess file. Please contact your web hosting service provider to ask them where/how to change PHP settings.

Container width

Helix Ultimate is built on Bootstrap 5 which has 1320px container width as the largest breakpoint if the screen size is equal to or larger than 1400px. Our default .container class is a responsive, fixed-width container, meaning its max-width changes at each breakpoint.

Breakpoints Preview

The Template Options allow you to preview the design using 3 different views (Desktop, Tablet, and Mobile).

• Tablet mode with Mobile Offcanvas Menu [=] is enabled when the screen has 991px or less.
• Mobile preview mode is enabled at 575px or less.

Browser support

We’ve dropped older browsers in this update, making it one of our biggest leaps in a while:

• Dropped Microsoft Edge Legacy
• Dropped Internet Explorer 10 and 11
• Dropped Firefox < 60
• Dropped Safari < 10
• Dropped iOS Safari < 10
• Dropped Chrome < 60
• Dropped Android < 6

Therefore, we cannot guarantee that the website will be displayed 100% correctly on these old browsers.

Template vs Quickstart

The Quickstart package is a complete demo website. Its installation allows you to replicate the demo site to your server with all included extensions installed and demo content. It's fully functional, the entire Joomla package (containing Joomla CMS, components, modules, chosen template), Helix Ultimate framework plugin with all the configurations, and data that we used on the demo site consists of the quickstart package. Notice! The Quickstart may not include real photos.

Warning! You cannot install QS inside an existing Joomla installation. It requires both fresh space and a database where you can install it like the Joomla - step by step.

Note: You don't have to use/keep demo contents to build your own website, demo/dummy contents are only for showing the features of the current template and include the components. Moreover, you can (and you should) delete (or replace) them with your own.

The Helix Ultimate Template package (~2 MB) is a Joomla standalone template. A template controls the overall look and layout of a site. The template does not include any modules, components nor demo contents. If you manually install the template on your existing setup, you will need to manually create each article, add menu items, and install & set all the modules to suit your need. For typical use download and install the template package only.

If you are not an advanced user and you want to see all demo content & settings, it is recommended to install the Quickstart package first on your testing environment to get more insights on advanced usage. The demo settings and contents will help you to get introduced to the template.

The plugin file is mostly for webmasters who have templates based on Helix Ultimate used as a template engine.

Helix Ultimate component overrides:

Helix Ultimate template package includes overridden of the view (& core) files of several components:

• Contact
• Content (Articles)
• Finder
• Mailto
• Search
• Tags
• Users

And several modules:

• Articles latest
• Breadcrumbs
• Languages
• Login
• Menu
• Search

And plugin: Content Vote - Voting (star rating) functionality for Articles.