Thoughts on Joomla 8: Part 1

This article is part of a two-part series written as an encouragement for the upcoming discussion about the very bright future of the Joomla project. InterGen cares deeply, as Joomla has been our development platform of choice since the company was founded in 2006. In addition to running InterGen, in 2013 I began actively volunteering for the Joomla project—first as a team member, then as a team lead. I served on the Open Source Matters Board of Directors as Treasurer and later President from 2019–2021, overseeing all legal and financial concerns of the project. I am currently greatly enjoying mentoring for the inaugural session of the Joomla Academy.

Stay Calm, Release On

If you are a client of InterGen or have an existing Joomla website, don’t panic. Joomla 8 is not scheduled for release until mid-October 2029. This follows Joomla’s adherence to a release schedule first adopted in 2014. A major “new version” of Joomla is released every two years, a schedule first applied with Joomla 4 in 2021.

What Is Your Point (Release)?

What is a “major point release?” Many software developers follow the practice of semantic versioning, and Joomla follows this practice as well. According to the documentation, a “MAJOR version” is when you make incompatible API changes. This contrasts with a “MINOR version,” when you add functionality in a backward-compatible manner. A third number represents the “PATCH version,” for backward-compatible bug fixes.

In practice, at the time of writing, Joomla is at version 5.3.3: the 3rd bug patch of the 3rd minor revision that added new features to the 5th major release.

Major releases are still a bit anxiety-inducing because they are the one time in the cycle when the production team can make changes that break backward compatibility with earlier versions. Practically, this means website owners have two choices:

  1. Stop updating, since the new major release will break things. This sets a deadline for how long the site will be maintained, secure, and patched.
  2. Invest the extra time and effort (and money) to make changes so the site is compatible with the new version.

Before Joomla adopted its two-year release cycle, major release timing grew longer, with more and more changes between versions—making migrations difficult and costly.

Why Sign Up for Pain?

Not everyone does. WordPress, for example, has a philosophy of never introducing backward-compatibility-breaking changes. Every time I read WordPress’s versioning philosophy, I leave more confused. It sounds like each number just announces “more stuff was added to the code”… and that’s the problem.

Incidentally, there is a dead link at the bottom of that post explaining why versioning was going away; you can find the archive here. It reads to me more like “versioning needs to be invisible and painless to end users” rather than “software should not track changes.” The “infinite version” feels like meaningless gobbledygook.

Technical Debt

The most important reason for allowing breaking changes in software is to pay down technical debt. Over time, the broader software environment evolves, and incorporating improvements is often incompatible with existing code. You have three options:

  1. Ignore the changes and lose out on the benefits of evolving with best practices.
  2. Find kludgy ways to bolt on new developments while insisting on no backward-compatibility breaks.
  3. Pay the technical debt. Step back, refactor, and bring the project up to date with best practices, knowing—and clearly communicating—that it will break things.

The first two options are easier short term. Only the third ensures long-term viability.

This is, at heart, a philosophical conversation with real-world implications.

Market(ing) Implications

One last critical part: what are the market implications of software versioning? Is it the role of production (developers) or marketing (promoters)? There’s tension: every major release is a chance to market new features, but production may say “the biggest new thing is breaking changes!” Wait, what?!

Consensus on the function of versioning is critical. Marketing wants new features to tout. Semver doesn’t forbid adding features in a major release, but the motivation should be that those features require breaking changes. Otherwise, new features belong in minor releases. It’s a separation of concerns issue.

Looking Forward

Am I being pedantic about distinguishing major and minor releases? I don’t think so. Clarity here allows everyone to communicate expectations better.

My recommendation for Joomla 8.0.0: focus only on what is absolutely necessary for long-term stability. Major releases set the foundation; minor releases deliver features. Think of semver as breaks.features.fixes.

We don’t like breaking changes, but we make them to move forward. Break as little as necessary, update dependencies, and then get excited about new features in minor releases. For marketing, the X.0.0 release should be a “coming soon” platform for two years of exciting new feature drops.

Looking back, Joomla 4.0 and 5.0 followed this philosophy well. The media manager and dark mode belonged in major releases; schema plugins could have waited, but were ready. The best part of Joomla 5.0 was how little drama there was. It laid the groundwork for everything amazing that followed. This is Joomla at its best: pay debt, prepare for the future, execute. Wash, rinse, repeat. That is the infinite release cycle.

In concluding this first installment of my thoughts on Joomla 8, I asked AI to compile a list of features from Joomla 4.1 onward. Reviewing them reminded me how much has been accomplished. The production team has much to be proud of.

Joomla 4.x: A Chronicle of Minor Release Features

Joomla 4, a major leap forward for the popular content management system, has seen several minor point releases since its initial launch. These updates have incrementally introduced a host of new features and improvements, enhancing functionality, security, and the user experience. Here's a detailed breakdown of the key features introduced in each Joomla 4.x minor release.

Joomla 4.1

Release Date: February 15, 2022

Joomla 4.1 focused on enhancing task automation, template customization, and content creation accessibility.

Key Features:

  • Task Scheduler: A significant addition allowing for the automation of repetitive tasks, such as content updates, publishing, or sending email reminders. This feature, also known as a cron job, can be managed directly from the Joomla administrator interface.
  • Child Templates: This feature streamlined template customization. Users can create a child template that inherits the properties of a parent template, allowing for modifications without altering the original template files. This makes updates safer and easier to manage.
  • Jooa11y Accessibility Checker: Integrated into the content editor, this tool helps authors identify and rectify accessibility issues in their content, ensuring it is usable by a wider audience.
  • Syntax Highlighting in TinyMCE: The built-in TinyMCE editor received an upgrade with syntax highlighting for code, making it easier for developers and content creators to work with HTML and other code snippets directly within articles.
  • Inline Help: To assist new users, inline help was added to various sections of the administrator interface, providing context-sensitive information and guidance.

Joomla 4.2

Release Date: August 16, 2022

Building on the foundation of 4.1, Joomla 4.2 introduced features aimed at improving security, workflow, and user interaction within the backend.

Key Features:

  • Multi-factor Authentication (MFA): Moving beyond the previous two-factor authentication, MFA allows for the use of multiple authentication methods, significantly enhancing website security.
  • Keyboard Shortcuts: A set of keyboard shortcuts was introduced for the administrator panel, enabling users to perform common tasks more efficiently.
  • User-Defined Table Hiding: Users gained the ability to hide specific columns in the list views of articles, users, and other components, allowing for a more personalized and streamlined backend experience.
  • Smart Search Improvements: The Smart Search component received enhancements, including the ability for fuzzy word matching, providing more relevant search results.
  • Package Filter: A new filter was added to the extensions manager, allowing administrators to easily view and manage installed extension packages.

Joomla 4.3

Release Date: April 18, 2023

Joomla 4.3 brought a focus on improving media management, menu navigation, and providing a more guided user experience for newcomers.

Key Features:

  • Guided Tours: This new feature provides interactive, step-by-step guides for various administrative tasks, such as creating an article or a new menu item, making the learning curve for new users much gentler.
  • Media Manager Enhancements: The media manager was revamped with new features, including the ability to order images and create thumbnails. It also introduced improved drag-and-drop functionality.
  • Menu Item Filtering: Administrators can now filter menu items by component in the menu manager, simplifying the management of large and complex menus.
  • Conditional Fields for Custom Fields: This powerful addition allows for the creation of dynamic forms where the visibility of certain custom fields is dependent on the values selected in other fields.
  • Improved Workflow Transitions: The user interface for workflow transitions was made more intuitive, providing clearer explanations and options.

Joomla 4.4

Release Date: October 17, 2023

Joomla 4.4 serves as a transitional release, primarily focused on providing a smooth upgrade path to the next major version, Joomla 5.

Key Features:

  • No New Features: This release intentionally does not introduce new features. Its main purpose is to contain the necessary code and updates to ensure that websites can be seamlessly migrated from the Joomla 4.x series to Joomla 5.x. It acts as a bridge between the two major versions.

The Evolution of Joomla 5: A Breakdown of Minor Release Features

Following the major release of Joomla 5, the project has continued its rapid development cycle, introducing a series of minor point releases packed with new features and enhancements. These updates have focused on improving user experience, strengthening security, boosting SEO capabilities, and providing more flexibility for developers and site administrators. Here is a detailed look at the features rolled out in each Joomla 5.x minor release.

Joomla 5.0

Release Date: October 17, 2023

Joomla 5.0 set the stage with a focus on modernizing the core, improving performance, and enhancing the user interface.

Key Features:

  • Dark Mode: A native dark mode was introduced for the administrator template (Atum), offering a more comfortable user experience in low-light environments and reducing eye strain.
  • Schema.org Integration: New plugins were added to automatically generate Schema.org data for various content types, significantly improving SEO by helping search engines better understand the website's content.
  • Code Optimizations: The CMS core underwent significant code cleanup and optimization. With a minimum requirement of PHP 8.1, Joomla 5 leverages modern coding standards for increased speed and security.
  • Editor Updates: The TinyMCE editor was updated to version 6.7 and CodeMirror to version 6, providing a more robust and feature-rich content creation experience.
  • Media Manager Enhancements: Support for the modern AVIF image format was added to the media manager, allowing for better image compression and faster page loads.
  • Enhanced Security: Events were migrated to their own classes, and the reCAPTCHA plugin was updated, strengthening the overall security posture of the CMS.

Joomla 5.1

Release Date: April 16, 2024

Joomla 5.1 delivered a host of powerful new features, with a strong emphasis on SEO, security, and a more intuitive user experience for newcomers.

Key Features:

  • Welcome Tour: A new guided tour was implemented to help first-time users navigate the Joomla backend, explaining key features and functionalities.
  • TUF Updater Integration: Joomla implemented "The Update Framework" (TUF), a security enhancement that verifies the authenticity of update files, protecting against supply-chain attacks.
  • SEO Enhancements: New options were added to the SEF (Search Engine Friendly) plugin to control trailing slashes and improve URL behavior, helping to avoid duplicate content issues.
  • Regex Validation for Fields: The ability to add regular expression validation for custom fields was introduced, allowing for stricter control over user-submitted data.
  • Jooa11y Accessibility Checker Update: The integrated accessibility checker was updated with the latest version of Sa11y, providing better tools to ensure website content is accessible to everyone.
  • Schema.org Article Type: The range of supported Schema.org types was expanded to include the "Article" type, further boosting SEO.

Joomla 5.2

Release Date: October 15, 2024

The focus of Joomla 5.2 was on streamlining workflows for multilingual sites and content creators, along with further SEO and developer-focused improvements.

Key Features:

  • Multilingual Menu Management: A significant improvement for multilingual websites, this feature allows multiple homepages and languages to be managed within a single menu, eliminating the need to duplicate menus for each language.
  • New "Articles" Module: A new, more flexible module for displaying articles was introduced, consolidating the functionality of several older article modules and providing more powerful filtering and display options.
  • Nested Subforms in Custom Fields: Developers gained the ability to create subforms within subforms, allowing for the creation of more complex and structured data entry forms.
  • Advanced SEO Routing: Stricter routing options were implemented to reduce duplicate content and automatically redirect to the canonical URL, further enhancing SEO performance.
  • Create Categories on the Fly: Users can now create new categories directly from within the menu item creation form, simplifying the content creation workflow.
  • CSS Class Selector in TinyMCE: An option was added to the TinyMCE plugin to predefine CSS classes that can be easily applied to links directly from the editor's interface.

Joomla 5.3

Release Date: April 15, 2025

Joomla 5.3 refined the user experience with thoughtful improvements to communication, media management, and task automation.

Key Features:

  • Scheduler Execution History: The Task Scheduler was enhanced with a history log, allowing administrators to easily view when tasks have been executed, whether they were successful, and any output messages.
  • Enhanced HTML Email Templates: The system for customizing HTML email templates was made more powerful, giving developers better access to template parameters for more dynamic and customized outgoing emails.
  • New "Files" Folder in Media Manager: A dedicated /files directory was added to the Media Manager for non-image files (like PDFs and documents), helping to better organize website assets.
  • Improved Routing for Tags: The URL routing for tagged items was made more consistent and predictable, improving the user experience and SEO for sites that heavily utilize tags.

PHP 8.4 Compatibility: Proactive updates were made throughout the core to ensure compatibility with the upcoming PHP 8.4 release, keeping Joomla on the cutting edge of technology.