joomlaProduction

The Joomla Project is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Joomla 2.5.1. This is a security release. The Production Leadership Team's goal is to continue to provide regular, frequent updates to the Joomla community. Learn more about Joomla! developement at the Developer Site.

The update process is very simple, and complete instructions are available here. Note that there are now easier and better ways of updating than FTPing the files.

Download

New Installations: Click here to download Joomla 2.5.1 (Full package) »

Update Package: Click here to download Joomla 2.5.1 (Update package) »

Note: Please read the update instructions before updating.

Instructions

• New installation and technical requirements
  
• Migration from Joomla! 1.5.x

Want to test drive Joomla? Try the online demo or the Joomla JumpBox. Documentation is available for beginners.

Please note that you should always backup your site before upgrading.

Release Notes

Check the Joomla 2.5.1 Post-Release FAQs to see if there are important items and helpful hints discovered after the release.

Statistics for the 2.5.1 release period (24 January 2012 to 2 February 2012)

• Joomla 2.5.1 contains:
  
  • 2 security issues fixed
  • 30 tracker issues fixed

Joomla 2.5.1 uses version 11.4 of the Joomlal Platform.

Security Issues Fixed

• Low Priority - Core - Information Disclosure. More information »
• Low Priority - Core - Information Disclosure. More information »

Tracker Issues Fixed

Joomla! Bug Squad

Thanks to the Joomla Bug Squad for their dedicated efforts investigating reports, fixing problems, and applying patches to Joomla. If you find a bug in Joomla, please report it on the Joomla! CMS Issue Tracker.

Active members of the Joomla Bug Squad during this last release cycle include: A Firoozmandan, Akarawuth Tamrareang, Alain Rivest, Andrea Tarr, Andrew Eddie, Ashwin Date, Bill Richardson, Brian Teeman, Chris Davenport, Christophe Demko, Denise McLaurin, Dennis Hermacki, Elin Waring, Emerson Rocha Luiz, Francisco Marzoa, Ian MacLennan, Jacob Waisner, Jacques Rentzke, James Brice, Janich Rasmussen, Jean-Marie Simonet, Jennifer Marriott, Jeremy Wilken, Kevin Griffiths, Loyd Headrick, Mark Dexter, Matt Thomas, Michael Babker, Mutuga Kigumi, Neil McNulty, Nikolai Plath, Ofer Cohen, Prasit Gebsaap, Rachmat Wakjaer, Rob Clayburn, Roland Dalmulder, Rouven Weßling, Rune Sjøen, Samuel Moffatt, Shaun Maunder, Sudhi Seshachala, Tim Plummer, Tom Fuller, Troy Hall, Viet Hoang Vu.

Bug Squad Leadership: Mark Dexter Coordinator; Elin Waring and Marijke Stuivenberg, Team Leaders.

Joomla! Security Strike Team

A big thanks to the Joomla! Security Strike Team for their ongoing work to keep Joomla secure. Members include: Airton Torres, Alan Langford, Bill Richardson, Elin Waring, Jason Kendall, Marijke Stuivenberg, Mark Dexter, Omar Ramos, Rouven Weßling, Samuel Moffatt.

The Joomla Project is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Joomla 1.7.5. This is a security release.

Note that most users should update their sites to version 2.5.1 instead, which is now released. Version 1.7.5 is only intended for those users who for some reason are unable to update to version 2.5.1. Version 1.7 will reach end of life on 24 February 2012.

The Production Leadership Team's goal is to continue to provide regular, frequent updates to the Joomla community. Learn more about Joomla! developement at the Developer Site.

Download

Click here to download Joomla 1.7.5 (Full package) »

Click here to download Joomla 1.7.5 (Upgrade packages) »

Instructions

• New installation and technical requirements
• Upgrade from an existing Joomla 1.7 version
• Migration from Joomla! 1.5.x

Want to test drive Joomla? Try the online demo or the Joomla JumpBox. Documentation is available for beginners.

Please note that you should always backup your site before upgrading.

Release Notes

Check the Joomla 1.7.5 Post-Release FAQs to see if there are important items and helpful hints discovered after the release.

Statistics for the 1.7.5 release

• Joomla 1.7.5 contains:
  
  • 3 security issues fixed

Security

• Low Priority - Core - Information Disclosure. More information »
• Low Priority - Core - Information Disclosure. More information »
• Low Priority - Core - Information Disclosure. More information »

Joomla! Bug Squad

Thanks to the Joomla Bug Squad for their dedicated efforts investigating reports, fixing problems, and applying patches to Joomla. If you find a bug in Joomla, please report it on the CMS Issue Tracker.

Active members of the Joomla Bug Squad during this last release cycle include: A Firoozmandan, Akarawuth Tamrareang, Alain Rivest, Andrea Tarr, Andrew Eddie, Ashwin Date, Bill Richardson, Brian Teeman, Chris Davenport, Christophe Demko, Denise McLaurin, Dennis Hermacki, Elin Waring, Emerson Rocha Luiz, Francisco Marzoa, Ian MacLennan, Jacob Waisner, Jacques Rentzke, James Brice, Janich Rasmussen, Jean-Marie Simonet, Jennifer Marriott, Jeremy Wilken, Kevin Griffiths, Loyd Headrick, Mark Dexter, Matt Thomas, Michael Babker, Mutuga Kigumi, Neil McNulty, Nikolai Plath, Ofer Cohen, Prasit Gebsaap, Rachmat Wakjaer, Rob Clayburn, Roland Dalmulder, Rouven Weßling, Rune Sjøen, Samuel Moffatt, Shaun Maunder, Sudhi Seshachala, Tim Plummer, Tom Fuller, Troy Hall, Viet Hoang Vu.

Bug Squad Leadership: Mark Dexter Coordinator; Elin Waring and Marijke Stuivenberg, Team Leaders.

Joomla! Security Strike Team

A big thanks to the Joomla! Security Strike Team for their ongoing work to keep Joomla secure. Members include: Airton Torres, Alan Langford, Bill Richardson, Elin Waring, Jason Kendall, Marijke Stuivenberg, Mark Dexter, Omar Ramos, Rouven Weßling, Samuel Moffatt.

The February issue of the Joomla Community Magazine is here!

Our stories:

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

Open Minds, by Alice Grevet

FEATURE STORIES

JAB is not Just Another Beer!, by Dianne Henning

5 Great SEO Resources: Be Your Very Own SEO Expert for Free, by Milena Mitova

The Roadmap For a Great Joomla! 3.0 UX, by Paul Orwig

LEADERSHIP CONNECTIONS

Leadership Highlights from January 2012, by Alice Grevet

ADMINISTRATORS TOOLKIT

Joomla ACL: Access Levels, by Jen Kramer

THE JOOMLA! HAIKUS

Post your haikus for February, by Paul Orwig

WEBSITE CASE STUDIES

Website Case Study: FTSE Global Markets, by Dianne Henning

HELP WANTED

The Joomla! Project Wants You - February 2012, by Paul Orwig

DID YOU KNOW...?

Help! With 1.7 Out and 2.5 Just In, What Should I Do? Upgrade or Wait?, by Milena Mitova

JOOMLA! EVENTS AND USER GROUPS

JoomlaDay events: From Bangkok to Guatemala City, by Jacques Rentzke

DEVELOPERS WORKBENCH

Developing a Smart Search Plugin, by Michael Babker

Customizing an Extension's Edit Screen, by Randy Carey

BUSINESS MATTERS

Microformats – a way to display more content in the search engines, by Grigor Mihov

JOOMLA! IN THE PRESS/MEDIA

Joomla! in the Press/Media - February 2012, by Mark W. Bender

JOOMLA! BOOKS

Download the Free Joomla! 2.5 - Beginner's Guide, by Hagen Graf

In our next issue

We want to publish your Joomla! story in the next JCM issue! So take a look at our Author Resources content to get a better idea of what we are looking for, and then register to become a JCM author and submit your Joomla! story!

Joomla, one of the world’s most popular open source content management systems (CMS) used for everything from websites to blogs to Intranets, today announces the immediate availability of Joomla 2.5. Along with new features such as advanced search and automatic notification of Joomla core and extension updates, the Joomla CMS for the first time includes multi-database support with the addition of Microsoft SQL Server. Previous versions of Joomla were compatible exclusively with MySQL databases.

“Multi-database support is a huge step forward for Joomla, which is already powering more than 1.6 million websites worldwide. It ensures companies and organization, both large and small, will save even more money and time by adopting Joomla,” said Ryan Ozimek, president of Open Source Matters, a non-profit created to provide organization, legal and financial support to the Joomla project. “No longer will Joomla developers be tied down to a particular database or have to spend more money and time integrating other software to get Joomla to communicate with their database. This enhances Joomla’s scalability immensely.”

Other key features in Joomla 2.5 includes:

• Automatic notification when a Joomla or extension update is available. When logged into the control panel, site administrators will instantly have access to new notification buttons that allows them to see and act on the latest updates. In addition to updates for the Joomla CMS, a second button offers third party extension notification updates.
• A better natural language search engine to the Joomla core. Complete with auto-completion and stemming (for example if you type “running” in a search field you also see run), it is faster and more versatile than the standard search.

“We literally received thousands of pieces of input at ideas.joomla.org into what functionality should be added to Joomla 2.5, and overwhelmingly enhanced notifications and more elegant search topped the list,” said Mark Dexter of the Joomla Production Leadership Team. “In fact, the automatic notification for core and extension updates received the most votes for a feature that people wanted in 2.5. But we didn’t stop with just those two. Joomla 2.5 is a major overhaul with more than 24 new features that we have highlighted at joom.la/25features.”

Joomla 2.5 adheres to Joomla’s newly-adopted six-month release cycle that began with the previous  Joomla CMS release of Joomla 1.7 in July, 2011. Downloading the latest version of Joomla is the best way to ensure organizational and personal security needs are being met since it will have the most recent updates to protect against the latest security threats.

Joomla 2.5 is truly a collaborative community-driven software project developed with the feedback gathered from more than 2.5 million Joomla forum posts, 540,000 Joomla forum members and data from more than 8,800 Joomla extensions.  To download Joomla 2.5, go to http://www.joomla.org/download.html.

The Joomla project is pleased to announce the immediate release of Joomla 1.6 alpha 2. This release contains many new features requested by the community; most notably, ACL. Other features are listed below as well as what you can expect in the future for Joomla 1.6.

This is an alpha release. It is intended to be a developer/hobbyist preview and is not intended to be used on a production web site.

New improvements/features since alpha 1 include:

• ACL: access management for global permissions as well as content item specific permissions, variable usergroups, users member of more than one usergroup, permissions are inherited, really fast
• Extendable user profile, profile view in frontend, extendable user parameters
• Tableless com_content layouts
• Improved com_content modules (mod_articles_archive, mod_articles_latest, mod_articles_popular)
• Article linker plugin for editors
• New frontend template (atomic)
• New backend template (bluestork)
• New uploader for media manager

Other Joomla 1.6 improvements that existed in alpha 1:

• Mootools 1.2
• Refactored backend
• JForm
• Nested Categories and category parameters
• New views in frontend: categories, category
• Lots of small code improvements, almost cut the code size in half while adding to the functionality
• PHP 5.2 required, huge performance improvements, partially eaten up by new features => 1.6 will be faster than 1.5

What's next?

After alpha 2, the Joomla community can expect a beta release. There are no intentions for a 3rd alpha release.

You can also expect to see the following future improvements:

• Commenting solution is going to be added
• Additional DB drivers
• Lots of small performance/UI/code improvements

We would like to thank all those involved who helped make this release possible.

Download here: http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/frs/?action=FrsReleaseBrowse&frs_package_id=3585

Discuss here: http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=454211

On January 25th we reported back from the development coordinator summit. A lot of people noticed that we created three new development-related, publicly-accessible mailing lists for the Joomla development community. The most important reason for us to open up in this way is to attract more developers and enable them to help out with core development. As it is very tempting to start providing us with all kinds of patches, we wanted to explain what it takes to submit a feature patch. Before you fire any questions at us, please make sure you read the full article and also the link to the feature patch policy document.

Bug Fixes vs Feature Patches

Revisiting the 1.6 Road Map

• Implement a new JForm library package [complete].
• Implement a simple way of providing translation in JavaScript [complete].
• Implement new controller dispatchers for more robust request routing [complete].
• Implement a new access control system that needs to at least emulate what is in 1.5, allow adding of new groups and access levels, and allow you to set new "view" rules for at least articles [nearly complete].
• Implement and standardise several new event triggers [in progress].
• Implement a JContent class that will be used by content plug-ins and views [in progress].
• Upgrade to Mootools 1.2 [in progress].
• Finish the new extension updater work [in progress].
• Menu manager re-work -- added since it's broken in 1.6 [in progress].

After we release the alpha, each beta release will be time-boxed (we hope that not more than four are required). The following is a list of the features highly desired for the final distribution. Each of these features will need to be complete in order to be included in a beta release.  Some of these features will make it in the alpha, but none will prevent the alpha from being released if they are not ready.  Overall we will need significant help from the Joomla development community to complete any of these features:

• Implement unlimited depth categories (but not multi-mapping).
• Refactor the user management system and make it more extensible (eg, allow custom user fields).
• Implement a comments system (including pings and track-backs).
• Implement queued redirects (allows you to, for example, return to the previous page you were on after you edit something).
• Refactor parameters and make them more extensible (for example, plugins could allow you to add additional custom parameters to articles).
• Finish MVC-ing the Administrator components (we need lots of help here).
• Implement CAPTCHA helpers for any form.
• Implement systems whereby external authentication systems, such as LDAP, can map to our new Joomla user groups.
• Re-implement the ability to select multiple categories for some views in com_content (was in 1.0, got dropped in 1.5).
• Implement a database driven installation log.
• Refactor JError.
• Examine the PDF generation system in detail and see if we can make it work properly (otherwise we will look at dropping it if we can't make it work well).
• Localise the Invalid Token messages.
• Drop the Polls component because the quality of that extension is pretty bad and there are much better third-part alternatives available.
• Convert all layouts to semantic, XHTML Strict.
  
• Convert of ini-based "params" fields to use JSON instead of INI format (huge technical and performance improvements).  Note, the language files will remain in INI format.

It is important to understand that we will focus on the features listed above. There are no doubt lots of ideas for what could be implemented, but it is very important to understand that this is the list of features we will focus on.  The features that make it into the final Joomla 1.6 release will depend upon what the Joomla Development Community contributes.  Since some these features are already being worked on, we strongly advise everyone to post a message to the Joomla general development mailing list before you start working on something. If you're not already a member, please apply.

The policy document handles all details, just read the policy document on the development site for those interested in committing back to the project...let's stick to the code and make good things happen!

2008 was certainly a big year with the release of 1.5 in January.  I think this has been one of our most successful and ground breaking releases (comparable to Mambo 4.5.1 which really pushed us to a new level back in the good old days).  A new stability release will come out this month marking 1.5's first year of life.  But what's in store for 2009?  Well, just as 1.5 up'd the standard compared to 1.0, we believe 1.6 is going to do continue the trend.

Joomla will hold it's first Developer Coordinator Summit in Australia this month.  Anthony, Louis, Sam, Wilco and I are going to be thrashing out the details for finalising the feature list for the final release, and if we are lucky we might even be close to cutting our first alpha after the event (providing we haven't been spending too much time playing cards or chasing kangaroos).

Notwithstanding that there is some other really cool work going on, 1.6 is about two main new features.  The first is a that we've completely rebuilt the way extensions are stored in the database and this will ultimately make it easier for developers to make multi-installable packages.  I'll let Sam blog about this more at another time.

The other feature is giving Joomla a fully feldged Access Control System.  In November and December last year the work on this progressed a long way.  A new Access Control component in the Administrator (under Site in the Menubar) now gives you the ability to create new User Groups, new Access Levels (more than just Public, Registered and Special) and several varities of Rules that help you control what a user should or shouldn't be able to do.  The User Interface for the rule building and the terminology still needs work but at least it's functional now.

As it stands at the moment, the Access Control System will include the ability to:

• lock groups of users down to access particular functions, like managing each extension, managing menus, installing a particular type of extension, etc;
• lock groups of users to be able to add, edit or remove content in particular categories (in other words, you will be able to define your own variants for existing groups like Author, Editor and Publisher);
• lock groups or users down to be able to view content in new access levels that you define (for example, you could create a Staff group and a Staff access level so that your Staff users can see content restricted to their group).

The "granularity" of what you can do is still up in the air a bit but that's the general direction we are heading.  Suffice to say though, that in itself is a major improvement over 1.0 and 1.5.

Most Administrator components and the Admin Menu are now locked down to the ACL system.  While a lot of performance tuning is still required, in principle it seems to be working well.  We've also introduced the concept of a "root" user that is able to perform any function (he/she sits above the Access Control System).  This is just a User ID that is set in the configuration.php file so that in the event of an emergency (like you accidentally blow up all the rules), you can set one user to be login to the site and rescue it from certain doom.  It also gives you the ability to limit the permission that even a Super Administrator has which could be useful on some sites.

For developers, the API for Access Control has been given a complete overhaul and we've tried to make it as easy as possible to interface with it during the installation of an extension.  If you want to peak at the progress, take a look in /libraries/joomla/acl/ and also in /installation/sql/mysql/install.php (that last file will probably move somewhere else eventually).  There are a couple of workability issues to iron out but after that hopefully I can drill into some pretty cool stuff you can do with it next month.

Regarding upgrading your site, we aren't sure of what the process will look like but suffice to say it will be a whole lot easier than the leap from 1.0 to 1.5.  However, a version 1.0 site will have to go through a migration to version 1.5 in order to get to version 1.6 or beyond.

Finally, it's worth reminding you that Joomla 1.6 will require a host with PHP 5.2 so start making preparations for changing hosts (or nagging them to upgrade their PHP) now.

Oh, and we should be getting a redesign of the developer.joomla.org site this year to.  It's our turn at last :)

Over the past three years, Joomla! development has evolved. During the split from the Mambo project the Joomla! Core Team was fully responsible for overall development. As the project grew, the Core Team realized that additional structures where required to organize everything around the Joomla! project. Mid-2006, the Joomla! Core Team changed from a "developers only" team into a team that had coordinators for several focused areas. One of the roles was the role of "Development Coordinator." I was the first Development Coordinator within the Joomla! project and we only had general ideas on how this role should be fulfilled. The role has changed over time, and is still changing as the project evolves.

In August 2007, we drafted a plan to work on a final version of Joomla! 1.5. Being able to work on maintenance releases was key for releasing a stable version of Joomla! 1.5. After the split the development team worked on maintenance versions for Joomla! 1.0 and a full refactoring for Joomla! 1.5, but until then we never had released a new major version. The development team was simply too small, and with the focus on creating new logic we decided to create a new team with maintenance as their main responsibility. The Bug Squad has also evolved from a relative small and unstructured team, into a large group of active people that is very well organized (see the Joomla! maintenance procedures if you are interested how things work in the Bug Squad).

In the early stages of the Joomla! Bug Squad, the number of team members quickly increased, and Anthony Ferrara was assigned as the first team lead. As mentioned before, this team is still evolving and new changes have been put in place to make sure things keep on running smoothly. The challenge, from an organizational aspect, is to keep the barriers for participation as low as possible. An initial blog post titled "Lowering Barriers" that I wrote explained our motivation at that time (May 2008).

After creating the Bug Squad around Christmas 2007, I realized that the amount of work that goes into coordinating the maintenance is huge and it would be pretty impossible to also drive the development of new major or minor version. And so, Andrew Eddie was invited to work along me as a second Development Coordinator. As time progressed we also asked Anthony Ferrera and Samuel Moffatt to move into that role, so we can continue to spread the increasing workload.

We now have a situation that Joomla! development is organized in two teams; the Development Team and the Joomla! Bug Squad. We keep evolving and implementing necessary improvements in the two teams. Let's look at the changes we have implemented so far.

Bug Squad

Within the Bug Squad we also have implemented some changes. We abandoned the position of team leader and created a new position of Joomla! Bug Squad Team Coordinator. We asked Ian MacLennan and Mark Dexter to fill that role, and we are glad they accepted. Within this role, they take care of the day to day operation of the Joomla! Bug Squad and help new members to find their way into this team. Andrew Eddie, Anthony Ferrara and Samuel Moffatt represent the core team, and along with me, the four of us support Ian and Mark working on the overall coordination (in the role as Development Team Coordinators) working hard on moving forward.

Along with the JBS team coordination roles we also have defined the roles of co-maintainers. The co-maintainers are responsible for committing patches that have moved to "ready-to-commit" status. Before they commit the code changes they do a final code validation (standards, quality, docbook mark-ups etc.). Ian MacLennan and Kevin Devine will be responsible for this role in the bug squad.

Development team

Let's start with the Google Summer of Code. As you could have read in the September edition of the magazine we had a very successful version of this great event. As a result, we had ten successful projects. We invited Chantal Bisson, Dahn Le Phuoc and Ercan Özkaya to join the Development Working Group. We are very happy to announce that they each accepted our invitation, strengthening the Development Working Group. We expect to see them accomplish more great work.

Andrew Eddie, Johan Janssens and Louis Landry held the position of lead developers. Since we continue to work to lower the barriers, we really want to move from positions to roles. The position of lead developer has served a very good purpose for building 1.5. To evolve to a new situation, we decided already several months ago it was time to abandon these positions. We have not yet decided if there will be any new positions within the Development Team, this really depends on how we are going to move forward with Joomla! 1.6. We plan to share status information about this release, as soon as possible.

I want to thank the new team members, and the members that have accepted the new roles and wish them a lot of fun in those teams!