Joomla 5.0 and Joomla 4.4 are here!

Tuesday, 17 October 2023

Let’s celebrate! Today is an important day for the Joomla! Project. We’re celebrating two years of hard work by our volunteers, who had the vision to produce a new major version every two years, and after all the discussion, code sprints, and bug squashing, the day has finally arrived. Today, we are proud to announce the release of our new major version, Joomla 5.0, alongside Joomla 4.4.

What is Joomla 5?

Joomla 5 is a major version. We’re bringing plenty of new features, security and code improvements and increased speed with those improvements. Everything under the hood has been redesigned, rethought and refactored to make use of the latest server languages.

Most importantly, Joomla 5.0 is built for you to grow with you and your business. One of the most significant changes you may notice is that we are not calling Joomla 4.4.x to Joomla 5.x a migration but an Upgrade.

Whether you’re an individual, blogger, charity, web agency or multinational, Joomla is a great choice for you! Want to know how Joomla 5 will benefit you? Visit joomla.org/5

What new features are in Joomla 5?

Dark Mode in Administrator: Joomla 5 boasts a more refined dark mode, not just for users but also for administrators.

Web Assets and Caching: Many improvements to the web asset caching

Schema.org Integration: Automatic activation of Schema.org data for organisation and site names enhances search engine optimisation.

Code Optimisation: Speed advancements are noticed due to automatic source code optimisation through the phpcs fixer.

PHP & Bootstrap Updates: Improved compatibility with PHP 8+ and an update to Bootstrap 5.3.2 ensures that the platform remains contemporary.

User Interface: Enhancements in dark mode for the Atum administrator template and the new Joomla modal window for select buttons promise a smoother user experience.

Tools & Plugins: The TinyMCE editor gets an update to 6.7 with added image alignment features. Several scheduled tasks have been moved to scheduler plugins, enhancing system performance.

Media Management: AVIF support in the media manager and the ability to exclude archived content from smart search indexing improve media handling capabilities.

Menu sorting: Allowing you to sort the menu in the way you want it.

Enhanced Security: Events have been migrated to their classes, and the removal of no longer functional Recaptcha plugins boosts security.

Modern Technologies: Internal code restructuring focuses on utilising more modern APIs. There's added JS Import map support for Web Asset Manager and deprecated fixes for php 8.2.

Extensions & Compatibility: Joomla 5 introduces Fontawesome 6.4, Codemirror 6, and has updated its Webauthn Library. Notably, Joomla now requires PHP 8.2, MySQL 8.0.13+, MariaDB 10.4+, and PostgreSQL 12+ for optimal performance.

Cleaner Code Base: Joomla 5 places a strong emphasis on code cleanliness. The transition from older APIs, removal of es5 support, and other heavily coded cleanups ensure the CMS runs efficiently.

Joomla 5 encapsulates modern requirements for a CMS, promising its users a combination of speed, security, and an intuitive user experience.

What about Joomla 4.4?
Joomla 4.4 has no features. But it is required for you to be able to upgrade from Joomla 4.x to Joomla 5.x
It contains updates to allow for a smoother upgrade path but no new features.

Click or press here for full release information.

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