Community Magazine

Twenty years of development, twenty years of commitment, twenty years of working together: if we'd ask every Joomler to create a timeline of what they consider the highlights and milestones of Joomla's first two decades, no two timelines would be the same. Nevertheless we wanted to give it a try. If you think anything is missing, please use the comments section to tell us what it is and why it should be there! And we'd really love it if you share your personal Joomla highlights as well, you can also do that in the comments. But first, have a look at our impressive timeline!

This Year We Celebrate Together 20years of Open Source Achievements

It is Joomla’s 20th Birthday, and I am utterly honoured to serve as Joomla’s President at this pivotal moment in our history. For this reason, I would like to express my enthusiasm for everything we have accomplished and share my optimism for the decades yet to come. With this in mind, let’s take a look back together to see how much we have achieved in these twenty years.  

Happy birthday to Joomla actually means: happy birthday to you, our community. To the Joomla users, developers, designers, hobbyists and professionals. To the occasional helping hands and the volunteers in it for the long haul. To the drag-and-droppers and the code poets. To the thinkers and the doers. Happy birthday, to us, from us. 

The Joomla Community Magazine wouldn’t be here without our authors, designers and tech volunteers. On Joomla’s twentieth anniversary, let's take a moment to reflect on the work of the many volunteers who have made the JCM happen over the years.

In a world of competitive everything, it is so nice to find that in certain areas collaboration is king... And one such area is the open-source world, not only because we all depend on each other (and not just for code dependencies 😉) but also because often a contributor to a project isn't just contributing to one open-source project but a few... And in talking about collaborations, while Joomla has a few ongoing endeavors, we have a particularly interesting one in the Open Web Alliance which Joomla helped co-found back in early 2024.

Great Scott! It's August 17th, 2025, and Joomla is turning 20! Time to fire up the DeLorean and take a wild ride through the spacetime continuum of open-source history…

I still clearly remember how different the internet looked about 20 years ago. Websites were mostly built using table layouts - at the time, there were hardly any other options for structuring content. Design trends like drop shadows, rounded corners, and bright colors dominated the visual style. Mobile devices weren't a consideration yet, and responsive design simply didn't exist. Usability played a very different role back then, and content maintenance was mostly a technical task reserved for developers. For editors, it was often a real challenge.

In the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, while floodwaters surged and communications failed, a different kind of rescue operation began online. Not by emergency responders - but by coders, designers, and open-source advocates from around the globe.

You might think Hollywood heartthrob Chris Pratt and the open-source content management system Joomla have absolutely nothing in common. One blasts aliens across galaxies; the other powers websites across the internet. But hold onto your mixtapes, because the universe is smaller (and nerdier) than you think.

Today, we celebrate Joomla's 20th birthday. For 20 years, Joomla has been the go-to solution for millions of users: accessible, safe, secure, fast, robust and 100% yours. 20 years is quite a milestone for a CMS that is powered by people only. Think about it: Joomla wouldn't exist without us, its community. Together we made it possible for people to create websites, earn a living and support themselves and the people around them. Joomla changes lives. Our community helps, empowers and encourages people to learn, share what they've learned and to grow. That is something we can all be proud of. Together we've made Joomla what it is now. Together we're creating a bright future for Joomla. Together we're Joomla.

This month, we present to you an extra festive issue with loads of birthday-themed articles. Enjoy the celebration!

Happy 20th Birthday to Joomla!

In today’s digital world, community means more than just a group of people. It is about connection, support, and shared goals. Joomla, the open-source content management system (CMS), shows us how technology can bring people together in meaningful and productive ways. It is more than a platform; it is a living community. Here is what Joomla can teach us about building strong digital spaces.

What Joomla Teaches Us About Digital Civilization

In a world shaped by digital experiences, Joomla is more than just software. It is a movement rooted in collaboration, community, and a shared responsibility to create a better web.

What’s going on with our Joomla User Groups? A whole lot of community, creativity, and collaboration!

Joomla User Groups (JUGs) are more than just meetups - they’re gatherings where people who share a passion for Joomla come together to exchange ideas, learn new skills, and celebrate one of the world’s most flexible CMS platforms. Every meeting is an opportunity to connect with others who understand the joy (and sometimes the challenge!) of building with Joomla.

You may not always realise it, but Joomla is a living CMS that is being developed, maintained and marketed by many volunteers worldwide. To make this work, a global project like ours needs structure, coordination, and organisation. How does Joomla do that? And who’s in charge of it all?

Is it possible to create a timeline using only Joomla core? You probably already know the answer: yes, with a little override and a few lines of CSS ;-). This article explains how to do it using the Articles Module in Joomla. See it in action here: Joomla Milestones 2005-2025.

You’ve probably  heard about the Joomla 8 sprint in the June edition of the magazine. With only 2 weeks left - the sprint will take place from September 4th to September 7th - we would like to update you about the plans.

As elements are added to a stylesheet, keeping colours consistent throughout a project can be tricky. CSS functions are available to speed creation of colour variations and quickly implement changes when needed.

When a core component like Weblinks was decoupled, it created a maintenance challenge. My Google Summer of Code project had a clear mission: bring this useful extension up to modern Joomla 5 standards, not just for end-users, but as a public example of high-quality development and testing practices.

Tired of juggling multiple screens just to build a workflow in Joomla?

Imagine visualizing your stages and transitions like a mind map - interactive, intuitive, and all in one place. That’s exactly what we set out to build this summer. 

Love databases? I do too. I’ve always loved working with structured data, and that passion led me to develop a smart, dynamic way to migrate content from WordPress to Joomla. No scripts, fewer hardcoded hacks - a clean model and maintainable design.