June 2025 marks a significant milestone that I'm incredibly proud to share with the Joomla community—the second anniversary of our Guided Tours team, a dedicated group that has transformed how users experience and learn Joomla.

Two years ago, in June 2023, the journey continued. It started with an ambitious Google Summer of Code project in 2017 finally came to fruition with the release of Joomla 4.3, introducing Guided Tours as a major feature. More importantly for me and my co-release manager Olivier Buisard, it marked the birth of a specialized team that we would continue to lead, enhancing and expanding this learning tool.

The Foundation: From GSoC to Production

The story of Guided Tours is one of persistence and vision. Originally conceived during Google Summer of Code 2017, the concept lay dormant for years before being revived and refined. When Joomla 4.3 launched in April 2023, Guided Tours wasn't just another feature for us—it began to change the approach to Joomla user onboarding and education.

The feature addressed a critical need that Olivier and I had observed throughout our involvement in the Joomla community: helping newcomers navigate our powerful but sometimes complex administrator interface. By providing contextual, step-by-step guidance, Guided Tours helped to make our platform more accessible to users of all skill levels.

Our Continued Commitment

As co-release managers for Joomla 4.3, we could have considered our mission accomplished when the release shipped successfully. Instead, we saw an opportunity to do something more meaningful. In addition to moving on to other projects within the Joomla community, we chose to continue our commitment to Guided Tours, establishing a dedicated team.

This decision wasn't made lightly. We recognized that launching Guided Tours was just the beginning—the real work would be in evolving, refining, and expanding the system based on community feedback and emerging needs. Two years later, I can confidently say that this commitment has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my involvement with Joomla.

Evolution and Innovation

Over the past two years, our team has demonstrated remarkable productivity and innovation. What started as a basic tutorial system has evolved into a comprehensive platform that serves multiple constituencies:

For End Users: The introduction of autostart tours, beginning with the "Welcome to Joomla" tour in version 5.1, ensures that every new administrator gets a proper introduction to their Joomla site. The contextual nature of tours means users see the most relevant guidance exactly when they need it.

For Site Implementers: Guided Tours have become an invaluable tool for web designers and developers who need to hand over sites to clients. Instead of lengthy training sessions or detailed documentation, implementers can rely on guided tours to walk clients through common tasks.

For Extension Developers: The platform has opened new possibilities for extension developers to create onboarding experiences for their products, reducing support requests and improving user adoption.

The "What's New" Innovation

In Joomla 5.2, the “What’s New” autostarting tour was introduced. The idea was to effectively communicate new features to existing users.

Rather than relying solely on release notes or blog posts, our "What's New" tour provides an interactive experience that highlights new functionalities directly within the administrator interface. This approach ensures that users don't miss important updates and can immediately understand how new features benefit their workflow.

This feature continues to evolve with the feedback and suggestions the team has received.

Building the Ecosystem

Our team hasn't just focused on core functionality; we've built an entire ecosystem to support tour creation and management. The Guided Tours Toolkit represents a significant investment in empowering the community to create their own tours. Features like:

• Export capabilities in multiple formats (SQL, INI, JSON)
• Import functionality for JSON and CSV files
• The Selector Tool for identifying interface targets which is very helpful for implementers
• Comprehensive documentation and examples

These tools ensure that creating guided tours isn't limited to core developers but is accessible to anyone who wants to contribute to the Joomla learning experience. 

Client Impact

For me, the success of Guided Tours can be measured not just in technical achievements but in the real impact I see every day in client sites. The feature provides a better onboarding experience, introduces them to Joomla and empowers them to actively participate in the care and feeding of their website content. This empowerment carries over into excitement and the ideation of ways to further harness the power of Joomla to grow their business. 

Looking Forward

As we celebrate this two-year milestone, I'm amazed by what our team has accomplished. Looking ahead, the team has so many ideas for further enhancements. Our ongoing development efforts mean that users can expect continued innovation in user experience and onboarding. With each Joomla release, guided tours become more sophisticated, more intuitive, and hopefully more valuable to our community. 

How You Can Help

We’ve seen in forums and received inquiries about enhancements that our small but mighty team needs assistance with. If you have a few hours to spare we’d gratefully accept them. 

Celebrating Success, Anticipating the Future

As I reflect on this second anniversary, I celebrate not just the technical achievements of our team, but the camaraderie within our team. Each member brings a unique perspective not only technical expertise, but also end-user, implementer, and other perspectives. 

The next two years promise even more innovation as we continue to refine and expand the Guided Tours experience. 

To the entire Guided Tours team: thank you for two years of collaboration, innovation, and community service. I look forward to seeing what we accomplish next.

Our Guided Tours team continues to grow and welcomes community involvement. Connect with us on MatterMost at the guided-tour channel.

Have you used Joomla Guided Tours to onboard new users or learn new features? Need assistance creating Guided Tours for your extension? Contact us on MatterMost at the guided-tour channel.