Joomla! Community Magazine™

For the July 2023 issue I had written a Joomla Magazine article about my first experiences with Joomla 5.0alpha1. I started with an empty installation and tried out some features: Creating articles, installing and using extensions. Now we are in October 2023. The final release of Joomla 5.0.0 is out since October 17, 2023, as well as the “bridge release” Joomla 4.4.0. One day later, I had all my sites on J4.4.0 without significant difficulties.

My next goal was a reality check for Joomla 5.0.0!

If you are a loyal reader of the Joomla community magazine, you surely remember the project to secure the Joomla updating process by using “The Update Framework”. Even though it has been a little quiet on the project in the last couple of months, work has continued in the background - finally leading to another code sprint at the end of June 2023.

Have you ever heard the story of the ancient city Troy? It had massive walls, keeping attackers outside and the city safe. However, the greek army, attacking the city, had a genius idea: they pretended to stop their attack and travel back home, while leaving a gift for the people of Troy: a huge wooden horse. The people of Troy were thankful for that gift and pulled the horse inside the city's walls - not knowing that greek soldiers have hidden themselves in the horse, crawling out at night, opening the doors for the rest of their army and thereby dooming the city.

Joomla 4's now available, but if you're thinking about upgrading from Joomla 3.9, here's some important things to keep in mind before you click the Update button.