As you may have discovered by now, Joomla 4 Stable is out! This is the time you might start to worry about your extensions. Are they compatible? And if they’re not, will they ever be? And if they’ll be compatible, when?

You might have heard about Joomla 3.10 being the bridge to a smooth transition from version 3.x to 4, but maybe you need a little more reassurance. We get that, and that is why your very own JCM asks the developers where they are right now when it comes to compatibility.

This month we interviewed Chetan Madaan from Joomdev, the people behind numerous templates and extensions, including the popular Astroid Framework.

Thanks for joining us in the series, Chetan! Could you tell us a little about your extensions?

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to answer your questions and tell you a little about our Joomla extensions and template and our future plans for Joomla 4.

I started working on Joomla back in 2010 and from then, I have been providing Joomla services to our clients all over the world.
Right around 2016, we started working on Joomla Templates & Extensions. To date, we have released 40+ Joomla templates and 20+ Joomla extensions.

As we were developing the templates, we felt the need for a robust and powerful template framework so we have released the Astroid framework. The framework is downloaded more than 150K+ times and actively powers thousands of Joomla websites.
And once we had the framework, we needed a page builder so the customers could use our templates and make edits to their website easily and that’s how JD Builder came around.

That's all about our extensions. Most of the extensions are free for commercial and personal use.

What will happen with your extensions now that J4 Stable is released? Are they fully compatible or will the developers provide complete new versions?

We are working on making all of the extensions and templates compatible with Joomla 4. Some of the extensions are already compatible, the rest will also be updated in the next few weeks.

Right now, we are working on making Astroid fully compatible with Joomla 4 and it will be released in the next few days and after that, all of the templates will also be compatible with J4.

We were working on a completely new version of JD Builder but due to the shortage of time, we couldn’t complete the development before the J4 scheduled release date so we will now focus on making the existing JD Builder package compatible with J4. After that, we will resume the development of the new version in the next few months.

Our users will be able to upgrade to the new version of JD Builder from their current version without any issues, regardless of the Joomla version they are on.

As a developer, what would you consider the best moment to start preparing extensions when a new major version is on the way?

As per my opinion, you should start making your products compatible with any major version when it has at least the Beta version.

To be honest, we were not able to keep the pace but we started making Astroid compatible when Joomla 4 was in the Alpha stage.
And for the page builder, we had different plans. But sometimes things don’t happen as per the plan but you have got to keep trying.

What impact did the different types of Joomla versions (alpha, beta, RC, stable) have on your extensions?

The biggest impact I can see is to change the mindset of the developers. As the releases are released in the different stages, it gives an idea to developers about the progress and they can clearly see what was in the new release and as soon as it reaches beta and RC, they are ready to update the extensions.

How do you expect the launch of J4 to impact your business?

We have been afraid as well as excited for the release of Joomla 4. In the last few months, I am seeing a number of developers leaving Joomla as it was hard for them to survive in the Joomla ecosystem.

As Joomla 4 can be a revolutionary update I am hoping that this version can increase Joomla's market share. And this will only happen if the update process of the products and Joomla is smooth.

So, we are just expecting that everything will go smooth and well and there will be good growth in the revenue as well as in the users.

Is there anything else you would like to advise our readers regarding extensions and Joomla 4?

Joomla 4 is going to be a significant change in the history of Joomla. And developers are trying their best to give you the best experience on their extensions.

So I just want to say that if due to any reason the extension is not working perfectly with J4, don’t panic, consult with the respective developers and ask them for their support. I am sure they will give their best.

Apart from that, we are also working on Joomla 4 tutorials so you can also check them on our blog and watch tutorials on our YouTube channel.