Joomla! Version 3.8
Joomla! 3.8 has 2 improvements that have been specifically aimed at developers, the new routing system and the beginning of a forward compatibility layer with Joomla! 4.0. There have been some security bug fixes as well. More on this below,
- New Advanced Routing System for developers
Designed with the objective of being more SEO friendly, Joomla! 3.8 is redefining the URL structure for new Joomla based sites by making them shorter, cleaner and user friendly, apart from giving the user greater control over removing unnecessary IDs from URLs.
- Joomla! 4 Compatibility layer
To ensure backwards compatibility, Joomla! 3.8 includes a Joomla! 4 compatibility layer. For a web developer, what this means is that Joomla 3.8 has a mapping layer that will permit the use of older class names whilst being able to take advantage of the new class name structure thus being able to smoothly migrate to Joomla 4.0 version.
- Sodium Encryption cryptography
In November 2017, PHP 7.2 will introduce a new extension called a Sodium Encryption Support for processing encrypted data and through a polyfill Joomla! 3.8 makes this new API available for all users on all supported platforms even before they upgrade to PHP 7.2
- Improved Codebase
Joomla! 3.8 is packed with an enhanced codebase that is much cleaner and faster.
- Improved Sample Data Installation
Joomla! 3.8 provides easy-to-install sample data anytime within your site’s backend after finishing the installation process, allowing users to create their own generic data sets with multilingual support included.
- Backend Menu Customisation
Menu modules can be customised tagged and displayed to transform your custom menu into a preset one.
- Security Issues Fixed
- Joomla! Core – Information Disclosure in LDAP Authentication Plugin (affecting Joomla! 1.5.0 – 3.7.5).
- Joomla! Core – Information Disclosure in com_content Archived Articles Model (affecting Joomla! 3.7.0 – 3.7.5).
- Other Features Worth Mentioning
- Ability to add CSS class to menu item images which means more styling options for item images.
- Select category and tag while creating a Category Blog menu item and filter tags in your module Articles – Categories
- Menu modules can now be tagged and displayed per available administrator languages
- Ability to add multiple versions of the same <meta> tag.
- Ability to filter your article archives by a given category.
- Redis Session Support has been added to Joomla! 3.8.
Joomla! Version 3.8.1
The aim of for this core release was to fix all the bugs that were reported after the release of 3.8.0.
- Fix handling of image srcset attribute.
- Some plugin events were triggered multiple times.
- Redirect plugin not redirecting correctly.
- Removed checks causing some admin menu items to be hidden.
- LDAP login broken.
- 3.8.0 Restore fix for ShowOn multilevel field groups issue.
- Fixes the double event firing
- Calendar Today: Items wrongly set to pending .
Full list of bugs can be found here- https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/milestone/26?closed=1
Joomla! Version 3.8.2
This is a security release for the 3.x series of Joomla! addressing three security vulnerabilities and fixing several bugs which were reported after the previous Joomla! releases. Here is a list,
Security Issues Fixed
- Medium Priority – Core – LDAP Information Disclosure (affecting Joomla! 1.5.0 through 3.8.1).
- Medium Priority – Core – Two-Factor Authentication Bypass (affecting Joomla! 3.2.0 through 3.8.1).
- Low Priority – Core – Information Disclosure (affecting Joomla! 3.7.0 through 3.8.1).
Bug Fixes
- Display subcategories in blog layout only when user has access.
- Tags being deleted by any batch action and by drag and drop reordering.
- Search Module not displayed on the core templates error page.
- Fix unneeded repetitive filesystem access / checks causing performance issue in custom fields.
- Fix backend articles manager not listing articles in sub-categories when categories filter is active.
- Return error 404 instead of error 0 for non-existent page, ex index.php?Itemid=9999
- Help screens iframe
- Custom Field repeatable icons
A complete list of bugs can be found here- https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/milestone/27?closed=1
Joomla! Version 3.9 & 4.0
Joomla1 3.9 will be released in conjunction with Joomla! 4.0. Joomla! 4.0 Alpha 1 version was released 3 days ago, 17 November 2017. Here is what is new thus far,
- Removal of deprecated functions from Joomla 3.x
- Reworked installer for a quicker and more intuitive user experience
- New templates using Bootstrap 4
- Reworked Application for Consoles
- Integration of Joomla Framework packages
More on this new exciting release coming up In our next blog.