The release of Joomla 2.5, the popular open source content management system, is expected in the next few weeks. With this release, his Joomla!fans will have reason to celebrate, and those new to CMS will have a chance to consider his Joomla!for their next project. Like clockwork, the Joomla community is gearing up by educating the public about the new features and enhancements included in this version. I’m not a Joomla expert. I’ll do my best here to summarize the information I’ve gathered so far about Joomla 2.5.
The official Joomla 2.5.0 release general availability is January 24, 2012. Also, in case you missed it, Joomla 2.5 Beta 1 was released just as the holiday season was in full swing. Also, between now and release 2.5.0, you can expect another beta and release candidate from his Joomla developers.
For those new to software development, Beta and Release Candidate versions of software are generally not suitable for production sites and should only be used for testing purposes. Testing pre-release software is not only a great way to get to know Joomla 2.5 better, it’s also a great way to help developers identify and fix bugs in the software.
We have a long list of new Joomla. 2.5 features found in the beta announcement. However, Andrea Tarr also writes a blog post. Joomla Community Portal Entitled, What’s New in Joomla! 2.5, we’ve included details of what’s new in the next release, as well as some great screenshots showing the improved Joomla!.
Here are the 2.5 features highlighted in the new Joomla! Tarr article:
New search function – Based on Finder and includes autocomplete, faster searching and more efficient indexing.- Ability to support multiple SQL databases – Currently there are drivers for MySQL and MS SQL databases, with PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQLite and PDO drivers in the works.
- Joomla update notification
- Database version fix button – Added database schema changes during upgrade, new functionality to ensure the database is up-to-date and apply the changes.
- Joomla’s CAPTCHA! core
- Using image and URL fields to create simple standardized layouts
- Email notification to administrator when new user is registered – Personally, I’m surprised this wasn’t part or core immediately.
- Custom text filters are now part of global configuration – First found as an option in the article.
- Flexible news feed ordering
- New offline maintenance option Keep your site offline after installation, including an image option for offline pages.
- Alternate meta tags for multilingual sites
Sudhi Seshachala also wrote a detailed summary of Joomla’s new support for Windows Azure. Windows Azure is Microsoft’s cloud his platform. Joomla 2.5 not only supports MS SQL Database covering SQLServer 2008 and SQL Azure, but also supports Azure Storage CDN (as an extension) and Azure deployment. There is a lot of potential here, and both Microsoft and the open source community recognize that there is a common ground on which everyone can work together for the benefit of their customers. In fact, the tech media recently reported that Microsoft plans to support Linux in its cloud solutions as well.
Jumura! Upgrade from Joomla 1.7 to Joomla 2.5 very easyMost users can either use Automatic Updates or use the Extension Manager: Install option to install the update archive. Even if you are using Joomla 1.5, you should use the jUpgrade component to migrate your site.
When Joomla 2.5 is released there are some support and deprecation issues. According to the beta announcement:
Joomla 2.5 is a direct upgrade of Joomla 1.7. Joomla 1.7 will only be supported for critical security issues for one month after the release of Joomla 2.5. After that, only Joomla 1.5 and Joomla 2.5 will be supported by his Joomla project. Please note that Joomla version 2.5 is a Long Term Support (LTS) release and will be supported for at least 18 months.
This is all I currently have in Joomla 2.5. It seems that every time you post something about Joomla! Someone in the Joomla community duly corrects any errors or omissions in my articles (you guys don’t just explain, do you?). So if there is anything you would like added or clarified in this post, feel free to leave a comment or send it to me. TweetAdjust this article as necessary.
Edit 01/04/2012: Joomla! Date Change! 2.5.0 General availability from January 10th to January 24th.
