Thanks for using Joomla and Joomlashack.
Every month we post a round-up of news from around the Joomla community.
We've posted all of these updates, plus a lot more in the Joomlashack Facebook group, so join if you want daily Joomla updates.
Joomla 4.1 Arrives on February 15
The first major update for Joomla 4 is almost here. There are several new features including Media Manager improvements and a Task Scheduler. The Joomla team are asking people to help test Joomla 4.1 before it's released.
Find out more about Joomla 4.1
Videos: Introductions to the Cassiopeia Template
For new Joomla 4 users, these two videos will be very helpful. Elisa Folytn (Part 1) and Marc Dechevre (Part 2) explain everything you need to know about the default Cassiopeia template.
Watch Elisa and Marc's Cassiopeia videos
Excellent Free Media Manager Plugin for Joomla 4
The DPMedia plugin from Digital Peak looks like a good upgrade to the Joomla 4 Media Manager. There's a Free and Pro version. DPMedia has two key features:
- Extends the core image editing editor with some image manipulation features like filters, texts, shapes, emojis or lines.
- Adds external file storage services like Dropbox, Unsplash or Google Drive.
Check out the DPMedia extension
Video: One Custom Field to Rule Them All
Marc Dechevre gave a talk at Joomla London. The title has a Lord of the Rings reference: "One Custom Field to rule them all". There's a new type of Custom Field introduced in Joomla 4: "the Subform", which is the most powerful and can literally rule all the other ones:
Watch Marc's video on the Subform
The Joomla Icon in Font Awesome
We're big fans of Font Awesome here at Joomlashack. Font Awesome version 6 is now available in beta and it has this cool Joomla icon.
Check out the Joomla icon in Font Awesome
Video: How Joomla 4 Templates Work
This is a really interesting talk with Dimitris Grammatiko at Joomla Users Group New Jersey. The first 10 minutes is an overview of how Joomla's templates work, and then he dives into the new templates features in Joomla 4.1:
Watch Dimitris' Joomla 4 template video
Joomla Stack Exchange is Now an Official Community
This is probably the best place for in-depth Joomla coding advice: "Joomla Stack Exchange has proven itself to be a valuable and lasting community since 2014 and will become a full 'matured' Stack Exchange community."
Read the Stack Exchange announcement
African Institute of Media and Joomla
Dougounana Berte posted in our Facebook group to say he is helping to give Joomla workshops at the African Institute of Media in the Ivory Coast. He shared photos and details of the workshops.
Check out Dougounana's post and photos
A Cool New Template Feature in Joomla 4
Our team discovered a nice new feature in Joomla 4 - when you look at template override files, there’s an option to show the differences from the core file.
Check out this new feature and the discussion
How Many Sites Are Using Joomla 4?
Vic Drover at Watchful tried to answer the question ... how many sites are updating to Joomla 4?
Read Vic's article on Joomla 4 usage
Joomla Day USA in April
Joomla Day USA is coming up in April and they have a call for speakers. It's a virtual conference so you can apply from anywhere: "We welcome presentations that engage not only designers and developers of Joomla websites, but also marketers, managers, and business owners."
Apply to speak at Joomla Day USA
A Joomla 4 Template Using Tailwind CSS
For design lovers, this will be very useful: Anibal Sanchez has released a Joomla 4 template based on Tailwind CSS version 3.
Read more about Anibal's Tailwind CSS template
Video: Custom Fields in Joomla 4
Robbie Adair from OSTraining gave a presentation on Custom Fields, which are a powerful tool in Joomla 4! She takes a look at the different types of fields, discusses groups, and looks at how the data is stored in the Joomla database.
Watch Robbie's video on custom fields
A Very Cool Joomla Animation
Here's a fun Joomla animation for you, using nothing but CSS. It's hosted on Codepen where you can edit and re-use the code.
Tutorial: Build Your Own Custom Field Plugin
This tutorial explains how to build a custom field plugin that shows images from a selected folder and displays them in a carousel. This is another great introduction to custom fields from Elisa Foltyn.
Read Elisa's custom fields tutorial
Video: Dark Mode for Joomla 4
Tim Davis explains what to do if you prefer dark mode when working in the admin area of your Joomla site. Dark Magic from Akeeba is the plugin for you!