The Joomlashack Blog

All the Joomla News for March 2023

Written by Steve Burge Steve Burge
Published: 06 April 2023 06 April 2023
All the Joomla News for March 2023

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. We have over 1,000 members now!

JCal Pro is Almost Ready for Joomla 4


We're delighted to say that we've nearly finished completing our last major extension upgrade for Joomla 4. There is a Release Candidate available for JCal Pro on Joomla 4.  If you are launching a new Joomla 4 site, you can install and use this latest version. We would love to hear your real-world feedback. The more feedback we get, the faster this release can be officially marked as "Stable".

Test JCal Pro on Joomla 4
 

Joomla 4.3 is Getting Close


Joomla 4.3 is scheduled for release on April 18. There's a release candidate available for testing now. Here are some of the new features:
  • Media Manager improvements including ordering, image thumbnails, and support for more file types.
  • Workflow transition improvements
  • Conditional custom fields
  • Guided tours to help new users with admin tasks

Download and test Joomla 4.3
 

The New Guided Tours in Joomla 4.3


In the article linked above we mentioned the new "Guided Tours" feature in Joomla 4.3. Phillip Walton and Khushi Rauniyar have an article in the Joomla Magazine with a detailed introduction to Guided Tours.

Learn about Guided Tours
 

Video: Search Engine Friendly URLs for All Your Joomla Articles


From Tim Davis: "Even if you have Search Engine Friendly URLs turned on for your Joomla site, not all of your articles may have SEF URLs. This video shows you how to ensure all your Joomla articles have SEF urls - not just some."

See Tim's video on SEF URLs
 

How to Add GDPR-Compliant Fonts in Joomla


In January 2022, a German Court ruled that a website using Google Fonts violated the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The website received a fine of 100€. If your website runs Google Fonts, you have 3 options to comply with GDPR.

More about Joomla fonts and GDPR
 

Video: Code Quality Improvements in Joomla 4


Hannes Papenberg is the leader of the Joomla Bug Squad. Joomla 4 has invested a lot of energy into automated quality management. From simple codestyle checks and unit and system tests to automated dependency and vulnerability management and static code analysis, Joomla 4 is making great advances in ensuring consistent quality in each release. In this talk, Hannes looks at what Joomla is using and how extension developers can benefit from using this in their own workflow.

Watch Hannes' presentation
 

Video: Create a Marketplace Website With Joomla


Mathew Tamin makes some very good Joomla tutorial videos. In this video he introduces DJ-Classifieds as an easy way to build a Facebook-style marketplace website.

Watch Mathew's video
 

Manage Multiple Joomla Websites from a Single Installation


At the Cloudfest conference, a team of Joomla developers started work on a fascinating project: "This solution aims to make website management easier and more efficient by allowing users to host multiple websites on a single Joomla! installation, rather than needing to set up a separate installation for each website."

Read about the Cloudfest project
 

Videos: Joomla 4 Extension Development


Robbie Jackson is publishing a series of videos on Joomla 4 extension development. I highly recommended these if you're a coder. The first videos focus on upgrading your work from Joomla 3.

Watch Robbie's videos
 

Video: Better Previews for Joomla Articles


Tim Davis has a video on the Better Frontend Link extension: "Better Frontend Link from Regular Labs does away with the frustration of previewing Joomla articles that are otherwise hard to find using Joomla's core preview button."

Watch Tim's Video on Better Frontend Link
 

Exploring the New Joomla 4 API


Marc Dechèvre is starting a new series of articles on the new Web Services in Joomla 4. His goal is, "At the end of this series of articles, you will be able to import your Articles together with their Custom Fields to your Joomla website directly from a Google Sheet thanks to the Joomla API".

Read Marc's first API article
 

Joomla Day USA is April 21 to 23


Mark your calendars for Joomla Day USA 2023 on April 21 - 23. This will be a hybrid event with the in-person portion to be in Austin, Texas. The list of sessions is up on the website now.

Sign up for Joomla Day USA
 

Joomla Days Netherlands is May 12 to 13


The big Joomla event in the Netherlands will be held next month in Tilburg. The event will be divided into two days. On the first day there will be a Pizza Bugs and Fun session in combination with presentations about debugging, testing, participating and developing Joomla. On the second day there will be a "normal" JoomlaDay with multiple tracks of presentations.

Sign up for Joomla Day Netherlands