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.
Shack Forms is Ready for Joomla 4
Shack Forms is now available for Joomla 4 users! You can download Shack Forms version 5 and it will work on both Joomla 3 and Joomla 4. Shack Forms is the easiest and most powerful way to add forms for your Joomla site. This extension allows you to create forms and then show them in your articles, inside pop-ups, in modules, or anywhere you want.
See more about Shack Forms and Joomla 4
Shack Article Sharing Pro is Ready for Joomla 4
Shack Article Sharing is now available for Joomla 4 users! This is a Joomla social sharing extension. This plugin allows you to add easy-to-use social sharing buttons to your site. Shack Article Sharing supports the most popular share buttons, including Facebook and X / Twitter.
Find out more about Shack Article Sharing Pro
Shack Icons Pro is Ready for Joomla 4
Shack Icons is now available for Joomla 4 users! You can download Shack Icons version 4 and it will work on both Joomla 3 and Joomla 4. The Shack Icons module is a simple way to add icons for all of your social network accounts.
Find out more about Shack Icons Pro
Joomla 4.2 is Almost Feature Complete
It looks like Joomla 4.2 is almost feature-complete. There are two extra features that might be ready in time:
- Make it easier to perform tasks using keyboard shortcuts.
- Manage your site cookies in a centralized manner.
Get the full details on Joomla 4.2
Introduction to Joomla 4 Child Templates
This is a really good introduction to Joomla 4's child templates from Philip Walton. I found this very readable and understandable, even for a mediocre coder like me:
More details on child templates
An Introduction To Website Accessibility
If you read anything we post here this week, make it this ... An explanation of web accessibility from the point of view of a severely sight impaired person: "I rely totally on a screen reader to access and operate my computer, tablet and smartphone due to having no useful sight remaining."
Read more about Joomla and web accessiblity
DPMedia Can Help Find Which Articles Have Images
DPMedia has long been a helpful and free upgrade to Joomla's media manager. This references feature is another nice addition: "there is an overlay on every media file when references are found and when the user clicks on the clip action, then a popup is opened with links to the individual items, like articles, contacts etc"
See more about Image References in DPMedia
Interview with Jennifer Gress
Jennifer Gress has been a stalwart in the Joomla community. She now works with a company that provides software to libraries and integrates with Joomla.
Interview with Brian Mitchell
Brian Mitchell is on my list of "People I respect most in Joomla". He was interviewed this week by Parth Lawate and Ashwin Date, who are also high up on that list. Good people and a good presentation.
Video: How to Use OSContent
This video from Webie Design is a great intro to adding articles and categories with OSContent. She also introduces a second extension called CFI which allows you to import data for custom fields:
Watch this video on using OSContent
Video: Sharing Joomla Stats
New from Tim Davis: you can help Joomla development and testing by sending in anonymous stats about the server and system your website is running on.
Watch Tim's video on Joomla stats
Joomla Will Officially Support MariaDB
Joomla will soon officially support MariaDB databases. Joomla has had unofficial support for a while now.
Find out more about Joomla and MariaDB
Video: Introduction to Workflows in Joomla 4
Tim Davis has a helpful introduction to workflows in Joomla 4. He starts as a complete newbie to this feature and uses this guide to learn more.