Let’s celebrate! Today is an important day for the Joomla! Project. We’re celebrating two years of hard work by our volunteers, who had the vision to produce a new major version every two years, and after all the discussion, code sprints, and bug squashing, the day has finally arrived. Today, we are proud to announce the release of our new major version, Joomla 5.0, alongside Joomla 4.4,
What is Joomla 5?
Joomla 5 is a major version. We’re bringing plenty of new features, security and code improvements and increased speed with those improvements. Everything under the hood has been redesigned, rethought and refactored to make use of the latest server languages.
Most importantly, Joomla 5.0 is built for you to grow with you and your business. One of the most significant changes you may notice is that we are not calling Joomla 4.4.x to Joomla 5.x a migration but an Upgrade.
Whether you’re an individual, blogger, charity, web agency or multinational, Joomla is a great choice for you!
Want to know how Joomla 5 will benefit you? Visit joomla.org/5
What new features are in Joomla 5?
Dark Mode in Administrator: Joomla 5 boasts a more refined dark mode, not just for users but also for administrators.
Web Assets and Caching: Many improvements to the web asset caching
Schema.org Integration: Automatic activation of Schema.org data for organisation and site names enhances search engine optimisation.
Code Optimisation: Speed advancements are noticed due to automatic source code optimisation through the phpcs fixer.
PHP & Bootstrap Updates: Improved compatibility with PHP 8+ and an update to Bootstrap 5.3.2 ensures that the platform remains contemporary.
User Interface: Enhancements in dark mode for the Atum administrator template and the new Joomla modal window for select buttons promise a smoother user experience.
Tools & Plugins: The TinyMCE editor gets an update to 6.7 with added image alignment features. Several scheduled tasks have been moved to scheduler plugins, enhancing system performance.
Media Management: AVIF support in the media manager and the ability to exclude archived content from smart search indexing improve media handling capabilities.
Menu sorting: Allowing you to sort the menu in the way you want it.
Enhanced Security: Events have been migrated to their classes, and the removal of no longer functional Recaptcha plugins boosts security.
Modern Technologies: Internal code restructuring focuses on utilising more modern APIs. There's added JS Import map support for Web Asset Manager and deprecated fixes for php 8.2.
Extensions & Compatibility: Joomla 5 introduces Fontawesome 6.4, Codemirror 6, and has updated its Webauthn Library. Notably, Joomla now requires PHP 8.1, MySQL 8.0.13+, MariaDB 10.4+, and PostgreSQL 12+ for optimal performance.
Cleaner Code Base: Joomla 5 places a strong emphasis on code cleanliness. The transition from older APIs, removal of es5 support, and other heavily coded cleanups ensure the CMS runs efficiently.
Joomla 5 encapsulates modern requirements for a CMS, promising its users a combination of speed, security, and an intuitive user experience.
For known issues with the 4.4.0 release, see the Version 4.4.0 FAQ; for the 5.0.0 release, check the Version 5.0.0 FAQ in our documentation.
Where can I download Joomla 5?
On the Downloads site, of course :)
New Installations
New installation instructions and technical requirements
Upgrade
Would you like to make a tour of Joomla 5 without having to install it? We have a solution for you: Try Joomla 5.0 at launch.joomla.org
How can I upgrade my site to Joomla 5?
Good news for Joomla 4.4.x to 5.x, it’s an upgrade, not a migration. Why? Two main reasons:
- Joomla 4 (J4) extensions that have removed all deprecations of code and are using up-to date Joomla code, will work in Joomla 5 (J5)
- Most others will work with the new Behaviour - Backward Compatibility Plugin enabled
The full details are found here: https://docs.joomla.org/Joomla_4.4.x_to_5.x_Planning_and_Upgrade_Step_by_Step
Note: we advise you to first test the upgrade on a copy of your production site.
You may also wonder if you have to migrate ASAP. You can take your time; we’ll support 4.4 for 2 more years. So your site is not at risk if you don’t upgrade now. And don’t forget that some of your extensions may not be yet ready for Joomla 5 (even though most developers have done a great job offering a Joomla 5 test version for a while. You can filter by version in the Joomla Extensions Directory so you can see which are ready for J5 and which are J5 ready with the b/c plugin enabled.
Joomla 5 is out. Make some noise!
Let the world know Joomla 5.0 is released.
Use the hashtag #Joomla5, share the Joomla 5 video, send the Joomla 5 landing page to your clients or add it to your pro site.
What about Joomla 4.4?
Joomla 4.4 has no features. But it is required for you to be able to upgrade from Joomla 4.x to Joomla 5.x
It contains updates to allow for a smoother upgrade path but no new features.
Who is Joomla! for?
Web agencies, large and small companies, online shops, bloggers, communities, and all kinds of organisations (for example, NGOs, schools, charities and governments) all use Joomla as their preferred CMS.
Joomla is written by committed volunteers. Many of those volunteers use it in their everyday web design, building and hosting. So, unlike many other systems, Joomla is built by those using it on a daily basis. That is reflected in its secure, robust nature.
Is there help for extension developers with Joomla 5?
Yes, a growing manual is aimed at those who code and maintain their extensions. The manual can be found at https://manual.joomla.org/migrations/44-50/ and is a growing work to help developers get ahead of any changes.
How can you help develop Joomla?
There are a variety of ways in which you can get actively involved with Joomla. It doesn't matter if you are a coder, an integrator, or a user of Joomla. You can join the community on Mattermost and look through the teams to join, or if you are ready, you can jump right into the Joomla! Bug Squad.
The Joomla! Bug Squad and the CMS Release Team are some of the most active teams in the CMS development process and are always looking for people (not just developers) who can help with sorting bug reports, coding patches and testing solutions. It is a great way to increase your working knowledge of the Joomla code base and also a great way to meet new people from all around the world.
You can also help Joomla development by thanking those involved in the many areas of the process. The Project also wants to thank all the contributors who have taken the time to prepare and submit work to be included in the Joomla CMS and Framework.
Where can I find documentation about Joomla 5?
There are some tutorials to help you with Joomla 4. You can find the existing ones, like creating a Plugin or a Module for Joomla 4, namespaces conventions, prepared statements, using the new web asset classes and many more in https://docs.joomla.org/Category:Joomla!_5.x
We encourage developers to help write the documentation about Joomla 5 on docs.joomla.org to help and guide users and other extension developers.
A JDocs page will help developers to see the existing documentation and the documentation still needed.
We invite you to check it regularly, update it and provide the missing content.
Related information
If you are an extension developer, please make sure you subscribe to the extension developer channel https://joomlacommunity.cloud.mattermost.com/main/channels/extension-development-room
Where you can join the community of extension developers.
A Huge Thank You to Our Volunteers!
Joomla 5.0 is the result of thousands of hours of work by dozens of volunteers.
A big thank you goes out to everyone who contributed to the 5.0 release!
Special mention to:
Allon Moritz, Bear, Benjamin Trenkle, Benno Achermann, Brian Teeman, Christiane Maier-Stadtherr, David Jardin, Denitz, Dimitris Grammatikogiannis, Fedir Zinchuk, framontb, George Wilson, Geraint Edwards, Hannes Papenberg, Harald Leithner, heelc29, Magnus Singer, Martin Carl Kopp, Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos, Nicola Galgano, Olivier Buisard, Quy, Richard Fath, Robert Deutz, Sakis Terzis, Sergey Tolkachyov, SharkyKZ, Shazma Siddiqui, Stefan Wendhausen, Tuan Pham Ngoc, Viviana Menzel, zero-24.
Who all contributed code between 4.4.0-rc1 and 5.0.0
A huge shout out to our teams, who have done such an amazing job. In particular, the CMS maintenance team, CMS release team, docs team and Marketing team all did their utmost to make this release happen.
Thank you all.
Translations
- Dutch: Joomla 5.0 en Joomla 4.4 zijn nu beschikbaar
- French : Joomla 5 - c’est aujourd’hui est un jour important pour joomla!
- German: Joomla 5.0 und Joomla 4.4 sind da!
- Greek: Νέα έκδοση Joomla 5 και Joomla 4.4
- Russian: Вышли релизы Joomla 5.0 и Joomla 4.4
- Spanish: ¡Joomla 5.0 y Joomla 4.4 ya están aquí!
- Turkish: Joomla 5.0 ve Joomla 4.4 yayınlandı