Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS) that enables the creation of websites and powerful online applications. Many aspects, including ease of use and extensibility, have made Joomla the most popular web solution available. Best of all, it is an open-source solution that is freely available to everyone.
Since Joomla is based on PHP and MySQL, you’re building powerful applications on an open platform anyone can use, share, and support. A content management system is software that keeps track of every piece of content on your Website.
Similar to how a local public library keeps track of and stores books, content can include simple text, photos, music, videos, documents, or nearly anything imaginable.
A key benefit of using a CMS is that it requires minimal technical expertise for administration. The CMS handles content management, so you do not have to.
Hence, Joomla! is an international project with users and contributors worldwide. It is easy to install and set up, even for beginners. Many web hosting services offer a single-click installation, allowing you to get your new site up and running in just a few minutes. As a Web designer or developer, you can quickly build sites for your clients. Then, with minimal guidance, you can enable your clients to manage their websites with ease.
Joomla is used everywhere in the world to power websites of all sizes and shapes:
- Corporate websites or portals
- Corporate intranets and extranets
- Online magazines, newspapers, and publications
- E-commerce and online reservations
- Government functions
- Small business websites
- Non-profit and organizational websites
- Community-based portals
- School and church websites
- Personal or household homepages
Many companies and organizations have needs that exceed the basic package. Joomla’s robust application framework enables developers to build advanced add-ons, expanding its capabilities in countless ways.
The core framework enables developers to quickly and easily build:
- Inventory management systems
- Data reporting tools
- Application bridges
- Custom product catalogs
- Integrated e-commerce systems
- Complex business directories
- Reservation systems
- Communication tools
What’s new 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 organization and site names enhances search engine optimization.
- Code Optimization: Speed improvements are achieved through automatic source code optimization using the PHP CS Fixer tool.
- 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 has been updated to version 6.7, adding 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 advanced search indexing improve media handling capabilities.
- Menu sorting: You can customize and sort the menu to suit your preferences, giving you control over its layout.
- Enhanced Security: Events have been migrated to their respective classes, and removing non-functional reCAPTCHA plugins enhances security.
- Modern Technologies: Internal code restructuring focuses on utilising more modern APIs. JS Import map support has been added for Web Asset Manager, along with deprecated fixes for PHP 8.2.
- Extensions & Compatibility: Version 5 introduces FontAwesome 6.4, CodeMirror 6, and updates the WebAuthn library. Notably, Joomla now requires PHP 8.2, MySQL version 8.0.13 or later, MariaDB version 10.4 or later, and PostgreSQL version 12 or later for optimal performance.
- Cleaner Code Base: Joomla 5 emphasizes code cleanliness. The transition from older APIs, removal of ES5 support, and other heavily coded cleanups ensure the CMS runs efficiently.
