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Category: News

Published: 28 April 2014

Last Updated: 28 April 2014

Hits: 18497

The Joomla 3.4 announcement introduces a new release strategy that replaces the previous Long Term Support (LTS) and Short Term Support (STS) concepts along with the “.5” numbering convention. The new Joomla! Development Strategy blog followed by the FAQ's for Joomla's Improved Release Cycle attempt to shed some light on this new release strategy.

This brief compares old and new approach, outlines differences and expected (potential) impact on Joomla stakeholders.

The way things were

Joomla development / release strategy was based on Time-based release-cycles that provided the following characteristics:

• Release Schedule and Numbering
  Previously, the release-schedule was 6 months-spaced minor "STS" (short-term support) releases (3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3), followed 6 months later by a minor "LTS" (long term support) "x.5.0" release (e.g. 3.5.0), followed by a major "x+1.0.0" release (e.g. 4.0.0). LTS versions were numbered as "x.5.0".

• Maintenance Periods
  LTS releases were maintained for at least 27 months, and more exactly until 6 months after the next LTS release (4.5.0) release, while STS releases were maintained for 1 month after the next STS release.

• Compatibility and New Features
  STS releases introduced new non-breaking features, while LTS releases did not introduce new features. New major releases could introduce new features which were breaking backwards compatibility for extensions.

The way things will be going forward

Strategy is now based on features-based release-cycles and Semantic Versioning with the following characteristics:

• Release Schedule and Numbering
  From now on, each major "x.0.0" or minor "x.y.0" release is considered as what was previously known as a "LTS" release. No more "x.5" LTS numbering. Minor releases are also considered as maintenance releases with an added focus on quality and (non-breaking) backwards compatibility. There are no timed releases anymore ("it's ready when it's ready").

• Maintenance Periods
  Each major "x.0.0" marks the beginning of a X-series set that has an expected lifespan of at least 4 years. Every minor "x.y.0" release that happens N months after the 2 first years of active development of a major release will add N months to the expected lifespan of the X-series (making it 4 years plus N months). Theoretically, the lifespan of a series may be extended indefinitely as long as new minor releases are released.

• Compatibility and New Features
  Minor releases (e.g. 3.4.0) may introduce new non-breaking features. Major releases (e.g. 4.0.0) introduce new features that may break backwards-compatibility.

What these changes mean for you

Here is a real-life Joomla 3 series example:

• since Joomla 3.0 was released on 27/09/2012 initial end of life (eol) date for the 3 series is set to 27/09/2016 (4 years after its initial release)

• every Joomla 3.x minor release that takes place after 27/09/2014 will extend the initial expected eol date

• as Joomla 3.3 and 3.4 are expected to be released on 22/04/2014 and 15/07/2014 (both before 27/09/2014) they will not influence the Joomla 3 series eol date

• assuming that a Joomla 3.5 is released on 01/01/2015 this will automatically extend the Joomla 3 series eol to 01/01/2017

The new strategy will impact future releases in the following ways:

• Release Scheduling and Numbering
  Clear [major].[minor].[maintenance] semantic numbering without the sometimes confusing "x.5.0" LTS numbering. Releases occur when they are ready instead of "forced" time-released.

• Maintenance Periods
  Every release is a quality and stability release (and should be viewed as what was previously known as a LTS release). Each new major release gets an expected lifespan period of at least 4 years.

• Compatibility and New Features
  Minor releases are more compatibility aware without excluding new non breaking features. There is no expected significant change for compatibility-breaks for Major versions.

• Development and Quality
  The new strategy Facilitates smoother development and better code quality in terms of bugs and compatibility. “It's ready when it's ready”: No more features-rush (“no worries, if it doesn't reach this minor release, it will go into next one”) and lack of time for squashing bugs due to firm release dates. It produces smoother release-cycles, and no period without new features of 1-year time between the last STS, during LTS development and new major release. It also frees up a bit major releases from backwards-compatibility constraints.

Conclusions and future impact

Many articles discuss the benefits and pitfalls of each approach, such examples are:

• How fixed software release dates hurt customers, quality and budgets

• Time-based releases are good for community

• Ubuntu time Based Releases

We believe the Joomla! Project and its users will benefit from the new, more flexible, approach with longer maintenance periods, better quality and compatibility, clearer version numbers, continuous innovation without the “innovative features freeze” between the last STS release and the next major release.

Overall this strategy change will maintain Joomla as a major community-driven open-source CMS and should unleash its development community helping it introduce new innovative features. Joomla! is here to stay and has a bright future.

Of course as with any strategy, no matter how innovative and flexible it is, the end result depends entirely on the participation and implementation of the relevant community as a whole.

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Category: News

Published: 10 March 2014

Last Updated: 10 March 2014

Hits: 4666

Joomla has released version 3.2.3 and 2.5.19.

Both releases address security issues and all sites should upgrade to these latest releases.

Joomla 3.2.3 addresses 1 high priority (Joomla 3.x sites should upgrade asap) and 3 medium priority security bugs, whereas Joomla 2.5.19 addresses 2 medium priority security bugs.

Community Builder 1.9.1 has been tested with both these releases and works fine.

Since the thusrday release of these new Joomla packages, we have been monitoing public feedback and we believe that these 2 packages are very stable with no significant reported issues. Thus, Joomlapolis recommends that all Joomla websites upgrade to these new releases.

Our latest stable Community Builder 1.9.1 is compatible with all Joomla versions and is a recommended free upgrade for everyone.

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Category: News

Published: 25 February 2014

Last Updated: 25 February 2014

Hits: 4829

The most awesome Joomla conference is back for its fifth gathering and Joomlapolis is continuing its committed support as the official video sponsor.

JandBeyond 2014 is taking place in Königstein (Near Frankfurt), Germany between May 30th and June 1st.

JandBeyond is much more than an international conference about Joomla – it's really a Joomla family reunion where Joomla fanatics from all over the world will meet, interact and discuss how to make Joomla better.

The JandBeyond experience is unbelievable! Joomla experts, designers, developers and Joomla leaders are ready to interact and discuss making Joomla better. Just read our review of last year's event to see how excited we were.

CB Team members will be present and ready to meet and discuss Community Builder or Joomla with other attendees.

If you need to choose a single Joomla conference to attend, then JandBeyond 2014 is your best deal. Grab your tickets now to get the early-bird discount! This is the best place to meet Joomla developers, designers, expert users and PLT members.

Whether you attend this years event or not, our video sponsoring will allow you to see all the presentations at your convenience at home with your beer or beverage at hand. We are proud to have sponsored the creation and sharing of these videos.

Learn more about JandBeyond 2014.

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Category: News

Published: 11 December 2013

Last Updated: 11 December 2013

Hits: 14966

After over 3 years of intensive research and development at Joomlapolis Labs, we're extremely happy and excited to finally release our next-generation Community Builder 2.0 beta 1.

These are completely awesome times for you, our Community of Community Builders and also for the CB Team.

Finally, we can share the new technology that we built over the last years, the new awesome bootstraped responsive design, the strong set of core features, a new Blogs functionality included, reviewed workflows, and our amazing XML MVC AhaWow engine.

A new CBLib Library provides modern software design patterns at the very core of Community Builder, providing a new and solid foundation for the Community Builder New Generation 2.x series and its plugins.

We are very excited not only to announce the release of CB 2.0 beta 1 to our Developer members that will follow our live webinar presentation, but by also providing a new solid foundation that will allow us to develop very efficiently more features in a very clean, rapid and reusable way.

This in turn will allow you to much more efficiently develop websites and tailor the configuration and features much easier to the list of requested functionality.

Just the awesome new look and feel by itself is a good reason to jump on the next generation Community Builder 2.0 for Joomla 2.5 and Joomla 3.2 as per our executive report.

But with well over 100 new features, there is something for everyone.

The CB Team will be hosting an online webinar on Thursday December 12, 2013 starting at 16:00 UTC/GMT to present Community Builder 2.0. Everyone is invited to attend but as space is limited please pre-register in order to secure your virtual seat!

Discuss this on our forums!

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Category: News

Published: 30 October 2013

Last Updated: 30 October 2013

Hits: 7546

The awesome new Joomla 3.2 is scheduled to be released on November 6th, 2013!

The CB Team is taking a small break from CB 1.10 and CB 2.0 tasks to prepare a CB 1.9.1 package to support Joomla 3.2.

As the CB team is actively participating in Joomla, CB 1.9.1 will be released coordinated in time for Joomla 3.2.

All existing CB websites should upgrade to CB 1.9.1 before upgrading to Joomla 3.2 for full compatibility with the new Joomla 3.2 password storage feature.

New Joomla 3.2 installation can install CB 1.9.1 by downloading it from the Free download area or through the new Joomla 3.2 Install from Web (formerly known as app-store) directly from their Joomla 3.2 administration panel (once the new store functionality is enabled on their new Joomla 3.2 site).

Discuss this article on our forums.