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Category: News

Published: 26 May 2014

Last Updated: 27 May 2014

Hits: 7154

Community Builder 2.0 was presented during a 1 hour presentation at Joomla! Day France this weekend.

Beat, compiled a great presentation in French to highlight the differences bewtween CB 1.9.1 and the next generation CB 2.0 series.

The comprehensive huge list of new features and the new XML MVC AhaWow engine technology was discussed during the session and was very well received by the audience.

The new features that were presented are:

• new look and feel everywhere with new styles and a clean and crisp user experience
• 6 new core field-types: file, video, rating, points (substantially improved compared to existing add-ons), and brand new audio and date/time
• image field type now supports moderation and approval via CB Workflow module
• new built-in avatar gallery with full view and thumbnail view support
• 3 new core plugins: CB Articles, CB Blogs and CB Forums (re-written for new look and feel and performance improvements)
• CB Bootstrap template (previously commercial and also improved) is now included in core and is default for new installations
• all CB templates are now bootstrapped (default, winclassic, webfx, osx, dark, luna)
• HTML email support now added to all workflow email messages
• new administration module provides backend admin menu, CB news feed and CB plugin update feed
• enhancements to CB field manager with ability to copy fields and change field types
• CB fields can now be configured to turn-off profile editing (backend only editing)
• all CB fields now support profile layout, userlist layout, Profile edit and Registration layout flexible output configuration in addition to the traditional label: value layout
• tabbed and flat views can be applied to profile editing and registration forms
• optional public emailing to profile user
• new flexible layout types for user lists: grid and div
• user lists manager has been enhanced to allow copying of user lists
• improved SEO with new framework functions to add active menu item metadata to HTML header output and respect/use Joomla metadata on all CB landing pages
• new single Joomla package automatically installs everything for you and even publishes / pre-configures modules during first-time installation

There are of course many more features under the CB 2.0 hood that can be seen on our CB 2.0 forge area.

The presentation slides are available here.

Discuss this on our forums.

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Category: News

Published: 07 May 2014

Last Updated: 07 May 2014

Hits: 3433

 Joomla Day France 2014 is taking place in Paris on the 23rd and 24th of May and JandBeyond 2014 is happening in Germany between May 30th and June 1st and CB Team members will be attending and presenting in both events.

Beat will be speaking in French and presenting Community Builder 2.0 in France. This is a great opportunity for all our French community builders to meet Beat in person and natively discuss any Joomla or Community Builder topic of interest.

Both Beat and Nick will be attending this year's JandBeyond event which is being sponsored by Joomlapolis for the fifth concesutive year!

Beat will be presenting a session on the new XML MVC AhaWow engine technology (used in CBSubs and CB 2.0) humoristically titled "Honey, I Shrunk the Code" and Nick will be motivating the Joomla community to "Make Joomla THE solution for online documentation".

If you are able to attend JAB14. make sure you flag down Beat and Nick for a beer and a discussion session. If you are not able to attend, you will still be able to view the presentations courtesy of our Joomlapolis Video sponsoring.

We are also assisting and gift sponsoring the Joomla Social Conference 2014 in Budapest, Hungary. This is not an official Joomla conference but it is very interesting as it is focused on the use of Joomla for social networking and community building. A Community Builder session is scheduled to present CB related social newtworking features and we are working with the presenters to assist them with the presentation preparation.

The CB Team is always available to assist Joomla User Groups to promote Joomla and Community Builder solutions to their users. Any JUG representative may contact us to discuss how we can help them spread the Joomla love.

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Category: News

Published: 28 April 2014

Last Updated: 28 April 2014

Hits: 18379

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.

Discuss this on our forums

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Category: News

Published: 10 March 2014

Last Updated: 10 March 2014

Hits: 4642

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: 4813

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.