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After many months of development the latest version of Joomla 3.7 has been released and is available for download.
The latest verison of the content management system comes with 700 new features, improvements, and updates.
Some of the key features and new improvements the development team and community have incorporated into Jomla 3.7 include the long waited Custom Fields feature, Multilingual Association component, enahnced TinyMCE editor, improved administrator and front end workflow prcesses and an enhaced user experience which makes managing a website much easier for administrators
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The latest version of Joomla 3.5 was released on 21st March 2016. This blog post will outline some of the key features the developers have built into the latest version of the content management system. You can also find out more information by watching the 3.5 features video.
Support For PHP 7
One of the big selling points Joomla 3.5 has to offer is that it allows you to take advantage of the latest version of PHP 7. Don't worry you can still run your website on the current version of PHP 5.6 after you upgrade to version 3.5. However if the hosting company supports PHP 7 and you choose to enable it you will see some big improvements in the overall speed of your site.
One of the big benefits of running a website using PHP 7 is the performance improvements it has to offer. PHP 7 takes advantage of the new PHPNG engine which is basically a refactored version of the Zend Engine called Zend Engine II that’s uses the extensible object model and allows you to execute code much faster using less resources on the server.
PHP 7 also offers lots of other advantages, you can find out more by visiting https://github.com/tpunt/PHP7-Reference and https://www.zend.com/en/resources/php7_infographic
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The latest version of Joomla 3.5 makes use of PHP 7 which can give your website a major speed boost. A large number of web hosting companies now support PHP 7 and it’s pretty easy to enable this version of PHP via Cpanel. This tutorial will show how to make your website go super fast by taking advantage of the new performance enhancements incorporated into the latest version of PHP 7
Step 1: Upgrade to the latest version of Joomla 3.5
Before you enable php 7 via cpanel you first need to upgrade the website to latest version of Joomla 3.5.
To upgrade the website complete the following
- Read the article we have created how to update to the latest version of joomla
- Watch our step by step Joomla 3.5 upgrade video tutorial we have created.
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We don't normally write blog posts about security updates for Joomla but on this occasion we feel it's important to make people aware of a critical security vulnerability in all versions of Joomla 1.5, 2.5 and 3.4.
An update was released by the Joomla project team on 21/12/2015 which fixes the security vulnerability in all versions of Joomla 1.5, 2.5 and 3.4.
The update resolves the following issues
- High Priority - Core - Remote Code Execution (affecting Joomla 1.5 through 3.4.5) More information
- Low Priority - Core - CRSF Hardening (affecting Joomla 3.2.0 through 3.4.5) More information.
- Low Priority - Core - Directory Traversal (affecting Joomla 3.2.0 through 3.4.5) More information.
- Low Priority - Core - Directory Traversal (affecting Joomla 3.4.0 through 3.4.5) More information
You can read the official announcements by visiting
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If you don't have much money to host your Joomla website then a free hosting service could be the best option for you. Although free hosting services have limitations they can still provide you with everything you need to build a website. The number of companies offering free web hosting has increased and quality of the hosting has also improved. You also get less restrictions forced upon you including having to display advertisements on your website. However as with everything that’s free you will still have some limitations including the amount of disk space you get, bandwidth you can use and resources on the server you can use.
Advantages of using free hosting for Joomla
- It’s free with some restrictions.
- The technical requirements are in place to run Joomla on a free web hosting service.
- Good for testing out Joomla on a live server environment before committing to investing in a paid service.
- Great for getting to know how Joomla works by building your first website on a free hosting service.
- You only plan to run a small website which will use limited disk space, bandwidth and resources on the server.
- It’s normally very easy to setup Joomla as the hosting company will provide the option to install the CMS via Cpanel.
Disadvantages of using a free web hosting service
- The bottom line is paying customers will always come first. If you have a technical issue you may have to wait alot longer to get the problem resolved.
- Limitations will be in place based on the server resources you can use including the amount of bandwidth, disk space, MySQL databases, sub domains, email accounts you can setup and use.
- The website may not behave in the same way as it would by hosting the website on a paid plan.
- Popup advertisements used by the company to subsidise the service may appear on your website.
- You may have to use the company’s domain name in your website address.
- The website may experience more downtime compared to a paid service.
- The Joomla installers which are available to install via the hosting control panel can be outdated.
The list of advantages and disadvantages to support the case for free hosting could go on and on. Free web hosting is great for learning about and testing out Joomla to see what is has to offer. It’s also good for small websites and for people who don’t mind living with the limitations the service has to offer. However if you need support and want a stable environment to run your website then a free service may not be the right solution for you.
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We have put together a list of Joomla tips and tricks which we though you may find useful.
The tips and tricks included in this blog post are not intended for experts but for people just getting started with Joomla. Please also note the blog post does not cover everything, we have just picked out what we believe could be useful to you.
How do I Put my website in offline mode
Joomla gives you the option to put the website in offline mode. This feature is useful if your still developing the website and don't want to provide visitors with access to the website. You can still use all the functionality via the administrator area like creating menu items, categories, articles, installing extensions and so on. You can also see the changes you have made by logging into the front end of the website.
- Select the System menu and Global configuration menu item.
- Select the Site tab and you will the site offline option.
- To take the site offline choose the Yes option.
- You may also want to change the text which appears when people visit your website.
- You can also upload your business or website logo.
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Have you ever wondered how Joomla cache works and how you can speed up your website using the built-in caching features incorporated into Joomla? If yes then you may find the information included in this blog post useful.
How does caching work?
Every time someone visits your website Joomla has to generate a number of MYSQL database queries, read and process PHP code plus much more in order to render the website correctly for each website visitor.
All this takes time and impacts the speed of the website but you can reduce this overhead by up to 50% by enabling caching at the website.
Caching basically takes a snap shot of the website and stores all the information in a number of files which get stored and retrieved from the hard disks web hosting space.
This can make the website pages load up to 10x faster as there is no longer a requirement to generate as many MYSQL database queries or process as much PHP code in order to render the website. Some database quires will still get generated and some PHP code will still need to be processed but a lot less when you have cache enabled.
Useful information about the Joomla cache options
- By default caching is not enabled. You need to enable the built-in caching features included in Joomla.
- Cached content is only displayed to visitors who are not logged into the website. Logged in visitors will not be provided with the cached content.
- It does not apply to the Administrator area of the website.
- All cached content is stored and retrieved from the /cache/ directory.
- Caching is split into the following key areas page caching, View and Module caching.
- The system cache plugin takes precedence over global configuration and module cache settings.
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Before updating your website to the latest version of Joomla we recommend you consider the following tips and advice we have outlined in this blog post which you may find useful.
Scenario
You Log into the administrator area of the website and see the "red alert message" advising you to update the website to the latest version of Joomla.
You panic and click on update Now button.
After the update is complete you visit your website to ensure the update was successful and to your horror you get the "white screen of death" or the template, extension or module is no longer working as it's supposed to.
You contact the hosting company hoping they have a full backup of the website which you can recover from but they don’t have one.
You visit the Joomla forum, template, extension or module developer’s website looking for answers tying desperately to get the website back online.
We have all been there after doing a website update when it all goes badly wrong.
However you can avoid all this stress by following the simple tips outlined in this blog post before you click on the update now button.
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The default version of the robots.txt file has been updated as from Joomla 3.3 to make it more search engine friendly allowing Google to access and crawl the /media/ and /templates/ directories.
The old version of the file was basically stopping Google from crawling the /media/ and /templates/ directories and preventing Google from accessing the CSS, Java and image files.
The updates to the robotos.txt file is not applied automatically after you upgrade to the latest version of Joomla 3.
You will be required to manually make the changes to the file to allow google to crawl and index your website correctly.
Old version of the Robots.txt
As you can see from the screen shot below the old version of the robots.txt file is blocking Google from crawling the /media/ and /templates/ directories.
New version of the Robots.txt file
As you can see in the new updated version of the robots.txt file screen shot Google is allowed to access and crawl the /media/ and /Templates/ Directories.
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Is your Joomla website mobile friendly? If not then you need to make it a priority to ensure it is mobile ready.
The way people access and view websites has changed alot. In the past people visited websites using one device which was normally a laptop or desktop computer but all this has now changed.
People now visit and view websites using multiple devices including computers, tablets and smart phones which is why it is so important to provide your website visitors with the best possible user experience across all devices.
Why should you make your website mobile ready for website visitors
- You want to give website visitors the best possible user experience across all device screen sizes including computers, tablets and smart phones.
- According to Nielsen 80 percent of U.S. teens 14 to 17 own smartphones and more than 90 percent of them use them to watch videos and search the web online.
- According to Google 90% of people move between devices to accomplish a goal, whether that’s on smartphones, PCs, tablets or TV.
- Data from Adobe state Tablet users spend 50% more than PC users.
- In April 2015 Google announced that they are rolling out a algorithm update to reward mobile friendly websites in the search engine listings. They have also introduced mobile friendly labels which appear next to websites when you search for something in using a smart phone device.
- The latest version of Joomla 3 is by default mobile ready.
- Web site visitors expect to see a website automatically adapt to the device screen size they are using.
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Joomla is one of the most popular open source content management systems on the internet used by people around the world to create amazing websites. Whether you want to create a corporate site for your business or blog or maybe a community or directory website you can achieve this by using Joomla.
This blog post will outline some of the reasons why you should choose Joomla to create a new website.
Free to use
One of the great things about joomla is it's free to use and is released under the GNU General Public License. Once you have downloaded and installed the software via your website you can use it forever and you don’t have to worry about paying any license fees to use the software.
Install In 3 simple steps
The much improved installation process for the latest version of Joomla 3 makes installing the CMS at your website simple.
The installation process is split into three easy to understand steps.
Step one is the configuration tab where you enter details about your website including site name, site description, email address and the website super administrator user name and password.
Step two is the website database tab where you need to enter the MySQL database name, user name and password for the website based on the information you have setup via your web hosting space control panel.
Step three is the final stage where you get the option to populate the website database with sample data. Step 3 of the installation process also gives you the opportunity to review the website settings before you click on the installation button.
Read more: Eight Reasons Why You Should Choose Joomla To Create A Website
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Have you backed up your Joomla website? If not then it’s time to make it your number one priority. If anything should go wrong with the website and you need to recover it from a backup and you don't have one you may lose all your hard work and have to start all over again.
In this blog post we will guide you through how to take a complete backup of your website which includes all the Joomla files and the MYSQL database.
We have created a step by step video tutorial about this subject which you may find useful. Watch the video tutorial
Why do i need to backup my website
- The hosting company goes out of business and you need to move the website to another hosting company.
- The server has a hardware failure and the hosting company can only restore the website from backups they have taken 1 or 2 weeks ago.
- The hosting company may not have backups of the website or the backups could be corrupted.
- You install a Joomla template or extension and the website displays a white screen or PHP error.
- You upgrade one of the extensions, templates or modules at your website and get a white screen or PHP error.
- You click on the red button from the administrator area of your website which informs you to upgrade to the latest version of Joomla. After the upgrade some of the websites functionality is not working or you get an error message.
- Your website gets hacked.
The items listed above are just some of the reasons why you should get into the habit of doing a backup of your website.
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