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Evolution Changelog

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  • Version 6.2.0

    First Joomla 6 native release. Evolution has been rebuilt for Joomla 6.2.0 + PHP 8 + Bootstrap 5. The previous download is the vendor's Joomla 3-era package (evolution.zip, version string 26.07.2024 5.1.2), and everything below is measured against it. Every Joomla 3 class call is gone (295 in the previous download, 0 now), the module styles no longer depend on MooTools, the template options use Joomla's own on/off switches and a modern colour picker, every template setting written into the page is escaped, the desktop page is 1170 px wide instead of a fixed 940 px, and there is a phone layout with a slide-out menu and a fingertip-sized toolbar. Joomla 6's Bootstrap 5 replaces the template's Bootstrap 2; the template's own markup keeps its Bootstrap 2 classes and renders through a compatibility stylesheet. The Camera slideshow stays. Template files: 362 → 261, with 10 added, 111 removed and 29 modified. The template version is now 6.2.0, matching the Joomla version it ships with.

    Added

    Bootstrap 5 rendering through a compatibility stylesheet

    • index.php loads Joomla 6's bundled Bootstrap 5 (/media/vendor/bootstrap/css/bootstrap.min.css) in place of the template's own Bootstrap 2 sheets (css/bootstrap.css, the css/bootstrap/ folder) and js/bootstrap.min.js.
    • New css/bs2-donor-base.css, loaded right after Bootstrap 5 and before the template's own CSS. It carries the Bootstrap 2 form rules and base typography the design was built on (heading top margins, form fields, definition-list spacing), so headings and article-info rows keep their spacing on Bootstrap 5.
    • New css/bs2-bs5-bridge.css, linked after the template's own stylesheets on every page, with a file-time version marker. It lets Evolution's Bootstrap 2 markup render correctly on Bootstrap 5:
      • Bootstrap 2 grid: .row-fluid / .spanN widths and gutters, nested spans, row clearfix and phone stacking of span columns.
      • The Bootstrap 2 responsive utilities (hidden-phone, visible-phone, hidden-tablet, visible-tablet, hidden-desktop, visible-desktop), tab panes, collapse, .well / .page-header and Bootstrap 2 base typography.
      • Joomla 4+ icon classes (pagination arrows, the password eye and others) mapped to Font Awesome 6 glyphs, and the Bootstrap 2 glyphicon sprite, which Joomla 4 removed from media/jui/, now ships with the template (css/img/glyphicons-halflings.png, -white.png).
      • Evolution's own adjustments for its header, drop-down menus, login pop-up, footer copyright and slideshow caption.
    • New js/cs-jq-compat.js: restores the jQuery 1.x calls that Joomla 6's jQuery 3.7 removed but the bundled Camera slideshow still uses.
    • Font Awesome 6.5.2 (all.min.css + v4-shims.min.css from cdnjs) on the front end, and in the Template Options screen, where the icons stopped loading because Font Awesome 4.6.3 came from MaxCDN, which no longer serves it. The fa fa-* class names keep working through the shims.

    Phone layout

    • The previous download drew the page at a fixed 940 px at every screen width (css/responsive.css pinned the container). Phones now get a phone layout.
    • New js/cs-mobile.js. On phones (up to 767 px) a menu button in the header, filled in the template's blue (#015a77) with white bars, opens the main menu as a slide-out panel, with submenus opening in place.
    • A phone toolbar of 44×44 px buttons in the same blue: the account button, Register, Search, the social links and a second menu button that opens the sidebar's Main Menu with all its sub-levels. The sidebar copy of that menu is hidden on phones, so the page does not show it twice.
    • Opening a phone panel dims the page below the button row only; the logo, menu button and button row stay clear. Tapping outside an open panel closes it.
    • The slideshow caption sits between the slideshow arrows on a phone, so the "Learn more" button is not covered when a slide changes.
    • Login and registration fields use 16 px text, so iPhones no longer zoom the page in when you tap them.

    Login form

    • The login pop-up is a Bootstrap 5 modal (data-bs-toggle / data-bs-target, modal-dialog-centered) in place of the Bootstrap 2 modal driven by jQuery. It keeps the dark panel of the original design.
    • On the login and registration pages the show password eye sits inside the password field, and every field of a form takes the same height.

    Favicon

    • A Favicon tab in the template options (fieldset faviconsettings, fields favicon and favicontool, field class fields/favicontool.php). Pick one image and the template outputs the icon set (phFaviconSet(), phIcoBytes() in index.php). With thanks to Gianluca, whose favicon question inspired this tool.
    • 10 language strings (TPL_EVOLUTION_FAVICON_*, TPL_EVOLUTION_FAVICONTOOL_*). The language file goes from 66 to 76 strings.

    Modern social network support

    • Eight additional social services, each with its own URL field and show/hide switch: Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest and Discord. The icons are Font Awesome glyphs.
    • The Twitter slot is now X (formerly Twitter) with the X logo (fa-x-twitter). The full set is X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Vimeo, Pinterest, Discord and RSS.
    • The social links open with rel="noopener".

    Template options (administrator)

    • Custom CSS field (customcss), and support for a css/custom.css file. Both load after the compatibility stylesheet, so your rules win. The field is stored in the database.
    • Coloris colour picker (fields/colorpicker.php, js/coloris.min.js, css/coloris.min.css) on 42 colour fields, in place of the old jscolor picker.
    • New fields/adminui.php: help rows in the options run the full width of the form, and the template's Details panel follows Joomla's light or dark admin theme.

    Changed

    Joomla 6 platform

    • Built for Joomla 6.2.0 (previous download: Joomla 3-era), with no need for Joomla's Backward Compatibility plugin.
    • templateDetails.xml version 26.07.2024 5.1.2 → 6.2.0 and creation date 2026-11-06. The version shown in the template description (6.2.0 (2026-11-06)) matches. method="upgrade" is kept, so an existing install updates in place.
    • The compatibility stylesheet css/bs2-bs5-bridge.css is at revision 2026-10-24.163, with every Evolution-specific block carried over.

    Page width

    • Desktop pages are 1170 px wide (from 1200 px screens up), like every current Energize Themes template; the template was a fixed 940 px page. The boxes inside the page keep the original design's inset, and the background artwork is stretched to the wider frame. Screens between 980 and 1199 px keep the template's own layout.

    J3 → J6 API migration

    • Joomla 3 static class calls: 295 → 0. Each moved to its namespaced Joomla 4+ form (JText → Text, JRoute → Route, JHtml → HTMLHelper, JFactory → Factory and the rest).
    • Heaviest live files: html/mod_login/default.php (20), error.php (11), html/com_search/search/default_form.php (9), index.php (7), html/pagination.php (3). In total 21 of the 34 PHP overrides changed.
    • JHtml behaviour calls: 27 → 1 (behavior.keepalive). The calls Joomla 4+ removed (behavior.tooltip, behavior.formvalidation, behavior.modal) are gone.
    • html/mod_search/default.php read the module class suffix from a Joomla 3 variable; it now reads it from the module parameters.

    Template options (administrator)

    • 32 on/off settings that were legacy type="checkbox" fields are now Joomla's radio switcher (for example H1TitleImgText, H2TitleImgText, RSSON, cam_autoAdvance, cam_hover). The template has no legacy checkboxes left.
    • The text fields that held a colour are now colour pickers (83 text fields → 41; 42 colour pickers).
    • Template options: 131 → 134 fields, 7 → 8 tabs.
    • A fresh install links the logo / site name to the home page and starts with the built-in slideshow switched on, autoplaying on desktop and phones (logoLinked, cam_turnOn, cam_autoAdvance, cam_mobileAutoAdvance default to on; they were off). Existing sites keep their saved settings.

    Menus and scripts

    • The desktop drop-down menus no longer use the Superfish and Supersubs scripts. They open with CSS, with a small hover-class helper in js/cs-mobile.js.
    • The collapsible module styles html/layouts/chromes/toggleModule.php and toggleModule2.php are plain JavaScript with the same behaviour; they were written for MooTools, which Joomla 4+ does not load (MooTools addEvent calls: 6 → 0).
    • The Camera slideshow scripts (js/camera.js, js/camera.min.js) stay. The jQuery Mobile build is no longer loaded.
    • The module styles slides, vmdefault, toggleModule and toggleModule2 live in html/layouts/chromes/, where Joomla 4+ looks for them.

    Fixed

    Pages that failed on Joomla 4+ and PHP 8

    • Error pages: error.php used JError and JText. With Joomla's Behaviour - Backward Compatibility plugin off, and always on Joomla 6, Joomla could not render any error page, so every "page not found" became a 500. error.php now renders "page not found" and "access denied" inside the template's own page, with the site's header, menus and footer, and answers with the right status code. Server errors (5xx) use Joomla's own minimal page.
    • Error pages and server details: an error caused by a missing item no longer prints the server's file paths and a technical trace.
    • Paginated views: html/pagination.php checked $page['data']['active'] on a string, a fatal TypeError on PHP 8, so any paginated blog or list view returned a 500. Both dead blocks are removed.
    • Collapsible module style: html/layouts/chromes/toggleModule.php had a PHP parse error (a premature close tag stranded $headerLevel and the if( as text). A module assigned that style produced a blank page.

    Logo and slogan

    • The logo and the slogan both link to the home page. The slogan had no link at all, and the logo's link setting did nothing unless the template style had been saved once. The link is now on unless you switch it off.
    • On a site installed at the domain root, the logo link pointed at the current page; it now always goes to the site's home page.

    Login pop-up

    • The X that closes the login pop-up is clear again. The pop-up's old "Close" button sat on top of it and cut through it at every screen width; that button is hidden (the X closes the pop-up), and the X is white on the dark desktop pop-up.

    Drop-down menus

    • Drop-down menus no longer close before you can reach them. On desktop, moving the mouse from a menu heading down to its drop-down crossed a gap where neither was hovered. The gap is bridged with a transparent area, so the menu's spacing and appearance are unchanged.

    Maintenance pass

    • The two @font-face blocks in css/template.css pointing at Joomla 3's media/jui/fonts/ IcoMoon font, which Joomla 4 removed, are disabled: no more failed font requests on every page.
    • Pagination arrows: Joomla 4+'s icon-angle-left / -right / -double-left / -double-right buttons had no mapping in the template's icon CSS, so they showed no arrow. They now show Font Awesome 6 arrows.
    • Featured articles: in a one-column featured (home) view, tall intro articles were clipped to their title. They now show in full.
    • Search button: the global button margin could pull a search button away from its box; search buttons now have margin:0.
    • With thanks to Michael Mullan, whose Expression bug report led to this maintenance pass across our templates.

    Removed

    Files removed (111 from the previous download)

    • Bootstrap 2: css/bootstrap.css, the seven files in css/bootstrap/ (bootstrap.css, bootstrap.min.css, bootstrap-extended.css, bootstrap-responsive.css, bootstrap-responsive.min.css, bootstrap-rtl.css, bootstrap-tooltip-extended.css), js/bootstrap.min.js and the fixed-width css/responsive.css. Joomla 6's Bootstrap 5 and the compatibility stylesheet take their place.
    • Other stylesheets (css/, 14 files in all): css/ie.css, css/ie6.css, css/ie8.css, css/blog.css and css/slideshow.css, none of which the page used.
    • Scripts (js/ 29 → 7 files, 25 removed): jquery-1.8.1.min.js, jquery.noConflict.js, jquery.mobile.customized.min.js, superfish.js, supersubs.js, hoverIntent.js, dropkick.js and jquery.dropkick-1.0.0.js, jquery.backstretch.min.js, jquery.elevateZoom-3.0.8.min.js, jquery.equalHeights.js, jquery.nicescroll.min.js, jquery.plusanchor.js, jquery.selectric.js, jquery-eu-cookie-law-popup.js, modernizr.js, owl.carousel.min.js, scrollReveal.min.js, selectivizr-min.js, easypaginate.js, flexibility.js, imgSizer.js, parallax.js and tipz.js. Joomla 6's own jQuery still loads for the Camera slideshow and the login pop-up. The remaining scripts are camera.js, camera.min.js, jquery.easing.1.3.js, selectnav.min.js and the three added files.
    • html/modules.php: Joomla 3-style module chrome functions built on MooTools; Joomla 4+ uses the layout chromes in html/layouts/chromes/.
    • Override folders Joomla never loaded (the leading underscore makes Joomla ignore them): html/_com_contact/ (18 files), html/_com_users/ (20), html/_com_newsfeeds/ (10), html/_com_weblinks/ (10) and html/_mod_menu/ (5). They called Joomla 3 classes and would have failed if anyone had renamed them.
    • Two archives that had been left in the package: js.zip and html/com_content/category/blog_item.zip.
    • utils/admin-js.js (a Joomla 3-era admin script for the old checkbox switches) and the old utils/js_colourchanger/ colour picker (jscolor.js and its four images).

    Unused code

    • Settings code in index.php that could never run: the sitewidth line and the breadcrumbcolor rule, which printed color: ;.
    • In component.php: three Internet Explorer 6/7/8 conditional-comment links to the removed css/ie*.css, and the runtime web-font loader block (WebFontConfig), which printed nothing.
    • The Font Awesome 4.6.3 link to MaxCDN in templateDetails.xml, replaced by Font Awesome 6.5.2 from cdnjs.

    Retired settings

    • Five social slots removed with their switches: Google+, StumbleUpon, Digg, Blogger and MySpace.
    • The settings that went with the old drop-down menu script (dropheight, dropwidth, dropopacity, dropspeed, dropdownhandler1) and the colours_handlers picker spacer.
    • Two Template Options fields that no code had ever read, so they never changed anything on the site (also not in the vendor's 5.1.2): Button Background Color (buttonbackground) and Button Text Color (buttontextcolor).

    Security

    • Output helpers added in index.php, 149 helper calls across the template (none in the previous download). Every template setting written into the page is escaped for where it lands:
      • phEsc(): HTML text and attributes.
      • phRichText(): the site-name and slogan fields, which may contain simple markup. Joomla's input filter keeps the markup but strips scripts, styles, iframes and on* event handlers.
      • phHexColor(), phCssToken(), phCssNum(), phCssDim(), phCssFont(), phCssSelector(), phCssUrl(): colours, sizes, fonts, selectors and image URLs written into the page's CSS.
      • phJsStr(), phJsLit(): values written into the slideshow's inline JavaScript.
    • Raw echo $this->params->get(…) output in index.php: 115 occurrences (on 100 lines) → 2 occurrences (on 2 lines), the Header and Footer Custom Code fields, which are administrator-only by design.
    • The logo and slogan image alt text is plain escaped text instead of the raw rich-text field. Module titles, menu items and module content written into attributes are escaped in the module chromes (slides, vmdefault, toggleModule, toggleModule2) and in mod_menu, mod_login, mod_search and mod_articles_latest. The social link addresses are escaped.
    • The error page no longer prints the server's file paths or a stack trace.
    • Every PHP file in the template (41) stops unless Joomla loads it (defined('_JEXEC') or die).

    Quickstart

    The previous download came with an Akeeba Backup archive (.jpa) that had to be restored with Kickstart. The quickstart is now a complete Joomla 6.2.0 site with Evolution pre-configured as the active template, installed with Joomla's own web installer; it replaces the Akeeba archive.

    • Bundled extensions: Akeeba Backup Core 10.5.0, StageIt 6.6.2, Web Links 5.2.0 and the English (en-GB) language pack 6.2.0.1. Evolution is installed as its package, pkg_evolution 6.2.0.
    • The site is not a shop: no VirtueMart and no K2.
    • The demo slideshow shows on the home page only, and its three "Learn more" buttons open the Getting Started article. The target they pointed at did not exist.
    • The Smart Search index is built, so the site search returns results from the first visit.
    • The site's logo links to the home page and the slideshow is switched on (logoLinked is saved as on in the template style).

    Package format

    • Standalone template: now a Joomla package, pkg_evolution-6.2.0.zip (pkg_evolution.xml), that installs the Evolution template (tpl_evolution.zip) and registers it in the package manager. It declares method="upgrade", so an existing Evolution updates in place, and <blockChildUninstall>true</blockChildUninstall>, so the template is removed through the package rather than on its own.
    • Quickstart bundle: a complete Joomla 6.2.0 install with Evolution pre-loaded as the active template.
    Earlier history and version numbering: the previous download was the vendor's package dated 26.07.2024 (5.1.2); no earlier release notes for Evolution are published on this store. From 6.2.0 the first three digits of the template version match the Joomla release it is built for; a later fix on the same Joomla release adds a fourth digit (6.2.0.1).

Changelog entries prior to this release are not available.