Here's what's been added or changed in the K2 Plugin for sh404SEF with the release of v1.6.0:

• Resolve a function clash bug when using the plugin with K2 v2.10.3 and the "Advanced SEF" settings is enabled. Please keep in mind that if you use sh404SEF, you should not have the "Advanced SEF" settings enabled.
• Improved support for PHP up to 7.4 (mainly notices).
• Various others cleanups in the plugin's code.

DOWNLOAD

If you have an active "K2 Plugin for sh404SEF" membership, just head over to the Member Dashboard at https://www.joomlaworks.net/members and grab your copy from your "Subscriptions" page.

Or purchase this latest release from just 19.90 EUR. More info at: https://www.joomlaworks.net/extensions/commercial/k2-plugin-for-sh404sef

UPGRADING

Just upload the new version and it will overwrite any previous one.

For support questions please use our Ticket Support System inside the Member Dashboard at https://www.joomlaworks.net/dashboard (active product membership required).

And as we venture into Joomla 4 territory, instead of seeing performance improvements (finally) for the entire database scheme, we actually witness new ways to mess up performance (if that was even possible). Apparently the Joomla core team likes to exercise who knows PHP's syntax better instead of actually building working code that doesn't break for extension developers every so.

Oh well, we're used to the mess.

Back to our topic.

Wanna improve the performance of the Joomla article system, especially in sites that filter/order content in various ways? Well, for starters add a few indices to the "content" table, e.g. using phpMyAdmin.

ALTER TABLE `#__content` ADD INDEX `idx_publishup` (`publish_up`);
ALTER TABLE `#__content` ADD INDEX `idx_publishdown` (`publish_down`);
ALTER TABLE `#__content` ADD INDEX `idx_modifiedby` (`modified_by`);
ALTER TABLE `#__content` ADD INDEX `idx_created` (`created`);
ALTER TABLE `#__content` ADD INDEX `idx_modified` (`modified`);

Just remember to replace #__ with your actual database prefix for Joomla.

But what's the measurable improvement? Well, something like this after you apply the above changes (on a really busy site that sorts articles by published date, aka 99% of Joomla sites)...

Yeap.

And that's performance tip no.1. We'll come back with more in the future as we delve into the software architectural wonder that is Joomla 4.

Or do yourself a favour & switch to K2 which recently passed 4 million downloads, yeah! :)

To those who might say, hey why aren't you contributing that back to Joomla, well, our answer is that if you've ever contributed in Joomla, you know the painful process & bureaucracy and you juuuust might wish to keep your sanity.

Until next time.

Here's what's been added or changed (in more detail) with the release of v3.8.0:

• Re-instated Joomla 1.5 support.
• Added new sub-template for rendering YouTube Playlist feeds as a list of videos. This sub-template requires the use of our free plugin AllVideos to render the videos in a responsive format.
• Swapped Mobify with Images.weserv.nl (powered by CloudFlare) since the former was bought out by Salesforce and subsequently dropped.
• Improved compatibility with PHP 7.4.

The next update will offer compatibility with the upcoming Joomla 4 release (currently in "beta") and will also be tested against PHP 8.

Simple RSS Feed Reader is fully compatible with Joomla 1.5 to 3.x & PHP versions up to 7.4.

DOWNLOAD

You can download this version by visiting the product's page at: https://www.joomlaworks.net/extensions/free/simple-rss-feed-reader

UPGRADING

Simply install on top of any other 3.x release. The update will also appear in the Joomla extension updater (for Joomla v2.5 or newer).

DEMO

You can see a demo of the extension at: https://demo.joomlaworks.net and https://demo2.joomlaworks.net (right column on both sites)

Here's what's been added or changed (in more detail) with the release of v3.9.0:

• Fix the installer for Joomla 3.x on new installations. The introduction of support for Joomla 1.5 all the way up to 3.x unfortunately broke the installer for 3.x (oh, the irony) for new installations. Upgrades from previous versions to 3.8.0 had no issues for any Joomla release.
• Improved the image parser/extractor. Removed support for .bmp type images.
• Fixed various warnings/notices.

The next major update (v4) will offer compatibility with the upcoming Joomla 4 release (currently in "beta" and soon going into "RC" status) as well as entirely new layouts. ranging from simple lists to more complex grid layouts utilizing CSS grid properties.

Simple RSS Feed Reader is fully compatible with Joomla 1.5 to 3.x & PHP versions up to 8.0.

DOWNLOAD

You can download this version by visiting the product's page at: https://www.joomlaworks.net/extensions/free/simple-rss-feed-reader

UPGRADING

Simply install on top of any other 3.x release. The update will also appear in the Joomla extension updater (for Joomla v2.5 or newer).

DEMO

You can see a demo of the extension at: https://demo.joomlaworks.net and https://demo2.joomlaworks.net (right column on both sites)

For a detailed look on the new features and changes in v3.9.0, please have a look here: https://www.joomlaworks.net/blog/item/309-simple-image-gallery-pro-v3-9-0-released

SIGPro v3.9.1 released today adds a check if support of EXIF related functions is already built into your server's PHP setup. If not, any new features related to EXIF metadata which were introduced in v3.9.0 will simply be ignored.

For the record, affected users account to less than 0.2% in total of those upgraded to v3.9.0.

DEMO

The JoomlaWorks demo site has been updated to the latest Simple Image Gallery Pro release. Have a look here: https://demo.joomlaworks.net/simple-image-gallery-pro

DOWNLOAD

If you have an active Simple Image Gallery Pro membership, just head over to the Member Dashboard at https://www.joomlaworks.net/members and grab your copy from your "Subscriptions" page.

Or purchase this latest release from just 19.90 EUR. More info at: https://www.joomlaworks.net/extensions/commercial/simple-image-gallery-pro

UPGRADING

Just upload the new version and it will overwrite the old one.

For more help, please visit the updated documentation page for the extension at: https://www.joomlaworks.net/support/docs/simple-image-gallery-pro

For support questions please use our Helpdesk system included in your Member Dashboard at https://www.joomlaworks.net/dashboard (active product membership required).

Here's what's been added or changed in Simple Image Gallery (free) with the release of v4.2:

• Resolves fatal PHP error in Joomla 4 caused when a notice is raised, for example if a wrong gallery folder path was provided in the plugin's "gallery" tags. This was caused by the removal of the JError class in Joomla 4.

Simple Image Gallery is fully compatible with Joomla versions 1.5, 2.5, 3.x and 4.x.

DEMO

The JoomlaWorks demo site has been updated to use the latest Simple Image Gallery (free) release. See here: https://demo.joomlaworks.net/simple-image-gallery

DOWNLOAD

You can download this version by visiting the extension's page at: https://www.joomlaworks.net/extensions/free/simple-image-gallery

UPGRADING

If you use Joomla 2.5, 3.x & 4.x (beta) releases, this new update will appear in the Joomla extension updater. If you're using Joomla 1.5 you can simply upload the new version and it will overwrite the old one. After that step, visit the plugin's parameters page, check if everything is OK or adjust as needed and save the parameters.

The main features of this new admin module are:

• Less clicks to important content management and admin tasks in the Joomla 4 backend... duh!
• Neatly organize the menu in 2 columns (for admins), one to access common content management tasks and one to access common admin tasks. Keep in mind that not everything is included and for good reason: keep things simple.
• Respects configured backend access permissions for your user groups. In other words, plain content managers will see menu options for what they can only access, whereas Super Admins will see menu options for everything.

Grab the module from https://www.joomlaworks.net/extensions/free/quickmenu and install like any other Joomla extension.

Afterwards, look it up under Administrator Modules in the Joomla 4 backend, click to edit it, assign the module position "status" and publish the module. Done!

You new backend quick menu will now be available to use.

Quick Menu is compatible with Joomla version 4.x on servers running PHP 7 or 8.

DOWNLOAD

You can download this version by visiting the extension's page at: https://www.joomlaworks.net/extensions/free/quickmenu

UPGRADING

Updating is easy as future releases will show up in the extension updates page in Joomla.

They account for around 0.3% of ALL Joomla sites according to W3Techs (https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-joomla).

Joomla's official stats (which were introduced near the end of life of Joomla 3 - https://developer.joomla.org/about/stats.html) are far less accurate obviously (e.g. they don't account for Joomla 1.5 > 2.5 sites or older Joomla 3 releases) but still show around 10% of sites use Joomla 4/5, after 3 years of their release. And these stats can be disabled by users of Joomla sites (most do).

This means adoption for these versions is close to non-existent. A sad reality, but an understandable one (read my posts on May 30th at https://x.com/joomlaworks for additional context).

There is literally nothing to say about how things have evolved for Joomla.

At this rate, it will probably be a dead software project within the next couple of years.

It's not just the users that are de-motivated, it's the developers too (the Joomla core developers). Few people will enjoy working on Joomla if no one uses it. It just makes sense.

As such, and given that we're strongly invested in Joomla 3 (in some of the largest news/media site implementations worldwide with Joomla), we don't plan on giving up on K2 (or Joomla 3). In fact, our goal is to pivot and work on a possible fork, unless a miracle happens and the Joomla core team gets their shit together and works on a true/seamless Joomla 3 to Joomla 5 (or 6?) upgrade.

The fork is a reasonable path for us for many reasons but I'd list the following ones here (for now):

• It'll be exciting to go from K2 (a "half" CMS so to speak) to a full CMS. Any crap that didn't work or half-worked on J3 will be fixed.
• Sky's the limit. Really. No stupid politics, irrelevant conventions, idiotic patterns to follow. We have a clear goal for K2 (and Joomla) and that's what we're gonna work on. That goal is a fast, reliable. modern CMS that leaves people asking "why WordPress?"
• Some will nag Joomla 3 uses old code. No it doesn't. It uses a certain design that was popular at the time it was introduced. The only change that is required is for it to be updated so it catches up with PHP's latest versions (for the record, we actively run sites with Joomla 3 / K2 on PHP 8.2). It's a mature code base that can be gradually improved.
• The fork could be introduced in 2 phases. Phase 1: A re-branding for existing sites to move over their content from com_content to K2 (far less work than switching to Joomla 4/5) and existing Joomla/K2 sites to freshen up their backend. Phase 2: This would be the part we lighten up the core. This means com_content & components like banners, newsfeeds, messages etc., their respective modules and plugins and generally other accumulated crap (like User Notes) that literally noone ever used will be stripped off Joomla. Either way K2 can reproduce most of these stuff far better.
• Any design changes will be subtle and NOT affect existing Joomla extensions that respected the Joomla UI design. It will also certainly NOT affect extensions that brought in their own design/MVC and so on (think AcyMailing, page builders etc. etc.).
• If our friend Ryan provides his blessing, we would also love to swap the current Joomla WYSIWYG editor with JCE Core. If not, it's always available either way. We will just upgrade TinyMCE and still install our beloved JCE. This would also be a good time to standardize things like "editor xtd" buttons in a way that they better integrate with the WYSIWYG editor...
• Features and custom extensions we've used for large scale projects could be integrated in the new CMS, if it makes sense for most users to have. E.g. fast search powered by Elasticsearch is a no-brainer (and we can throw that Smart Search crap out for good).

The point is to do something that's fun, while professional at the same time.

Backward compatibility will be our holy grail. Anyone that tells it can't are either lazy or just plain bad programmers (hell, we've maintained K2 for Joomla 1.5 to 3 for 15 damn years).

We're already in touch with partners to finance this move. On the long term, all we need is a couple of devs, working full time.

The next big phase will be infrastructure as required for any modern CMS. That means rebuilding something like the JED, working on documenting use and code etc. At the same time, it's practical to keep everything to a minimum. E.g. there is no reason to use our own forum, but probably go for something like GitHub so we can have everything in a single place: code and discussion, coupled with solid anti-spam (cause let's face it, that's what forums suffer from these days).

By keeping things lean and simple, we will work less on infrastructure and more on the CMS's code and features.

If you ask "why now", I can respond with 2 things:

1) There's been plenty of time for people to switch to Joomla 4/5. Very few did.

2) It's MUCH worse waiting things out to chart their predefined course than actually fucking doing something about it, even if it fails or doesn't work out.

Follow up blog posts will provide more insight into how things will play out in the coming months and how others can join this effort.

P.S.

If you have any questions, please use Twitter/X to communicate these to us (@joomlaworks).