Are you using the latest Joomla version of 2016 – Upgrade or Not To Upgrade?

With the onset of new-year 2016, Joomla community is coming up with latest versions in the market. As an experienced and leading website design and development company from India, NCode believes in sharing the information with its network. It’s our interest and mission to keep our users updated about the latest technological advancements in the website design and development segment.

The software world has taught us the basic thing that one should always keep their software upgraded to the latest version. The simple concept behind keeping the software version up to date is to get the latest features, bug resolution and newer functionalities. Those who keep their software upgraded their systems slowly and gradually start becoming more vulnerable and susceptible to attack. The simple and practical solution to keep your systems unaffected is to always keep the software upgraded the latest version. Some of the users also believe that until and unless the latest version has received complete reviews, they keep the host system one or two previous versions of the software. It is a common fear among all users that may be the latest version is not compatible with the entire system or new features and functionalities may disrupt their complete list of configurations. Gone are the days when software developers introduced versions which gave shock to the user communities across the globe, nowadays before releasing any new software, it is completely tested and then released.

Most of the small and large companies take the upgrade decisions based on the requirements and availability of functionalities of their interest in the latest version. When the first version of Joomla 3.0 was released in 2012, the previous version Joomla 2.5 version was more stable and long term support (LTS) version. Though 3.x was a short term support version, it had many new essential features which were highly required in the market. Some of the major features that were covered in 3.x version are jQuery support, smart device responsiveness, and Bootstrap support. Currently, both the Joomla versions 2.5 and 3.0 have reached to an EOL (end of life) level. The Joomla project has also confirmed the same on 31st of December, 2014 that they are no more offering any kind of features, security update or bug fixes on the Joomla 2.5 version.

The last version that was rolled out last year, i.e. February 24, 2015 is the Joomla 3.4. Users who have already upgraded to the latest version can hereafter upgrade using the single click option, but those who are under 3.3 will need 5.3.10 or higher version of PHP to upgrade. However, the latest version 3.4 of Joomla does not support PHP 7 so Joomla has to come up new versions in 2016. The Joomla team is planning to release the J3.5 version in the first quarter of 2016. It is a busy year for the Joomla development team as they are planning to take the Joomla versions up to 3.10 in 2016. Following is the features list of each version given below. Refer to the link below for the updates on release dates:
Joomla 3.5

• PHP 7 Support
• Non-Backward Compatibility
• New update email plugin
• Joomla Statistics
• Drag and Drop images

Joomla 3.6

• Hypermedia API (web services)
• Removal of unnecessary sample data
• New MVC
• Translator

Joomla 3.7

• Enhanced installation experience
• Latest Media Manager
• Advanced extension decoupling

Joomla 3.8

• Enhancement of SEO and SEF URLs
• Innovating routing options and maintaining backward compatibility

Joomla 3.9

• Improving media manager
• Exploring additional media types and embedding options

Joomla 3.10

• Create new administrator template
• Replace two current administrator template

Some of the core and major features have been covered in the above versions. If you need detailed information about the release dates and compatibility details, then clicK here to visit the official Joomla website