What's new in Joomla 3.4?

Last year, Joomla announced the new release cycle with an emphasis on releasing small regular updates instead of the complicated long/short updates. The release of 3.4 is coming a bit later than planned, but today (24 February 2015) we can expect the first stable version.

Improvements in the backend

While testing the beta version, I immediately noticed that the sidebar in the backend looks different. This bar can now be hidden by clicking on the X at the top right. This allows you to create more space for working.

Where did web links go?

Joomla included some pre-installed extensions that are not relevant for everyone. This makes the package bigger/heavier than actually needed. This is why we chose to decouple some components from the default installation. In Joomla 3.4, this is started with com_weblinks including all associated modules and plugins. When you update from an older version, weblinks (like all other extensions) remains visible as usual. If you still want to use weblinks, it can be found in the Joomla Extensions Directory.

Editing modules from the frontend

This isn't new, is it? True, editing modules from the frontend of your website was introduced in version 3.2. A big disadvantage was that to edit modules, you always had to access the backend. In Joomla 3.4, this changes. Thanks to a change in the system combined with new ACL options, it is now possible to edit the module in the frontend itself. With this, you can now give customers access to some modules without them having to get into the (for some customers, complicated) backend.

Further Microdata implementation

In Joomla 3.2, Microdata was used for the first time. Microdata is a way of imbuing content with certain information. Search engines such as Bing , Google , Yahoo! and Yandex rely on this markup and use it to improve the display of search results. In Joomla 3.4, more extensions will start using this markup.

The NoCaptcha plugin

Captchas are used, among other things, to prevent the automatic creation of accounts and placement of spam on websites. Google has developed a new captcha to distinguish humans from robots on websites, eliminating the need to retype distorted characters or solve a puzzle. When you use this plugin on your website, a large number of users are given the option to confirm that they are not a robot via a single click. If you want to use this plugin, read the article using reCAPTCHA spam protection in my knowledge base.

Composer integration

In the 3.3 release, Joomla introduced Framework code into the CMS; however, the way it is installed in the file system is not in line with how Composer installs code. For the 3.4 release, Joomla aims to integrate Composer into the CMS to manage external dependencies such as the Joomla Framework and PHPMailer.