--- title: "What\'s new in Joomla 5.0?" date: 2023-09-18 author: "Jeroen Moolenschot" intro_image: "https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/Joomla50.png" --- # What's new in Joomla 5.0? ![What\'s new in Joomla 5.0?](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/Joomla50.png) In October 2023, Joomla 5 was released. I hear you thinking "But my website has just been converted to Joomla 4, do I have to start all over again now?" I am going to answer that question in this article. ## Not again... [Joomla 4.0](https://www.joomill.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=299&catid=8%3Ablog&Itemid=2774) was released 2 years ago (17 August 2021) , after 6 years of development and endless discussions among themselves. Upgrading from Joomla 3 to 4 was already a bit easier than, say, from version 2 to 3, but it still took a lot of time and effort to transfer everything neatly. Immediately, 1 thing was clear. We don't want this to happen again. So a plan was made that a completely new version would be released every 2 years. By keeping the time span short, the step between versions would also become smaller, making upgrading a lot easier. ## Can I upgrade from Joomla 4 to 5 at the click of a button? It would be really nice if I could say YES to that right away, but the answer here still depends on your hosting party and the extensions installed. To start with the hosting party. It should support the following. PHP: 8.1+ Database: MySQL 8.0.11+, MariaDB 10.4+ or PostgreSQL 12+ In many cases, this will not be a problem, although I see several parties that do not yet offer this. Is it not possible at your hosting party? Then maybe it's time to look further and move your website to another hosting. Then your extensions. Here, my advice is to install as few extensions as possible. A lot can be done just within Joomla itself without using plugins. And if you do install something, do so only from known / active developers. If the extensions work on Joomla 4 (with PHP8.1 or higher) then chances are very good that it will also just work on Joomla 5. If the extension still contains code that is only suitable for Joomla 3, you may receive an error message. But there is a solution, a Compatibility plugin, which makes sure that this error message is bypassed. More information on that below. So can you upgrade at the click of a button? Most likely, yes. ## Many new features This release brings with it many code improvements and clean-ups, also a number of options will be added and new features. In this article, I'll show you key changes. For a complete list of all changes, check [Joomla's public Github repository](https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/milestone/63). ### Backward Compatibility- Behavioural plugin If you use extensions that do not use current Joomla coding standards, this plugin, if enabled, will provide backward compatibility with the previous main version. This plugin is automatically activated when you upgrade from Joomla 4 to 5. You can disable this plugin yourself and check if your website is still working properly. Eventually, your website will need to be able to work without this plugin if you need to upgrade to Joomla 6 in the future. If you have extensions that cannot work without this plugin, contact the developer. On a new installation of Joomla 5, this plugin is disabled. You can find more information about this plugin in the knowledge base article["Behaviour - Backward compatibility](https://www.joomill.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=242&catid=18%3Ajoomla-extensies&Itemid=2778)" ### Installation progress bar The current installation is rather opaque when it comes to the actual installation on the server. There is no real progress indicator, nor is it clear what Joomla is doing during installation. The moving Joomla logo during installation has therefore been replaced by a progress bar. ![joomla50 installation](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla50-installation.png) ### Administrator template in Dark Mode If you use dark mode on your device, the administrator template will automatically adjust. It will look like this. ![joomla50 atum darkmode](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla50-atum-darkmode.png) ![joomla50 atum lightmode](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla50-atum-lightmode.png) ### More fonts in Cassiopeia If you are using the default Joomla template cassiopeia, more fonts are now selectable. These are system fonts and therefore do not use Google Fonts or other external services. These fonts can be used as Header and/or Body text. You can experiment with the different fonts on this website: [https://modernfontstacks.com/](https://modernfontstacks.com/) ### Adjusting error messages 403 and 404 in Cassiopeia ![joomla50 404 original](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla50-404-original.png) The error page for the 403 and 404 pages can now be fully customised. To do this, create a new module and place it at the error-403 or error-404 position. ![joomla50 404 module](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla50-404-module.png) And on the website it will then look like this. ![joomla50 404 custom](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla50-404-custom.png) It's useful if you use this page to send people to the right page with links, a contact form, etc. ### Allow Joomla to be loaded from a public folder In Joomla 5, it is possible to perform the loading of the website from a public folder, a subfolder in the root. In this folder you will find an index.php, an administrator/index.php and an api/index.php with a few auxiliary files and symlinks. The other files from your Joomla installation can be found in an upper folder. ![joomla50 publicfolder](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla50-publicfolder.png) An advantage of this way of installation (which is currently only possible via the CLI) is that all parent folders and files are protected and can only be executed by Joomla itself. This makes your installation less vulnerable to malware and hackers. In the video below, Dimitris Grammatikogiannis takes you through the installation. {youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTQ12Qd47Pk} ### Rich Snippets - schema.org implementation Search engine robots like Google's, use structured data to generate rich snippets. Currently, Joomla! offers a feature for generating rich snippets, but it uses inline microdata that is difficult to modify from the backend because it is hard-coded into the HTML. Joomla 5 allows structured data to be added and configured from the Joomla backend, simplifying the optimisation of website content for search engines and improving website visibility in search results. To start, fill in the general (company) data at the System plugin - Schema.org ![joomla50 schemaorg systemplugin](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla50-schemaorg-systemplugin.png) Furthermore, a Schema tab can be found at articles. In this tab, you can choose a type. There is a choice of: BlogPosting, Book, Event, Vacancy, Organisation, Person, Recipe. Depending on your choice, the schema.org fields will now be displayed, such as (for recipe) preparation time, preparation, kitchen, diet, instructions, ingredients, etc. The entered information is not visible on the website for visitors but is only intended as structured data for search engines. The result may look like this on the search engine: ![joomla50 schemaorg resultaat](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla50-schemaorg-resultaat.png) ### Search in Custom Fields Finally! Custom Fields is one of the most powerful applications within Joomla and you can now search these custom fields. To do this, you do have to specify for each field whether you are allowed to search or filter on the values entered. You do this in the field's options. You can choose from: - Do not search - Make searchable - Add as taxonomy (filter within smart search) - Make searchable and add as taxonomy Then you need to re-index the smart search - results. Searchable: ![joomla50 cf search](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla50-cf-search.png) Taxonomy: ![joomla50 cf taxonomy](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla50-cf-taxonomy.png) ### ![joomla50 cf searchresult](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla50-cf-searchresult.png) ### Photos of contacts in search results In (smart) search results it was already possible to show intro images of articles, now you can also add contact photos to search results. ### Hide/show archived articles in search results The Smart Search - Content plugin includes a new option to show or hide archived articles in search results. ### SQL field customisation The SQL custom field is extended with a header. This text is used to select no value. ![joomla50 cf sql](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla50-cf-sql.png) ### Customise menu order in the sidebar You could always customise the menu items, but now it is also possible to move an entire menu. This is especially useful when you use many different menus. This video by Brian Teeman shows you how. ![joomla50 menuorder](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla50-menuorder.gif) ### Fontawesome 6 in Joomla 5 The icons used in the administrator have been converted from Fontawesome 5 to 6. As a result, they may look slightly different. The icons that are very different such as the dashboard icon in the left menu have been replaced with home-made svg files. ### 300 characters for meta description In Joomla 4, a restriction was imposed for the meta description of 160 characters, the rest of the text was truncated hard. This was done because Google uses around 160 characters. Some users struggled with this restriction so the number of characters was increased to 300 characters. Personally, I would stick to the 160 characters, although you can deviate from it a bit more now. ### Codemirror 6 The text editor Codemirror has been updated from version 5.65.12 to 6.0.0 ### TinyMCE editor 6.7 The standard TinyMCE text editor has been updated to version 6.7. This gives it a more modern look and makes use of the latest features. ![joomla50 tinymce](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla50-tinymce.png) ### Aligning images in TinyMCE Based on user feedback, the ability to add "Left, Right & Middle" alignment for images using the tinymce image button has been added. This way, you don't use inline styles. You can see how this works in this video by Brian Teeman. ### Password requirements and meter in profile page The profile page on the website allows users to change their password. In Joomla 5, you can now see the minimum password requirements and the indicator whether your entered password meets these requirements. ![joomla50 password editprofile](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla50-password-editprofile.png) ### Rights for user columns In the screen for user rights of a specific user, a smart change has removed 5 columns. They are "website login", "administration login", "web services login", "offline access" and "Superuser". This information has been moved to the top of the table. Since these settings apply to all options, there was no need to display these columns in their entirety. ![joomla42 gebruikersrechten](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla42-gebruikersrechten.png) ### Action Logs The following functions have been added to the action logs - User creates new custom field - User edits custom field - User is blocked - User is unblocked ### User not found When an author/user is removed from the website, you will see the message "user x not found". This error message is hidden from Joomla 5.0 onwards. It is not the case that an article is linked to another user, so technically an author is still missing. ### WebAuthn will be renamed Passkey "WebAuthn" is generic and confusing for end users. Passkeys are expected to become the standard way to log in. Microsoft, Apple and Google have already started offering passkey-only logins to their services. Joomla is therefore also going to use this term. ### AVIF support in media manager Avif files (an alternative to WebP) can now also be uploaded in Joomla's media manager. ## Custom Fields **Call2Action Titel:** Do you also want a faster website that is technically ready for years to come? **Call2Action Tekst:** Joomla offers top performance. Let's see together how we can safely take your site to this new level.