What's new in Joomla 5.3?

On 15 April 2025, Joomla 5.3 has been released, so if you have a website running Joomla version 4.x or 5.x, you can update your Joomla website with the click of a button. This release brings many small (code) improvements and a number of options and features will be added. In this article, I will show you the most important changes.

Send a test email in Joomla has been improved

Sending a test e-mail in Joomla can be done via System > General settings > Tab: Server

Nothing has changed on this screen but the operation of the button has been significantly improved.

You are probably used to the mail being sent fromThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and sent toThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. (in the above example).

From Joomla 5.3 onwards, the mail is sent fromThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. but the recipient is now the mail address of the user who clicks the button. This way, you can conveniently check whether the e-mail works, on your client's website for example, without the client having to ask whether the e-mail arrives. You will now receive the test email yourself.

View the history of scheduled tasks in Joomla

In the scheduled tasks screen (via system > Scheduled tasks), there is a new button to view the history of these tasks.

This button takes you to the page with all the times a scheduled task has been executed.

This overview gives you the following information (from left to right):

• Title of the task
• Type of task
• Total number of times executed
• Last execution
• How long this task took
• Exit code (status of the task) You can read more about these codes in the knowledge base article "scheduled tasks"
• Next execution.
• ID

You can delete the specific rules, or clear the complete history, using the buttons at the top of this page.

New folder for files in Joomla 5.3

When you need to upload files for your website, such as terms and conditions.pdf, a video or files that can be downloaded by the visitor, the images folder was quickly misused for this purpose. This doesn't always make sense of course, so in Joomla 5.3 a new folder has been added.

The files folder is a physical folder in your Joomla installation.

Within media management, this folder can also be called up.

This is how we keep the structure neat and tidy.

It is not possible to upload all file types directly, because of the security of your website.

Content > Media > Options (top right button) takes you to the settings of this section, where you have to add the correct values at Allowed extensions, Allowed document extensions (file types), Allowed MIME types.

In this same screen, you also need to adjust the Path to file folder. This defaults to "images" and you can now change it to "files".

Read more in Articles - News flash module

A new setting allows site administrators to show or hide the article title in "Read more" links.

HTML Email templates - Improved

The email template view now has access to template parameters, making it easier to customise outgoing messages.

Add a temporary debug line in layouts/joomla/mail/mailtemplate.php around line 34: var_dump($extraData);die();

PHP 8.4 compatibility

Joomla 5.3 includes important changes to ensure compatibility with PHP 8.4, which helps keep the site ahead of future updates. See: https: //github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/45255

Minor tweaks:

In addition to the above innovations, minor tweaks have also been made.

• The user filter in Action Log has been changed to User field-type
• The overrides screen now shows original files and differences when you have created a plugin override.
• Better handling of tag aliases, SEF URLs and improved detection of infected URLs make your site's links more consistent and SEO-friendly.
• Joomla continues to transition to 'typed event classes' in core plugins, improving readability and IDE support.
• When you edit a contact page in the frontend, this is now properly reflected in action logs.
• Icons in the contact component are now fully accessible to screen readers, improving the experience for all users.
• Email addresses in results in com_finder are now better protected.
• When Slim Search plugins are disabled, you now get the following notification in the Slim Search component. "The Smart Search plugins are disabled. Content changes will not update the Smart Search index if you do not enable these plugins."
• The accessibility plugin has been updated to Sa11y 4.0.3