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You may be wondering whats happening with Joomla! these days.

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We waited three years for the release of Joomla! 1.6.

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But since January of 2011, a little under two years ago, we had four

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major versions of Joomla! released.

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What's up with Joomla!'s

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release cycle and all of these new Joomla! versions?

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What does this mean for you, your Web site, and your business?

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Shortly before the release of Joomla! 1.6,

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a new release cycle was announced by Joomla!'s Production Leadership Team or PLT.

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Previously, Joomla!'s new releases were driven by a list of features.

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The PLT would establish that list and when the list of features was done,

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software would be released.

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That meant there was a three year gap between Joomla! 1.5 and Joomla! 1.6

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which was not good in the fast-moving world of technology.

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So in late 2010 the PLT announced that they would move to a release cycle,

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releasing a new version of Joomla! every six months.

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What features were ready would be included in the new release.

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If features weren't ready then they would be incorporated in the next Joomla! release.

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A six month release cycle for a Web product is quite challenging.

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The PLT did recognize this, because most people don't want to make a major

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change to their Web site every six months.

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As a result they grouped three of the six month releases into a larger release cycle.

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The first two releases of the cycle are short-term releases.

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A short-term release is good for only seven months before the end of life.

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End of life is the point where the software is no longer supported, meaning no

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more security fixes are available for it.

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The third release of the cycle is the long-term release which is supported

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for at least 18 months.

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The start of the release cycle begins with a .0 release.

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This is where the new administrator template is released along with any changes

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to functionality that might break extensions.

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This is a short-term or seven-month release.

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The .1 release comes out six months later.

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It is anticipated that there will be mostly bug fixes in this release, but minor

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changes to the functionality are also typically included.

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This is also a short-term or seven-month release.

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The final release in the cycle is a .5 release, which is good for at least 18 months.

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This should be a very stable release, fixing more bugs from the first two

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releases and again introducing minor changes to functionality.

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This release cycle is the Joomla! 3.x cycle.

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Joomla! 3.0 was released in September 2012.

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Joomla! 3.1 will be released in March of 2013 and Joomla! 3.5

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will be released in September 2013.

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Joomla! 3.5 will reach its end-of-life around March 2015.

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With any release cycle the administrator interface should remain mostly the same.

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You may see minor additions to functionality, but you won't see a new

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administrator template, meaning a completely different look and feel for the

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configuration side of Joomla!, and most extensions should be compatible between versions.

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You may see a few extensions which break, but these will be very few.

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Upgrading between versions of Joomla!

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within a release cycle should be a simple one-click update.

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So what's the status of the current release cycle?

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There are two current versions of Joomla!

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available for you to use right now.

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Joomla! 2.5 is the current long-term release of Joomla!.

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It is recommended that sites currently running Joomla! 2.5

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should stick with that until Joomla! 3.5 is available.

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That promotes maximal stability to the Web site.


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Joomla! 3.0 is the start of the new release cycle.

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This version of Joomla!

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is still being debugged and new features are still being added.

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This is a less stable version of Joomla, but it does offer some advantages

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over Joomla! 2.5. Most notably Joomla! 3.0

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is mobile compatible out-of-the-box.

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It is also possible to design responsive Web sites using the bootstrap framework

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from Twitter, which ships with Joomla! 3.0.

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I'll be covering that in Joomla!

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responsive Web sites also available at lynda.com.

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Joomla! 1.5 which was an extremely popular version of Joomla!

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is no longer supported. Neither is

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Joomla! 1.0, 1.6, or 1.7.

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All of these versions of Joomla!

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should be migrated to Joomla! 2.5

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as soon as possible.

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Please see my video, Migrating from Joomla! 1.5 to Joomla! 2.5,

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available here at lynda.com to learn how to migrate your older Joomla!

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sites to the new version.

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Which version of Joomla! should you use?

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Well, it depends.

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Particularly, for those who are new to Joomla!, I recommend starting with

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Joomla! 2.5 while Joomla! 3.0

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is the current version of Joomla!.

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Joomla! 2.5 has the most documentation available and the most extensions as well.

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Joomla! 2.5 will be supported three months beyond the release of Joomla! 3.5.

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So it will be supported until sometime around December 2013.

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As time goes on you should start building new Web sites in Joomla! 3.1.

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The second release of the cycle, typically has fewer bugs and glitches.

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Plus, it has better support for extensions and templates.

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You'll also be on the path to move your site to Joomla!

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3.5 when it's available.

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If your site is currently running

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Joomla! 2.5, keep your site there until Joomla! 3.5 is available.

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How hard will it be to move your sites from Joomla! 2.5 to Joomla! 3.5?

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No one can say for sure at this point.

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However, everyone is hoping that this will be a straightforward move rather than

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the more difficult migration that happens when sites move from Joomla! 1.5 to Joomla! 2.5.