Joomla! 3.9 Released

It’s a good day for the Joomla Project, as today we proudly announce the release of Joomla 3.9 – ‘The Privacy Tool Suite’ - marking the tenth minor release in the 3.x series.

We hope you’re sitting comfortably, because this new release packs in more than 250 improvements for the Joomla CMS – central to which is a full privacy tool suite, which will make site compliance faster and simpler (not to mention the lives of developers a whole lot easier)! With so much ground to cover, we’d better get to it. So …

What’s new in Joomla 3.9?

Here are just some of the new features …

The Privacy Tool Suite by Joomla

User Consents - Make light work of data privacy requirements Need users to consent to your privacy policy and/or terms and conditions? With Joomla 3.9, it’s all handled automatically. Simply and easily set up your core forms to request consent before collecting any personal data. You can also set up a time-based privacy consent expiration. The system will let you know if and when you need to contact your users to renew consent. Track user consents, manage site policy changes and much more besides, all with a glance at your dashboard.
User information requests? Easy-peasy Track and manage information access or removal requests from your users, seamlessly. Once a request is made, just log in, export their data and/or remove them. User data removal requests are all handled automatically, with all personal data anonymized without you needing to lift a finger. Never forget a request again. Just set Joomla 3.9 to remind you.
Extension Capabilities - Put your users in the picture when it comes to privacy... Extension developer – give your potential users a helping hand, by making it clear what data your extension collects. When you want to report functionality in your extensions that may need privacy consideration, simply use the new Plugin Event (onPrivacyCollectAdminCapabilities). With this simple action, your users gain a clear understanding of your extension, and whether they’ll need to amend their own documentation, such as their privacy policy or terms of service.
User Actions Log - Know who’s done what, and when Want to know what administrative actions have been performed on your site? Thanks to Joomla 3.9, Super Users can easily see which user did what, and when. And it also works with supported extensions! Review the action log, export it and purge the entries. You’ll never miss a trick, thanks to the latest actions module that can be added to your control panel. Need more? Then enable the new log rotation plugin – this will allow you to rotate and remove your log files.

Joomla 3.9 is about more than Privacy

Content management made fast and easy – little features, that make a big difference
- Add notes to your articles in the backend, and filter them #19134
- A new search feature in the backend: search for a specific article content #20083
- Load a module by ID into your article #19362

More flexibility for custom fields with two new options
- Create alternative layouts to fit your needs #18571
- A new search feature in the backend: search for a specific article content #20083

Most recent frontend changes
- Display the intro or full image in your newsflash module #20169
- Show only the articles from a specific author in your latest articles module (#20687), and more options!

New features for multilingual sites
- A new toolbar button to edit associations #21022
- Propagate existing associations #21321
- Display your tags per language #19509

Use Google Invisible reCAPTCHA on your websites #18146

Argon2id Password is now supported #20855

Visit GitHub for the full list of bug fixes.

Click here for full release information.

We are familiar with the implementation of the upgrade and are currently upgrading multiple sites CONTACT US for a free proposal to update your site.

It's extremely important to keep your Joomla installation, and extensions up to date to minimise the risk of your site being compromised, you should also check that you are not using vulnerable extensions by visiting Joomla! Vulnerable Extensions List.

Many site owners are totally unaware of the status of their Joomla websites, databases, and hosting environments, the potential risks of being compromised, and the implications of private personal data held. Also many site owners are paying extortionate hosting fees for below standard services running on out of date and insecure hosting environments.

To get your Joomla site stable, secure and up to speed we recommend a Full audit of the Joomla Website and Hosting including extensions, templates, overrides, SEO status, page delivery speed status, configuration and security. Following the audit and testing you will receive a detailed report including the status of your site and your hosting along with detailed recommendations and options for updating your site including templates and extensions You can then address the issues yourself, use your existing developer or use our Joomla Specialist services to ensure that your site is stable and secure and your hosting is adequate and configured correctly.

Our Full audit of a Joomla Website and Hosting includes access to our secure private Joomla support helpdesk website where all analysis, testing, recommendations, and changes are documented in detail. You can also use of our ticketing system where bugs can be reported, questions asked, and additional features can be requested.

We manage, maintain and update hundreds of Joomla websites, to discuss your Joomla website update and website maintenance needs or anything Joomla related CONTACT US