Joomla 4.2 Released

The Joomla! Project is thrilled to announce the feature-packed and timely release of Joomla 4.2. This release continues Joomla 4's high standards in accessible web design and brings exciting new features, highlighting Joomla's values of inclusiveness, simplicity and security into an even more powerful open-source web platform.

With Joomla 4.2, codenamed Uaminifu, we have new and improved features for bloggers and authors, web designers, extension developers and web agencies.

The highlights are:

Keyboard Shortcuts

With the new keyboard shortcuts, you can save time and become more productive.

There are 9 built into the administrator side of your site such as J + F to jump into the search field or J + S to save

And the great news is that other extensions are able to add their own shortcuts as well. Pressing J + X to get a list of them all. The keystrokes are all sequential, making it more accessible than hitting them simultaneously.

Multi-factor Authentication

Until now, Joomla only offered 'Two-Factor' Authentication; with 'Multi-factor' Authentication, we are taking site access security one step further by allowing you to choose different authentication mechanisms to secure your site. You can choose to use a Yubi-key, Web Authentication, a verification code, or a code by email.

The way Multi-factor Authentication works is that you first log in with your username and password. After that, you are presented with another screen to enter your second authentication method.

This means that you will no longer be able to enter your two-factor authentication code on the same page as the login page.

What's new in Joomla 4.2?

• Keyboard Shortcuts for Accessibility
• ulti-Factor Authentication (replaces Two-Factor Authentication)
• Windows Hello support in WebAuthn
• User-defined hide table columns
• Allow typing in the media field
• Indicate if the category is not published
• Allow to disable session metadata tracking for guest users
• Reduce the number of permission columns
• Smart Search: Allow fuzzy word matching
• Package filter in the Extensions: Manage page
• What's been improved in Joomla 4.2?
• Accessibility plugin - update and fixes
• Joomla Updater improvements
• Improved the extension installer to be more robust and here
• Added permissions (ACL) to Media Manager actions
• Added Save button to front-end article editing to save and stay in the article
• Added ordering parameters to web service requests
• Upload button only available once the user clicked the checkbox that they are prepared
• Enabled use of Form::process() in FormModel
• Convert log type field to fancy select
• Enqueue requests made from QuickIcon plugins
• Made Media Manager Folder Selectory accessible
• Workflow Notification no recipient

And many more!And many more!

We are firmly committed to making the next generation of Joomla the best. These features have been committed to version 4.2.

Click here for full release information.

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. 

For Joomla version updates order our Joomla Specialist Support and Maintenance service and submit a ticket on our helpdesk.

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.

If you are considering major updates and getting your site stable, fast, secure and to the Latest Joomla version see our Joomla Website and Hosting Audit service

 Once you become a customer you get access to a Highly Experienced Joomla Developer and;

• Access to our secure private support helpdesk site where access credentials are kept along with tasks and changes which are documented in detail.
• Use of our ticketing system where bugs can be reported, questions asked, and additional features can be requested.

Supporting, building, hosting, maintaining and optimising and all kinds of Joomla websites since 2005 we have gained vast experience. This combined with our Joomla Website Support System enables us to work very efficiently with any Joomla related project.

We have worked on several hundred Joomla websites ranging from sites with a few pages to sites with several hundred thousand pages including multi language sites. Taking on all kinds of Joomla related projects, including;

• Adding additional functionality.
• Adding content delivery networks.
• Adding E-Commerce along with shopping carts.
• Adding multiple anti-spam solutions.
• Adding payment gateways.
• Adding user management and subscription memberships.
• Building new Joomla websites.
• Customising Joomla extensions.
• Customising Joomla templates.
• Developing all kinds of forms including API integrations and auto field population using GeoIP services.
• Developing custom Joomla extensions.
• Developing custom Joomla templates.
• Implementing GDPR compliance.
• Implementing HTTP security headers.
• Joomla Extension Installation and configuration.
• Joomla Installation and configuration on your hosting.
• Joomla search engine marketing,
• Joomla search engine optimisation.
• Joomla site backup restoration on your hosting.
• Joomla version updates
• Joomla website speed optimisation.
• Making Joomla websites responsive and mobile friendly.
• Malware removal including file and database cleanup.
• Migrating existing websites to Joomla including WordPress and none CMS websites.
• Producing AMP versions of Joomla websites.
• Resolving security-related issues.
• SSL certificate installation.

along with support and training, and anything required to keep Joomla Websites fast, functional, secure, and stable. 

Prior to making any changes to your Joomla website;

• We ensure you have an adequate backup system in place and take a backup of the site and database. Our preferred backup component is Akeeba Backup Professional for Joomla! (Commercial License $55), If your site doesn't already have it we will Install and configure it on your website.
• When a site has major issues or requires major extension upgrades, major Joomla version upgrades, template or template framework upgrades, major PHP version changes etc.. we clone the site and produce a test site to test changes prior to making changes to your live site. We are very experienced and understand which updates are safe and which updates cause problems. We prefer to put a test site on a sub domain to achieve some separation from a live site but this all depends on your hosting setup.

We have several VPS servers including a development Ubuntu/Plesk server with big storage attached where most Joomla sites we manage transfer an encrypted backup to each day. Apart from backup storage this is very useful to spin up a copy of a site for development, Joomla or PHP updates etc. This is useful if your host only allows one database for example and a test site is required for major updates, also on some occasions we have set up an older PHP version that most hosts don't allow so we can restore an old broken site for development.

Please note that even though we produce and maintain Joomla websites in multiple languages for multiple clients worldwide our native language is English.