Joomla! has great plans for the future of the project. Below is a generalised idea of the features desired for future releases and a highlight of in progress activity. When writing a revised roadmap we started by determining what we hoped to accomplish.
Timeframes of releases and semantic versions
With the development strategy published on 25 April 2014, one of the key features is maintaining long-term stability and backwards compatibility while also beginning to follow a semantic versioning approach to releases. The other aspect of timeframes was previously identified as a problem with the old release cycle. This ties in closely to the version numbers and release dates. By changing the releases to a somewhat standardised semantic version numbering and increasing the number of releases we will be able to stop the rush to include bugs and improvements in a release. Ideally the goal is to minimise the amount of items to be included in each release but also offer a more frequent release cycle.
Important to keep in mind: These releases are considered minor releases and none of them are to break backwards compatibility. Any features determined to break backwards compatibility will be moved to the next major release, presently Joomla! 4.x.
Please remember all dates are tentative and proposed focus for each release subject to modification.
Joomla!
Teams
Development for the Joomla! CMS is primarily lead by two teams within the Production Department.
CMS Release Team
The Release Team is responsible for quality assurance testing of the CMS and for planning, coordinating, and distributing all releases. The release lead for each minor release is a member of this team and acts as the primary decision maker when it comes to the release.
CMS Maintenance Team
The Maintenance Team is responsible for reviewing all proposed patches for the CMS, providing feedback on the proposed patch and making decisions regarding whether a patch is merged into the code base.
Joomla! 3.x
Joomla! 3.x is the currently supported major release series of the CMS.
| Development Status | |
|---|---|
| Current Release | 3.7.2 |
| Upcoming Release | 3.8.0 |
| Release Date of Series | September 27, 2012 |
| End of Support for 3.x | 2 years after 3.9 is released |
| Download Joomla! 3 | |
A full explanation of supported releases can be found under the heading, 4.3 Supported releases on the Joomla! Development Strategy document.
Proposed Features Under Review
A list of open pull requests can be found on GitHub. Items which are not merged into the next minor release, currently Joomla! 3.8, will be evaluated for a future release.
Joomla! 3.7
Joomla! 3.7 is the current supported release of the 3.x series.
| Releases | |
|---|---|
| 3.7.2 | 23 May 2017 |
Release Lead
The release lead for Joomla! 3.7 is Robert Deutz.
Main Features
The following are the primary features introduced to Joomla! 3.7.
- Custom Fields
- Translator experience improvements
- Admin Menu Manager
Accepted Features
See the list of new features on GitHub.
Pull Requests Requiring Documentation
Some pull requests are merged before the documentation is written, a list of those pull requests can be found on GitHub. Each new feature should be documented on the documentation wiki by the developers involved to provide all information to users as well as helping 3rd party developers to integrate a feature to their extensions. Each page should have the following code inserted at the end: [[Category:Joomla! 3.7]]
Joomla! 3.8
Joomla! 3.8 is the next scheduled minor release of the 3.x series.
The primary focus of Joomla! 3.8 will be the completion of the new routing system.
Schedule
| Schedule | |
|---|---|
| Feature Freeze | 28 July 2017 |
| Beta | August 2017 |
| Stable | September 2017 |
Release Lead
The release lead for Joomla! 3.8 is Michael Babker.
Main Features
The following are the primary features introduced to Joomla! 3.8.
- Modern Routing System
- Joomla! 4 compatibility layer
In Development Features
The following features are presently in development. If you would like to assist or contribute to them, please contact the release lead or release team for more information.
| Features in development | |
|---|---|
| Modern Routing System | |
| General Improvements | |
Proposed Features
The following are suggested improvements which would be highly favored for this release. If you would like to assist or contribute to them, please contact the release lead or release team for more information.
- To be determined
Accepted Features
See the list of new features on GitHub.
Pull Requests Requiring Documentation
Some pull requests are merged before the documentation is written, a list of those pull requests can be found on GitHub. Each new feature should be documented on the documentation wiki by the developers involved to provide all information to users as well as helping 3rd party developers to integrate a feature to their extensions. Each page should have the following code inserted at the end: [[Category:Joomla! 3.8]]
Joomla! 3.9
In preparation for Joomla! 4.0, Joomla! 3.9 will primarily be a release containing backports of API changes from the 4.0 development branch to help ease the transition to the next major release for the community. It is planned for 3.9 and 4.0 to release simultaneously.
Schedule
Release Lead
The release lead for Joomla! 3.9 is George Wilson.
Main Features
The following are the primary features introduced to Joomla! 3.9.
- Joomla! 4 compatibility layer
Proposed Features
The following are suggested improvements which would be highly favored for this release. If you would like to assist or contribute to them, please contact the release lead or release team for more information.
- To be determined
Accepted Features
See the list of new features on GitHub.
Pull Requests Requiring Documentation
Some pull requests are merged before the documentation is written, a list of those pull requests can be found on GitHub. Each new feature should be documented on the documentation wiki by the developers involved to provide all information to users as well as helping 3rd party developers to integrate a feature to their extensions. Each page should have the following code inserted at the end: [[Category:Joomla! 3.9]]
Joomla! 4.x
Joomla! 4.x is the next major version of the Joomla! CMS. This release will introduce new features as well as remove previously deprecated functionality.
Development Status
Joomla! 4.x is currently under development and has not yet reached the Alpha milestone.
Proposed Features
The following are suggested improvements which would be highly favored during the 4.x lifecycle. If you would like to assist or contribute to them, please contact the release team for more information.
- Final Router Improvements.
- Features to improve SEO.
- Hypermedia API (webservices).
- Improvements to installation process:
- Ability to install extensions (at minimum core supported extensions)
- Rework sample data installation
- Continued work on the GSoC Multilingual editing proposal.
- A new administrator template with minimal options.
When ready these could be shipped with the next available release. Any other features not on this roadmap will be considered on their merit should they reach a merge-able state. The Roadmap is subject to change in the light of ongoing experience.
Joomla! 4.0
Joomla! 4.0 will be the first release of the next Joomla! major release series.
Schedule
Release Lead
The release lead for Joomla! 4.0 is George Wilson.
Backward Compatibility Breaks
Joomla! 4.0 will introduce backward compatibility breaks which may impact existing sites and extensions. These breaks are documented on the documentation wiki.
Main Features
The following are the primary features introduced to Joomla! 4.0.
- New core UI based on Bootstrap 4
- Use of more Joomla! Framework packages
- Refactored event management system
- Introduction of a service container for global dependency management/injection
In Development Features
The following features are presently in development. If you would like to assist or contribute to them, please contact the release lead or release team for more information.
| Features in development | |
|---|---|
| MVC layer Improvements |
|
| Full code namespacing | |
| User Interface (backend and frontend templates) | Team Leader: Charlie Lodder
|
| New Media Manager | Team Leader: Allon Moritz |
| Framework | |
| General Improvements | |
Accepted Features
See the list of new features on GitHub.
Pull Requests Requiring Documentation
Some pull requests are merged before the documentation is written, a list of those pull requests can be found on GitHub. Each new feature should be documented on the documentation wiki by the developers involved to provide all information to users as well as helping 3rd party developers to integrate a feature to their extensions. Each page should have the following code inserted at the end: [[Category:Joomla! 4.0]]
Documentation Help Screens
The documentation help screens are based on a full major release series. As such, all of the help screens will require updates for Joomla! 4.0. In addition to the required updates, there is an idea proposal for a potential GSoC project to work on a new system to manage these screens; even if the project does not happen as part of GSoC the effort will continue otherwise.
Joomla! Framework
The roadmap for the Joomla! Framework is a work in progress and will be published when available.
| Development Status | |
|---|---|
| Current Release | 1.x |
| Upcoming Release | 2.0 |
| Next Release Date | To Be Determined |
| Package status | |