Developer Network™ 
The Joomla! Project is pleased to announce the availability of Joomla! CMS 3.7.0 Beta 3. Community members are asked to download and install the package in order to provide quality assurance for the forthcoming 3.7 release.
Joomla! 3 is the latest major release of the Joomla! CMS, with 3.7 the eighth standard-term support release in this series.
Please note that going from 3.6 to 3.7 is a one-click upgrade and is NOT a migration. The same is true is for any subsequent versions in the 3 series of the CMS. That being said, please do not upgrade any of your production sites to the beta version as this beta is ONLY intended for testing and there is no upgrade path from Beta.
What is this release for?
This is a BETA release, that should only be used on test sites. Beta releases cannot be upgraded.
Extension and template developers are encouraged to work with this release in order to prepare extensions for the stable release of Joomla! CMS 3.7, though there shouldn't be any backward compatibility issues. Users are encouraged to test the package for issues and to report issues in the Joomla! CMS Issue Tracker.
Please do not upgrade any of your production sites to the beta version and do not start a new site on beta as beta is ONLY intended for testing and there is no upgrade path from Beta.
When is the stable release due?
The present expected schedule is this:
- March 28th, 2017 - 3.7.0 Stable Release
Please note that the specific date of releases depends on availability of volunteers and circumstances beyond our control. You can join the testing and reporting to help ensure a solid, timely delivery (see “How can you help…” below).
Which bugs have been fixed in Joomla! 3.7?
A full list of issues resolved can be found on GitHub.
What’s new in Joomla! 3.7
The big question is, what is new in Joomla! 3.7?
Here are some of the new features…
- Custom Fields - Now you can add data fields (up to 16 different types) to your articles, user records and contacts
- Multilingual Associations Component - Allows you to easily translate your content from one interface
- Improved Workflow - Now you can create the category, article, and menu item all in one step (no more jumping between components/views)
- Improved Router - Get 'clean' URLs (without the ID) to help improve your SEO with one click of a button
- Admin Menu Manager - Manage the admin menu just like the front-end, create a different 'look' for each user group
- Do more with TinyMCE - New buttons allow you to easily add menu links, contacts and newsfeeds directly to articles and modules
- Easier Extension Maintenance - Allowing you to block administrators from accidentally uninstalling needed extension package pieces
- And many more ...
How can you help Joomla! development?
There are a variety of ways in which you can get actively involved with Joomla! It doesn't matter if you are a coder, an integrator, or merely a user of Joomla. You can contact anyone of our Production members, to get more information, or if you are ready you can jump right into the Joomla! Bug Squad.
The Joomla! Bug Squad is one of the most active teams in the CMS development process and is always looking for people (not just developers) that can help with sorting bug reports, coding patches and testing solutions. A great way for increasing your working knowledge of the Joomla! code base, and also a great way to meet new people from all around the world.
If you are interested, please read about us on the Joomla! Wiki and, if you wish to join, email Niels Braczek,
You can also help Joomla! development by thanking those involved in the many areas of the process.
The Project also wants to thank all of the contributors who have taken the time to prepare and submit work to be included in the Joomla! CMS and Framework.
A Huge Thank You to Our Volunteers!
This Beta release is the result of thousands of hours of work by hundreds of volunteers.
A big thank you goes out to everyone that contributed to the 3.7 release! Right now we're nearly at 1,000 commits since 3.6's release.