Joomla 3.10 and Joomla 4.0

Details: Published: 24 January 2019

At the end of 2019, the Joomla Project plans to release two versions simultaneously: the minor version, Joomla 3.10 and the new major version, Joomla 4.0.

Joomla 3.10 will be the last release of the 3.x series

As announced in May 2018, and due to the release of Joomla 3.9, Joomla 3.10 will be the final release of the Joomla 3.x series.

Joomla 3.10 will be supported for 2 years after it is released:

Bug and security support will be ensured for a window of 12 to 18 months
The remaining time (6 to 12 months) will be security support only.

We invite you to check the roadmap for Joomla 3.10 and Joomla 4 for more information.

What’s different with Joomla 3.10 compared to the usual minor versions and why releasing 2 versions at the same time?

A minor version means the addition of new features and/or significant change to existing features.

As already stated in March 2017, in this article, the purpose of the last Joomla 3.x release (which was supposed to be 3.9 at that time) is a bit different from the usual minor version, bringing its share of new features.
Joomla 3.10 is intended to be a bridge between the 2 major series. It will primarily be a release containing backports of API changes from the Joomla 4.0 development branch to help ease the transition to the next major release for the community.

We are also introducing in Joomla 3.10 a new feature to the Joomla Update component to help you with your mini-migration process: the Pre-update checker.
Once your website is updated to 3.10, the pre-update checker will allow you to check the compatibility with Joomla 4.0 of your PHP and SQL options, settings, and the extensions you are using.

Where should new features go?

Because of the specific nature of this minor version, we have decided not to merge any new features to Joomla 3.10 if they are not related to the compatibility layer and upgrade process. We are focusing only on the backward compatibility for the benefit of our extension developers and users.
Thus, we are formally announcing that any proposed new features should be made for the Joomla 4.0 branch. The CMS Maintainers Team can assist you with any help you may need to retarget any existing feature pull requests to be used with the Joomla 4 branch.

Where do we stand with Joomla 4.0?

We intend to merge the 4 last versions of Joomla 3.8 by the end of January. Once done, we will tag an alpha and then start to merge in the Joomla 3.9 releases.

What still needs to be done to reach the Beta milestone?

We are pleased to share briefly the status of the main features:

Backend Template and Accessibility (lead by Elisa Foltyn and Robert Deutz)
Work is ongoing to fully implement the design proposed in the Joomla Magazine
Frontend Template
Final mobile enhancements need to be finished
Publishing Workflow (lead by Benjamin Trenkle)
This feature needs optimisations in multilingual environments and for when the workflow component is hidden
Web Services (lead by George Wilson)
Currently collecting feedback on the Pull Request at https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/23424
7 releases still need to get merged to Joomla 4. Due to the release of Joomla 3.9, this task will take more time than previously scheduled.

Work is continuing on the items above, and we are currently looking to feature freeze and start tagging betas during spring 2019.

How to help?

If you would like to help improve Joomla 3.10 and Joomla 4.0, we invite to download them on our Nightly Builds page and report any issue on issues.joomla.org.
These releases are made available to make it easier for users and extension developers to test their websites and extensions for potential issues with an upcoming release or to test new features and provide feedback on ways to improve them before being released to the Joomla Community. As usual with all pre-releases, they should never be used on production websites.

You can find the open issues for the Joomla 3.10 milestone here and for Joomla 4 here.

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