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Joomla 4.1 Alpha 1 - Discover what's inside

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The Joomla Project is pleased to announce the availability of the first Joomla 4.1 Alpha for testing.

What is this release for?

There are two main goals for Alpha releases:

  • Providing developers with the basis to test their extensions and reporting any issues well before the final release
  • Allowing users to discover the new features introduced to Joomla 4.1.

For a complete list of known backward compatibility issues for version 4.1, please see Potential backward compatibility issues in Joomla 4 on the documentation site.

What is this release NOT for?

This alpha version of Joomla 4.1 is not suitable for production sites. It is for testing only.

Where to get it?

Download Joomla 4.1 Alpha 1

To always use the latest build of Joomla 4, we invite you to use the nightly build packages (updated every night).

To make it easier for newcomers, you can launch a free Joomla 4 website for testing at launch.joomla.org.

When is the final release due?

Joomla! 4.1 (general availability) is due to be released on or about 15th February 2022. The planned milestones are:

Alpha

  • 28th September 2021
  • 26th October 2021
  • 23rd November 2021

Beta (Feature Freeze)

  • 7th December 2021
  • 21st December 2021
  • 4th January 2022

Release Candidate (Language Freeze)

  • 18th January
  • 1st February

Stable Release

  • 15th February

Please note that dates may be subject to change depending on the availability of volunteers and circumstances beyond our control.

 

What’s new in Joomla 4.1?

We are firmly committed to making the next generation of Joomla the best. So far, these are the first features that have been committed to version 4.1. We expect to commit other features for the next alpha2 and alpha3 releases.

What are the plans for Joomla 4.1?

Currently, we’re at the start of the journey of Joomla! 4.1. There are several projects which, with your help, could become part of Joomla! 4.1, if they are release-ready by 7th December 2021:

  • Better support for code highlighting in TinyMCE editor > Test here
  • Improvement of language support within articles > Test here
  • Enhancement of the Media Manager Web Service > Test here
  • Task Scheduler (Web cron) for Joomla > Test here
  • Keyboard shortcuts for the Joomla backend > Test here
  • And more!

We are at the beginning of the development of Joomla! 4.1, we have more than two months to add new features. If you have any idea for new functionality, feel free to discuss it on GitHub.

Be aware that these features are not release-ready yet, and it depends a lot on testers and feedback if they make the cut.

To learn more about our development strategy, please read this article.

How can you help Joomla 4.1 development?

To help ensure the 4.1 release and our major features are “production-ready”, we need your help testing releases and reporting any bugs you may find at issues.joomla.org.

Most of all, we encourage extension developers to roll up their sleeves, seek out bugs and test their extensions with Joomla 4.1 and communicate their experience.

We would like to remind our users that Joomla 3.10 intends to be the last release of the Joomla 3.x series and will primarily be a release containing backports of API changes from the Joomla 4.x development branch to help ease the transition to the next major release for the community.

We’re focusing on Joomla 4 to make it the best. Therefore, we do not plan to release any more 3.x minor versions - unless it proves to be really essential. All feature proposals should be directed toward the 4.1 release.

Where can I find documentation about Joomla 4?

We have started to provide some tutorials to help you with Joomla 4. We’ll be writing more tutorials to help you understand the significant changes of Joomla 4. You can find the existing ones, like creating a Plugin or a Module for Joomla 4, namespaces conventions, prepared statements, using the new web asset classes and many more here.

We encourage developers to help write the documentation about Joomla 4 on docs.joomla.org to help and guide users and other extension developers.

A JDocs page will help developers to see the existing documentation, and the documentation still needed.

We invite you to check it regularly, update it and provide the missing content: https://docs.joomla.org/JDOC:Joomla_4_Tutorials_Project

Most of the feature documentation will be needed once we have reached Beta (feature freeze).

Should I plan to upgrade to Joomla 4.x?

Joomla 4.x is Joomla’s latest major version.

Joomla 3.10 is released alongside Joomla 4 as the last minor release of Joomla 3 (see this article).

Joomla 3.10 will continue to be supported for two years, giving you plenty of time to plan your migration to Joomla 4 and update your extensions (if required) to become Joomla 4 compatible versions. We will provide resources to help with the migration on the documentation site.

Related information

If you are an extension developer, please make sure you subscribe to the general developer mailing list, where you can discuss extension development. News that may affect custom development will also be posted there from time to time.

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