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Your first glimpse at Joomla! 5.3.0 Alpha2

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Joomla 5.3 Alpha 2

The Joomla! Project is pleased to announce the availability of Joomla 5.3 Alpha 2 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 5.3.

For a complete list of known backward compatibility issues for version 5.3, please see Potential backward compatibility issues in Joomla 5.3 on the documentation site.

What is this release NOT for?

This alpha version of Joomla 5.3 is not suitable for production sites. It is for testing only.

Where to get it?

Download Joomla 5.3 Alpha 2

To always use the latest build of Joomla 5, we invite you to use the nightly build packages (updated every night).

To make it easier for newcomers, you can launch a free Joomla 5 website for testing at launch.joomla.org.

When is the final release due?

Joomla! 5.3 (general availability) will be released on or about 16th April 2025. The planned milestones are:

Alpha:

  • Alpha1: 26. Nov 2024
  • Alpha2: 24. Dec 2024 (This release)
  • Alpha3: 24. Jan 2025

Beta (Feature Freeze)

  • Beta1: 18. Feb 2025
  • Beta2: 04. Mar 2025
  • Beta3: 18. Mar 2025 

Release Candidate (Language Freeze)

  • RC1: 01. Apr 2025

Stable Release

  • 15. Apr 2025

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 5.3 Alpha 2?

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 5.3. We expect to commit other features for the next alpha2 and alpha3 releases.

  • Task executions are recorded and there is a new history view available in the back end task list. [42530]
  • Change action log user filter to a user select for better performance with a large user base [44550]
  • Better a11y for icon in the contact views [44523]
  • Fix broken routing for tags aliases [44515]
  • Improve Ordering of Stages in Content [44486]
  • Discover tainted URLs for core components [44455, 44477]
  • Automatically repair incomplete URLs in Joomla core components [43992]
  • Smart Search Optimization [44485]
  • Add event before update site is downloaded [44516]
  • Added Compare View for Plugin overrides [44588]
  • Reduce the usage of deprecated code in the core [44149, 44164, 44167, 44170, 44169, 44008, 43958, 43359, 44011, 44466]

What are the plans for Joomla 5.3?

Currently, we’re at the start of the journey of Joomla! 5.3. There are several projects which, with your help, could become part of Joomla! 5.3, if they are release-ready before the first beta is released on February 18th 2025.

  • Add Files folder to Media component and to "FileSystem local" adapter. This will change the default location for files from images to files for new installations. [43532]
  • The test mail button in the global Joomla configuration now sends the test mail to the currently logged in user and not the email address of the configuration. [44002].
  • Further improve the routing in Joomla
  • Remove all legacy code usage in the core itself and prepare better internal error handling with exceptions 

We are at the beginning of the development of Joomla! 5.3, 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 5.3 development?

To help ensure the 5.3 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 5.3 and communicate their experience.

Where can I find documentation about Joomla 5?

There are some tutorials to help you with Joomla 5. You can find the existing ones, like creating a Plugin or a Module for Joomla 5, namespaces conventions, prepared statements, using the new web asset classes and many more in https://docs.joomla.org/Category:Joomla!_5.x

We encourage developers to help write the documentation about Joomla 5 on docs.joomla.org and manual.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.

Related information

If you are an extension developer, please make sure you subscribe to the extension developer channel https://joomlacommunity.cloud.mattermost.com/main/channels/extension-development-room

Where you can join the community of extension developers.

A Huge Thank You to Our Volunteers!

A big thank you goes out to everyone who contributed to the release!