Joomla 3.2 Adds Version Control, Other Improvements

Sean Michael

Updated · Nov 06, 2013

Open source content management system (CMS) Joomla today introduced Joomla 3.2, which offers a revamped extension development and installation process. It also contains a record number of new features and improvements, including version control, Rapid Application Development (RAD), an extension finder, bcrypt and two-factor authentication.

“Joomla is growing at a furious pace, with more than 45 million downloads to date — and a broader audience means it’s more important than ever that the latest version be as simple, stable and straightforward as possible,” said Paul Orwig, president of Open Source Matters, a non-profit created to provide organizational, legal and financial support to the Joomla project. “So with 3.2 we worked hard to make sure you don’t have to be an expert to quickly tap the sheer power of Joomla.

Key features of Joomla 3.2 include:

Version Control that enables a Joomla administrator to revert to an older version of content on a website and compare side-by-side to see what changes have been made.

Rapid Application Development (RAD), which simplifies the process for developers to write their own Joomla extensions.

Extension Finder, which simplifies the process of searching for and installing Joomla extensions by allowing users to do all that directly from within their admin view with just a few clicks. The previous processes included separate steps to first search for and download extensions to a desktop, and then log in to the Joomla admin view and install those extensions.

Bcrypt, a strong encryption method that scrambles passwords stored in a Joomla website’s database.

Two-factor Authentication, an optional requirement for a user to fill out another form of authentication (other than a username/password) to make a change to a Joomla website. Two-factor authentication can be anything like entering an auto-generated code that is texted to a person’s mobile phone.

Other new Joomla 3.2 features include an improved template manager, multilingual site installer, improved WYSIWYG editor, AJAX interface, micro-data semantics library, and HTML form fields and attributes.

“With 3.2, there was definitely no shortage of enhancements with more than 600 combined new features and de-bugs,” said Nick Savov of the Joomla Production Leadership Team (PLT). “

The Joomla 3.2 CMS was developed with feedback gathered from more than 2.8 million Joomla forum posts, 620,000 Joomla forum members and data from more than 7,100 Joomla extensions.

To demo Joomla 3.2 go to www.demo.joomla.org.

Joomla is used to build, organize, manage and publish content for websites, blogs, Intranets and mobile applications. The free open source software has been downloaded more than 45 million times. Organizations using it include Citibank, eBay, General Electric, Harvard University, Ikea, McDonald’s and Sony.

Sean Michael
Sean Michael

Sean Michael is a writer who focuses on innovation and how science and technology intersect with industry, technology Wordpress, VMware Salesforce, And Application tech. TechCrunch Europas shortlisted her for the best tech journalist award. She enjoys finding stories that open people's eyes. She graduated from the University of California.

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