Friday, January 13, 2012

Joomla 2.5, New Features

Joomla 2.5 will have a host of new features including new search functionality, multi-database support, and update notification. Use the one-click upgrade within Joomla to move from 1.7 to 2.5. Most of the extensions that run on 1.7 should run on 2.5 as well.

New Search Function
New natural language search function with auto-completion and stemming (uses the root of the word entered to locate matches) is faster and more versatile.

 Support for other Databases
Joomla has been rewritten so that different drivers can be written for different versions of SQL databases. Currently, drivers exist for MySQL and MS SQL.

Joomla Update Notification
On log in, see if Joomla is out of date and go to One-click update to Joomla.

Database Version Fix Button
Buttons to check if the database is up-to-date with any database schema changes added during upgrades and to fix if needed.

CAPTCHA in Core
The core comes with a plug-in to use reCAPTCHA. Sign up with reCAPTCHA and enter your keys to enable CAPTCHA on new user registrations.

Linking New Menus with a Module
If there is no module associated with the menu, there is a link shown in Menu Manager that will take the Joomla developer into a new module the Joomla Developer can create.

Use the ‘Images’ and ‘URL’ Fields to Create Simple Standardized Layouts
Use the existing ‘image’ and ‘URL’ fields in the articles to set up a simple standardized layout for blogs, news reports, etc. After activating the feature, specify an image for the introduction and an image for the full article, as well as three links.

Administrator Notification on New User Registration
Choose whether the administrator gets a new message when a user creates an account.

Menu Item Note
Add a note to menu items to, say, identify the menu item, clarify how it is used, or why it was set up the way it was.

Custom Text Filters
Text filtering has moved to ‘Global Configuration’. In Joomla 2.5, a joomla developer can create custom blacklists.

The content for this article is adapted from Andrea Tarr’s blog at community.joomla.org/blogs/community/1533-new-features-in-joomla-25.html

Filtering by Category
In Joomla 2.5, selecting a category in the article manager will include its subcategories, down to the depth the Joomla programmer can select. If the joomla programmer wants only the single category, the Joomla developers can select Level 1.

Manager for Language Overrides
Make these changes in the familiar backend of Joomla. Search for the text that the Joomla Developer can see and get a list of language keys and text to select. Change what is needed and save.

User Notes
Attach notes to assign dates to the users. These can be used for say, a date for reviewing the user or the last date the Joomla programmers reviewed a user. A Joomla developer can design so as to have multiple notes per user and the notes can be in different categories.

Flexible Newsfeed Order
Reverse the order of the feed items. Display the most recent first or the oldest first.

Image Option for the Offline Page
With this feature in Joomla 2.5, no image is displayed by default when your system is offline.  Upload / select any image that the Joomla programmers select to be displayed.

Option to Have a Site Come Up Offline after Installation
Have the site come up offline so no unauthorized persons can see it until you want them to.

Better Performance in Menu Item Edit page
The extensive options in "Select a Menu Item Type" are not loaded unless you need them.

Status Display in Backend Enhanced
The footprint of the status displays (in English) has been reduced to prevent overcrowding.

Filter the Frontend Who's Online by User Group
The Joomla developers can optionally limit the display of online users on the website to those in the same user groups as the user.

Check for Native ZIP Support during the Installation
This will check during install if native ZIP is enabled on the host. Native ZIP is much faster than PHP to unzip, preventing timeouts when the Joomla Developers install large extensions or updates.

Syndicate Text Label More Flexible
Choose to not display text next to the syndicate icon or to use the default language pack text value.

Alternate Meta tags for multi-lingual sites
Search engines can see the meta tags and links for corresponding menu pages in other languages in the associated menu items.

Improving SEO: New system plug-in: languagecode
Allows search engines to see the language and country code they expect in cases where the Joomla language pack uses a different code.

Debug Plug-in Gets Formatting
Formats the different groups of data into sliders and color highlights database queries. This works in both the frontend and the backend.

A True Autoloader for the CMS
Developers no longer need to worry whether the class they need is in the platform files (libraries/joomla) or in the cms files (libraries/cms).

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1 comment:

  1. Your shared information is really essential for Joomla users. I have installed this version and its works better.
    Magento Development

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