The new, fourth Joomla generation is on the way. The latest version, Joomla 4 alpha 2 was released for testing. Many new features and updates have been introduced in the new version so far which you can find more details about here: Joomla 4 new features – explained.

In this blog post, we are going to focus on explaining why Joomla 4 have minimum PHP version requirement – PHP 7.

PHP 7 Is Minimal Requirement For Joomla 4

PHP 7 is the latest version of extremely popular programming language used for developing websites and online applications. It is estimated that over 80% of websites relies on some version of PHP, fully or to some extent.

Joomla 4 Alpha version is already available for download, and if you want to test it, then your server must run minimum PHP 7.0.

Joomla Releases And PHP roadmap

Joomla long term support releases roadmap

Looking at the pattern of Joomla Long Term Support (LTS) releases, it is clear that we get a new version of Joomla! every four to six years.

• Joomla 1.5 was first LTS release in 2008.
• Joomla 2.5 was second LTS release in 2012.
• Joomla 3.9 will be third LTS released in 2018

Knowing that Joomla 4 is arriving, a look into the future is needed and if pattern is followed, next LTS release shouldn’t be expected before 2022.

Now, let’s look at the PHP

• PHP 5 is not developed anymore
• PHP 5.6 is the last version of PHP 5 branch. It only gets security updates until the end of 2018.
• PHP 7.2 is the latest version of PHP. It is supported to 2020.
• PHP 7 is in active development expecting to be supported up to 2023.

It is obvious that PHP 5 has already became obsolete and Joomla is making the right decision to support only the platform which will be actively maintained during Joomla 4 lifespan until the next LTS release.

PHP version requirement for each Joomla version:

Joomla 1.5 required minimum PHP 4.2.x version
Joomla 2.5 required minimum PHP 5.3.x version
Joomla 3.0 required minimum PHP 5.3.11 version
Joomla 3.5 required minimum PHP 5.3.11 version
Joomla 4 will require minimum PHP 7 version

So, What Are The Benefits Of PHP 7 For Joomla 4?

Headline changes often associated with upgrading to PHP 7 are the performance benefits.

Performance: 2x faster than PHP 5.6
PHP 7 can outpace PHP 5.6 roughly twice as fast, but little is it know how it can compete with modern competitors to pure PHP. Obvious example is the Facebook’s Hip Hop Virtual Machine (HHVM) where for Joomla 4 users, PHP 7 offers even faster performance than HHVM, because it is not required to run virtual machine to execute the PHP code.

Request Execution
When Joomla 4 runs on PHP 7, it can execute twice as many requests per second compared to Joomla 3 running on PHP 5.6.

But that’s not all. With increasing number of people coming online, and rapidly growing number of people accessing the internet through often slow 3G mobile connection, it is necessary for web servers to react quickly. Major changes in PHP have dramatically increased the performance of sites running on PHP 7 allowing web developers to create more engaging and interactive sites that are still responsive and reacting to user input as fast as we come to expect.

Work better, requiring less resources
Another benefit that is not often mentioned is that PHP 7 runs more efficiently requiring less resources. That in turn can lower maintenance costs and even reduce energy consumption.

How Do I Upgrade to PHP 7?

Upgrading server should be a straightforward task of asking your hosting provider to do it for you, however, you need to be sure all extensions used on the website are compatible with PHP 7.

All iJoomla extensions are already supporting PHP 7 so you should reap your rewards immediately – twice as fast performance and lower resource demand on your web server – is worth the effort of upgrading.

Read More About Joomla 4

• Joomla 4 New Back-end Preview: Outstanding Improvements
• Joomla 4 FAQs: All you need to know
• Joomla 4 new Front-end template Preview – cassiopeia template
• [INFOGRAPHIC] 9 exciting Joomla 4 new features introduction
• 8 most exciting Joomla 4 new features
• Joomla 4 New Media Manager: How it helps manage media files
• JomSocial on Joomla 4: What to expect?

The new Joomla generation – Joomla 4 introduced incredible new features, huge updates at core and totally new front-end and back-end template. In this blog post, we will focus on new front-end template of Joomla 4 – cassiopeia with more flexible layout system, bootstrap 4 integration, optimized codebase, new web technologies and more.

Let’s have preview on the new Joomla 4 template:

Bootstrap 4 integration

Joomla 4 new template – cassiopeia integrates Bootstrap 4 that is the most popular HTML, CSS, and JS framework to help build responsive, mobile-first websites easier and faster.

New look and feel

Joomla 4 new front-end looks comes with more modern and colorful style than any previous Joomla default front-end templates like Beez3, Protostar.

Mobile-first

Joomla 4 cassiopeia template is design to work better on responsive layouts : mobile, tablet and also have better performance thanks to the Bootstrap 4 integration, new web technologies and the codebase optimization.

Flexible layout structure (module positions)

The new Joomla 4 template has more flexible layout system than ever, it has more module positions based on 4 columns layout system that let user build layout their ways with ease and layout customization will be easier as well.

View Joomla 4 Template Layout Structure →

Template folder structure

Cassiopeia template folder structure is clear, easy to understand functionality of each folder that will help developer customize template.

Developed with SASS

SASS is very powerful CSS extensions designed to make CSS more maintainable, themeable, and extendable.

Module variations

With the purpose of helping user build website faster, Joomla 4 new front-end template supports variety of module variations.

Optimized codebase

Joomla 4 focuses on coding quality, performance and ease of customization, therefore the new front-end template also has optimized and well structured codebase.

Know more about Joomla 4:

• 8 most exciting Joomla 4 new features
• [INFOGRAPHIC] 9 exciting Joomla 4 new features introduction
• Joomla 4 New Media Manager: How it helps manage media files
• JomSocial on Joomla 4: What to expect?
• Joomla 3 and Joomla 4 features comparison: 15 new things to take note

While fixing the iOS issues and adding PayFast plugin that in Guru, our dev team found some more bugs and implemented few usability improvements which will greatly improve the day-to-day routine while using iJoomla Guru.

What’s New?

We added a “Save & New” buttons when creating or editing a new media item or course page. A simple change yet, it saves a lot of time as you don’t have to close the page just to open a new one again. Instead, content creation flow is more natural now.

In Guru Media Library page, there is a new option to change the category of the media for multiple selected items at the same time.

In Courses Stats page we implemented the option to view quiz results for all students.

Option to set “All lessons” available for some students who bought sequential course on the student page.

When Will It Be Available?

We are adding some minor final touches to this version of iJoomla Guru to make it even more usable to both, administrators and the site users and new version will be available early next week.

Get Guru Today

PayFast, one of the most popular payment gateways in Africa can now be used with iJoomla Guru and Ad Agency.

Expand your market to Africa as well as this is the free upgrade for all existing license owners.

Setup For Guru

Enable the plugin then enter the Merchant ID and Merchant KEY in appropriate fields.

Press save and you’re good to go

Setup for Ad Agency

Go to Payment Plugins and select PayFast then enter the Merchant ID and Merchant KEY

Save the configuration and enjoy the new payment plugin on frontend

No iJoomla Products Yet?

Grab the limited offer and get them with 30% discount. This offer wont last long so make sure you act quick

Get them today

IJoomla and JomSocial Product Bundles have been with us for a long time and while they offer a different packages for discounted price, there was always something missing or something being extra that you never use. The product bundles were frugal solution.

Today, we are happy to introduce JA Bundle Maker which will let you build your own Product Bundle and get different discounts while doing so. Discounts range from 20% to 65%. Give it a try and let us know what you feel.

Build Your Perfect Bundle

Have you already purchased iJoomla Products and you want to get JomSocial and JoomlArt products with the discount? Not a problem. Chose only what you need and get more discounts the more products you add.

Try JA Bundle Maker Now

Updates from JomSocial

Many exciting updates are being rolled out at JomSocial. There are updates to the pricing plans, features and biggest of all all new JomSocial 4.4 RC release. We have also released two Professional Themes for JomSocial.

• New Pricing & Policy changes
• Two Professional Themes released
• JomSocial 4.4 RC
• Live Chat feature
• ACL Compatibility
• Over 100 improvements

Last week, iJoomla slowly started transition from Ticketing System back to public forums for all iJoomla customers, regardless if you have purchased the license on JomSocial.com or iJoomla.com websites.

Go to https://www.ijoomla.com/forums/ and simply login with account from the site where you made the purchase. Both iJoomla.com and JomSocial.com accounts will work.

iJoomla Products Support On JomSocial.com Will Stop

if you have purchased iJoomla.com products on JomSocial.com, just login on forums with account from JomSocial.com and the system will automatically recognise you.

Enjoy the new forums!

iJoomla celebrate Independence Day too and offer the 30% discount on all new purchases in our store.
Additionally, already automatically discounted renewal of all expired licenses will be increased by 10% with a coupon code.

Shop fast as this offer ends soon

New Purchases Coupon Code

Renewals Coupon Code

Get iJoomla Products With Discount

Newest versions of Guru Pro and AdAgency will now fully support Stripe payment gateway which is perfect for selling digital products like courses or advertising space.

And it is completely free addon for all existing customers.

Get iJoomla Products with 30% discount now. Use SUMMER2017 promo code

A big summer sale is hitting the iJoomla shelves with 30% discount on all new purchases store-wide. Whether you celebrate the summer holidays, 4th of July, end of Ramadan, or something totally different, we got you covered with three-weeks long sale.

Shop Now

JomSocial is on the sale too

We also have JomSocial, our flagship product on sale too. Head over to the JomSocial blog to see more details.
Checkout JomSocial Discount

I am pleased to announce the immediate availability of Ad Agency 6.0.13 with Ad Blocker features implemented directly in the Settings to allow detection and custom messages showing up in the browser when users are using popular AdBlockers.

Simply enable “Check AdBlocker” option which will look for the AdBlock extension in user’s browsers and warn them to either whitelist the domain, or completely disable AdBlocker to continue using the website.

Download AdAgency from your account

Get iJoomla Products

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