Official Support for Joomla! 2.5 ends on the 31st of December 2014. This means that no bug fixes, features, or security updates will be provided for the 2.5 series after that End of Support (EOS) date.

Joomla! 2.5 End of Support (EOS)

Help and advice available: https://docs.joomla.org/Why_Migrate

The first release of Joomla! 2.5 was in January 2012, and it was the third minor release in a series that started with Joomla! 1.6 in January 2011.

It is important to note that Joomla! 2.5 followed onto, and replaced Joomla! 1.6 and 1.7, and there is therefore no secure version of 1.6 or 1.7. If your are still using one of these version of Joomla! your need to upgrade (at least to 2.5.28) without delay. Do take note of the migration tips and do make a backup of your web site before doing so.

After the EOS date for 2.5, your web site will continue to work, but you need to start to planning now to upgrade/migrate your 2.5 websites to Joomla! 3.x.

Joomla! 3 is a secure and stable release that had its first release in September 2012. The Joomla 3.x series is expected to continue being supported at least until September 2016 according to the new Development Strategy.

New Joomla! Release Strategy

This new Joomla! Development Strategy was adopted in March 2014, and replaced the previous concept of Short Term (STS), and Long Term Support (LTS) Releases. You therefore do not have to wait until 3.5 to upgrade your site from 2.5, but can safely plan to do so now. See the Improved Release Cycle FAQ for more details.

In line with the new Development Strategy, the Production Leadership Team (PLT) aims to maintain backward compatibility within the Joomla 3 series (3.0.x, 3.1.x, 3.2.x, 3.3.x, 3.4.x, etc.), which means that upgrades between the these major versions would normally only require a one-click-upgrade (in addition to keeping all installed extensions up to date).

Upgrading or Migrating to Joomla! 3.x

Upgrading from 2.5 to 3.x is (in many cases) a simple process, but for bigger web sites, or sites with particular extensions installed, extra care needs to be taken.

To help guide your through the upgrade/migration process, the Update Working Group have prepared a Migration Portal on the Joomla! Documentation site. Reading and following the steps and advice will help to prevent or limit issues during your site upgrade:

https://docs.joomla.org/Why_Migrate

You can also read this article by Jennifer Gress, in the Joomla! Community Magazine: Why Migrate? And Then...How?

Always remember to create a working backup of your site before attempting any update, upgrade, or migration.

This article was originally posted on forum.joomla.org 

Image credit: Helvecio

Joomla 3.3.6 and 2.5.27 now available. These releases include both Security & Maintenance updates.

This is a maintenance release addressing issues with yesterday's 3.3.5 & 2.5.26 release. This release addresses an issue related to the core update component, one regression in the user password reset process, and adds a fallback upgrade mechanism for the update component.

This release is also considered a security release since it includes two resolved security issues that was included in 3.3.5 and 2.5.26

A 3.2.7 an release is also available for users who are still using Joomla! 3.2 which addresses the security issues and the upgrade component bug.

Those who have updated to 3.3.5 and 2.5.26 need to follow the Special Download Instructions that are available here:
http://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5569-joomla-3-3-6-released.html

or: http://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5568-joomla-2-5-27-released.html

Michael Babker, of the Joomla! Production Leadership Team (PLT), acknowledges that there's been challenges with recent Jooma! CMS releases:

"While we strive to be as efficient as possible, there are times when things don't go smoothly, causing stress and headaches for our user base and the community members who test and prepare our releases. This last week has been an example of some rough times for our releases, and though no single person or group is to blame for any of the issues that we've experienced with these last releases, they do highlight areas where our teams and workflows can improve."

Read the full post over at developer.joomla.org

Today we celebrate the 9th Birthday of Joomla!

Joomla!® is a popular Free and Open Source (FOSS) Content Management System (CMS) or also referred to as a Content Management Framework (CMF).

On the 1st of September, 2005 the birth of Joomla! was announced, and on the 15th of September the first release was introduced to the world.

One year on, and Joomla! celebrated its first birthday with "more than 2,5 million downloads" and "over 50 thousand members and fast approaching half a million posts" on the Joomla! Forum. 

Fast forward to 2014, and the Joomla! CMS is still going strong with:

• 59.31 million downloads
• translated into 64 languages
• 8314 Joomla! Extension (Components, Plugins, Modules) for Joomla! 2.5 & 3.x
• 30+ international community-organized JoomlaDay events each year

Happy Birthday Joomla!, and thank you to all the volunteers.

We are proud to announce the relaunch of the Eyethu Events web site.

Their old web site, that was built on Joomla! CMS 1.5, served them well for many years, but it was time for a fresh new look, built with the latest version of the Joomla! Content Management System (CMS) software. 

Static Black Media created the new design, and we converted this to a responsive (mobile-friendly) Bootstrap template and migrated the web site content to Joomla! 3.