Get ready for Joomla! 3.2

It’s only a few days away now until the imminent arrival of the latest version of Joomla, offering a whole bunch of new features that have been long requested.

For those using Joomla already, you will have grown to love this CMS for its simplicity and sleek UI. On November 6th 2013 the latest version of Joomla 3.2 will be unveiled and here we take a look at the most feature-packed release that Joomla has ever had.

Content Versioning

One of the best new features is called Content Versioning. This allows you to revert content back to a previous time. It works much like Windows system restore in that you can put the version of an article back to the way it was at a pre-defined date. Meaning that if you make a mistake and you don’t realise it right away, you can revert back to a previous version, anyone of the ones that has been previously saved!

Front End editing improvements

Joomla is set to expand on the way front end editing works. In previous versions you were limited to what could be controlled and edited from the front end. In particular, although you could write and edit articles from the front end there were many limitations on what could be controlled such as the Meta description and tags. In Joomla 3.2 it seems we are headed towards a much more front-end orientated CMS. Allowing administrators to work from the backend but give rights to front end editors to have real functionality in controlling content.

TinyMCE Update

The standard Joomla editor has been upgraded to version 4.0 and the difference is considerable both in look and functionality. For those out there who prefer to install JCE as an editor, this may not be necessary anymore as much of the ease of use and functional approach from JCE has been incorporated in to TinyMCE by default.

Install from Web

At last a quick and easy way to install components direct from the backend of Joomla. WordPress has had this functionality from the beginning and those who compare the two CMS’s often complain the Joomla has lacked this basic functionality that has contributed to WordPress’s popularity. Now Joomla admins have access to the Joomla! Extensions Directory (JED) direct from the backend in one click installs! For commercial extensions, you are redirected to the developer’s site to pay for the extensions before returning to the original backend of your website.

Improved Template Manager

For those webmasters who need to tweak the code of the template, Joomla can be frustrating as there is no access directly to files. This is all going to change in Joomla 3.2 as there is now the ability to edit all files in a template as well as create new files and upload new files, copy, rename, delete, crop and resize images and easily create overrides for modules, components and layouts.

Finally for developers

Joomla’s brand new Rapid Application Developer (RAD) Layer is a framework on top of Joomla that can significantly speed up and improve 3rd party development within Joomla. It is easy to understand how to create components, it is well documented and it will lower the learning curve for anyone looking to get in to Joomla! Application development.

There are whole load of new features that have not been listed here but these are the ones that shone through for us. Joomla! 3.2 looks set to catapult the use of Joomla! as a CMS system even further in to the mainstream and makes administering and maintaining a website easier than ever before!