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Compatibility Plugins

Joomla 6 Compatibility Plugin​

New in Joomla 5.4 is the 'Behaviour - Backward Compatibility 6' plugin.

In Joomla 5.4, the plugin does not perform any actions other than existing and being enabled. This ensures that when the code is updated for Joomla 6, it can run immediately with the updated code, and third-party extensions that require the plugin to be enabled in Joomla 6 will not cause the update to fail.

  • 45371 New 'Behaviour - Backward Compatibility 6' plugin added in preparation for the Joomla 6 update.
  • 45525 Making sure that the plugins' options are enabled on update to Joomla 6.

Joomla 5 Compatibility Plugin​

As part of Joomla! 5.0, the 'Behaviour - Backward Compatibility' plugin was introduced to enhance backward compatibility between Joomla 5 and Joomla 4. The plugin is implemented as Behaviour plugin type to ensure it is loaded before any other plugin.

Just a heads-up – avoid creating your own plugin as a Behaviour plugin, as this group may be removed in a future release.

For more details, see Compatibility Plugin Joomla! 5.0.

Although it is recommended to disable the Joomla 5 'Behaviour - Backward Compatibility' plugin, do not disable other Behaviour plugins such as 'Behaviour - Taggable' or 'Behaviour - Versionable', as you will silently lose functionality such as tagging or version history.

Pre-Update Check​

Two new checks have been added to the Required Settings section of the pre-update checker, shown when an update to the next major version 6 is available:

  • Check that the 'Behaviour - Backward Compatibility' plugin from the current major version 5 is disabled.
  • Check that the 'Behaviour - Backward Compatibility 6' plugin from the next major version 6 is enabled.

If either of these checks fails, updating from Joomla 5 to Joomla 6 via Live Update is not possible.

  • 45493 – Add pre-update checks for backward compatibility plugins for update to Joomla 6