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New Features

The main new features are documented in this section. It provides an overview of key additions and improvements in Joomla 5.4.

Automated Core Updates​

Joomla 5.4 introduces Automated Core Updates for minor, patch and security releases. This feature enables Joomla installations to be kept up to date reliably and without manual intervention – an important step towards improving the security and maintainability of Joomla websites. Automated Core Updates use The Update Framework (TUF), a secure software update distribution system designed to prevent supply chain attacks when automatically updating Joomla core.

Pull Requests in Detail
  • 45143 Add Automated Core Updates client functionality
  • 45517 Add Automated Updates information as fieldset description
  • 45547 Improve Automated Update UX for local sites
  • 45669 Improve Automated Update Quickicon language keys and icon
  • 45673 Fix handling of responses from autoupdate server
  • 45685 Send Automated Update Notifications to all super users
  • 45696 Implement autoupdate plugin events
  • 45697 Allow opt-out from automated updates during installation
  • 45721 Autoupdate email groups
  • 45900 Autoupdates - Improve download logging
  • 45966 Adjust status code of com_joomlaupdate APIs if automated updates are disabled
  • 46050 Use correct language for autoupdate notification mails
  • 46493 Expose finalization errors in autoupdate API response

You can test Automated Updates by installing Joomla! 5.4.0 and enabling Automated Updates on an instance accessible from the internet. Your instance will be updated to a higher patch version without interaction, and you will receive an email with the result.

  1. New links make it easier to access related views directly from update notifications and checks.
  2. Adding support for customisable registration menu link.
Pull Requests in Detail

  1. New links make it easier to access related views directly from update notifications and checks.

    • 45318 Added a link to more easily open the 'System – Maintenance – Database' view from the Pre-Update Check.
    • 45318 Added a link to more easily open the 'Mail Templates' view from the Update Notification.

  2. Adding support for customisable registration menu link.

    • 45715 Add support for custom registration menu link in com_users login menu item

Support for PHP 8.5​

Joomla 5.4 adds support for PHP 8.5, ensuring compatibility with the latest PHP release and allowing sites to benefit from ongoing performance improvements, language enhancements and security updates provided by PHP. The Joomla Continuous Integration (CI) environment has been extended to run tests with PHP 8.5.

Pull Requests in Detail
  • 46134 PHP8.5 deprecated code
  • 46136 PHP8.5 Deprecations
  • 46137 PHP8.5 deprecated code
  • 46198 PHP8.5 curl_close() function has been deprecated
  • 46199 PHP8.5 xml_parser_free() function has been deprecated
  • 46200 PHP8.5 imagedestroy() function has been deprecated
  • 46201 PHP8.5 Using null as an array offset is now deprecated
  • 46202 PHP8.5 setAccessible() methods of various Reflection objects have been deprecated
  • 46203 PHP8.5 Using null as an array offset is now deprecated (unit tests)
  • 46223 Add php 8.5 to unit and integration tests
  • 46301 PHP8.5 Composer update joomla/http to 3.1.3 to fix PHP 8.5 deprecation of curl_close()
  • 46309 PHP8.5 Composer update joomla/test to 3.0.4 to fix PHP 8.5 deprecation of reflection setAccessible()
  • 46480 php 8.5 version check

Additional Enhancements​

  1. New None options improve filtering and display of items without authors, tags, users or field groups.
  2. New Checked_out filter for articles in the administrator backend and API.
  3. New parameter Year Sort Order for archived articles.
  4. New cloud-based development and testing environment using GitHub Codespaces.
Pull Requests in Detail

  1. New None options improve filtering and display of items without authors, tags, users or field groups.

    • 45232 New '- None -' author filter option in the Articles view to select articles associated with deleted user entries.
    • 45274 New '- None -' tag filter option in the Articles view to select articles without tags.
    • 45459 New '- None -' tag filter option in the Contacts view to select contacts without tags.
    • 45460 New '- None -' tag filter option in the News Feeds view to select news feed entries without tags.
    • 45461 New '- None -' tag filter option in the Articles: Categories view to select categories without tags.
    • 45201 Shows '[ None ]' in the field group column for a field unassigned to any field group.
    • 45223 Shows '[ None ]' in the user column for a user note linked to a deleted user entry.

  2. New Checked_out filter for articles in the administrator backend and API.

    • 45761 Add checkedout filter to the Article Manager

  3. New parameter Year Sort Order for archived articles.

    • 45841 Add year filter order parameter for archived articles

  4. New cloud-based development and testing environment using GitHub Codespaces.