In the next few weeks we should get at least two new Joomla 3.6.x versions with some current bug fixes and improvements. After that we can expect a new major release of Joomla 3.7 which will bring us a plenty of great features. Let’s take a look at the preview of the most interesting of them.
Custom Fields in Joomla 3.7
This is probably the most awaited feature for many years. Finally, custom fields functionality will be added to such Joomla core components like com_content, com_users and com_contact. This feature will give us opportunity to use, for example, articles to present data in a more advanced way. So far we had to use or write separate plugins to display additional data in articles, with custom fields things will be much easier.
New Joomla 3.7 URL router
Joomla will have a completely new router. Router is the code responsible for creating URLs. It will be disabled by default, because it may affect some of the existing URLs, but Joomla developers promise that this will be a very small number of URLs (if any). There will be a switcher, so you will be able to test the new router before you decide to use it permanently on your site. New router should be faster and it will get rid of unnecessary IDs from articles’ URLs.
New modal buttons in Joomla menu types
There will be a new modal button to create a new article, category, contact or news feed while creating a new menu item. This is a very useful feature that improves the workflow of menu item creation.
"Use Global" option will output the setting from Joomla 3.7 global options
You will not have to remember all settings in your head or go back to global options to check them. Now, "Use Global" option will output the setting from Joomla global options next to it. Simple? And how useful!
Automatic language content creation in Joomla 3.7
This is an improvement for mulitlanguage configuration. So far we had to create the "language content" manually which could be confusing because we had to know what is the tag or native title of the language that we configure. In Joomla 3.7 it will be created automatically once you install a language package in Joomla.
Flat design for Isis back-end template
While waiting for a new back-end template (it should be included for Joomla 4), Joomla developers are going to adjust the current template to be more modern for these days. We can expect that many elements (such as buttons, inputs, selects) will have a flat design without those awful shadows and gradients.
Ajax checks on registration form
Probably (still not approved), we will have some ajax checks on Joomla 3.7 registration form. There should be an ajax checking the username and email fields whether they exist in database and another ajax check of the equality of the passwords and emails fields.
New DateTime picker
This is not a big thing, but worth to mention. We will have a new DateTime picker. The code will be simplified and the design will be Bootstrapified.
Facebook authentication in Joomla 3.7
Finally, Joomla will have a core plugin for Facebook authentication. Unofficialy, in the near future we can expect support for other social networks such as Google, Twitter and GitHub.
New buttons in TinyMCE editor
From Joomla 3.7 we will have some new buttons in the TinyMCE editor. There will be a “contact” button to insert a link to a contact and a “menu” button to insert a link to a menu item in the article content. Both will work exactly the same as the button to insert an article link.
Drag & Drop toolbar editing in TinyMCE Joomla 3.7 editor
At this moment we have 3 levels of TinyMCE editor functionality: simple, advanced and extended. Each of them displays a different set of buttons in the editor toolbar. Probably from Joomla 3.7 version we will have additional sets of buttons as well as drag & drop toolbar editing. This feature will give you freedom in the toolbar configuration because you will decide where and which buttons will be displayed in the editor toolbar.
Vote plugin improvements
We are going to see 2 interesting changes related to the Voting plugin in Joomla. Firstly, there will be a possibility to choose a position of the voting plugin in the article view (before or after content). Secondly, the Voting plugin will have a layout file, so it will be possible to override the view for customization purpose.
When?
Joomla 3.7 is planned to be released in December. If you liked this article and you are curious about other Joomla 3.7 features, you can visit GitHub repository.