Removed update notifications inside the component. This feature has been removed as an anachronism. Starting with Joomla 3.2 all extension updates are handled by Joomla itself, using core Joomla code we have no input on. This applies to both update detection and installation. Joomla also provides extension update notifications inside its control panel. Our software was simply relaying the same information back to you which was potentially confusing and misleading. There is no point maintaining a feature that confuses our users and isn't even necessary anymore. As a result we decided to remove it altogether. This also removes the similarly confusing "Reload update information" button from the component's Control Panel page which was simply asking Joomla to reload its update information. The Joomla way to do this is going to Extensions, Manage, Update and clicking the "Purge Cache" and "Find Updates" buttons, in this order.
Removed support for Internet Explorer. We have removed support for Internet Explorer from our CSS. IE11 will still work with our software but it will always be displaying its mobile view, even on desktop. Microsoft has already announced that it will stop supporting IE11 in Microsoft Teams beginning November 30, 2020 and terminate all IE11 support in August 2021. We decided to remove IE support starting September 2020 because it was adding unnecessary bloat to our code and prevented us from implementing features we needed. Not to mention that this seven year old browser is barely used anymore.
Inherit the base font size instead of defining a fixed one. In the past, our software was setting a base font size of 12.5px. While this is a fairly reasonable size for able bodied users on most desktop and mobile displays it doesn't work well for users with accessibility requirements necessitating a bigger font size or users who otherwise need scaled text for any reason. We changed our CSS framework to inherit the document's base font size to mitigate this issue.
Improve default header and body fonts for similar cross-platform "feel" without the need to use custom fonts. Our software used to require two custom fonts Montserrat and Open Sans for header and body text respectively. These fonts were not shipped with it to maintain a reasonable download size. As a result, we fell back to using your platform's default sans-serif font which would sometimes not be the best choice for readability. We are not using your platform's preferred fonts for UI headers and body text, giving our software a more readable and native appearance.
Rendering improvements. We have made a number of changes in our CSS framework to optimize the speed at which pages of our software render. We optimized the custom font loading so it's not a blocking operation. Some UI elements were absolute pixel sizes have been upgraded to use relative sizing to better fit different sized screens. The Dark Mode JavaScript which was not used with our Joomla software is no longer being loaded. All of the JavaScript used for UI elements is now loaded defered and asynchronous of the rest of the page. All of these changes should reduce the first contentful paint time and the cumulative layout shift. In simple terms, our software will feel snappier, with less visual artefacts among different platforms.
Loading all JavaScript defered. This is the conclusion of the JavaScript refactoring we started with Akeeba Backup 7.0 back in December 2019. Now all of the JavaScript files are being loaded defered which means that they start loading asynchronously after the page has finished loading. This improves the page rendering speed, especially on slower connections, and allows you to use stricter Content Security Policy settings on your site if you so wish.
Restrict use of jQuery to the backend Control Panel page. We are now using vanilla JavaScript everywhere except the backend control panel where the support staff ratings sorting is using a third party library which depends on jQUery.
Bug fixes and minor improvements. Please take a look at the CHANGELOG below.
We only officially support using our software with the latest Joomla! release branch, 3.9. We strongly advise you to run the latest available version of Joomla! for security reasons. Older versions of Joomla! have known major security issues which are being actively exploited to hack sites.
We offer limited support for Joomla 4.0 which is currently in Beta. Akeeba Ticket System will work on it but there may be some minor or bigger issues. We try to discover and address them. The biggest challenge is that Joomla 4 is still undergoing changes, despite being labeled Beta, which may instroduce new issues on each release. We do not plan on offering full support for Joomla 4 until it reaches at least the Release Candidate 1 stage.
We only officially support using our software with PHP 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 or 7.4. We strongly advise you to run the latest available version of PHP on a branch currently maintained by the PHP project for security reasons. Older versions of PHP have known major security issues which are being actively exploited to hack sites and they have stopped receiving security updates, leaving you exposed to these issues.
At the time of this writing we have only done some preliminary PHP 8 compatibility testing for the backup engine, PHP 8 being in alpha. We expect to be able to fully support PHP 8 around 2-4 weeks after Joomla implements full PHP 8 compatibility. PHP 8 itself is scheduled for release on November 26th. Our prediction for full PHP 8 support is before the end of January 2021, as long as Joomla adds support for it by end December 2020.
Please note that earlier PHP versions including but not limited to PHP 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6 and 7.0 are no longer supported and our software no longer works on them.