What's new

New backend and frontend frameworks. This version of our software has been rewritten using the new versions of our FOF (backend) and FEF (frontend) frameworks. The new framework versions load faster, unify our common CSS and JavaScript among all of our extensions, allow us to load all JavaScript defered for better performance and help us provide a much better experience on the upcoming Joomla 4 version.

Bug fixes and minor improvements. Please take a look at the CHANGELOG below.

Workarounds for common issues during the update to version 8

We have addressed a number of issues occurring or after the upgrade of our extension to a version released after March 2nd, 2021.

• Update could fail on sites with old plugins we had removed years ago still installed. We saw that several sites seemed to have installed plugins we discontinued between 1 and 8 years ago. These plugins depended on the old versions of our FOF framework which are no longer used in the new versions of our extensions. As a result you could experience installation issues or even the inability to access your site after a failed installation. We are now automatically deleting the files of these old plugins before the update begins, using Joomla's ability to run a pre-installation script. This solves this problem. Please note that this problem should normally not happen unless you had used Discover to install a plugin included with an older version of our extension at some point.
• Update fails on some hosts which use opcache if the any of our software's installer plugin is enabled, you have gone through the Joomla Control Panel (with the extension updates quickicon plugin enabled) or the Extensions Update page before installing the new version, either as an automatic update or by manual installation (Upload & Install or Install from URL). While this sounds far-fetched, it's actually fairly easy to happen if you haven't visited your site's backend for 6-24 hours and you logged in to update it. It can also happen when third party services try to find and install updates on your sites. This issue has been extremely tricky to identify because of the seemingly “random” way it was taking place. It also explains why we did not see it during our testing. The amount of time that elapsed between visiting the Joomla Control Panel page and the update installing was always longer than the opcache revalidation frequency or 5 to 30 seconds. This issue only occurs when PHP is either set to never check if the PHP files have been updated (terrible idea if you are running an off-the-shelf CMS on a commercial host!) or have a revalidation frequency longer than how how long it takes you to start installing the updates.
• We will no longer uninstall FOF 3, the old version of our backend framework, even if it's no longer used by our extensions. The reason is that third party developers who decided to use FOF 3 have not followed our explicit documentation instructions to mark their own extensions as dependent on FOF 3. As a result we would end up uninstalling FOF 3 even though a third party extension would need it, possibly breaking your site. Again, this is not a problem with our extensions or our update, it's a problem with a third party developer not following our instructions for using our framework in their software.
• Workaround for Joomla bug which may not install the included FEF version 2 framework completely, leading to the component being broken after the update. Alternatively, the files were copied but PHP opcache was configured on the server in such a way that the server wouldn't “see” the new files. We are addressing that by implementing our own mini-installer within the post-installation script Joomla allows us to execute at the end of the installation, copying over any missing files and invalidating PHP OPcache for all of the .php files being installed. This is a workaround for a bad server configuration issue, not something we broke in the update.
• Similar to the above, FOF 4 could be installed but misconfigured PHP opcache on the server would make your server believe that the files are not there, throwing errors about missing classes. Just like with FEF 2, we are now invalidating OPcache for each and every .php file being installed. This is a workaround for a bad server configuration issue, not something we broke in the update.
• Similar to the above, servers with misconfigured opcache may not “see” the new component and plugin files, causing problems up to and including inability to access your site until the opcache is invalidated (either manually or by timing out). We are addressing this the same way, invalidating OPcache for each and every .php file being installed. This is a workaround for a bad server configuration issue, not something we broke in the update.

We have not received any reports indicating any other issues.

Joomla! and PHP versions supported

Please consult our Compatibility page. It explains our version support policy and lists which versions of our software are compatible with which versions of Joomla and PHP.

Changelog

Critical bugs and important changes

• Update fails on some hosts which use opcache if the any of our software's installer plugin is enabled, you have gone through the Joomla Control Panel (with the extension updates quickicon plugin enabled) or the Extensions Update page before installing the new version, either as an automatic update or by manual installation (upload & install or install from URL).

Miscellaneous changes

• Servers with opcache may report that FOF 4 classes are missing even though they are actually there.
• Will no longer uninstall FOF 3 even if it's no longer needed due to broken THIRD PARTY extensions using it.
• Workaround for Joomla bug which may not install the included FEF version 2 framework completely, leading to the component being broken after the update.