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.
View templates are now stored in the tmpl folder instead of ViewTemplates.
This change makes it possible to make template overrides for our software in Joomla 4's template manager.
Existing template overrides are not affected. Template overrides are still stored in the same location
in your template.
Could not delete records using an IP as their primary key. This was a bug in the new version of our
backend framework and has now been addressed.
Joomla was printing out a lot of warnings when installing the extension. This was a cosmetic issue
which did not affect the way our software works. Either way, we addressed it.
Bug fixes and minor improvements. Please take a look at the CHANGELOG below.
Workarounds for common issues during the update to version 6
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
Bug fixes
- [LOW] Joomla was printing out a lot of warnings when installing the extension
- [MEDIUM] Could not delete records using an IP as their primary key