Joomla! 1.7 brings new update mechanism

The Joomla! development team has released version 1.7 of its open source PHP-based content management system (CMS). The major update is the project's first release made within the new six-month release cycle that began with the release of Joomla 1.6 in January.

To improve the platform's security, Joomla! 1.7 offers a new one-click version updating mechanism that allows users to update a site to the latest stable version with a single click. A built-in updater is also included for Joomla! and extensions. The developers hope that this will help users keep up to date with the latest version so that they are not vulnerable to any security holes found in previous versions.

Mark Dexter of the Joomla Production Leadership Team said that "the user community placed a large emphasis on making the CMS installation process as simple as possible and new versions more frequent. This will allow users to more easily and frequently migrate to the latest version of Joomla, and take advantage of all the security benefits associated with running the newest code."

Other changes include the ability to create a search menu option with pre-defined search options, improved example code for various plug-in types that developers can use to create custom extensions, an option to automatically validate form data, and multi-language improvements. The platform (libraries folder) has been split from the CMS itself in order to allow the platform "to be enhanced outside of Joomla and used for other types of development projects".

The latest update also addresses a medium priority cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability found in version 1.6.5 and all earlier 1.6.x versions. The developers note that version 1.6.5 will reach its end of life on 19 August 2011, Joomla! 1.7 will have a support cycle of seven months, and long term support will be active for 15 months from version 1.8. All users are advised to update as soon as possible; upgrade instructions are provided.

More details about the release can be found in the official release announcement. Joomla! 1.7 is available to download from the project's web site and is licensed under the terms of the GPL. The Joomla! Project is sponsored by Open Source Matters, Inc., a non-profit organisation.

See also:

• [20110701] - XSS Vulnerability, a Joomla! security advisory.

(crve)