New Joomla! 2.5 Released; Open Source Content Management + Application Framework

Joomla, one of the world’s most popular open source content management systems  (CMS) + Application Framework used for everything from websites to blogs to Intranets, today announced the immediate availability of Joomla 2.5. Along with new features such as advanced search and automatic notification of Joomla core and extension updates, Joomla for the first time includes multi-database support with the addition of Microsoft SQL Server. Previous versions of Joomla were compatible exclusively with MySQL databases.

Joomla’s newest version includes multi-database support with addition of Microsoft SQL Server compatibility.

“Multi-database support is a huge step forward for Joomla, which is already powering more than 1.6 million websites worldwide. It ensures companies and organization, both large and small, will save even more money and time by adopting Joomla,” said Ryan Ozimek, president of Open Source Matters, a non-profit created to provide organizational, legal, and financial support to the Joomla project.

“No longer will Joomla developers be tied down to a particular database or have to spend more money and time integrating other software to get Joomla to communicate with their database. This enhances Joomla’s scalability immensely.”

Other key features in Joomla 2.5 includes:

Automatic notification of Core Joomla updates and Extensions – When logged into the control panel, site administrators will instantly have access to new notification buttons that allows them to see and act on the latest updates. In addition to updates for the Joomla CMS, a second button offers third party extension notification updates.

Natural language search engine – A better natural language search engine to the Joomla core. Complete with auto-completion and stemming (for example if you type “running” in a search field you also see run), it is faster and more versatile than the standard search.

Database Fix button –  A new feature was added that will check to see that your database is up-to-date with any database schema changes added during upgrades. If they are out of date, you can press the Fix button to apply the needed changes.

CAPTCHA in the core –  CAPTCHA uses scrambled text to prevent robotic spammers from submitting forms. Joomla 2.5 gains an API that lets you use CAPTCHAs in your forms.

Images and URL Fields to Create Simple Standardized Layouts – You will be able to specify an image for the introduction and an image for the full article, as well as 3 links. This means that your content creators won’t have to fuss with an image in the text (you can even disable the image button in the editor) and your article format will be cleaner and more consistent.

“We literally received thousands of pieces of input at ideas.joomla.org into what functionality should be added to Joomla 2.5, and overwhelmingly enhanced notifications and more elegant search topped the list,” said Mark Dexter of the Joomla Production Leadership Team. “In fact, the automatic notification for core and extension updates received the most votes for a feature that people wanted in 2.5. But we didn’t stop with just those two. Joomla 2.5 is a major overhaul with more than 24 new features that we have highlighted at www.xyz.com.”

Joomla 2.5 adheres to Joomla’s six-month release cycle that began with the release of Joomla 1.6 in January, 2011. Downloading the latest version of Joomla is the best way to ensure organizational and personal security needs are being met since it will have the most recent updates to protect against the latest security threats.

Joomla 2.5 is truly a collaborative community-driven software project developed with the feedback gathered from more than 2.5 million Joomla forum posts, 530,000 Joomla forum members and data from more than 8,700 Joomla extensions. To download Joomla 2.5, go to http://www.joomla.org