Joomla 4 beta 4 was announced at the end of October. While there's no certainty as to when the final version will be released, things are progressing at a healthy clip now. All new feature development has been baked into Joomla 4 and the project is firmly in bug-squashing mode. We've been actively developing JFBConnect to be compatible with Joomla 4 and are really liking the new feel, features and overall modernization of the Joomla core.
We've been testing Joomla 4 since the last alpha release in late 2019. As the beta releases started to roll in this year (the 5th beta was released on October 27th), we stepped up our testing and development. Updating to the newest release is always a lot of work as there's a lot of code compatibility updates required, integration testing with each of the social networks, and verification with 3rd party extensions. There is no set date for Joomla 4's final version yet, but we are targetting having a Joomla 4 compatible version of JFBConnect out by the end of 2020. As future betas or release candidates of Joomla 4 are released, we'll continue to test, develop and release updates of JFBConnect for each Joomla 4 release, just as we have for Joomla 1.5, 2.5 and 3.x through now.
While there are a ton of updates and features in Joomla 4, the largest impact to us, by far, has been the inclusion of Bootstrap 4 and the latest version of jQuery. This has required rewriting all of our views, but the results have been fabulous. We're really excited about some of the new looks and easier customizations offered by using the latest libraries.
The administrator area for all of Joomla has been overhauled. There's more whitespace and a focus on drawing your attention to what's most important, while still having all the same information as before. A touch we really like is that there's a much smaller reliance on tooltips, which means you don't have to slowly hover over every setting to really know what it's for.
The SCLogin module has been an integral part of JFBConnect since our launch. It's also been a very popular, and free, add-on that allows for easier customization and some great styles (like a modal login popup). With Joomla 4, we're updating it with a fresh coat of paint to match the default template and ready for other Bootstrap 4 (or other framework) templates.
Joomla 4 and JFBConnect are coming along swimmingly. We're really excited to release the first compatible version of JFBConnect late this year and get your feedback on the pairing. We also are fully prepared for a great launch of Joomla 4 in 2021!
