Further Information 

Details will be added in due course to this section. Typically this will comprise links to resources within the Joomla! Sphere of operations, plus external resources of general use.

What to expect whilst Joomla! 1.5 is in development 

Joomla! 1.5 has been some time in its development as the Developers - with the asistance of the vast Joomla! Community - strive to make this an even better Content Management System than it already is.

We have already seen it through the Alpha and Beta development stages and are currently within the Release Candidacy stages (at the time of writing we are awaiting RC3).

Alpha Phase 

The Alpha Phase is (ironically) where it all starts! It includes the planning, feature consideration, Community input, early development and testing, primary framework development, and essential decisions on the overall structure. The Alpha release is so new it should not even see the public side of the Internet, other than for essential remote testing of features on non-essential testing servers. There is serious risk of corruption of data, security issues, as well as major changes to the framework, API, and database structure.

Beta Phase 

The Beta Phase is where the Community - but in particular the developers within the Community - get to start testing the new model. Major changes can still happen and there will be lots and lots (and lots...) of bug testing, tweaking, and corrections going on. The Beta Releases must not be used for Public sites there may well be security issues that need to be overcome and there is a high probability of database changes and some lesser framework changes that could corrupt data. At this stage Third Party Developers are likely to start getting interested in developing their Extensions for the future and language and documentation work generally starts in earnest. Those keen to help or keep right up-to-date can use the SVN or Nightly Builds.

 Release Candidacy Phase

The Release Candidacy Phase is where the major changes have all (generally - but not always) been completed and is the first time where the software can be considered safe enough to be used for Public sites. However, there are still risks attached and there will be bug fixing, and some minor changes that will occur. To be sure of having the safest setup it is recommended to keep up-to-date using the Nightly Builds, but there are still occasions where these can cause breaks within a site and need to be used with caution and always back-up your data first! Use of the SVN is less predictable for Live Sites at this stage and should very definitely be treated with caution. Keep right up-to-date with issues and bugs that have been found and are being addressed in the Developer 1.5 Quality and Testing forums. You can even contribute to this process as well!

Stable Phase - Full Release

This is the key release stage where the software is deemed ready for Public usage. There will be minor updates, patches, and feature expansion, but these will have been fully tested before release. The patches are more often than not related to security issues that arise or are discoverd, with PHP, MySQL, or Apache upgrades. Joomla! will always strive to make sure that you have the most secure use of the software all of the time.