Joomla! 4 Alpha 2 is available for testing but it comes with the hidden catch. You need to have PHP 7 running on the web server in order to install it.

PHP 7 is the minimum system requirement for Joomla! 4 website every server will have to comply with sooner rather than later.

Is My Hosting Ready?

At the moment of writing, every hosting provider should have been ready for transition. PHP 7 isn’t a new thing. It has been around for over two years. If you’re not sure what is the PHP version your site is running at, fret not. Go to Joomla! Backend of your website and navigate to System -> System Information then click on PHP Information tab. There you can see what is the PHP version your site is running at:

If first number is anything other than 7, then your server is not ready for Joomla! 4.
In that case, contact your hosting provider immediately.

What About JomSocial?

In almost decade long history, we tried to keep up with latest Joomla! standards and web technologies as soon as they were becoming available. That said, JomSocial offered immediate support for PHP 7 back in February 2016 (PHP 7 was released in December 2015.) and ever since then all subsequent releases of JomSocial were supporting PHP 7.

After Project Icarus which quickly turned into organised chaos, and Joomla X, we finally got the Joomla 4 Alpha 1 version for testing.

We already wrote in Joomlart blog post what can you expect from the Joomla 4 and if you haven’t read it by now, we strongly encourage you to do so.

In this entry, we will focus on JomSocial’s goals and planned changes to make the transition to Joomla 4 as smooth as possible.

First Impression

Needless to say, it was expected. Current JomSocial version (4.5) is not installing on Joomla 4.

So we immediately dedicated developers to work exclusively on Joomla 4 compatibility.

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Request Invitation

JomSocial administrators had an option to set a website in “invite only” mode and today we introduce the option for visitors of the website to request invitation manually. This functionality is completely optional and it’s disabled by default so it won’t interfere with your site flow. If you want to enable this option you can find it in “JomSocial Dashboard -> Configuration -> Registration”

Once user request an invitation, it will show up in “Monitor -> Pending Invitations” section where you can easily review their application and accept or reject it.

If accepted, an email with invitation to the site will be generated through regular mail queue and sent out on next Cron run for user to register on the site.

More new features and improvements

Abandon the conversation in chat

Leaving the conversation you’re not interested in is now possible

Add Users to a JomSocial group when profile type is selected during registration

Adding users to a specific JomSocial group once they choose the profile type has never been easier

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Joomla! 3.8

Joomla! 3.8 has just been released and i’m sure your question would be is JomSocial 4.4.4 compatible with this version of Joomla?

Yes, of course it is. We always make JomSocial compatible with latest Joomla! version almost within a first day of new Joomla release.

For future reference, please bookmark this page so you always have updated information on compatible versions.

Get JomSocial 4.4.4 With The Discount

Get the most advanced Social Networking platform for Joomla with 30% discount today
Use the promo code JomS30 during the checkout to get 30% OFF on new purchases for Professional and Supercharged packages.

Checkout with JomS30 Promo Code

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For a complete list of changes introduced in JomSocial 4.4.2, please check the changelog.

JS Shadow Theme

JS Shadow Theme focus on visual appeal adding unique touch of shade contrast to every part of JomSocial.

JS Kikiriki Theme

JS Kikiriki Theme focus is on content, making it really easy to discover while being presented in a familiar fashion.

How To Install Theme

JomSocial Themes must be unzipped and placed at the proper location.
We have prepared a simple tutorial for our previous themes at the documentation page while we work on the solution to automate this process.

We are currently looking into best possible ways to install themes automatically. Till then, please follow the instructions for "Flat" theme.

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Learn about new releases, tips & tricks

This release is packed with over hundred improvements in a code base, over two thousand commits (code changes) have been added to the repository and several new features have been built and implemented from scratch.

Live Chat

We can’t be more excited about this one. JomSocial has been originally created back in 2008. Which in internet terms is a stone age. Although the private messaging did the purpose it was built for, now in 2017 could simply not cut it

So, we replaced it. With a completely new feature. We took everything good from the old system and implemented into new one.

Backend configuration has moved to it’s separate page with all the controls you used to and then we added more on top of it.

Default settings for the new messages check have been set to 30 seconds.
If you host your site on a shared hosting, lowering this value could potentially have negative impact on your server. If you host on VPS or better server, try to experiment with lower values.

With this new Theme we are aiming to create the perfect blend with JA Mood Template, also released free of any charge for Professional Plan owners but the setup will not require JA Mood Template as the new Theme will work seamlessly with all JomSocial features and support Theme Designer so you can easily change it to fit your unique needs with any other Joomla! template.

Screenshots

Since Theme is still in the development we can’t offer better preview than screenshots but image speaks thousand words so let’s get straight to it:

Release Date

We don’t have a firm release date for the Theme yet but our goal is to release it along the JomSocial 4.4 release very soon.

Give It A Name And Win JomSocial Professional

As you probably noticed, we didn’t mention a name of the Theme. That’s because we came up with so much great ideas for the name that we simply couldn’t pick just one.

That’s why, we give you a chance to name the Theme and win new JomSocial Professional license. Just post your name suggestion in the comments below and we will announce the winner when Theme is ready to be handed to all Professional Plan owners, again, free of any charge.

Today, I would like to show you how your JomSocial community users can be empowered to run advertisements to promote their events, announcements or commercial ads using powerful advertisement management component Ad Agency.

Ad Placements

Ad Agency can turn your site into revenue powerhouse by allowing registered users to become “advertisers” and create various different ads. Place and track your promotional announcements across:

Multiple Ad types:

Once advertiser creates the ad, it will be placed in the corresponding zone or the placement that you can charge for.

Set Your Own Pricing Packages

In Ad Agency, you can set different prices for different types of ads

Target Specific Audience

Targeting the specific audience on the site is very important. Ads created in the Ad Agency extension support geolocated ads which can be configured even at the city or zip code levels (US and Canada only).

That’s why we are taking bold effort to make this update worthwhile and deliver the most robust and stable chat system that you can’t find anywhere else.

Where Can I See It?

You can actually download and install development preview 3 version on your own site although we don’t advise you to do that. Instead create the shadow copy backup or install the test site on localhost and play there. Simply download the latest version of JomSocial, and once unzipped, the development preview installer will be there. 

If you decide to install this version on a live site despite our warning not to, you are on your own. No support is given for development previews.

What else needs to be done?

Beside the fact that it must look absolutely beautiful on all screens, we are also doing numerous tests in performance, stability and scalability, optimizing the code behind the Chat system to be lightweight but robust and extensible. With this in mind, once JomSocial 4.4 is released, third-party developers will be able to hook on the JomSocial chat, implement in in their own extension, or even build a emoji or stickers plugins for the chat system itself.

In the nutshell, this is the list of things to be done with before beta release

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Why Exclude Standard Plan Members?

Standard plan got major boost in our last update when the feature limitations were removed and were brought to the same level of Professional package. Standard plan users were also extended complimentary JA Builder Pro access worth $50. It would not be fair to JomSocial Professional members and JoomlArt team to offer complimentary access of premium products worth more than the JomSocial Standard plan price itself.

We encourage our Standard Plan members to upgrade to Professional plan to take maximum benefit of the offerings. There are more releases lined up for Professional users. For instance, we have a brand new JomSocial theme coming soon for Professional plan.

JA Mood Preview

JA Mood is the newest Joomla template from JoomlArt specifically designed for Music, Community and Social websites. It fully supports JomSocial with customized styles accros the component and it's built with robust T3 Framework with intuitive admin panel.

Some of the features supported in JA Mood are:

Core features of the Community and Joomla template:

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