Question

I need to develop a joomla component but I got confused on defining which version is the best to start with. With the 6 months release cycle that the joomla team has adopted 1.5.25 is the Current LTS.

Is it wise to develop primarily for the STS versions?

If I develop for the current STS will I have to port the code to the next release given short release cycle?

Answer 1

I think your most important question should be, on what version of Joomla! are your customers or users? Are they using Joomla! 1.5.x for stability, or because other extensions on their site are limited to Joomla! 1.5? You should support Joomla versions as far back as your customers require, and this probably means 1.5.x.

Your next question should be, what does the roadmap looks like? Here’s The new Joomla versions roadmap (iJoomla.com), and here’s a chart visualisation “Understanding the Joomla roadmap” (joomlablogger.net). Joomla 1.6 is a stepping stone to 1.7, 1.7 is a stepping stone to 2.5, 2.5 will be the next long-term support version, and Joomla 2.5 just went Beta2 and will be in general release soon. You should support the future of Joomla!, and that means Joomla 2.5, with 1.7 and maybe 1.6 as well.

There’s nothing which says your extension may work with only one version of Joomla!. The very popular extension, Community Builder, supports Joomla 1.7, 1.6, 1.5 and 1.0, and Mambo 4.5.0 – 4.6.5. It’s more work to have alternate versions of code targeting different versions of the APIs, but it lets more people use your component.