Using Joomla!, 2nd Edition

Appendix B. Updating and Migrating Joomla

Joomla Updates

Things change. This truth is perhaps the only thing that doesn’t change. This includes website software like Joomla.

Sometimes you will hear your host tell you that you have outdated scripts or you need to keep your scripts updated. “What is a script? I’m running scripts?” you may ask yourself. And yes, you are. The language Joomla’s code is written in is PHP, which is technically a scripting language. A script is a list of commands that are executed by a scripting engine. Joomla itself is a script. Your template is a script. Any third-party extensions are scripts.

The importance of keeping your scripts updated is paramount to the continued health and safety of your website. Outdated scripts can potentially make your site more vulnerable to attack. In fact, the top two reasons sites are hacked are:

1. An improperly configured or vulnerable hosting environment
2. Outdated scripts

We will walk through various means of updating your Joomla site and third-party extensions in this appendix. We will also cover migration from one version of Joomla to another, which is a necessity in order to operate your website with the most recent version of Joomla (a script).

Updating Joomla Within a Release Cycle

Periodically, Joomla will release security and/or feature updates when necessary. It is important to do these promptly. Upgrading Joomla has never been particularly difficult. Since Joomla 2.5, it is even easier for anyone to update Joomla to ...