There are a couple of important things you need to pay attention to before you could upgrade. I’ll highlight some of them below.

Changed system requirements

The upcoming release of Joomla introduces major changes in the system requirements. Specifically, it increases the minimum required PHP version from 5.3.10 to 7.2.5. The current requirement, 5.3.10 is a pretty dated version of PHP. Thus it’s unsupported and received no security fixes since 2014.

While PHP 7.2 is also not actively supported anymore, it still receives security for a couple of months. Additionally, it’s much faster than any PHP 5 version. Hence, both site owners and plugin developers welcome this change. For site owners the new PHP version allows having faster and more optimized sites. For developers, it allows them to write more modern code.

To sum it up, make sure you check Joomla’s new system requirements, and make sure your site matches it. If you’re just about to upgrade your PHP version, we recommend jumping to PHP 7.4, which is the most recent PHP version. Smart Slider 3 supports both PHP 7.2.5 and 7.4.

Extension and plugin compatibility

There are many under the hood changes, which Joomla developers need to get ready for. Joomla 4 Beta is coming to an end soon, which means it’s getting closer to the release. Although, not all templates and extensions are Joomla 4 ready yet. Updating codes to be compatible with Joomla’s new system can take time. Before attempting to upgrade, make sure the extensions and templates you use are ready.

The best way to do this is to test Joomla 4 on a staging or testing site first. On such sites you can test plugin and template compatibility without affecting your live site. In other words, testing on a staging environment can save you time and headache. Additionally, it provides a safe playground to test the new Joomla software.

If you are having troubles with an extension or template, reach out to its developers. Let them know about the problems you have on Joomla for, and ask when their product will be ready for Joomla 4. If they haven’t encounter the problem before, you might just helped improving the software. Otherwise, they might already have a patch ready for the problem.

There’s a chance that the extension won’t support Joomla 4 at all. If you discovered this on a staging site, you got some time to look for a replacement.

Smart Slider 3 is getting ready for Joomla 4

In the past few weeks we worked hard to make Smart Slider 3 Joomla 4 ready. Now We invite you to test it! How can you do that? First, download the Joomla 4 Beta version of Smart Slider 3. Then install it on your Joomla 4 test site and start using it to create sliders and blocks. If you would see any problems, contact us and let us know about them!

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Dynamic slide generators in Smart Slider

The Joomla article generator of Smart Slider 3 will be Joomla 4 ready for the release. There are some generators which depend on a 3rd party source, like the Virtuemart or K2 generator. We can only update these generators, when the extensions receive their own Joomla 4 update. In other words, these generators will not work with the Joomla 3 ready Smart Slider 3 Beta version.

Frequently Asked Questions

When will Smart Slider be available for Joomla 4?
We’re planning to release the compatible version before Joomla 4 comes out to make it easier for you to upgrade. As of 1st September, 2020 Joomla 4 is still in Beta. We plan to keep track of the beta release to ensure the slider work fine. We’ll also check the final version, and release a Smart Slider 3 update if needed.

Will Smart Slider remain Joomla 3.9 compatible?
Yes, Smart Slider 3 will remain Joomla 3.9 compatible, as long as Joomla 3.9 is supported by Joomla. According to Joomla’s roadmap, 3.9 will be supported for two years after 3.10’s release.

Conclusion

Joomla 4 is going to be a game changer Joomla release. We’re very excited to release a compatible Smart Slider version soon. Joomla 4 is going to be an amazing software, and we can’t wait to help you create gorgeous sliders for your Joomla 4 site.

The post Getting Ready for Joomla 4 appeared first on Smart Slider 3 — WordPress Plugin.

Why should you choose Smart Slider 3 as your Joomla slider extension?

Smart Slider 3 is a next generation visual slider creation tool for Joomla. It’s easy to use and fully customizable. The sliders you create with Smart Slider 3 are responsive. In other words, they adapt to any screen size, so your visitors can enjoy the slider on every device.

Smart Slider 3: more than just a simple image slideshow

Smart Slider 3 is great to create simple image sliders, but you’re not limited to use images. As a matter of fact, Smart Slider 3 makes it easy to put responsive text to your slider. You can edit your slides on a drag’n’drop interface. You don’t need any coding skills to work with Smart Slider 3 which makes the extension perfect for every user.

Texts aren’t the only tools Smart Slider 3 has to help you tell your story. As a matter of fact, you can add texts, images or videos to each slide. Videos have huge visual impact, and they’re great story-tellers. This extension lets you add videos from YouTube and Vimeo to your slider.

Gorgeous slider templates to get you started

Not everyone is a designer or has the time to plan a gorgeous slideshow. Luckily, Smart Slider 3 comes with a bunch of marvellous template sliders you can start with. At the moment, there are 11 templates, but there are more to come. Installing a template is easy, it only takes a couple of clicks. Once you’ve download a template to your site, you can edit anything on it. This includes replacing the texts or images and changing colors.

Create dynamic content from your Joomla articles the easy way

Do you often publish articles on your Joomla site? Have you ever thought about displaying these posts in a slider to draw more attention to them? I have good news for you! Smart Slider 3 is the only tool you’ll ever need to create a responsive Joomla slider. Besides, you can also use the extension to create a slider from your articles. The generator creates slides from the articles of the category you pick.

What’s even more, you can customize the end result to your liking. For instance, you can decide what content you want to display from the original article. In other words, you can create an article slider which shows the title and a short excerpt with a “read more” button. You can also display the intro image of the article.

Spectacular Joomla slider effects with Smart Slider 3 Pro

The free version of Smart Slider 3 has all the tools you need to create magnificent slideshows. Although, you might find yourself in need of more features to add to your Joomla slider. Smart Slider 3 has and amazing Pro version, which has all the features you’d ever need from a slider.

Here’s a list of the best features you can take advantage of if you decide to go pro:

• More slider types. The Pro version of Smart Slider 3 has a total of 5 slider types, while the Free version has only one. You can display more slides next to each other using the Carousel or Showcase type. If you don’t feel like creating a slider, you can create Block instead.
• More templates. Although the free version has 11 beautiful templates, the Pro can top that. If you decide to go Pro, you’ll be able to choose from more than 100 gorgeous slider templates.
• Slide background video. One of the best features of Smart Slider 3 Pro is the slide background video. You can select any MP4 video of your choice and the slider will play it.
• More layers. The Free version has the 5 essential layers which are enough to create the majority of sliders. Of course, that’s great, but you might find yourself wanting to add an audio layer or a counter. The Pro version has got you covered! As a matter of fact, it comes with 17 extra layers.
• Layer animations. Have you ever thought of introducing your layers with cool effects? The Pro version has an extensive layer animation manager. What’s even more, you can launch the animations on different events, like a click of a button.
• Spectacular effects. The Pro version has a long list of awesome effects you’ll love. Ken Burns, Parallax, Particle, Background animations, Reveal animation, Shape Dividers and more.

Conclusion

There are many Joomla slider extensions out there, but none of them is as good as Smart Slider 3. If you need to add a simple image slider or a complex content slideshow to your site, this extension is the one you need.

Are you ready to create gorgeous sliders with a next generation slider software?

The post How to Create a Joomla Slider? appeared first on Smart Slider 3 — WordPress Plugin.

https://smartslider3.com/blog/smart-slider-3-php-7/ Tue, 03 Dec 2019 13:00:08 +0000 https://smartslider3.com/?post_type=blog&p=22880 PHP 7 is one of the biggest performance updates we’ve seen in PHP’s lifetime. You might be holding your site back if your server still runs an older version of PHP. WordPress actually supports new PHP versions, and you can take advantage of that. In fact, WordPress (and Smart Slider 3, too) plans to move […]

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]]> PHP 7 is one of the biggest performance updates we’ve seen in PHP’s lifetime. You might be holding your site back if your server still runs an older version of PHP. WordPress actually supports new PHP versions, and you can take advantage of that. In fact, WordPress (and Smart Slider 3, too) plans to move forward and stop supporting old PHP versions. When will you update?

What is PHP and why does WordPress need it?

To make it simple, PHP is the coding language WordPress is built on. WordPress contains hundreds of .php files which contain codes only developers and PHP can understand. The PHP engine runs the codes in the .php files and transforms them to the interface you know.

Currently WordPress 5.2 requires minimum PHP 5.6.20 to run, but they recommend you to use PHP 7.3. 7.3 is a more recent, faster and more secure version of PHP, if you’re wondering. Additionally, WordPress runs perfectly on a PHP 7.3 server.

Moving forward: WordPress plans to make PHP 7 the new minimum

The minimum PHP version WordPress 5.2 requires is 5.6.20,but there are plans to move forward and make PHP 7 the minimum WordPress needs by the end of 2019. Currently we can’t be sure which version will make the change. However, there’s a possibility that it will be WordPress 5.3 which requires PHP 7 first.

Taking a look at the supported PHP versions there’s a chance that they will make a bigger jump, and make 7.2 or 7.3 as the new minimum. This is an assumption based on the fact that 7.1 will reach its end of life by the end of 2019, and 7.0 has already reached it. Whichever version they will choose, we will welcome their decision.

Why move to PHP 7 at all?

PHP 7 is the latest PHP version which is still in active development. PHP 5.6, on the other hand, is not developed nor supported anymore. So it’s an old environment, and not the most suitable for modern sites. According to WordPress.org’s statistics, approximately two thirds of WordPress sites already run PHP 7.

So the majority of WordPress sites already run on a more modern environment. They also expect WordPress to support them to update PHP on their site in the future. But if you’re still not convinced that moving PHP 7 is a good idea, here’s a list of why PHP 7 is better:

• Security. PHP 5.6 reached its end of life in January, 2019. This means it no longer receives patches and security fixes. In other words, users of PHP 5.6 might be exposed to unpatched security vulnerabilities. PHP 7.2 and 7.3 is still actively maintained and supported, so it receives security updates.
• Speed. PHP 7.0 is approximately two times faster than PHP 5.6. That’s an insane speed increase you can get by simply moving to a more modern PHP version. Additionally, PHP 7.3, the current latest PHP release can do almost 3x speed!
• Coding quality. PHP 7 allows developers to write a cleaner, more efficient code. As a result, your server’s CPU and RAM usage can decrease.

How will the PHP requirement change affect Plugins and Themes?

WordPress was ready to support PHP 7 back in 2015. Slowly, plugin and theme developers started to support it as well. Unfortunately, for a theme or plugin developer, it’s hard to abandon old PHP versions. There are still a considerable amount of users running older WordPress versions. Some users stay on the 4.9 branch intentionally, to avoid Gutenberg.

While only 20% of WordPress sites stayed on the 4.9 branch, they still expect to have up to date plugins on their site. As WordPress 4.9 runs happily on PHP 5.6.20, these users may take more time to upgrade their PHP versions. As a result, plugins and themes need to keep supporting old PHP versions for a longer time.

Smart Slider 3’s PHP requirement changes with the next release

As of version 3.3.22, Smart Slider 3 requires the same minimum PHP version as WordPress does: 5.6.20. However, the next Smart Slider 3 release will require PHP 7 on your server. If you can’t update PHP right now, you can stay on 3.3.22 until you update it, but we recommend moving forward as soon as possible.

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By moving to PHP 7 as Smart Slider 3’s new minimum PHP version, we can take advantage of the speed enhancements. PHP 7 also allows us to keep the code clean and forget about the fallback codes for old PHP versions. Additionally, Smart Slider 3 supports all PHP 7 versions up to 7.4. For these reasons, we’re very excited to release 3.3.23!

Conclusion

PHP is evolving, and you need to keep up with it. Of course, you don’t have to update to every minor version when they’re released. Just make sure to run a supported PHP version on your server. It’s good for you, your site and your visitors as well. When are you planning to update?

The post WordPress and Smart Slider 3 move to PHP 7 appeared first on Smart Slider 3 — WordPress Plugin.

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