Added

Bootstrap 5 layer

• New css/axxen-fixups.css, loaded after the template’s main stylesheets with a version marker (?v=20260529). Its first part maps Bootstrap 2 classes onto Joomla 5’s Bootstrap 5:
  • the .row-fluid / .span1–.span12 grid as a flex row with the twelve Bootstrap 2 column widths, stacking to one column on phones (up to 767 px);
  • .pull-left / .pull-right, the visible- / hidden-phone, -tablet and -desktop utilities, and .btn-inverse.
• Its second part carries VirtueMart and template fixes for Bootstrap 5:
  • product and manufacturer lists (ul.vmproduct, ul.sl-products, ul.vm-product-list-container, ul.vmmanufacturer) without stray list bullets or indent;
  • tab styling for VirtueMart’s tab module markup (ul.nav.nav-tabs > li > a, which has no .nav-link);
  • product images in the product grids that scale to their column (max-width: 100%; height: auto), as they did under Bootstrap 2;
  • VirtueMart’s vmRam() debug messages (.vmdebug) hidden from visitors;
  • no list bullets on the main menu (ul.menu-nav) or the social links (ul#social-links);
  • the footer layout described under Changed.

Slideshow — Swiper 11

• The built-in slideshow now runs on Swiper 11.2.10, which ships with the template in js/vendor/swiper/ (swiper-bundle.min.js, swiper-bundle.min.css), replacing the jQuery Camera slideshow.
• Slide markup moved from .camera_wrap to .swiper / .swiper-wrapper / .swiper-slide. The container keeps its id="ph-camera-slideshow", so your own CSS aimed at that id still applies.
• css/slideshow.css rewritten for the Swiper markup (.ph-swiper-slideshow, .ph-slide, .ph-slide-caption).

Drop-down menu without jQuery

• New js/menu-vanilla.js, loaded when drop-down menus are switched on (usedropdown). It opens sub-menus on hover and keeps them open for 500 ms after the pointer leaves, as the old Superfish setting did, and runs the social-links close button (.closeMenu).
• Menu items that have a sub-menu show a small arrow (▾ on the top level, ▸ on deeper levels). Sub-menus are 12–22 em wide, replacing the width Supersubs used to calculate.

Modern social network support

• Seven new social services, each with an on/off switch and a URL field: Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, TikTok, Pinterest, Discord (fields instagram/instagramON … discord/discordON). The new switches default to on and the new URL fields to the placeholder #TYPE-URL-HERE, so enter your own addresses, or switch off the networks you don’t use, when you next save the template style.
• X replaces the Twitter icon (images/x.png, title “X (formerly Twitter)”, id="x"); the setting keeps its twitter name, so an existing link carries over.
• Eight new icons in images/: x.png, instagram.png, threads.png, bluesky.png, mastodon.png, tiktok.png, pinterest.png, discord.png. The footer now offers 13 networks (X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Vimeo, Pinterest, Discord, RSS).

Security helpers

• Three helper functions in index.php: phEsc() (HTML escaping), phHexColor() (accepts only hexadecimal colour values) and phCssDim() (accepts only a number with an optional px, em, rem, %, vh, vw, pt, ex or ch unit). Anything else is written as an empty value. Where they are used is listed under Security.
• An active .htaccess at the template root (see Security).

Documentation

• CHANGELOG.md and CHANGELOG.html ship inside the template folder.

Changed

Joomla 5 platform

• Built for Joomla 5.4.6 (the previous files were for Joomla 5.1.2 and VirtueMart 4.2.12).
• The page now loads Joomla 5’s bundled Bootstrap 5.3.8 stylesheet (/media/vendor/bootstrap/css/bootstrap.min.css) instead of the template’s own three Bootstrap 2 stylesheets (css/bootstrap/bootstrap.min.css, bootstrap-responsive.min.css, bootstrap-extended.css).
• templateDetails.xml: <extension version="3.10"> → version="5.0"; version 13/08/2024 5.1.2/4.2.12 → 5.4.0 (also in the version line of the template description); creation date 2026-05-29. method="upgrade" is kept, so an existing install updates in place.

Page layout on Bootstrap 5 classes

• index.php: 27 × .row-fluid → .row and 60 × .spanN → .col-md-N; the two [class*="span"] selectors in the inline right-to-left CSS → [class*="col-md-"].
• Product tabs: the tab links use data-bs-toggle="tab" (was data-toggle), and the short phone label and full desktop label switch with d-inline d-md-none / d-none d-md-inline (was visible-phone / hidden-phone).
• 12 overrides moved from the Bootstrap 2 grid to Bootstrap 5 (.row-fluid 20 → 0, .spanN 54 → 0): html/com_virtuemart/cart/default_address.php, category/categories.php, category/default.php, productdetails/default.php, productdetails/default_customfields.php, productdetails/default_showcategory.php, virtuemart/default_categories.php, virtuemart/default_products.php, html/mod_articles_latest/default_items.php, html/mod_virtuemart_manufacturer/default.php, html/mod_virtuemart_product/default.php and single.php.
• Bootstrap 2 utility classes in overrides: html/com_virtuemart/cart/default_pricelist.php 8 × hidden-phone → d-none d-md-table-cell; productdetails/default.php icons hidden-phone → icons d-none d-md-block; askquestion/bs3-form.php 2 × btn-default btn-sm pull-right → btn-secondary btn-sm float-end.
• 12 stylesheets updated to match (css/layout.css, responsive.css, responsive-template.css, template.css, template_rtl.css, vm-axxen.css and the six colour presets css/presets/style1.css–style6.css): .row-fluid 154 → 0 and .spanN 154 → 1 occurrences, now .row and .col-md-N.

Joomla 3 calls

• index.php: all 13 Joomla 3 calls replaced. JFactory::getDocument() and getApplication() → \Joomla\CMS\Factory; JFactory::getUser() → Factory::getApplication()->getIdentity(); 3 × JModuleHelper::getModules() → \Joomla\CMS\Helper\ModuleHelper::getModules(); JComponentHelper::getParams(), JRoute::_(), JText::_() and 2 × JURI::root() → their namespaced classes; 2 × JDocumentHTML::countModules() → $this->countModules(); new JRegistry() → new \Joomla\Registry\Registry(). The jimport() call in the login block is gone.
• html/com_virtuemart/cart/default_pricelist.php: all 22 JText / JHtml / JRoute calls → \Joomla\CMS\Language\Text, \Joomla\CMS\HTML\HTMLHelper and \Joomla\CMS\Router\Route.
• The Joomla 3 calls in the other overrides are unchanged in this release.

Slideshow behaviour

• Slides cross-fade. The slideshow settings that still apply are mapped to Swiper: auto-advance and its delay (cam_autoAdvance, cam_time), transition time (cam_transPeriod), pause on hover (cam_hover), arrows (cam_navigation), page dots (cam_pagination), stop on click (cam_pauseOnClick) and height (cam_minHeight, 400 px if empty).
• Camera settings with no Swiper equivalent no longer have any effect: transition effects and grid slicing (cam_fx, cam_cols, cam_rows, cam_slicedCols, cam_slicedRows, cam_gridDifference, cam_opacityOnGrid), the loader bar and pie (cam_loader*, cam_barDirection, cam_barPosition, cam_piePosition), thumbnails, play/pause, portrait mode, mobile auto-advance, the hover-only arrows, cam_slideOn and cam_height.

Menus, backgrounds, selects and tabs without old jQuery plug-ins

• Drop-down menus open without the Superfish / Supersubs plug-ins (see Added). The drop-down animation settings (dropopacity, dropheight, dropspeed) no longer have an effect, and dropdownhandler1 no longer sets the sub-menu’s minimum width.
• The intro section (siBackgroundImage), body (bodybackgroundimage, fixed) and welcome box (welcome_box) background images are sized with CSS (background-size: cover, centred) instead of Backstretch. The script that makes the intro section fill the window now sizes section#section-intro itself.
• The currency selector is a plain HTML select instead of DropKick, with a light border, a small arrow and a grey focus ring.
• The product tabs switch with a short plain-JavaScript handler instead of the jQuery .tab_heading click handler.
• jQuery itself still loads through Joomla (Jquery::framework()); the login dialog and the equal-height and intro-height scripts still use it.

Footer

• The footer line is now three centred rows, one above the other: payment logos (footer-left), the social icons with the footer-right module, and the copyright (footer). Before, payments sat on the left and the social icons on the right of a two-column #foo-left-right row. The centring lives in css/axxen-fixups.css (.footer-row-payments, .footer-row-social, .footer-row-copyright).

Template Options screen

• Fields 209 → 215: the 14 new social fields added and 8 retired ones removed (see Removed). Two language strings removed from en-GB.tpl_axxen.ini (TPL_AXXEN_BLOGGER_LABEL, TPL_AXXEN_BLOGGER_DESC; 71 → 69).

Fixed

• The tab-module boxes were not evened out on page load. Joomla 5 loads jQuery 3, where jQuery(window).load(...) is no longer an event shortcut, so the script that gives the #tab-modules .moduletable_style1 boxes equal heights stopped with an error. It now uses jQuery(window).on("load", ...).
• “Undefined variable” warnings from two overrides. Joomla 5 no longer passes $type to html/mod_login/default.php or $moduleclass_sfx to html/mod_breadcrumbs/default.php; both overrides now set a default ($type ?? 'login', $moduleclass_sfx ?? '').

Removed

Bootstrap 2 files

• The css/bootstrap/ folder (7 files: bootstrap.css, bootstrap.min.css, bootstrap-responsive.css, bootstrap-responsive.min.css, bootstrap-rtl.css, bootstrap-extended.css, bootstrap-tooltip-extended.css) and js/bootstrap.min.js. css/bootstrap.css and css/bootstrap-rtl.css stay in this release: the print stylesheet, the print and pop-up view and right-to-left sites still load them.

Old scripts

• 27 scripts removed from js/ (29 → 5 files, counting the new menu-vanilla.js and the two Swiper files): camera.js, camera.min.js, superfish.js, supersubs.js, dropkick.js, jquery.dropkick-1.0.0.js, jquery.backstretch.min.js, jquery.mobile.customized.min.js, jquery.easing.1.3.js, modernizr.js, selectivizr-min.js, bootstrap.min.js, the unused copies jquery-1.8.1.min.js and jquery.noConflict.js, and flexibility.js, imgSizer.js, iscroll.js, jquery-eu-cookie-law-popup.js, jquery.equalHeights.js, jquery.nicescroll.min.js, jquery.plusanchor.js, jquery.selectric.js, jquery.stellar.min.js, owl.carousel.min.js, scrollReveal.min.js, selectnav.min.js, slick.min.js. easypaginate.js and jquery.elevateZoom-3.0.8.min.js are kept.

Scripts and stylesheets no longer loaded

• Scripts: Camera (camera.min.js and camera.js, both loaded before) with jquery.mobile.customized.min.js and jquery.easing.1.3.js, Superfish, Supersubs, DropKick, Backstretch, modernizr.js and selectivizr-min.js. The html5.js shim from the closed Google Code site is no longer requested.
• Stylesheets: the three Bootstrap 2 files listed under Changed, camera.css, and ie9-10.css (from index.php and component.php).
• All Internet Explorer conditional comments in index.php, including the no-js lt-ie9 lt-ie8 lt-ie7 class chain on <html> and the IE 6 / IE 7 stylesheets ie6.css and ie.css.
• The inline jQuery that started those plug-ins: the Superfish/Supersubs setup with its jQuery.browser shim, the .closeMenu handler (now in menu-vanilla.js), the DropKick call, the Camera setup and the three Backstretch calls.

Other files

• css/ie.css, css/ie6.css and css/ie9-10.css.
• utils/bss_fontchanger.php, an unused font-size changer.
• error_log, a stray server log file that was inside the previous download.

Retired social services

• Four social slots removed with their switches: Google+ (gplus), StumbleUpon, Digg and Blogger, and their icons gplus.png, stumbleupon.png, digg.png, blogger.png. twitter.png is replaced by x.png.

Security

• Template settings written into the page are escaped. In index.php the unescaped setting echoes fell from 206 to 13, with 184 call sites now going through the helpers:
  • phHexColor() at 138: the 98 numbered colour settings (color1, color2 …) and the site-name and slogan colours (sitenamecolor, slogancolor).
  • phCssDim() at 19: the intro section heights (siTop, siMiddle, simods, sibottom), nonresponsivesitewidth, contentfontsize, topheight, the site-name and slogan positions and font sizes, dropdownhandler2–5 and cam_minHeight.
  • phEsc() at 27: the 13 social-link URLs, the site-name and slogan text and image addresses (including their image alt text), startNowLabel, the colour-preset stylesheet name (choosetheme) and the three background image addresses.
  The 13 left are the Head Code and Footer Code fields, which take raw HTML on purpose, and eleven slideshow, menu and layout values.
• Slideshow output: each slide’s background image address and caption classes are escaped with htmlspecialchars().
• New .htaccess at the template root (the template had none): a <FilesMatch> rule refuses web requests for backup and editor files (.bak, .bak-*, pre-*, .orig, .old, .swp, .swo, .tmp, ~).

Package format

• Standalone template: pkg_axxen-5.4.0.zip, a Joomla package (pkg_axxen.xml) that installs and registers the axxen template, replacing the plain template zip. It declares method="upgrade", so an existing Axxen updates in place; <blockChildUninstall>true</blockChildUninstall>, so the template is removed through the package rather than on its own; and an update server (https://virtuemarttemplates.net/updates/pkg_axxen.xml) for Joomla’s Update Manager.
• This release is the standalone template package only; it has no Quickstart bundle.