Maintenance release.

• Joomla 3 compatibility code removed throughout the template. The template's PHP now uses Joomla's current API everywhere — the template files, the component override and every layout override (cart, checkout, product details, login and the modules). The old code only worked while Joomla's Behaviour – Backward Compatibility plugin was switched on, and will not work at all on Joomla 6. The most serious case was the error page: when it failed, Joomla could not display any error page, so an ordinary “page not found” was served to your visitors as a 500 server error.
• Fixed: paginated pages returned a 500 error on PHP 8. Any page with pagination — on a shop template that includes the category listing — could fail with a server error instead of displaying. The cause was a leftover test in the pagination override that is invalid on PHP 8; the dead code has been removed.

Both the template package and the Quick Start have been rebuilt for this release. Download the latest from your member area.

Joomla 5.4.8, the VirtueMart 4.8.0 security update, and a module-chrome fix that made a page go blank.

Important — please update VirtueMart

• VirtueMart 4.8.0 is a security release from the VirtueMart team (published 12 August 2026, revision 11339, “Eagle owl”). The Quick Start in this release installs it, and the demo this template is built from has been updated to it. If you already run an Explore store, update VirtueMart yourself — installing this template package does not update your store component. Get it from virtuemart.net or your Joomla Extensions Manager.

Changed

• Version numbering has changed. From this release the template version matches the Joomla version it is built and tested against, so Explore 5.4.8 is the build for Joomla 5.4.8. The previous number for this template was 5.4.0. Nothing about how you install or update the template changes, and Joomla still treats 5.4.8 as newer than 5.4.0.
• The Quick Start now installs Joomla 5.4.8. The previous Quick Start bundled Joomla 5.4.7. Starting a new site from it now gives you the current Joomla release without an immediate update afterwards.

Fixed

• The “Slides” module style produced a blank page. html/layouts/chromes/slides.php had a stray closing brace at the end of the file that nothing opened, so the file would not parse and any module you assigned that style to brought the page down with a PHP fatal error. Nothing on the demo used that style, which is why it went unnoticed — but it would have hit any customer who chose it. The file now parses cleanly.
• Version surfaces were out of step. The manifest said 5.4.0.1 while index.php and the shipped package still said 5.4.0. Every version surface — the manifest, the badge on the Template Options page, index.php, the package manifest and the record Joomla stores at install time — is now written from the same release and all say 5.4.8.

No other template file changed since 5.4.0. No template-parameter or database changes — installs as a straight overwrite.

Full Joomla 5-native modernization — plus a brand-new Favicon suite and Explore's first real mobile layout. Explore has been rebuilt from its Joomla 3/4-era Bootstrap 2 foundation into a native Joomla 5 template: Bootstrap 5 styling, no legacy jQuery plugin stack, modern icon and font loading, a zero-browser-console-error profile, and — for the first time in this template's history — a genuinely responsive phone experience (the original rendered as a fixed 930px desktop page on every device). This is the largest release in the template's history; every change below ships in both the standalone package and the quickstart.

With thanks to Gianluca, whose favicon question inspired the new Favicon suite; to Michael, whose Expression bug report led to a maintenance fix-set applied across our templates; and to Zoltán for reporting the Joomla 5 form-validation issue fixed catalog-wide.

Added

• ⭐ Favicon suite — its own tab in the template options. Select any image and the template automatically creates the complete device icon set: a real favicon.ico (16/32/48 sizes) published at your site root, plus 32, 192 and 512 pixel PNG icons and a 180 pixel Apple touch icon — every size linked on your site with self-refreshing URLs (no more fighting the browser's stubborn favicon cache). A built-in crop tool lets you drag a square over any part of a non-square image, with live previews at every generated size, before creating the icon. Works with PNG, JPG, WebP and GIF; .ico and .svg files are used as-is. Leave the field empty and the template's default favicon serves. Thank you to Gianluca, whose question sparked this feature — thanks for being part of a great idea.
• Bootstrap 5 foundation — the template now runs alongside Joomla 5's Bootstrap 5 with a template-tuned BS2→BS5 bridge stylesheet that preserves the original Explore desktop layout pixel-for-pixel (boxed 1170px page, product grids, sidebar, footer columns).
• A real phone layout (≤767px) — the page is fluid at phone widths instead of a zoomed-out 930px desktop render:
  • Large menu hamburger at the top right of the header, opening a dark full-width menu panel with submenu items listed inline.
  • One centered icons row under the header: a Shop menu toggle (opens the web-store category menu as a white panel directly beneath the bar), Register, and a round cart button.
  • Header spans the full screen width with the social icons tucked neatly inside it; no desktop scrollbar gutter.
  • Brand/partner logos two per row, product images at natural size, footer with proper side padding and a centered payment-methods strip.
• Font Awesome 6.5.2 with v4 compatibility shims — replaces the abandoned Font Awesome 4-era icon stack.
• Nine new social networks — Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Vimeo, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, TikTok and Discord, plus an X (formerly Twitter) rebrand. 13 networks total with Font Awesome 6 brand icons, rel="noopener" and screen-reader labels.
• Direct Google Fonts loading — preconnect + stylesheet <link>; the retired async webfont.js injector and an insecure http:// font import are gone.
• @version docblock on the template's index.php, and 3-way version metadata (manifest, admin description, docblock) kept in sync.
• Package distribution — Explore now ships as pkg_explore, a Joomla package extension. Future updates are delivered through Joomla's native Update Manager when an active VMT subscription is detected.

Changed

• 37 template-option toggles rebuilt as native Joomla 5 switches in the template style settings; redundant "Settings" wording removed from tab labels; the settings welcome text now points to VirtueMart Templates support (it referenced a different brand's site).
• Header polish — the Register link now sits on the same line as the social icons; the admin template-name styling cleaned up.
• Post-install messages — fresh installs present the five useful Joomla feature introductions instead of a wall of stale notices.
• MCP For J updated 2.3.2 → 2.4.0.
• Dead social networks retired: Google+, StumbleUpon, Digg and Blogger (fields, markup, language constants and stored keys).
• Product thumbnails render at natural size in featured/random/browse listings, matching the original design (they were being stretched to fill their cells).

Fixed

• Zero browser console errors (the original produced six on every page load):
  • A MooTools-era login-panel script crashed on every page (window.addEvent is not a function) — removed; the collapsible module chromes it powered were rebuilt in modern vanilla JavaScript, so they now actually work.
  • selectnav is not defined errors from the menu module on every page — guarded.
  • A jQuery-3-incompatible mobile-touch library threw on load — removed (the slideshow works without it).
  • An insecure http:// Google-Fonts import was blocked by browsers as mixed content — removed.
• Missing <html> element restored — the original lost its root element inside Internet Explorer conditional comments; it's back with proper lang/dir attributes.
• Slideshow caption bubbles shrink to fit their text again instead of stretching into full-width bars.
• Ghost social icons — leftover sprite backgrounds no longer paint behind the Facebook and RSS icons.
• Search icon and pagination arrows — the Joomla 3-era jui IcoMoon icon font (removed in Joomla 4, it 404'd on every page) is disabled; the search icon and first/previous/next/last pagination arrows are now self-contained inline SVGs.
• Featured/blog articles showed only their title on blog-layout pages — tall single-column intro articles are no longer clipped.
• Search button sits snug against its input.
• PHP 8 fatal error on the cart "Bill To / Ship To" address edit page (count(): Argument #1 must be of type Countable|array) — guest checkout address editing on PHP 8+ now works.
• Joomla 5 form validation in the VirtueMart login override — the removed Joomla 3 behavior.formvalidation call was replaced with the Joomla 5-native validator.
• Grid faithfulness — sidebar, partner-logo and category-browse column widths and gutters now match the original Bootstrap 2 grid exactly (they had drifted under the flex conversion).

Removed

• Internet Explorer 6–9 conditional blocks and polyfills (html5shiv, selectivizr, modernizr).
• Legacy Bootstrap 2 framework files (css/bootstrap/, bootstrap.css, js/bootstrap.min.js) — no Bootstrap 2 ships in any form.
• Retired legacy JavaScript: superfish/supersubs menu plugins (drop-downs run on pure CSS), dropkick, backstretch, the jQuery.browser shim and the jQuery-3-incompatible mobile-touch library.

Security

• Template output call-sites now escape admin-controlled parameters throughout index.php (HTML/attribute escaping plus dedicated color and CSS-dimension validators).
• defined('_JEXEC') direct-access guard verified on all template entry points.
• rel="noopener" on all social and external target="_blank" links.

Quickstart bundle (explore-quickstart-J5.4.7-24.07.2026.zip)

• Bundles Joomla 5.4.7 and VirtueMart 4.6.8 with the full demo content, wizard-installable — you create your own administrator credentials during install (no shared passwords ship in the package).
• Replaces the legacy Akeeba .jpa + Kickstart quickstart format.

Package format

• Standalone template ships as pkg_explore-5.4.0.zip (Joomla package extension wrapping the template), installable on an existing Joomla 5 site via Extensions → Install.

• Upgraded - Now compatible Joomla 5.3.0
• Upgraded - Now compatible VirtueMart 4.4.4
• Fixed - Minor bugs

• Fixed - Minor bugs with cart

• Upgraded - Now compatible Joomla 5
• Upgraded - Now compatible VirtueMart 4.2.12
• Fixed - Minor bugs

• Fixed - VirtueMart Products Module bug
• Fixed - Double ReCaptcha on VirtueMart Registration page
• Fixed - Template toggle button not displaying

• Fixed - Menu Params error for adding in image on menu

• Fixed - Template updated to be compatible with Joomla 4.3

• Fixed - Joomla 3.10.11
• Fixed - Template updated for PHP 8.0