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Mega Web Shop Virtuemart Template Changelog

Updated ยท in Template Change Log

  • Change Log:
    • Release Date: 2026-10-19, Version: 5.4.10.3, Notes:

      Login fields on phones. The username and password fields were smaller than 16px on phones, so an iPhone zoomed the page in when one was tapped and did not zoom back out. Login, registration, profile and password-reset fields are now 16px on phones.

      Template Options screen. The icons on the template's Options screen came from Font Awesome 4.6.3 on MaxCDN, which no longer serves it, so they were missing. They now load Font Awesome 6.5.2 with its version 4 name shims from cdnjs.

      Quickstart. Joomla's Language Overrides search list shipped filled with several thousand strings indexed on the original developer's computer, file paths included. It is now empty; Joomla fills it again when you refresh it in Language Overrides.

    • Release Date: 2026-10-19, Version: 5.4.10.2, Notes:

      Security. The template's menu layouts printed a menu item's note and link exactly as entered, so markup typed into a menu item's Note or Link field reached the page. Both are now escaped, as Joomla's own menu layouts do.

      Colours with transparency. A colour chosen with the colour picker's opacity slider (saved as an 8-digit colour such as #rrggbbaa) was replaced with black. Colours with transparency are now used as chosen.

    • Release Date: 2026-10-16, Version: 5.4.10.1, Notes:

      Store owners. The account page no longer shows an error when a store owner or vendor is logged in.

      Cart. The cart icon always shows how many items are in the cart, not only on mouse-over.

      Articles. The Previous and Next buttons sit at opposite ends of the article.

      Quickstart. Weblinks updated to 5.2.0.

    • Release Date: 2026-10-15, Version: 5.4.10, Notes:

      Joomla 5.4.10. The Quickstart now installs Joomla 5.4.10 (Joomla 5.4.10 release notes), and the template version is now 5.4.10 to match.

      Error pages. "Page not found" and "access denied" pages now show inside the template, with its header, menus and footer, and fit a phone screen.

      Category pages. The category description lines up with the products (no extra space at the sides).

      Quickstart. A fresh install no longer lists stale update notices.

    • Release Date: 2026-10-13, Version: 5.4.9.2, Notes:

      Breadcrumbs. Fixed a template bug that gave the breadcrumb trail the wrong CSS class. The trail showed as a bulleted list; it now reads as one line again.

      Quickstart. The quickstart includes MCP For J 2.8.3.

    • Release Date: 2026-10-02, Version: 5.4.9.1, Notes:

      Quickstart install fix. The quickstart now installs completely on MySQL databases. Before, the Joomla installer stopped part-way through on MySQL hosts; MariaDB hosts were not affected. Thanks to Iryna for reporting this.

    • Release Date: 2026-09-30, Version: 5.4.9, Notes:

      Joomla 5.4.9. Updated for Joomla 5.4.9, a security and bug-fix release. The quickstart now installs Joomla 5.4.9.

    • Release Date: 2026-09-28, Version: 5.4.8.2, Notes:

      Security update. Every template setting that is written into your pages is now escaped for the place it lands in (HTML, attributes, CSS and JavaScript), including the site name and slogan in image alt text, and module, menu and tab titles wherever the template prints them (module headings, title attributes and the mega menu). A setting or title containing a quote or markup can no longer break out of its place in the page. The error page escapes its message and title too. There are no visual changes. Recommended for all sites.

    • Release Date: 2026-09-03, Version: 5.4.8.1, Notes:

      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. 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.

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

    • Release Date: 2026-08-18, Version: 5.4.8, Notes:

      Maintenance and security release. This update refreshes the Joomla core and the VirtueMart component bundled in the MegaWebShop quickstart package. The template files themselves are unchanged from 5.4.0.1 — the substance of this release is the updated software in the quickstart, plus two packaging corrections.

      Security

      • VirtueMart updated to 4.8.0 (from 4.6.8). VirtueMart 4.8.0 is an upstream security release from the VirtueMart project. The MegaWebShop quickstart package now bundles it. If you already have a MegaWebShop site running, please update VirtueMart on your own installation as well — those fixes live in the VirtueMart component itself, so installing the template package does not deliver them.
      • Joomla core updated to 5.4.8 (from 5.4.7). The quickstart package now bundles Joomla 5.4.8. Existing sites should apply Joomla 5.4.8 through Joomla's own Update component.

      Changed

      • An internal development report was removed from the template package. security-sweep-3f-report.md, a build-time report generated by our own tooling, had been shipping inside templates/megawebshop/ in both the template package and the quickstart. It was never intended for release and is no longer included.
      • Version metadata is now consistent across every surface. The template's index.php header reported 5.4.0 while both manifests reported 5.4.0.1, and the cached version Joomla shows in Extensions → Manage was older still. All of these now read 5.4.8, so what you see in the Joomla administrator matches the version you downloaded.

      Members can download the updated template package and quickstart from the MegaWebShop download area.

    • Release Date: 2026-07-22, Version: 5.4.0.1, Notes:

      Maintenance release — fixes for issues found in real-world use on a live production site. With thanks to Michael Mullan, whose Expression bug report led to this maintenance pass across our templates.

      • Fixed: search-module icon rendered as a stray character — the Joomla 3 jui icon font was removed from Joomla core in Joomla 4, so the glyph fell back to a literal character and the dead font reference 404'd on every page. The icon is now a self-contained SVG.
      • Fixed: pagination arrows (first/previous/next/last) rendered as empty squares — Joomla 4+ uses newer icon class names the template never mapped. Now self-contained SVGs.
      • Fixed: featured/blog articles showing only their title — tall single-column intro articles were clipped by the blog layout CSS.
      • Improved: search button sits snug against the search input.
      • Fixed: the template version shown after install now tracks the real release version.
    • Release Date: 2026-07-18, Version: 5.4.0, Notes:
      First Joomla 5 native release. Mega Web Shop has been brought forward to Joomla 5.4.7 + VirtueMart 4.6.8 + PHP 8 + Bootstrap 5. It keeps its own Bootstrap 2 layout classes and renders on Joomla 5’s Bootstrap 5 through a compatibility stylesheet, so existing module and article markup keeps its layout. This release removes the bundled Bootstrap 2 framework and the Internet Explorer files, stops loading five old jQuery plug-ins, adds a Bootstrap 5 login dialog, a 13-network social set with Font Awesome 6 icons and Joomla’s native on/off switches throughout the Options screen, and escapes the template settings that index.php writes into the page (168 call sites). Across the template, 10 files were removed, 10 modified and one stylesheet added.

      Added

      Bootstrap 5 compatibility layer

      • New css/bs2-bs5-bridge.css: maps Mega Web Shop’s Bootstrap 2 grid (.row-fluid, .spanN, offsets), pull-left / pull-right, the hidden-* / visible-* phone, tablet and desktop utilities, button classes, collapse, tab panes, the Bootstrap 2 base type scale and fixed container widths onto Joomla 5’s Bootstrap 5. It is loaded as the last stylesheet in the head, with a file-time version marker, so it sits in the right place in the cascade.
      • Mega Web Shop’s own block in the bridge keeps the header and slideshow rows at their Bootstrap 2 span3 / span9 proportions, keeps the absolutely positioned menu row (.mn-nav) at full width, and restores the Bootstrap 2 sizing of icon-* elements (the logo artwork is drawn with icon-font glyphs).
      • Joomla’s bundled Bootstrap 5 stylesheet is now loaded explicitly (Bootstrap::loadCss(true, $this->direction)), including its right-to-left version on RTL sites.

      Bootstrap 5 login dialog

      • The header’s account icon opens the login form (#LoginForm) as a Bootstrap 5 dialog: modal-dialog modal-dialog-centered, opened with data-bs-toggle="modal" / data-bs-target, with the × and Close buttons using data-bs-dismiss="modal". It opens centred over a dimmed backdrop.
      • The tabs of the template’s tabbed module area use data-bs-toggle="tab".

      Modern social network support

      • Five new social services, each with an on/off switch and a URL field: Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, TikTok, Discord (fields threads/threadsON, bluesky/blueskyON, mastodon/mastodonON, tiktok/tiktokON, discord/discordON).
      • The social bar now covers 13 networks: X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Vimeo, Pinterest, Discord and RSS. Each is a Font Awesome 6 brand icon (e.g. fab fa-x-twitter, fab fa-bluesky) instead of the old socicon-* font glyph, carries a screen-reader label and opens with rel="noopener".
      • Twitter is now X: X logo, and the setting is labelled “X (formerly Twitter)” (TPL_MEGAWEBSHOP_TWITTER_LABEL).
      • The five custom slots (customSoc1–customSoc5) are kept and still use the template’s local socicon font.

      Security helpers

      • 3 new helper functions in index.php: phEsc(), phHexColor() and phCssDim(), used at 168 call sites. Details under Security.
      • index.php now starts with defined('_JEXEC') or die; and a version docblock.

      Changed

      Joomla 5 platform

      • Built for Joomla 5.4.7 and VirtueMart 4.6.8.
      • The template renders on Joomla 5’s bundled Bootstrap 5 (/media/vendor/bootstrap/) through css/bs2-bs5-bridge.css, instead of its own Bootstrap 2.3.2 copy.
      • Layout markup in index.php moved to the Bootstrap 5 grid: 30 × row-fluid → row and 8 × spanN → col-md-N (header, site name, navigation and slideshow rows). Selectors in css/template.css that targeted .row-fluid (module rows, parallax sections, the login dialog body, mega-menu panels, the intro panel) now also match .row.
      • templateDetails.xml version 07.08.2024 5.1.2/4.2.12 → 5.4.0, with the same version shown on the Description tab; creationDate, copyright and an https author URL updated; method="upgrade" kept, so an existing install updates in place.

      Template Options screen

      • 84 legacy class="switch" checkboxes are now Joomla’s native on/off switchers (type="radio", layout="joomla.form.field.radio.switcher"), e.g. AdditionalGFontON, OverrideDefaultSettings, RSSON, H1TitleImgText, cam_autoAdvance and the *contentwidth settings. With the five new social switches there are 89 switchers and no legacy checkboxes left.
      • Fields 342 → 344. Twelve of the fourteen tab names no longer end in “Settings”: Fonts, Site Name And Slogan, Theme, EU Cookie Law Window, Drop Down Menus, Built-in Slideshow, Product Slider, Testimonials Slider, Manufacturers Slider, Product Images, Side Pop Up Box, Color.

      Fonts and icons

      • Google Fonts load through a direct stylesheet link, with preconnect to fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com and display=swap, instead of the WebFontConfig JavaScript loader (webfont.js from ajax.googleapis.com, no longer loaded by the main layout).
      • The front end loads Font Awesome 6.5.2 (all.min.css) with v4-shims.min.css and v4-font-face.min.css, instead of Font Awesome 4.7.0 from MaxCDN. Existing fa fa-* markup and the font-family: FontAwesome rules in template.css (slideshow arrows, price pop-out icons, menu chevrons) keep working.
      • The header and menu icons in index.php use Font Awesome 6 classes (fa-solid fa-user, fa-pencil, fa-magnifying-glass, fa-bars, fa-arrow-up, fa-circle-arrow-up).

      Menus and background without old jQuery plug-ins

      • Drop-down menus open on CSS hover without the Superfish/Supersubs plug-ins. The mega menu’s submenu arrows are drawn from the menu structure (ul#mega-menu>li:has(ul)>a:after) rather than a class Superfish added at run time.
      • The mega menu keeps its panel open for 500 ms after the pointer leaves, so it no longer closes while the pointer crosses the gap between the menu bar and the panel.
      • The body background image (bodybackgroundimage) is sized with CSS (background-size: cover, fixed, centred) instead of Backstretch.
      • The jQuery.browser compatibility shim is gone; the parallax sections no longer load Stellar.
      • jQuery itself still loads, for the camera.js slideshow, the Owl carousels, scrollReveal, the cookie-law pop-up and jump-to-top.

      Phones

      • The promo image rows, footer columns and bottom strips have a 12 px side inset on phones (up to 767 px), matching the header, instead of running flush against the screen edge.

      Fixed

      • The VirtueMart login form could stop with “behavior::formvalidation not found”. The Joomla 3 behavior.formvalidation call in html/com_virtuemart/user/login.php is now the Joomla 5 behavior.formvalidator. With thanks to Zoltán Szász, whose report found it.
      • Editing a billing or shipping address in the cart could fail on PHP 8 (count(): Argument #1 must be of type Countable|array). html/com_virtuemart/user/edit_address.php and bs3-edit_address.php called count($this->userFields['functions']) on a value that can be empty; they now use !empty(). Also thanks to Zoltán Szász, who reported it.
      • Script errors in the browser console removed:
        • the menu override: html/mod_menu/default.php called selectnav(), which nothing loads, once per menu; the call is now guarded (if (typeof selectnav === "function"));
        • Stellar parallax, which threw on every scroll and resize under Joomla 5’s jQuery 3;
        • jquery.mobile.customized.min.js, which also failed under jQuery 3 (the slideshow does not need it);
        • a link to css/camera.css, which does not exist in the template.
      • Undefined-variable warnings from html/mod_login/default.php ($type) and html/mod_breadcrumbs/default.php ($moduleclass_sfx), which Joomla 5 no longer passes to these overrides; both now get a default.

      Removed

      Bootstrap 2 framework

      • The bundled Bootstrap 2 files: css/bootstrap/bootstrap.css, bootstrap.min.css, bootstrap-responsive.css, bootstrap-responsive.min.css, bootstrap-extended.css, bootstrap-rtl.css, bootstrap-tooltip-extended.css and js/bootstrap.min.js, with the three stylesheet loads in index.php.

      Internet Explorer support

      • css/ie.css and css/ie6.css with their IE 6 / IE 7 conditional comments, and the lt IE 9 block that loaded html5.js over plain http from Google Code, selectivizr-min.js and modernizr.js.

      Legacy scripts no longer loaded

      • superfish.js, supersubs.js, jquery.backstretch.min.js, jquery.stellar.min.js, jquery.mobile.customized.min.js, selectivizr-min.js, modernizr.js, html5.js and the Google webfont.js loader. The local files remain in js/ but nothing loads them.
      • The Font Awesome 4.7.0 stylesheet from MaxCDN.

      Retired social services

      • Four social slots removed with their switches: Google+ (gplus), StumbleUpon, Digg and Blogger.

      Security

      • Template settings written into the page by index.php are escaped for where they appear, through the new helpers (168 call sites):
        • phEsc() (115 calls) for HTML text and attributes: the social and custom-slot URLs and icon classes, site name and slogan settings, parallax ratios and offsets, slideshow, cookie-law window and Google Fonts values.
        • phHexColor() (47 calls) for colours inside inline <style>: only 3- or 6-digit hex values are written, anything else falls back to a default.
        • phCssDim() (6 calls) for sizes such as the header height: only a number with a CSS unit (px, em, rem, %, vh, vw and similar) or auto / inherit is written.
      • Social links open in a new tab with rel="noopener".
      • Direct access to index.php is refused (_JEXEC guard).

      Quickstart Installer

      The Quickstart is a complete Joomla 5.4.7 site with VirtueMart 4.6.8 and Mega Web Shop installed as the active template, with the demo content, installed through the standard Joomla web installer.

      • Bundled: Joomla 5.4.7, VirtueMart 4.6.8, MCP For J 2.3.2.
      • Only the templates the site uses are included: the templates/ folder holds cassiopeia, megawebshop and system. VirtueMart’s demo templates horme_3, vmbeez3 and VM Basic are gone, and so is a stray templates/megawebshop.zip archive of the old template.
      • A clean starting state: the action log is empty, the post-install messages are trimmed to the five worth keeping (welcome, action logs, privacy, multi-factor authentication, automated updates), and the footer copyright reads 2026.

      Package format

      • Standalone template: pkg_megawebshop-5.4.0.zip. Mega Web Shop now installs as a Joomla package (pkg_megawebshop.xml) that installs and registers the megawebshop template extension. It declares method="upgrade", so an existing Mega Web Shop 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_megawebshop.xml) for future updates through Joomla’s Update Manager.
      • Quickstart bundle: a complete Joomla 5.4.7 install with VirtueMart 4.6.8 and Mega Web Shop pre-loaded as the active template.
      Version numbering: from this release Mega Web Shop uses a plain version number (5.4.0) instead of the earlier date-based version strings such as 11.08.2025 5.3.0/4.4.4.
    • Release Date: 2025-08-11, Version: 11.08.2025 5.3.0/4.4.4, Notes:
      • Upgraded - Now compatible Joomla 5
      • Upgraded - Now compatible Virtuemart 4.4.4
      • Fixed - Minor bugs
    • Release Date: 2024-11-29, Version: 29.11.2024 5.1.2/4.2.12, Notes:
      • Fixed - Minor bugs with cart
    • Release Date: 2024-08-08, Version: 07.08.2024 5.1.2/4.2.12, Notes:
      • Upgraded - Now compatible Joomla 5
      • Upgraded - Now compatible VirtueMart 4.2.12
      • Fixed - Minor bugs
    • Release Date: 2024-05-07, Version: 07.05.2024 4.4.4/4.2.0, Notes:
      • Fixed - Minor bug fixes
      • Fixed - Template updated to be compatible with Joomla 4.4.4
    • Release Date: 2024-02-06, Version: 06.02.2024 4.3.4/4.2.0, Notes:
      • Fixed - Minor bug fixes
    • Release Date: 2023-11-04, Version: 31.10.2023 4.3.4/4.2.0, Notes:
      • Fixed - PHP errors for PHP 8.2
      • Fixed - Minor bug fixes
    • Release Date: 2023-09-15, Version: 15.09.2023 4.3.0/4.0.13, Notes:
      • Fixed - PHP 8.2 is compatible with Mega Web Shop
      • Fixed - Template updated to be compatible with Joomla 4.3.4
      • Fixed - Template updated to be compatible with Virtuemart 4.2.0
    • Release Date: 2023-06-30, Version: 26.06.2023 4.3.0/4.0.13, Notes:
      • Fixed - VirtueMart Products Module issue
      • Fixed - Double ReCaptcha on VirtueMart Registration page
      • Fixed - Template toggle button not displaying
    • Release Date: 2023-06-23, Version: 16.06.2023 4.3.0/4.0.13, Notes:
      • Fixed - Menu Params error for adding in image on menu
    • Release Date: 2023-05-20, Version: 20.05.2023 4.3.0/4.0.12, Notes:
      • Fixed - Template updated to be compatible with Joomla 4.3
    • Release Date: 2022-08-23, Version: 23.08.2022 3.10.11/4.0.6, Notes:
      • Fixed - Joomla 3.10.11
      • Fixed - Template updated for PHP 8.0