Bugfix release. Fixes a legacy Joomla 3 form-validation call (behavior.formvalidation, removed in Joomla 5) in the VirtueMart login template override, which could cause a 500 - behavior::formvalidation not found error on pages where the login block is shown to guests — for example the cart, depending on your VirtueMart settings. The override now uses the Joomla 5-native behavior.formvalidator.

Found during the follow-up on the 2026-07-15 report — thank you again, Zoltán!

Also fixed: a legacy behavior.modal call (helper removed in Joomla 4/5 — fatal behavior::modal not found) in the mod_virtuemart_product slick-slider override. Bootstrap 5's data-bs-toggle="modal" markup handles modal opening natively.

5.4.0 2026-07-16

Added

Joomla 5 native API

• Full Joomla 5 namespace compliance across template files, VirtueMart view overrides, and helper utilities — every Joomla\CMS\* class accessed through its namespaced form.
• templateDetails.xml updated to the Joomla 5 manifest with method="upgrade", so existing customers can install this release over the top of a 5.1.2 / 4.2.12-era copy without uninstalling first.

Bootstrap 5 compatibility bridge

• Joomla 5 no longer auto-loads Bootstrap 2; QStore now ships a dedicated bs2-bs5-bridge.css that maps the template's historic .row-fluid / .spanN markup (which still lives inside custom-HTML module content) onto Bootstrap 5, so the original layout renders correctly with no content re-authoring.
• Full-width grid parity: standalone .spanN blocks now use true 1170-grid widths. Blocks that previously capped at 940px — most visibly the footer columns and the bottom payment-methods bar — now fill the full page width exactly as on the original design.
• Hybrid slideshow row: the home slideshow and its two featured "side ad" products now sit correctly side-by-side, with the featured column in the right-hand slot reaching the container's right edge.

FontAwesome 6 + v4 shims

• Icons upgraded to FontAwesome 6.5.2 with the v4-shims stylesheet loaded alongside, so any legacy fa fa-X markup in customer content keeps rendering while modern glyphs are available to new markup. The dead FontAwesome 4.7 CDN reference was replaced.

Reworked mobile experience

• Edge-to-edge slideshow on phones — the home slideshow now spans the full viewport width with the timing/progress bar flush to the right edge (previously it was inset and the bar overran the image).
• ALL CATEGORIES menu rebuilt for touch: it now opens on tap (it was hover-only and unresponsive on touch devices), is vertically centered in its bar, renders on an opaque background so it no longer disappears over the slideshow, and has a larger icon, larger uppercase label, and more spacing between the hamburger and the word.
• Tabbed products nav (Hot Offer / News Items / Great Sale) widened and centered so the tabs no longer jam together or clip.
• Testimonials ("Happy Customers") quote text centered so it no longer runs off the left edge of the slide.
• Refined mobile spacing throughout the store rows (section backgrounds, module margins, heading weight/size, and inner product-box padding).

Onboarding messages for new installs

• The quickstart now surfaces exactly the five relevant Joomla post-install messages to a new site owner — Welcome to Joomla, User Actions Logging, User Privacy, Multi-Factor Authentication, and Automated Updates — while suppressing the eleven noise/already-configured notices.

Changed

Legacy framework removal

• Bootstrap 2 grid/utility dependency retired in favour of the BS5 bridge; Internet-Explorer detection shims and the jQuery.browser block removed; legacy jQuery menu plugins (superfish / supersubs) replaced with hover-delay CSS + a small vanilla-JS touch toggle.
• Deprecated J* static calls (JFactory, JText, JHtml, JRoute, etc.) migrated to their Joomla 5 namespaced equivalents.
• Bootstrap 5 modal markup migration for the login / account dialog.

Home page & store visual-parity fixes

• Footer & payment bar: both now fill the full 1170px content width instead of bunching to the left.
• Featured side-ads: the two featured-product boxes now render in the right column beside the slideshow instead of dropping below it, and extend to the right edge.
• Slideshow sizing matched to the reference design.
• Deals of the Day slider: corrected extra right-edge padding/margin.
• Tabbed products nav: fixed the tall active tab and the "blue sliver" above/below the tab bar (the active tab link is now block-level and height-normalized).
• Register / account modal: on mobile it opened off-screen to the left; it now opens centered on screen at all breakpoints without regressing the desktop dialog.

Admin / template configuration

• Removed the redundant word "Settings" from every template-options tab label (Color, Theme, Fonts, Built-in Slideshow, OWL Products Slider, Testimonials Slider, Manufacturers Slider, Product Images, Side Pop Up Box, Drop Down Menus, EU Cookie Law Window, Site Name And Slogan) — the tabs already live under Settings.
• Version-string metadata synced: <version> 5.4.0, <creationDate> 2026-07-16, canonical Cybersalt / VirtueMartTemplates.net copyright, and the on-screen Description version badge.

Security

• XSS-hardening: parameter and content echoes wrapped through Joomla's HTML-escaping helpers across the modernized template and overrides.
• PHP 8 fatal fixed in the VirtueMart cart address-edit view (edit_address.php and its variants): a legacy count() on a possibly-null value replaced with an !empty() guard, which crashed guest checkout under PHP 8.
• Joomla 5 case-sensitivity fatal fixed on the VirtueMart account-maintenance page: JHtml::_('Select.…') calls (capitalized service key) failed on J5's now case-sensitive HTMLHelper registry — corrected to select. so the logged-in vendor billing/currency form renders.
• Template-override security review: the two overrides Joomla flagged for review after the core update (com_content category-list and archive views) were audited — output confirmed properly escaped, no unsafe patterns — and marked checked.

Quickstart database hardening

• Article & product hit counters reset to zero before export (article hits 24,287 → 0) so customers install with clean view-counts.
• Donor-cruft admin/site templates removed — horme_3, vmbasic, and vmbeez3 deleted; the install ships the expected clean template roster.
• Update-sites audit: repaired two payment-plugin update URLs corrupted by a leading-whitespace character (eWay, Realex HPP) and disabled two dead/duplicate update sites (a duplicate VirtueMart releases URL and an entry with unreplaced build tokens).
• Account-maintenance page decluttered: promotional position-7 modules (Cameras / Tablets / "See also") are no longer assigned to the account views.
• Global check-in run across all lockable tables so no stale editing locks ship in the dump.
• StageIt demo-sync backup flag disabled so the quickstart doesn't carry staging-backup baggage.

Removed

• Dead Bootstrap 2 files — the unused css/bootstrap/ folder (bootstrap.css / .min / responsive variants, all announcing "Bootstrap v2") and js/bootstrap.min.js. Confirmed via a rendered-page asset audit that the live pages load Bootstrap only from Joomla's own core (5.3.x), never from these files, before removal.
• All in-tree backup files (*.bak / *.pre-* / .orig) and stray error_log artifacts cleaned from the template before export.
• Legacy IE-detection and jQuery.browser code; superfish / supersubs jQuery menu plugins.

Package format

• Standalone template: pkg_qstore-5.4.0.zip — a Joomla package wrapper that installs the tpl_qstore template and registers it under the package manager, with update notifications delivered through Joomla's native Update Manager.
• Quickstart bundle: a complete Joomla 5.4 + VirtueMart 4 install with QStore pre-loaded as the active template and all sample store content.

• Upgraded - Now compatible Joomla 5
• 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

• Upgraded - Now compatible with PHP 8.2
• Upgraded - Now compatible Joomla 4.3.4
• Upgraded - Now compatible VirtueMart 4.2.0
• Fixed - Responsive Menu bug

• Fixed - VirtueMart Products Module issue
• 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