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.

Quickstart. Removed leftover files from the quickstart's top folder.

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

Menu layouts. Updated to current Joomla code (prepares for Joomla 6).

Fix for the previous update. After the security update of 28 September, pages the template shows in its "component" view stopped with a server error ("Call to undefined function phEsc()"). That view is used for print pages, pop-up windows and the VirtueMart cart and checkout steps. The helper those pages need is now included, and they work again. There are no other changes. Recommended for every site that installed the previous version.

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.

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.

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

Platform maintenance release. The bundled Quick Start now installs Joomla 5.4.8 and VirtueMart 4.8.0, and the template version now tracks the Joomla version it is built and tested against.

Security

• VirtueMart updated to 4.8.0 — security release. The Quick Start previously bundled VirtueMart 4.6.8. VirtueMart 4.8.0 is a security release published by the VirtueMart team, and the demo this package is built from has been updated to it. This matters for existing stores too: installing this template package does not update VirtueMart on a site you already run, so if your store was built from an earlier Quick Start please update VirtueMart there as well, through Joomla's own Extensions → Update screen.

Removed

• The retired "vmbasic" template is no longer installed by the Quick Start. The previous Quick Start installed a second, retired site template called vmbasic — 45 files plus its own Extensions and Template Styles records. It is reinstated by the VirtueMart package and is not part of this product. It has been removed from the demo and from this build.
• An internal build report was being shipped inside the template. security-sweep-3f-report.md was a note our own build tooling wrote while auditing the template's social-icon set. It had no effect on the site and was never meant to leave our build system, but it has been inside the package since 5.4.0.1. It is gone from this build.
• A stale backup of a language file is no longer shipped. The Quick Start carried en-GB.tpl_vmbusiness.sys.ini.bak-prefix-rename-…, a leftover from a June maintenance run.

Fixed

• The version badge on the template's own settings screen was two years out of date. The "Template Version" badge Joomla renders on the template description read 14.08.2024 5.1.2/4.2.12 — a pre-acquisition version string — while the package was in fact 5.4.0.2. It was display text only, and it now reads 5.4.8 from the same release as the manifest.

Changed

• The Quick Start now installs Joomla 5.4.8. The previous Quick Start bundled Joomla 5.4.7. Starting a new site from the Quick Start now gives you the current Joomla release without an immediate update afterwards.
• Version numbering has changed. From this release the template version matches the Joomla version it is built and tested against, so VM Business 5.4.8 is the build for Joomla 5.4.8. The previous number for this template was 5.4.0.2. Nothing about how you install or update the template changes, and Joomla still treats 5.4.8 as newer than 5.4.0.2.

Notes

• No template file changed between 5.4.0.2 and 5.4.8 — verified by a file-by-file comparison of the shipped 5.4.0.2 package against the donor. This release is the platform refresh and the removals described above.
• No template-parameter or database changes — the template package installs as a straight overwrite.

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!

Bugfix release. Fixes a PHP 8 fatal error (count(): Argument #1 ($value) must be of type Countable|array, null given) on the cart "Bill To / Ship To" address edit page. The edit_address.php template override — and its Bootstrap-3 layout variant — now guard the optional user-fields block with !empty() instead of count(), so guest checkout address editing works on all PHP 8 versions. Recommended update for everyone running an earlier version.

Thank you, Zoltán, for taking the time to report this!

5.2.0 2026-06-01

Added

Joomla 5 native API

• Full Joomla 5 namespace compliance across the template entry-point, helpers, and parameter-echo paths — Joomla\CMS\* classes used throughout.
• templateDetails.xml rewritten to the J5 manifest schema with method="upgrade" declared so existing customers can install in place without uninstall-first. Extension-version declaration bumped to 5.2.0.
• Native Joomla 5 jQuery (loaded via the CMS) used in place of the previously-bundled jQuery 1.8.1.

Swiper 11 slideshow

• The legacy Camera slideshow has been replaced with Swiper 11 — CDN-loaded, touch-friendly, accessible, and actively maintained. Same visual look and feel as the prior slideshow; modern engine underneath.
• Slideshow markup updated to Swiper's expected DOM shape; existing slideshow image / caption configuration carries forward unchanged.

Modern social-network support

• Social-media set parity — added Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Discord.
• X (the Twitter rebrand) replaces the legacy Twitter icon with the current logo.
• Removed dead networks: Google+, StumbleUpon, Digg, Blogger, MySpace.
• Social-block parameter set extended: each network now has its own *ON visibility toggle plus URL field, all 13 toggles wired into the Template Style admin form.
• Per-network icon PNGs added under templates/VMBusiness/images/ (x, facebook, instagram, threads, bluesky, mastodon, linkedin, youtube, tiktok, vimeo, pinterest, discord, rss).

Security helpers (XSS hardening)

• New output-escape helpers — phEsc() for general HTML-escaping of parameter echoes, phHexColor() for safe color-value rendering, phCssDim() for CSS-dimension token escaping — applied throughout the template wherever user-controlled parameters reach the output.

Changed

jQuery cleanup

• Removed bundled jQuery 1.8.1 — template now uses Joomla 5's native jQuery.
• Removed the jQuery.browser IE shim (extinct as of jQuery 1.9; only present to support legacy IE detection that has no modern relevance).
• Removed the Superfish menu init — menu hovers are now CSS-only.
• Removed the DropKick currency styling — VirtueMart 4 currency selector renders natively.

Font loading

• Google Web Fonts loader script replaced with a direct preconnected <link> stylesheet for Open Sans — faster first paint, no third-party loader JavaScript, no FOIT/FOUT race with the loader callback.

Background rendering

• jQuery Backstretch replaced with a CSS background declaration — same visual, zero JavaScript.

Bootstrap migration

• Layout markup converted from Bootstrap 2 grid syntax to Bootstrap 5, compatible with Joomla 5's native Bootstrap. Existing column structure preserved; class names updated.

Bundled extensions refreshed

• Akeeba Backup Core updated from 9.9.5 to 10.3.4 — current stable release.
• Weblinks Extension Package updated from 4.3.1 to 5.1.0 — current Joomla 5-compatible release.
• Customers installing the 5.2.0 quickstart land on a clean Extensions Update screen with zero pending updates.

Quickstart database hardening

• Phase 5j: Article hits counter reset. All #__content.hits values reset to 0 (was 30,148 across 69 articles, max 1,566) before quickstart export so customers install with clean view-counts.

Removed

• Bundled jQuery 1.8.1 + jQuery.browser IE shim.
• Superfish menu init + DropKick currency styling.
• Google Web Fonts loader script.
• jQuery Backstretch.
• Camera slideshow library (superseded by Swiper 11).
• Dead social networks: Google+, StumbleUpon, Digg, Blogger, MySpace (params + icons + admin fields).
• Stale Update Sites entries pointing at dead endpoints — Update Sites Manager rebuilt clean.

Package format

• Standalone template: pkg_vmbusiness-5.2.0.zip — Joomla package wrapper that installs the tpl_vmbusiness template extension and registers it under the package manager.
• Quickstart bundle: VMBusiness-J5.4.6-Quickstart — complete Joomla 5.4.6 install with VirtueMart 4.6.8 Pro and VMBusiness pre-loaded as the active template.

• 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

• Updated - Compatible with PHP 8.2
• Updated - Compatible with Joomla 4.3.4
• Updated - Compatible with VirtueMart 4.2.0
• 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