As an open source and free content management, Joomla has always been up to the mark updating its features regularly. On September 27th 2012, Joomla launched its 3.0 version replacing Joomla 2.5. With the launch of the new version, Joomla added on to the vast features list, making Joomla-powered websites intuitive, responsive and better secured. Let us take a quick look at how Joomla 3.0 is considered an improvement of its earlier version.

1. Joomla 3.0 is responsive : With the help of Bootstrap, Joomla has now officially declared that it is all device-friendly. The responsive feature will enable developers to use Joomla to make website ready for all kinds of devices. Users too can run a Joomla powered website while on the go. Responsiveness was missing in Joomla 2.5.

2. Responsive Front-End Templates : Along with the mobile-friendly features, Joomla 3.0 also has a responsive front-end template called Protostar. Protostar is powered by Bootstrap and is versatile in nature with easily customizable features. The clean look of the template has a customizable grid-layout look. Some of the advanced features of Protostar are color picker, integration of Google fonts with on-off toggle feature that lets you decide whether you want Google fonts or not.

3. Bootstrap Integration : Joomla has finally integrated Bootstrap, the powerful front-end framework promising to fasten web development. Bootstrap will enable basic CSS integration. This was once again found missing in the earlier version.

4. LESS CSS Integration : A dynamic style sheet called LESS has now been integrated with Joomla 3.0. The advantage of this integration is that now developers will be able to define which files will have template integration. Moreover all the websites will include templates and backend of include /less directory and template.less files. These two template files can be used for importing Bootstrap and JUI. LESS CSS integration wasn’t previously available in the older version.

5. Joomla Now with JUI : Joomla User Interface or JUI is a library where a common set of tools can be used by developers for coding without having to create a library every single time. JUI helps reduce coding hours and allows them to start development innovating every single time.

6. New Interface for Greater Interactivity : Joomla 3.0 has been launched with the promise of a better interface that would be great for developers. From the control panel to the admin panel, everything not only looks new but also has better and user-friendly features. The footer has also been redesigned with a ‘quick status view’.

7. Improved Admin Template : The new admin panel is called Isis named after an Egyptian goddess while Joomla 2.5 called its admin panel Bluestork. The new panel promises to have a flexible Bootstrap grid layout with many responsive elements.

8. Polished Back-end : Joomla promises to surprise developers with the polished back-end features in the latest version. The look is completely refreshing. The Article Manager has a better organized filtering system with illustrative icons. The Article Edit Screen has also been revamped with newer publishing option, article options and metadata options.

9. Quick Installation : Earlier with Joomla 2.5, developers had to go through a long-drawn process of seven steps to install the CMS. Now in Joomla 3.0, the steps of installation have been reduced to only three.

10. Automatic Guest User Groups : The Guest User Group is a default feature of Joomla 3.0, something that the CMS development team hadn’t done earlier.

There are several other additional features that Joomla has introduced in its new version such as an updated Beez3 template, a new platform version, a fully-functional JQuery, newer drag and drop features etc.