Joomla Delivers Last Alpha for Version 1.6

 This week team Joomla (news, site) announced another baby step toward the release of the much anticipated v1.6 of their platform. Joomla 1.6 Alpha 2 brings with it enhancements in popular areas such as Access Control List (ACL), as well as several others:      

• ACL: access management for global permissions as well as content item specific permissions, variable usergroups, users member of more than one usergroup, permissions are inherited "really fast"
• Extendable user profile, profile view in frontend, extendable user parameters
• Tableless com_content layouts
• Improved com_content modules (mod_articles_archive, mod_articles_latest, mod_articles_popular)
• Article linker plugin for editors
• New frontend template (atomic)
• New backend template (bluestork)
• New uploader for media manager

Joomla's continued efforts to improve security were expected, as the 1.5 release was docked for lacking in the ACL department. To make up for it, version 1.6--Alphas included--is all about improved internal security. The new system allows admins to set up groups and assign content and functionality to each group.

What's next?

Joomla says this is the end of the line for the Alpha game. Though there's no designated date, it looks like the next release will be a full-fledged Beta with features such as: 

• Commenting solution is going to be added
• Additional DB drivers
• Lots of small performance/UI/code improvements

Until then, play the the Alpha pool while you still have a chance.