Goodbye to Joomla 5.2

and my role as Joomla 5.2 Release Manager. With the release of Joomla 5.3.0, the 5.2.x series comes to an end. That also marks the conclusion of my role as Release Manager for that version. From now on, a new team will take over for the 5.3 series.

Looking back, it's been an intense but valuable and educational experience.

Plenty of plans, too few people

It all started in February 2024. Together with Marc DeChèvre, I was appointed as Release Manager for Joomla 5.2. We had no shortage of plans: ideas for improvements, technical goals, and things we wanted to address. One of our main goals was to improve consistency in the backend, that’s why our internal codename for Joomla 5.2 was “uthabiti” (Swahili for “consistency”). But as is often the case in open source: ideas aren’t the problem, finding people is. It’s hard to find developers who have the time and motivation to actually build things.

So the real work began: coordinating, motivating, aligning. At the same time, the team was also working on Joomla 4.4.x and 5.1.x. Many of those improvements were regularly added to Joomla 5.2 as well. In developer terms, that’s called “upmerging.”

Preparing the releases

From April 2024 onward, we worked on the alpha versions, followed by betas and Release Candidates. Together with co-Release Manager Hannes Papenberg, I went through the entire release cycle — from dev builds to official releases.

Between October 2024 and April 2025, we published a total of seven releases, from Joomla 5.2.0 to 5.2.6. Not everything went smoothly, but we got there in the end — even if it sometimes took more time than we hoped.

No release without the community

You're never a Release Manager alone. You’re supported by other volunteers: people who report bugs, fix bugs, review code, and test patches and releases. Think of the CMS Maintenance Team, which helped with bug fixes and patches. Or the CMS Release Team that assisted with testing Joomla versions before they were released to the public. And of course, the Security Strike Team, which actively worked on security and related patches during the 5.2 series. And all the volunteers who reported bugs, submitted patches, and tested fixes (Pull Requests).

What’s next?

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, it’s been a valuable experience. It was intense, especially around release times. My task as Release Manager has come to an end. Joomla 5.2 is complete. I’ll stay active within the project — but in different roles.

To everyone who helped: thank you!
And to anyone considering contributing to Joomla: it doesn’t have to be huge. Every ticket, every patch, and every test makes a difference!