Joomla CMS fans will be happy to know that the new timed release schedule is on-schedule for Joomla 1.7, and with it, a smooth upgrade process from 1.6. If you're still running 1.5, you'll have a bit more of a challenge on your hands, requiring a migration directly from 1.5 to 1.7, using jUpgrade.

Final General Availability release of Joomla version 1.7 is scheduled for July 10th, 2011, just a few weeks away. If you want to get your hands on it now and take it for a spin, grab Joomla 1.7 Alpha 1 release here. Being an Alpha release, don't go trying it out on a live site though, OK?  Beyond the 1.7 release, see planned milestones below.

So What's New?

Significant Changes: The significant improvement for 1.7 over 1.6 is the separation of the Joomla! Platform (the engine) from the CMS (the content management app) itself. Separating and re-insertion of the now independent platform is done.

Unless you're a developer who digs into the code, you won't realize significant change to Joomla right away. The suspension will ride the same, handling's still great, with comparable acceleration and mileage. That said, you WILL realize the power of Joomla's re-engineering as new apps and add-ons are added to the Joomla repertoire, providing you with added "snap-on" flexibility to adapt, improve, add, remove and otherwise change and fine-tune your site capabilities as-needed, to fit your market. More to come on this subject...

Feature Changes: There have been a number of new features added to the Joomla Platform itself, which will be discussed in a future article. Feature changes to the Joomla CMS include the following:

• Add support to log deprecated API (Andrew Eddie)
• JToolBarHelper functions for Save and Create New and Save as Copy (Joseph LeBlanc)
• Mod_custom with backgroundimages (Angie Radtke)
• Allow preselection of categories in com_content (Peter Kneisel)
• Add JFormRuleOptions rule to validate type="list" parameters (Mark Dexter)
• Make copy/move consistent across components (Michael Babker)
• Update TinyMCE to version 3.4 (Rouven Weßling)
• New parameters are present for the language switcher (Jean-Marie Simonet)
• Translation teams can now include a css file in their admin pack to change the fonts used in back-end (Jean-Marie Simonet)
• Language manager now displays installed language in tabs (Michael Babker)
• (a few more are under review ...)

Issues & Bug Fixes: Thanks to the efforts of the Joomla! Bug Squad, Production Leadership Team (PLT) Member Mark Dexter reports that 375 bugs have been squashed! Kudos to all on the team who have contributed to these improvements for the entire Joomla Community!

Additional Joomla! Milestone Dates:

• 05 June - Joomla alpha 1 released for public testing
• 10 June - Feature freeze to prepare for beta release
• 13 June - Joomla beta 1 to be released for public testing
• 27 June - Joomla beta 2 to be released for public testing
• 4 July - Version 11.1 of the Joomla Platform to be released
• 10 July - Joomla 1.7 GA released
• 10 August - Joomla 1.6 reaches end of life and is no longer supported
• January 2012 - Next version of Joomla is released
• April 2012 - Joomla 1.5 reaches end of life

Read more on 1.7 on the  Joomla.org CMS Site here.