Development
If you're managing a Joomla site and hunting for a reliable CAPTCHA solution that prioritizes privacy, compatibility, and ease of use, you've likely sifted through a cluttered field of outdated plugins, paid tools, and external service dependencies. Enter Captcha - HashCash, a standout in the Joomla Extensions Directory (JED), offering a self-hosted, invisible, proof-of-work approach to bot blocking. This plugin isn't just a stopgap; it's a game-changer for Joomla 5 and Joomla 6 users who value website security without sacrificing user experience or GDPR compliance. Let's break down why HashCash tops the list of free CAPTCHA extensions heading into 2026 and how it addresses the modern needs of Joomla CMS administrators.
Read more: HashCash: Free, Privacy-First CAPTCHA for Joomla in 2026
System - Ad Block Reactor has received a complete modern rewrite for Joomla 4, 5, and 6. This isn't just a maintenance release—it's a ground-up rebuild with cutting-edge, evasion-resistant detection that holds up against the smartest blockers out there. For content creators, bloggers, news sites, and anyone relying on ads to keep the lights on, this plugin couldn't come at a better time.
I'm excited to announce the release of Captcha - HashCash version 5.5.0 – a major upgrade that finally banishes one of the last remaining pain points using a web worker: UI freezes during high-difficulty proof-of-work calculations.
If you've ever cranked up the difficulty (or enabled "punish" mode for detected bots) and watched your form page turn into a beach ball spinner... this update is for you. Joomla deserves a world-class CAPTCHA, and this plugin is the real deal.
As webmasters, we’re constantly on the lookout for ways to improve site performance and enhance user experience without sacrificing visual appeal. Animations, while engaging, often come with a hefty price in terms of file size and bandwidth, leading to slower page loads and potential SEO drawbacks. Enter WebGL, a powerful technology that can revolutionize how we handle animations on the web. By leveraging the GPU for rendering, WebGL, combined with shaders, offers a lightweight alternative to traditional formats like AVIF, WebP, GIF, and MPEG-4, significantly reducing load times. In this article, we’ll explore how to use WebGL for animations, address common performance pitfalls, and provide actionable strategies to optimize your site for speed and accessibility.
You build websites. You pour hours into custom themes, tweak extensions, and optimize every line of code. But how do you prove it's yours? A footer credit? Too obvious. A hidden comment in the HTML? Clunky and easy to miss. Enter the generator meta tag. It's sitting there in the head of most Joomla pages, whispering the site's origin story to anyone who peeks at the source code. By default, it shouts "Joomla! 5.x.x" or whatever version you run. Useless for SEO, sure. But ripe for repurposing.
As a developer, I’ve heard the grumbling from some peers: bug reports are a hassle, a drain on time, or even a personal attack on their work. But I see them differently. Bug reports are a favor—a gift from users who care enough to help us improve our software. A recent experience with my Joomla plugin, Content - InterLinked, drove this home. A user’s informal comment, found by sheer luck, revealed a critical issue that could have lingered for months without a formal report. This article explores why clear, direct, and official bug reports are essential for developers and users alike, using this case as a vivid example.
Read more: Bug Reports: A Developer's Best Friend, Not a Burden
System - Link Canonical Version 5.3.0+ introduces support for adding canonical URLs to RSS feeds via HTTP Link headers, addressing Google Search Console's "Duplicate without user-selected canonical" errors for feed URLs (e.g., https://www.example.com/blog?format=feed&type=rss). Since RSS feeds lack an HTML <head> for traditional <link rel="canonical"> tags, the plugin now dynamically injects a Link header per RFC 5988 to specify the preferred canonical URL.
The player card option in X Autopost is relatively easy to use. For the most part, your article doesn't change in any way, though you are linking to it - and if you're setting up a player card, the video should probably also be displayed in your article.