This page lists what your site needs for Webal Layouts. If you are not sure about an item, show this page to your web host.
The PHP version
PHP is the programming language that Joomla is written in, and your web host chooses which version your site uses. Webal Layouts needs PHP 8.3 or later.
If your site runs an older version, the installer stops before it changes anything. It shows the message "Webal Layouts needs PHP 8.3 or later. This site runs PHP" and the version of your site, and then it says "Ask your web host to switch the site to PHP 8.3 or later, then install again."
The Joomla version
The installer asks for Joomla 5.4 or later. If your site is older, it stops and shows the message "Webal Layouts needs Joomla 5.4 or later. This site runs Joomla" and the version of your site, and then it says "Update Joomla (System, Update, Joomla), then install again."
- Joomla 6: this is the version we built and measured on. Our main tests ran on Joomla 6.2.0.
- Joomla 5.4: we also tested on Joomla 5.4.10 with PHP 8.4. This was a report-only pass: we looked for problems and wrote them down, and we changed nothing for Joomla 5.4. The package installed, updated and uninstalled cleanly, and the builder opened, edited, published, previewed, exported and imported a layout. We found no problem that belongs to Joomla 5.4 alone.
- What the 5.4 pass did find. One screen title, the title of the Options screen, showed a code word instead of words, and we have since fixed it. One editor test failed on 5.4 because the test assumed something that the editor does not do while a person is typing in a box. We corrected the test, and the whole editor test for the Component, its rows and sidebars then passed, 39 of 39, on Joomla 5.4.10. The other eight browser test files passed on 5.4.10 for an earlier version of Webal Layouts, and we have not run them again on the current version.
The template
Webal Layouts is built for Cassiopeia. Layouts are drawn by a style of a child theme of Cassiopeia. The package gives you one, called Cassiopeia - Webal Layouts. A style of plain Cassiopeia draws no layout. If you open a layout in a style whose theme does not hand its pages to Webal Layouts, the builder shows a note that says "The theme of this style does not use Webal Layouts yet, so the saved layouts will not show on the site." Webal Layouts changes and counts only styles of a theme that uses it. Styles of other themes are left alone. A child theme of your own can be set up to draw layouts too, as Installing Webal Layouts explains.
Webal Layouts does not need Webal Blocks. The two work well together, and the page Webal Blocks inside layouts shows what we tested.
Who can use the builder
The builder opens for a person who can open Templates and edit template styles. With Joomla's own starting settings, this means Super Users and Administrators. Managers cannot open Templates by default, so the builder gives them nothing. Saving and assigning layouts follows the Templates permissions. The permission of the component itself only decides who may open the list of layouts. You set it under Components, Webal Layouts, with the Options button in the toolbar, on the tab Permissions.
The browser
The builder needs JavaScript. Without it, the screen says "The layout builder needs JavaScript. Please switch it on in your browser." All of our browser tests ran in Chrome. We have not tested the builder in other browsers.
Try it
- Sign in to the administrator area of your site.
- Open System, then System Information. You find the Joomla version and the PHP version near the top.
- Compare them with the numbers on this page.
- Open System, then Site Template Styles, and look for the style Cassiopeia - Webal Layouts. Pages that you assign to it show your layouts. Error pages and the offline page show them only when this style is the Default.