# NEXT SOFTWARE

> Premium Joomla extensions crafted with care. Build better websites with professional components, modules, and plugins.

## Extensions

### Next DB
Joomla has no first-class way to inspect or edit its own database without dropping into phpMyAdmin, the MySQL CLI, or a third-party desktop client. Each of those means leaving Joomla's permission model behind: anyone with the credentials gets full DBA access to every table, every database, with no audit trail. Next DB is a Joomla-native, phpMyAdmin-style database admin tool. Operators edit the Joomla database and attach external MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL and SQLite databases through a React editor backed by Doctrine DBAL. Every operation flows through a service layer where Joomla-native profiles, fine-grained ACL and audit logging are enforced — so you get a full DB tool inside Joomla without giving every operator full DBA privileges. Browse and edit any table, run arbitrary SQL with full syntax highlighting, edit structure with preview-then-apply DDL, export and import via SQL or CSV. Assign profiles to Joomla users or user-groups to scope who can touch which connections, databases, tables and operations. Every mutation is recorded with before/after row snapshots and configurable retention.

- Type: Package
- Starting from: €59.00 — 1 year of free updates and support and unlimited installation
- License: Open Source (GPL v3)
- [Next DB](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/next-db)

#### Database Editor
Browse, edit and manage data across any connected database.

- Object Tree: Connections, databases, tables and views in a single navigable tree.
- Paginated Table Browse: Sort, filter and page through any table with bound-parameter safety.
- Inline Row Editing: Insert, update and delete rows through type-aware drawer forms.
- Multi-Engine Support: MySQL/MariaDB, SQLite and PostgreSQL — all verified end-to-end (PostgreSQL exercised against a real server in CI).

#### SQL Console
Write and run raw SQL with full editor comfort.

- CodeMirror Editor: SQL syntax highlighting, autocomplete and bracket matching.
- Query History: Last 50 statements kept per browser for one-click re-run.
- Read-Only Mode: Flip the console to read-only to explore safely — write statements are rejected.
- Inline Error Surfacing: DBAL errors reported next to the originating statement.

#### Structure Editor
Modify schema with confidence — preview before apply.

- Columns, Indexes, Foreign Keys: Full DDL editor with type-aware widgets for each driver.
- Preview Then Apply: DBAL `Comparator` shows the exact SQL diff before it runs.
- Create, Drop, Rename, Truncate: Engine-correct DDL on every supported platform.
- Atomic on Non-MySQL: Structure edits wrap in a transaction on SQLite and PG to survive table rebuilds.

#### Connections Manager
Attach and manage external databases alongside the Joomla DB.

- Multiple Drivers: MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL and SQLite descriptors.
- Encrypted Passwords: libsodium secretbox storage keyed off the Joomla site secret.
- Per-Driver Options: Charset, port, socket, SSL and platform-specific extras.
- Test Before Save: Live connection check from the admin panel.
- SQLite Allow-List: Stored SQLite files are confined to a configurable base directory, keeping database files out of the web root.

#### Access Control
Joomla-native ACL that goes beyond on/off.

- Profiles: Permission sets covering connections, databases, tables and operations.
- User & Group Assignments: Assign profiles to individual Joomla users or whole user-groups.
- Layered Enforcement: Always-on PHP service-layer gating plus core-table protection; a per-connection MySQL-grant *hard enforce* mode is reserved for a future release.
- SQL Console Gate: Per-profile switch hides the console and rejects the API endpoint.
- Core-Table Protection: Joomla auth/access/extension tables and engine system objects are write-protected for everyone, Super Users included.

#### Audit Trail
Every mutation recorded — answer "who changed what, when".

- Before/After Snapshots: `DataService` captures row state on every insert, update and delete.
- Operation Coverage: CRUD, SQL, structure, import, export and config changes all logged.
- Per-Profile Policy: Choose which operations to record, whether to log failures, and retention.
- Filtered Viewer: Searchable DataGrid with facets and a before/after detail drawer.

#### Export & Import
Move data in and out without leaving the admin.

- SQL Dump: Per-table or whole-database SQL exports with engine-correct quoting.
- CSV Export: Honors the active browse filter.
- SQL Script Import: Statement-aware splitter handles multi-statement files.
- CSV Import: Header-mapped column import parsed client-side.

#### Data Views
Publish read-only database views on the Joomla front end.

- Saved SELECT Views: Define a base SELECT once, reuse it as a named, browsable view.
- Guided Builder: A step wizard takes you from connection to query to a published view.
- Front-End Rendering: Surface query results on the public site — opt-in per connection.
- Validated & Access-Scoped: Base queries are validated; visibility is gated per view.

#### Developer
Modern stack with no deprecated APIs.

- React + MUI: Single-page admin built on React, MUI and TanStack Query.
- Doctrine DBAL: Industry-standard PHP DB abstraction layer, bundled with the component.
- Namespaced Joomla MVC: Joomla 4, 5 and 6 on PHP 8.1+.
- Open Source: GPL v2 or later licensed and upgrade-safe.

### Next Exams
Next Exams is a complete assessment suite for Joomla. Authors build a reusable question bank across a subject tree, assemble exams from fixed questions or randomised pools, and publish them behind the access rule that fits — public, registered users only, a shared code, a named cohort, or an LMS launch. Examinees take the exam in a server-authoritative runner that autosaves as they work, survives a closed laptop, and still submits without JavaScript. Grading is automatic for eight of the nine question types, with partial credit and manual marking for essays. Everything after the submit is covered too: per-subject result breakdowns that tell a learner what to revise, PDF certificates with public QR verification, item analysis that flags the questions doing no discriminating work, a live invigilation board with accountless invigilator invites, and signed webhooks, LTI 1.3 and a bearer-token JSON API for everything you want to automate.

- Type: Package
- Starting from: €59.00 — 1 year of free updates and support and unlimited installation
- License: Open Source (GPL v3)
- [Next Exams](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/next-exams)

#### Question Bank
One reusable bank behind every exam, organised the way you already think about your subject.

- Nine Question Types: Multiple choice (single and multiple), true/false, short answer, essay, ordering, matching, extended matching and cloze.
- Hierarchical Subjects: A self-maintaining subject tree with materialized paths — file a question once and reach it from anywhere.
- Tags and Custom Fields: Free-form tags for pool selection, plus custom fields of your own that stay searchable and filterable.
- Math and Media: LaTeX typeset with KaTeX, and a curated image library that refuses to insert a picture without alt text.
- Versioning and Approval: Full version history per question and a review workflow, so a live exam never changes under you unreviewed.

#### Exam Builder
Assemble an exam from fixed questions, randomised pools, or both.

- Fixed Questions and Pools: Pin the questions that must appear, then draw the rest at random from a subject or tag pool.
- Sections: Group questions into named sections with their own ordering and points.
- Shuffling: Shuffle questions, options, or both — independently, per exam.
- Per-Exam Result Policy: Decide per exam when scores appear, whether answers are revealed, and what the pass and fail screens say.

#### Exam Runner
A runner that is honest about where the truth lives: on the server.

- Server-Authoritative Timing: The clock, the question set and the score are all the server's. A tampered browser changes nothing.
- Delta Autosave: Only changed answers are posted, and an unacknowledged write is re-sent on the next save.
- Pause and Resume: Freeze the clock, close the laptop, come back. Pause counts and total paused time are capped per exam.
- Practice Mode: Untimed, uncapped attempts with per-question feedback the moment an answer is locked.
- Works Without JavaScript: The runner is a real HTML form. Scripts enhance it; they are not what makes it submit.

#### Grading & Results
Automatic where it can be, human where it must be.

- Automatic Grading: Eight of the nine types grade themselves, including ordering, matching and cloze.
- Partial Credit: Proportional or all-or-nothing per question, with numeric tolerance and regex matching for short answers.
- Manual Marking: Essays queue for a grader, with locked review so a learner cannot see a half-marked paper.
- Per-Subject Breakdown: Results split by subject, weakest first, with a plain-language hint about what to revise.

#### Certificates
Issue a real certificate on a pass, and let anyone check it is genuine.

- Visual Designer: Drag-and-drop certificate layout with your own fonts, colours and background.
- Issue on Pass: Awarded automatically, once per attempt, the moment a qualifying pass is recorded.
- Frozen Snapshots: The certificate is rendered from a snapshot taken at issue time, so editing a template never rewrites history.
- Public QR Verification: Every certificate carries a QR code to a public verification page keyed by a random token, not a guessable serial.

#### Live Monitoring
See the room while the exam is still running.

- Live Board: Who is in, how far along, how long is left, and who has gone quiet.
- Interventions: Extend time, allow a resume, force a submit, pause the room, or leave a note on one attempt.
- Audit Log: Every invigilator action is recorded against the attempt it touched.
- Accountless Invigilators: Invite an invigilator by link or PIN without creating a Joomla account — always scoped to one exam, and never able to end anybody's exam.

#### Analytics & Reports
Find out which questions are actually working.

- Item Analysis: Difficulty and item-total discrimination per question, so the ones measuring nothing become obvious.
- Per-Student Reports: Every attempt a person has made, with their trend over time.
- CSV Export: Attempts and analytics out to CSV, filtered exactly as you filtered them on screen.
- Scheduled Email Reports: Have a report built and emailed on a schedule you set.

#### Access & Enrollment
Control who may sit an exam, and when.

- Five Access Modes: View level (including public), open registration, shared access code, identified guest, or a named allow-list.
- Cohorts: Build a roster by hand, mirror a Joomla user group, or invite people who have no account yet by email.
- Windows and Caps: Opening and closing times, due dates, attempt limits and a cooldown between retries.
- Guest Examinees: Let people sit an exam without an account, and still tie their attempt and certificate to them.

#### Integrations
Reach the rest of your stack without waiting for a feature request.

- LTI 1.3: Launch from your LMS, pick exams through Deep Linking, and pass scores straight back to the gradebook.
- Signed Webhooks: HMAC-signed outbound notifications on submit, grade and certificate issue, with retry and a delivery log.
- Headless API Tokens: Bearer tokens with per-scope, default-deny permissions for the JSON API.
- Joomla Ecosystem: An article macro, Smart Search indexing, GDPR export and erasure, and five site modules.

#### Developer
Built the way a modern Joomla extension should be — one codebase across Joomla 4.4, 5 and 6.

- Modern Architecture: Namespaced PSR-4 MVC, dependency injection through service providers, and assets registered with the WebAssetManager.
- App Manager: Twenty-six capabilities you can switch off individually — hidden from the interface and blocked at the endpoint, never deleted from the database.
- Progressive Enhancement: Server-rendered site templates you can override, enhanced with Vue islands that never re-render question content.
- Accessible by Design: The whole exam-taking flow was remediated to WCAG 2.1 AA — keyboard, screen reader and reduced motion.
- Open Source: GPL v2 or later, and upgrade-safe.

### Next File Manager
Next File Manager is a Joomla-native file manager built as a React single-page app inside the admin. It browses the Joomla install itself and any number of additional drives — a folder on this server, an SFTP or FTP/FTPS host, a WebDAV or Nextcloud share, an S3-compatible bucket — through one interface. Access is granted through profiles: a permission set that names which folders a user may see, which of sixteen file operations they may run, how large their uploads may be and which extensions they may send. Profiles attach to individual Joomla users or to whole user groups, so a contributor gets their own folder and nothing else, with no second password to issue. Browse in grid or list view with a live folder tree, drag files between folders, upload by dropping them on the window, preview images and media in a lightbox, edit text and code in a syntax-highlighting editor, create and extract ZIP archives, and search across a folder tree. Sensitive files are protected out of the box — configuration.php, .env files and private keys can never be read or downloaded below Super User, and the administrator tree is write-protected until an admin explicitly unlocks a path. Every mutation is written to an activity log with the user, the operation and the target.

- Type: Package
- Starting from: €49.00 — 1 year of free updates and support and unlimited installation
- License: Open Source (GPL v3)
- [Next File Manager](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/next-file-manager)

#### File Browser
Everything you expect from a desktop file manager, in the Joomla admin.

- Grid & List Views: Switch between a tile grid with large type icons and a dense sortable list.
- Live Folder Tree: A lazy-loading sidebar tree of every folder you have access to, with breadcrumbs above the pane.
- Drag to Move: Drag a selection onto a tree node or a folder tile to move it, with a confirmation on overwrite.
- Right-Click Menu: A full context menu carrying every operation your profile allows — and only those.
- Info Panel: Size, type, modified date, path and permissions for the current selection.

#### Transfers
Get files in and out without a separate FTP client.

- Drop-Anywhere Upload: Drop files on the window to queue them; a progress list shows each transfer and its outcome.
- Per-Profile Upload Rules: Maximum file size, an allowed-extension list and an always-blocked denied list, enforced on the server.
- Download & ZIP Download: Download a single file, or select several and get them as one archive.
- Cross-Drive Copy & Move: Copy or move between two different drives — the transfer is streamed, so large files do not need to fit in memory.

#### Editing & Preview
Read and change files in place.

- Syntax-Highlighting Editor: A CodeMirror editor with modes for PHP, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, JSON, SQL, XML and Markdown.
- Image & Media Lightbox: Full-screen preview for images and media, with byte-range streaming so video can be scrubbed.
- Rename, Duplicate, New Folder: The everyday operations, each individually grantable.

#### Archives
Pack and unpack without shell access.

- Create ZIP: Archive any selection in place.
- Extract In Place: Unpack an archive into its folder, with Zip-Slip path traversal blocked on every entry.
- Access-Checked Contents: Archive downloads honour the same protection rules as direct downloads — a protected file cannot be smuggled out inside a ZIP.

#### Storage & Places
One interface over every filesystem you use.

- Five Drivers: Server folder, SFTP (SSH), FTP/FTPS, WebDAV/Nextcloud and S3-compatible object storage.
- Storage / Place Split: A storage holds credentials and a base; places name the folders on it — so one SFTP account exposes several folders without re-entering its password.
- Encrypted Credentials: Passwords and private keys are stored as ciphertext keyed off the Joomla site secret, and never sent back to the browser.
- Capability Negotiation: Each driver declares what it can actually do, and the UI hides operations the protocol does not support instead of failing deep inside an adapter.
- Test Before Save: A live connection check from the storage editor, which also fills in the SFTP host fingerprint for you.

#### Access Control
Joomla-native permissions that go well past on/off.

- Profiles: A named permission set: granted folders, sixteen togglable operations, upload limits and feature gates.
- Scoped Roots: Each grant is a place plus an optional subfolder plus a read/write flag — a user sees that subtree and nothing above it.
- User & Group Assignment: Assign a profile to individual users or to whole Joomla user groups; a direct assignment wins over a group one.
- Deny by Default: A user with no profile gets nothing. Every operation is re-checked on the server regardless of what the UI offers.

#### Protection
Safe defaults that survive a misconfigured profile.

- Protected Paths: An editable pattern list — shipping with `configuration.php`, `.htaccess`, `administrator/`, `libraries/` and more — that blocks writes to a path and everything under it.
- Secret Files Are Unreadable: `configuration.php`, `.env`, `*.key`, `*.pem` and `.htpasswd` cannot be read, downloaded, previewed or copied below Super User.
- Per-Path Locks: Right-click to lock an item; a Super User can grant a specific unlock override, gated behind a global switch that is off by default.
- Path Traversal Hardening: Every path is canonicalised and re-checked against its granted root, including on case-insensitive filesystems and through symlinks.

#### Activity Log
Answer "who changed what, and when".

- Every Mutation Recorded: Uploads, deletions, renames, moves, copies, edits, archive operations and lock changes.
- Filterable Viewer: A searchable data grid with per-column filters over user, action, place and path.
- Admin-Only: The log tab is visible to Super Users and never exposed to profiled users.

#### Site Front End
Put the file manager on the public site, not just the admin.

- Menu-Item Driven: Publish the same SPA through a Joomla menu item for logged-in front-end users.
- Same Enforcement: The front-end dispatcher runs the identical profile checks, protection rules and command allowlist as the admin.
- Session-Aware: When a session expires, an in-place dialog re-authenticates and replays the interrupted request instead of dumping the user on a login page.

#### Developer
A modern stack with no deprecated Joomla APIs.

- Single-page App: Single-page admin built on React
- Namespaced Joomla MVC: DI service providers, namespaced controllers and Joomla's own database layer throughout.
- Theme-Synced: The interface follows Joomla's own light/dark colour scheme automatically.
- Open Source: GNU GPL v2 or later.

### Next Inventory
Next Inventory is a full-featured inventory management component that replaces spreadsheets with a proper audit-logged system. Track assets checked out to staff, consumables being used up, and sellable stock across multiple warehouses. Scan barcodes with a USB reader or your phone camera, get email and browser push alerts before items run out, and report on stock valuation or movement over any date range. Built on a modern React + Material UI frontend and a fully namespaced Joomla MVC backend, Next Inventory ships with role-based permissions, custom fields, unit conversions, warehouse transfers, and a public catalog view — all configurable without touching code. Switch off whole areas you do not use from the App Manager, work in light or dark — the theme button drives Joomla's own admin theme, so one click changes both — seed a complete demo dataset in one click while you evaluate, and reword any label in the interface with Joomla's own Language Overrides. Every string is translatable.

- Type: Package
- Starting from: €59.00 — 1 year of free updates and support and unlimited installation
- License: Open Source (GPL v3)
- [Next Inventory](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/next-inventory)

#### Inventory Management
Organise every physical asset, consumable, and product in one structured catalogue.

- Three Item Types: Assets checked out to users, consumables used up over time, and sellables tracked for stock levels
- Hierarchical Categories: Organise items with a nested category tree and published/unpublished status control
- Multi-Warehouse Support: Track stock across any number of warehouses or physical locations with transfers between them
- Item Images with Thumbnails: Upload product photos with automatic small and medium thumbnail generation
- Public Frontend Catalog: Opt-in public catalogue pages let visitors browse available inventory with category filters

#### Stock Tracking
Real-time stock quantities with every identifier warehouse workers actually need.

- SKU & Barcode: Store SKUs, barcodes, and serial numbers for every item with indexed lookup
- Decimal Quantities: Track stock to decimal precision for bulk materials, fluids, or partial units
- Units of Measurement: Define custom units with conversion chains (inches → feet → yards) and automatic quantity conversion on transactions
- Low-Stock Thresholds: Per-item threshold triggers alerts and dashboard warnings when quantities run low
- Unit Price & Valuation: Store unit prices per item for total-inventory-value reporting

#### Transactions & Audit Trail
Every stock movement recorded in an uneditable log — no more guessing who did what.

- Check In / Check Out: Assign assets to recipients with structured name/email/department tracking and return to inventory when done
- Add / Remove Stock: Increment or decrement consumable and sellable quantities with mandatory reason fields
- Warehouse Transfers: Move stock between warehouses in batches with draft/finalise workflow
- Stock Adjustments: Record damaged, lost, or found items with audit-trailed reasons
- Automatic Quantity Updates: Stock levels update automatically when transactions save — no manual maintenance

#### Barcode Scanning
A scanner workflow built for warehouse and retail staff.

- USB Barcode Scanner Support: Works with any keyboard-wedge USB scanner — no drivers or configuration
- Camera-Based Scanning: Scan barcodes through any device camera using the built-in web scanner
- Quick Lookup Search Bar: Type or scan a SKU, barcode, or serial to jump directly to an item
- Dedicated Scanner Page: Large fonts, high contrast, and big tap targets designed for the warehouse floor

#### Notifications & Alerts
Multi-channel alerts so stock never runs out without warning.

- Low-Stock Email Alerts: HTML emails sent to subscribed administrators when items drop below their threshold
- Browser Push Notifications: Web Push API notifications delivered even when the Joomla admin isn't open, with VAPID encryption
- In-App Notification Centre: Central notifications page with filters, bulk mark-as-read, and per-user preferences
- Deduplication: Low-stock alerts throttled to once per 24 hours per item per user so inboxes stay clean
- Dashboard Widget: A permanent dashboard widget lists every item below its threshold at a glance

#### Reports & Analytics
Know what you own, what's moving, and what it's worth.

- Stock Valuation Reports: Total inventory value calculated from live quantities and unit prices
- Transaction History: Filter the full audit log by date range, item, recipient, transaction type, or warehouse
- Stock Movement Trends: Visual charts of stock level changes over 7-day, 30-day, 90-day, or 1-year periods
- CSV Export & Print: Download any report as CSV for spreadsheets, or print it dark-on-white for sharing

#### Customisation
Shape the system to fit your workflow, not the other way around.

- Custom Fields: Add dynamic fields (text, number, select, date, checkbox, colour, file, multiselect) to items, warehouses, and recipients with fieldset grouping
- Searchable Custom Values: Flag a field as searchable and you can filter and search on its values like any built-in field
- Role-Based Permissions: Define roles with granular per-feature permissions (create, edit, edit.own, delete, view, manage_transfers, etc.) and assign to users or Joomla groups
- Settings-Driven Formatting: Configure currency symbol and position, date format, decimal separator, and thousands separator from the settings page
- Fully Translatable: More than 800 interface strings, every one reachable from Joomla's own Language Overrides
- One-Click Demo Data: Seed a complete sample inventory to evaluate against, then remove exactly what it added

#### App Manager
Turn whole areas of the component on and off, without touching your data.

- Ten Switchable Apps: Transfers, adjustments, reports, warehouse overview, units, custom fields, notifications, quick search, offline app and demo data
- Nine Core Areas Always On: Items, categories, warehouses, the stock ledger, recipients, roles and settings can never be switched off
- Nothing Is Ever Deleted: Disabling hides an area and refuses its requests; switch it back on and everything is exactly as you left it
- Safe By Default: An update never switches anything on for you, and a database problem can never black the product out

#### Interface & Everyday Use
Built to be lived in, not just configured.

- Light & Dark Mode: One button re-themes Next Inventory and the whole Joomla administrator together, and reports still print dark-on-white
- Fullscreen Workspace: A distraction-free shell with its own sidebar and a breadcrumb trail on every screen
- Ctrl+K Quick Search: Jump to any item by title, SKU or barcode from anywhere in the component
- Date Pickers With Presets: Calendar pickers in your own date format, with last 7, 30 and 90 day and this-month shortcuts
- Bulk Actions & Fast Lists: Publish, unpublish or delete many items at once, with sorting and filtering resolved across the whole list rather than the page in front of you
- Never Lose Work: An unsaved-changes prompt on every edit form, and installable as an offline-capable app

#### Built For Joomla
Modern Joomla 4/5/6 architecture — no deprecated APIs, no shortcuts.

- Native Joomla Throughout: Namespaced MVC, service providers, Form XML validation and Joomla's own asset pipeline
- Joomla Users & Groups: Roles assign to individual users or whole Joomla user groups, and Super Users bypass every check
- Native Updates: Updates arrive through Joomla's own update system, gated by your download key
- Open Source: GPL v2 or later licensed and upgrade-safe

### Next Restaurant
Most restaurants end up paying for four or five systems that never talk to each other: a booking widget on the website, a delivery portal that takes a cut of every order, a till on the counter that knows about neither, and a spreadsheet for stock. Each one bills you every month, keeps its own copy of your customers, and leaves somebody re-typing figures at the end of the night. Next Restaurant does the whole job in one place, on your own website. Guests browse your menu, order for pickup or delivery, book a table, check a gift card balance and leave reviews — with no commission taken on anything. Sitting at a table, they scan the QR code and order without waiting to catch a server's eye. Your team gets what it takes to run service: a full point of sale with open checks, discounts, split bills, refunds and a cash drawer; a kitchen display that shows every ticket the moment it lands, whichever channel it came from; bookings on a floor plan you draw to match your actual room; delivery zones and driver dispatch; stock that comes off your recipes as dishes sell and pulls a dish from the menu when it runs out; and a payments ledger that reconciles the day. Because it is all one system, an order is an order. A QR order at table 12 reaches the same kitchen screen as one from your website, comes off the same stock, settles in the same ledger and lands in the same end-of-day report. Thirteen of the built-in apps can be switched off individually if you don't need them, every member of staff sees only the parts their role allows, and tablets around the restaurant run stripped-down till, kitchen, pickup, waiter, host and clock-in screens without anyone logging into Joomla.

- Type: Package
- Starting from: €99.00 — 1 year of free updates and support and unlimited installation
- License: Open Source (GPL v3)
- [Next Restaurant](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/next-restaurant)

#### Menu Management
Build the menu once and publish it everywhere.

- Items, Categories & Variants: Full menu authoring with per-item pricing, availability windows and per-location overrides.
- Modifier Groups: Reusable option sets — sizes, extras, cooking preferences — with min/max rules and price deltas.
- Allergens & Dietary Tags: Tag every item with allergens and diet labels that surface on the public menu and the KDS ticket.
- Images & Galleries: Per-item photography with built-in cropping, plus a venue gallery for the storefront.
- 86 an Item Instantly: Mark an item unavailable from the POS or admin and it disappears from every ordering channel at once.

#### Ordering Channels
One order pipeline, however the guest chooses to order.

- Online Ordering & Checkout: Pickup, delivery and dine-in orders on your own site, with cart and payment at checkout.
- QR Scan-to-Order: Guests scan the table code, browse the menu, order and pay without an app or an account.
- Counter & Phone Orders: Staff raise orders directly in the POS or the admin orders screen.
- Unified Order Record: Every channel writes the same order, so kitchen routing, stock depletion and reporting never fork.
- Order Corrections: Cancel, modify, remake, comp, discount and refund — manager-PIN gated, fully audited, with waste-vs-restock handling.

#### Point of Sale
A full-service POS built for a busy counter, not a demo.

- Open Checks & Append: Hold tabs open across a service and add rounds to them as the table goes.
- Seats, Splits & Transfers: Assign items to seats, split a check evenly or by seat, and move it to another table or server.
- Discounts, Voids & Comps: Line- and check-level adjustments behind a manager PIN, every one of them logged.
- Payments & Receipts: Take cash, card or on-account, print or email the receipt, and process refunds.
- Cash Drawer: Open, count and reconcile the drawer with a session record you can audit.

#### Kitchen Display
Replace the ticket printer with screens the kitchen can actually work from.

- Live Order Board: Tickets stream in from every channel with elapsed timers and colour-coded urgency.
- Stations & Routing Rules: Route each line to the right station — grill, fry, pass, bar — by category, item or order type.
- Line-Level State: Bump individual lines, not just whole tickets, so a long cook doesn't block the pass.
- Cancellation Alerts: A guest or manager cancellation raises a banner on the affected station until a cook acknowledges it.

#### Reservations & Floor
Take bookings that respect your real capacity.

- Availability Engine: Slots are offered against opening hours, table capacity and existing bookings — no double-booking.
- Drawable Floor Maps: A canvas editor for each floor: tables, chairs, areas, rotation and resize, with pan and zoom.
- Operate vs Layout Modes: Flip the same map between designing the room and running service with live occupancy.
- Guest Notifications: HTML confirmation, reminder and status-change emails driven by a booking state machine.
- Host & Waiter Screens: Seat parties, track table status and take orders from the floor on a tablet.

#### Delivery & Dispatch
Run your own delivery instead of renting someone else's.

- Delivery Zones: Define zones with their own fees, minimums and delivery windows.
- Driver Management: Maintain a driver roster, assign orders and track dispatch state.
- Dispatch Board: See what's cooking, what's ready and what's on the road on one screen.

#### Inventory & Recipes
Know what you're using and what it costs.

- Stock Items & Levels: Track ingredients per location with units, par levels and low-stock alerts.
- Recipe-Driven Depletion: Link menu items to recipes so selling a dish draws down its ingredients automatically.
- Movement Ledger: Every receipt, depletion, waste event and adjustment recorded as a movement you can trace.
- Waste Log & Auto-86: Log waste with a reason, and let items go unavailable automatically when an ingredient runs out.

#### Payments
Take money through the provider you already use.

- Provider Registry: PayPal alongside cash, card terminal, bank transfer, voucher, on-account and pay-on-arrival. Stripe, Adyen, Square, SumUp, gift card and loyalty ship listed as Coming soon and are enabled in later updates.
- Redirect & Webhook Flows: Hosted-checkout redirects with a webhook backstop, so a settlement is never lost to a closed browser tab.
- Transactions Ledger: Every capture, refund and adjustment in one filterable admin view with CSV export.
- Refunds: Full and partial refunds issued back through the original provider and recorded against the order.

#### Staff & Terminals
Put the right screen in the right pair of hands.

- Roles & Permissions: Sixteen feature areas with per-action grants, assigned to Joomla users by role.
- Staff Terminals: Lean POS, KDS, pickup, waiter, host and clock-in views that run on a tablet with no Joomla login.
- Device Token + PIN: Terminals are provisioned once, then staff identify themselves with a PIN — restrictable per terminal.
- Time Clock: Clock in and out, take breaks, and report hours and labour cost per shift.

#### Multi-Location
One install, however many venues.

- Location Records: Each venue carries its own hours, contact details, tax and service-charge settings.
- Per-Location Menu & Stock: Override price and availability per venue, and track stock separately at each.
- Scoped Staff & Terminals: Bind a terminal or a staff member to one location so it can never act on another.

#### Configuration
Turn the product into your product.

- Thirteen Toggleable Modules: Switch off KDS, delivery, inventory, loyalty or the public API — dependent modules grey out automatically.
- Terminology Editor: Rename anything the UI calls something you don't — "check" to "bill", "server" to "waiter".
- Currency, Tax & Formatting: Currency, position, decimals, tax rate, service charge, date format, timezone, units.
- Demo Mode: A one-switch, read-only tour with seeded data that refuses every write, for showing the product safely.

#### Developer
A modern stack with nothing deprecated in it.

- Single-Page Admin: The back office is one fast app — no page reload as you move between orders, the kitchen and the till.
- Search-Friendly Storefront: Your menu and ordering pages are real pages: fast to load and readable by search engines.
- REST API & Webhooks: An opt-in public API and outbound webhooks for integrating whatever you run alongside.
- Namespaced Joomla MVC: Joomla 4, 5 and 6 on PHP 8.1+, GPL licensed and upgrade-safe.

### Smart Local Google Analytics
Running Google Analytics without proper consent management puts your site at legal risk. Most consent solutions are bloated or rely on third-party services that introduce their own privacy concerns. Smart Local Google Analytics is a lightweight, self-hosted alternative built for Joomla.Enter your GA4 or GTM tracking ID and the plugin handles everything: it blocks all tracking until your visitor consents, serves a beautiful consent dialog, and injects analytics code only after acceptance. Local script hosting, smart geo-detection, dark mode, WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility, and five color themes — all with zero external dependencies.

- Type: Plugin
- Starting from: €15.00 — 1 year of free updates and support and unlimited installation
- License: Open Source (GPL v3)
- [Smart Local Google Analytics](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/smart-local-google-analytics)

#### Cookie Consent
Secure, GDPR-compliant consent collection out of the box.

- Accept & Decline Dialog: Clear, honest choices with equally prominent buttons
- Configurable Cookie Lifetime: Session-based or custom duration from 1 to 365 days
- Privacy Policy Link: Select any Joomla menu item as your privacy policy page
- Secure Cookies: HttpOnly, Secure, and SameSite=Lax flags on every cookie
- CSRF Protection: Tamper-proof form submission with token validation

#### Analytics Integration
Full support for Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager.

- GA4 & GTM Support: Works with Measurement IDs (G-XXXXXXXXXX) and GTM containers (GTM-XXXXXXX)
- Consent-First Injection: Scripts load only after explicit visitor consent
- Legacy Mode: Auto-detects existing GA/GTM code in your template and blocks it until consent
- Local Script Hosting: Downloads tracking JavaScript to your server for maximum privacy and speed
- Configurable Refresh: Set how often locally hosted scripts update (1-30 days)
- One-Click Cache Clear: Purge cached scripts from the admin panel instantly

#### Design & Themes
Beautiful consent dialogs that match your brand perfectly.

- 4 Positions: Center modal, full-width bottom bar, bottom-right corner, or bottom-left corner
- 5 Color Themes: Clean, Midnight, Forest, Slate, and Warm — each with a dark mode variant
- Custom Colors: Full color picker for background, text, and button colors individually
- 4 Animations: Fade in from top, bottom, left, or right
- Custom Text: Set your own headline, message, and icon without editing language files

#### Dark Mode
Automatic or forced dark mode with full theme support.

- Auto Detection: Reads OS/browser preference via prefers-color-scheme
- Force Mode: Override visitor preferences with always-light or always-dark
- Custom Dark Palette: Define separate colors for dark mode when using the custom theme

#### Geo-Detection
Show consent dialogs only where regulations require it.

- Language-Based Detection: Reads the browser Accept-Language header — no third-party APIs
- EU, EEA & UK Coverage: All 27 EU member states, EEA countries, and UK/Ireland
- 3 Non-EU Behaviors: Auto-agree, show consent dialog, or skip plugin entirely
- Region Toggles: Enable or disable EU, EEA, and UK consent regions independently
- Safe Defaults: Unknown visitors always see the consent dialog

#### Accessibility
WCAG 2.1 AA compliant for every visitor.

- Keyboard Navigation: Full focus trap inside the consent dialog
- Screen Reader Support: ARIA dialog role, aria-modal, and live regions
- Reduced Motion: Respects prefers-reduced-motion for animations
- Semantic HTML: Proper heading hierarchy, form labels, and descriptive aria-labels

#### Developer
Modern Joomla 6.x architecture with no deprecated APIs.

- Namespace-Based Plugin: SubscriberInterface event registration via getSubscribedEvents()
- Dependency Injection: Clean DI through services/provider.php
- WebAssetManager: All assets loaded via joomla.asset.json registry
- Zero Runtime Dependencies: Everything runs on your server — no external calls
- Multilingual: en-GB and de-DE included; add any language with .ini files
- Open Source: GPL v2 license or later and upgrade-safe

### Smart Local Google Maps

- Type: Plugin
- License: Open Source (GPL v3)
- [Smart Local Google Maps](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/smart-local-google-maps)

### Smart Local Youtube

- Type: Plugin
- License: Open Source (GPL v3)
- [Smart Local Youtube](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/smart-local-youtube)

## Extension Categories

### Automation
Workflow automation, bots and integration tools

- Extensions in category: 0
- [Browse Automation extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/category-automation)

### Booking
Appointment scheduling, reservations and booking systems

- Extensions in category: 1
- [Browse Booking extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/category-booking)

### Calendars & Events
Event management, calendars and scheduling

- Extensions in category: 0
- [Browse Calendars & Events extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/category-calendars-events)

### Collaboration
Team communication, project management and collaboration tools

- Extensions in category: 0
- [Browse Collaboration extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/category-collaboration)

### Contact & Feedbacks
Contact forms, surveys, reviews and feedback tools

- Extensions in category: 0
- [Browse Contact & Feedbacks extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/category-contact-feedbacks)

### Content
Content creation, management and publishing tools

- Extensions in category: 0
- [Browse Content extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/category-content)

### Directory
Business directories, listings and member directories

- Extensions in category: 0
- [Browse Directory extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/category-directory)

### eCommerce
Online stores, shopping carts and product catalogs

- Extensions in category: 1
- [Browse eCommerce extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/category-ecommerce)

### Education
Learning management, courses and educational tools

- Extensions in category: 1
- [Browse Education extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/category-education)

### Finance
Accounting, invoicing, payments and financial management

- Extensions in category: 0
- [Browse Finance extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/category-finance)

### Human Resources
HR management, recruitment and employee tools

- Extensions in category: 0
- [Browse Human Resources extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/category-human-resources)

### IT & Help Desk
Support tickets, knowledge base and IT service management

- Extensions in category: 0
- [Browse IT & Help Desk extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/category-it-help-desk)

### Multimedia
Image galleries, video players and media management

- Extensions in category: 0
- [Browse Multimedia extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/category-multimedia)

### Sales & Marketing
CRM, lead generation, email marketing and sales tools

- Extensions in category: 0
- [Browse Sales & Marketing extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/category-sales-marketing)

### Security & Access
Security, authentication and access control tools

- Extensions in category: 0
- [Browse Security & Access extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/category-security-access)

### SEO & Privacy
Search engine optimization, privacy and analytics tools

- Extensions in category: 3
- [Browse SEO & Privacy extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/category-seo)

### Tools
Administration tools, dev tools, editing tools and more

- Extensions in category: 2
- [Browse Tools extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/category-tools)

## Extension Types

### Plugins
Plugins are event-driven extensions that enhance Joomla behavior system-wide.

- Extensions of type: 3
- [Browse Plugins extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/type-plugin)

### Packages
Packages bundle several extensions together so they install, update, and uninstall as a single unit.

- Extensions of type: 5
- [Browse Packages extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/joomla-extensions/type-package)

## News

### Product Updates

#### Next Exams 6.1.0: Live Monitor redesign, projector displays and timezones everywhere
Next Exams 6.1.0 is available today, 25 September 2026. The Live Monitor has been rebuilt around the people who need a human, with two projector displays and invigilator access you can prepare before an exam starts. Timezones now apply on every screen and in every email, and certificates wait for the results. Updating from 6.0.0 needs no extra steps and changes no database tables. A Live Monitor that puts the people who need you first The old board gave every examinee the same weight and every action its own button. In 6.1.0 the Next Exams Live Monitor puts anyone who needs attention at the top, in this order: past their deadline, held by an invigilator, or offline. Each of those rows gets one clear fix, such as + Time or Release, and nothing else on the row competes with it. One status per examinee: Online, Offline · 3m ago, Held, Paused or Handed in, in words as well as colour. Filter chips and name search replace the counter tiles, with Needs attention first. One section per exam, each carrying that room's own actions. People who have handed in fold into a collapsed row at the bottom. Countdowns tick every second, and on tablets and narrow screens the table becomes cards. Everything about one person in one panel Click a name and a details panel opens next to the list. It explains in one sentence why the person needs attention and shows their time left, progress, the question on screen and when they were last seen. It also offers the actions that fit their state, with labels that follow it, so a held examinee is offered Release rather than a menu of look-alikes. Below the actions sit a note shared with the other invigilators, the integrity signals explained in words, and this person's history. More time for the whole room When the Wi-Fi drops for everyone, you can now give the whole exam more time in one step instead of row by row. The monitor warns you when the extra time would run past the exam's closing time, and pausing a whole exam now asks for confirmation first. Two displays for the projector The Room clock is safe to show examinees. It gives the exam's title, a large countdown to the end, the current time and how many are still writing, and never shows a name. The Staff wall is a large-type, read-only list for the invigilators' side of the room, with attention first; when the room does not fit on one screen it pages by itself. Both open full screen from the Display menu. Invigilators, ready before the exam starts The exam picker now also lists exams nobody has started yet, whether open now, opening soon or found by search, so you can issue invigilator links and PINs the day before rather than once the room has filled. Each invite comes with a QR code to scan from a tablet. Two security changes come with it: an invigilator link or PIN can no longer take time away from an exam, and giving a whole room extra time requires a Joomla account. Timezones, applied everywhere The timezone setting used to be saved and then ignored. It now applies to every screen, export, certificate and email, and the setting itself is a searchable list that follows the site by default. Exam dates are entered in your own timezone, and learners can see and change theirs on the site. The exam page now shows when an exam opens, closes and is due. The settings documentation explains which timezone each screen and email uses. Certificates wait for the results A new My Certificates page lists a learner's certificates. A certificate is issued the moment an attempt passes, so until 6.1.0 a download or an email could tell a learner they passed before you had released the results. Now the download, the certificate issued email and the My Certificates module all wait. A held email goes out once the results are released. The certificates documentation covers each release policy. Fixes A disconnected examinee could still show as online on the Live Monitor. Clocks froze in the optional streaming mode. Invigilators using an invite link saw no action buttons. The editor opened empty when reopening saved content. A locked Live Monitor showed the exam number instead of its name. What this means for you 6.1.0 arrives through Joomla's own updater with your download key and runs on Joomla 4.4, 5 and 6 with PHP 8.1 or higher. We tested the update from 6.0.0 on all three Joomla versions with both MySQL and MariaDB. Two changes may be visible after updating: Timezone. If you never changed the old UTC default, dates now follow your site's timezone. Certificate emails. On an exam whose results you release by hand, the certificate issued email now waits until you release them. The Live Monitor documentation walks through the new board. Links Full 6.1.0 changelog Next Exams documentation

- Published: 2026-09-25
- Category: Product Updates
- [Next Exams 6.1.0: Live Monitor redesign, projector displays and timezones everywhere](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/news/next-exams-6-1-0-live-monitor-redesign-projector-displays-and-timezones-everywhere)

#### Next Inventory 6.1.0: App Manager, dark mode, and more
Next Inventory 6.1.0 is available today, 5 September 2026. It adds an App Manager that switches whole areas on and off, a dark mode that follows Joomla, a fully translatable interface, FIFO and LIFO costing screens that were never reachable, and an installer that survives Oracle MySQL. Updating from 6.0.x takes nothing away. App Manager: switch off what you do not use The new App Manager turns whole areas of the component on and off from one card grid: ten switchable apps in four categories, plus nine core areas that are always on. Transfers, adjustments, reports, the warehouse overview, units, custom fields, notifications, quick search, the offline app and demo data can each be switched off; items, categories, warehouses, the stock ledger, recipients, roles and settings cannot. Switching an app off hides it from the menu, the routes and the dashboard, and refuses its requests; your data is never touched, so switching it back on restores everything exactly as it was. The confirmation dialog shows how much you actually use an app first. Dark mode that follows Joomla Next Inventory now follows Joomla's own light and dark setting, so it no longer shows a blinding white panel inside a dark administrator. The theme button in the top bar drives Joomla's own switch, so one click re-themes the whole admin. A new Appearance tab in Settings sets the default for the public catalogue, where Joomla has no colour scheme to follow. FIFO and LIFO costing, now reachable Choosing FIFO or LIFO in Settings changed how stock was costed, but every screen that reports on it stayed hidden. Switching to FIFO or LIFO now reveals the COGS Analysis and Inventory Aging reports, the Inventory Layers panel on an item, the COGS column on the transaction list, and the Cost/Unit field when you add stock, so incoming batches carry their real purchase cost instead of the item's list price. Everyday improvements Ctrl+K quick search — from anywhere, or Cmd+K on a Mac. Bulk actions on the Items list — publish, unpublish or delete several rows together. Unsaved-changes prompt — on every edit form and on Settings. Date pickers with presets — in your configured format, with Last 7, 30 and 90 Days and This Month shortcuts. Server-side sorting — a column sorts the whole list, not just the page in front of you. Low-stock widget — "View all" and "Add stock" now work, and the Items list gained low-stock and warehouse filters. Navigation — a breadcrumb trail in fullscreen mode, and an administrator sidebar grown from three entries to fifteen. Fully translatable The language file has grown from 145 entries to more than 800, where roughly a fifth of the interface had been reachable before. Language files are now installed where Joomla looks for them, so Joomla Language Overrides take effect throughout. Overrides made against 6.0.x had silently done nothing. Demo mode, rebuilt Installing demo data no longer wipes the site: sample rows are added alongside your own, every row is tracked, and removing the demo takes away only what it added. Visitors can now browse every screen read-only, on both the administrator and the public frontend. Install, remove and reset are restricted to Super Users, and a new scheduled task, "Next Inventory: Reset demo data", finally makes automatic resets work. Security and installation fixes Demo sites no longer accept changes through the public frontend. Publishing and unpublishing on nine configuration screens now requires permission. Requests are refused unless they are known to be read-only, closing nine kinds of write the old block missed. Installation no longer fails on Oracle MySQL; a failed install is safe to retry, and uninstalling removes everything it created. What this means for you Every feature you already had arrives switched on. Only two apps start off: the Progressive Web App, which keeps your existing choice, and Demo Data, which is new and opt-in. A demo installed by a version before 6.1.0 left no record of what it created, so removing it clears all inventory data; Next Inventory warns you first, so back up before you confirm. 6.1.0 runs on Joomla 4, 5 and 6 with PHP 8.1 or higher and arrives through Joomla's own updater with your download key.

- Published: 2026-09-05
- Category: Product Updates
- [Next Inventory 6.1.0: App Manager, dark mode, and more](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/news/next-inventory-6-1-0-app-manager-dark-mode-and-more)

### Comparisons

#### Next Inventory vs Snipe-IT: asset tracking inside Joomla or in a separate app
This article is for IT teams and office managers who run a Joomla site and need to know who has which laptop, and how much toner is left. It compares Next Inventory, a Joomla component, with Snipe-IT, a standalone open-source asset manager. Prices and features were checked on 5 September 2026. What Snipe-IT is Snipe-IT is a free, open-source IT asset and license management system. It is written in PHP on Laravel 12 and released under the AGPL-3.0. You can install it on your own server, where support comes from the community on GitHub and Discord. Or you can pay Snipe-IT to host it: Basic costs $39.99 a month or $399.99 a year, Small Business costs $99.99 a month or $999.99 a year, and a dedicated server starts at $249.99 a month. Snipe-IT is built for IT departments. It records who has each asset and when it was bought so it can be depreciated, tracks software licenses and their expiry dates, keeps accessories, consumables and components, and can ask a user to accept a EULA when equipment is checked out. LDAP, Google Secure LDAP and SAML logins are included, and the interface is translated into more than 55 languages. What Next Inventory is Next Inventory is a component that runs inside the Joomla site you already have. It tracks three kinds of items: assets you check out to people and expect back, consumables that get used up, and sellables with a stock level. Your staff log in with their Joomla accounts, roles can be given to whole Joomla user groups, and updates arrive through Joomla's own updater. A license is a one-time purchase: €59 for one year of updates and support, €99 for two years, €139 for three years, with unlimited installations and security updates for at least five years. The code is GPL, so it keeps working when the license period ends. Side by side Capability Next Inventory Snipe-IT Where it runs Inside your Joomla site Its own Laravel app on your server, or Snipe-IT hosting User accounts Your Joomla users and groups Its own users, plus LDAP and SAML Price One-time, €59 to €139 Free self-hosted; hosting from $399.99 a year Open-source license GPL v2 or later AGPL-3.0 Check assets out to people Yes, with serial numbers Yes, to users or locations Consumable stock and low-stock alerts Yes, email and browser push Yes, low inventory report Sellable stock Yes No Transfers between warehouses Yes, in batches with draft and finalise Not listed Barcode with a USB scanner Yes Yes Barcode with the phone camera in the browser Yes Not listed; QR labels for reader apps Software license tracking No Yes, with expiry alerts Depreciation No Yes EULA acceptance on check-out No Yes, with digital signature Custom fields Yes, 12 types, on items, warehouses and recipients Yes, on assets Role permissions Yes, per feature, per user or Joomla group Yes Stock valuation and FIFO/LIFO costing Yes Not listed Public REST API No Yes Translations Every string, through Joomla language overrides 55+ languages Where Next Inventory is the better fit You already run Joomla. Snipe-IT is a second application with its own server, its own login and its own patch cycle. Next Inventory installs like any Joomla extension and updates from the same screen as the rest of the site. You track more than IT hardware. Toner, lab reagents and packaging are consumables. Anything you sell is a sellable. All three share one catalogue and one stock movement screen, so a laptop check-out and a toner top-up land in the same log. Your staff scan with their phones. Next Inventory reads barcodes through the phone camera in the browser, with nothing to install. USB scanners work as well. You want to pay once. Hosted Snipe-IT starts at $399.99 a year. Self-hosting is free, but someone has to run and patch a Laravel server. Where Snipe-IT is the better fit Your job is IT asset management in the strict sense: software licenses with expiry alerts, depreciation, asset audits and EULA sign-off on check-out. Next Inventory has none of these. You need LDAP or SAML login and you do not have a Joomla site to attach the inventory to. You need a REST API, or you want the integrations and translations that come with one of the largest open-source asset communities. Try it Log in to the Next Inventory demo to check an item out and watch the log update. The installation guide takes a few minutes to follow, and Why Next Inventory fits internal inventory management explains the three item types in more depth. Sources Snipe-IT pricing Snipe-IT features Snipe-IT on GitHub

- Published: 2026-09-05
- Category: Comparisons
- [Next Inventory vs Snipe-IT: asset tracking inside Joomla or in a separate app](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/news/next-inventory-vs-snipe-it-asset-tracking-inside-joomla-or-in-a-separate-app)

### Tips & Tricks

#### Why Next Inventory fits internal inventory management
Most organisations keep track of their own equipment and supplies in a spreadsheet, and most of those spreadsheets are wrong within a month. Next Inventory is a Joomla component that replaces the spreadsheet with a proper audit-logged system: every laptop, tool, reagent and box of toner in one catalogue, every movement recorded, and an alert before anything runs out. The spreadsheet problem A spreadsheet has no memory. It shows the current count, not who changed it, when, or why. Nobody knows which of the three loan laptops is with the new starter, the toner ran out on Friday because nobody was watching that cell, and the annual audit turns into a week of asking around. Internal inventory is not a retail problem at a smaller scale. The questions are "who has it?" and "are we about to run out?", and those are the questions Next Inventory is built to answer. Three kinds of things you own Next Inventory separates what you track into three item types, because they behave differently. Assets are equipment you check out to people and expect back: laptops, cameras, tools. Consumables are supplies that get used up: paper, chemicals, packaging. Sellables are products with stock levels, for the sites that also sell. The item type decides which transactions are available: check-out and check-in for assets, add and remove stock with a mandatory reason for consumables and sellables. Items carry SKUs, barcodes, serial numbers, decimal quantities, unit prices and their own units of measurement with conversion chains. Know who has what Every check-out goes to a recipient with a name, email and department, and a serial-numbered asset is tied to that specific unit, so the transaction log shows exactly which laptop is with which person. Transactions are uneditable once saved. The only way to reverse one is to record the opposite transaction, which is what makes the log a true record of what happened rather than a tidied-up version of it. Stock quantities update automatically when a transaction saves, so there is nothing to keep in sync by hand. Never run out quietly Each item has a low-stock threshold. When the live quantity drops to it, the item shows in red on the Items list, a dashboard widget lists it, and subscribed users receive an email and, if enabled, a browser push notification. Alerts are throttled to once per 24 hours per item per user, so nobody's inbox fills up because one shelf is empty. The widget's "Add stock" shortcut opens the stock dialog for that item on the spot. Fast on the floor Any keyboard-wedge USB barcode scanner works with no drivers or configuration, and the built-in web scanner reads barcodes through a phone or tablet camera. Ctrl+K opens quick search from anywhere in the component to jump to an item by title, SKU or barcode, and a dedicated scanner page uses large fonts, high contrast and big tap targets for the stockroom. Only the parts you need An IT department does not need warehouse transfers, and a stockroom does not need custom fields. The App Manager switches whole areas off from one card grid and never deletes a thing. Roles carry granular per-feature permissions and are assigned to individual users or whole Joomla user groups, so the helpdesk can check equipment out without being able to delete anything. Custom fields add the columns your organisation actually needs, on items, warehouses and recipients, and currency and date formats are set once in Settings. Reports when someone asks Stock valuation comes from live quantities and unit prices. The transaction history filters by date range, item, recipient, type or warehouse, and movement trends are charted over any date range with last 7, 30 and 90 day and this-month presets. Any report exports to CSV or prints dark-on-white, even from dark mode. Built for Joomla Next Inventory runs on Joomla 4, 5 and 6 with PHP 8.1 or higher, is licensed under the GPL, and updates through Joomla's own update system with your download key. It works in light or dark alongside the rest of the administrator, and a one-click demo dataset lets you evaluate it against realistic data. Every seeded row is tracked, so removing the demo takes back exactly what it added and nothing else.

- Published: 2026-09-04
- Category: Tips & Tricks
- [Why Next Inventory fits internal inventory management](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/news/why-next-inventory-fits-internal-inventory-management)

### Joomla News

#### Joomla 6.1 "Nyota" Is Here
A major minor for the Joomla 6 series. Joomla 6.1.0 — code name "Nyota" — landed on 14 April 2026, the first feature release in the Joomla 6 line. It bundles four headline additions and the result of more than 130 pull requests from contributors around the world: developers, testers, translators, and documentation authors. If you're already on 6.0.4 or later with automatic updates enabled, your site has likely upgraded itself to 6.1.0 already. Major-version upgrades (5.x → 6.x) still require a manual update, but minor and patch releases inside Joomla 6 are now hands-off. What's new Visual workflow editor — content pipeline at a glance Content workflows are now configured through an interactive diagram instead of nested admin forms. You can see the entire publication process — drafts, reviews, transitions, approvals — in a single visual canvas, and reshape it by dragging stages around. (Tracking PR: #46021.) Proof-of-work CAPTCHA — spam protection is back A new proof-of-work CAPTCHA ships in core. It silently solves math puzzles in the visitor's browser before form submission — no account, no API key, no third-party service, privacy-friendly and accessible. Less friction for legitimate users, real cost imposed on bots. (Tracking PR: #46514.) Three new media custom field types — audio, video, documents The media custom field family is no longer images-only. Content creators can attach audio clips, video files, and documents directly into custom field slots, using the same selection UI as image fields. (Tracking PR: #45013.) Module versioning and multilingual associations Version history — previously available only for articles — now also covers modules. On top of that, module instances can be associated across different languages, the same way articles and categories already could. Multilingual sites can finally manage module translations as a unit instead of as parallel copies. (Tracking PR: #46772.) What this means for extension developers If you ship Joomla extensions, this release is worth testing against now: The new media field types add three new field-type identifiers your forms and template overrides may need to handle. Workflow API surface evolved under the hood to support the visual editor — verify any plugin that hooks into workflow events. The POW CAPTCHA registers as a standard captcha plugin, so existing captcha plugin contracts are unchanged. Module versioning means modules now participate in the same #__history flow as articles — relevant if your extension persists module data through custom save paths. Links Official announcement on joomla.org Download Joomla 6.1.0 GitHub release notes

- Published: 2026-05-12
- Category: Joomla News
- [Joomla 6.1 "Nyota" Is Here](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/news/joomla-6-1-nyota-is-here)

### Product Updates

#### Introducing Smart Local Google Analytics for Joomla
Today we are proud to announce Smart Local Google Analytics — a Joomla extension that lets you use Google Analytics while keeping your visitors' data private and your site blazing fast. The problem with standard Google Analytics When you add Google Analytics the traditional way, here is what happens: Your visitors' browsers send data directly to Google's servers External JavaScript files are loaded, slowing down your page speed Ad blockers and privacy tools block the tracking script entirely You lose valuable analytics data — sometimes up to 40% of your traffic GDPR compliance becomes a headache How Smart Local Analytics works Our extension takes a fundamentally different approach: Local hosting — The analytics script is downloaded and served from your own server. No external requests to Google during page load. Server-side proxying — Analytics data is sent to your server first, then forwarded to Google. This means ad blockers cannot detect or block it. Automatic updates — The local script is automatically kept in sync with Google's latest version. Zero configuration — Just enter your Measurement ID, and you are done. Performance benefits Because the script is served locally: No DNS lookup to google-analytics.com No additional TLS handshake The script is served with your site's existing HTTP/2 connection PageSpeed scores improve — Google's own tool penalizes sites for loading external analytics scripts Privacy and compliance Smart Local Analytics helps you stay compliant: Visitor data passes through your server, giving you full control IP anonymization is built in Works alongside cookie consent solutions No third-party cookies involved Get started today Smart Local Google Analytics is available now in our catalog. It supports Joomla 4, 5, and 6. Installation takes less than two minutes.

- Published: 2026-05-09
- Category: Product Updates
- [Introducing Smart Local Google Analytics for Joomla](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/news/introducing-smart-local-google-analytics-for-joomla)

### Announcements

#### Building the Future of Joomla Extensions
We are thrilled to officially launch NextSoftware, a platform built by Joomla developers, for Joomla developers and site owners. After years of building extensions and working within the Joomla ecosystem, we noticed something was missing — a modern, streamlined way to distribute, license, and manage Joomla extensions. So we decided to build it ourselves. What is NextSoftware? NextSoftware is a complete ecosystem for Joomla extensions. Whether you are a site owner looking for reliable, well-maintained extensions, or a developer searching for the right tools to power your projects — we have got you covered. Here is what you will find on our platform: A curated catalog of high-quality Joomla extensions Automatic updates delivered straight to your Joomla admin panel A customer portal where you can manage your licenses, downloads, and subscriptions Detailed documentation and changelogs for every extension Responsive support from the developers who actually build the extensions Why we built this The Joomla ecosystem deserves better extensions and tooling. We believe that distributing extensions should be as smooth and modern as the extensions themselves. From secure download IDs to seamless update integration, every part of NextSoftware was designed with simplicity and reliability in mind. What is coming next This is just the beginning. We have a roadmap full of exciting features: More extensions across different categories Welcome aboard!

- Published: 2026-05-04
- Category: Announcements
- [Building the Future of Joomla Extensions](https://www.nextsoftware.dev/news/building-the-future-of-joomla-extensions)