Data Field Settings Not Saving After Joomla 5.3.0-rc1 Update - [Fixed in 4.0.47]

[tatabdullah]

Dear jDownloads Development Team,

First of all, I would like to thank you for providing and maintaining such a useful and feature-rich component for the Joomla community.

I am currently using jDownloads on my Joomla-based website for frontend file submissions. After recently upgrading Joomla to version 5.3.0-rc1, I've encountered an issue regarding the Data Field Selection section in the Frontend Upload Settings.

When attempting to configure the available fields for a specific user group (under "Group Creation / Editing Settings"), any modifications made to the checkbox selections are not being retained after saving. Regardless of the initial configuration, only a limited number of fields—most notably "Title" and "Category"—remain checked, and all other options are reset.

This issue appears to be consistent across different browsers and Joomla user groups. Given that the issue only began after updating Joomla, it may be related to recent core changes affecting form submission or field validation behavior.

I kindly ask if you could investigate this behavior and confirm whether a fix or compatibility update is planned for Joomla 5.3 support.

Thank you once again for your continued support and development work.

Best regards,
www.muallimun.net

[tatabdullah]

Hello again,

I followed up on this issue with the Joomla core development team and shared the details regarding the Data Field Selection settings not saving correctly after updating to Joomla 5.3.0-rc1.

I received a response stating that this behavior is due to a Backward Compatibility break (B/C break) introduced in Joomla 5.2.4, and they confirmed that it will not be reverted.

It seems that this change in the Joomla core affects how form data is saved or validated, and any third-party extensions relying on the previous behavior may need to be updated accordingly.

I just wanted to share this update in case it helps clarify the cause of the issue, and I'd appreciate it if a compatibility fix could be considered in a future jDownloads release.

Many thanks again for your efforts and support.

[ColinM]

Hi
Many thanks for advising about this - it explains a lot of "challenges" I have not sorted out.
Colin 

[Arno]

Hi,
thanks a lot for this important hint.
As I have not been able to actively work on jDownloads in the last few months, I am not yet informed about the latest developments/changes. I'll probably have to catch up. 

I will start this afternoon and hope to be able to provide a solution soon. 

[Arno]

Attached a first fix.

Please copy the file in this folder on the server: /administrator/components/com_jdownloads/forms.
Try it then again and post here your results. Thanks!

[tatabdullah]

Just wanted to say a big thank you for the quick fix!
Everything's working perfectly now. Really appreciate your time and support – jDownloads is a great tool and your efforts mean a lot!

https://prnt.sc/_Hfzz3uzUT1Y

[Arno]

I will publish today or tomorrow a new version with this fix.
Thanks for your help.

[tatabdullah]

I will publish today or tomorrow a new version with this fix.
Thanks for your help.

That's great to hear! Thanks again for your work and looking forward to the new release.