Announcement PilotFOR JOOMLA · BY PLANO
Joomla 5.4 system plugin
A free, native announcement bar for Joomla. Write a short message, choose a starting design and publish it above or below your content — no template edits, no hosted account.
One ZIP · No account
The preview below uses the same CSS and JavaScript that ship in the plugin. Close it with the × button — exactly as a visitor would.
Sample content. The bar is dismissible for the current page view only — no cookie is set.
01 / Native
Settings open in the same branded dashboard used by the WordPress and Wix editions, built on Joomla’s own fields, permissions and save action. Nothing is stored outside your site.
02 / Designs
Welcome, free shipping, sale and store update presets fill the message and colours. Override any field with your own values.
03 / Placement
Place the bar above the page content or before the closing body tag. Show it on all devices, desktop only or mobile only.
04 / Appearance
Six-digit hex colours for background, text, button and button text, plus desktop and mobile font sizes and vertical spacing.
05 / Behaviour
Add a close button so visitors can hide the bar for the current page view. No cookie, no storage and no visitor tracking.
06 / Privacy
The frontend loads one stylesheet and one small script from your own site. Impressions and clicks are counted on your site, not sent anywhere. No external requests, no account.
Each preset fills the message, button text and colours. Anything you type yourself wins.
WelcomeWarm cream and orange for a first visit.
Free shippingHigh-contrast black and white.
SaleBold orange for a short promotion.
Store updateSoft amber with no button.
Version 1.0.0
Honest scope
The free Joomla plugin is a complete announcement bar. Pro is a separate plugin for stores that rotate offers, target pages and run deadlines.
Free
Free forever
The download on this page. One bar, four designs, analytics and full colour and placement control.
GPLv2 or later. No account, no key, no calls home.
Starter
€3.99 / month
The Pro plugin with message rotation, pause/advance and targeting. One production site.
Or choose yearly — €35.88. 7-day trial for eligible customers.
Growth
€5.99 / month
Everything in Starter plus scheduled windows, a live countdown and an end message.
Or choose yearly — €59.88. 7-day trial for eligible customers.
Use a staging copy first. The whole setup takes about a minute.
In Joomla Administrator open System → Install → Extensions and upload the package. The installer checks Joomla 5.4 and PHP 8.1+.
Open System → Manage → Plugins → System - Announcement Pilot. Turn the bar on, write your message and pick a design.
Open the frontend. If you use full-page cache or a CDN, clear it once. Turn the bar off at any time with the same switch.
Three screenshots from the plugin running on Joomla 5.4 with Cassiopeia, plus a like-for-like render of the four shipped presets.
Anything else? Ask PLANO directly.
The plugin adds the bar after the opening <body> tag or before </body>, and scopes its styles to the bar itself. That works with standard Joomla 5 templates, including Cassiopeia. Test your own template on staging before publishing.
Yes, with Announcement Pilot Pro. The Pro plugin adds page-path targeting, browser/Joomla language targeting, message rotation, scheduled start and stop times, and a countdown. The free plugin publishes one bar for the whole site. Pro replaces that bar rather than adding a second one, so you can keep the free plugin installed.
No. Closing hides the bar for the current page view only. The plugin sets no cookie and writes nothing to browser storage.
The Joomla plugin on this page is free, licensed under GNU GPL version 2 or later. It has no account, trial, key, subscription or in-plugin checkout. Pro is a different plugin bought from PLANO’s licensing site. You only need it if you want rotation, targeting, scheduling or a countdown.
Pro verifies a signed license locally, so the bar keeps working without a network request. When the license lapses, the paid fields are ignored and the bar falls back to the free feature set; nothing is deleted from your settings. Renew in the license account to switch them back on.
After purchase, the Pro ZIP and your license key appear in your license account. Pro is not published on this page or in the free Joomla listing. The free plugin here stays free.
Joomla 5.4 and PHP 8.1 or newer. The installer refuses other Joomla versions instead of pretending to support them. See the setup guide for the tested versions.
Joomla’s native update system reads updates.xml from this site. When a new version is published, it appears in Joomla’s update list like any other extension.
Clear Joomla’s cache, your full-page cache and any CDN cache. If the bar still does not render, place the plugin after System - Page Cache in the plugin ordering. The settings screen repeats this note.
Ready when you are
Download the package, install it on Joomla 5.4 and publish a bar in the next minute. Keep the setup guide open if you want the field-by-field reference.
Package facts. ZIP with announcementpilot.xml at the root. Plugin group: system. GPLv2 or later. No dependencies beyond Joomla 5.4 and PHP 8.1. Update server included.