About RCA

Who We Are

ReCreatingAnew is a solo independent software development brand operated by GinA, a US-based Joomla developer and systems administrator. RCA was founded on a straightforward observation: the Joomla ecosystem contains many useful, mature extensions — extensions that stopped receiving updates when their developers moved on. When Joomla released major versions with breaking changes, these extensions broke with no fix in sight.

RCA exists to solve that problem.

Our Mission

To preserve, modernize, and actively maintain Joomla extensions that have been abandoned — giving them a second life under modern standards, open licenses, and ongoing support.

We believe software built on open-source principles deserves to remain useful. When a GPL-licensed extension goes dark, the source code does not disappear — and the permission to continue it does not expire. RCA exercises that permission responsibly, rigorously, and transparently.

Our Purpose

Joomla site owners who depend on abandoned extensions face an impossible choice: remain on Joomla 3 (end-of-life), replace a working tool with an unknown alternative, or lose the functionality entirely.

RCA offers a fourth option: a refactored version of the original extension, updated for Joomla 4/5/6, with the same feature set, under the same license, with active maintenance going forward.

Our purpose is not to compete with original developers — it is to fill the gap they leave behind.

RCA also addresses a second, equally common problem: active extensions that ship with unresolved bugs on current Joomla versions. Some developers release extensions for Joomla 4/5/6 but do not follow up on reported issues — leaving users with broken Media Managers, fatal PHP errors, or incompatible API calls on Joomla 6. In these cases, RCA publishes free compatibility and bugfix plugins that patch the specific issues without requiring users to wait for the original developer to act.

RCA doesn't just fix things. It improves them.

When a collaborator asked for a light theme on the RCA demo site, I didn't build one light theme. I built a multi-theme switcher with nine options — dark presets, light presets, each with its own color palette that switches the entire site including headings, subheadings, links, and backgrounds.

One light theme wasn't good enough. It never is.

That's how RCA works. If you hand us a broken extension and ask us to fix a bug, we'll fix the bug. We'll also fix the three things that were about to break, remove the deprecated code that was already a liability, and leave it cleaner than we found it — without touching anything we weren't asked to touch.

The Protocol exists because "fix the bug" is the wrong frame. Extensions don't just have bugs. They have debt. Abandoned APIs, J3-era patterns that technically work until Joomla 6, missing namespaces, hardcoded paths, legacy dependencies that haven't been maintained since 2019. None of that shows up as a broken feature today. All of it becomes a crisis on update day.

RCA's job isn't to get your extension back to where it was. It's to get it to where it should have been.

Our Guiding Principles

1. Preservation Over Replacement
We do not invent new extensions when existing ones can be restored. Our goal is to keep working software working — not to build replacements that break existing site configurations.

2. Full Transparency
Every RCA extension clearly identifies the original extension and developer it was forked from, exactly what RCA changed, and a complete changelog. We never obscure the origins of our extensions.

3. Open Source First
All RCA extensions are distributed under GPL v2 or later — the same license as the original. Commercial licenses fund maintenance and support; they do not restrict the GPL rights of any user.

4. No Framework Dependencies
RCA versions are framework-free: self-contained, with no external dependencies beyond Joomla itself.

5. American English and US Standards
RCA editions use US English, US date formats (MM/DD/YYYY), US measurement conventions, and US-standard legal language throughout.

6. Security-First Architecture
Every RCA extension follows Joomla security best practices without exception: strict types, SQL parameterization, CSRF tokens, input filtering, output escaping, and correct file permissions throughout.

7. Active Maintenance Commitment
When RCA publishes an extension, it commits to maintaining it through at least the next two major Joomla versions. This is not a one-time port — it is an ongoing commitment to the community.

8. Community Bug Reports Welcome
RCA actively invites bug reports for any extension in the RCA catalog. To submit one: contact us or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Include your Joomla version, PHP version, extension name and version, and a description of the problem. Bug submitters are credited in the changelog of the resulting fix.

What RCA Is Not

• RCA is not affiliated with Joomla!, Open Source Matters, or any original extension developer
• RCA does not fork extensions whose original developers are actively maintaining Joomla 4/5/6 versions
• RCA does not claim sole authorship of forked extensions
• RCA is not a large company — it is a solo developer who cares deeply about the Joomla ecosystem

Contact

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.