Visitors can Accept All, Reject All or manage individual categories for Necessary, Preferences, Analytics and Marketing services. Non-essential categories remain disabled until permission is granted.

Visitors can review, change or withdraw their choices through an optional, accessible cookie settings icon. Administrators can position it in either bottom corner and customize its spacing.

Version 1.1.4 improves launcher positioning, adds mobile safe-area spacing and fixes delayed banner visibility and keyboard focus handling.

Confirmed working on Joomla! 6.1.4 and 6.2.0.

KEY FEATURES

• Accept All, Reject All and Manage Preferences
• Necessary, Preferences, Analytics and Marketing categories
• Non-essential categories denied by default
• Consent withdrawal and preference changes
• Accessible cookie settings icon
• Bottom-left or bottom-right launcher positioning
• Default launcher spacing of 16px with mobile safe-area support
• CSS custom properties for horizontal and vertical spacing
• Structured consent record with revision and timestamp
• Category-based opt-in activation for scripts, iframes and images
• Configurable category snippet fields
• data-cookie-category support
• Accessible first-party cookie cleanup
• Exact-name and wildcard cookie cleanup patterns
• Repeated cleanup of denied-category cookies after page reload
• Protection of the plugin’s consent cookie during cleanup
• Language-specific Privacy / Cookie Policy URLs
• Exact language-tag and base-language URL mappings
• Global policy URL fallback
• Joomla Language Override support
• Public JavaScript consent API and lifecycle events
• Customizable text, banner positioning and custom CSS
• Keyboard navigation and focus management
• RTL and reduced-motion support
• Forced-colors support for the settings icon
• English, Turkish, German and French translations
• Joomla-native dependency injection, subscriber events, layouts and Web Asset Manager integration
• Joomla-native update system support
• Vanilla JavaScript with no external frontend JavaScript dependencies
• Works alongside Bootstrap 5 without loading an additional Bootstrap library
• GPL-2.0-or-later licensed

INSTALLATION

Download the installable plgsystemcookienotice_1.1.4.zip release asset and install it through:

System → Install → Extensions

Then open:

System → Manage → Plugins → System - Smart Cookie Consent

Enable the plugin and configure your Privacy / Cookie Policy URL, consent settings, banner content and integrations.

For multilingual websites, configure language-specific policy URLs using mappings such as:

en-GB=/privacy-policy
de-DE=/datenschutz
fr-FR=/politique-de-confidentialite
tr-TR=/gizlilik-politikasi

The plugin supports exact language tags and base-language mappings. The global policy URL remains the fallback.

Connect every non-essential service to the appropriate consent category. Use either a category snippet field or annotated template/module markup for each service. Do not load the same service through both methods.

COOKIE SETTINGS ICON

The optional 48px cookie settings icon lets visitors reopen their preferences after saving a choice. Its inline SVG requires no icon font or external icon library.

Choose Bottom left or Bottom right under Cookie Settings Icon Position.

The default spacing is 16px from the selected side and bottom, plus the corresponding device safe-area inset.

Customize the spacing using the --jt-cookie-launcher-x and --jt-cookie-launcher-y CSS custom properties.

Safe-area insets are added to these values. Horizontal positioning follows the selected physical edge, including on RTL pages. Increase spacing where necessary to avoid overlapping accessibility controls or other fixed tools.

Use Cookie Settings Accessible Name to customize the button’s accessible label, or leave it empty for the translated default. Existing launcher_text values are retained.

CONSENT AND SCRIPT CONTROL

Consent records include the selected categories, consent revision and timestamp. Administrators can change the revision when integrations or privacy requirements change so visitors are asked to choose again.

Category snippets are inserted only after consent for their category. Existing template or module markup can also use data-cookie-category annotations to control script, iframe and image activation.

The plugin does not automatically detect or classify arbitrary third-party integrations. Website owners must route non-essential services through consent control.

COOKIE CLEANUP SCOPE

When consent is withdrawn, the updated decision is saved before cleanup. The page reloads, and cleanup runs again for denied categories before allowed content is activated.

Cleanup supports exact names and wildcard patterns such as ga*, attempts relevant first-party domain and path variants, and protects the plugin’s consent cookie.

Cleanup applies only to cookies accessible through document.cookie. HttpOnly cookies, other origins, inaccessible paths and other browser storage partitions may require service-specific or server-side handling.

All non-essential services must respect the visitor’s saved consent choice and must not load independently outside consent control.

WHAT’S NEW IN 1.1.4

• Reduced the launcher’s default bottom spacing from 72px to 16px.
• Added mobile safe-area spacing.
• Prevented the delayed banner from appearing after a consent decision or while preferences are open.
• Improved Tab and Shift+Tab focus handling in the preferences dialog.
• Confirmed working on Joomla! 6.1.4 and 6.2.0.

UPDATING

Install the release ZIP over the existing plugin or use Joomla’s extension update system.

Existing plugin settings, valid category-based consent choices and CSS spacing overrides are preserved.

Clear Joomla, page and CDN caches after updating.

IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE

Smart Cookie Consent provides technical consent controls.

Website owners remain responsible for correctly categorizing services, preventing non-essential requests before consent where required, maintaining accurate privacy and cookie disclosures, and complying with applicable privacy regulations.

Installing the plugin alone does not guarantee legal compliance.