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

Consent choices can be reviewed, changed or withdrawn through the optional cookie settings icon. The launcher uses an inline cookie SVG without requiring Bootstrap, an icon font or an external icon library.

Administrators can position the launcher in the bottom-left or bottom-right corner. Horizontal and vertical spacing can be adjusted with CSS custom properties to help avoid overlap with Joomla Accessibility controls or other fixed tools. The existing Cookie Settings text setting provides the icon button’s accessible name.

Smart Cookie Consent stores consent as a structured browser record containing the selected categories, consent revision and timestamp. Administrators can change the consent revision when privacy requirements, vendors or website integrations change so visitors can be asked to make a new choice.

The plugin provides category-based opt-in activation for scripts and embedded content. Scripts, iframes and images can be assigned to a consent category and activated only after the required permission has been granted.

Configurable cookie cleanup rules can remove matching accessible first-party cookies when consent for Preferences, Analytics or Marketing is withdrawn.

The updated consent choice is saved before cookie cleanup begins. Cleanup is repeated during the next page initialization for categories that remain denied. This additional pass helps remove accessible cookies that previously loaded services may write again while the withdrawal page is unloading.

Cookie cleanup supports exact cookie names and wildcard patterns such as _ga_*. The plugin attempts deletion across relevant first-party domain and path variants while protecting its own consent record.

For multilingual websites, language-specific Privacy / Cookie Policy URLs can be configured while retaining a global URL as a fallback. Policy link text and the consent interface use Joomla’s language system and support Joomla Language Overrides.

Smart Cookie Consent is built with vanilla JavaScript and Joomla’s native Web Asset Manager. It has no Bootstrap dependency and no external frontend JavaScript dependencies.

The interface includes keyboard accessibility, focus management, RTL support and reduced-motion handling. The cookie settings icon also supports forced-colors mode.

English, Turkish, German and French language files are included.

KEY FEATURES

• Accept All, Reject All and Manage Preferences
• Necessary, Preferences, Analytics and Marketing consent categories
• Non-essential categories denied by default
• Granular visitor consent preferences
• Consent withdrawal and preference changes
• Optional, accessible cookie settings icon launcher
• Inline Bootstrap Icons cookie SVG with no external icon dependency
• Bottom-left or bottom-right launcher positioning
• CSS custom properties for horizontal and vertical launcher spacing
• Existing Cookie Settings text retained as the icon’s accessible name
• Structured consent record with revision and timestamp
• Category-based opt-in script activation
• Consent-aware scripts, iframes and images
• data-cookie-category support
• Configurable first-party cookie cleanup after consent withdrawal
• Exact-name and wildcard cookie cleanup patterns
• Repeated cleanup for denied categories after page reload
• Cookie path and first-party domain cleanup attempts
• Protection of the plugin’s consent cookie during cleanup
• Language-specific Privacy / Cookie Policy URLs
• Full language-tag and base-language URL mappings
• Global policy URL fallback
• Joomla Language Override support
• Public JavaScript consent API and lifecycle events
• Customizable title, message and button labels
• Flexible banner positioning and custom CSS support
• Keyboard accessibility and focus management
• RTL and reduced-motion support
• Forced-colors support for the settings icon
• English, Turkish, German and French translations
• Vanilla JavaScript with no Bootstrap dependency
• No external frontend JavaScript dependencies
• Joomla native Web Asset Manager integration
• Joomla native update system support
• GPL licensed
• Designed for Joomla! 6.1.x

INSTALLATION

Download the latest installable Smart Cookie Consent ZIP and install it through:

System → Install → Extensions

Then go to:

System → Manage → Plugins

Open and enable:

System - Smart Cookie Consent

Configure your Privacy / Cookie Policy URL, consent settings, banner content and optional integrations.

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

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

If no language-specific URL matches, the plugin uses the global Privacy / Cookie Policy URL.

Connect analytics, advertising, marketing and other non-essential services to the appropriate consent category so they are not activated before permission is granted.

Use one consent-controlled integration method per service. For example, configure a Google Analytics loader either through the Analytics snippet field or through annotated template/module markup. Do not add the same loader through both methods.

COOKIE SETTINGS ICON

The optional cookie settings icon allows visitors to reopen their preferences after saving a consent choice.

Choose Bottom left or Bottom right under Cookie Settings Icon Position. The default bottom spacing leaves room for common fixed accessibility controls.

To adjust the launcher’s spacing, add CSS such as:

css :root { --jt-cookie-launcher-x: 20px; --jt-cookie-launcher-y: 96px; }

The horizontal offset is measured from the selected physical edge, including on RTL pages. The vertical offset is measured from the bottom.

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

COOKIE CLEANUP SCOPE

Cookie cleanup applies to matching first-party cookies accessible through document.cookie.

HttpOnly cookies, cookies belonging to other origins, cookies using inaccessible paths and cookies stored in other browser partitions cannot be removed through client-side JavaScript. These may require service-specific or server-side cleanup.

The cleanup feature does not replace correct script control. All non-essential integrations must respect the visitor’s saved consent choice and must not load independently outside the consent-controlled integration.

IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE

Smart Cookie Consent provides technical tools for collecting, storing, changing and withdrawing visitor consent, controlling category-based activation of non-essential scripts and embedded content, and cleaning configured accessible first-party cookies.

The plugin does not automatically detect or legally classify every third-party service used by a website.

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.

CHANGELOG

v1.1.3 - Accessible Cookie Settings Icon

Updates the Cookie Settings launcher while preserving the existing consent engine and category behavior.

Changed

• Replaced the text launcher with an inline Bootstrap Icons cookie SVG.
• Retained the existing launcher_text setting as the button’s accessible name.
• Added bottom-left and bottom-right launcher positioning.
• Added --jt-cookie-launcher-x and --jt-cookie-launcher-y CSS custom properties for spacing.
• Added a 48 px circular launcher and forced-colors styling.
• Updated English, Turkish, German and French configuration strings.
• Updated the manifest, Web Asset Manager versions and documentation.

Verification

• Passed JED Checker.
• Completed the manual Joomla 6.1.x release checklist.
• Tested installation, frontend behavior and the Joomla update flow.

Upgrade Notes

Version 1.1.3 does not change the consent engine, saved consent format, consent revision, cookie cleanup or category behavior. Existing valid consent choices and plugin settings are retained.

Existing Cookie Settings text values become the icon button’s accessible name. Clear page/CDN caches after updating so the latest assets are loaded.