JCal Pro, one of the best-known Joomla extensions and a Top Ten winner in Joomlashack's Ultimate Top Ten Joomla Extensions survey, has a new release that is worthy of great attention from the Joomlaverse.

JCal Pro is the rare Joomla 1.5 extension that is taking huge leaps forward while maintaining excellent support.

And oh yeah- after years of asking, the most requested feature in the history of the JCal Pro series is about to be released!

Victor Drover, project lead for JCal Pro, tells Joomlashack that the upcoming JCal Pro version 2.2 will be the final stable release in the Version 2 series, and will complete the feature set for JCal for the forseeable future, (presumably until Joomla 1.6 comes along.) Victor tells us:

The JCP codebase is finally in good enough shape that new features can finally be added. We're very happy to have succeeded in making event management much easier in the backend.

JCP2.2 will be the best version by far, and is an excellent transition into JCP3 which will be re-written from the ground up.

The many new features already released in the current Series 2 version are too numerous to fit here, and if you haven't checked out this vastly improved Joomla extension, we urge you to grab a subscription and try it out.

Wondering what the final 2.2 release will include? Victor tells his Twitter audience that integration with JomSocial and Community Builder, two leading social networking Joomla components, is imminent, as is spam protection and management. Premium users may see some new themes as well as a new events module.

And finally, Joomlashack got an inside scoop tonight direct from Victor, who tells us that the final Series 2 version will "likely" include the much awaited, greatly anticipated support for iCal, "the most requested feature EVER."

We use JCal Pro over at Simplweb and are thrilled to tell y'all about this excellent and vital Joomla component. Give it a try today!