On August 11, 2002, version 2.3.0 was released. There had been so many new features that the pages were becoming too long. So this version was the "great split version", creating subpages to group together related features, and thereby enhancing the Database and Table views.
The team started a schedule of releasing a new minor version (2.3.1, 2.3.2 ...) every two months. Version 2.4.0, released on February 23, 2003, included a new server/user management facility. Then came version 2.5.0, on May 11, 2003, to mark the new MIME-type cell transformation system.
Version 2.6.0 released on September 27, 2004 added support for the new mysqli extension available in PHP 5, for better performance and improved security. The interface for this version was redesigned, including new icons and a theme manager. On April 16, 2005, version 2.6.2 was born, adding basic support for MySQL's views.
In June 2005, the first meeting of phpMyAdmin's development team took place in Karlsruhe, Germany, during LinuxTag 2005. Six members of the team from Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, and Canada were present, displaying phpMyAdmin and discussing its features with the event's attendees. We also celebrated PHP's and MySQL's 10th anniversary on the same occasion, along with the respective fathers of these products: Rasmus Lerdorf and Michael "Monty" Widenius. A few weeks before that, at the MySQL Users Conference in Santa Clara, a presentation was titled "PHP 5 + MySQL 5 = A Perfect 10". Indeed, we were aware of what this anniversary meant in terms of the product's maturity.
Version 2.7.0 was released on December 04, 2005. With this version, we ended support for older configuration files those prior to phpMyAdmin 2.3.0. Also, in 2.7.0, a new plug-in-based import module made its debut.
Version 2.8.0 was made available on March 06, 2006. It included a new web-based setup mechanism. With 2.8.0, the team started a new numbering scheme for version releases. The 2.8 family contains fixes for only those features that are already present in 2.8.0. Here are some examples of the versions, which were expected to follow 2.8.0:
2.8.0.1, for anything urgent like a security fix
2.8.1, containing normal fixes for the 2.8 family
2.9.0, with new features
Version 2.9.0, released on September 20, 2006, added many small improvements such as a font size selector, new export formats, and the possibility of using an external authentication method. Version 2.10.0, released on February 27, 2007, had as its main attraction the Designer a new graphical Ajax-based relation manager. Version 2.11.0, released on August 21, 2007, offered support for creating views. It also offered support for managing procedures, functions, and triggers. This version is still supported in terms of security updates.