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We have big news!
Next Generation Community Builder 2.0 will be released on October 9th, 2014.
And not only that, but all our add-on packages will also have new, CB 2.0-compatible, major releases same day !
Since the Community Builder 2.0 RC3 release we have been working full speed to prepare everything needed for this great stable release.
As the community is focusing on test case scenarions providing valuable test coverage feedback, the CB Team is concentrating on a number of important parallel tasks that will have a huge impact on the way we do things in the future.
So, ongoing call to action for all our paid-up members:
- Grab latest Community Builder 2.0 RC3 nightly release
- Test according to provided test case scenarios
- Post back feedback on our Community Builder 2.0 RC3 thread
The tasks we have been working on along with their progress status are:
- Help pages for CB 2.0.
Just like Joomla, each CB 2.0 page now has a Help button that will open a help page window for quick online assistance. As of today we have 11 (out of 22) help pages ready and should have the remaining ready very soon. This is our first step to migrating our documentation from pdf format to online HTML deployment. - New CB 2.0 compatible add-on releases.
As planned, we are working on getting our major plugins CB 2.0 ready. Beat is focusing on CBSubs and Kyle is pusing forward with everything else. We have already prepared 12 CB 2.0 compatible releases and are pushing forward as quickly as possible.
The following releases are ready for CB 2.0:- CB Query Field 4.0
- CB Core Fields Ajax 2.0
- CB Google Translate 3.0
- CB Gravatar Field 2.0
- CB Invites 4.0
- CB Progress Field 3.0
- CB Reconfirm Email 4.0
- CB Template Changer 3.0
- CB Content bot 3.0
- CB Author bot 2.0
- CB Search bot 2.0
- CB Content module 2.0
- Localization improvements.
In CB 2.0 we have dropped the legacy DEFINE structure language concept in favor of two PHP array files. A language.php for frontend translations and an admin_language.php for backend strings. We have already updated our CB Transifex project with these new resource files and our translation teams have been working to get their translations ready.
As our advanced and professional add-ons are becoming CB 2.0 compatible, we have been creating individual Transifex projects for each one of them and are calling upon our international community to move forward with translations.
>>> You can visit our language pages and join a translation team. <<< - Automation improvements.
A strategic decision and goal is to provide continuous integration releases for all our projects. Intention is to quicly push bug fixes and minor improvements using a nightly build process. No more waiting for next release or having to apply patches. The same is true for our transifex translation projects and we intend to automatically push nightly CB language plugins generated from our transifex projects.
As you can see there are many exciting concepts currently in progress targeting an overall user experience improvement for the entire CB community.
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Joomla 3.3.4 and Joomla 2.5.25 have been released.
Both packages are security releases. So, all Joomla 3.X websites should upgrade to Joomla 3.3.4 and all Joomla 2.5 series to Joomla 2.5.25.
A quick reminder in case you missed it: According to the Joomla technical requirements, the Joomla 3.3.4 release will only work on PHP versions 5.3.10 or better. Here is a quick summary that will help you decide:
If your website is using
- a Joomla 2.5.X version, you should update to Joomla 2.5.25 and plan to update to Joomla 3.X as soon as possible since support for Joomla 2.5 stops end of this year.
- a Joomla 3.3.X version, you should update to Joomla 3.3.4.
- a Joomla 3.2.X version (because 3.2.X still supports PHP 5.3.1 through 5.3.9), you should update to Joomla 3.2.5.
As usual backup before upgrading your Joomla websites and verify that all third party extensions (including your template) are compatible.
And yes, CB 1.9.1 and CB 2.0 RC3 (needs at least PHP 5.3.3 and MYSQL 5.1) both work great on these new Joomla releases !
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Yesterday we resolved the last showstopper (reimplementing the advanced users search using the new AhaWow engine) that was blocking us from reaching Community Builder 2.0 RC status.
We have a small number of minor tracker items that we are working on at the moment and we are now announcing that CB 2.0 RC will be released on Thursday August 7th.
In order to get as much quality feedback and testing as possible we are extending this round of RC testing to all paid members (Advanced, Professional and Developer) and CB 2.0 RC will be available for download from the Advanced Download area.
Community Builder 2.0 is a major features release that addresses over 135 new features and over 80 bug fixes. Seven (7) currently paid add-ons have been included in the core CB 2.0 product that will be a free download once it becomes stable. And as always, it will be a GPL release that gives you the freedom to use on all your websites without any limitations.
CB 2.0 RC is of course not yet a stable release But as our development cycles include continous code reviews and testing, it should be ok for early adaptors (new websites). Please note that CB 2.0 RC is compatible with Joomla 2.5 and 3.x series. Support for Joomla 1.5 has been discontinued as pre-announced.
Without the ongoing support of our paid members, our translation teams and our forum posters we would not be able to make this happen. So a huge THANK YOU is in order for all our supporters!
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One of the many new features of Community Builder 2.0 is the batch processing functionality present in the CB Tab, Field, Plugin and User List management pages.
This functionality lets CB admins easily perform mass changes to multiple selected CB elements.
Some sample usages follow to help you understand the functionality and the power. With this new functionality you can set the:
- Field type, Required property, Tab placement, Profile property, Registration presence, Edit property (also new in CB 2.0) or Searchable property of multiple selected fields
- Display type, Access viewing level or Position placement of multiple selected tabs
- Default status or Access View level of multiple selected user lists
- Access View level of multiple selected CB Plugins
In the screenshot above we are showing how to use the enhanced Search Tools feature to filter all text type fields and the Batch Tools feature to move 2 text fields to a different tab. But we could have also selected a new field type in the -Select type- drop down parameter to convert these 2 fields from text type to text area. Yup, CB 2.0 now supports field type conversions.
Another great administrative feature included in CB 2.0 is the copy feature that lets administrators copy CB fields, tabs and user lists from the relevant CB management pages.
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After our JAB14 return and our CB 2.0 new look article, we have pushing forward developing even more visual improvements and addressing community feedback on our CB 2.0 beta releases.
In the visual improvements area we have been restyling CB user lists to give them a new modern crisp look and to take advantage of the new Canvas functionality and the new Grid layout feature.
Our community has been expressing its concern that existing CB 1.9.1 compatible plugins may be broken by the next generation CB 2.0 series. Our initial thought was that the mangitute of new features and changes present in CB 2.0 would make it very difficult to maintain backwards compatibility and any existing plugins will have to be updated to conform.
Now that we have completed our core changes, we have been taking a closer look and decided to invest in providing an internal legacy layer to support existing CB 1.9.1 plugins. The ultimate goal is to allow CB 1.9.1 sites to upgrade to CB 2.0 and keep all existing CB plugins functional.
The benefit of this investment is huge for the existing CB 1.9.1 userbase and also for third-party CB plugin developers that will now have more time to convert their existing CB related add-ons to conform with the new CB 2.0 code.
We have also been implementing many localization improvements that will help improve performance and language specific string pluralizations and we have implemented multiple keys for language strings. This means that if the same string is used in two different areas it can be translated differently. We are now looking into implementing a translator friendly language override facility.
Because of these important code improvements we are now scheduling a beta 5 release in order to get feedback on legacy layer and CB plugin compatibility and then we will follow-up by addressing all reported issues and moving towards an RC release.
We are very excited with the progress and the huge potential and would like to THANK all our members for their support, feedback and patience.
- An awesome new look for Community Builder 2.0 !
- Back from #JAB14 and feeling great!
- Community Builder 2.0 presented at Joomla! Day France
- Joomla Conferences and JUG Presentations
- Executive summary: New Joomla release strategy impact analysis
- Joomla 3.2.3 and 2.5.19 security releases
- Joomlapolis video sponsors JandBeyond 2014
- Community Builder 2.0 Next Generaton announcement
- Joomla 3.2 planned for November 6th and CB 1.9.1
- The CB Team or the Three Musketeers ?