Since the beginning of the year we have been relentlessly adding features and features and more features to b2evolution v4. All the while not producing a packaged release! If you wnated to use them, you had to dig into CVS...

Ok, this has been going on for far too long now! ;)

We have stopped adding features until we make a 4.0 release! Below, you will find the final list of features that made it into the next 4.0.0-alpha release.

No new features, means we are now focusing on cleaning up some of the code that doesn't seem quite right and then we'll release the alpha. (Don't ask, I'm not giving dates any more, even if this time I can actually feel the release ;) )

This alpha release will be functional as advertised but the UI may not be polished everywhere it should. We'll do some extra polishing for the beta and stable versions.

Watch out, this is a massive release!! ;) There is a lot of extra power and new stuff under the hood! Here's the list:

4.0.0-alpha

• Skins:
  
  • Separate search page -- disp=search -- destined to gather advanced search params (@francoisplanque)
  • Post index feature -- disp=postidx (@francoisplanque)
  • Site map feature (HTML, not XML which already existed) -- disp=sitemap (@francoisplanque)
  • Help page -- disp=help (@francoisplanque)
  • Skins can now embed the login form - experimental - implemented for sending private messages (@evofactory)
• Widgets:
  
  • Avatar widget (@blueyed)
  • Enhanced Menu link widget (@francoisplanque)
  • Enhanced Common navigation links widget (@francoisplanque)
  • Tag cloud widget now has a random order option (@waltercruz)
• RSS Feeds:
  
  • It is now possible to choose the size of the images included in RSS feeds (@evofactory)
• Post editing:
  
  • When typing a new post, it is now possible to create a new category on the fly without leaving the edit screen (@evofactory).
  • Images can now be linked to the top of a post or at the top of the "more" section. (@blueyed)
  • Better handling of "Publish!" button on post form (@francoisplanque)
  • Better handling of "Add/link files" on new posts - 1 single click will save draft & open file attach window (@evofactory)
  • Improved actions after upload - you can now link the file to the current post or insert an <img> tag into the post text (@blueyed,@francoisplanque)
  • In addition to upload, there is now an option to get images from an URL (@blueyed)
  • Linked files can now be visually located (@blueyed)
  • Option to link multiple files with one click (@sam2kb)
  • Mass post creation feature - useful for importing data to be released over time (@evofactory)
  • Option to stay in backoffice after publishing a post (instead of viewing the blog) (@evofactory)
  • Automatic post slugs will only include 5 words by default -- but you can always manually enter your own and longer slug (@evofactory)
  • Multiblog cross positing as well as extra category posting options can now be configured through the backoffice (@evofactory)
  • Ability to mass edit post attributes (Title vs slug vs <title> tags). (@evofactory)
• Comments & Antispam:
  
  • Comments can now display avatars (including Gravatars) (@sam2kb)
  • Option to display comments by ascending or descending order (@tblue)
  • A quick moderation link in comment notifications by email allows to moderate comments with minimum # of clicks. No login necessary! (@evofactory)
  • Dashboard:
    
    • Refreshing comments on dashboard through Ajax (@evofactory)
    • It is now possible to remove spam URLs from comments with a single click in the dashboard (@evofactory)
    • It is now possible to call the Antispam tool as an Ajax overlay in the dashboard. (@evofactory)
  • Backoffice comment editing:
    
    • It is now possible to change "Allow message form" guest comments (@tblue)
    • It is now possible to move comments from one post to another (@evofactory)
    • 1 click Publish button -- visible only if Comment is a Draft (@evofactory).
  • Comment list in teh admin:
    
    • There is now a list view in addition to the full text view (@evofactory)
    • Various filters are now possible (@evofactory)
  • Extended antispam tool: (@evofactory)
    
    • Separate permissions allow moderators to separately moderate drafts, published and deprecated comments. (@evofactory)
    • The antispam tool now also checks user profiles. (@evofactory)
• File management:
  
  • When you try to delete an image, b2evo now gives you a list of all posts to which that image is linked. (@evofactory)
  • The filemanager can now use _evocache folders instead of .evocache which will increase compatibility with more web hosts (@evofactory).
• Messaging:
  
  • Messaging module giving users the ability to exchange private messages in the admin area. (@evofactory)
  • Possibility to contact blog, post or comment authors through private messages (PMs) instead of email. (@evofactory)
• Maintenance:
  
  • Integrated backup feature (Database and files) (@evofactory)
  • Automated upgrade feature - EXPERIMENTAL - WARNING: for testing only at this point. It will overwrite your current version! (@evofactory)
  • Scheduled task to prune *old files* (>24 hours) from the full page cache (@evofactory)
  • Tool to clear *all files* full page cache (/cache directory) (@sam2kb)
  • Tool to clear thumbnail caches (.evocache directories) (@sam2kb)
  • Tool to optimize database tables (MyISAM tables used for sessions & logs)
• Users & Groups:
  
  • Users may now create new blogs for themselves (depending on group permission) (@evofactory)
  • Admin/users now have better control on whether or not they can have multiple concurrent sessions. (@evofactory)
  • Option to have different session timeouts for different users (@evofactory)
  • Option to have nicknames used as IDs set by the admin, not the user. (@evofactory)
  • Modules & Plugins can now define their own group permissions (@evofactory)
  • Added post type permissions (@tblue)
• XML-RPC:
  
  • XML-RPC can now be disabled (@tblue,@waltercruz)
  • MetaWeblog API: Use mt_keyword field to get/set
    post tags. Affected methods: metaWeblog.newPost,
    metaWeblog.editPost, metaWeblog.getRecentPosts,
    metaweblog.getPost. (@tblue)
  • MovableType API: Implemented mt.supportedMethods. (@tblue)
  • MovableType API: Implemented mt.publishPost (@tblue,@waltercruz)
  • MetaWeblog API: Implemented mt_allow_comments and mt_excerpt (@tblue,@waltercruz)
  • WordPress API: basic support for the following methods: wp.getPageList, wp.getUsersBlogs, wp.getPageStatusList, wp.getPostStatusList, wp.getCategories and wp.uploadFile (@waltercruz)
  • Improved metaWeblog.newMediaObject (@tblue)
  • Fixed API method signatures (return values) (@tblue)
  • Use correct charsets. (@tblue)
  • Check extra categories before checking permissions to post to them (sends correct XML-RPC error on failure). (@tblue)
• Plugins:
  
  • Adsense plugin now has 'per blog' settings (@sam2kb).
  • New plugin: Watermark. Adds text watermark to generated thumbnails e.g. copyright notice (@sam2kb).
  • Twitter plugins now uses optimized private tiny urls (@evofactory)
  • Code highlight plugin: Correctly unfilter item contents. (@sir_yabs/@tblue)
• General:
  
  • Durations can now be entered in days/hours/minutes/seconds instead of large amounts of seconds (@evofactory)
  • Installer will take care of testing .htaccess and install it if proven compatible with current webserver (@evofactory)
• Performance:
  
  • Optimized for PHP5 (still works on PHP4 but we strongly recommend PHP5)
  • BlockCache stored to memrory (APC Cache & more): every widget is now cached individually and regenerated only when needed (provided it declares proper dependency keys). This provides a significant performance boost. More underway. (@francoisplanque)
  • User agent type is now saved directly into the hits table instead of a costly lookup in user agents table (@francoisplanque)
  • SQL optimizations (@blueyed):
    
    • SQL_NO_CACHE for queries selecting from T_sessions/T_hitlog
    • Remove information about seconds from item issue and start date,
      so that those queries can get cached for up to one minute
• Technical mumbo-jumbo:
  
  • Debug mode can be turned on & off through the URL with a password (@francoisplanque)
  • Support iconv() on urltitle generation (@tblue)
  • Fixed a bug in fetch_remote_page() (wrong $info array keys). (@tblue)
  • Item::get_tags(): Bugfix and optimization:
    Remember items without tags and do not try to
    fetch tags for them on the next call. (@sir_yabs, @tblue)
  • Plugin hooks: Always trigger AfterCommentUpdate/AfterItemUpdate,
    not only if Comment/Item has changed. (@sir_yabs/@tblue)
  • Added hooks to let plugins handle disp modes: GetHandledDispModes & HandleDispMode (@sir_yabs, @francoisplanque)
  • Added hooks: AfterCollectionInsert, AfterCollectionUpdate, AfterCollectionDelete, DisplayProfileFormFieldset, ProfileFormSent, AfterFileUpload, BeforeThumbCreate (@sam2kb)
  • Extended skin tag params (@leeturner)
  • Increased core modularity
  • Upgraded to TinyMCE 3.2.7 (@blueyed)
  • CommentList has been rewritten to CommentList2 offering greater flexibility (especially on filtering) and matching the programming style of ItemList2 (@evofactory)
  • Other bug fixes (@sam2kb,@francoisplanque,@evofactory)