Hi all!

As you might have grasped from the forums, we're working hard on the next major version ("Phoenix") and we expect an alpha release before the end of the summer.

It is pretty difficult to find talented developpers who will dedicate a lot of time to b2evolution... all of this for free ;) Thus, what we're going to do is try to optimize the time of the developpers we already have! :D

The idea is simple: if the developpers spend less time on administering the project site, they can spend more time on the code. I think that's what we want!

Now... we need your help with the project site!

There are already quite a few dedicated helpers on the forums, the manual, the ping-list and the antispam black-list. Many many thanks to them!

Well, I'd like to push this further, not unlike what Graham is already doing with the skins site: skins.b2evolution.net . Graham is running 100% of this site. I think he's doing a great job and it takes 0% of developper resources. That's excellent!

So we're looking for people who would be willing to host and globally manage a part of the b2evolution project. This includes: the forums, the FAQ, the manual, the HowTos, a plug-in directory or even a b2evo hacking guide...

xyz.b2evolution.net, you name it! We provide you with an official domain name pointing to the IP address of your choice. The rest is almost only limited by your own creativity! ;)

A few ideas:

• forums.b2evolution.net : we'd need someone willing to patch PhpBB with all the cool additional hacks out there, potentially increasing search capabilities, etc.
• plugins.b2evolution.net : you could just set up a b2evo blog with multiple categories matching b2evo versions as well as functionnal categories, then post any new plugin you find out about with a link to it's author's site.
• doc. or faq. howto. or manual.b2evolution.net : there's so much you can actually do with a Wiki ;) (I'll also provide you with the current code for the manual if you want it).
• demo.b2evolution.net : that would be a nice thing: an automatic install of the CVS head which updates and resets itself every night. Of course you need to run this in a sandbox since there might be unfixed vulnerabilities in CVS. You'd also want to deny access to all indexing robots so this doesn't turn into a spamfest.

Of course some people may feel ready to set up one of these sites but won't have the bandwidth or the time to moderate content contributions. So if you can spend some hosting space or some time to help out moderating, please speak up also.

The b2evolution.net site will become a portal pointing to the specific subsites. Tools, technology and graphic design are up to you. However I hope we can standardize on a common look and feel at some point. (Do I need to mention that we're expecting you to keep in touch and sync with the rest of the b2evo community? ;D )

Thanks in advance for your help! B)

A critical security issue has been discovered in the XML-RPC for PHP that most applications use, including b2evolution.

It is highly recommended you fix you installation by downloading this patch file and unzipping it into you /blogs/b2evocore/ folder. This should overwrite the two following files:

• _functions_xmlrpc.php
• _functions_xmlrpcs.php

This patch has been tested on the latest 0.9.0.12 "Amsterdam" release but is believed to work on all 0.9.0.x versions.

The patch will be included in future releases.

[This is of interest in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada only]

Le magazine L'Informaticien publie dans son numéro de Juillet/Août 2005, un sympathique tutoriel de 3 pages sur l'installation de b2evolution. B)

C'est disponible en kiosque...

b2evolution version 0.9.0.12 "Amsterdam" has been released. Get it from the downloads section.

This is a maintainance release only. It ships with the following:

• Security fixes, especially this one.
• Minor bug fixes
• Many many locale/translation updates and additions. (Translations are now available for the following locales: cs_CZ, da_DK, de_DE, es_MX, es_VE, fi_FI, fr_FR, gl_ES, hu_HU, it_IT, ja_JP, lt_LT, nb_NO, nl_NL, pt_BR, pt_PT, sk_SK, sv_SE, th_TH, tr_TR, tr_TR_utf-8, zh_CN, zh_CN_utf-8, zh_TW.)
• A brand new skin: "natural pink"

It is only necessary to upgrade if you haven't applied the latest security patch yet. However, upgrade is recommended for everyone (it is very very easy, especially if you are already running a 0.9.0.x version).

This release is aimed at maximum stability, thus there are no major new features in this release. New features will ship in version 0.9.2 (or whatever it will be numbered). We cannot give an estimate release date for 0.9.2 yet, but you can get the new features from CVS if you really can't wait.

0.9.2 will shift the focus to modularity and scalability.

Important: you will also need to apply this patch.

We are planning a new service release (version 0.9.0.12) pretty soon. It will include the following:

• Security updates;
• Localization updates and new locales like Slovak, Turkish and Thai;
• Maybe new skins... BTW, do you know there is still a skin competition underway where you could send in your own personal work? We'd love to see it :) .

Note: major new features are developed against another branch in CVS and will *not* be included in 0.9.0.12.

Note 2: this release will be fully compatible with 0.9.0.11.

It's been quite a long time since the last major release of b2evo. The good thing about this is that our 0.9.0.x series are pretty nice and stable. The not so good thing is that a load of new features are still stuck in the development version on the SourceForge CVS... and if you're not into hacking with CVS code, you might even wonder what the hell is going on... Thus, I thought we should go for a quick update...

My first releases of b2evolution were built upon cafelog/b2 which happened to be the tool I had picked for my own weblog. Over the last two years, the code, the community and the usage of b2evo have grown far beyond my original intent. Besides, I could no longer maintain such a big project on my own personal spare time...

Fortunately, there have been two major events affecting the development of b2evo. First, the development team has grown significantly, and second, most of us have come to actually use b2evolution professionally, as part of our day jobs... with the nice side effect of virtually bringing commercial company support to the project - read: "paid development time" ! :)

At my own employer's we use that thing we've come to call "evocore" as the framework for a major application we are building internally. This application has not much to do with blogging, but reusing all the existing framework/core code saves us a lot of time. We've also been extending the evocore significantly and I'm working on taking advantage of the new features in the higher level b2evo features and interface.

Another interesting side-effect of this is that all the original cafelog/b2 code is slowly being wiped out in favor of brand new evocore code. This wasn't originally planned until version 2.0 of (b2)evolution. However, what we have in CVS now is getting pretty close to that. So I don't know what the next release will be numbered nor when it will occur, but it might be a major one! ;)

I don't want to talk too much for the other devs since most of what they've told me about what they are developing is still confidential, but I hope a few of them will add a few comments here and let you know.

Anyway, if you want to know where we're headed we could put it like this: we're extending the "Multilingual multiuser multi-blog engine" by focusing on these points: versatility ("multipurpose" blogging), stability, maintainability, security, professional grade codebase. We may omit to focus specifically on some fashion features but we're extending the plugin architecture so that anything you need could be hooked. (If you need some hooks in order to develop a plugin, feel free to contact me, but please use the CVS version for development.)

Finally I'd like to take the opportunity to thank all members of the development team B) for their contribution to the project as well as the forum moderators and daily users B) for their invaluable time and effort in supporting the newcommers. Not to forget the supporting users and fans B) who encourage us to maintain the public blog app after our already-overloaded-work-days...

Thank you all! :)

Stay tuned for more... or check out CVS if you can't wait! ;D

-François.