🎉 Your Ultimate Social Experience is Getting Better and Better! 🥳

We're thrilled to present CB Activity 6.0 RC1, a pivotal release that introduces a groundbreaking feature: the smooth migration of existing CB Activity 5.0 installations to 6.0 RC1 during the upgrade process. This allows you to seamlessly transition your established community to the next level, preserving your data and configurations.

Key Highlights of CB Activity 6.0 RC1 (among over 30 new features):

1. Migration Magic:
   • RC1 introduces a revolutionary upgrade process, enabling existing CB Activity 5.0 installations to smoothly transition to 6.0 RC1, in a fail-safe way. Now you can test drive the latest features on a site clone, offering valuable feedback on bugs in our forum and general experiences in the comments below.
2. Managed Streams:
   • Experience the transformation of streams, now stored in the database for enhanced functionality. Enjoy seamless access and explore new possibilities for community interactions.
3. Built-in Notifications:
   • Say hello to 37 built-in notifications, enriching your community engagement. Stay informed and keep your members engaged with interactive notifications.

Please read Kyle's CB Activity 6.0 RC1 blog post for details regarding this migration, and adjustments that might be needed in very particular configurations.

Your Feedback Matters:

We invite you to be a part of this exciting journey! Test RC1 on a site clone and share your findings on our forum for bug reports and in the comments below for general feedback, especially regarding smooth upgrades from CB Activity 5.0.

Please note that CB Activity 6.0 RC1 should not yet be used on live sites with CB Activity 5.0 already running, as the migration process needs community testing (yes, that's CB Activity 5.0 users, on site clones).

Download CB Activity 6.0 RC1 here: Select the "6.0.0-rc.1+2023-12-18" version from the drop-down versions selector since it's not a stable or nightly release.

Together, let's shape the future of community building..

Stay tuned for the official CB Activity 6.0 release in early January, where over 30 major features will redefine your community engagement.

🎉 Community Builder 2.9.1 released: Embracing new PHP 8.3! 🥳

We're excited to announce the release of Community Builder 2.9.1, a significant update that introduces verified support for the latest PHP 8.3 release. With this integration, Community Builder ensures compatibility with the newest advancements in PHP technology. This update also includes an updated and more friendly handling of obsolescence warnings for old unmaintained versions of PHP, MySQL and Joomla, providing more clarity and guidance on maintaining up-to-date server environments.

PHP 8.3 Compatibility and Performance Boost

PHP 8.3, recently released by the PHP development team, brings a host of improvements, including a notable 28% speed increase for Joomla, as benchmarked here.

It's important to note that PHP 8.0 has reached its end of life for security support, and PHP 8.1 is no longer receiving bug-fix maintenance releases. While Linux distributions might offer minimal security maintenance, we strongly recommend selecting an officially supported PHP version (currently 8.3, 8.2 or 8.1) for your site through your hosting panel.

🔗 All our latest CB and CB Add-ons have been tested and run seamlessly on PHP 8.3, ensuring a smooth experience for your Joomla-powered community websites.

Our demo site is already running on PHP 8.3, showcasing the compatibility and stability of Community Builder with the latest PHP release.

Upgrade Now for Peak Performance and Security

👉 Upgrade to Community Builder 2.9.1 and PHP 8.3 today to benefit from these advancements and ensure your community site is running on a secure and efficient PHP environment. Thank you for being a part of the Joomlapolis community, and stay tuned for more updates and improvements!

Note: Always remember to perform a backup before upgrading your Community Builder installation.

Renew Your CB Membership for Ongoing Benefits

Renew your Joomlapolis membership to access the latest features, early releases, and premium support. Your ongoing support enables us to continue delivering top-notch Joomla solutions.

• Discover Community Builder 2.9: Explore the latest features and upgrade now!
• Explore our CB Add-Ons: Find the perfect add-ons for your community site!
• Renew Your Membership: Ensure ongoing benefits and support our work!

🎉 Joomla 5.0.1, 4.4.1 and 3.10.14-elts are released and it's a safe upgrade! 🥳

The Joomla project has released versions 5.0.1, 4.4.1, and 3.10.14-elts, addressing a very-low-probability vulnerability that affects Joomla versions 1.6 to 3.10.12, 4.4.0 and 5.0.0.

This vulnerability is of very low probability, as it requires the site super-administrator to have given to the attacker editing access to the language files, to potentially expose environment variables that may contain sensitive information.

Security Update Instructions:

• Joomla 5.0.1 and 4.4.1: Easily update through the standard built-in Joomla updater.
• Joomla 3.10.14-elts: Consider upgrading your Joomla 3.10 site to Joomla 4.4.1 instead (see below for instructions). If not possible, consider subscribing to the official 18-months Joomla Extended Long-Term Security support program, while planing an upgrade to 4.4.1 and 5.0.1. Visit elts.joomla.org for more details.

Key Improvements in Joomla 5.0.1:

1. Update of TinyMCE Editor to the Latest Version
2. Conditional Dark Mode in Editors
3. Enhanced Information in Custom Fields for Finder Indexing
4. Improvement of Messenger View
5. Several Language and Code Style Improvements
6. CLI Installer Fixes and Improvements
7. Fix SVG Display in Media Manager List View
8. Enhanced Error Handling in Public Folder Installation
9. Correction of Notice in Mail Template
10. Compat-Plugin Loader Addition to API

For a comprehensive list and detailed information, refer to Joomla's official  Joomla 5.0.1 and 4.4.1 announcement.

Discover how Joomla 5.0 can benefit you by exploring the full details on joomla.org/5.

Full upgrade details can be found in the Joomla documentation. We strongly recommend testing the upgrade on a copy of your production site first.

Community Builder Compatibility:

The latest Community Builder 2.9 is fully compatible with Joomla 5.0.1, 4.4.1, and 3.10.14-elts. We encourage all users to upgrade to these latest Joomla versions for improved security and performance.

These updates are considered essential for maintaining a secure Joomla environment, and we recommend that everyone promptly applies these updates.

Renew Your CB Membership and Access Joomla 5-Upgraded Add-Ons

To fully enjoy the benefits of Joomla 5.0 and its compatible add-ons, renew your Joomlapolis membership today. Gain access to the latest add-on nightlies and support our work.

Thank you for your continued support of Joomla and Community Builder.

🎉 Community Builder 2.9 and 32 new CB Add-ons released!! 🥳

Unveiling Community Builder 2.9 and 18 CB Add-On Releases: Embracing Joomla 5.0!

We're excited to announce the release of Community Builder 2.9 and 18 new stable releases of our CB Add-ons. This update ensures compatibility with Joomla 5.0, 4.x, and 3.10 for CB and All our 32 CB Add-Ons,. This significant milestone underscores our commitment to staying at the forefront of web software development. These releases follows four weeks of nightly releases, rigorous testing, and continuous refinement, ensuring a safe and recommended CB 2.9 upgrade.

Joomla 5.0 Compatibility: Paving the Way for the Future

Community Builder 2.9 now runs natively on Joomla 5.0, eliminating the need for the new Joomla 5.0 “compatibility plugin”. This compatibility extends to all latest stable and nightly CB Add-On releases*, ensuring a smooth experience across all active Joomla releases. Transitioning from Joomla 4.x to Joomla 5.x is now a straightforward upgrade, like any minor version upgrade. Just upgrade CB, CB Add-ons, and any other third-party extension before Joomla, ensuring also your usual backup routine.

Discover how Joomla 5.0 can benefit you at joomla.org/5.

CB Add-Ons: Elevating Your Joomla Experience

Out of our 32 CB Add-Ons, 18 needed to be updated to run natively with Joomla 5.0. All others were already Joomla 5.0-compatible. These 18 new stable releases bring not only Joomla 5.0, 4.x and 3.10 compatibility, but also new features.

The new features, among many other improvements, include support for Joomla 5's new schema.org structured data in CB Content Bot (if enabled), PHP-based replacements in CB Replacer Bot, branding support for "X (formerly Twitter)" in CB Connect and enhanced payment gateways support in CB Paid Subscriptions for Stripe, WorldLine Ingenico ePayments (Ogone), and QuickPay.

Benefits of Upgrading to Community Builder 2.9 and Latest CB Add-Ons

Upgrading to Community Builder 2.9 and the latest CB Add-Ons ensures your website's compatibility with the latest Joomla features. Gain also access to a myriad of improvements, including the latest security enhancements, PHP 8.2 compatibility for noticeable speed improvements, and changes reflecting the evolution of web services.

While Community Builder remains free, an active Professional or Developer membership is required to access upgrades for paid CB Add-ons. We believe in the value of our add-ons and the enhanced functionality they bring to your Joomla experience.

A Big Thank You!

We are proud of the strides made with Community Builder 2.9 and the 32 CB Add-Ons within the past weeks and months. All these improvements result from our commitment to continuous enhancements and our unwavering dedication to our vibrant community.

Whether you're a school, a sailing club, a multinational corporation, a national health department, or an NBA team, Community Builder 2.9 and Joomla 5.0 bring you a world of possibilities from just managing your users up to creating large user-centric communities.

We take this opportunity to thank our dedicated team at Joomlapolis and our vibrant community of users. Your feedback, suggestions, and unwavering support have been instrumental in making these releases possible.

As always, we recommend keeping your Joomla and Community Builder installations up to date to benefit from the latest features and security fixes. Regular updates ensure a smooth user experience and help keep your platform secure and efficient.

Looking into the Future

Looking ahead, we are excited about the future of Community Builder and Joomla. We are committed to continuous improvement and are already working on new features and enhancements for future releases.

Join us in celebrating this milestone and experience the new and improved Community Builder 2.9. We are confident that you will appreciate the enhancements and the seamless Joomla 5.0 compatibility.

Remember, Community Builder is more than just software; it's a community. As we celebrate this release, we also celebrate you, our users, for being a part of this incredible journey. Thank you for your continued support, making Community Builder the best Joomla social networking solution.

What's Next?

Ready to explore the future with Community Builder 2.9? Dive into our demo website, seamlessly upgraded from Joomla 4.4 to Joomla 5.0, showcasing the power and stability of the latest releases. For more detailed insights and to upgrade your Community Builder experience, visit our Community Builder page and explore the wide array of CB Add-Ons. If you're not yet a part of our active community, consider subscribing or renewing to one of our memberships for exclusive benefits.

Renew Your CB Membership and Access Joomla 5-compatible Add-Ons

As we embark on this journey of continuous improvement, we invite you to join us in shaping the future of web communities. To fully enjoy the benefits of Joomla 5.0 and its now compatible add-ons, make sure to renew your Joomlapolis membership. Your paid membership allows us to work full-time at full power on Community Builder for 19 years, while keeping it free and open-source. Thank You!

* All our CB Add-Ons run on Joomla 5.0 natively (without the Joomla Compatibility plugin activated), except CB Activity 5.0 which runs on Joomla 5.0 too, but needs the Joomla Compatibility Plugin activated (automatically activated when upgrading a Joomla 4.4 site to 5.0).

🎉 Joomla 5.0 is released and it's awesome!! 🥳

Joomla 5.0 and Joomla 4.4: A New Era Begins

Secure, Accessible, Fast, Extendable - Unleash the Power of Joomla 5.0!

Today is a momentous day for the Joomla! Project and its global community. After two years of dedicated work, discussions, code sprints, and relentless bug squashing, we're thrilled by the release of Joomla 5.0, a major milestone in Joomla's history, alongside Joomla 4.4.

Joomla 5.0: An Upgrade, No More Migrations

Joomla 5.0 brings a wealth of new features, security enhancements, and a remarkable boost in performance. Under the hood, every aspect has been meticulously redesigned and optimized, harnessing the latest server technologies. It's a platform designed to grow with you, whether you're an individual blogger, a nonprofit organization, a web agency, a multinational corporation, or working for a government.

Transitioning from Joomla 4.4.x to Joomla 5.x is now a straightforward upgrade, akin to any minor version upgrade, eliminating the need for complex migrations.

Discover Joomla 5.0's Key Highlights

• Improved User Experience: Guided Tours have been massively improved and many new Joomla tours have been added to Joomla 5.0. Joomla 5.0 also introduces a dark mode for administrators and the new Joomla modal window for select buttons, as well as many small improvements, promising a more refined experience.
• Boosted website speed: Joomla 5.0 includes enhancements in web asset caching, automatic source code optimization with phpcs, and cleaner code base, resulting in a remarkably faster, smoother, and more efficient platform. Several scheduled tasks have been moved to scheduler plugins, for optimal performance.
• Enhanced search engine optimization (SEO): Automatic activation of Schema.org data for organization and site names brings Joomla to new SEO heights, out of the box.
• The latest HTML editor: The new TinyMCE editor version 6.7 offers many refinements, in particular additional images alignments.
• Media Management: AVIF support in the media manager and the ability to exclude archived content from smart search indexing improve media handling capabilities.
• Menu Sorting: Joomla 5.0 empowers you to sort your menu the way you want.
• Modern Technologies: Internal code restructuring and cleanliness focuses on using modern APIs, transitioning from older APIs, removing obsolete ES5 support for efficient operation and includes added JS Import map support for Web Asset Manager. Every library has been updated to latest standards.
• PHP & Bootstrap Updates: Improved compatibility with PHP 8+ with a minimum set at PHP 8.1 and MySQL 8.0.13/MariaDB 10.4, and an update to Bootstrap 5.3.2 keep Joomla contemporary.
• Enhanced Security: Security improvements include migrating events to their classes and removing obsolete Recaptcha plugins.
• Extensions Compatibility: Most modern Joomla 3.10 and 4 extensions should run just fine in Joomla 5.0, with the introduction of a core Compatiblity plugin, moving legacy code support into a single place for added performance and easy native compatibility tests.

Find out how Joomla 5.0 can benefit you by exploring the full details on joomla.org/5.

Upgrade to Joomla 5.0

Good news for Joomla 4.4.x users - it's an upgrade, not a migration. Joomla 4 extensions that have kept pace with Joomla's latest code will work seamlessly in Joomla 5. Most others can function with the new Behavior - Backward Compatibility Plugin enabled.

Joomla recommends to upgrade a copy of your site and check it out first. You may probably want to update or restyle your Joomla template just after the upgrade.

Full upgrade details can be found in the Joomla documentation. We too recommend strongly testing the upgrade on a copy of your production site first.

Why Rush? Joomla 4.4 Supported for 2 More Years

No need to rush; Joomla 4.4 will be supported for two more years, ensuring your site's security. Many extensions have already prepared Joomla 5 versions, making the transition smooth and painless.

Why Not Rush? Boost your site speed, SEO and user experience!

However, you should definitely consider upgrading to Joomla 4.4 now and make plans for the imminent transition to Joomla 5.0. This proactive step will not only enhance your site's visibility on search engines and improve its ranking but also elevate your users' experience through enhanced usability and speed. Additionally, reducing the consumption of server resources for page rendering is not only beneficial for your users, but also contributes positively to the environment and the climate.

What About Joomla 4.4?

Joomla 4.4 focuses on providing a very smooth upgrade path, by not introducing new features, except the upgrade tester. It is thus a safe and mandatory step in your upgrade to Joomla 5.0.

Behind the curtains, Joomla 4.4's automated build tests have been massively extended, going from only 17 automated application tests to over 400, with thousands of simulated clicks and tested replies. Same is being added to Joomla 5.0. This will bring Joomla's already legendary stability to unseen levels. This allows smooth upgrades in full confidence. This an additional reason why we can already recommend upgrades from Joomla 4.3.4 to 4.4.0.

What About Community Builder?

Community Builder and all add-on nightly releases have been adapted to run on Joomla 5.0 natively (this means that it runs also with the Joomla Compatibility Plugin disabled). New "stable" releases for CB and all add-ons will be released next week.

CB will now be checking for installed PHP and MySQL/MariaDB versions, and display an information banner if your server runs below PHP 8.1 or MySQL 8.0.13/MariaDB 10.4 versions required for Joomla 5. We plan to increase our minimum PHP and database versions requirements in the future, to align with Joomla's latest ones. Sites also load faster with latest PHP versions, so it's anyway recommended to use latest PHP versions.

Renew Your CB Membership and Access Joomla 5-Upgraded Add-Ons

To fully enjoy the benefits of Joomla 5.0 and its compatible add-ons, renew your Joomlapolis membership today. Get access to the latest add-on nightlies and support our work.

Beyond Joomla 5.0: A Bright Future Awaits

In the making for over two years, Joomla 5.0 has been crafted by hundreds of developers who are also daily Joomla users. It reflects the practical needs of Joomla users, incorporating modernizations and improvements. And the journey doesn't end here - Joomla 5.1 is already in the works and will be released in just six months, promising even more exciting features.

Join Us on This Exciting Journey

Joomla is thriving, expanding, and progressing. Developed with precision, it garners appreciation from governments, NGOs, small and large companies globally, and enjoys the trust of millions of websites, playing a pivotal role in powering approximately 2% of all websites on the Internet. Joomla 5.0, a significant and easy to use release with many well-crafted Guided Tours, is set to boost Joomla's appeal for new websites.

Community Builder and all its add-ons are now primed for Joomla 5.0, and we cordially invite you to embark on this exciting journey with us.

• Read the complete Joomla 5.0 announcement on Joomla.org.
• Renew your membership today to access the latest add-on nightlies and support our work.
• Read Kyle's blog about our adaptation work for Joomla 5.
• Ugrade your website to Joomla 4.4 and your extensions to their latest versions. Ensure all your extensions are compatible with Joomla 4 and 5.
• Make a copy of your website, then upgrade the copy to Joomla 5 following the Joomla upgrade documentation carefully. Document each step meticulously.
• If all looks good, safeguard your main website with a backup, and replicate the same steps on your main site.

Stay tuned for next week's article on Community Builder's release, as we continue to support and empower your Joomla experience.