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Category: News

Published: 25 September 2023

Last Updated: 26 September 2023

Hits: 1921

🎉 Your Ultimate Social Experience is About to Get Even Better! 🥳

We are thrilled to announce the release of CB Activity 6.0 Beta 1 and Community Builder 2.8.2, a monumental update that promises to redefine your social networking experience.

CB Activity 6.0 Beta 1: A Sneak Peek into the Future

The highly-anticipated CB Activity 6.0 Beta 1 is here, and it's packed with a staggering 110 new features, stunning redesigns, and unmatched functionality. While this is a beta release, it's a tantalizing glimpse into the future of CB Activity.

What's New in CB Activity 6.0 Beta 1?

This release introduces a first set of main highlights, including

Redesigned Look and Feel: The new post window has undergone a makeover, with larger buttons and a mobile-friendly design.

Reactions: Express yourself using Tenor or Giphy reactions, complete with search, favorites, and recently used options.

Emoji Overhaul: The emoji selector has been completely redesigned, featuring native emoji, categorization, multiple emoji colors, and a convenient recently used emoji bar.

Introducing Stickers: Stickers are a brand-new addition, replacing the old emote system. Customize them with CSS, image files, videos, and HTML. You can even control access to reward subscribers with unique stickers.

Themes: Themes now come with improved previews and full customization options, including custom CSS classes and access controls.

Actions/Moods: Say goodbye to the old dropdown select. Enjoy an accessible and keyboard-navigable action selection with autocomplete options for each action.

Locations Made Easy: Users can now effortlessly select locations using maps from OSM or Google Maps. No more manual input.

Automated Links: Forget the link button; links are now automated. Simply add a link to your post, and it will be processed automatically, complete with image and media previews.

Rich Text Editing: The text editor has been upgraded to a rich editor that can convert supported usages into HTML. Enjoy live previews of reactions, emoji, and stickers, as well as autocomplete for @mentions and #hashtags.

Enhanced Sharing with Privacy: Easily share activity posts with various external services while keeping your privacy intact, thanks to our cookie-free approach.

Robust Filtering: Streams now offer advanced filtering options, including pre-defined filters and various search criteria.

Like Types: Likes now have meaning, with a type count and filtering options in the updated likes window.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg! This impressive list is just the beginning! CB Activity 6.0 Beta 1 is brimming with new functionality, making it the ultimate social stream experience. Stay tuned for additional highlights with upcoming betas

Explore Kyle's blog post for even deeper insights into CB Activity 6.0 Beta 1.

For more details on the journey from 5.0.0 to 6.0.0, check out this forum post.

For a complete list of changes in CB Activity 6.0, including 110 new features, explore our CB Activity change log.

And for CB 2.8.2, the 2 compatibility changes are in this CB change log.

How to Get CB Activity 6.0 Beta 1

To access CB Activity 6.0 Beta 1 and be among the first to experience these incredible features, you'll need a Professional or Developer membership, one of the benefits of our memberships. Please note that direct upgrades from CB Activity 5.0 to 6.0 Beta 1 are currently unavailable. CB Activity 6.0 Beta 1 requires CB 2.8.2, and CB 2.8.2 performs compatibility checks. Upgrades will be possible when CB Activity 6.0 reaches RC1, implementing CB Activity 5.0 migration code for existing CB Activity 5.0 sites.

Get Involved, Support the Community

Help shape the future of Community Builder and CB Activity by becoming a Professional or Developer member. Your support enables us to continue developing these amazing tools that enhance your online community experience. To get started and access CB Activity 6.0 Beta 1, join us today!

Calling for Early Feedback

We're thrilled to receive early feedback from our dedicated community members. Your insights and suggestions play a vital role in shaping the future of CB Activity. Join us in celebrating the release of CB Activity 6.0 Beta 1 and CB 2.8.2, and discover a world of possibilities for your online community.

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Category: News

Published: 20 September 2023

Last Updated: 21 September 2023

Hits: 2608

🎉 Celebrate with Us: Community Builder's 19th Birthday and Joomla!s 18th Anniversary! 🥳

 The time has come to break out the virtual party hats and pop some confetti cannons because we've got not one but two fantastic reasons to celebrate! Community Builder is turning 19, and Joomla is hitting the big 18. 🎉

🌟 Remembering Our Roots: A Walk Down Memory Lane with Community Builder

It all started on August 30, 2004, when Community Builder (CB) made its debut with version 1.0.0 beta 1 (even the Internet Archive has catched it immediately in 2004!). It was like welcoming a new friend who would transform our Mambo and Joomla websites into bustling social hubs. CB began with the basics—user profiles and community building—and oh boy, what a journey it's been!

From avatars and messaging to enhanced privacy controls and customization galore, CB evolved with each release. It introduced features like the Activity Stream, advanced userlists, and many add-ons like CBSubs for subscription management. Millions of downloads later, CB is the go-to choice for building thriving online communities!

💡 Enriching Community Builder: Explore Our CB Add-Ons

As we celebrate Community Builder's remarkable journey, we'd like to shine a spotlight on the incredible contributions of our supportive members. With a Professional or Developer membership, you gain access to a treasure trove of CB add-ons that have been meticulously crafted over the years, enhancing the capabilities of Community Builder.

Our collection includes a range of powerful extensions, each designed to elevate your community-building experience. These add-ons make Community Builder even more flexible and tailorable to a broad range of uses, ranging from clubs to corporate websites and large governmental organizations.

For instance, CB Paid Subscriptions (CBSubs) revolutionizes subscription management, making it a breeze to handle memberships and subscriptions. With CB Activity, you can create dynamic and engaging activity streams that keep your community members informed and connected like never before. And CB GroupJive empowers you and your users to create and manage user groups, effectively turning them into mini-communities. It also enables you or your group administrators to organize events, send invitations, and allows their mini-communities members to share photos, videos, files. It also seamlessly integrates with forums. As last but not least example, extensive privacy can be handled through CB Privacy add-on. All these extensions have also been made available as a pre-configured CB Quickstart installer.

🌟 Active Engagement: Our Thriving Forums

What's more, our thriving forum serves as a vibrant hub where the community actively participates in discussions, asks questions, and provides invaluable feedback and suggestions. It's this active engagement that guides us in continuously improving CB and its add-ons, ensuring they meet your evolving needs.

🚀 The Future Beckons: Get Ready for CB Activity 6.0 and CB 3.0!

While we're reminiscing about the past, let's also talk about the future! Get ready for a soon release of a major completely rewritten CB Activity 6.0 add-on, which is in the making since over a year. And Community Builder 3.0 should be coming your way next year! Maybe even around the 20th birthday of Community Builder ? This won't be just a release; it will be a community engagement revolution. We've listened to your feedback and will be rolling out a treasure trove of features that will dazzle Joomla website administrators and community managers alike.

🤪 The Funny Fact: CB 2.8.1—Released Exactly on CB's 19th Birthday!

Here's a quirky little tidbit to keep the party vibes going: CB 2.8.1 was just released, and guess what? We just realized that it landed precisely on the 19th anniversary of CB's first public release. Talk about perfect timing! Check it out here!

🎂 Joomla's 18th Birthday: A Dynamic Duo of Excellence

We can't party without giving a shout-out to Joomla, which turned 18 also in August! Joomla has been our partner in life, helping us create vibrant online communities and websites that defy the ordinary. Together, we've championed the cause of open-source software, and the web is all the better for it.

💪 The Power Duo: Community Builder + Joomla

Now, let's talk about the dynamic duo—Community Builder and Joomla. When these two join forces, magic happens! The combo brings you a world of possibilities with:

• Easy Community Building: Seamlessly integrate CB into your Joomla site to create user-centric communities, whether you're a school, a multinational corporation, or an NBA team.
• Cutting-Edge Innovation: The power of open-source collaboration means you're always at the forefront of innovation. Expect features that cater to your evolving needs. Use our powerful CB Auto-Actions and Joomla 4 Workflows to bring powerful automation to your website and beyond!
• Tailored Experiences: With CB's customization options and Joomla's flexibility, and thousands of third-party Joomla open-source extensions and templates you can tailor your community website to perfection. This flexibilty without coding is truly unique in the web industry.

🌟 Conclusion: Time to Celebrate and Get a Gift!

Alrighty then, grab your favorite beverage, get those virtual confetti cannons ready, and let's have a blast celebrating these fantastic milestones. As we raise our glasses to Community Builder's 19th birthday and Joomla's 18th anniversary, let's remember all the good times and exciting moments that have brought us here.

But guess what? We've got something special just for you! To make this party even more fun, we're offering a birthday present—a cool birthday discount with an exclusive birthday coupon code CB-19-YEARS, that will give you 25% off all our memberships for new subscriptions and renewals during next 48 hours! It's our way of saying thanks for being a part of our Community Builder family.

So, keep an eye out for CB Activity 6.0 and Community Builder 3.0 — it's going to be a hoot, and together, we'll keep building awesome, user-friendly communities that go above and beyond.

Here's to many more years of good vibes, great conversations, and incredible open-source adventures!

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Category: News

Published: 30 August 2023

Last Updated: 30 August 2023

Hits: 3099

Community Builder 2.8.1 can be freely downloaded by all registered members

At Joomlapolis, we are proud to announce the new maintenance-release Community Builder 2.8.1, refining the functionality of CB 2.8 for online communities, with 10 new features to amplify user experiences and 21 issues fixed, some of which are significant improvements, especially for Joomla 4 sites.

With a vibrant user base and an unwavering commitment to open-source principles, Joomlapolis continues to empower hundreds of thousands community managers and dozens of millions users alike.

CB 2.8.1 is compatible with Joomla 4 (currently at 4.3.4) and Joomla 3.10* (currently at 3.10.12), as well as with all our latest CB add-ons.

Striving for Continuous Improvement, One Detail at a Time

While these may not be big changes, the small improvements in Community Builder 2.8.1 will make a noticeable difference. New features introduced by CB 2.8.1 include:

• Even More Flexible Profile Layouts: Enhancements in placeholder substitutions provide site administrators with a greater level of control over profile layouts. This subtle customization option adds new possibilities to user profiles.

• Fine-Tuned Joomla System Fields: We introduce publishing statuses control for Joomla system fields, reducing clutter on user profile edits by allowing the hiding of unneeded system information and settings.

• Embracing Enhanced Security: The inclusion of the W3C Web authentication plugin reflects our steadfast commitment to safeguarding user data and privacy.

• Database Collation Checks: A pragmatic tool for assessing database collations ensures a smoother and faster user experience by maintaining database integrity, now also on character-set collations for CB tables and columns.

• Dual CB Date Display: By imbuing CB date fields with dual functionality—displaying both age and birth dates—we foster deeper connections among users while displaying accurate dates if needed.

• Refined Aesthetics: While seemingly subtle, the optimization of CSS styles on specific CB pages contributes to a more harmonious and precise visual experience.

Improving Stability and Future-proofing

Beyond these improvements, Community Builder 2.8.1 diligently includes 21 pertinent bug fixes, the most important being:

• Form Token Enhancement: We bid adieu to form timeouts with the inclusion of missing keep-alive form tokens rectifying the issue of timeouts in forms, and allowing for uninterrupted user engagement when users get … interrupted for a long time while filling in a form.

• Enhanced Joomla 4 Compatibility: We ensure Joomla 4 compatibility remains seamless by also saving Joomla user parameters on CB profile edits.

• Multi-Language Compatibility: Multi-language sites within Joomla 4 receive the attention they deserve, as we resolve a Joomla 4 compatibility issue to foster inclusivity.

• PHP 8.2 Support: By fxiing PHP 8.2 deprecation notices, we guarantee sustained performance on modern server environments and future-proofing for next PHP 8.3.

• Smoother User Importing: We enhanced user management through improved user importing, streamlining data formatting and error detection during user imports.

A Gentle Push Toward Progress, Stability and Security

For Joomla 4 and Joomla 3.10* sites, Community Builder 2.8.1 is a highly recommended upgrade. The cumulative refinements and fixes reflect our commitment to enhancing the backbone of millions of online communities.

We're proud to note that the features introduced in CB 2.8.1 were carefully rolled out to our community one by one through our famous nightly releases. This meticulous approach ensures that these features are now stable and well-tested in real-world scenarios. Your upgrade should thus be seamless, benefiting from the proven reliability of Community Builder in the field (standard disclaimer: better be safe than sorry: As usual, regular backups are always highly recommended!).

For a comprehensive overview of the changes introduced in Community Builder 2.8.1, please refer to the complete changelog. If you are upgrading from an older CB release before CB 2.8, you may also benefit from reading the CB 2.8 announcement.

* By the way, if you are still on Joomla 3, we strongly encourage you to consider upgrading to Joomla 4 at your earliest convenience.

Empowering Communities Together

This maintenance release underscores our unceasing mission to offer a platform that enhances the very core of community interaction. By opting for a Membership and/or making a modest Donation, you play an integral role in the advancement of Community Builder and in the collective evolution of Free, open, and thriving online community spaces.

Shape Your Space, Embrace Evolution - Explore Community Builder 2.8.1 along with all our CB Add-ons Today on our CB Demo Site.

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Category: News

Published: 24 August 2023

Last Updated: 24 August 2023

Hits: 1998

Joomla 4.3 is here with Guided Tours!

Joomla 4.3 introduced Guided Tours, a game-changing feature!

Guided Tours is now the first top menu in the Joomla administration, guiding new users in creating their first article, adding a category, or menu. This interactive walkthrough redefines how users engage with Joomla 4.3, offering step-by-step guidance for seamless onboarding, personalized learning, and enhanced satisfaction. We believe that by spotlighting features and empowering new users, guided tours are set to redefine how users interact with Joomla 4.3+ and will significantly boost Joomla's uptake.

Simplified Onboarding

Newcomers can navigate Joomla 4.3 effortlessly with guided tours. Interactive prompts and tooltips provide intuitive step-by-step guidance, reducing the learning curve and boosting confidence.

Contextual Learning

Guided tours provide real-time context, allowing users to learn as they explore. Tailored explanations while using the platform bridge the gap between what users want to do and how to do it, enhancing learning effectiveness.

Empowered Users

With guided tours in Joomla 4.3, new users gain a solid grasp of the platform in record time. They're less likely to need extensive documentation or support, making their Joomla experience smoother and more independent.

Accessibility at the Core

Joomla's commitment to accessibility extends to its guided tours, ensuring that people with disabilities can fully benefit from the feature. Just like the entire Joomla platform, guided tours are designed with inclusivity in mind.

Tailored Experience

Joomla's guided tours aim to cater to diverse expertise levels. Beginners receive comprehensive guidance, while advanced users can skip introductory tours, ensuring personalized assistance as more advanced tours get gradually added.

Create your own Tours

Moreover, you have the possibility to create your own guided tours specific to your site to assist your users' onboarding or to help them discover and use new site feature.

Joomla 4.3's Additional Features

Joomla 4.3 brings many more new features, including a revamped Media Manager, workflow improvements, enhanced tags, custom fields, and menus. It also upgrades to Bootstrap version 5.2 and enhances support for PHP 8.2.

Stay Up to Date with Joomla 4.3.4

Yesterday, Joomla released version 4.3.4, a maintenance release that improves and fixes minor bugs. We encourage all users to stay up to date to ensure they have the best experience with Joomla.

In Summary

We think that Guided Tours will redefine user interaction in Joomla 4 by simplifying onboarding, enabling contextual learning, and unveiling hidden features. This feature exemplifies Joomla's commitment to a user-centric approach that enhances engagement and success, all while driving an increased uptake of the Joomla platform.

About Joomla 4.3.4 and Community Builder

Joomla is currently the most accessible CMS available. It stands as a robust and mature product powering millions of websites. Unlike a lot of other CMSes, its code-base is clean, solid, and inherently secure from the ground up.

Community Builder 2.8 latest build and all Joomlapolis add-ons run just fine on this solid new Joomla 4.3.4 release, as can be seen on our Community Builder and add-ons Demo Site.

To help you discover or present Joomla to your friends or customers, the Joomla marketing team has prepared a Joomla 4 brochure, in 15 languages, that you can download here.

Learning more

You can find additional information about these new features by reading the Joomla 4.3 announcement and the Joomla Magazine article about Guided Tours.

Contributing back

Finally, Joomla welcomes help to enhance and add guided tours to the core.

And if you are eager to contribute to the open-source and free CB, we would also warmly welcome a contribution with a set of Guided Tours for Community Builder!.

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Category: News

Published: 21 July 2023

Last Updated: 21 July 2023

Hits: 1394

CB Paid Subscriptions (CBSubs) 4.6.2 comes with major new features: Dynamic pricing with its CBSubs Options plugin, a massively improved Stripe payment gateway and a rewritten iDevAffiliate integration. The automated payment process has also been improved for rock solid checkouts.

CB Paid Subscriptions (CBSubs GPL) 4.6.2 is a features and maintenance release and is a recommended upgrade for all sites.

CBSubs 4.6.1 includes new dynamic pricing, an improved payment service provider gateway, 25 other improvements and 33 minor bug fixes. Main new items are:

• The CBSubs Options plugin has been massively improved to allow to modify plan prices easily. Support has been added for adjusting the base price of a plan dynamically, with or without options. For example, substitutions (e.g. [cb_quotedprice]) and modifiers (e.g. +10, -15, *3, +[cb_priceadjust]) are now possible. This avoids needing to use promotions to alter the base pricing of plans and also work great with pricing options since the base price is adjusted instead of the totalized price, and individual adjustments are not itemized in the invoice.
  The CBSubs Options plugin propose various duration and price possibilities for user subscription plans. It also allows to offer various options to membership subscriptions or to merchandise products. This allows to offer options to users while selecting their plan or product, and then to manage them right from their user profile. Kyle has a detailed blog with many screenshots about the CBSubs Options plugin
• Stripe payment gateway has been improved to better reflect the bought items at the Stripe portal, also for automatically recurring subscriptions payments. The stripe gateway has been rewritten to use the latest Stripe API Elements and became several improvements throughout. This makes Stripe easier to use, have more features, and more safety nets for potential payment failures. See Kyle's detailed blog about the Stripe payment gateway overhaul.
• CIC Credit Mutuel payment gateway uses the updated payment api
• iDevAffiliate integration has been redesigned to use whole basket pricing instead of per-item and to respect recurring payments pricing, adhering to their affiliates commissions structure.
• Settings to enable or disable unsubscribe buttons on plan by plan basis.

CBSubs 4.6.2 also fixes 33 minor bugs and improves the compatibility and reliability overall.

CBSubs 4.6.2 is a recommended upgrade for all sites, and is very stable, as all changes were released continuously in our nightly releases. It is also a highly recommended upgrade for sites using the Stripe and/or CIC Credit Mutuel payment processors.

CBSubs 4.6.2 requires latest Community Builder 2.8 release or later.

CBSubs 4.6.2 is fully compatible with Joomla 3.10-4.1, PHP 7.4-8.1 and MySQL 5.6-8.0.

CBSubs 4.6.2 is available in our Downloads section and simply requires an active subscription to CBSubs or a Developer membership.

Kyle's latest blog details the new CBSubs Options plugin.

Full changelog is available, and CBSubs 4.6.2 is also installed on our demo site. Last but not least, many thanks to Kyle for his redevelopment of the CBSubs Options plugin!