Hi folks,

finally, I can announce the release of FlatPress 1.3 “Andante”.

If you don’t know yet: The name “Andante” may be seen as a (not entirely serious) allusion to the FlatPress release cycle: We’re not going particularly fast, but steadily we’re going.

Most important improvement of the new version is the PHP 8.1 to 8.3 compatibility. Also, we added a few helpful plugins and fixed tons of bugs and security issues. And check out all the other improvements like the localized installer!

Please see the release information on GitHub to find the detailed change log, a download package and an update package from FlatPress 1.2:

• FlatPress 1.3 “Andante”

Or download directly:

• Full package for fresh installation
• Update package 1.2 to 1.3 (follow the update instructions on the download page)

Thanks

I’d like to thank all those who selflessly support the FlatPress project as testers, developers or translators, report bugs and submit suggestions for improvement, or help other FlatPress users.
I am so proud that people all over the world share the FlatPress spirit and contribute to the development. This release, like the others before it, would not have been possible without you - thank you!

Image: “Andante in Fa#” by Paolo Crosetto - licensed under CC BY SA 2.0

I am very proud to announce the first Release Candidate of FlatPress 1.3 “Andante”.

If you don’t know yet: The name “Andante” may be seen as a (not entirely serious) allusion to the FlatPress release cycle: We’re not going particularly fast, but steadily we’re going.

Most important improvement of the new version is the PHP 8.1 to 8.3 compatibility. Also, we added a few helpful plugins and fixed tons of bugs and security issues. And check out all the other improvements like the localized installer!

Please see the release information on GitHub to find the detailed change log, a download package and an update package from FlatPress 1.2:

• FlatPress 1.3 “Andante” - Release Candidate 1

Alternatively, download directly:

• Download the full install package
• Download the update package 1.2 to 1.3 RC1
  (the 1.2 update instructions on the download page work for 1.3 as well)

Please help testing

If you happen to find the time, please help us with the last test before the final release. Try a fresh installation, or update a testing copy of your existing blog.
Please report any bugs and glitches on the FlatPress support forum. Thank you!
If no further bugs are reported throughout the testing phase, this version will soon be released as the final version 1.3.

This is a release candidate. Although it’s most likely what will become the final release, you may not want to use it on your productive blog yet.
If you want to help testing, please see this topic on the FlatPress support forum.

Thanks

I explicitly want to thank all the coders, translators and testers who helped creating this new version. FlatPress 1.3 wouldn’t be possible without you! (Cheers, Frank and Matthias! 👋)
See the contributors list to learn about all those great people!

All the best,
Arvid

Image: “andante misterioso” by sittered - licensed under CC BY 2.0

Hi folks,

Fraenkiman and DeltaLima want to organize a FlatPress community meetup in Berlin at the end of March. This is a great opportunity to meet “your” coders and other FlatPress users.

Update 2024-03-02:
The meetup will will take place on March 23rd from 8pm at c-base, Rungestraße 20!
The c-base is located directly next to the river Spree in the city center of Berlin. Nearby is the S-Bahn and U-Bahn station Jannowitzbrücke and the bus stop of the same name.

Bring your ideas, questions and suggestions, and have a great time talking to other FlatPressers, solve your plugin or theme issues and get inspiration for your FlatPress blog.

If you happen to be in the area at that time, please let us know on the Support Forum:
https://forum.flatpress.org/viewtopic.php?t=716

Update 2024-03-22:
If you can’t make it in person, join us digitally!
https://lecture.senfcall.de/del-8w4-wki-1go - we’ll be online from 8pm CET!

#happyflatpressberlin

All the best,
Arvid

Image credits:
“Moscow, Borisovo Ponds, Blue sky with clouds, Russia” by Vyacheslav Argenberg, published under CC-BY 4.0.
“Berlin Silhouette Skyline Art Drawing - Clipart - SVG / PNG / PDF / WMF” by GDJ, published under CC0.

Hi folks, thank you very much for your patience regarding the release of the next FlatPress version. We’ve come a long way, especially the upgrade of the Smarty template engine created a lot of issues.

But the effort was worth it: Today I can proudly announce the start of our first beta test of the upcoming FlatPress 1.3 “Andante”!

The name “Andante” may be seen as a (not entirely serious) allusion to the FlatPress release cycle: We’re not going particularly fast, but steadily we’re going.

Most important improvement of the new version is the PHP 8.1 and 8.2 PHP 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3* compatibility. Also, we added a few helpful plugins and fixed tons of bugs and security issues. And check out all the other improvements like the localized installer!

Please see the Beta 1 release on GitHub to find the detailed change log, a download package and an update package from FlatPress 1.2:

• FlatPress 1.3 “Andante” - Beta 1

This is a beta version - we strongly recommend not using it in your productive blog yet.
If you want to help testing, please see this topic on the FlatPress support forum.

I explicitly want to thank all the coders, translators and testers who helped creating this new version. FlatPress 1.3 wouldn’t be possible without you! (Cheers, Frank and Matthias! 👋)
See the contributors list to learn about all those great people!

All the best,
Arvid

* Update 2024-01-23: In fact, FlatPress 1.3 “Andante” will happily run under PHP up to 8.3 :)

Image: “Beta” by erokism - licensed under CC BY 2.0

Hey folks, quite some time has passed since the release of our last FlatPress version 1.2.1. And often the obvious question has been asked: “When will FlatPress 1.3 finally be released?”

Today, I’d like to give you an overview over the current status of development.

tl;dr: FlatPress 1.3 is almost ready, but a few annoying problems are still holding us back from releasing it. We ask for your help.

What we want to achieve with FlatPress 1.3

• Main goal (and it’s about damn time!) is PHP 8.1 and 8.2 compatibility.
• Also, we want to add a few more plugins for convenience. For example, FlatPress lacked a proper image gallery display and management.
• And of course, known bugs and security issues should be fixed.

What is done already

Even if you haven’t necessarily noticed it, a lot has happened since the last FlatPress release. As of today, we count 424 GitHub commits to be precise :)

Reading through the change log, you’ll find a lot of changes, fixes and additions. I want to highlight the most important ones:

• We got FlatPress working with PHP 8.1 and 8.2.
  But there was a “little” catch: In previous versions, FlatPress utilized version 2 of the templating engine Smarty, which is outdated and does not support current PHP versions. So we switched to the current Smarty version 4, that came with significant API changes - we had to rework a lot of code and template files. Although that worked out great in general, we still have a few critical issues to fix (see below).
• Some new plugins have found their way into the FlatPress standard, for example PhotoSwipe for stylish and responsive image gallery display, or the Gallery Captions plugin for maintaining the captions of gallery images in the Admin Area.
• A proper metric ton of bugs and security issues has been fixed.
• The FlatPress installer is now localized and looks better than ever.

If you’re curious, feel free to get the latest development version, it’s currently named “FlatPress 1.3.dev”. The “dev” is not silent - it stands for “do not update your productive blog, some things might not work properly yet!”. But there’s absolutely nothing to be said against installing it in another folder of your web server to take a peek at the cool new features of FlatPress 1.3! After all, removing it afterwards is as simple as deleting this folder.

What still has to be tackled

There a still a few open issues, we gather them in a milestone on GitHub. Some of them are real blockers for the release of FlatPress 1.3 - we can’t ship as long as the contact form is not working, or saving entries is not possible under some circumstances. Also, the RSS feed delivers raw BBCode, which simply has to be fixed. Most of these issues relate to the Smarty update.

Greatest limiting factor is, no surprise, the developers’ spare time. Especially the Smarty issues are quite challenging and require more than one or two single hours of debugging.
So if you like to support us there, we’d appreciate any help!

What you can do to help us

• We invite FlatPress users to download the lastest development version. Fiddle around with it, and let us know your findings on the support forum.
• Template and plugin authors may want to prepare their templates and plugins for Smarty 4 in order to run with FlatPress 1.3. This helpful article on our wiki also contains tips on how to keep plugins backwards compatible.
• As a PHP programmer, please feel free to tackle any of the open issues from the 1.3 milestone! We’re always very grateful for Pull Requests with your changes on GitHub.

So this is the current FlatPress 1.3 development status. Of course, we’ll keep you up to date whenever there’s something new. Make sure to follow the FlatPress accounts on Mastodon or Twitter, and subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed.

Keep blogging happily!
All the best,
Arvid

Image: Slightly cropped “Coding Javascript” by Christiaan Colen - licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0