ocPortal 4.3 released!

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Added 10 February 2010, 4:05 PM

Version 4.3 has now been released. This version introduces a number of bug fixes, performance improvements, and usability improvements. Upgrading is suggested.

To upgrade follow the steps in your website's http://mybaseurl/upgrader.php script. You will need to copy the URL of the attached TAR file as one of these steps ("3: Upload an upgrade TAR for extraction").
Please make sure you take a backup before uploading your new files!

ť alternatively (but not recommended), you can manually upload the files inside the attached TAR file over existing files (7-zip is just one of many tools for tar files). This is not recommended because it will bypass the upgraders addon-aware extraction algorithm and potentially cause problems.

Your upgrade to version 4.3

You can generate an upgrader from any version of ocPortal to any other version. If you access this upgrade post via the version information box on your Admin Zone front page then we'll automatically know what version you're running.
If you'd prefer though you can enter in your version number right here:

Important

ocProducts cannot make any guarantees about the speed of which any new bugs might be patched, for this upgrade or any other upgrade. It is your own responsibility to make and test a full website backup (files and database) before you upgrade, for use in the unlikely event of you wanting to revert your upgrade. Some users may wish to test upgrades (and pre-fix any theme compatibility problems that could occur) on a staging site (a private mirror of their live site).
If you don't follow our advice by taking and testing a backup, and end up needing emergency repair help, ocProducts can help charged at our hourly rate.

For more details, see our upgrading tutorial.

In addition to the bug fixes, performance improvements, and usability improvements, the following new features have been implemented:

Wordpress, Joomla, and HTML website importers
iCal exporter
Quiz results CSV exporter
New Comcode 'pulse' tag
Improved shared-install functionality
ocPortal can now run without a database (the inbuilt database is now a bundled feature, although not completely supported or recommended for production sites)
Added new developer feature for the quick addition of language strings, written (temporarily) in-line into the code
Added support for running a server behind a proxy server (having to connect via proxy to access external resources)

The following fixes/usability changes have been made since 4.2 RC3:

Specific permissions are now referenced by more user-friendly specific names when working with specific content types
Twitter support no longer requires CURL
Fixed Comcode permission bug in support tickets
Fixed type strictness error
Preparation to possibly support Facebook's "Hip Hop PHP" in the future
Made things more stable if ocPortal 4.1 is not properly upgraded
Added support for using PHP in templates, but is not advised and disabled by default
Fixed bug where editing a clubs forum would remove the clubs access to it
Reduced memory usage on Zone Editor
Reduced memory usage on Addon management screen
Made it clearer what the development tools dropdown in the footer is for
Clarified the upgraders 'module moved' message
Added missing description for the 'main_screen_actions' block
Fixed bugs in the backup restoration code
Improved calendar event tracking code and visuals
Clarified the "Providing downloads" tutorial
Laid out the addon management screen better
Tidied up how the 'wide' mode works, allowed a 'bot' panel to work in wide mode
Fixed error in previous 4.3 releases on Windows, relating to .lcd files
Added main_leader_board 'staff' property to the Add Block tool
Added additional 'TITLE' parameter to the side_root_galleries block
Fixed bug that stopped the chat room working when the 'Site-Wide IM' option was on
Fixed bug with CSS caching in print mode
Fixed little bug in the set of icons shown in the Permission Tree Editor
Added 'panel_bottom' support in the default templates
Removed excess 'Required' message on the Comcode error screen
Removed extraneous slash symbols on Permission tree Editor
Fixed spacing problem for topic icons on OCF forumview
The PHP 'parse_ini_file' function is no longer required
Workaround to problem with 'avatar' field based on SMF error mail received
Fixed bug in addon import screen
Improved the multi-field API for programmers
Fixes/improvements to shared-install support:
- Improved multisite support on the Comcode Page Editor, and improved consistency with how specific permissions work there
- Fixed theme image bug when running in multisite mode
- Allowed the 'uploads/incoming' directory to be auto-created, to aid migration of 4.1.x multisite installs
- Allowed CRON to run on ocPortal multisite installs without extensive configuration
- Fixed problems with the upload system on multisite installs
- Allowed language files to be overridden better on multisite installs

Many other fixes are included, see the following news posts to see all other changes:

Any common upgrade problems are being tracked in this forum topic.
If you have another problem, please file a bug report and ocProducts will respond and update the topic accordingly.