XOOPS 2.4.5 RC3 Release

The XOOPS Development Team is pleased to announce the release of XOOPS 2.4.5 RC3.

This release is mainly for further bugfix, as well as removing calendar related code that causes license conflicts.
TinyMCE editor has been upgraded to 3.3.7 (thanks goes to Lucio Rota).
Please check changelog for details.

This release intended to be the last RC release before 2.4.5 final release. Some known issues will be addressed in XOOPS 2.4.6, which is very likely the last version in XOOPS 2.4 series mainly for code cleaning up.
And we would advise module developers not use classes/methods introduced in 2.4 series before code cleaning up is done in 2.4.6.

Download from [url=https://sourceforge.net/projects/xoops/files/XOOPS%20Core%20%28Beta%20Releases%29/]Sourceforge repository[/url].


System requirements
-----------------------------------

PHP:
Any PHP version >= 4.3 (PHP 4.2.x may work but is not officially supported, PHP 5.0+ is strongly recommended)

MySQL:
MySQL server 3.23+ (MySQL 5.0+ is strongly recommended)

Web server:
Any server supporting the required PHP version (Apache highly recommended)


Downloading XOOPS
-----------------------------------

Your can get this release package from the sourceforge.net file repository.
Both .zip and .gz archives are provided.


Installing XOOPS
-----------------------------------

   1. Copy the content of the htdocs/ folder where it can be accessed by your server
   2. Ensure mainfile.php and uploads/ are writable by the web server
   3. For security considerations, you are encouraged to move directories "/xoops_lib" (for XOOPS libraries) and "/xoops_data" (for XOOPS data) out of document root, or even change the folder names.
   4. Make the directory xoops_data/ writable; Create (if not already present) and make the directories xoops_data/caches/, xoops_data/caches/xoops_cache/, xoops_data/caches/smarty_cache/ and xoops_data/caches/smarty_compile/ writable.
   5. Access the folder where you installed the htdocs/ files using your web browser to launch the installation wizard

Installing Protector in XOOPS
-----------------------------------
We also highly recommend the installation of the PROTECTOR module which will bring additional security protection and logging capabilities to your site:


Upgrading from a previous version
-----------------------------------

Upgrading from XOOPS 2.3.3 and 2.4.x (easy way)

1. Get the right update package from the sourceforge file repository
2. Overwrite files in XOOPS directory on your server with the content of /htdocs
    * make sure that you copy the content of /xoops_lib to whatever directory you keep it on the server now (it should be your current XOOPS_TRUST_PATH directory), then delete the /xoops_lib directory. There can NOT be two directories with the content of /xoops_lib
3. If you have Protector previously installed, open the "mainfile.php" file , and remove the Pre-check and Post-check lines (if they exist):

    include XOOPS_TRUST_PATH.'/modules/protector/include/precheck.inc.php' ;
    include XOOPS_TRUST_PATH.'/modules/protector/include/postcheck.inc.php' ;

4. If you're upgrading from XOOPS 2.4.x, make the file /include/license.php writeable (permission 0777 on Linux)
5. Access /upgrade/ with a browser, and follow the instructions
6. Follow the instructions to update your database
7. Delete the "upgrade" folder from your server
8. Update the "system" module from the modules administration interface. Other modules, especially "Profile" and "Protector" are recommended to update as well

Upgrading from XOOPS 2.0.* above 2.0.14 and 2.2.* (using the full package)

0. Unpack the archive to your LOCAL computer (e.g. PC) in a temporary directory.
1. Move the "upgrade" folder inside the "htdocs" folder (it's been kept out as it's not needed for full installs) on your local computer
2. Delete htdocs/mainfile.php, htdocs/install/, htdocs/cache/, htdocs/template_c/, htdocs/themes/ and htdocs/uploads/ from the "htdocs" folder on your LOCAL computer
    * if you have created XOOPS_TRUST_PATH folder on your server, copy the content of /xoops_lib to that directory, and delete /xoops_lib from the "htdocs" folder on your LOCAL computer
3. Upload the content of the /htdocs folder on your LOCAL computer over your existing files on your server
4. For security considerations, you are encouraged to move directories xoops_lib (for XOOPS libraries) and xoops_data (for XOOPS data) out of Document Root, and change the folder names.
5. Make the directory of xoops_data/ writable; Create and make the directories of xoops_data/caches/, xoops_data/caches/xoops_cache/, xoops_data/caches/smarty_cache/ and xoops_data/caches/smarty_compile/ writable (permission 0777 on Linux).
6. Ensure the server can write to mainfile.php (permission 0777 on Linux)
7. If you have Protector previously installed, open the "mainfile.php" file , and remove the Pre-check and Post-check lines (if they exist):

    include XOOPS_TRUST_PATH.'/modules/protector/include/precheck.inc.php' ;
    include XOOPS_TRUST_PATH.'/modules/protector/include/postcheck.inc.php' ;

8. Access /upgrade/ with a browser, and follow the instructions
9. Follow the instructions to update your database
10. Write-protect mainfile.php again (permission 0444 on Linux)
11. Delete the "upgrade" folder from your server
12. Update the "system" module from the modules administration interface, other modules are recommended to update as well


Upgrading from any XOOPS ranging from 2.0.7 to 2.0.13.2 (using the full package):

0. Unpack the archive to your LOCAL computer (e.g. PC) in a temporary directory.
1. Move the "upgrade" folder inside the "htdocs" folder on your LOCAL computer (it's been kept separate as it's not needed for full installs)
2. Delete htdocs/mainfile.php, htdocs/install/, htdocs/cache/, htdocs/template_c/, htdocs/themes/ and htdocs/uploads/ from the "htdocs" folder on your LOCAL computer
    * if you have created XOOPS_TRUST_PATH folder on your server, copy the content of /xoops_lib to that directory, and delete /xoops_lib from the "htdocs" folder on your LOCAL computer
3. Upload the content of the htdocs folder on your LOCAL computer over your existing files on your server
4. Delete the following folders and files from your server (they belong to an old version):
    * class/smarty/core
    * class/smarty/plugins/resource.db.php
5. Ensure the server can write to mainfile.php (permission 0777 on Linux)
6. If you have Protector previously installed, open the "mainfile.php" file , and remove the Pre-check and Post-check lines (if they exist):

    include XOOPS_TRUST_PATH.'/modules/protector/include/precheck.inc.php' ;
    include XOOPS_TRUST_PATH.'/modules/protector/include/postcheck.inc.php' ;

7. For security considerations, you are encouraged to move directories xoops_lib (for XOOPS libraries) and xoops_data (for XOOPS data) out of document root, or even change the folder names.
8. Make the directory of xoops_data/ writable; Create and make the directories of xoops_data/caches/, xoops_data/caches/xoops_cache/, xoops_data/caches/smarty_cache/ and xoops_data/caches/smarty_compile/ writable (permission 0777 on Linux).
9. Access /upgrade/ with a browser, and follow the instructions
10. Write-protect mainfile.php again (permission 0444 on Linux)
11. Delete the "upgrade" folder from your server
12. Update the "system" module from the modules administration interface, other modules are recommended to update as well

Upgrading a non UTF-8 site:
UTF-8 encoding has been introduced into XOOPS 2.3 as default charset. However, there might be some problems with converting existing websites from non UTF-8 charset to UTF-8.
Before there is a good enough solution for this conversion, following settings are recommended when you upgrade an existing website if you are not an experienced user:
 - Select "Do not change" option in "Database character set and collation" step during upgrade process
 - Modify /languages/yourlanguage/global.php to use existing _CHARSET value if it has been changed to UTF-8 in your new global.php file as [code]define('_CHARSET', 'UTF-8');[/code]


Upgrading XOOPS Editors:
In the XOOPS package, there are four Editors included: dhtmltextarea and textarea for plain text, CKeditor and TinyMCE for WYSIWYG HTML.
There are six additional WYSIWYG Editors available: FCKeditor, Koivi, NiceEdit, Wymeditor, Xinha, and Spaw2 that you can download from XOOPS SourceForge (https://sourceforge.net/projects/xoops/files/XOOPS%20Editors/)
Since there are some directory structure changes in both fckeditor and tinymce editors, you are recommended to remove existent editors before uploading the new additors.
And if you are using FCKeditor for modules, please modify module specific configs following the files in /fckeditor/modules/, especially if you use "Article" module.


Debug information display level
-----------------------------------

Since XOOPS 2.3.1 debug information display level is enabled as a temporary solution for 2.3* to show debug information to different level of users: to all users, to members or to admins only.
The configuration can be set in /xoops_data/configs/xoopsconfig.php
A new debug information tools will be available for 2.4 using FireBug (see http://tinyurl.com/nmnjdp)



Files integrity check
-----------------------------------

The full XOOPS package is released with a script able to check if all the system files have been correctly uploaded to the server. To use it, follow these instructions:

   1. Upload the checksum.php and checksum.md5 files located in the XOOPS package root to your XOOPS server folder (putting them next to mainfile.php).
   2. Execute checksum.php with your browser
   3. If necessary, re-upload the missing or corrupted system files
   4. Remove checksum.php and checksum.md5 from your server


Modules
-----------------------------------

This release contains only the "system-related modules". You are invited to browse the XOOPS modules repository to if you need additional functionality. Note: as a new repository is being built, the current repository is not up-to-date, PLEASE VISIT INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPERS' WEBSITES TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE USING LATEST VERSION OF MODULES.


How to contribute
-----------------------------------
Bug report: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=41586&atid=430840
Patch and enhancement: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=41586&atid=430842
Feature design: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=41586&atid=430843
Release announcement: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xoops-announcement


XOOPS Development Team
June 19th, 2010 