The first beta version of Geeklog 2.1.2 is now available for download.

This version of Geeklog supports PHP 7 and the default install of MySQL 5.7. The minimum requirements have changed slightly and now are:

• PHP 5.3.3 or higher
• MySQL 4.1.2 or higher (MySQL 5 recommended)
• Postgresql 9.1.7 or later

We have also dropped support of MSSQL and have removed the Professional and Professional_CSS themes from the install.

New features and fixes in this version include:

• [Feature] Added Language override feature
• [Feature] Added an Admin page for comments maintenance
• [Feature] Added URL-routing feature which enables you to use public_html/index.php as a pseudo-front controller
• [Feature] Added an ability to change article template file with the topic
• [Feature] Added GitHub OAuth Login
• [Feature] Added $_CONF['theme_oauth_icons'] option to allow theme to use own OAuth icons
• [Feature] Reduced block lists in Block Manager
• [Feature] Added ability for Geeklog to detect device type (mobile or computer) of visitor
• [Feature] Blocks can display based on visitor device type
• [Feature] Geeklog Database Backup now works without using a external program to backup
• [Feature] Re-factored Geeklog install
• [Feature] Geeklog Install files can now be deleted on successful install or upgrade
• [Feature] New Denim Curve them which replicates the older Modern Curve theme. The Denim Curve theme is a child theme of the Denim theme
• [Bug] Geeklog can now handle emoji icons and 4-byte characters. They can either be removed from the input or saved (depending on website setup)
• [Bug] Daily Digest URLs in articles are converted into absolute URLs.
• [Bug] Topic Ids and Names reduced to 75 characters to support utf8mb4_xxx_ci MySQL character sets.

... as well as a lot of other improvements and bug fixes. The complete list can be found on Github and in the history text file located in the docs directory of this release.

We would also like to put a request out there for translators. If you speak and write another language besides English or Japanese and would like to contribute to Geeklog please join the geeklog-translations mailing list. Translating Geeklog isn't complicated. Instructions can be found on the Geeklog Wiki or simply ask on the translation list.

We would like to encourage you to download this beta version, try it out, and give us your feedback. This is a beta version and it may still contain bugs. If you find any please report them in our Bug Tracker on GitHub. Depending on what issues are found the development team hopes to have the final release of Geeklog 2.1.2 out early in the new year.

Remember if you would like to chat with any of the community one of the best place to reach us is on Gitter in the Geeklog room.

The Geeklog DokuWiki Plugin v1.9.0 is now available for download.

The DokuWiki Integration Plugin for Geeklog provides an integration with your Geeklog v2.1.1+ website. This plugin is based on DokuWiki 2016-06-26a "Elenor of Tsort", ” which is the latest release at the time of this writing.

If you find any bugs or wish to request a feature, please add them to our issues tracker.

As we get ready for the next version of Geeklog (either version 2.1.2 or 2.2.0) support for PHP 7 is being discussed. The current version of Geeklog (2.1.1) requires at least PHP 5.2.0. The code for the next version of Geeklog and the core plugins supports PHP 7.0.x but Pear and a few other 3rd party libraries included with Geeklog do not. To upgrade these libraries so they support PHP 7 we must raise the minimum PHP version required to run Geeklog to 5.6.x.

A poll has been created so we can find out from the community what PHP version they are currently using and what version they can upgrade too. This will help us decide better what the new minimum version well be and how important PHP 7 is to the community.

To give you an ideal on the state of the development of PHP itself, support for PHP version 5.3.x and 5.4.x has been out of development for a while now and PHP 5.5.x is currently only receiving security fixes to the end of the year. Support for PHP version 5.6.x will continue to receive fixes until the end of 2018.

To help us decide what version of PHP should be a requirement for Geeklog please participate in our poll: