Oxwall 1.8.4 released

Oxwall 1.8.4 is available for download immediately.

All details about the release can be found in our beta highlight (complete changelog can be found here).

Important for users: If you are running Oxwall of any previous version, you are encouraged to wait until the auto-update prompt appears in your admin area. Before you attempt it, make sure to:

  • Back up your website. Seriously, folks, better safe than sorry;
  • Run the platform update first, only after that run all available plugin updates;
  • Run theme update also only after the platform update.

Thanks,
Oxwall team.

Oxwall 1.8.4 beta

Greetings!

Oxwall 1.8.4 beta is out! This is a release with important backend improvements for SEO and update reliability. In particular:

SEO

  • A convenient way to set meta info for individual pages;
  • Open Graph tags support;
  • Canonical URL’s support;
  • Support for variables in meta info.

Sitemap

  • Automatic sitemap generation;
  • Individual plugin sitemap inclusion;
  • Configurable update period;
  • If the limits are exceeded, the platform divides the sitemap into several files.

Updates

  • When you try to update plugins, the platform will check if there’s a platform update and will encourage you to to do that first (this is a common reason for update failures);
  • When you try to update the platform, it will first check if you have necessary PHP version.

Complete changelog is here: developers.oxwall.com/1.8.4/CHANGELOG.txt

Oxwall 1.8.4 beta is available immediately for beta testers. All developers and designers are encouraged to test their items on the new release to ensure compatibility.

How to become an Oxwall beta tester: wiki.oxwall.com/dev:store:beta-testers

ATTENTION: This is a beta release which is unsuitable for applying on live websites, hence we do not provide any update tools. Please, wait for the official release – it will show up as the update button in your admin area.

The official Oxwall 1.8.4 release is scheduled for July 26.

Thanks for creating with us!
Oxwall team

Oxwall 1.8.3 released

Oxwall 1.8.3 is available for download immediately.

All details about the release can be found in our beta highlight (complete changelog can be found here).

Important for users: If you are running Oxwall of any previous version, you are encouraged to wait until the auto-update prompt appears in your admin area. Before you attempt it, make sure to:

  • Back up your website. Seriously, folks, better safe than sorry;
  • Run the platform update first, only after that run all available plugin updates;
  • Run theme update also only after the platform update.

Thanks,
Oxwall team.

Merging Oxwall.com and Oxwall.org

As you know, more than a month ago we introduced Oxwall.com — the supported Oxwall solution with the help from our friends at Skalfa.

The reasoning was simple — to stop confusing the majority of people coming to Oxwall. They want to launch their own community websites but do not know their way around technical aspects of that.

Now after a month it’s obvious that those who come to the livechat at Oxwall.com are still confused. Typical questions we get:

  • How is Oxwall.com different from Oxwall.org?
  • What is the difference between these 2 versions of Oxwall?
  • Can I buy this version and then install plugins from the .org version?

The thing is, Oxwall.org has always been (with mixed success) the destination for two types of audiences at once: some looking for a product, while others needed a platform. The introduction of Oxwall.com highlighted this discrepancy. Some people still think that Oxwall.org is a product destination and thus assume that there are free and commercial versions of Oxwall.

To counter that confusion with a natural next step, we will separate the two destinations. The former Oxwall.org will now become developers.oxwall.com. Oxwall.com will serve mainstream users who want product, developers.oxwall.com will serve developers and tech-savvy users who want platform. The site URL speaks for itself.

Goals

By making Oxwall.com the main destination for all things Oxwall we aim to achieve the following things:

1) Most people (those needing help) will be able to get it right away — see demo, features, ask simplest questions, buy the supported solution with free installation;

2) Those having special needs with custom projects will also be able to talk to the Oxwall.com team representatives;

3) Those who just want a free copy of Oxwall and know what to do with it, will click “Download” or “Developers” link;

4) Developers will just bookmark developers.oxwall.com for all platform-, repository- and store-related things.

Basic needs of the majority are covered right at the door, sophisticated needs of the minority are a click away.

Developers

By having a dedicated developers’ resource, we’ll be able to further optimize it as such. We are planning to:

1) Open up the Github repository for the community strategically (something that existed in a shadow form before), provide all necessary Oxwall repo instruments for contributions and feedback;

2) Implement StackExchange-like forum which is a proven superior formula for question-answer types of communities instead of free-form discussions;

3) Offer nightly build downloads for plugin developers and enthusiasts.

This will be possible without the risk of increasing confusion for non-developers and non tech-savvy users. Hopefully, this is going to serve both parts of the community better.

Blogs

From now on we will maintain both, the main blog (consumer-oriented, for product news), and developer blog devblog.oxwall.com (for platform news, beta releases and all things technical). You can expect these blogs to appeal to these separate types of audiences, removing the unnecessary confusion.

__

Open source projects start with communities but thrive on infrastructure. If the examples of Linux/RedHat or Drupal/Acquia are any indication, we need to make sure that both of our audiences are served well in their own distinct ways.

Since Oxwall project is past the stage of early adopters, we need to change to accommodate the needs of mainstream consumers. We strongly believe that this will help to reinvest more funds into Oxwall development, streamline serving developer community needs, and ultimately, create more quality sites built with Oxwall.

Oxwall 1.8.3 beta

Greetings!

Oxwall 1.8.3 beta is there! This is a maintenance release with which we did some platform and feature enhancements. Most notably:

  • We are starting a batch of SEO enhancements that will propagate through several releases and make Oxwall much more search engine friendly;
  • Security: anti-CSFR tokens for forms;
  • Blocked users feature improvement.

Complete changelog is here.

Oxwall 1.8.3 beta is available immediately for beta testers. All developers and designers are encouraged to test their items on the new release to ensure compatibility.

How to become an Oxwall beta tester: https://docs.oxwall.org/dev:store:beta-testers

ATTENTION: This is a beta release which is unsuitable for applying on live websites, hence we do not provide any update tools. Please, wait for the official release – it will show up as the update button in your admin area.

The official Oxwall 1.8.3 release is scheduled for May 17.

Thanks for creating with us!
Oxwall team

Introducing Oxwall.com

Greetings Oxwall users,

Today we are glad to announce that we’ve partnered with our friends at Skalfa (the original creators of Oxwall software) about launching Oxwall.com — a commercial solution aimed at people who need help with launching their community websites.

Since day one there always were users in the Oxwall community who couldn’t quite cut it in the true open source fashion — download the software, deploy it on their own server, troubleshoot incompatibilities, hunt for cues in the documentation, etc. The problem was always there, we realized that and even launched premium Oxwall support section. Still the problem didn’t go, people were coming in, asking the same novice questions and leaving.

So, we asked if Skalfa could do some kind of an “official” supported solution to help those people (who went away unserved before), while Oxwall Foundation could continue focusing on the platform development.

Skalfa LLC is a company best positioned for that, being our main friend, contributor and donor all these years. Having developed the first version of Oxwall, Skalfa is now back in the game, collaborating with us tighter than ever.

So, what’s changing?

Nothing. Oxwall.org (from Oxwall Foundation) continues to be what it is, focusing on Oxwall development. Oxwall platform is available as a free download, and some basic (mainly developer-oriented) help is offered at the forums.

Oxwall.com (from Skalfa LLC) is up and running and is welcoming people who need help with installation, custom development and additional commercial products and services. For example, Oxwall Starter package includes Skalfa’s solid portfolio of high demand Oxwall plugins.

I have a question…

Sure you do. You are welcome to visit Oxwall.com and talk to the support team in live chat. Check it out.


We hope that by providing the “official” support for Oxwall, Skalfa will help launch more real, living Oxwall sites. This alone is the most important factor of the Oxwall project growth.

Thanks,
Emil
Oxwall team

Oxwall 1.8.2 released

Oxwall 1.8.2 is available for download immediately.

All details about the release can be found in our beta highlight (complete changelog can be found here). You are now invited to explore this first release of 2016 and offer your feedback.

Important for users: If you are running Oxwall of any previous version, you are encouraged to wait until the auto-update prompt appears in your admin area. Before you attempt it, make sure to:

  • Back up your website. Seriously, folks, better safe than sorry;
  • Run the platform update first, only after that run all available plugin updates;
  • Run theme update also only after the platform update.

If you don’t want to perform the update yourself, check companies and contractors specializing in Oxwall support.

Thanks,
Oxwall team.

Oxwall 1.8.2 beta

Greetings!

Oxwall 1.8.2 beta lands today as we continue our journey through 2016. This is a release aimed at making the life of third party developers easier, as well as addressing some important backend issues. Most notably:

  • Oxwall plugins now support changelogs that will be displayed in the admin area before the update. Now it will be easier to understand what the update has for you. If you are a third party developer, here’s how to add a changelog to your plugin update: https://docs.oxwall.org/faq:how-to-add-changelog-to-updated-plugin
  • Commercial item validation mechanism is improved;
  • Oxwall now requires PHP 5.5 minimum.

Complete changelog is here.

Oxwall 1.8.2 beta is available immediately for beta testers. All developers and designers are encouraged to test their items on the new release to ensure compatibility.

How to become an Oxwall beta tester: https://docs.oxwall.org/dev:store:beta-testers

ATTENTION: This is a beta release which is unsuitable for applying on live websites, hence we do not provide any update tools. Please, wait for the official release – it will show up as the update button in your admin area.

The official Oxwall 1.8.2 release is scheduled for March 22.

Thanks for creating with us!
Oxwall team

Oxwall 1.8.1 released

Oxwall 1.8.1 is available for download immediately.

All details about the release can be found in our beta highlight (complete changelog can be found here). You are now invited to explore this first release of 2016 and offer your feedback.

Important for users: If you are running Oxwall of any previous version, you are encouraged to wait until the auto-update prompt appears in your admin area. Before you attempt it, make sure to:

  • Back up your website. Seriously, folks, better safe than sorry;
  • Run the platform update first, only after that run all available plugin updates;
  • Run theme update also only after the platform update.

If you don’t want to perform the update yourself, check companies and contractors specializing in Oxwall support.

Thanks,
Oxwall team.

Oxwall 1.8.1 beta

Greetings Oxwallers!

Oxwall 1.8.1 beta comes today as one of the first events of 2016. It’s a maintenance release that contains many improvements and fixes. Most notably:

  • New mobile theme (Simplicity);
  • Unlimited number of values for Single choice profile questions (finally!);
  • License key check for commercial items on install.

Complete changelog is here.

Oxwall 1.8.1 beta is available immediately for beta testers. All developers and designers are encouraged to test their items on the new release to ensure compatibility.

How to become an Oxwall beta tester: https://docs.oxwall.org/dev:store:beta-testers

ATTENTION: This is a beta release which is unsuitable for applying on live websites, hence we do not provide any update tools. Please, wait for the official release – it will show up as the update button in your admin area.

The official Oxwall 1.8.1 release is scheduled for January 12.

Thanks for creating with us!
Oxwall team