Introduction
The Kunena team has now released Kunena 1.7.0 as a native Joomla extension for J! 1.5.23, J! 1.6.6 and J! 1.7.0. This is a security release and replacement† for Kunena 1.5 and 1.6 and all users are recommended to upgrade to Kunena 1.7.0. Backup and testing are strongly recommended! K 1.7.0 makes all previous releases of Kunena obsolete and all users of prior Kunena releases are urged to upgrade as soon as possible.
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Kunena 1.7.0 announces the end of support for Kunena 1.5. |
Support for K 1.5 will cease one month after the release of K 1.7.
In order to achieve interoperability with all of J! 1.5, J! 1.6 and J! 1.7, several important matters in Kunena have been attended to before the next major release of Kunena 2.0 later this year. Some users of third-party templates written for older versions of Kunena will find that their templates may not work with this latest release because changes were necessary in order to fit with the new J! 1.6/1.7 CMS. In particular, many of the third-party templates written for K 1.6 in its early stages will cause problems. If in doubt, please contact the authors(s) responsible for those things.
At this time all previously-released add-on extensions for Kunena have been updated and will need to be separately installed. As with all other releases, K 1.7.0 is available for download on the download page.
Highlights
- Single package for Joomla 1.5, Joomla 1.6 and Joomla 1.7 (specifically, J! 1.5.23; J! 1.6.6 and J! 1.7.0).
- Security Fix: JomSocial activity stream integration displays hidden topics to all users.
- Security Fix: Only global moderators should be able to ban users.
- Joomla 1.7 Access Level Groups support for categories (works also in J! 1.5 and J! 1.6).
- Joomla 1.7 Access Control for component administration.
- Joomla 1.7 Multi-Language support for Kunena menu.
- Build-in reCAPTCHA support with some new features. Replaces J! 1.5 only CAPTCHA plugin we used before.
- Subscriptions feature can now be configured to send emails to multiple receivers. Improves performance and helps to avoid email flooding limits.
- Fix naming conflicts with Nooku Framework.
- Fix a bug: Blocked users are getting subscription emails from public categories.
- Fix a bug: Cannot log out if Community Builder integration is turned on.
- .. and many other bug fixes.
- Announces end-of-life for Kunena 1.6 and end of support for Kunena 1.5.
Find the full online README: Here
Find the full online CHANGELOG: Here
System Requirements
Joomla 1.5.23, Joomla 1.6.6 or Joomla 1.7.0 Minimum Version Required (Mootools 1.2.5)
Kunena 1.7 does not use jQuery and requires MooTools 1.2.4+. With the release of J! 1.5.23, J! 1.6.6 and J! 1.7.0, the Mootools system library has been updated for Joomla compatibility with the latest web browsers Firefox 6 and Internet Explorer 9.
Because of the XSS security vulnerability identified by the Joomla team, if people are using J! 1.6 and cannot update to J! 1.7.0 they should use J! 1.6.6.
PHP 5.2.3
Kunena 1.7 requires PHP 5.2.3 or higher. In general we currently recommend PHP 5.3.6 due to its maturity.
MySQL 5
Kunena in general and especially version 1.7.x relies on advanced SQL features introduced in MySQL 5.0.x. MySQL 4.x is no longer support even though Joomla 1.5 itself can be run on certain versions of MySQL 4.x. The main difference is the amount of database workload generated by a forum component compared to the basic CMS functionality.
Third party components requirements
If you want to integrate JomSocial, Community Builder, uddeIM or Alpha User Points with Kunena, you must check with the developers of those extensions to ensure that you meet their requirements. The following list is only a guide and is subject to change without notice.
- JomSocial 2.x.x
- Community Builder 1.4 or 1.7 (J! 1.7)
- UddeIm 2.x
- Alpha User Points 1.5.12 (J! 1.5.x); 1.6.3 (J! 1.6/1.7)
While we will do all that we can to make sure that Kunena continues to work with these extensions listed above, there are no guarantees that future releases of those products will continue to be compatible with this release of Kunena.
Third party ACL components requirements
If you want use third party ACL components with Kunena 1.7.0 and Joomla! 1.5, you may use the following:
- ArtofUser 1.1.1
- JXtended Control 1.0.7 (site is down)
Downloading Kunena
Find the latest installation package files here: View Packages
We use the power of Github as our public source code repository. We encourage all users and open source developers to help develop fixes, features and enhancements to the existing code base. If you are interested in contributing, please provide a patch or enhanced branch and we will be happy to consider it for inclusion in the main code branch (quality and feature completeness permitting).
Find the GIT source code repository here: Browse source code
The only official Kunena distributions are available from the links above or directly at www.kunena.org. There are currently no officially endorsed alternative download mirrors supported; users are encouraged to visit www.kunena.org for the latest version of all available Kunena packages.
Compatibility with Third-party Kunena Templates
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Templates designed for Kunena 1.5.x will not work with Kunena 1.7.0 due to major changes in the code and structure. Some third-party templates developed for older versions of K 1.6.x may also be incompatible and result in all functions of Kunena being available. If in doubt, please contact the author(s) responsible for building your Kunena template. |
Compatibility with Third-party Kunena Modules
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Kunena 1.7.0 is not compatible with modules or plug-ins designed for previous versions and we recommend you uninstall all Kunena 1.5 extensions before installing or upgrading. |
Kunena 1.7.x now provides an updated API for easily creating modules or plug-ins. The Kunena team has created a few new plug-ins and modules which leverage the new API and can be used with K 1.6 and K 1.7. These extensions can be found in the Kunena Extension Directory. If in doubt, please contact the authors(s) responsible for those things.
Installing or Upgrading Kunena
Be sure your setup meets or exceeds the minimum Technical Requirements or the install/upgrade process will fail. If it fails, your data will be left untouched.
To install Kunena, make sure you read our Installation Instructions before beginning. To upgrade Kunena from previous versions (including FireBoard), make sure you read the Upgrade Instructions.
The Kunena installer now handles both installs and upgrades of existing installations without the need for user intervention, manual SQL execution, or migration procedures. It also keeps a detailed log of all Kunena versions installed on your site in order to perform incremental upgrades as necessary. This means that a site administrator doesn't have to worry about complicated installation or upgrade procedures.
We stress the importance of backups before and after any upgrade process. Never perform an install or upgrade without a full backup.
† Background information about the introduction of this version of Kunena was outlined in Plans for Kunena 1.7.