Team Textpattern is pleased to announce the release of Textpattern 4.9.0 beta.1, available for immediate download.

Beta releases are made available for testing as we approach the production-grade release of Textpattern. We appreciate real-world feedback from Textpattern testers, hackers, and enthusiasts before we make Textpattern 4.9.0 generally available as a production release.

Overview

Textpattern 4.9.0 is a feature release with support for PHP 8.4.0+, new functionality, security enhancements, general improvements and bug fixes.

Textpattern 4.9.0 beta.1 is the first beta release of this release process. We expect to release one or more additional beta releases as we approach the production release.

We expect to make Textpattern 4.9.0 available in December 2024. This will follow feedback from beta releases and the general availability release of PHP 8.4.0, scheduled for November 2024.

As with any software update, please ensure you verify working backups of Textpattern sites you are modifying before undertaking any upgrades.

Download

You can download Textpattern from textpattern.com or GitHub. Both locations provide the same files, along with checksums for validating your download.

To take advantage of Textpattern’s multi-site capabilities, please download the .tar.gz archive as it includes the multi-site scaffold.

From textpattern.com

You can download Textpattern 4.9.0 beta.1 from textpattern.com using the following links,

From GitHub

Changes

Headline changes include:

  • Minimum system requirements increased to PHP 5.6 & MySQL 5.5 (PHP 8.2+ & MySQL 8.0+ recommended).
  • Support for PHP 8.2, PHP 8.3.1+ and PHP 8.4.0+.
  • SVG image support.
  • PHPMailer for third-party SMTP delivery.
  • Improvements to plugin upload and management.

A longer list of changes can be found at GitHub in the Textpattern HISTORY.txt.

We are particularly interested in feedback on these areas:

  • User experience with Textpattern on PHP 8.4.0 beta releases & release candidates.
  • Compatibility and usability with end-of-life’d PHP releases, factoring in the Textpattern system requirements.
  • Usability of the new tag attributes (refer to the Textpattern HISTORY.txt for details).
  • Any unexpected issues appearing in the front-side of your Textpattern sites.
  • Any unexpected issues shown in admin-side Diagnostics.

We have a dedicated support thread for Textpattern 4.9.0 beta.1 feedback where Textpattern users, experts and developers will collate and address feedback. We are grateful for all feedback, even a confirmation that your upgrade went smoothly and no issues arose. We maintain Textpattern issues at GitHub if you would like further insight into where we’re heading with this release and future work.

Thank you for your interest in Textpattern!