Team Textpattern is pleased to announce the release of Textpattern CMS 4.8.3, available for immediate download and deployment.
Following on from the recent Textpattern 4.8.2 announcement, we present Textpattern 4.8.3 with patches and bug fixes for issues arising after release. These fixes focus on plugins, with a nod to further tweaks to the Textpattern user interface and experience. We recommend administrators managing Textpattern sites using third-party plugins, especially those from long-established plugin authors, to use Textpattern 4.8.3 instead of Textpattern 4.8.2.
In addition to the plugin-centric fixes, we have included a small number of functionality corrections and tweaks. The virtual cherry on the top is the new ‘loading’ attribute for single-image tags (<txp:article_image />, <txp:image /> and <txp:thumbnail />).
As with any Textpattern upgrade, please refer to the accompanying release notes to ensure you understand the changes made.
We continue to work toward Textpattern 4.9, which focuses on overhauling existing functionality, along with requested improvements and other finishing touches. We hope to bring you more information about what Textpattern 4.9 will include as we get closer to release.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this patch release with reporting & resolving bugs, providing & improving language translations and overall enhancements to the Textpattern ecosystem. We’re grateful to all contributors offering us their expertise, time, attention, words, donations, signal boosting, evangelism and other activities.
Textpattern’s infrastructure and continued development is kindly supported by DigitalOcean, 1Password and BrowserStack. We are grateful for their ongoing involvement and support for Textpattern and its community. Thank you.
A ‘hello!’ or ‘thanks!’ helps us to gauge how far Textpattern has travelled around the world. There is no spyware, adware, user tracking or other junk in Textpattern. We consciously work to keep it fast, nimble and ready for pretty much anything you can throw at it.
You can show your appreciation by sponsoring Textpattern on GitHub. Alternatively, you can donate to Textpattern developers with PayPal.
Download
You can download Textpattern from textpattern.com using the following links, or from the GitHub repository directly. Please take a moment to ‘star’ Textpattern’s repositories on GitHub if they are of interest to you.
To take advantage of Textpattern’s multi-site capabilities, please download the .tar.gz archive as it includes the multi-site scaffold.
File download
File download
The Textpattern demo has been updated to offer Textpattern 4.8.3 test drives in complete safety. The demo sites are rebuilt every few hours using the Textpattern auto-installer.
System requirements
Textpattern 4.8 requires a minimum of PHP 5.5 as part of the system requirements, though a vendor-supported PHP version is highly recommended (PHP 7.3 and PHP 7.4 have active and ongoing support at the time of writing).
If you are upgrading Textpattern from a version prior to 4.8.0, please note the SimpleXML PHP extension is required. Most PHP web servers have this built-in and enabled already so you should be good to go. Check with your web host if you have any doubts.
Please note: we are intending to increase the minimum PHP version for Textpattern 4.9.
Installation and upgrade
As with any Textpattern release, please ensure you log out of the admin side prior to upgrade, perform and verify a full site backup (database and files, including any uploads), and refer to the README.txt file in the download archives for detailed instructions. The vast majority of Textpattern upgrades are smooth and take place without incident, but on the rare occasion something does go astray it’s preferable to safely restore the previous known-good version from your backup and troubleshoot any issues while your site continues to be available.
What’s new in this release?
The Textpattern 4.8.3 HISTORY.txt outlines changes for this and previous Textpattern releases, along with their respective release dates. We recommend you read the list of changes to understand how this may affect your current sites, especially if you’re upgrading from older versions. Please note that while upgrades from very old releases of Textpattern are viable, you may need to perform a multi-stage upgrade.
If you require clarification on any aspect of the release notes, we recommend you seek advice before starting a site upgrade. The Textpattern support forum is an excellent place to start, and the Textpattern user documentation is regularly updated with examples, explanations and background information.
We have a forum thread dedicated to Textpattern 4.8.3 feedback. We gather field reports from fellow Textpattern administrators and users that may assist you with upgrading.
The relatively small list of changes made in Textpattern 4.8.3 includes these key items:
Plugins
- Fixed: A bug in 4.8.2 that can break some legacy plugins (thanks, Yiannis).
User interface (UI) and user experience (UX)
- Fixed: Improved upgrade path for Textpattern prior to version 4.5.0.
- Fixed: Correctly label ‘Allow commenter images in comments’ pref.
- Fixed: Reload private prefs on preferences save (thanks, phiw13).
- Fixed: More notifications on list panels if there were no assets recorded.
- Added: Instantly refresh admin theme on change.
Themes
- Changed: Theme styles are now optional.
Tags
- Added: ‘loading’ attribute for
<txp:article_image />,<txp:image />and<txp:thumbnail />tags.
Internationalisation (i18n)
- Added: Latest translations. Thank you to all translators for your hard work.
Libraries and other internals
- PrismJS 1.21.0.
Further notes
If you find anything not working correctly or wish to propose improvements, please file a report on GitHub. There are templates for feature requests and bug reports.
We hope you enjoy this release and it serves you, your sites and clients well!
