CBACK Forum v4.13 released

CBACK Forum gets an update to version 4.13 and is now available with every license purchase. Existing customers with an active service package receive the new version free of charge via the client panel. Expired service packages can also be easily renewed there. Developers will find the changelogs for template and language files in the CBACK Community as usual, so that their own template or language packages can be adapted to the new version more easily. As with the last update, there were extensive technical improvements under the hood this time as well, especially to fully and smoothly support PHP environments running on version 8.4. For this reason, the minimal PHP system requirement for CF4 has been increased to PHP version 7.4. Generally, a PHP version greater than 8.1 is recommended, as it offers even more performance and better security. Hosters are currently updating to new PHP and MySQL versions quite quickly, which is why we highly recommend all our users to update to the latest CF4 version now. In the course of all the technical improvements, we also changed the branch of the Smarty template engine: The library-version jumps from the previous 4.x branch to Smarty version 5.x now.

Here are some highlights of some new features in CF v4.13

New Layout for Profiles: More Individuality for Your Community

A forum thrives on the diversity of its users. And the profile gives the opportunity to express one's own individuality. With CF v4.13, we have removed the rarely used "second avatar", and created the option to upload custom profile banners instead. These are used in the profile header and also your own user control panel and allow for a better creative expression. With transparency effects, they integrate well into any forum layout and offer new ways to express yourself in addition to the well known avatar. The arrangement of various profile elements has also been improved to ensure a chic appearance and better overview on every device.

Registration of New Accounts: Now Possible via OTP

At the request of our users, the registration of a new account in the forum, in addition to the already known functions like "direct activation", "email activation link" and "activation by admin" we added the possibility to verify registrations via OTP / one-time code. In this variant, a one-time confirmation code is sent to the email address used for a new registration, with which the registration and thus the correctness of the entered email address must be confirmed. In contrast to the "email activation link" variant, no new account is created until the confirmation was successful. This reduces "dead accounts" on the one hand, and on the other hand, this variant also offers more data protection. You can also combine multiple methods, if required: For example validation via OTP but additionally an Admin-activation. Naturally, CF4's usual security mechanisms are also active in this process, for example, a time limit to prevent email spam through OTP codes, as well as brute-force protection to automatically invalidate registrations after multiple incorrect codes.

OTP-API for Our Developers

The generation and securing of one-time codes is not only used during registration. We have made the functions for automatic generation, sending, and validation of OTP codes available within our Security-Class as an API. This makes it possible for plugin authors to easily use one-time codes and code validations in plugins, if required. Regardless weather users are logged out or logged in.

A New Mailing System

In this version, the system for sending emails has been completely replaced with a new and better one. This not only supports individual SMTP configurations with special ports, but also various types of encryption. Email sending (whether internally or via SMTP) additionally has a better compatibility with stricter server environments and offers broader support for various email clients. In addition, we have worked on sending methods and now offer significantly more performance with significantly less server load, especially for large communities, particularly when sending bulk emails (e.g., for notifications regarding subscribed topics).

Notifications: Now Way More Comfortable

In this version, we also optimized our notification API and the notification center. Developers can now use an additional parameter for notification_push to insert an action link. This now reliably allows notifications that have been clicked to be automatically marked as read. Furthermore, the counters, e.g., when quickly marking as read via AJAX, now work in real-time. This also applies to unread posts. We also updated our CBACK UserMentions plugin so that it uses the latest version of the notification system and makes operation more comfortable.

All other fixes, new features, and optimizations can be found in the following changelog:

Have fun with the new version!