The team is super excited to announce the first alpha release for 4.1 with support for Drupal 7, Drupal 6 (yes it is backwards compatible!!!), Joomla 1.7, and for the very first time integration with Wordpress (wohoooo!!!).

Please remember this is an ALPHA release and it should NOT be used on production sites - however, we  strongly encourage everyone upgrade a copy of your current site(s) on a test server and let us know about any bugs or problems.
 

You can also test drive the release on each platform using the public sandboxes:

• CiviCRM 4.1 on Drupal 7
• CiviCRM 4.1 on Drupal 6
• CiviCRM 4.1 on Joomla 1.7
• CiviCRM 4.1 on Wordpress

Please spend some time running through your critical workflows on these sandboxes, and report any bugs or issues on the release testing forum board.

What's new?

Here's a quick list of some of the cool new features and improvements in this release:

• Personal Campaign Pages for events - CRM-8534
• Scheduled Reminders for Events - CRM-8669
• Social networking plugins (Facebook "like", Tweet ...) for event and contribution pages - CRM-8737
• Support for case custom fields - CRM-8508
• Simplified Administrator menus - CRM-9059
• Assign multiple contact subtypes and change subtypes  - CRM-8357
• Consolidate CiviCRM Cron to provide a single interface for configuring the automated scripts- CRM-8358

Want to learn more? Check out the complete list of new and improved functionality on the issue tracker.

Step up and help out!

The moment of releasing CiviCRM 4.1alpha1 is a great occasion to get involved in CiviCRM community. There are many ways you can help make this release better and bug free.
 

• Log in to the one of the sandboxes and try out the features you or your clients use regularly. If you find a problem, first check the open issues list on the issue tracker to see if it's already been reported. If not, please report it on the appropriate forum board. Remember that sandbox data is periodically reset.
• Download the tarball and upgrade a copy of your site to 4.1 - let us know if you encounter any problems. This is an especially valuable contribution since we need to have the upgrade process tested on different sets of data. After you've done this, play around with your favorite features, with your local data. Problems appearing? Use the CiviCRM 4.1 release testing board on the forums to discuss problems and find answers!
   
• If you're a developer and have PHP skills, we strongly encourage you to develop and attach a code patch AND a unit test along with any bug you report through our issue tracker. Ping us on IRC if you need help figuring out how to do this.

Downloads

You can download the release from SourceForge - select from the civicrm-latest section. The filenames include the 4.1alpha1 labels, e.g. civicrm-4.1alpha1-drupal.tar.gz or civicrm-4.1.alpha1-joomla.tar.gz or civicrm-4.1.alpha1-wordpress.tar.gz. Make sure you're downloading the correct version: for Drupal or Joomla or Wordpress.

New Installations

If you are installing CiviCRM 4.1alpha1 from scratch, please use the corresponding automated installer instructions:

• Install CiviCRM 4.1 on Drupal 7
• Install CiviCRM 4.1 on Drupal 6
• Install CiviCRM 4.1 on Joomla 1.7
• Install CiviCRM 4.1 on Wordpress

Upgrading to 4.1.alpha1

The procedure for upgrading is described in following documents:

• Upgrade Drupal 7 / CiviCRM 4.0 Sites to 4.1
• Upgrade Drupal 6 / CiviCRM 3.x sites to 4.1
• Upgrade Joomla Sites to 4.1

We will continue to include automated upgrades for subsequent alpha releases of 4.1 - so you should be able to upgrade your test site easily over the course of the release cycle.

Contributors

Community support and engagement is the force that sustains and drives CiviCRM forward. This release would not have been possible without the incredible contributions of these people and organizations:

Adam Wight, Andrew Harris, Andrew Perry, Alice Aguilar, Andre Gurgel, Brian Shaugnessy, Coleman Watts, Dave D, Dave Moreton, Eileen McNaughton, Erik Brower, Erik Hommel, Henry Bennett, Jamie McClelland, Jim Taylor, Jonathan Mark, Joe Murray, Marianela Zucotti Bozzano, Michael McAndrew, Steve Colson, Stuart Gaston, Tim Otten, Tom Kirkpatrick, Xavier Dutoit.

AGH Strategies, Amigos Library Services, Association for Learning Technology, Attendee Management, Benton Consulting, Circle Interactive, CivicActions, Community Builders, EE-atWork, Fuzion (NZ), Giant Rabbit, Kindling Trust, Korlon, International Mountain Biking Association, International Society for Bayesian Analysis, Josiesque Designs, Michigan Parents for Schools, New York State Senate, Nonprofit Association of Oregon, Nonprofit Solutions, Powered by Action, Progressive Technology Project, Resolutions Northwest, River Pool at Beacon, Rooty Hollow, San Francisco Baykeeper, Scotland's Colleges, Switchback, System Seed, Tech to the People, The San Francisco Orff-Schulwerk, Third Sector Design, Voluntary Action Westminster, Vpod Schweiz, Woven.