CiviCRM 1.6: A Free and Open Source eCRM Solution

We are pleased to announce the latest release of CiviCRM – version 1.6.

Special thanks to the dedicated folks who contributed to this release by testing the alpha and beta revisions – and to everyone in the community who provided new ideas, feedback (especially critical feedback), and patches.

CiviCRM is the first open source and freely downloadable constituent relationship management solution. CiviCRM is web-based, internationalised, and designed specifically to meet the needs of advocacy, non-profit and non-governmental groups.

New to CiviCRM? Read more at CiviCRM.org

What’s New in 1.6?

This release includes powerful dynamic custom data features, along with an initial set of ‘desktop’ user interface features (using Ajax technology).

Specific highlights include:

• Configure custom fields for specific activity types, relationship types, etc.
• Find contacts ‘as you type’ (suggestive search)
• Show inline help by mousing over help icons (unclutters many screens)
• Find contacts created or modified within a date range and/or by a user
• Create customized batch update screens
• Search open activities
• Easier global configuration (most of the civicrm.settings.php file moved to Administer CiviCRM | Global Settings)
• CiviMail improvements (new features, upgraded AMaViS)

You can read the roadmap release summary here

…and see a complete listing of ALL (140+) new features, improvements and bug fixes here

Many of the additions and changes were heavily driven by your feedback and requests – and we hope they solve many more of your CRM requirements…

Demo

Test drive CiviCRM 1.6 on our demo site (login with user/password demo/demo): Drupal or Joomla

Download

You can download CiviCRM 1.6 on our SourceForge download page

New Installations

If you are installing CiviCRM 1.6 from scratch, you can use the following installation instructions: Drupal and Joomla.

Upgrading from 1.5

If you are upgrading an existing 1.5 site (working with a copy of the site, of course), we have provided a database upgrade script. Instructions for upgrading are here: Drupal and Joomla.

Reporting Issues and Bugs

We look forward to getting your feedback on the release in the coming days. Bugs should be reported via our bug tracking system (linked on the bottom of every page).

What’s Next

Planning for 1.7 is happening NOW. We are targeting a new Event Management component (CiviEvent) for 1.7.

We’ve also posted a draft ‘Candidate Features’ list on the wiki and look forward to your suggestions and feedback on that page.

Have a happy Christmas, Hanukkah, Hogswatchnight, Kwanzaa, Saturnalia, Yalda, Yule or whathever you happen to celebrate these days. :)