We are excited to announce that the initial Alpha release of 2.2 is now available for download, AND to try out on our sandbox site. This release includes several major new features:

• CiviCase - case management component with configurable workflows (learn more...).
• Personal Campaign Pages - Allow constituents to create and promote their own personal fundraising pages in order to drive traffic to your organization's online contribution pages (learn more...).
• Simplified CiviMail Requirements - PHP-based option to handle return channel (bounces, replies ...) - replaces AMAVIS and simplifies installation and server access requirements.

... and scores of improvements. Check out the 2.2 Roadmap for a good overview. Or you can review a complete listing of new features, improvements and bug fixes on the issue tracker.

We strongly encourage folks to download and test the alpha release and help improve the final product. You can contribute significantly to the project by testing the upgrade process against a copy of your 2.1 data, as well as running your regular tasks on an upgraded site.

Download

You can download CiviCRM 2.2 Alpha at the "civicrm_latest" download page. The filenames include the 2.2 Alpha label: civicrm-2.2.alpha…. Be sure and download the correct version for your CMS (Drupal or Joomla). For standalone installs, download the Drupal version. System requirements for 2.2 are the same as for 2.1: PHP 5.2.x, MySQL 5.x with INNODB enabled, Drupal 6.x OR Joomla 1.5.x.

New 2.2 Installations

If you are installing CiviCRM 2.2 from scratch, use the installation instructions linked below:

• Drupal Installation
• Joomla Installation
• Standalone Installation

Upgrading from 2.1 to 2.2 Alpha

If you are upgrading an existing 2.1 site (working with a copy of the site, of course), we have provided a browser-based database upgrade script. Test-driving the upgrade process with a copy of your live data is a great way to increase your karma. You help both your organization / clients AND the project as a whole by uncovering any issues with the upgrade - and the team will do our best to help you diagnose and fix any problems. We will provide browser-based upgrade scripts so you can easily upgrade your test site over the course of the 2.2 release cycle (alpha -> beta -> stable).

Instructions for upgrading are here:

• Drupal Upgrade
• Joomla Upgrade
• Standalone Upgrade

Reporting Issues and Bugs

We look forward to getting your feedback on the release in the coming days. If you have questions installing, upgrading and / or using 2.2 features - or you're seeing a problem and you're not sure if it's a bug - please post your issue to the 2.2 release testing section of the community forums. Include as many specifics as possible about the issue or question.

Bugs should be reported via our issue tracking system. Please select 2.2 in the ‘Affects Version’ dropdown. You will need to register as a user – this ensures that we can follow-up with you on your bug reports if necessary. Please ensure that the bug you’ve found is not reported already by checking the open issues listing.