2.1 Alpha 2 - Standalone Version and Multi-Language Features

The team has rolled a second 2.1 Alpha distribution with lots of fixes and improvements based on feedback from our heroic alpha testers out there, and our ongoing internal QA blast. We've gone through verification of almost 800 issue-tracker items - with each team member verifying a set of issues in an area where they did NOT do the coding. This process has turned up quite a few edge case issues - and the release is definitely getting more solid every day! Alpha 2 is available for download, AND to try out on our sandbox site. We want to make sure that the upgrade to 2.1 is as painless and error-free as possible. This can only happen if YOU test the upgrade process against a copy of your 2.0 data.

» 2.1 Installation and Upgrade Instructions have been added to Install section of the wiki
 

Standalone CiviCRM

Wes Morgan and the folks at USPIRG have been working with us to get the the 2.1 Standalone version "ready for prime time." If your organization is committed to a CMS other than Drupal or Joomla AND / OR would prefer to run CiviCRM without CMS integration (for back-office use only, for example) - then now is the time to check-out CiviCRM Standalone - using the new automated standalone installer.
 

Multi-language Installs

With sponsorship from Google's Summer of Code - Piotr Szotkowski has implemented powerful multi-language and language switching functionality for 2.1. You can learn about the design by reading Piotr's blog. AND, Starting with Alpha 2, you can "try this at home". Basic steps for getting started with a multi-language install are:

• Install or upgrade to Alpha 2
• Login (as admin) and go to Administer CiviCRM » Global Settings » Localization
• Check Enable Multiple Languages at the bottom of this form and click Save
• Go back to Localization screen and check Available Lanaguages (probably English). Then select a second language to add. Click Save.
• Go back to Localization one more time and check you newly available language. (We will be smoothing out this worklow a bit over the next few 2.1 alpha / beta releases.)
• Go to CiviCRM Home - and you should see "Select Language" box in the upper right corner. Use this to switch between languages OR you can add lcMessages parameter to the URL (query string) on any page. EXAMPLE: If Spanish is an available language on your site - add &lcMessages=es_ES. (The language switcher element will be added to other key spots in CiviCRM in a coming alpha.)
• Now the fun starts... Go to Administer CiviCRM and edit the Title, Introductory text, etc for an existing Online Contribution page. Replace the English values with Spanish versions (or whatever language you've switched to). Saving these values will create a language specific version of the Contribution page. You can do the same for your Profile, Events, and custom fields.
• When a constituent accesses your site - they can be sent to the appropriate language version of both front-end and back-ofice pages! EXAMPLE: Link visitors (non-authenticated) to a Spanish version of your Online Contribution page: http:///civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1&lcMessages=es_ES

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 2.1 features - or you're seeing a problem and you're not sure if it's a bug - please post your issue to the 2.1 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 2.1 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.