CiviCRM 5.40 Release

CiviCRM version 5.40.0 is now out and ready to download. This is a regular monthly release.

Upgrade now for the most stable CiviCRM experience: https://civicrm.org/download

Users of the CiviCRM Extended Security Releases (ESR) do not need to upgrade, as there are no ESR-specific bug-fixes or security issues at the moment. The current version of ESR is CiviCRM 5.39.x.

We are committed to keeping CiviCRM free and open, forever. We depend on your support to help make that happen. We thank all our partners, members and ESR subscribers, who are regular financial contributors. If you can, please take a few moments to donate.

What's new in CiviCRM 5.40

This version changes the database schema, has changes to the API, as well as the usual bugfixes and minor feature improvements.

• Interface: tags are now referenced to as just "tags", and not "tags (categories)". This could be seen in the navigation menu and in some other places. (20268)
• SearchKit: User experience improvements. Or as Coleman puts it: Support for Event Location Blocks (dev/core#2676: 20746), Add translatable descriptions to entities (20598), Show Pledge as a primary entity (20589), Add ability to join on multi-select ContactRef fields (20764). The pull-requests have nice screenshots, however!
• CiviContribute: more work around Financial ACLs which are now in a core-extension, which helps to de-tangle CiviCRM code, easier maintenance (dev/core#2115: 20761, 20762 and 20769), work towards making it possible to edit recurring contributions (dev/financial#6: 20452, 20451 and 20450), Improvements that make it easier to use the Order API (20681).
• CiviMember: Adds a new column to the civicrm_line_item table: membership_num_terms, aims to eventually simplify the logic around membership renewals (dev/membership#29: 20672)
• CiviSMS: Display SMS segment count when constructing a Mass SMS (dev/core#1711: 20722 and 20220)
• WordPress: Rewrites the error checking that the WordPress plugin performs and fails gracefully instead of throwing fatal errors and making WordPress inoperable. Introduces a "CiviCRM Troubleshooting" page to help diagnose and fix problems. (251)
• Api4: the parameter "option_type" is not needed to create an option_value (20743), show joins for write actions in the API Explorer (20731), Add @since annotation to each entity (20701), Add is_current as a pseudo (calculated) field for relationships, events & campaigns (20586), .. and more.
• Developers: Using composer with PHP8 is now supported (20625), as well as many more PHP8 compatibility fixes.
• As usual, a ton of tiny tweaks and fixes that make CiviCRM more fun to use, and the source code more entertaining to read and improve. This humble editor often struggles to decide what is relevant to include in the above short summary. Feel free to give us a shout on the CiviCRM chat.

Reminder: If you have not looked at FormBuilder and SearchKit, you should definitely have a look! Have a look at these SearchKit blog posts for more information. Developers using the CiviCRM API should also definitely consider jumping on API4, which provides many important improvements and now supports most entities. Together, these improvements will help provide not only powerful new form and search/listing tools for your website, but also will provide the basis for rewriting huge areas of the CiviCRM administrative interface.

This is only a short overview. You can read the full release notes here (it includes all Gitlab and Github references, with much more information). Big thanks to Andie Hunt and Alice Frumin from AGH Strategies for putting up together release notes. Planning a big upgrade? Check out the version-specific upgrade tasks.

This release was developed by the following code authors:

AGH Strategies - Alice Frumin, Andie Hunt; Agileware - Francis Whittle, Justin Freeman; Akos Garai; Australian Greens - John Twyman; Blackfly Solutions - Alan Dixon; Christian Wach; Circle Interactive - Pradeep Nayak; CiviCoop - Jaap Jansma; CiviCRM - Coleman Watts, Tim Otten; CompuCorp - Debarshi Bhaumik; Dave D; Gokhalemethod- Sadashiv; iXiam - Luciano Spiegel; JMA Consulting - Monish Deb, Seamus Lee; Lemniscus - Noah Miller; Lighthouse Consulting and Design - Brian Shaughnessy; Megaphone Technology Consulting - Jon Goldberg; MJW Consulting - Matthew Wire; Skvare - Sunil Pawar; Wikimedia Foundation - Eileen McNaughton

Most authors also reviewed code for this release; in addition, the following reviewers contributed their comments:

Artful Robot - Rich Lott; Bob Silvern; CiviCoop - Klaas Eikelboom; CiviDesk - Yashodha Chaku; Coop SymbioTIC - Mathieu Lutfy; Freeform Solutions - Herb van den Dool; Fuzion - Jitendra Purohit; JMA Consulting - Joe Murray; Ray Wright; Semper IT - Karin Gerritsen; Squiffle Consulting - Aidan Saunders; Tadpole Collective - Kevin Cristiano; Tech To The People - Xavier Dutoit; Third Sector Design - Michael McAndrew, Kurund Jalmi.

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We are committed to keeping CiviCRM free and open, forever. We depend on your support to help make that happen.

• Make a donation or contribute to a Make it happen campaign.
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CiviCRM as a project is community driven and is sustained through contributions, good vibes, and financial support from its community. ❤️ 🌈