The ImpressCMS Project (http://www.impresscms.org) is in the last stages of releasing final stable version of this new open source content management system and have released ImpressCMS 1.1 RC3. This release addresses several issues that were discovered in the upgrade for existing sites. Improvements have been made since the release of the first release candidate and users are encouraged to install this release in a test environment and thoroughly test this version - it is not intended for production sites.

We are finally reaching our last step before 1.1 Final release. The latest show stopper bugs have been fixed within this RC 3 and we are proud to announce that the highly expected ImpressCMS 1.1 Final will be released as an Halloween gift on October 31st!

Some of the New Features in ImpressCMS 1.1

* Right-to-Left languages are natively supported in the core and included themes
* More options for password encryption and the addition of 2 salt values to protect your database
* WYSIWYG editor support and control for all groups and modules - TinyMCE is included
* OpenID and Gravatar integration, allowing your users to login with an OpenID identity obtained on other sites (Yahoo, Flickr, AOL, Blogger, or WordPress are sites you can obtain an OpenID login) and use a globally recognized avatar.
* Version 1.1 is the first version of ImpressCMS to require PHP5 and that PHP safe_mode is turned OFF (PHP6 removes safe_mode completely). The installer will check both these conditions before allowing you to continue.

The complete list of features introduced in 1.1 is available in online.

Changes Since RC2

* The UTF-8 database converter is finally complete and will upgrade your database to UTF-8
* Other bugs in the ImpressCMS upgrader were fixed
* If mainfile.php does not yet have information about the Trust Path, the upgrader will add it
* Converter from XOOPS 2.2.x to ImpressCMS 1.1
* Converter from XOOPS 2.3.x to ImpressCMS

The complete change log is included with the release and is available online in our wiki

Downloading the Latest Version

To download this new release of ImpressCMS, you can find it in our SourceForge repository. The download package allows you to either do a fresh installation, or upgrade from an earlier version of ImpressCMS or XOOPS.

This is a release candidate and not a final release! It is not recommended for live sites

If you wish to keep updated with the very latest in ImpressCMS development, you can download our nightly build.

Release candidates are intended to increase the number of testers and to provide the developers with additional information related to bugs found in different environments. Any feedback about this release can be posted in the Current Release Discussions forum. Any security vulnerabilities should be reported directly to the developers - security@impresscms.org.

About ImpressCMS

In it's short history, ImpressCMS has surpassed over 5,000 commits to its code base, been a finalist in the 2008 SourceForge Community Choice Awards and is currently a finalist for the Packt Publishing Most Promising Open Source CMS.

The goal of the ImpressCMS Project is to stimulate and promote the open source nature of the CMS in both the core and its modules and establish itself as the premiere CMS by expanding the system to meet the needs of their users now and well into the future.

ImpressCMS is -
* Open Source
* Open Development
* Open SVN
* Open Philosophy
* Open Community

Contacts:
The ImpressCMS Project
Timothy Bowers and Steve Kenow
Spokespersons
press@impresscms.org

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