XOOPS 2.7.2 Final — safer upgrades, stronger foundations

#php #xoops #cms #news

The XOOPS Development Team is pleased to announce the release of XOOPS 2.7.2 Final. This maintenance release builds on XOOPS 2.7.0 with another security-hardening pass, more reliable upgrade tooling, form and theme improvements, and refreshed dependencies for current PHP environments.

Download XOOPS 2.7.2: https://github.com/XOOPS/XoopsCore27/releases

Highlights

Security and upgrade hardening

The upgrade wizard now requires administrator-group membership, and the apply-patch path requires a valid security token.
Upgrade SQL dumps are stored outside the public web root and their download path is access-controlled.
SQL identifier and ORDER BY handling was tightened across Criteria, kernel blocks, and system administration.
Protector's database wrapper now inspects queryF() calls, language-file loading is constrained to safe basenames, and module-administration output is escaped more consistently.
The tell-a-friend form now uses CAPTCHA and persistent per-IP rate limiting.

These changes continue the secure-by-default work begun in XOOPS 2.7.0 while preserving compatibility with existing modules.

Forms, templates, and themes

XoopsFormTabTray provides a native tabbed form container with theme-aware renderers.
XoopsFormContainerInterface formalises the contract shared by form containers.
SmartyExtensions are registered across the supplied themes.
xBootstrap5, xSwatch5, and xTailwind2 include dark-mode support.
TinyMCE 7 language mapping now preserves locale casing such as zh_TW and resolves the correct language-pack filename.
Cloned blocks retain their module binding and validated callback fields.

Refreshed dependencies

The bundled dependency set has been refreshed, including php-debugbar 3.8.0, Smarty 4.5.7, Webmozart Assert 2.4.1, and Symfony VarDumper and YAML 7.4.14. XOOPS Helpers and TCPDF are now included directly, and SmartyExtensions was updated for QR-code support.

Debugbar is now a standalone module

The Debugbar module is no longer bundled in the XOOPS Core download. Moving the module to its own repository lets it publish fixes and improvements without waiting for a core release.

The underlying php-debugbar/php-debugbar library remains bundled in xoops_lib, so users do not need to run a separate Composer installation.

To install Debugbar:

Download the current release from the XOOPS Debugbar releases page.
Copy the included debugbar directory to htdocs/modules/debugbar.
Install the module from System Admin → Modules.

If Debugbar is already installed, replace its module files with the standalone release and run Update in System Admin. Do not uninstall it first unless you intentionally want to remove its saved settings and profiles.

An overlay upgrade does not delete the old htdocs/modules/debugbar directory. Existing sites must replace those files explicitly so they do not continue running the older copy that was previously bundled with core.

The core Monolog adapter now exposes isActive() and accepts a fourth constructor argument for the default file handler's minimum log level, matching the standalone module's integration contract. It also supports Monolog 2 and 3 level handling and bounds or redacts sensitive file-log context.

Upgrading

From XOOPS 2.7.0

Back up the database and site files.
Test the upgrade on a staging copy first.
Turn the site off from System Options → Preferences → General Settings.
Copy the new htdocs/ files over the web root, including the updated xoops_lib and xoops_data contents for relocated directories.
Copy /upgrade/ to the XOOPS root and run the upgrade wizard.
Update the system, pm, profile, and protector modules from System Admin → Modules.
Restore or update the standalone Debugbar module if the site uses it.
Turn the site back on and review the logs.

From XOOPS 2.5.x

Sites older than XOOPS 2.5.11 should upgrade to 2.5.11 first. Run /upgrade/preflight.php before copying the 2.7.2 files; it identifies Smarty 4 template incompatibilities and other items that need attention before the main upgrade.

Full installation and upgrade documentation: https://xoops.github.io/xoops-docs/

System requirements

PHP — >= 8.2.0; PHP 8.4 or 8.5 recommended
MySQL / MariaDB — MySQL >= 5.7.8 or MariaDB >= 10.5; a supported MySQL 8.x or MariaDB LTS release is recommended
Web server — Apache 2.4+ or nginx

Translations — 38 languages and counting

Beyond the English source, XOOPS is maintained in 37 community translations under the XoopsLanguages organization. Language packs are released independently; the current release page for every language is listed in docs/TRANSLATIONS.md.

Please help review existing translations, report mistakes, or add a missing language. Every correction helps the whole community.