XenForo 2.3.0 & Add-ons Released

It's time to party like it's 2022 2023 2024! Today we are very pleased (and relieved) to announce the stable release of XenForo 2.3.0 and our official add-ons. It has been a long time coming so we thank you for your patience and support.

There are a myriad of new features and improvements. Here's a brief overview of our favourites:

• Style variants with Dark mode
• Improved performance
• Featured content
• Image optimization
• Automation with webhooks
• SSO with OAuth2
• Passwordless logins with passkeys
• Trending content

This is not an exhaustive list of what's new in 2.3, and you can read more about the above and other new changes/improvements features in the Have you seen...? forum.

As always, new releases of XenForo are free to download for all customers with active licenses, who may now grab the new version from the customer area or upgrade from your Admin control panel (Tools > Check for upgrades...).

Download XenForo 2.3.0​

From the licensed customer area​

Upgrading for XenForo Cloud customers​

Shortly after the release of XenForo 2.3.0, Cloud customers will receive an email notifying them that their upgrade has been scheduled automatically.

Please pay close attention to the scheduled date / time of the upgrade. As a XenForo Cloud customer you are able to defer the automatic upgrade for as far as six months from the date of release. While the sheer majority of customers will be fine upgrading much sooner, we do recommend taking additional time before upgrading to verify that add-ons on which you depend on are updated and style designers have ample time to prepare 2.3.0 compatible versions of styles before upgrading.

Prior to upgrading, ensure you have updated add-ons and styles downloaded and be sure to follow the specific developer/designer's instructions and guidance when upgrading those.

It may also be worth scheduling your upgrade at times where we have more staff available. While XenForo staff are generally available outside of these hours, responses are much quicker during the hours of Monday - Friday 9am to 5pm UK time (currently BST / UTC+1).

General upgrade guidance​

Note that add-ons and custom styles may be broken after upgrading to 2.3. You must test your add-ons thoroughly or look for updates. Be especially careful with add-ons that cover similar features to ones that are added to 2.3; these may conflict with the core XenForo data. If data conflicts are found, they will need to be resolved in a new add-on release or by removing the add-on before upgrading to 2.3.

Alongside the release of XenForo 2.3.0, we are also releasing updated versions of each of our official add-ons:

• XenForo Media Gallery 2.3.0
• XenForo Resource Manager 2.3.0
• XenForo Enhanced Search 2.3.0

Each of these has been updated to integrate with the new features in XenForo 2.3 and add features of their own, including:

Media Gallery:​

Improved media gallery performance

Resource Manager:​

Split-score review graph

Enhanced Search:​

Search suggestions

Customers with active licenses for these add-ons may download the new versions from their customer area.

Download official add-ons​

From the licensed customer area​

Requirements​

The following are minimum requirements:

• PHP 7.2 or newer
• MySQL 5.7 and newer
• All of the add-ons listed here require XenForo 2.3.
• Enhanced Search requires at least Elasticsearch 7.2

Note: Some requirements here have changed. Notably, PHP 7.2 is now required, and MySQL 5.7 (or equivalent) is required. That being said, we highly recommend upgrading to PHP 8.3 or MySQL 8.0 at the earliest opportunity.

Installation and upgrade instructions​

Full details for how to install and upgrade XenForo can be found in the XenForo manual. One-click upgrades from XF 2.2 are possible. Once the XF 2.3 upgrade has been complete, the official add-ons should be upgraded as well, otherwise you may run into incompatibilities.

 

[Chris D]

XenForo 2.3.0 & Add-ons Released for XenForo Cloud​

After a short delay, we are pleased to announce that XenForo 2.3.0 is now available for XenForo Cloud customers. All Cloud customers will have now received an email scheduling the upgrade. Last week we sent an email to all active Cloud customers with some general advice and guidance for upgrading, some of which is summarised below:

Shortly after the release of XenForo 2.3.0, Cloud customers will receive an email notifying them that their upgrade has been scheduled automatically.

Please pay close attention to the scheduled date / time of the upgrade. As a XenForo Cloud customer you are able to defer the automatic upgrade for as far as six months from the date of release. While the sheer majority of customers will be fine upgrading much sooner, we do recommend taking additional time before upgrading to verify that add-ons on which you depend on are updated and style designers have ample time to prepare 2.3.0 compatible versions of styles before upgrading.

Prior to upgrading, ensure you have updated add-ons and styles downloaded and be sure to follow the specific developer/designer's instructions and guidance when upgrading those.

It may also be worth scheduling your upgrade at times where we have more staff available. While XenForo staff are generally available outside of these hours, responses are much quicker during the hours of Monday - Friday 9am to 5pm UK time (currently BST / UTC+1).

If you're not ready for the upgrade yet - don't worry. The default upgrade date is six months from now. You can reschedule the date from your customer area or perform the upgrade immediately, if you wish.

The key thing is to check if your styles and add-ons have 2.3 compatible versions before embarking on the upgrade.

As ever, if you run into any issues, please submit a ticket from your customer area.