1. ZOMG!11 What's happened to XF? Is my browser broke?
No need to be alarmed. We have upgraded the site to the latest version.
Welcome to XF2!
2. Looks good. Where do I download it?
A beta release is currently available from the customer area for licenses with active support, but note that there are caveats about how these preview releases work. Please see the next few questions and answers.
3. Can I upgrade my current XF1 site now?
The beta releases contain known bugs and incomplete functionality and we do not recommend or support running them in a production environment. Support for beta releases is limited to questions here on the community forums.
4. When can I use it then?
Although you can use it now, once we are confident that the software functions correctly and is ready for production sites, it will be made available as an officially supported public release. An announcement will be posted in this forum and updates will be made on social media. That should be some time later this year.
5. Can I upgrade from XF1 to XF2, or is it just for new forums?
Yes, you are able to upgrade existing XF1 forums to XF2.
5. Is the upgrade process the same?
While the process is similar, it is a little more involved and will take more time than a typical XF1 upgrade.
There are some database schema changes which are performed during the upgrade script, and various rebuilds which are performed, most significantly avatars. Should you wish to have emoji support, there is also a CLI command to convert all the database tables to utf8mb4, which takes additional time. For reference, this site, with just over 1 million posts, took approximately 30 minutes for the core upgrade components.
Note that existing style customizations and add-ons will not work. This is a very significant upgrade and you will need to consider how to handle any customizations before upgrading. To minimize interruption, it will be very important to do test upgrades before upgrading your live installation.
6. Will my add-ons still work?
No. All add-ons will have to be updated for XF2.
7. So do I have to uninstall them, disable them, or what?
It isn't necessary to to disable and/or uninstall add-ons before upgrading to XF2. During the upgrade they will be disabled and marked as 'legacy'.
Once the upgrade is complete, those add-ons won’t be available until they are upgraded to an XF2 compatible version.
You will need to check with the author of each add-on you use whether there is or will be an XF2 version.
If not, you will need to decide whether to leave them installed (and disabled) in the hope that there will be an add-on in the future, or uninstall them before upgrading to XF2. If you do not expect or plan to use the add-on after upgrading, we strongly recommend you uninstall them before upgrading.
Uninstalling a legacy add-on may leave orphaned data in the database.
8. What about styles?
Styles will also have to be completely reworked for XF2.
9. Does that also apply to languages?
While phrase translations are maintained across an upgrade, there are a large number of phrase changes. Significant work will be required to update translations.
10. What if I just want to install XF2 from scratch? Will it still work on my server?
The minimum requirements have changed.
PHP 5.4, MySQL 5.5, and cURL are required, and whereas utf8mb4 is optional for upgrades, it is default for new installs.
11. Do I have to pay extra to use XF2?
If you have an existing XF1 license with active support then you can download and use XF2 for no additional cost.
If you have an XF1 license with expired support and upgrades, it is the same standard $40 renewal cost in order to access XF2.
Currently there are no plans to increase the license cost of $140 for XF2.
12. What new features are there? It seems the same to me
The primary goal of XF2.0 is feature parity with XF1. However there are numerous new features, changes, and improvements.
A lot of them have been mentioned here: https://xf2demo.xenforo.com/forums/announcements-updates.11/
Eventually, new features will be showcased in our forum here: https://xenforo.com/community/forums/have-you-seen/
13. Could you just change ...? I don't like it.
Any suggestions should be posted in the suggestions forums as usual.
There are separate suggestions forums for the core software, the Resource Manager, the Media Gallery, and Enhanced Search.
No need to be alarmed. We have upgraded the site to the latest version.
Welcome to XF2!
2. Looks good. Where do I download it?
A beta release is currently available from the customer area for licenses with active support, but note that there are caveats about how these preview releases work. Please see the next few questions and answers.
3. Can I upgrade my current XF1 site now?
The beta releases contain known bugs and incomplete functionality and we do not recommend or support running them in a production environment. Support for beta releases is limited to questions here on the community forums.
4. When can I use it then?
Although you can use it now, once we are confident that the software functions correctly and is ready for production sites, it will be made available as an officially supported public release. An announcement will be posted in this forum and updates will be made on social media. That should be some time later this year.
5. Can I upgrade from XF1 to XF2, or is it just for new forums?
Yes, you are able to upgrade existing XF1 forums to XF2.
5. Is the upgrade process the same?
While the process is similar, it is a little more involved and will take more time than a typical XF1 upgrade.
There are some database schema changes which are performed during the upgrade script, and various rebuilds which are performed, most significantly avatars. Should you wish to have emoji support, there is also a CLI command to convert all the database tables to utf8mb4, which takes additional time. For reference, this site, with just over 1 million posts, took approximately 30 minutes for the core upgrade components.
Note that existing style customizations and add-ons will not work. This is a very significant upgrade and you will need to consider how to handle any customizations before upgrading. To minimize interruption, it will be very important to do test upgrades before upgrading your live installation.
6. Will my add-ons still work?
No. All add-ons will have to be updated for XF2.
7. So do I have to uninstall them, disable them, or what?
It isn't necessary to to disable and/or uninstall add-ons before upgrading to XF2. During the upgrade they will be disabled and marked as 'legacy'.
Once the upgrade is complete, those add-ons won’t be available until they are upgraded to an XF2 compatible version.
You will need to check with the author of each add-on you use whether there is or will be an XF2 version.
If not, you will need to decide whether to leave them installed (and disabled) in the hope that there will be an add-on in the future, or uninstall them before upgrading to XF2. If you do not expect or plan to use the add-on after upgrading, we strongly recommend you uninstall them before upgrading.
Uninstalling a legacy add-on may leave orphaned data in the database.
8. What about styles?
Styles will also have to be completely reworked for XF2.
9. Does that also apply to languages?
While phrase translations are maintained across an upgrade, there are a large number of phrase changes. Significant work will be required to update translations.
10. What if I just want to install XF2 from scratch? Will it still work on my server?
The minimum requirements have changed.
PHP 5.4, MySQL 5.5, and cURL are required, and whereas utf8mb4 is optional for upgrades, it is default for new installs.
11. Do I have to pay extra to use XF2?
If you have an existing XF1 license with active support then you can download and use XF2 for no additional cost.
If you have an XF1 license with expired support and upgrades, it is the same standard $40 renewal cost in order to access XF2.
Currently there are no plans to increase the license cost of $140 for XF2.
12. What new features are there? It seems the same to me
The primary goal of XF2.0 is feature parity with XF1. However there are numerous new features, changes, and improvements.
A lot of them have been mentioned here: https://xf2demo.xenforo.com/forums/announcements-updates.11/
Eventually, new features will be showcased in our forum here: https://xenforo.com/community/forums/have-you-seen/
13. Could you just change ...? I don't like it.
Any suggestions should be posted in the suggestions forums as usual.
There are separate suggestions forums for the core software, the Resource Manager, the Media Gallery, and Enhanced Search.
