SMF 2.0.17 Released

[Diego Andrés]

Dear Members,

Simple Machines has released a new patch to the 2.0.x line of SMF, bringing our latest release version to 2.0.17.

We consider this patch to be of crucial importance, as it includes important fixes for a critical bug that was introduced in SMF 2.0.16.
Under certain circumstances, SMF 2.0.16 would start consuming significant amounts of CPU-resources when the RSS function is used.
Please see the changelog for more information.

Since SMF 2.0.17 is essentially what 2.0.16 was intended to be and 2.0.16 was released only a few days ago, we are including the SMF 2.0.16 announcement for your convenience:



SMF 2.0.16 contains important security and bug fixes, as well as support for the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements. We recommend updating as soon as possible.

Notable changes in 2.0.16

• Support for privacy policy in addition to registration agreement
• GDPR Compliance toggle in Core Features
     Enabling this configures multiple settings and new features to comply with the GDPR, including:
  
     
  • Requiring members to accept the current privacy policy in order to use the forum
  • Asking during registration whether the new member wants to receive announcements via email
  • Enabling token-based unsubscribe links in emails so members can unsubscribe without logging in
  • Allowing members to download a copy of their profile information
  • Adjusting the behaviour of a number of other features in minor ways as necessary
• PHP 7.2 support
• Improved security hashes for the image proxy
• Improved security for the login cookie
• Assorted other security improvements
• Various improvements for both the installer and upgrader

Please see the changelog for more information.


IMPORTANT NOTES:

• If you are using the GDPR Helper mod, you should follow these steps:
  
  
  
  • Back up your existing privacy policy text to a file somewhere
  • Update the GDPR Helper mod to its latest version
  • Uninstall the GDPR Helper mod
  • Install the SMF 2.0.16 patch
  
  
• All users, including the admin, will need to log in again after 2.0.16 has been installed.

How to update to 2.0.16

If you are running version 2.0.16, you can update your forum to the latest version by using the package manager. You should see the update notification in the admin panel notifications and in the package manager, which will allow you to download and install the patch seamlessly.  If you do not see the notification about the patch, please run the scheduled task "Fetch Simple Machines files" from the Scheduled Tasks page (Admin > Maintenance > Scheduled Tasks). If you are still running version 2.0.15, you can first patch to 2.0.16 and then patch to 2.0.16 immediately afterwards. We apologise for the inconvenience.

If you use older versions of SMF, you can upgrade directly to 2.0.16 from whichever version you are currently using by using the "Large Upgrade" package from the Download page. Be aware that using this upgrade method will require you to reinstall any customizations that you have added to your forum, so if you are running a version of the 2.0.x series, it is recommended that you apply the successive patches instead of using the Large Upgrade.

If you are having problems downloading the patch from the admin panel, you can download the patch package from the Package Manager Updates page and install it via the Package Manager, as you would any other mod package.

Please refer to the Online Manual for more details about patching and upgrading.


Language packages for 2.0.16 - Translators wanted!

Adding GDPR support required changes to several of SMF's language files in 2.0.16 (and higher). Updates to SMF's supported language packages will become available as the translations of those changes are completed.

If you can help translate these changes into your language, we would love to hear from you!


Finally, as always, please do not use this topic for support requests. You will receive a much quicker and better response by posting in the 2.0.x Support Board.

Thank you for using SMF!

Regards,
Simple Machines