Announcing CiviCRM 2.0 Beta

[Dave Greenberg]

We are excited to announce that our 2.0 Beta release is now available
for download at:
>> http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=177914

... AND to try out on our  demo site:
>> http://demo.civicrm.org

You can find Release Highlights here:
>> http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRM/CiviCRM+v2.0

... and check out the resolved issues listing for details on the 330+
improvements and bug fixes:
>> http://issues.civicrm.org/jira/secure/IssueNavigator.jspa?mode=hide&requestId=10351

2.0 has significant code and schema changes to improve performance and
scalability. The upgrade process is now a multi-step web-based
process. We would like to encourage folks to download and test the
beta release and help improve the final product. You can contribute
significantly to the project by testing the upgrade process against a
copy of your 1.9 data, as well as running your regular tasks on an
upgraded site.

========================
Check Out these New Features
========================
* CiviContribute Widgets - Allow you and your supporters to easily
promote this fund-raising campaign. Widget code can be added to any
web page - and provides a real-time display of current contribution
results along with a direct link to the contribution form.
* Tell A Friend - Makes it easy for contributors and event
participants to spread the word to their network by passing along
their personal comments and links to your campaign pages. Friends are
automatically added to your database and "recruiting" activities are
credited to the senders.
* Custom Searches - Developers and accidental techies with a bit of
PHP and SQL knowledge can create new search forms to handle specific
search and reporting needs. Check out the custom Find Contributors by
Aggregate Totals search on the demo site  for an example of what you
can do.

========================
Download
========================
You can download CiviCRM 2.0 Beta at our download page:
>> http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=177914

Select from the civicrm-latest section. The filenames include the 2.0
Beta label: civicrm-2.0.beta... Be sure and download the correct
version for your CMS (Drupal or Joomla). As announced previously, 2.0
and all subsequent versions of CiviCRM require PHP 5. PHP 4 is no
longer supported.

========================
New 2.0 Installations
========================
If you are installing CiviCRM 2.0 Beta from scratch, use the
installation instructions linked below:

* Drupal Installation -
http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Install+2.0+for+Drupal
* Joomla Installation -
http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Install+2.0+for+Joomla

========================
Upgrading from 1.9 to 2.0
========================
If you are upgrading an existing 1.9 site (working with a copy of the
site, of course), we have provided a browser-based database upgrade
script. Instructions for upgrading are here:

* Drupal Upgrade -
http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Upgrade+Drupal+Sites+to+2.0
* Joomla Upgrade -
http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Upgrade+Joomla+Sites+to+2.0

========================
Reporting Issues and Bugs
========================
We look forward to getting your feedback on the release in the coming
days. If you have questions installing, upgrading and / or using 2.0
feature - or you're seeing a problem and you're not sure if it's a bug
- please post your issue to the 2.0 release testing section of the
community forums. Include as many specifics as possible about the
issue or question.
>> http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/board,27.0.html

Bugs should be reported via our issue tracking system. Please select
2.0 in the 'Affects Version' dropdown. You will need to register as a
user – this ensures that we can follow-up with you on your bug reports
if necessary.
>> http://issues.civicrm.org/

Please ensure that the bug you've found is not reported already by
checking the open issues listings for 2.0:
>> http://issues.civicrm.org/jira/secure/IssueNavigator.jspa?mode=hide&requestId=10181


--
Best regards,
Dave Greenberg
CiviCRM Team
---------------------
Try CiviCRM - http://civicrm.org
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