Version 6.0 Release Notes

From WHMCS Documentation

Release Information
Version: 6.0.0
Release Type: General Availability (Recommended for New Installs & Upgrades)
Release Date: 7th July 2015
Distribution Types: Full Only

Release Information

Version 6.0.0 GA

  • Release Type: General Availability
  • Release Date: 7th July 2015

Version 6.0.1

  • Release Type: Maintenance
  • Release Date: 16th July 2015

Version 6.0.2

  • Release Type: Maintenance
  • Release Date: 18th August 2015

Version 6.0.3

  • Release Type: Maintenance
  • Release Date: 20th October 2015

Version 6.0.4

  • Release Type: Security
  • Release Date: 26th January 2016

Download

To download the latest version of WHMCS, click here.

You must hold a direct license with us in order to download the WHMCS software from our website. If you obtain your license through a reseller partner, download WHMCS through them.

As this is a major version update, only a full version is being made available. There is no incremental upgrade for users of the latest 5.3 release.

Documentation

Documentation can be viewed in the Version 6.0 Documentation Portal.

Release Notes

Version 6.0 is a major update to the WHMCS Billing & Automation Platform. We recommend reading these release notes in full before upgrading from 5.x.

WHMCS Version 6.0 supports upgrading from WHMCS 4.x or later.

For a summarised version of these release notes, please see Version 6.0 Release Notes in Brief

Minimum System Requirements

Version 6.0 introduces new minimum system requirements.

To summarise, the key differences between Version 5.x and Version 6.0 are that 6.0 requires a minimum PHP Version of 5.3.7 and PDO Support.

Version 6.0 supports PHP 5.3.7 and later, PHP 5.4, PHP 5.5 and the latest PHP 5.6.

For full details, please refer to the System Requirements page - Version 6.0 System Requirements

Client Area Templates

Version 6.0 introduces a new client area template theme named six. This will be the default theme for all new installations.

Upgrading will not change the theme your WHMCS installation is configured to use and all previous templates compatible with WHMCS 5.x versions can still be used in Version 6.0.

We will continue to support and maintain today's current default client area template theme in V5.x under the template name five. However, please be aware that new features and functionality may not be fully supported by default in the "five" theme either now, or in the future. For the avoidance of doubt, new functionality may only be implemented to the "six" theme and not backported to "five".

With the release of WHMCS 6.0, we are also deprecating our two oldest client area template themes - classic and portal. As of this release these client area template themes will no longer ship with WHMCS and will receive no further updates. They will continue to remain in the 5.3.x releases until such time as 5.3 reaches End of Life.

We strongly recommend that all new custom themes and templates are built based off the latest current client area template theme six in order to take full advantage of the latest improvements and new functionality.

Detailed information on working with the new theme is available in Customising the Six Theme.

Order Form Templates

The Modern order form has been given a refresh in Version 6.0 with improved styling and responsive behaviour.

The Boxes order form template has also been given some updates.

Both of these order form templates now require the latest version of bootstrap to be loaded via your client area template to display as intended. The six client area template theme does this by default.

For older client area themes which do not have Bootstrap available, we recommend using one of the other order form templates. Similarly, for the new six theme, and custom themes that do include Bootstrap, we recommend using one of the two order forms that have updated above.

We will be releasing a number of new order form styles that take full advantage of the new client area styling over the coming months.

Admin Area Templates

Original Theme Removed

Version 6.0 sees the deprecation of the original admin area theme. This will no longer be included in WHMCS 6.0 and above and is no longer supported.

The v4 and blend admin area themes remain and continue to be supported.

Login Page Customisation

With Version 6.0, it is now possible to customise the admin area login page. This is controlled by two new template files: /admin/templates/login.tpl and /admin/templates/login.css

New Location for Custom Logo Files

In WHMCS 6.0, the /images/ directory is no longer used. Therefore any custom logo files which existed previously at one of the paths listed below needs to be moved to its' new location within the /assets/img/ directory. 

/images/logo.png -> /assets/img/logo.png
/images/logo.jpg -> /assets/img/logo.jpg

Single Sign-On

cPanel Single Sign-On is a new feature in WHMCS 6.0. It replaces the login to cPanel/WHM links that previously required a username and password be entered. It is also utilised in the new WHMCS Connect interface which is available via the Utilities menu within the admin area.

For clients, Single Sign-On allows them to transition from WHMCS to cPanel and/or WHM to manage their hosting/reseller account without having to re-authenticate. For staff, it provides the ability to login to cPanel or WHM as any user managed by the WHMCS installation*.

We fully intend to implement Single Sign-On to other provisioning modules in due course.

* cPanel Single Sign-On can be performed for any user owned by the WHM user configured for a cPanel server within the WHMCS installation. In the case of a reseller, what this means currently is that if you do not own your own account you will not be able to perform Single Sign-On into it.

Domain Namespinning

Domain Namespinning is the name given to the feature that provides intelligent automated suggestions based on the domain or keywords a user enters.

This is implemented into both the domain checker and shopping cart domain lookup features*.

To activate and begin using this new feature, navigate to Setup > General Settings > Domains and click the "Activate & Configure" button below the eNom Namespinner Domain Lookup option.

Namespinning is powered by eNom and requires an eNom account. All WHMCS users can signup for a free account via www.whmcs.com/partners/enom in order to use the Namespinner functionality.

You may notice a greyed out option to create an eNom account within the product. This functionality will go live at the time of 6.0.0 being published under general release.

Plesk Modules

In WHMCS 6.0, we are consolidating the Plesk modules we ship and support.

Plesk 8, 9 and 10 Support to be Discontinued

Plesk 8 and 9 have reached End of Life (Ref: http://www.odin.com/uk/support/policies/plesk-lifecycle/) and are no longer supported by Parallels and therefore we will be ending our support for them also. The Plesk 8 and 9 modules will no longer be included in WHMCS 6.0 and above.

Plesk 10 is currently in the Extended Support period. The Extended Support for Plesk 10 is scheduled to end on May 3rd, 2015, at which point it too will also reach End of Life. As May 3rd is prior to the date WHMCS 6.0 is expected to reach general release, this module will also be discontinued as of WHMCS 6.0.

Therefore in WHMCS 6.0, the three version specific Plesk 8, 9 and 10 modules are being discontinued and removed from our distribution (Please note however that Beta 1 will still contain the modules for testing purposes).

Plesk 11 and 12 Support

Plesk 11 and 12, which both remain in active support by Parallels, are supported through the more recently released "Plesk" module and will continue to be shipped, maintained and supported by us.

Older Module Use

If you still require the Plesk 8, 9 or 10 modules, they are still compatible with WHMCS 6.0, however they will receive no further updates.

Modules Compatibility

All modules that are compatible with WHMCS V5.x will still be compatible with V6.0.

We have taken great care to ensure that despite considerable under the hood changes that have gone into 6.0, all previous publicly documented API methods and functions remain available and unchanged from before.

With that said, Version 6.0 does introduce a number of database schema changes. These include the addition of new fields, as well as the changing of types on a number of fields. However, no existing fields have been either renamed or deleted again to ensure we preserve compatibility for custom modules.

Version 6.0 also has many new features, functionalities and API's that module developers can take advantage of. For more information, please refer to the [Version 6.0|Version 6.0 Documentation Portal.]

Upgrade to Smarty 3

Version 6.0 sees the upgrade from Smarty 2 to Smarty 3.

All existing templates should for the mostpart continue to work unaffected.

There are however some key API changes that Smarty have made and we have a handy Version 6 Template Migration Guide which provides details of many of the key changes.

By default Smarty 3 disallows the use of Smarty php tags in template files. However, we know a lot of custom templates and modules rely on this functionality and so we have introduced a backwards compatibility setting in Setup > General Settings > Security named "Allow Smarty PHP Tags". This setting is disabled by default (which is recommended), but if your custom templates or installed third party addons/modules require it, you can turn it on here.

We strongly encourage all users and module developers to use the Page Hooks to execute required PHP code required to generate template content and make it available to templates via the defined methods. A number of Client Area Interface Hooks and Admin Area Interface Hooks exist exactly for this purpose.

Removal of Dbconnect.php

6.0 sees the removal of the dbconnect.php file from the root WHMCS directory. This file has been deprecated since WHMCS Version 5.2 and has remained only for backwards compatibility with older modules. As of 6.0 however, any scripts which still rely on including the dbconnect.php file to function will need to be updated to instead include the init.php file. When including the init.php file, it is not necessary to include any other WHMCS files.

For reference, the most up-to-date code sample for creating your own custom client area pages which works in WHMCS 5.2.0 and later is available @ http://docs.whmcs.com/Creating_Pages

Live Chat Addon

The WHMCS Live Chat & Visitor Tracking Addon requires an update for compatibility with Version 6.0. This update provides compatibility for some of the internal changes in 6.0, as well as updating the addon to integrate with the new dynamic client area navigation bars. The update is available to download from our client area under your purchased instance of the live chat product.

Other Points of Note

  • Custom logo image files should now be located in the /assets/img/ directory. If you are upgrading from a previous version, please move your logo.png or logo.jpg file from /images/ to /assets/img/
  • CORE-8255 - Knowledgebase article behavior has changed so that if an article belongs to any hidden categories it will no longer be visible in any public categories until it is removed from the hidden ones.
  • CORE-7354 - A new permission has been added for sub-account users to permit access to view quotes. This will be added automatically to existing sub-account users who already have the view invoices permission.
  • A new permission has also been added for WHMCS Connect and this permission will only be assigned to Full Administrator level users by default.
  • CORE-8432 - Remove legacy NOMD5 setting - The removal of this setting means that if you still have the option enabled to not hash client passwords, as of the V6.0 upgrade clients passwords will be hashed and will be irreversible from that point onwards.
  • The admin area invoice management screen will now show the PDF version of an invoice for printing instead of the client area version as previously.
  • Automated PayPal Subscription Cancellation is supported for subscription profiles that start with an "I". PayPal's Tech Support explains the difference as follows: A subscription profile starts with "S" if it is created before 2009, and it is not possible to cancel or manage their profiles via API call. Subscription profiles that are created after 2009 will start with "I" and these can be managed by using API call.
  • CORE-6630 - Sales Tax Liability report will no longer include Add Funds or Mass Pay invoices. That is any invoices which contain these line items. Justification for this is "this income will be counted and reported when it is applied to invoices for products/services".
  • CORE-8518 - The AsiaPay module now requires that a security hash be configured in order for payments and callbacks to function. For details on how to do this, please refer to the AsiaPay module documentation
  • VSIX-560 - All cron and email piping files have been relocated to the dedicated /crons/ directory. While V6.0 of WHMCS includes proxy files in the old locations that will allow all existing configured cron and piping commands to continue operating without any changes post upgrade, we encourage you to update your cron and piping commands to use the new locations at your earliest convenience. More information on doing this can be found in the Cron Tasks documentation.
  • MODULE-6141 - cPanel Single Sign-On - Single Sign-On allows users to transition from WHMCS to the cPanel or WHM interfaces without having to re-authenticate. For more information, please see CPanel Single Sign-On

Changelog


Thanks

  • Spanish translation provided by Full Tech Solutions S.H / fulltech.com.ar
  • Turkish translation provided by BurtiNET Internet Services / burtinet.com
  • A massive thanks to everyone who took part in, and contributed to the beta program. Your dedication and attention to detail helped make WHMCS 6.0 the best release it could possibly be. Thanks from everyone here at WHMCS
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