Difference between revisions of "Version 7.0 Release Notes"

Revision as of 20:45, 2 October 2016

Release Information
Version: 7.0
Release Type: Release Candidate
Release Date: 16th September 2016
Distribution Types: Full Version Only

Version History

Version	Release Type	Release Date
7.0.0	Beta 1	22nd July 2016
7.0.0	Beta 2	5th August 2016
7.0.0	Beta 3	25th August 2016
7.0.0	RC 1	16th September 2016
7.0.0	GA	xx October 2016

Download

Version 7.0 RC is only available by signing up to be a beta tester at http://preview.whmcs.com/. In order to test future beta releases of Version 7.0, Version 7.0.0-rc.1 must be installed. To upgrade to Version 7.0.0-rc.1, navigate to the Utilities top menu in the Admin Area and select Update WHMCS.

Upgrade Process

View Standard Upgrade Steps

Release Notes

New PHP Version Requirements
WHMCS 7.0 requires PHP 5.6 or later. If you are running any versions earlier than PHP 5.6, you must upgrade PHP before attempting to upgrade to WHMCS 7.0. WHMCS 7.0 also requires ionCube Loader v5.0.21 or later.

Version 7.0.0 System Requirements: WHMCS v7 minimum system requirements are PHP 5.6 and stable IonCube Loader 5.0.21 or later. WHMCS v7 also supports PHP 7 - in order to ensure complete compatibility, please install the latest Ioncube loader 6.0.2 or later.

Automatic Updater - WHMCS 7.0 is the last update you will ever need to download! WHMCS 7.0 includes an Auto Update utility which allows you to install updates to WHMCS with just a few clicks. Built on the proven core of Composer, the WHMCS Auto Updater downloads, verifies, unpacks and performs database upgrades for WHMCS. The Auto Updater checks for updates as part of your system cron, and will provide administrators with alerts letting them know when a new release is available. Check our full article for more information and system requirements.

Domain Checker Improvements - The domain checker has been integrated into the shopping cart, and along with the new domain lookup functionality introduced in WHMCS 7.0 including spotlight TLDs and sale groups, is designed to offer a more streamlined and consistent domain lookup and purchase experience for end users. The domain checker file remains in place to provide redirects that will automatically redirect most previous domain checker based requests and form submissions to the new cart based domain lookup. The bulk domain check and bulk domain transfer facilities within the client area have been removed in 7.0. The new domain lookup functionality provided within the shopping cart in 7.0 is intended to deliver a more intuitive and optimised user experience for searching for and adding multiple domains to the shopping cart.

System Cron Update - WHMCS 7.0 introduces a new scheduling system that allows WHMCS the flexibility to perform automated tasks at intervals of less than every 24 hours. We recommend updating your configured system cron (cron.php) to run every 5 minutes. Learn more…

Ticket Feedback per Department - In WHMCS 7.0, you can now enable the email request for a user to provide feedback for their support ticket experience on a per department basis. Previously this was a global option that applied to all departments within the General Settings. On upgrade, if you have the Ticket Feedback feature enabled, it will be enabled by default for all existing departments. If you do not have it enabled, it will not be enabled for any departments automatically.

SSL Changes - The System URL and System SSL URL fields have been combined in WHMCS 7.0 to a single field. It is recommended that an SSL enabled URL be provided for the System URL at all times. When SSL is available, it will now be used for all requests, both admin and client side. If a System SSL URL was defined prior to upgrade, this value will be preserved and used for the System URL.

Session Changes - In addition to the above, when SSL is available, session cookies will now have the secure flag set (CORE-10037) in accordance with PCI-DSSv3.1 requirements. This results in session data only being accessible via an SSL connection.

WHMCS Core Library move to vendor directory - WHMCS uses the Composer dependency management system for PHP to maintain our included libraries. These libraries can be found as subdirectories within the /vendor/ directory of a WHMCS installation. As of WHMCS 7.0, the core WHMCS PHP library is now also located in the /vendor/ directory similar to other Composer libraries. Previously these files would have been located in /includes/classes/WHMCS/. We do not recommend nor support placing your own classes within the WHMCS namespace. WHMCS assumes full authority of the WHMCS namespace and classes directories and offer no guarantees that files you place there will not be overwritten or removed. The update process for version 7.0 will not remove any files in the historic location /includes/classes/ and will leave them untouched.

Removal of Browser Tool - Previous versions of WHMCS contained a tool named "Browser" located under the Utilities menu. As of WHMCS 7.0, this utility has been removed. If you used this functionality to share a list of URLs with your staff, we recommend you instead create a set of bookmarks in your browser that can be exported and imported. For example, see: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/export-firefox-bookmarks-to-backup-or-transfer

Removal of Client Dropdown Format setting -As of WHMCS 7.0, the Client Dropdown Format setting has been removed. In WHMCS 6.2 we introduced an improved client navigation experience using a combo box that provides a dropdown supporting text entry to filter the list of available clients to navigate to. The new dynamic dropdown displays clients names, company names and email addresses at all times and so this setting is no longer utilised.

WHOIS Servers, Countries and Additional Domain Fields Overrides - WHMCS 7.0 introduces override capabilities to additional domain fields, whois servers and countries. These have been introduced to provide an easy way for customisations to these files to be maintained during automatic updates. In addition, the location and format used for some of these files has changed. For more information please refer to the following documentation pages:

Deprecation of Five Theme - With the release of WHMCS 7.0, we will no longer be shipping the "Five" client area theme (previously named "default" in WHMCS V5.x). Current installations of WHMCS will not have the "Five" theme removed, but this theme will not receive any further updates. While this theme will no longer be shipped or maintained, for users who are using it or have a custom theme based on it, it will continue to work but we offer no guarantee of compatibility with future releases. We strongly recommend that all new custom themes and templates are built based off the "Six" theme in order to take full advantage of the latest improvements and new functionality. Detailed information about the "Six" theme is available in our documentation at Customising the Six Theme.

Smarty Security Policy Update - WHMCS 7.0 introduces support for Smarty Security Policies. The default policies are to allow all PHP functionality in system templates but only a restricted predefined list of functions and modifiers in email templates. For most use cases, these policies will not need to be modified. Learn more at Public Documentation for End Users.

Deprecation of InternetSecure Payment Processor - The InternetSecure payment processor service is being discontinued on August 31, 2016. As a result, we will no longer shipping the InternetSecure module. For existing installations, the module will not be removed, however users are recommended to find an alternative payment processor before that time. For a full list of payment gateway options, navigate to Setup > Payment Gateways within your WHMCS installation.

jQuery UI Library Update - The version of the jQuery UI library we ship with WHMCS has been updated from v1.11.2 to v1.11.4. As part of that update, we removed the tooltip functionality to resolve a compatibility issue with Bootstrap tooltips. If you were previously using jQuery UI tooltips, we recommend replacing it with the Bootstrap tooltip functionality should it be required in any custom code.

DuoSecurity - WHMCS 7.0 requires users of DuoSecurity to configure their own DuoSecurity Account and Credentials by November 30th, 2016 to ensure uninterrupted service. Learn more…

Dependency Updates - Our dependencies were updated to take advantage of the best and most modern features that are available. The Illuminate dependencies provided by Laravel, which form the basis of our Database ORM layer, reflect major changes to how these packages deal with objects. The Symfony dependencies were updated to allow easier access and manipulation native structural components. The latest version of PHPseclib added more IPv6 support, as well as included minor bug fixes. Below is a complete list of dependencies updated and removed in Version 7:

New Documentation Articles

Dependency Updates

Uninstalled
- guzzle/guzzle (v3.9.3)
- symfony/event-dispatcher (v2.8.11)

Installed
- composer/composer (1.0.3)
- composer/semver (1.4.2)
- composer/spdx-licenses (1.1.4)
- doctrine/inflector (v1.1.0)
- guzzlehttp/guzzle (5.0.3)
- guzzlehttp/ringphp (1.1.0)
- guzzlehttp/streams (3.0.0)
- illuminate/console (v5.2.37)
- illuminate/contracts (v5.2.45)
- justinrainbow/json-schema (1.6.1)
- mtdowling/cron-expression (v1.1.0)
- paragonie/random_compat (v1.4.1)
- react/promise (v2.4.1)
- symfony/console (v2.8.11)
- symfony/finder (v2.8.7)
- symfony/filesystem (v3.0.9)
- symfony/polyfill-php55 (v1.2.0)
- symfony/polyfill-php54 (v1.2.0)
- symfony/polyfill-mbstring (v1.2.0)
- symfony/process (v2.8.11)
- seld/jsonlint (1.4.1)
- seld/phar-utils (1.0.1)

Updated
- illuminate/support (v4.1.30) to illuminate/support (v5.2.37)
- illuminate/container (v4.1.30) to illuminate/container (v5.2.37)
- illuminate/database (v4.1.30) to illuminate/database (v5.2.37)
- illuminate/events (v4.1.30) to illuminate/events (v5.2.37)
- knplabs/knp-menu (v2.1.0) to knplabs/knp-menu (v2.1.1)
- league/climate (3.2.0) to league/climate (3.2.1)
- monolog/monolog (1.17.2) to monolog/monolog (1.18.2)
- nesbot/carbon (1.20.0) to nesbot/carbon (1.21.0)
- php-imap/php-imap (2.0.4) to php-imap/php-imap (2.0.6)
- phpmailer/phpmailer (v5.2.14) to phpmailer/phpmailer (v5.2.16)
- phpseclib/phpseclib (1.0.0) to phpseclib/phpseclib (2.0.2)
- rhumsaa/uuid (2.8.2) to ramsey/uuid (3.4.1)
- smarty/smarty (v3.1.21) to smarty/smarty (v3.1.29)
- symfony/http-foundation (v2.6.11) to symfony/http-foundation (v2.8.7)
- symfony/translation (v2.6.11) to symfony/translation (v2.8.7)
- symfony/yaml (v2.6.11) to symfony/yaml (v2.8.7)