First things first...

To install K2 for the first time or update your existing K2 based website, just grab the latest package here: https://getk2.org/downloads/?f=K2_Rolling_Release.zip

The process to update K2 is fairly simple. If you are on Joomla 1.5, grab the zip file from the link above and install it on top of your existing K2 version. If you are on Joomla 2.5 or 3.x, go to the Joomla update manager, purge the update cache, re-check and you'll see the new release available to update instantly.

 

So what's new with this release?

Here's a list of the most notable additions, changes or updates in K2 v2.11, organized by main topic:

NEW FEATURES

• New "Selected Tags" feature in the K2 Tools. This allows you to create a hot/trending style tags menu for the frontend. For a real-world example, have a look at the "Trending" section on this site.
• New meta tags for Twitter sharing and tag/user listings.
• Added "Not specified" option in user gender option.

IMPROVEMENTS & BUG FIXES

GENERAL

• Full PHP 8 support. Keep in mind that outdated HTML template overrides may still cause minor issues if you switch your site to PHP 8. These are usually very easy to fix by comparing your overrides and the lines that produce errors with the default overrides in K2.
• Massive code cleanups, under-the-hood changes & fixes of various PHP notices and warnings.

URL ROUTING

• Further performance improvements in K2 URL routing.
• Automatically use the K2 menu item with the highest ID pointing to all K2 categories as fallback (root) menu item for tags, users etc. This way you'll never end up for example with "/component/k2/" prefixed URLs for tags & users.

MODULES

• K2 Content: Fixed the "today" popularity filter in J3.x.
• K2 Tools: Added field togglers in J3.x. This will make navigating to the actual option used much easier when editing that module.
• K2 Tools: Improve PHP code rendeing when using it through the "custom code" option (no temp files used anymore).
• Set hidden XML option "cachemode" to "static" by default on all K2 modules, which improves cache performance in J3.x.
• Remove pre-specified cache time (in seconds) in all K2 modules.

FRONTEND

• Added option to use a WYSIWYG or plain text editor in the profile register/edit pages.
• Extend the "robots" meta tag with "max-image-preview:large", which is utilized by Google Discover to display large image previews by default.
• Added option in the K2 Settings (component) to control Twitter sharing card layout: either use a small image with text on the right OR a large image with text at the bottom
• Improved the meta tags "description" & "keywords" used in tag & user (author blog) views. Indexed tag/user pages by Google will now produce better preview titles in Google search results.
• Enrich available data for previous/next item navigation. You can now create for example image based previous/next blocks with title & introtext below your K2 item content, instead of plain text links. See the code comments in the item.php override for more.
• Item navigation will now honor either default category ordering (by item ID) or explicit (custom) ordering (as set in each K2 category). Ordering by other factors (e.g. date, alphabetical etc.) will be added at a later update.
• Added reCaptcha/Mootools JS patch for Joomla 1.5 & 2.5.

TAGS

• Better handling for deleted or non-existing tags by redirect to the site's homepage. The same applies to a tag's feed or json output and helps reduce indexing issues with search engines like Google or Bing.
• Pass raw tag name to the tag.php template (to be used with $this->name) - handy if you want to create custom headings or meta data

FEEDS

• In itemlist feeds (categories, tags etc.), use the "modified date" when ordering results by "latest modified" in the relevant backend settings.
• Fix typo in itemlist feeds' generated HTML inside the "description" tag and also convert multi-line "description" to single-line (helps with validation).
• Properly handle double quotes in image alt attributes for all generated feeds.
• New feature: Generated feed URLs can now be manipulated with the use of 2 query parameters (tagsontitle & taglimit) to allow rendering actual K2 item tags in each feed item's title. E.g. the URL https://www.example.com/allnews?format=feed&tagsontitle=1&taglimit=2 will enable this feature (tagsontitle=1) and include the first 2 item tags (taglimit=2) on each feed item's title. This can come extremely handy when you want to enrich your K2 feeds output, especially when using K2 feeds for auto-posting content in social media (e.g. Twitter or Facebook). For example, a tweet generated by the feed content would include these tags on its text, e.g. "K2 is awesome for social media posting #awesome #joomla" (followed by an image preview & link of course).

SEARCH

• Improved frontend search result display and added more content fields as "searchable" by default (e.g. the image caption field).
• Disable searching for words smaller than 3 characters (default MySQL/MariaDB limit) - filter the visible search phrase.
• Properly enforce the correct search URL route when using the relevant option in the K2 Tools' "Search" settings.

BACKEND

• Bring back the ID indicator in the item & category edit forms (first tab).
• Align drop-down lists to the left inside the batch processing modal.
• Show a disabled "Settings" menu when editing content in the backend (otherwise it just looks weird for admins editing content)
• Optimize file uploading in the K2 item form & allow all safe file types to be uploaded as an attachment. Also extended MIME type support to allow uploading newer file formats as attachments.

DATABASE

• Enforce specific index use for frontend itemlists when sorting items by dates (query optimizer hints).
• Add missing table indices on existing K2 installations upon upgrading K2. This will improve database performance for existing K2 installations.
• Rewrote some SQL queries for full MySQL 8 compatibility.
• Mark frontend & backend itemlist queries with SQL comments. This will come extremely handy when using a terminal/CLI query monitoring app like mytop or innotop to distinguish between heavy frontend (=bot crawling) or backend operations. E.g. in mytop you'll now see the queries marked like /* Backend / K2 / Items */ SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS... or /* Frontend / K2 / Items */ SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS....

MEDIA

• Added URL query timestamp for user avatars in the frontend - this will allow for proper cache busting when using a CDN like CloudFlare (or others) to serve images.
• Fix AllVideos rendering in the frontend for browsed media.
• Image caption & credits are now properly deleted when you delete a K2 item image.
• Fixed issue where pasted media embeds could not be removed from the K2 item form.
• When using the IAKI plugin for K2, ensure that the generated K2 image paths for Google Structured Data are absolute and not relative.
• MIME types for image galleries uploaded as zip archives have been corrected to match the extraction capabilities of the Joomla API (and its settings under the Media component).

CACHING

• Improve client-side caching for K2 item pages with the proper use of "Last-Modified" and "ETag" HTTP headers for Joomla 1.5 and up to 3.x, even when server-side caching is enabled in Joomla (and you know, Joomla does its thing and does not produce the relevant HTTP headers, because... don't ask...).

INSTALLER/UPDATER

• Fixed default K2 user groups not being configured upon first time installation on Joomla 2.5 & 3.x.

IMPORTER

• Prevent duplicate tag importing (in Joomla 3.x). Meta tags and actual tags (from com_tags) are properly filtered as unique K2 tags.

THIRD-PARTY INTEGRATIONS

• Allow YOOtheme Pro integration (code contributed by Zoolanders - thanks guys!). More info here.
• Removed reCAPTCHA v1 support (along with one PHP library dependency).
• Added option to configure theme selection for reCAPTCHA v2 in K2 Settings (component).
• K2 Media Manager: Updated elFinder to v2.1.61 - this will re-instate file uploads thorugh the K2 Media Manager on sites hosted on Plesk-based servers, as previous releases of elFinder where blocked by Plesk to address general vulnerabilities in elFinder (despite existing safety checks in K2 which further protect elFinder). Plesk would simply cut off elFinder loading simply by checking its version.
• Replaced jQueryCDN with cdnjs by CloudFlare.

Upgrading

If you use v2.7.x to v2.9.x already, then it is (as always) safe to upgrade to K2 v2.11. If you use a version before 2.7.0, refer to the 2.7.0 upgrade notes.

If you already have your own K2 CSS and/or HTML template overrides then there's nothing to worry about. If you use "stock" K2 CSS and HTML template overrides, just browse your site after the upgrade to make sure nothing's misalligned. In any case, exceptions may occur but they are usually easy to resolve. If you need any help, just post about your issue in the K2 Community Forum.

Since the release of K2 v2.7.0 we have added an update notification for new releases of K2 within the K2 backend (viewed only by super admins) to make it easier to spot new releases and update accordingly.

Before upgrading, it's always a good idea to get a backup of your site (just in case):

• To upgrade in Joomla 1.5, just install v2.10.0 on top of any existing K2 installation.
• To upgrade in Joomla 2.5 or 3.x, either install on top (as with Joomla 1.5) or use Joomla's extension updater (you should already see the notification for v2.10.0).

DO NOT uninstall any older K2 version first, as this will wipe out your K2 content!

 

HTML & CSS Template Overrides

As always, have a look here for potential updates to overrides in K2: https://getk2.org/documentation/tutorials/77-k2-template-override-package-comparison

 

K2 is now a rolling release

We are switching K2 to a rolling release development model.

And no "we don't use Arch BTW"...

What the hell is a rolling release development model you ask? It means more frequent *official* updates for K2. Like days apart, compared to *cough* years apart, despite K2 actually being constantly updated, cause you know... we actually use K2 on day-to-day large projects which in turn pay for the bills to keep supporting K2 for the last ~14 years...

Why the change you ask? Because we're bad at writing lengthy blog posts like this, preparing releases and the usual yada-yada. It's a tedious process to be honest for a project like K2. Instead, the rolling release option will allow us to ship changes much faster without interrupting the usual update process for end-users.

There will still be point releases, e.g. "K2 v2.11", but these will constantly be updated and marked by a build ID (which is a fancy way to timestamp software), whenever code changes are committed to the project. Point releases are practical in the sense that they can be used as a reference so you know if a given K2 release series is compatible with a given Joomla or PHP version in the future.

Since we're switching to the rolling release development model, K2 download buttons are now automatically marked with the last code commit date.

So if you're going the rolling release way, how will you document changes you ask? We'll use human-readable & easily accesible GitHub commits as our changelog in the future, so you know exactly what changes with every release. The update process will not change for you, the end-user of K2.

Of course whenever there is a large release change (e.g. the upcoming v4 to support Joomla 4), we'll let you know with a distinct announcement. As you know we always strive for backwards compatiblity (unlike *cough* Joomla), so if there are any breaking changes, we'll make sure you always know.

(v3 is jinxed by the way...)

Which bring us to the next point...

 

K2, Joomla 4 & beyond...

A release for Joomla 4 is long overdue, we know...

But this boils down to 2 main reasons:

1. Joomla loves backwards compatibility the same way vampires love the sun. For some unknown reason, the Joomla dev team always strives for the shiny/new, nevermind if this shiny/new is something users never see or experience (=constant Joomla API renamings & changes). I'm guessing that's the main reason Joomla 4 updated its backend UI. If it was the usual API changes, Joomla users would flock en masse to other CMSs that respect backwards compatibility, fearing history would repeat itself, as when Joomla 1.6 was released (over Joomla 1.5, which were 2 totally different CMSs). As such K2 needs to be adapted for unnecessary code renamings. But that's the least work...
2. Joomla 4 has a new backend UI. Yes. And pub polls indicate it's not really loved for practical reasons. It may seem fresher (or WordPress-ier?) but it's a UI thay requires more clicks to do the same tasks you did in Joomla 3. The settings are also messy. The menus are ugh... It's difficult to work with on smaller resolutions (e.g. 1440px width screens). The list goes on... But when did actual users matter for Joomla for the past decade or so? And to make matters worse, the updated Joomla 4 UI basically requires a total UI rework for any decent sized backend component like K2.

And these 2 points are probably known to the Joomla dev team, as indicated by their plans for Joomla 5 to openly focus on backwards compatibility (b/c) for the first time. Of course Joomla 5's codename ("Panta Rhei", which freely translates to "everything flows") is not really inspiring on the b/c front, but let's be optimistic.

Given the above, K2 for Joomla 4 will be released as v4 and will most likely only support Joomla 4.

We'll keep the 2.x series for Joomla 1.5 - 3.x and update as long as possible to allow you for an easy upgrade path to Joomla 4 (or 5) when you decide to do that. K2's database rarely changes either way, so worse-case scenario you'll just install K2 v4 on Joomla 4+, copy over the K2 database tables from your J1.5-3.x site, move the media files and you're ready.

New features will only be added to K2 v4 and we will gradually move away from the Joomla API to a more modern implementation, which will be Joomla-backwards-compatiblity-breaking-proof^TM.

For now, enjoy K2 v2.11.

It's production-ready and powering some of the highest traffic Joomla sites in the world. And this is not a pub poll ;)

 

* Some have said that if a nuclear war ever happened, K2 v2 and cockroaches would be the only things to survive the apocalypse.

 

To install K2 for the first time or update your existing K2 based website, just grab the latest package here: https://getk2.org/downloads/?f=K2_v2.10.3.zip

The process to update K2 is fairly simple. If you are on Joomla 1.5, grab the zip file from the link above and install it on top of your existing K2 version. If you are on Joomla 2.5 or 3.x, go to the Joomla update manager, purge the update cache, re-check and you'll see the new release available to update instantly.

 

So what's been added, changed or updated in this new release?

Here's a list of the most notable additions, changes or updates in K2 v2.10.3.

• Finalized the backend UI (building upon the changes that were introduced with v2.10.0 to v2.10.2). From minor alignment issues (e.g. in tag controls or extra field renderings in the item edit form) to having the same UI controls in all component views, modules and menus, across all supported Joomla versions.
• Any file upload control will now properly trigger the right media action when using K2 in a smartphone or tablet. That means you can now use your smartphone's camera to snap a picture and upload it directly to a K2 item. Or a video and upload it to the "Media" tab. The change that is planned for K2 v2.11.0 (the next update) is to change the current tab layout in the K2 item edit form to a linear form and also offer an optional lightweight and mobile/touch-friendly WYSIWYG editor to replace any Joomla (desktop oriented) WYSIWYG editor when editing content through a smartphone or tablet.
• Extra fields: Added new "select extra field group" default option when creating a new extra field (previously the first group was preselected), the "required" option is now set to "no" by default, improved CSV uploading & previewing/rendering, updated the layout for extra fields in the K2 item edit form (emphasized headers, extended spacing for lists/checkboxes to cover for lengthy text options, textareas & WYSIWYG blocks that cover all available horizontal space & are now better to manage content and more).
• Fixed JCE top tabs misalignment which was caused by generic CSS styling.
• A link to the K2 Settings is now available in both the sidebar and button toolbar.
• Introduced new option "Set a request limit for all item listings..." in the "Advanced" section of the "Administrator" tab. To protect your site from serving unintended large requests for K2 item listings (via HTML, Atom/RSS feeds and the JSON API) when the 'limit' URL variable is manually modified, this option allows you to configure a hardcoded limit and prevent your database from potential downtime and thus your site. If you set this option to 0 then no limit is enforced. This option was previously hardcoded in the itemlist views to 100 items.
• Improved client-side caching with the addition of 2 new HTTP headers ("Last-Modified" & "Etag") that allow K2 to better control client-side caching to browsers and server-side caching to proxies like Varnish, Haproxy, Nginx etc. Unlike Joomla content, when caching is only enabled in Joomla's Global Configuration options, K2 will properly respond with adjusted Cache-Control/Expires headers plus the 2 new HTTP headers added. In the end, your Joomla/K2 site will simply be served more efficiently to your visitors.
• To complement the HTTP header changes, K2 now ensures that it will always send the correct Content-Type HTTP header for JSON and JSONP requests, even when caching is enabled in Joomla. The way Joomla handles HTTP headers when caching is enabled is really a long-standing big WTF. TLDR; when caching is enabled in Joomla, components cannot send HTTP headers corrently because Joomla only caches the HTML body that is output by each component view & not HTTP headers. K2 works around this Joomla limitation by passing a custom type script tag in the <head> of the HTML page that defines any custom HTTP headers required by its content & finally the K2 system plugin parses this specialized script tag and sends the additional HTTP headers passed by K2 content.
• Fixed auto-generated feed URLs (broken in v2.10.2). Feeds will now be generated as relative URLs only.
• The canonical URL option can now be entirely disabled.
• Properly set the canonical URL for paginated itemlist views. If an item is crawled by a search engine in "Page 2" of your category listing, then K2 will use that specific page's URL for the canonical URL <head> link.
• Fixed canonical URLs for tag/user views when Joomla is served from a domain subdirectory.
• K2 Content (module): added new "today" option for the popularity filter. This option is handy especially for media sites that only wish to display the day's most popular K2 items (based on hits).
• Fixed the "title" for attachments.
• Link-type extra fields now provide the raw URL as part of their output (either as $this->item->rawValue or $item->rawValue, depending on where they are rendered).
• Removed hardcoded restrictions in the K2 item model (frontend) for the user object. In other words, user details (like the name, avatar etc.) will be usable anywhere in K2 content.
• Improved the K2 URL router's performance. Additional URL manipulation options and performance improvements are planned for K2 v2.11.0.
• Improved compatibility with Falang and resolved the dreaded "pagination missing" issue.
• Translated tag pages with either JoomFish or Falang will now be properly rendered by K2.
• Improved compatibility with PHP 7.4.
• Resolved fatal error when using PHP 5.3 (as reported in https://github.com/getk2/k2/issues/506) to comply with Joomla 3.x's minimum requirements (https://downloads.joomla.org/technical-requirements).

 

A word on translation packages for K2

It recently came to our attention that some K2 language packs still use the infamous "_QQ_" identifier, which dates back to the days of Joomla 1.6! This identifier was used to render double quotes in language packs but it now causes broken translations for K2 in recent versions of Joomla, as it is no longer supported by Joomla.

As such, in order to resolve this issue once and for all, we now pre-process all language packs and remove that indentifier, ensuring it is replaced by a single quote.

This results in usable language packs for the affected languages (e.g. French, Danish and many others).

 

Upgrading

If you use v2.7.x to v2.9.x already, then it is (as always) safe to upgrade to K2 v2.10.3. If you use a version before 2.7.0, refer to the 2.7.0 upgrade notes.

If you already have your own K2 CSS and/or HTML template overrides then there's nothing to worry about. If you use "stock" K2 CSS and HTML template overrides, just browse your site after the upgrade to make sure nothing's misalligned. In any case, exceptions may occur but they are usually easy to resolve. If you need any help, just post about your issue in the K2 Community Forum.

Since the release of K2 v2.7.0 we have added an update notification for new releases of K2 within the K2 backend (viewed only by super admins) to make it easier to spot new releases and update accordingly.

Before upgrading, it's always a good idea to get a backup of your site (just in case):

• To upgrade in Joomla 1.5, just install v2.10.0 on top of any existing K2 installation.
• To upgrade in Joomla 2.5 or 3.x, either install on top (as with Joomla 1.5) or use Joomla's extension updater (you should already see the notification for v2.10.0).

We also highly recommend that you update AllVideos to version 5.x (the most recent).

DO NOT uninstall any older K2 version first, as this will wipe out your K2 content!

 

HTML & CSS Template Overrides

Have a look here: https://getk2.org/documentation/tutorials/77-k2-template-override-package-comparison

There are minor changes in the tag.php and generic.php sub-templates due to the addition of page headings and the search bar (in generic.php).

 

What's next

The next update (v2.11.0) will finalize the new K2 URL router (more URL manipulation options & better performance) and introduce a new (optional) mobile & touch friendly editor for content editing via smartphones and tablets, which will make content editing easier compared to traditional WYSIWYG editors in Joomla.

There is already a list of other minor improvements for K2 v2.11.0 which will further refine the 2.x series, but no other significant changes will be introduced. These are pushed for K2 v4 (you read that correctly, there won't be a v3) which will be 100% backwards compatible with K2 v2 and as such the upgrade process will be seamsless (as always). K2 v4 will be Joomla 4 compatible & it will introduce major updates to frontend component views & modules, a new modular extra fields system with new extra field types, attachment re-ordering, integration with Joomla's user action logging & privacy features & more.

For now, enjoy K2 v2.10.3!

To install K2 for the first time or update your existing K2 based website, just grab the latest package here: https://getk2.org/downloads/?f=K2_v2.10.2.zip

The process to update K2 is fairly simple. If you are on Joomla 1.5, grab the zip file from the link above and install it on top of your existing K2 version. If you are on Joomla 2.5 or 3.x, go to the Joomla update manager, purge the update cache, re-check and you'll see the new release available to instantly update.

So what's been added, changed or updated in this new release?

Here's a list of the important things added, changed or updated in K2 v2.10.2.

• Fully re-worked backend user interface (UI) that is now 100% mobile-friendly. We'd like to think it's the best looking -and more importantly the most practical to use in a mobile device- Joomla component. The new UI has been carefully crafted and tested on multiple devices, on all K2 views, including menus and modules, for a true mobile app-like feel. If you manage content on the go, then you'll love using K2 on smartphones and/or tablets.
• Fully revamped the "batch operations" modal in the backend UI.
• Flatpickr has been reverted to the latest version in the 4.5.x series (v4.5.7). This resolves a bug which made deleting a calendar date impossible. Once the developers of Flatpickr resolve this issue, K2 will adopt the new version in the next update.
• Resolved a bug where K2 items with no images would display with an empty <img /> tag in the K2 content module and on custom K2 template overrides (with relaxed image object checks).
• Addressed a (low severity) vulnerability that was discovered in the third-party PHP library "class.upload.php" that K2 uses for file uploads. Under certain server setups (e.g. fresh Ubuntu 18.04 installation with Apache, PHP and MySQL installed from core repos) an attacker could upload certain file types as images, bypassing the library's security checks. Keep in mind that depending on your server's MIME configuration, you may not be affected at all by this vulnerability (e.g. cPanel-based  or Plesk-based servers are not affected). A sincere thank you to Jinny Ramsmark (of Defensify AB) for discovering the vulnerability and for letting us know in advance. You can read the related reports for CVE-2019–19576 and CVE-2019–19634 in Jinny's blog.
• Re-instated the "edit Joomla user" toolbar button in the K2 edit user form which was previously hidden in Joomla 3.x only.
• Fixed various backend UI bugs that were introduced in v2.10.1, e.g. the filters in the K2 modal selector are no longer getting cut-off by the modal header.
• System messages will now hide after 3 seconds (instead of 5 in v2.10.1).
• New flat-style K2 favicon used in Joomla 1.5 & 2.5.

Upgrading

If you use v2.7.x to v2.9.x already, then it is (as always) safe to upgrade to K2 v2.10.1. If you use a version before 2.7.0, refer to the 2.7.0 upgrade notes.

If you already have your own K2 CSS and/or HTML template overrides then there's nothing to worry about. If you use "stock" K2 CSS and HTML template overrides, just browse your site after the upgrade to make sure nothing's misalligned. In any case, exceptions may occur but they are usually easy to resolve. If you need any help, just post about your issue in the K2 Community Forum.

Since the release of K2 v2.7.0 we have added an update notification for new releases of K2 within the K2 backend (viewed only by super admins) to make it easier to spot new releases and update accordingly.

Before upgrading, it's always a good idea to get a backup of your site (just in case):

• To upgrade in Joomla 1.5, just install v2.10.0 on top of any existing K2 installation.
• To upgrade in Joomla 2.5 or 3.x, either install on top (as with Joomla 1.5) or use Joomla's extension updater (you should already see the notification for v2.10.0).

We also highly recommend that you update AllVideos to version 5.x (the most recent).

DO NOT uninstall any older K2 version first, as this will wipe out your K2 content!

HTML & CSS Template Overrides

Have a look here: https://getk2.org/documentation/tutorials/77-k2-template-override-package-comparison

There are minor changes in the tag.php and generic.php sub-templates due to the addition of page headings and the search bar (in generic.php).

What's next

The next major update (v2.11.0 - around Jan/Feb 2020) will introduce a more modernized (& responsive out-of-the-box) frontend, hopefully with zero dependencies to any 3rd party JS library. This basically translates to improvements for all frontend views to share a common structure, which will make creating your own set of K2 template overrides an even easier task, especially if your category, tag, user etc. views share the same design and features.

These changes will also be coupled with some content changes (e.g. the removal of the item toolbar in the item view). As always, ful backwards compatibility will allow for safe upgrades to the newer release.

Enjoy K2 v2.10.2!

We stopped accepting new entries for templates in the KED about 2 weeks ago and this week we unpublished all template entries. So the KED now consists only of extensions that support or interface with K2, plus the translations which are automatically created from K2's project on Transifex.

The new getk2.org will have a special section to list all Joomla template providers that support K2. So if you wish to get listed there, just send us a message through this site's contact form. To the template providers who decide not to get listed in this new section of our site, we thank you for having supported K2 so far.

Beyond these changes, we've started a new curated showcase section which replaces any old (and some outdated) listings. The plan is to list websites that really make a great case for the K2 showcase, not just any Joomla site built with K2 (there are hundreds of thousands either way). Priority will be given to sites from well-known brands (local or international) and sites that are exceptionally designed & developed (even if they are just small corporate site presentations).

If you've built (or know) a K2 site that matches these simple requirements, let us know - either on social media or using this site's contact form.

To install K2 for the first time or update your existing K2 based website, just grab the latest package here: https://getk2.org/downloads/?f=K2_v2.10.1.zip

The process to update K2 is fairly simple. If you are on Joomla 1.5, grab the zip file from the link above and install it on top of your existing K2 version. If you are on Joomla 2.5 or 3.x, go to the Joomla update manager, purge the update cache, re-check and you'll see the new release available to instantly update.

So what's been added, changed or updated in this new release?

Here's a list of the important things added, changed or updated in K2 v2.10.1.

• Improves and refines the backend user interface, following the changes that were introduced with v2.10.0. Messages follow a uniform (app-like) style on all supported Joomla releases and they auto-hide after 5 seconds.
• The K2 Settings page has been re-organized into more logical groups, to make configuring your K2 site even easier. A new option has also been added to disable item hit tracking in the frontend (e.g. for those that use caching or -most commonly- an external analytics system).
• The search view (for K2 results only) has ben upgraded to include a search bar. Previously you were forced to combine that view with the search option of the K2 Tools module to have a working "search & browse" functionality for your K2 content.
• Meta tags (common, opengraph/social etc.) have been re-worked to produce a uniform set on all K2 views (minus any elements that are missing by default - e.g. a tag view cannot have an image meta tag for Facebook/Twitter sharing).
• Updated all 3rd party JS libraries and elFinder (which powers the K2 Media Manager) to their latest versions.
• Flatpickr, the JS widget for date insertion in K2 has been configured to also load a localized version if you use a language different to Engish. So if your backend is in French, Flatpickr language strings (e.g. the days) will also load in French.

In more detail...

Bugs fixed:

• Fixed the main K2 menu router as the changes introduced in 2.10.0 left some multilingual Joomla with partially broken URLs (specifically to content pointing to secondary languages).
• Fixed a permissions bug in Joomla 1.5 which caused "managers" not to be able to assign a different author to a K2 item.
• Fixed a visual bug where the new K2 sidebar was being loaded in the item edit form's extra fields when switching category to load a different set of fields.
• Missing or incomplete meta tags have been fixed. All views will now display common, opengraph (Facebook) and Twitter meta tags based on this inheritance pattern: category settings > item settings > menu settings. In other words, any changes to meta tags in the menu items will now always prevail over any other setting. For any missing meta tag content, K2 will generate automated content (e.g. for the tag view when a tag does not belong to a menu item and thus it does not contain data like meta description or keywords) and supplement any missing details from whatever is configured in Joomla's global configuration.

Backend:

• Re-organized all K2 settings into new logical groups to make initial K2 configuration easier. The plan is to further extend the options available especially for the frontend layouts/views to allow e.g. for using a grid layout (setup) for the tag view or for loading a different image size for the search results. In other words, bring the "generic" layouts closer to their category layouts in terms of configuration and templating flexibility.
• New styling for system messages, now common to all Joomla versions supported by K2. These messages will also auto-hide after 5 seconds.
• Fixed list offset in smaller screens or when tag filtering is enabled in "Items". The list will now be properly placed when filters increase in height.
• Further layout/design improvements to all edit forms, especially those for item, category, user and extra field.
• Overall it's the most refined K2 backend ever built. What is planned for the next update is to swap the "move" feature under "Users" to the more flexible "batch" dialog which is also used in "Items" and "Categories".

Frontend:

• Major improvements in meta tags (as referenced earlier).
• Search bar in K2 search results.
• Page heading for date/search/tag listings.
• The pagination container now wraps both navigation and "page X of Y" to div containers to make different layouts easier (e.g. stacked or side by side) with pure CSS overrides.
• Feeds now have a personalized title instead of the boring "RSS 2.0" or "Atom 1.0" which has been a commonplace in Joomla components for over a decade.
• Hit tracking for items can now be disabled, especially for sites that don't need to sort items by popularity, sites with caching enabled or just sites that use external analytics. Disable hit tracking will also improve performance slightly, especially for sites still with K2 still on MyISAM tables (less transactions for the items table).

API / For developers:

• The item image object now holds more details to allow better image manipulation, e.g. if you wish to build custom meta tags in your K2 template overrides you can easily grab the file name path sans the size suffix. Just do a var_dump on the $item->image or $this->item-image objects to get the additional properties and use them however you like.
• Structured data (which were introduced in v2.10.0) can also be overriden by third-party extensions to allow for different data types to be created/integrated.

Upgrading

If you use v2.7.x to v2.9.x already, then it is (as always) safe to upgrade to K2 v2.10.1. If you use a version before 2.7.0, refer to the 2.7.0 upgrade notes.

If you already have your own K2 CSS and/or HTML template overrides then there's nothing to worry about. If you use "stock" K2 CSS and HTML template overrides, just browse your site after the upgrade to make sure nothing's misalligned. In any case, exceptions may occur but they are usually easy to resolve. If you need any help, just post about your issue in the K2 Community Forum.

Since the release of K2 v2.7.0 we have added an update notification for new releases of K2 within the K2 backend (viewed only by super admins) to make it easier to spot new releases and update accordingly.

Before upgrading, it's always a good idea to get a backup of your site (just in case):

• To upgrade in Joomla 1.5, just install v2.10.0 on top of any existing K2 installation.
• To upgrade in Joomla 2.5 or 3.x, either install on top (as with Joomla 1.5) or use Joomla's extension updater (you should already see the notification for v2.10.0).

We also highly recommend that you update AllVideos to version 5.x (the most recent).

DO NOT uninstall any older K2 version first, as this will wipe out your K2 content!

HTML & CSS Template Overrides

Have a look here: https://getk2.org/documentation/tutorials/77-k2-template-override-package-comparison

There are minor changes in the tag.php and generic.php sub-templates due to the addition of page headings and the search bar (in generic.php).

What's next

The next update (v2.10.2) will finalize the backend UI to be completely responsive, even for very small screens. Expect that within 30 days.

That was the plan all along ever since the refreshed backend UI was introduced in K2 and frankly this is made a lot easier with the use of CSS Grid properties, which are already partially used after 2.10.0. For example, this is how we got K2 in Joomla 2.5 to look so nice in module parameters, menus etc. without overriding the core parameter renderer.

Then we're onto version 2.11.0 (Jan/Feb 2020) with more refinements primarily in the frontend. This basically translates to improvements for view layouts & more control options to make setup easier and more flexible. These changes will be coupled with some design changes (e.g. the removal of the item toolbar in the item view).

Of course in every update we'll always do micro-improvements and refinements to existing features (e.g. new filters, view/layout options etc.).

Enjoy K2 v2.10.1!

To install K2 for the first time or update your existing K2 based website, just grab the latest package here: https://getk2.org/downloads/?f=K2_v2.10.0.zip

The process to update K2 is fairly simple. If you are on Joomla 1.5, grab the zip file from the link above and install it on top of your existing K2 version. If you are on Joomla 2.5 or 3.x, go to the Joomla update manager, purge the update cache, re-check and you'll see the new release available to instantly update.

So what's been added, changed or updated in this new release?

Here's a list of the important things added, changed or updated in K2 v2.10.0.

• New, refreshed, backend design for the K2 component, modules and menus. The new design is 98% identical on all currently supported Joomla releases (1.5, 2.5 & 3.x) and improves your workflow substantially, overall making the process of managing content with K2 more enjoyable than ever.
• All modals and content selectors have been re-worked. New unified modal for selecting items, categories, tags or users in K2 or other extensions that integrate with K2.
• Massive code restructuring, as we pave the way towards Joomla 4 compatibility.
• Improved compatibility with PHP 7.2 & 7.3. If you get any "countable()" warnings in your site's frontend, you need to compare your K2 template overrides with the source K2 overrides and adjust any PHP check added next to "count($whatever)" uses.
• Twitter cards & Google Structured Data support added for K2 items in the frontend. Keep in mind that Google Structured Data is supported for 3 content types out-of-the-box (article, news article and blog post). If you wish to utilize the other content types included, you'll need some plugin to extend K2's item form with necessary fields, as required by each content type spec (e.g. a "product" requires a price field, reviews etc.). A commercial plugin will complement this K2 feature in the coming months...

In more detail...

Bugs fixed:

• Fix broken language filter in SQL query in the K2 Comments module
• Fix check for non-valid (placeholder) custom link in K2 Content
• Retrieve unique items in all frontend itemlists
• Updated JS libs, swapped CDNJS with jsDelivr & jQuery CDN (both GFW friendly)
• Properly render content plugins (Joomla & K2) in the item gallery and media output
• Improve plugin parsing in the K2 Content module
• K2 User module: Fix menu fetching in J3.x latest
• Fixed K2 URL router to properly fetch all menu items when used in a multi-lingual J3.x site
• Fetch entire extra field group lists in backend forms
• Fixed CSV field loading in extra field edit form (previously broken)
• Don't enforce a published state for social media sharing buttons on install/upgrade when an option is uninitialized
• Fixed: When you press enter to confirm the tag entry - JCE editor gets enabled/disabled on every Enter press
• Fixed: Meta data set in the menu item should override any item specific values
• Don't attach OpenGraph namespace if it exists already (K2 System plugin)
• Fixed K2 items getting unpublished after being edited in the frontend (even though permissions were correctly set to allow for editing)

Performance:

• 50% less SQL queries (e.g. for the itemlist view) - sites using InnoDB will benefit even more from these changes
• SQL schema updates (improvements) for new installations
• Optimized theSQL query for retrieving authors in the backend (e.g. in filters, edit forms etc.)
• Added the ?m, ?amp, ?tmpl, ?template params as URL params for distinct caching in all frontend component views

Backend:

• New unified modal selector (as described earlier) - makes working with modules a lot easier and it's there for 3rd party developers to utilize in their own extensions that interface with K2
• Enlarged SIGPro modal in the item form
• Better checks for same item aliases when Advanced SEF is enabled in K2
• Moved SEO options to their own tab in the K2 Settings
• Added option (in new SEO tab in K2's settings) to control canonical URLs
• Added more plugin events in the category edit form
• Display the language code next to category names on all category dropdowns
• Enlarge the media modal selector & media manager (now covers all available screen space) - see screenshots below
• Improve attachment saving (item form) - resolves naming bug when saving a combination of uploaded files with files selected directly from the server
• Backend - User lists: add avatar preview (as on items, categories etc.)
• Backend - Simplified new extra field group creation in extra field form
• Backend - Show the generic size of an image in the image tab

Frontend:

• Display item tags on the tag.php layout - also added control in K2 Settings for the tag layout
• Sort related items (in item view) by ID, not by date created
• Fix frontend editing permissions related to editing already published items
• Display the attachment filename if no title and/or title attribute is set (previously showed as blank in the frontend)
• Google Structured Data - can be overridden per category/item
• Twitter card support
• Change comment sorting in mod_k2_comments' latest option by comment ID
• Allow multiple itemform.php overrides per "theme" (sub-template) folder
• Removed Google+ button
• ...and replaced with LinkedIn button
• Updated FaceBook like button and added "Share" option
• Enabled image timestamp by default on modified items
• Slight improvements to the comments report function in K2
• Load frontend editing using the system template (better template compatibility & less CSS conflicts)

Backend UI Redesign:

• New sidebar design
• Normalized forms/identity overall for a more enjoyable content management workflow
• Shorten filters length in backend lists
• You now get more screen "real estate" thanks to these changes
• Added a "no content" placeholder message when there is no data to show (e.g. no tags used)

API / For developers:

• Combined all HTML/Feed/Raw/JSON views for a unified data output set. Previously there were inconsistences on the data output e.g. between HTML (site) and JSON views.
• JSON/Feeds: Dynamically change the pagination (item limit) but protect from large limit requests - Allowed for simplified paginated results using "page"
• Set image per feed item as an enclosure object
• Add "onAfterK2DeleteAttachment" event for K2 plugins when deleting an attachment
• Set Google Structured JSON data as param in the item (for extending with plugins et al)

For the OCD folks (like your truly):

• Since dozens of files were refactored, we took the opportunity to reformat the code in all PHP files according to PSR-1/2. It's damn poetry I tell you :)
• HTML overrides have also been reformatted to be properly indented.
• Spaces have won over tabs. Don't debate it.

Why the hell we still support Joomla 1.5 & 2.5 (along with 3.x)

Cause Joomla was a migration between these versions and not an upgrade.

Lots of companies, especially those who invested in expensive custom extensions have no "real" need to update to the latest Joomla releases as long as their servers are secure. And with K2 (being one of the most secure Joomla extensions ever), they can afford to do that. Plus, whenever they decide to upgrade, they won't have to worry about data migration if their data is on K2 - it's just a matter of exporting the K2 DB tables and moving the static files (images, videos etc.) to a new Joomla/K2 installation.

Did I mention Joomla 1.5 still loads faster than Joomla 3.x? There, I did...

(And wait till we add Joomla 4 and *cough* WordPress *couph* to the list)

Upgrading

If you use v2.7.x to v2.9.x already, then it is (as always) safe to upgrade to K2 v2.10.0. If you use a version before 2.7.0, refer to the 2.7.0 upgrade notes.

If you already have your own K2 CSS and/or HTML template overrides then there's nothing to worry about. If you use "stock" K2 CSS and HTML template overrides, just browse your site after the upgrade to make sure nothing's misalligned. In any case, exceptions may occur but they are usually easy to resolve. If you need any help, just post about your issue in the K2 Community Forum.

Since the release of K2 v2.7.0 we have added an update notification for new releases of K2 within the K2 backend (viewed only by super admins) to make it easier to spot new releases and update accordingly.

Before upgrading, it's always a good idea to get a backup of your site (just in case):

• To upgrade in Joomla 1.5, just install v2.10.0 on top of any existing K2 installation.
• To upgrade in Joomla 2.5 or 3.x, either install on top (as with Joomla 1.5) or use Joomla's extension updater (you should already see the notification for v2.10.0).

We also highly recommend that you update AllVideos to version 5.x (the most recent).

DO NOT uninstall any older K2 version first, as this will wipe out your K2 content!

HTML & CSS Template Overrides

Have a look here: https://getk2.org/documentation/tutorials/77-k2-template-override-package-comparison

There are currently only PHP 7.2 compatible changes plus the swapping of Google+ with LinkedIn in social sharing buttons that need to be ported to existing overrides (primarily checks for "count()").

What's next / Goals

K2 has surpassed 3.5 million downloads already. It powers the top Joomla sites worldwide, especially the high traffic ones.

The goal for K2 is to be the killer app to use Joomla for.

We'll provide more details in the coming days through another blog post.

Enjoy K2 v2.10.0!


(Edited with minor corrections & additions)

To install K2 for the first time or update your existing K2 based website, just grab the latest package here: https://getk2.org/downloads/?f=K2_v2.9.0.zip

The process to update K2 is fairly simple. If you are on Joomla 1.5, grab the zip file from the link above and install it on top of your existing K2 version. If you are on Joomla 2.5 or 3.x, go to the Joomla update manager, purge the update cache, re-check and you'll see the new release available to instantly update. If you are still on Joomla 1.6 or 1.7 or 2.5, you're also still listening to cassette tapes (kewl!) - but why not do yourself a favour and upgrade to Joomla 3.x? It's easier than you think.

So what's been added, changed or updated in this new release in more detail?

Here's a list of the important things added, changed or updated in K2 v2.9.0.

• Lots of code restructuring as we pave the way towards Joomla 4 compatibility
• Frontend editing improvements & fixes. Important: If your template has an itemform.php K2 override that you did not base off at least K2 v2.8.0, please delete it as it will load an older version of the frontend editing item form and thus break frontend editing.
• Fixed non-latin characters being replaced by dashes in attachments (after uploaded)
• Removed Google Search option (deprecated API)
• Remove duplicate items when fetching item lists filtered with tags in mod_k2_content
• SQL query improvements in modules & related items (in the item view). K2 Content module performance improvements range between 20-30%. The performance boost will be especially visible on sites with heavy traffic and lots of K2 Content module instances published.
• Extra fields: Fixed relative path for images when inserted via extra fields - it would previously output the wrong file path if Joomla was installed in a subfolder of the public www root.
• Output the extra field alias as class name in all extra field loops (for targetted CSS styling)
• For developers: Fixed single category selection for new k2ModalSelector element/field - you can re-use this element/field to allow inserting items, categories or users in your own extensions by only specifying the "context" of the selector (see how it's implement for example in mod_k2_content).
• For integrators: Allow using ?template=X to load the correct template (view) overrides in K2 - very handy when creating a new template on an existing Joomla/K2 installation
• Fixed in which positions backend modules are configured in Joomla 3.x upon installing K2
• Fixed existing extra field data being nulled in the database when frontend editing for extra fields is disabled
• Additional security hardening for the K2 Media Manager (elFinder)
• Joomla 1.5 bug fixes since 2.8.0
• Fix URL scheme matching in item model (frontend)
• Updated all 3rd party dependencies to their latest versions
• Still 100% compatible with Joomla 1.5 and 2.5.
• Many, many other bug fixes and improvements under the hood.

Upgrading

If you use v2.7.x or v2.8.x already, then it is (as always) safe to upgrade to K2 v2.9.0. If you use a version before 2.7.0, refer to the 2.7.0 upgrade notes.

If you already have your own K2 CSS and/or HTML template overrides then there's nothing to worry about. If you use "stock" K2 CSS and HTML template overrides, just browse your site after the upgrade to make sure nothing's misalligned. In any case, exceptions may occur but they are usually easy to resolve. If you need any help, just post about your issue in the K2 Community Forum.

Since the release of K2 v2.7.0 we have added an update notification for new releases of K2 within the K2 backend (viewed only by super admins) to make it easier to spot new releases and update accordingly.

Before upgrading, it's always a good idea to get a backup of your site (just in case):

• To upgrade in Joomla 1.5, just install v2.9.0 on top of any existing K2 installation.
• To upgrade in Joomla 2.5 or 3.x, either install on top (as with Joomla 1.5) or use Joomla's extension updater (you should already see the notification for v2.9.0).

DO NOT uninstall any older K2 version first, as this will wipe out your K2 content!

HTML & CSS Template Overrides

Have a look here: https://getk2.org/documentation/tutorials/77-k2-template-override-package-comparison

There are currently no changes that need to be ported to existing overrides.

What's next

K2 v2.9.1 will come within October as we have identified 2 bugs which (although not a deal breaker) must be dealt soon. The first is related to frontend editing and more specifically published items get unpublished when edited by their authors, even though they should remain published (per K2's ACL). The other issue relates to how meta tags are stored in Joomla 3.x (now it's a string and it should be a JSON object). Along with these fixes, we'll be adding invisible reCaptcha and if reCaptcha v3 is ready by then, it'll also be implemented as an option.

Next versions will also come every 1-2 months as we're in the phase of refactoring/modernising the codebase and slowly moving towards Joomla 4 compatibility. It also means feature normalization, e.g. offer a "batch" operation mode on all backend list views, as well as improvements in the frontend layouts by adopting the new CSS Grid rulesets.

The new code changes will also make K2 more resilient to constant API changes in the Joomla CMS & framework. It'll also open the path to port K2 to other CMSs as well.

Remember that K2 does suffer from a ~10 year technical debt which means for example that code which should exist in a model is now found in a view, causing overall structural inconsistencies. The Joomla MVC is fine alright but we can do better. And by restructuring the codebase we can speed up new feature adoption (e.g. an extensible extra fields system, a better plugin system, a more productive backend UI and so on) and significantly improve performance.

It's 2018 and K2 still reigns as the easiest and most flexible way to truly manage any kind of content in Joomla, without giving yourself headaches with options you don't understand or dozens of overrides that you don't need. Keeping things as simple as possible, with a workflow that makes sense and template overrides to master any layout/design you want.

K2 Pro is also in the works for an initial lauch in the coming October. K2 Pro will be a suite of extensions complementing K2 with additional functionality ranging from event management, to mapping, ads, better/more flexible content modules etc. etc.

Enjoy K2 v2.9.0 :)

To install K2 for the first time or update your existing K2 based website, just grab the latest package here: https://getk2.org/downloads/?f=K2_v2.8.0.zip

The process to update K2 is fairly simple. If you are on Joomla 1.5, grab the zip file from the link above and install it on top of your existing K2 version. If you are on Joomla 2.5 or 3.x, go to the Joomla update manager, purge the update cache, re-check and you'll see the new release available to instantly update. If you are still on Joomla 1.6 or 1.7 or 2.5, you're seriously a bad*ss living on the edge - but why not do yourself a favour and upgrade to Joomla 3.x? It's easier than you think.

So what's been added, changed or updated in this new release in more detail?

Here's a list of the important things added, changed or updated in K2 v2.8.0.

BACKEND

• New selection modals for all content entities (items, categories, tags, users) improve your workflow. From content selection to filtering to searching. E.g. before adding a new K2 item in a menu item, you can now directly make it "featured" from within the selection modal. Adding content from a K2 selection modal is now more informative and all previously used (and annoying) JS alerts have been dropped to minimize clicks.
• Improved searching accross all backend list views (from items to comments). Use double quotes with your query in the search box to search for an exact string or (as previously) use any words to search all occurences. Better still, you can now search all database fields that hold data you'd probably like to find (yes, even the image caption or the email/IP address in comments). It makes things easier, from working with content to helping you better combat comment abuse.
• Added character counters on the "meta description" blocks in the item & category forms. Additionally, all the "meta robots" fields has now been converted from a text field to a drop-down (since the options are specific either way).
• Any calendar input now uses the awesome Flatpickr datetime picker instead of Joomla's native calendar widget.
• Replaced the Joomla modal with FancyBox in the backend, allowing for better previewing of item and category images while on list views.
• Added Picozu & Gravit as online image/vector editors - no need to open a desktop app to manipulate images before uploading them to K2.
• The backend (and frontend editing) UIs are now more consistent - from the action buttons to the filters to the actual layouts. The module and menu selection parameters have also been refined. CSS has been refined to resolve visual conflicts with menu selectors in modules in Joomla 3.x.
• Font Awesome updated to its latest release (4.7.0).
• Added new plugin events (content triggers) to support Regular Labs' "Better Trash" extension.
• Improved compatibility with Regular Labs' "Advanced Module Manager" extension.

FRONTEND

• Minor CSS and template override improvements - comparison packages will be uploaded soon...
• The frontend editing UI is now consistent with the backend UI which improves the overall authoring workflow. Item links in "Edit My Comments" will now properly link to the SEF version of a K2 item and comment pagination is now fixed (previously broken).
• Removed maxwidth (character) limitation in "K2 Tools" search option.
• Added proper check for media in the "K2 Content" module.
• You can now get the raw date value of any date extra field. Just use "<?php echo $this->item->extraFields->EXTRAFIELD_ALIAS_HERE->rawValue; ?>" instead of just "<?php echo $this->item->extraFields->EXTRAFIELD_ALIAS_HERE->value; ?>" to get the raw date value of a single (date type) extra field, anywhere extra fields are displayed in K2.

GENERAL

• Updated elFinder to the latest 2.1.28 release which addresses both functional and security issues.
• Updated class.upload.php to its latest release (now PHP 7 compatible)
• Updated all PHP and JS libs used throughout K2. Most third-party CSS and JS files are now version-loaded via HTTPS over CloudFlare's cdnjs.com website which is HTTP/2 ready (=improved load times).
• 3rd party libraries have been re-organized (and decoupled from K2 component files) to make updating easier in the future, while paving the way for the new modernized codebase of K2 (more about this below).
• Added index to all K2 database fields where it makes sense to have an index. This should improve performance overall, especially with large datasets.
• The usage of Joomla modals (and other similar JS widgets) has been minimized, along with reliance on legacy Mootools code. K2 v2.9.0 will completely remove these dependencies.
• Improved compatibility with PHP 7.x.
• Latest Joomla 3.7.x compatible.
• Still 100% compatible with Joomla 1.5 and 2.5.
• Many, many other bug fixes and improvements under the hood.

Upgrading

If you use v2.7.x already, then it is (as always) safe to upgrade to K2 v2.8.0. If you use a version before 2.7.0, refer to the 2.7.0 upgrade notes.

If you already have your own K2 CSS and/or HTML template overrides then there's nothing to worry about. If you use "stock" K2 CSS and HTML template overrides, just browse your site after the upgrade to make sure nothing's misalligned. In any case, exceptions may occur but they are usually easy to resolve. If you need any help, just post about your issue in the K2 Community Forum.

Since the release of K2 v2.7.0 we have added an update notification for new releases of K2 within the K2 backend (viewed only by super admins) to make it easier to spot new releases and update accordingly.

Before upgrading, it's always a good idea to get a backup of your site (just in case):

• To upgrade in Joomla 1.5, just install v2.8.0 on top of any existing K2 installation.
• To upgrade in Joomla 2.5 or 3.x, either install on top (as with Joomla 1.5) or use Joomla's extension updater (you should already see the notification for v2.8.0).

DO NOT uninstall any older K2 version first, as this will wipe out your K2 content!

HTML & CSS Template Overrides

Have a look here: https://getk2.org/documentation/tutorials/77-k2-template-override-package-comparison

The fine print

K2 v2.8.0 may not seem like a huge feature upgrade from 2.7.1 because most of the work has been done under the hood, in order to pave the way for future K2 releases. K2's codebase is being re-organized and gradually modernized in such a way so that new (significant) features can be added in upcoming releases without breaking b/c compatibility at all. This is very important to us and it's the reason why many sites that used K2 since Joomla 1.5 managed to upgraded to Joomla 2.5 or 3.x a lot easier than those using the stock "Joomla Articles" component (com_content). Careful initial design for K2 has allowed us this "luxury" to be honest and that's how K2 will continue in the future.

Which brings us to K2 v3.0. As you may have seen, that version never came out of beta. It brought a lot of great UI concepts (many of which Joomla eventually copied - which is really flattering the least), but because it was built from scratch, it also brought a lot of headaches. The use of backbone.js proved a complicating experience, especially when new JS libraries (like React or vue.js) came along that made things simpler to work with. It was a great testing playground for us and that's how we'll leave it for now.

The work that is currently being done in K2 v2.9.0 (the next update) will gradually bring the UI that K2 v3.0 meant to bring and functionality will eventually be enhanced with vue.js, a UI JS library that has proven it's here to stay. This means that we'll go from K2 2.9.0 to 2.10.0 and/or 2.11.0 before eventually ditching any pre-Joomla 3.x compatibility and moving to (the new) K2 v3.0.0.

Any new features that K2 v3.0 (beta) introduced (e.g. multiple extra field group assignment to all content entities, custom extra fields, improved ACL, content versioning, simplified template overrides etc. etc.) will still make their way to coming updates, but one at a time. Again, the important thing here is to maintain 100% backwards compatibility.

Why you may ask? Well, because nearly 400,000 websites are actively using K2 v2.7.0 or newer, to this day. That's a huge number of websites using K2 and it continues to grow with a rapid rate, just as downloads have passed the 3 million mark.

Yes, K2 updates have been slow in the past and, yes, K2 v3.0 (using backbone.js) never materialized to a stable release. But the fact remains: K2 is rock-solid stable, it has a large user base (to the count of hundreds of thousands) and its workflow still proves superior to that of Joomla's stock article system or even any other CCKs. And starting with K2 v2.8.0, you'll see updates happen a lot sooner, in 2-3 month cycles or less.

K2 remains the easiest and most flexible way to truly manage any kind of content in Joomla, without giving yourself headaches with options you don't understand or dozens of overrides that you don't need. Keeping things as simple as possible, with a workflow that makes sense and template overrides to master any layout/design you want.

Enjoy K2 v2.8.0 :)

To install K2 for the first time or update your existing K2 based website, just grab the latest package here: https://getk2.org/downloads/?f=K2_v2.7.1.zip

The process to update K2 is fairly simple. If you are on Joomla 1.5, grab the zip file from the link above and install it on top of your existing K2 version. If you are on Joomla 2.5 or 3.x, go to the Joomla update manager, purge the update cache, re-check and you'll see the new release available to instantly update. If you are still on Joomla 1.6 or 1.7, send as snail-mail to let us know cause you clearly love retro - or do yourself a favour and upgrade to Joomla 2.5 and then to Joomla 3.x.

So what's been added, changed or updated in this new release in more detail?

Here's a list of the important things added, changed or updated in K2 v2.7.1.

BACKEND

• Added batch operations for Categories (as introduced for Items in v2.7.0)
• Fixed backend language filter in Categories
• Fixed item image upload issues in PHP 7
• Fixed batch language switching to "All" from a single language in Items
• Fixed missing extra fields when creating a new item (#306)
• Fixed newly created attachment not storing the value in the correct HTML element (after 2.7.0)
• Updated NicEdit
• K2 will now replace white space with an underscore in image filenames when uploading image galleries, to prevent backend image previewing issues
• Fixed "Browse Server" button modal not working in the category edit form
• Fixed hidden media preview introduced since v2.7.0
• Various user interface (UI) fixes and improvements (and in all viewports)

FRONTEND

• Sub- and Child-Category ordering issue (#278) related to a bug in backend UI ordering controls
• Social media buttons will now adapt to the language of your site (if it's supported from Facebook, Twitter or Google+)
• Added option in the K2 Tools module's "Search Box" options for setting a menu item id (comes handy when you want to enforce a redirect page after using the K2 search box, so you cab style the results better)
• Added option (in the component settings) to control the display of K2 User Profiles for users with no items. This setting will prevent spammers from abusing their auto-generated K2 User Profile page (after a simple signup) in order to post spam links.
• Fixed redirection issue in the user registration form when reCAPTCHA v2 is enabled
• Fixed "related items by tag" image display alternate text missing
• Updated the attachments download function to prevent PHP memory limit related errors when trying to download large files - download initiation is also faster now
• Fixed login/logout redirection issue in mod_k2_user
• Fixed duplicate item pulling when retrieving content from multiple tags in the K2 Content module
• Fixed timestamp missing from OpenGraph image meta tags, when the timestamp option (in K2 settings) is on for K2 item images
• Category ID hiding in the URL (when using K2's Advanced SEF options) has been restored

SECURITY

• Fixed: Low priority XSS vulnerability in the K2 backend - relates to inadequate filtering of the search option in backend listings. Upgrade to version 2.7.1 to resolve.

GENERAL

• Improved compatibility with PHP 7.x
• Latest Joomla 3.6.x compatible
• Still 100% compatible with Joomla 1.5 and 2.5
• Removed PHP Pear's Services_JSON class and replaced with native PHP functions
• Many, many other bug fixes and improvements under the hood

Upgrading

If you use v2.7.0 already, then it is (as always) safe to upgrade to K2 v2.7.1. If you use a version before 2.7.0, refer to the 2.7.0 upgrade notes. In v2.7.1 there is a minor HTML output change in the frontend (in the item.php override) with the addition of a language tag in social media buttons.

If you already have your own K2 CSS and/or HTML template overrides then there's nothing to worry about. If you use "stock" K2 CSS and HTML template overrides, just browse your site after the upgrade to make sure nothing's misalligned. In any case, exceptions may occur but they are usually easy to resolve. If you need any help, just post about your issue in the K2 Community Forum.

Since the release of K2 v2.7.0 we have added an update notification for new releases of K2 within the K2 backend (viewed only by super admins) to make it easier to spot new releases and update accordingly.

Before upgrading, it's always a good idea to get a backup of your site (just in case):

• To upgrade in Joomla 1.5, just install v2.7.1 on top of any existing K2 installation.
• To upgrade in Joomla 2.5 or 3.x, either install on top (as with Joomla 1.5) or use Joomla's extension updater (you should already see the notification for v2.7.1).

DO NOT uninstall any older K2 version first, as this will wipe out your K2 content!

CSS & HTML Template Overrides

As stated above, the only frontend change is the addition of a language tag in social media buttons, in the item.php override.

Metrics, metrics, metrics...

The K2 Metrics initiative launched since v2.7.0 has been a real treasure for us, shaping the development of K2 for the future. To give you a quick example, we were using (for many years already) PHP Pear's Services_JSON class which was a PHP implementation of json_encode/decode functions, geared primarily for PHP versions before 5.2. This was something we had in to support Joomla 1.5 on PHP 5.2 and below (as Joomla 1.5 is compatible with even PHP 4.x according to the official Joomla requirements page). K2 metrics showed there are just 3 sites on PHP 5.1 and 0 on PHP 4.x while using K2 v2.7.0. So we removed that class and used native PHP functions instead. This is a trivial example but if you have a look ath the metrics page you'll easily see that the LAMP stack rules (MS tech is less than 1%), PHP 7 is (naturally) slow to adopt, Apache rules (but a 20% of that with accurate version reporting uses old Apache versions - 1.x or 2.2), Nginx is surprisingly third (behind Apache & LiteSpeed) so naturally you can assume that most sites are run on cPanel or Plesk based servers and finally MariaDB is starting to rise.

There are currently ~110,000 active sites using K2 v2.7.x - the actual number is probably higher if you consider we aggregate monthly data and only when a super admin navigates to the K2 backend. That's a huuuuuge number if you think about it. And of course K2 is on a steady track to surpass 3 million downloads within the year.

Enjoy K2 v2.7.1 :)

To install K2 for the first time or update your existing K2 based website, just grab the latest package here: https://getk2.org/downloads/?f=K2_v2.7.0.zip

The process to update K2 is fairly simple. If you are on Joomla 1.5, grab the zip file from the link above and install it on top of your existing K2 version. If you are on Joomla 2.5 or 3.x, go to the Joomla update manager, purge the update cache, re-check and you'll see the new release available to instantly update. If you are still on Joomla 1.6 or 1.7, pretend you don't know us - or do yourself a favour and upgrade to Joomla 2.5 and then to Joomla 3.x.

So what's been added, changed or updated in this new release in more detail?

Here's a list of the important things added, changed or updated in K2 v2.7.0.

BACKEND

• Newly redesigned responsive backend user interface.
• Added new batch operations modal for better & faster item re-organization. You copy or move items to a new category, assign to a new user, change permissions levels or even assign to a different language.
• Import articles process: Joomla article tags are now converted to K2 tags.
• Newly added options to override image gallery thumbnail dimensions, directly from item or category settings.
• Fixed media manager issues under Joomla 3.x
• Media manager now only uploads certain file types for stronger security.
• Added anonymous basic system statistics gathering. The data transmitted back to getk2.org over HTTPS is entirely anonymous and it represents usage statistics for software versions like K2 (obviously), Joomla, database and web server. A hash is used to separate clients and the data is transmitted once a month only. The process is done asynchonously so it will never slow down the admin, even for that split second when data is transmitted once a month. If you wish to disable this feature, you can do so in K2's Settings, under the "Advanced" tab. But we hope you won't as it will significantly help us make the right decisions for future K2 releases. All the metrics gathered are public https://metrics.getk2.org/ and the codebase used for the entire process will be open sourced within a couple of months.
• New dashboard icons
• Fixed smart search indexing issue when it was invoked from CLI.

FRONTEND

• Updated frontend HTML template overrides to be responsive-friendly as well. Exceptions may occur but they are easily managed.
• CSS codebase has been simplified and is now able to inherit the template's styling for common HTML elements. So overriding K2's CSS will now be an even simpler process. 
• Frontend editing and any modals used are now also responsive.
• There is no requirement for Mootools anymore.
• New web font icons have replaced PNG icons.
• Performance (SQL) optimizations for the calendar functionality of the K2 Tools module.
• New content filter options for the K2 Content module, makes it even more versatile when it comes to content display. It is now possible to retrieve (filter) items based on users or tags (besides categories).
• Added Google reCAPTCHA version 2 integration for even better anti-spam protection
• Improved spam protection: All auto-generated K2 user pages (blogs) with no items in them are now being redirected to your site's home page to prevent spammers from abusing these pages. Spammers would previously create a new account and simply update their K2 user profile with spam content. They would then point to their user page in forums or elsewhere.
• It is now mandatory to set an anti-spam mechanism for comment writing. If you don't, K2 will kindly remind you to and block any comment submissions :)
• Added option to toggle Open Graph meta tags (in case you wish to use a 3rd party extension for that).
• Updated social buttons code for all three providers (Twitter, Facebook & Google+).
• Removed Community Builder, Josetta and AceACL integration.
• sh404SEF integration has been decoupled from K2 core and it is now released as a separate commercial plugin with new features: K2 Plugin for sh404SEF. This was very important for the integration of K2 with sh404SEF for a number of reasons: a) faster updates, inline with sh404SEF releases, b) new features can be easily added in without the need to update K2 entirely and c) K2 v2 and K2 v3 (upcoming) compatibility in a single package.

GENERAL

• Joomla 3.5 compatible.
• Improvements for Joomla 3.4.
• PHP 7 compatible.
• Still 100% compatible with Joomla 1.5 and 2.5.
• Many, many other bug fixes and improvements under the hood.

SCREENSHOTS

{gallery}k2_v2.7.0_screenshots{/gallery}

Upgrading

Although we have made changes to the CSS in K2, as well as some extremely minor changes to the HTML code in K2's template overrides, it is (as always) safe to upgrade to K2 v2.7.0.

If you already have your own K2 CSS and/or HTML template overrides then there's nothing to worry about. If you use "stock" K2 CSS and HTML template overrides, just browse your site after the upgrade to make sure nothing's misalligned. In any case, exceptions may occur but they are usually easy to resolve. If you need any help, just post about your issue in the K2 Community Forum.

Before upgrading, it's always a good idea to get a backup of your site (just in case):

• To upgrade in Joomla 1.5, just install v2.7.0 on top of any existing K2 installation.
• To upgrade in Joomla 2.5 or 3.x, either install on top (as with Joomla 1.5) or use Joomla's extension updater (you should already see the notification for v2.7.0).

DO NOT uninstall any older K2 version first, as this will wipe out your K2 content!

CSS & HTML Template Overrides

Because there have been some changes in K2's CSS and HTML template overrides, we will update this blog post again within the day with template packages for K2 v2.6.9 and K2 v2.7.0 for comparison reference. You can then use a program like WinMerge or FileMerge to see the differences between the 2 versions (in CSS and HTML) and adapt your site accordingly. So check back tomorrow for the comparison packages.

And one more thing...

I personally acknowledge that I have commited to the release of K2 version 3 numerous times in late 2014 and in 2015. Being the K2 project's lead and also a perfectionist when it comes to all things K2, it has been entirely my fault for not having released version 3 a full year ago, as the project is literally 95% ready.

This essentially boils down to my own personal limited time. Being a new dad (since Nov 2013) with 2 petite demons in the house has been a very awarding and unique experience. At the same time, it has been challenging to work at normal hours or even work at all sometimes. But luckily this changes as the demons grow (the child demons, not the inner ones - these stay young forever!).

At the same time, the K2 team is very fortunate to have a new member join in: Paul Van Haren (from the Netherlands), who manages chip development projects for in-car networks at a big semiconductors company by day, has taken down the list of open issues in the K2 v3 repo by a third already and is actively engaged in improving features for K2 v3.0 as well as creating new ones for v3.1 (which will introduce a slew of new features). Together with Lefteris Kavadas (backend guru) and Krikor Boghossian (frontend guru), K2 v3 development has re-ignited and is on a steady track for a realistic release date by late April 2016, especially now that K2 v2.7.0 is also released (a requirement to upgrade to K2 v3.0.0).

Yes, you read correctly. Within a month's time, we'll make every effort to finalize all remaining issues and release K2 v3 :)

Of course, we're always open to new contributors/volunteers who can help develop or test K2 v3. If you're interested, why not send us a message?

Did I mention K2 is on track to surpass 3 million downloads the coming months? Hell yeah!

--

P.S. I'd like to personally thank Joe Campbell who has been an amazing community advocate for K2 for the last year or so. He has probably tweeted more about K2 that I ever had and his constantly positive attitude towards the Joomla community in general has truly set an example of how anyone should behave and communicate in any open source ecosystem. Thank you Joe!