New releases to both versions of ExpressionEngine
ExpressionEngine has been updated today, both versions: to 1.6.9 and 2.0.2 Public Beta. To view all of the changes, please refer to the change logs for each: v1.6.9 Change Log and v2.0.2 Public Beta Change Log.
Active development on ExpressionEngine 1.x has indeed ceased, but support and bug fixes will continue for some time. A particular bug fix relating to the Pages module required a database change, which necessitates a version update rather than only replacing files.
As a result, it is imperative with this release that if you are running any add-ons that utilize the Pages module, or are interacting with the ‘site_pages’ array directly via PHP in your templates, you will need to update the add-ons or code per the version update notes: 1.6.9 notes and 2.0.2 notes. Not updating these add-ons or code simultaneous to performing the ExpressionEngine update may result in broken pages. Add-ons that may be affected include Structure, LG Better Meta, and the Nested Menu Plugin. Developers of these add-ons were given pre-release code to have opportunity to update their public releases. Please check for modified versions before updating.
The development team considers this a big milestone for the 2.0 Public Beta, having fixed 130 bugs, restored some extension hooks, and bringing the application closer to our goals for 2.1.
Since we required a database update to 1.x, we did happen to sneak in one feature into 1.6.9 that was suggested to us by Jim at Transmodern Media, an enhancement to ExpressionEngine’s Password Lockout feature. The feature now has additional protection against brute force attacks, an extremely rare event that would often be protected already by use of the Throttling feature, but nonetheless, this feature has been modified to help prevent “smart” brute force crackers from trying to play the system, improving the security of accounts on your installation that may be using weak passwords.
