Invision Community News

Invision Community 5.0.5 Beta 1 Released Mr Milchick approved We're back with a brand new release! This release fixes a few of the bigger issues reported over the past couple of releases. ElasticsearchFor those using Elasticsearch, please note that the new minimum version for Elasticsearch is now 8.0, with the latest version 8.17 recommended. Those using Elastic search in v5.0.4 and earlier (including all of v4) will need to upgrade their Elasticsearch server, and then rebuild the search index. We chose to update to the latest version of Elasticsearch as v7 is no longer supported and there's been some document level changes in how data is stored. We've tested it thoroughl…

Invision Community 5.0.4 Beta 1 is now available Please celebrate responsibly. A whole two weeks has passed since our last release. The extra week allowed us to fully review a few larger updates that we've held back and require a beta or two to fully test before we're happy to include in a full release. Things to testThere have been some areas that have received a lot of attention and need extra special testing, these include: Page Editor (now works correctly for right-to-left languages but needs some testing in LTR) Custom badges (lots of work to make them more efficient and store a built version in SVG format) Editor bug fixes (lots of complex fixes, so please test the …

Invision Community 5.0.3 is now available via your Admin Control PanelThis release focuses on bugs reported since the release of 5.0.2 and features many UI improvements. You can see the full list of fixes in our release notes section. What's next?We expect 5.0.4 to follow within two to three weeks as we work in some larger fixes that will require more testing. We may release a beta release ahead of the full release to ensure that any bugs from those larger fixes are caught and fixed early. If we see anything more pressing, we'll release a patch which can be applied via your Admin Control Panel. As always, thank you for your testing and reports. It really does help us! Vie…

We're pleased to announce that CSAM scanning is now available at no extra cost. What is CSAM scanning?CSAM stands for Child Sexual Abuse Material. The media served by your community will be scanned to identify any matches in a central CSAM database. These lists are provided by leading child safety advocacy groups, such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). CSAM scanning is now recommended to increase compliance in many areas, and you can rest assured that Invision Community will now block any harmful media from being shown in your community. Moderating large communities can be challenging when your members are able to upload photos, and this s…

Invision Community 5.0.2 is now available via your Admin Control PanelThis release focuses on bugs reported since the release of 5.0.1 and features many UI improvements. You can see the full list of fixes in our release notes section. This release also resolves several issues with Downloads screenshots and thumbnails. What's next?This week we'll continue to triage and manage incoming bug reports and we expect to have another maintenance release out next week to ensure that bug fixes are resolved as quickly as possible. We then expect 5.0.4 to follow within two to three weeks as we work in some larger fixes that will require more testing. If we see anything more pressing, …

Invision Community 5.0.1 is now available via your Admin Control PanelThis release focuses on bugs reported since the release of 5.0.0 and features many editor and UI improvements. You can see the full list of fixes in our release notes section. What's next?This week we'll continue to triage and manage incoming bug reports and we expect to have another maintenance release out next week to ensure that bug fixes are resolved as quickly as possible. If we see anything more pressing, we'll release a patch which can be applied via your Admin Control Panel. As always, thank you for your testing and reports. It really does help us! View the full article

It's been a very eventful week here at Invision Community, with the launch of Invision Community 5 and I wanted to take a minute to give an update on what has happened and what we've learned this week. Fixes and PatchesDespite being a brand-new platform, Invision Community 5 has had a very low number of critical issues, primarily thanks to months of careful testing and preparation before this release. We have made two patches this week that fix the following issues: An issue where some Cloud sites would block .svg and webp images when uploaded. An issue where updating the approval queue during the v4 to v5 upgrade could fail. An issue where the Policy Page would show an e…

We're pleased to say that Invision Community 5.0.0 is now available to all customers.It's been a long journey, but we are now ready to support v5 as our primary release and offer our thanks to all of those who been involved in our beta testing program. What does this mean?We are currently in the soft release phase to help us manage the influx of feedback from those choosing to upgrade. We also have some new documentation to finish, and some website changes to make. If you're unsure what new features v5 brings, you can check out our "What's new in v5" page. Can I still use v4?Absolutely! And we would encourage you to plan your upgrade carefully. Version 5 is not a normal u…

We’ve got some exciting news! All communities hosted on the Invision Community platform will be switching to Cloudflare Enterprise edition for CDN and Firewall services. This transition starts now and will be complete by the end of January 2025. Don’t worry, you won’t experience any downtime during this transition. If you do see any issues, like a secure certificate warning, just clear your cache and try again. If your community keeps getting connection errors for more than 5 minutes, please reach out to our support team. We’re thrilled to offer you these improvements, including enhanced security, faster speeds, and more redundancy. We’ll also be able to better …

There's a lot for your members to love with Invision Community 5, and we recently covered five of the best features. Today, I want to discuss five features your team will love. One of the main concepts for Invision Community 5 was to reduce the complexity of power-user tools like theming and page building. These functions had been built around those with deep technical and coding knowledge, locking out many community teams. We also wanted to build new tools to help busy community teams organise, moderate and identify trusted members. Did we achieve that? Let's look at five new features we think your team will love in Invision Community 5. The new them…

There's a lot for your members to love with Invision Community 5, and we recently covered five of the best features. Today, I want to discuss five features your team will love. One of the main concepts for Invision Community 5 was to reduce the complexity of power-user tools like theming and page building. These functions had been built around those with deep technical and coding knowledge, locking out many community teams. We also wanted to build new tools to help busy community teams organise, moderate and identify trusted members. Did we achieve that? Let's look at five new features we think your team will love in Invision Community 5. The new them…

As we move closer to releasing Invision Community 5, I wanted to review a few key features I believe your members will love after you upgrade to Invision Community 5. The all-new editor We have to start with the brand new editor, recoded and redesigned from the ground up. The new editor is not just faster and leaner, but also remarkably user-friendly, ensuring an upgraded experience for your members in Invision Community 5. Your members will love the streamlined toolbar that no longer hides buttons on smaller devices. They'll also appreciate the new emoji and icon panel, which allows them to insert over 1,700 icons to enhance their posts. Content boxes, r…

Over the next few days you will see some improvements for static resources served on our network. Static resources are items like images, videos, JavaScript, CSS, and any other file attachments. These changes do not yet apply to your actual dynamic community pages. We will follow up with more updates on improvements we are making there. Brotli Compression When your browser supports it, all static files will use Brotli compression. Brotli offers a higher compression which often results in faster page load times. WebP Images WebP is an image compression format that offers higher compression for images which also results in faster load times…

Invision Community 4.7.19 will be released in November and contains many updates along with the report center improvements. While Invision Community 5 moves through the beta process, I wanted to let you know about all the updates coming in Invision Community 4. I've already spoken about the Report Center updates, which bring more professionalism and compliance to that area, and this blog will outline a few other highlights for the forthcoming release. Dormant Account Login Notification Keeping member accounts secure is a top priority for all community teams, and with data breaches containing usernames and passwords regularly shared on the dark web, it mak…

Invision Community 5 is currently in beta testing for all customers with the Invision Community Classic license. Invision Community Cloud customers can request a private demo to test the latest version. After months of development work, we're pleased to move Invision Community into beta testing, the final phase before its stable release. We'd love your help to find the last few bugs. You can join our Invision Community 5 Beta Testing Club and download the beta onto your test site or request a cloud demo. During the early stages of testing, we've implemented a lot of feedback, and I wanted to show you a few of the key changes we've not discussed in previous …

Can you start from a stock Invision Community 5 installation and have it themed, customized, and a new homepage built in under an hour without relying on custom templates and coding? Yes, and Jimi Wikman, a long-time Invision Community customer, did just that in his latest YouTube video. Jimi has over twenty-five years of experience in development and twenty years of experience in graphic design. Invision Community 5 has been in testing for a few months now, and Jimi produced this amazing walkthrough of Invision Community 5's new page editor and theme editor while re-creating his own site. Our vision for Invision Community 5 was to put the power into t…

Invision Community 4.7.19 contains a significant upgrade to the Report Center to improve compliance and professionalism within the reporting workflow. The existing report center functions well enough but lacks some of the more professional tools modern communities need when managing complaints. In previous versions, a member or guest reported a piece of content, such as a comment or topic, which was then handled by the community team behind the scenes, and the report closed when dealt with. It was up to the community team to inform the original content author if any decision was made and to inform those who reported the content of the outcome. The Invision Comm…

Invision Community 5.0.0 has reached a huge milestone; we're now in open beta testing. After numerous alpha releases, we're ready to move forward with the last stage of development and testing. The beta stage is primarily just fixing bugs and tweaking existing features and we're confident that the beta testing stage will run smoothly as its already stable and being used on a handful of production sites by brave souls who have upgraded immediately. Of course, we'd not recommend being so cavalier, especially if you are not very technical and do not have the time or patience to wait for fixes and risk broken functionality between beta releases! The good …

For the past month or so, we've been working with a small number of alpha testers to get some initial feedback and to fine-tune some of the new features. We are now ready for more feedback, so today, we take the next step in testing! We've opened up a new Invision Community 5 preview site for everyone to use, find bugs and offer feedback. The new preview site has a feedback area and a bug report area, so please use those areas on the preview site, rather than post your thoughts here. 👉 https://preview.invisionalpha5.com/ There are two themes currently available. The first is the more 'classic' look that you will find instantly familiar. The second them…

Introducing new Page Builder tools in Invision Community 5 Widgets are an incredibly powerful tool for displaying curated content of your choice on any page of your community - and despite the extensive array of settings for customizing their data, they've often been limited in terms of their design options. But this changes thanks to the new Page Builder tools in Invision Community 5! Widget Designs Previously in version 4, widgets would often have 2 designs: one for the main content area and a more minimal version for the sidebar. This worked well, but it meant your page was very limited in terms of design as you'd typically need to use the same table-lik…