We are pleased to announce the latest release of CiviCRM - version 1.5.

Special thanks to the dedicated folks who contributed to this release by testing the alpha and beta revisions - and to everyone in the community who provided new ideas, feedback (especially critical feedback), and patches.

CiviCRM is the first open source and freely downloadable constituent relationship management solution. CiviCRM is web-based, internationalized, and designed specifically to meet the needs of advocacy, non-profit and non-governmental groups.

New to CiviCRM? Read more at http://www.civicrm.org

What's new in 1.5?

This release includes CiviMember - a new membership management component, and Search Builder - a new tool for building complex search queries. We've also made significant memory and speed optimizations.

Other release highlights include:

• Log and display who last updated a contact and when
• Map contact addresses without requiring latitude and longitude (using Google Maps 2.0)
• Include mapping links in Profile search results and details
• Optional CAPTCHA validation for Profile input forms
• Generate mailing labels
• Attach photos, documents and other files to contacts
• Search by relationship
• Customize the data columns which are included in the built-in Basic and Advanced Search results
• Customize your own templates for Contact View and Edit screens

You can read the roadmap release summary here:http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRM/CiviCRM+v1.5

You can see a complete listing of ALL (140+) new features, improvements and bug fixes here:http://issues.civicrm.org/jira/secure/IssueNavigator.jspa?mode=hide&requ...

Interested in learning more about CiviMember? Read more at:http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence//x/ui

Get CiviCRM: Demo, Downloads & Documentation

Test drive CiviCRM 1.5 on our demo sites:

CiviCRM for Drupal: http://demo.civicrm.org/drupal/

CiviCRM for Joomla: http://demo.civicrm.org/joomla/

Downloads

You can download 1.5 here: http://downloads.openngo.org/civicrm

Tarball filenames include the 1.5 label: "...v1.5-rev....tgz"

New Installations

If you are installing v1.5 from scratch, you can use the manual installation instructions linked below. There are several new configuration settings which are documented in the configuration file - so be sure to read through the inline documentation carefully.

Drupal / CivicSpace Installations: http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence//x/lQ8

Joomla / Mambo Installations: http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence//x/ixI

Upgrading from 1.4

If you are upgrading an existing 1.4 site (working with a copy of the site-of course), we have provided a database upgrade script. Instructions for upgrading are here:

Drupal / CivicSpace Upgrade: http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence//x/Oh8

Joomla / Mambo Upgrade: http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence//x/lxs

Reporting Issues and Bugs

We look forward to getting your feedback on the release in the coming days. Bugs should be reported via our bug tracking system (linked on the bottom of every page). Please select v1.5 in the "Fix For" dropdown.

Future Releases

Planning for v1.6 is happening NOW. We've posted a draft "Candidate Features" list on the wiki and look forward to your suggestions and feedback on that page:

http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRM/CiviCRM+v1.6

Best regards,

CiviCRM team

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