The goals defined for the newest version of ImpressCMS were clear : complete overhaul of the core to improve speed, improve efficiency and improve the architecture. No new functionalities were planned.

With the release of ImpressCMS 1.3, all these goals were met, with pre-production sites showing remarkable improvements in speed and memory use. Also, the totally refactored ImpressCMS Persistable Framework will make core and module development considerably easier.

What’s new in ImpressCMS 1.3:

• Speed improvements
• Drastically lowered memory requirements
• Fully PHP 5.3 compatible
• Facilitated module development
• Updated versions of many modules

Faster & Lower Memory requirements

The refactoring in the ImpressCMS 1.3 release has resulted in major improvements: less memory use, speedier page loads and less SQL queries per page, making it the fastest and nimblest ImpressCMS to date.

Fully PHP 5.3 compatible

The structure of the code has seen a major overhaul, in order to comply with the current best practices for PHP5. This makes the code easier to write, and easier to maintain.

Facilitated module development

By using the automatic inclusion of required files, module developers can think about improving their module, and not about handling file administration.

Module updates

Many modules have received compatibility updates to work with this release. Other modules have been written specifically to take advantage of the improved codebase of version 1.3.

• The most important change is official PHP5.3 compliance for the core modules and libraries. Note that modules might need adaptations to work in PHP 5.3. That is beyond the control of the core team.
• Fixed: search pagination and page title
• Improved: session security for the installation proces
• Improved: migration of images in the imagemanager during an upgrade from ImpressCMS 1.1
• Improved: use of smarty variables
• Fixed : search functionality issues
• Security : possible SQL injection vulnerability
• Fixed regression in the icmsForm class
• Fixed : XoopsThemeForm undefined

To learn more, visit the release page: ImpressCMS 1.2.3

Since the initial release of ImpressCMS 1.2, PHP 5.3 support has steadily gained ground in hosting solutions. Based upon user feedback, the ImpressCMS team decided not to wait for ImpressCMS 1.3 in order to support PHP 5.3 officially.

Website: http://www.impresscms.org

Too many to list here, but issues were resolved for these -

• Control Panel
• Core Functionalities
• Design & Templates
• Installation Process
• Registration Process
• Upgrade Process

There are a lot more things in this release – you can read all about them in the Trac.

ImpressCMS started as a fork of XOOPS CMS and has had a pretty successful history so far. Having won an award in 2009 for Most Promising Open Source CMS, this system has done very well since its inception.

Some of the features in this release include:

• Imagemanager, with online editing
• Fully customizable Profile module, with social networking features
• Content module
• Autotasks
• AJAX Redirect – no more redirect page!
• HTMLPurifier configuration
• Captcha configuration
• Themes for the admin area
• Separate home pages for each group
• Textsanitizer plugins
• Installer – new look, using AJAX and you can install modules while installing your site
• Search results page
• Adsense management
• Centralized Ratings and Mimetype management

A full change log can be found here: ImpressCMS 1.2 Changelog

Alternatively, you can read the announcement here: ImpressCMS 1.2 release announcement

From the announcement:

We are pleased to announce that ImpressCMS has won the Most Promising Open Source CMS Category in the 2009 Open Source CMS Award.

While ImpressCMS took first place in this category, Pixie and Pligg weren’t far behind and settled for a tie in the first runner up spot.

ImpressCMS has featured in the top three in this category for the second time in a row, and has lived up to its reputation this year by winning the top spot.

Pixie and Pligg, on the other hand, featured in this category for the first time and managed to impress a lot of judges with their quality and support.

ImpressCMS has been awarded a prize of $2000 with runners up Pixie and Pligg getting $1000 each. Congratulations to all of the winners!

Since its beginning, the developers of ImpressCMS have made security a  priority – continually auditing existing code and testing new code for stronger security measures.

Some of the security ‘best practices’ that have made their way into ImpressCMS are:

• Creating a trust_path outside the web root (when possible) during installation, making sensitive database credentials inaccessible to a web browser
• Using a 2-part encryption key to protect passwords stored in the database
• Using HTML Purifier to filter input and output and remove malicious and unauthorized code
• Providing a version checker for the core, allowing you to keep your site up-to-date much easier
• Providing multiple methods of password encryption to increases the difficulty of decrypting passwords

Source: http://www.impresscms.org

Today, they have released a new beta of what will be their upcoming 1.2 release. A list of the improvements and changes one can expect to find in this release are as follows:

User Improvements

* JQuery Redirect
* Profile module with extended field + social network capabilities
* TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor updates and additon of FCKeditor
* Advanced search capabilities
* Content manager now a full module

Administrator Improvements

* Updated Installer
* Themeable Admininstration area
* Blocks, Block Positions, User Ranks use new administration pages
* Image manager with online-editing
* Auto-Task (create Cron-Jobs with PHP in ImpressCMS)
* Enhanced groups management capabilities and start page configurable for each group

Developer Improvements

* Removed dependency on Prototype
* Extension of the IcmsPersistableOject Framework for creating and managing objects for the core and modules
* Updates of all 3rd party libraries

Security Improvements

* Enhanced security provided with integrated Protector module
* Admin configurable HTML Purifier
* PHP OpenID updates
* Smarty updates

For a full list of changes, you can refer to the changelog in the download, or view it in the wiki

You can learn more about the project or download it for yourself on the ImpressCMS website.

Fixed

• User was logged out if they double-clicked on the Administration Menu link
• CAPTCHA was being bypassed on the registration form
• Activation key was not in the activation emails being sent to the administrator group
• WYSIWYG editor was being used for several text areas where it was inappropriate

Improved

• SMARTY was updated to the latest version – 2.6.22
• Password encryption method can only be changed if the site is open and allows you to access the reset password page
• Database factory improvement by GiJoe, providing more protection against SQL injections when Protector 3.30+ is installed

Added

• SimplePie RSS generator

For a complete list of changes, read the changelog.