I wanted to get your thoughts on the exciting news about the upcoming XenForo 2.4 release! If you haven't seen the latest update, feel free to check out the official thread here:

 

https://xenforo.com/community/threads/coming-soon-xenforo-2-4.225302/

 

From what we know so far, there are some new features and improvements coming with this version, and I'd love to hear what you think! Here are a few questions to get the conversation started:

 

• What features are you most excited about in XenForo 2.4?
  
• Are there any updates you think will benefit your community the most?
  
• Any concerns or things you'd like to see improved in this upcoming release?
  
• How do you feel about the overall direction XenForo is taking with these updates?
  

Feel free to share your feedback and any other thoughts you have! Let’s get a good discussion going so we can be prepared for what’s coming! 😊

 

Looking forward to hearing from you all!

I like these core additions, but haven't seen any groundbreaking new features. I do hope they'll focus on bringing more modern features soon.

Again bringing things to xenforo that other software had for years.

 

If you're waiting for anything groundbreaking from them you'll be waiting a long time.

Again bringing things to xenforo that other software had for years.

 

If you're waiting for anything groundbreaking from them you'll be waiting a long time.

Yeah, it does seem that way. Still, XF brings the best customization. Just wish they'd innovate the same way Invision does.

I'd expect to see the first beta probably by May if not sooner.

Pretty sure they won’t do a beta.

Pretty sure they won’t do a beta.

 

2.3 Had a beta.

2.2 Had a beta.

2.1 Had a beta.

2.0 Had a beta.

1.5 Had a beta.

1.4 Had a beta.

1.3 Had a beta.

1.2 Had a beta.

1.1 Had a beta.

And 1.0 had a beta.

 

Unsure why 2.4 (or even XF 3) would break the mold.

2.3 Had a beta.

2.2 Had a beta.

2.1 Had a beta.

2.0 Had a beta.

1.5 Had a beta.

1.4 Had a beta.

1.3 Had a beta.

1.2 Had a beta.

1.1 Had a beta.

And 1.0 had a beta.

 

Unsure why 2.4 would break the mold.

Nevermind what I said. Didn’t have my morning coffee yet. 🙈

Nevermind what I said. Didn’t have my morning coffee yet. 🙈

Suffice it to say, I won't be running the betas this time around and will probably wait it out to RC3+ before I even look at playing with it.

 

I had a lot of time on my hands when I started my first live forum on 2.1 Beta (as it had reactions, even though I was prepping to launch on 2.0 with Themehouse's add on) and upgraded it through the RCs to a stable release (reporting all the bugs along the way).

I'd expect to see the first beta probably by May if not sooner.

2.4 beta timeline:

20-30 gammas

40-50 betas

10-20 RC

Final release time: when it's ready.

[HEADING=2]Xenforo 2.4 will also include Featured content improvements[/HEADING]

 

Since announcing Featured Content for XenForo 2.3 we have been closely monitoring feedback through various channels and our own overall vision for the feature and, as such, in today's Have you seen...? for XenForo 2.4 we are highlighting some of the recent changes we have made.

 

When curating content, sometimes it can take time to manage the list of featured content effectively to ensure it stays fresh for your visitors, and part of that is the inevitable time where perhaps content is no longer noteworthy and needs to be "unfeatured". You can, of course, do this manually but, now, you don't have to.

 

For new and existing features in the "Customize" section you can now select "Unfeature after..." and specify the number of days the content should be featured for.

 

 

 

Don't want to specify this manually? No problem. We now have a dedicated option group in the admin control panel:

 

 

 

Within you will find, amongst other options, the default feature length, allowing you to set it once and all newly featured content will be automatically unfeatured after this number of days.

 

 

 

As you can see above, you can also now control the number of "Features per page" on the featured content list, along with the character limit of the feature snippets.

 

We have also added a new permission to control which users can view the featured content list.

 

Finally, we have added the following advertising positions:

• Featured content: Above feature list
  
• Featured content: Below feature
  
• Featured content: Below feature list
  

 

You can already use widgets to display contextual content which allows a widget to display content from the current forum where it is displayed but we have now extended this so you can also show featured content from its child forums too.

 

 

 

For widgets that are able to display mixed-content lists, to distinguish between different types of content we prefix the title with the type of content it is. While this generally makes sense, it makes much less sense when the featured threads (or trending content) widget is filtered to show only a specific content type. In those cases we now no longer display the content type prefix:

 

 

It's a shame for the people who don't visit your site regularly to miss out on your curated content, so we've added a new "Latest featured content" section that you can configure and add to your activity summary emails.

 

 

 

 

 

If you want to manage featured content via the built-in REST API including creating, viewing, updating and deleting featured content then we've added all of the necessary endpoints to do so.

 

 

 

 

 

We've also added other improvements to the display of featured content lists including the carousel view which now shows a small version of the featured image rather than the author's avatar:

 

 

 

 

On the featured content list itself, we've added a member filter so you can see all featured content by a specified user:

 

 

 

 

If you got this far, we hope you found something useful here to enhance your content curation efforts. We'll be back soon with more goodies for XenForo 2.4.

 

Source: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/featured-content-improvements.229454/

I didn’t expect it to go in that direction, but I’m not upset about it either. Every now and then, I go through all the installed add-ons to check for updates. While I keep a closer eye on the more important ones, I tend to update the smaller ones all at once occasionally. Having a one-click install option and update notifications certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing.

 

There is an add-on that generates a warning in the administration panel when an add-on has a new update.

[HEADING=2]Xenforo 2.4 Flash Message Improvements and Development Update[/HEADING]

[HEADING=1]Flash Message Improvements[/HEADING]

In the coming weeks, we will be showcasing a few improvements very kindly donated to us by XenForo development G.O.A.T, @digitalpoint!

 

When digitalpoint heard that the primary aim for XenForo 2.4 was to implement some tangible quality of life improvements, he was very quick to offer up some code he has written over the years - some released, some not - which he wrote for his own sites. Is there a somewhat ulterior motive to this code philanthropy aside from our eternal gratitude and ongoing respect? Yes. Now he no longer has to maintain any of this code himself! No better motive required, in our opinion, and of course it still comes with our eternal gratitude and respect.

 

It's 2025 so I hate the term "flash message" with a burning passion because it reminds me of the unpleasant days of having to manage third party browser extensions just to make sites a little bit "flashier" (lol does anyone remember Microsoft Silverlight?) but in this context, just to ensure we're on the same page, flash messages are the slide down messages that appear within XenForo at times to confirm successful completion of an action without reloading the page.

 

 

They work fine, but they can be a little cumbersome, covering too much of the screen, they don't stack and that three second timeout before it disappears somehow feels like minutes especially when it's covering something you want to interact with next.

 

So meet the next iteration of flash messages:

 

On wider displays, messages now adjust their width to avoid spanning the entire window. If several messages appear simultaneously, they now stack vertically rather than covering each other. There's also a subtle visual cue indicating when a message is about to disappear. Plus, if a message is obstructing your view, you can quickly dismiss it by clicking the close icon.

 

On narrower displays the messages will fill the display accordingly, just as now, but with all of the new goodies:

 

 

Finally, if you don't like the position of the flash messages, you can adjust that under Options > User alerts and notifications:

 

 

https://xenforo.com/community/threads/flash-message-improvements-and-development-update.230201/

 

[HEADING=1]Development Update[/HEADING]

 

Back in September, we mentioned that we were targeting a release of XenForo 2.4 for between Q4 2024 and Q1 2025. We have made some really solid progress since then, but we've also run into typical development hurdles that require a bit more time to resolve properly. As ever our commitment is to get this right, not rush something out of the door quickly.

 

We know that waiting longer isn't ideal, and we genuinely appreciate everyone's patience. But, significantly, while the original date we were aiming for has passed, the release is absolutely still happening and will at least achieve our goal of more frequent releases than we've been used to in the last few years. We're using the extra time to add more polish, implement final touches, and ensure it lives up to the quality standard that you have come to expect from a XenForo release.

 

Stay tuned for another Have you seen...? thread later this week but in the meantime, thanks again for your patience and support. We're getting very close!