More flexible themes and templates

Dotclear 2.1 offers many new tags, such as:

  • CommentAuthorDomain
  • CommentAuthorMD5 (convenient to implement gravatars without installing a plugin)
  • EntryFirstImage
  • EntryCategoryShortURL
  • CategoryIf
  • CategoryFirstChildren
  • CategoryParents
  • EntryCategoriesBreadcrumb
  • MediaURL
  • LoopPosition

You can now inherit a theme from another theme, which means you can create your own variation from a theme without copying all the files of the original theme. We will soon document this new capacity.

And now you can call any widget at any point of a template. The list of widget tags is available in the online help of the widget page, along with the necessary implementation information.

Sub-categories

This is certainly one of the biggest steps of this version. You can now create subcategories with as many sublevels a you want, and control how they're displayed on your blog with the new template functions. Don't worry, this new feature won't break the compatibility of your Dotclear 2.0 themes. At worst, the Categories widget will look a bit odd on certain themes.

If you have a custom theme and intend to use subcategories, you will only have minor adjustments to make.

Enhanced XML-RPC interface

Those of you using an XML-RPC client will be glad to learn that Dotclear 2.1 is not only fully compatible with Movable Type XML-RPC API but also with that of Wordpress (version 2.7). This means you can configure your blog as Wordpress to be able to edit your blog and static pages from your favourite external client.

HD Video

M4V files encoded as H.264 and uploaded to the media manager can now be played by the embedded video player.

And more

  • The enhanced upload interface is compatible with Flash 10.
  • A link allows you to email a comment author directly from the comment detail page.
  • The user session is even more secure than it was before.
  • Vimeo is now supported as a external media to be included in posts.

Your last upgrade

This Dotclear upgrade may well be the last one you'll have to do. You asked for an automatic update/upgrade, we did it. When the next version of Dotclear is released, a message will notify you that an update or an upgrade is available. Two clicks will then be enough to update or upgrade your version.

Those of you who use an RC version of Dotclear 2.1 may have just enjoyed this new feature. Please note that this automatic update system assumes you have not modified the original installation files. If one or more files have been modified, the update system will not work as we won't try to update a modified installation.

English website

Some of our users seem to think Dotclear is “too French”. That's over. The English website and its blog are now opened (French website here). You can thank Mitternacht a thousand times for the fast translation of the documentation and of the website pages.

This new version is a step forward, a step in the good direction. We will give you more details about some of these new features in the days to come. We promised a magazine theme, it will soon be made available. Tonight, we'll enjoy the release and let you install and discover it all.

Sacha and Tomtom joined the team some time ago, so we're now 15. I'm taking this opportunity to welcome them and thank all the team — they did an amazing job on the French documentation of the template tags, among other things.

Download/Install Dotclear 2.1 - with automated installation, simply upload the installer to your web space and follow the instructions on screen to install and configure your Dotclear blog.