Textpattern 4.9.0

30 December 2025

Textpattern version 4.9.0 is now available (major release).

Upgrading to Textpattern 4.9.0

What's New in Textpattern 4.9.0

• Feature release with support for PHP 8.5, MySQL 8.4, new functionality, security enhancements, improvements, and bug fixes.
  
• Minimum system requirements increased to PHP 5.6 (PHP 8.2+ recommended, preferably with ongoing vendor support).
  
• Minimum system requirements increased to MySQL 5.5 (MySQL 8.0+ recommended, preferably with ongoing vendor support).
  

• Support for PHP 8.2, PHP 8.3.1+, PHP 8.4, and PHP 8.5.
  
• Full article previews directly from the Write panel.
  
• Filter articles by image.
  
• Admin Theme prefs.
  
• Automatic, dynamic thumbnail generation (tags and back-end).
  
• SVG image support (thanks, osadl and jools-r).
  
• Activity indicator for extended duration file/image upload processes.
  
• Multi-edit for changing author language.
  
• In-use asset counters to the Users panel.
  
• Reload language packs from disk.
  
• Shift+Space shortcut for 'Tab' indent in textareas.
  
• Input length tooltip when appropriate.
  
• PHPMailer for third-party SMTP delivery. See Admin>Preferences>Mail.
  
• <txp:date /> tag.
  
• <txp:if_article_status /> tag.
  
• <txp:if_items_count /> tag.
  
• Global 'variable' attribute.
  
• Global 'offset' attribute can be set by URL parameters.
  
• 'parent' attribute to <txp:category />.
  
• 'inline' value to 'format' attribute of <txp:css /> (thanks, jools-r).
  
• 'alias' attribute to <txp:evaluate />.
  
• Ability to serve files via 'type' attribute to <txp:file_download />.
  
• 'exclude' attribute to <txp:file_download_list /> and <txp:linklist />.
  
• Site production status values to 'process' attribute of <txp:hide />.
  
• 'level' attribute to <txp:if_category />.
  
• 'match', 'separator' attribute capability to <txp:if_yield />.
  
• 'exclude', 'month' and 'time' attributes to <txp:images />.
  
• 'lang' attribute to <txp:page_url />.
  
• 'target' attribute to <txp:popup />.
  
• 'filter' attribute to <txp:section_list /> and <txp:if_section />.
  
• Plugins can be uploaded from a URL by dragging to upload textarea.
  
• Plugin compilation directly from the Plugins panel.
  
• Plugin export to .zip.
  
• Compiled plugins can be uploaded via Browse... feature.
  
• Compatible plugin upgrades directly from the Plugins panel.
  
• Create and install new plugins directly from the Plugins panel.
  
• Plugin multi-edit option: revert to last installed code content.
  
• All plugin metadata exposed in the Plugin Edit panel.
  
• Latest text translations. Thank you to all our translators.
  
• Punjabi, Slovenian and Urdu (Pakistani dialect) language support.
  
• Trailing slash URL preference.
  
• File download header preference.
  
• Option to define a Content Security Policy header for the Textpattern admin-side via config.php.
  
• Support for aggregate window functions in compatible MySQL versions.
  
• metaWeblog.newMediaObject for image upload over the MovableType API (thanks, Melonking906).
  

• Remove 'br' tags from article image markup where >1 image is supplied (thanks, jools-r).
  
• Pre+post textfilter callbacks were switched.
  
• Plugins import Textpack strings correctly.
  
• Prefs (multi-)select options.
  
• Improved support for images with EXIF orientation metadata (thanks, jools-r).
  
• Avoid directory traversal when uploading plugins (thanks, bg1).
  
• Compiled plugins upload on PHP 5.6.
  
• Windows-generated .zip plugins installable on UNIX/Linux.
  
• Restored empty 'height' and 'width' attributes behaviour of <txp:image />.
  
• Self-closing tag output for html5 doctype to silence validator (thanks, jools-r).
  
• Ignore search in individual article mode.
  
• Take RFC 2616 mail headers setting into account for separator.
  
• Sandboxed article/body/excerpt preview (thanks, grozdniyandy).
  

• Pending articles may be displayed on the site.
  
• Theme page maximum size increased from 64KB to 16MB.
  
• Allow content dates prior to 01-01-1970, and beyond 03:14:07 UTC on 19 Jan 2038. Refer to Epochalypse/Year 2038 problem for info. Adjustments for non-Gregorian (AD) dates are performed.
  
• Display/edit 'modified' date on Files panel.
  
• Refactored article Save panel (thanks jools-r, phiw13, and cara-tm).
  
• File Edit panel has the ability to rename and delete files, and change the download counter value (thanks, adi).
  
• Image Edit panel has the ability to delete images.
  
• Image Edit panel includes published date/time, which can be altered.
  
• Pre-flight check visibility toggle.
  
• In-use languages can not be deleted.
  
• Deprecate <txp:search_result_count />. Use <txp:items_count /> instead.
  
• Section-aware default search.
  
• Image tags can take HTML attributes.
  
• Enhancements to 'br' tag HTML5 compliance (thanks, jools-r).
  
• Enhancements to SVG handling relating to non-px dimensions (thanks, jools-r).
  
• Enhancements to 'extension' and 'size' attributes of <txp:images />.
  
• Enhancements to RPC functionality (thanks, Melonking906).
  
• Admin-theme checksums computed independently. Unused admin themes can be deleted and will no longer trigger Diagnostics alert.
  
• Multi-site scaffold optimisations.
  
• Wildcards in file/image/link category queries.
  
• <txp:header /> tag requires 'form' privilege.
  
• Articles may use external URLs directly.
  
• Some language keys renamed to avoid invalid name clashes.
  
• Do not generate empty syndication feeds for feedless sections.
  
• Removed 'noopener' from target="_blank" links (now default behaviour in all supported browsers) (thanks, phiw13).
  
• Removed 'aria-label' attributes where 'title' already exists.
  
• Checksums use Tiger-192,3 instead of MD5. Fewer potential clashes.
  
• Allow PHP scripting options off by default, and Diagnostics warning.
  
• Plugins of all types trigger verify step (with improved security).
  
• Extend character set that can be used in tag/attribute names.
  
• Less collision-prone custom fields name processing.
  
• Category & section description field sizes increased to 1023 characters.
  
• Introduce primary keys for all database tables, replacing some old indexes.
  

• Permitted concurrent logins. See Advanced Prefs.
  
• Removed duplicate pluggable_ui callback for article_ui›categories (thanks, jools-r).
  
• Added pophelp support in plugin 'lang' directory.
  
• Articles (list) panel callbacks: articles>fields and articles>from to manipulate the query; articles>controls to affect the button area; articles_ui>list.row (pluggable_ui) for adding table data; articles>steps for plugins to register custom panel-level functionality.
  
• Add pre+post article_submit callbacks on article post/save.
  
• Add getAtts($tag) method for fetching tag attributes.
  
• Reintroduce extend_col_1 markup area on Write panel.
  
• Add lifecycle>loaded callback for plugins run from cache.
  
• Introduce UI class library for building interface components.
  
• Tag registration is now mandatory.
  
• Some of the lesser-used tags are loaded on demand from their class to save memory. Plugins must call them via processTags() function.
  
• Add safe_exists() function to database layer.
  
• Move $thisversion and $txp_is_dev to constants.php.
  
• 'Visitor logs' panel is now bound to the new 'lore' event name (was: 'log') to prevent conflicts with privacy filters.
  
• File upload callbacks (file_uploaded and files_uploaded pre+post).
  
• Activation emails can be skipped via hidden notify="skip" field.
  
• Can add &checksums=1 on Diagnostics panel URL to verify checksums.
  

• Textile 4.1.4. (thanks, gocom).
  
• DOMPurify 3.3.1.
  
• jQuery 3.7.1.
  
• jQuery UI 1.14.1.
  
• PHPMailer 6.12.0.
  
• PrismJS 1.30.0.
  
• UglifyJS 3.19.3.