We couldn't be happier to announce that Zend Framework 1.6 Release Candidate 1 is now available from the Zend Framework download site!

New features include the major Dojo integration, SOAP components and updates to the functionality for unit testing, session handling, pagination, character sets and much more. Check out the full list in the Zend Developer Zone post.

HTMLPurifer is possibly the most understated underpublicised quality library in PHP today. I consider it a fundamental standard library that is automatically included in every PHP web application I start these days.

This latest release candidate (their first!) includes updates on two major features - the use of autoloading and a change to the way you use the filters. Check out a demo of it in action or just download this latest release and try it out for yourself.

About the Zend Framework 1.0.4 release:

It is our pleasure to announce the release of Zend Framework 1.0.4! You can download this new mini-release now from the Zend Framework download site. With this mini-release we bid a fond farewell to the 1.0 branch as we move on to the 1.5 release.

And about the Release Candidate:

This obviously marks a very important step towards a high-quality, thoroughly tested 1.5 GA release. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this release in any way: with patches/check ins, documentation/translations, and bug reports.

You can grab this new Candidate from the download site as well.

This RC includes a fair number of fixes since our last release and predominantly works on improving the stability of the 5.2 tree as well as including a small number of minor security fixes. I'd like to ask everyone to test this release against your code and setups, we are aiming for a quick release cycle and user feedback is critical for a successful release.

You can download this latest version here.

This release have been long in the making so the changelog is a bit intimidating, so we definitely need a lot of testing for this release. I would like to ask everyone to give this RC a shot and see how it behaves with their code and hopefully not find any regressions. If you do find any, please let us know.

You can download this latest release from Ilia's directory off of the php.net website.

This update contains fixes for 75 issues since the RC2 release. Zend Framework has been in the "release candidate" phase since May 28. During this phase, we have been concentrating on documentation and quality improvements, and postponing adding any major new functionality for future releases after 1.0.

In addition to the updates to the framework, they're also making a major overhaul to the documentation and contents of the Framework's website and want to know about any other Zend Framework-based applications out there.

I just released Xdebug 2.0.0RC3 through the web site and also through PECL. This hopefully last release candidate of Xdebug 2.0.0 addresses a number of segfaults and other small bugs that crept in in Xdebug 2.0.0RC2.

The Xdebug extension helps you debugging your script by providing a lot of valuable debug information. The debug information that Xdebug can provide includes the following: stack and function traces in error messages, memory allocation, protection for infinite recursions.

I've packaged what looks the be the final RC for the 5.2.1 release, RC4. This release fixes another dozen or so bugs since the last release and from the given feedback looks to be regression free. That said I'd like to ask everyone to take a few minutes and try this RC with their code to make sure it really is as good as it seems and to ensure no new issues are introduced.

So, give it one last run through and submit any problems you might have and get us to PHP 5.2.1 that much sooner.

Tarball downloads:

• Bzipped
• Gzipped

After a few month break since the last release, a new version of FUDforum is once again in the works. This is primarily a feature enhancement release with a slew of new functionality designed to improve the forum. Aside from the new feature a fair number of bug fixes is also available, so something for everyone.

This latest release can be downloaded from install script and and upgrade script to help you get up to speed as well.

VC8 (Visual Studio 2005) was causing trouble with loading the new C runtime. You can read about the details of the problems encountered in this thread. So I had to make yet another build, this time using good old VC6.

The post has links to all of these new builds:

• PHP 5.2.1RC2 Win32
• PHP 5.2.1RC2 Win32 installer
• PECL 5.2.1RC2 Win32
• PHP 5.2.1 Debug Pack Win32

• PHP 5.2.1RC2 NTS Win32
• PECL 5.2.1RC2 NTS Win32
• PHP 5.2.1 Debug Pack NTS Win32