We’re happy to announce a maintenance release of Omeka, bringing us to version 2.0.3! This maintenance release fixes some bugs to the HTML editor, error reporting, display, and more. Please read the release notes for details.

There are also improvements to all of the bundled themes (Thanks, Roy; Seasons; Berlin). This release also includes the new “Night” stylesheet in the bundled Seasons theme.

We also have one new plugin, Derivative Images, and two updated ones, Commenting and Geolocation.

Derivative Images is an evolved version of the Image Files plugin for Omeka 2.x. Image Files for Omeka 1.x let you resize your thumbnail and other derivatives. With Omeka 2.0 now producing derivatives of many more file types (sound, document, etc.), this completely reworked plugin allows you to selectively produce new derivatives for any file type. This is especially useful for sites that have upgraded to Omeka 2.x from Omeka 1.x and want to take advantage of the new derivative images.

Geolocation includes a small but important improvement. Matti Lassila added an option for searching with a radius in kilometres instead of miles.

Commenting has been upgraded with new features and security, such as the ability to allow site visitors to flag comments as inappropriate.

Speaking of commenting, for our friends using Omeka.net as their hosted Omeka solution, Commenting is now included in Silver plans and above. (Note that Omeka.net, and the Commenting plugin, have not yet been upgraded to Omeka 2.0, though we are working on that, too.)

The Omeka team is happy to announce new and updated plugins and themes.

Geolocation is now updated to be compatible with the Omeka 2.x series. Geolocation allows you to pin a location for your items onto a map, and display a map showing all the geolocated items.

We are also happy to release a brand new plugin for Omeka, Search By Metadata. It allows site builders to build navigation between items by turning any field into an automatic search for other items with the same data. If you want to guide your visitors from one item with the subject “Digital Humanities” to a list of other items with that subject, this plugin lets you do that quickly and easy through the admin interface.

Finally, we are releasing an update to the Seasons theme. In the spirit of breaking expectations, there is now a fifth season — “night”. The night stylesheet is a dark style, suitable for displays of artwork.

More is on the way, and in the next two weeks we’ll spend less time talking about what we have produced and more about what our community has been up to. There are great new plugins and themes coming Omeka designers and developers out in the world. So, for a special Day of DH post we’ll draw attention to them and their work, and show our appreciation.

The Omeka team is happy to announce the release of Omeka 2.0.2!

This release includes several bugfixes, including one that is especially important for the Exhibit Builder plugin. Anyone working with exhibits in the Omeka 2.x series is strongly encouraged upgrade to Omeka 2.0.2.

There are also fixes to improve error reporting for more server configurations, fixes to user permissions, and expanded localization.

In addition, there are significant performance improvements, especially when using advanced search for items.

Last, the “Berlin” theme is now available as a responsive theme that comes packaged with Omeka!

Please read the full release notes for more details.

The moment that you’ve all been waiting for is here!

Well, at least, it’s the moment that we at Omeka HQ have been waiting for, and working towards for many months now.

Omeka 2.0 is now available for download!

The  most important improvement is a completely revamped admin interface, which includes many features to improve workflow and make it easier to build your sites. The search functionality is also dramatically improved, and covers much more of the content in the sites.

The basic package includes three plugins and two themes, and sports a host of good new features. Omeka users will notice improvements right away with an upgrade to 2.0 or the launch a new installation. For example, site administrators have much better tools to build custom site navigation without having to hack around in the code (Check for “Navigation” under the Appearance settings.) Also, you’ll notice major improvements in file handling. Now you can reorder item files, and the system produces derivatives (thumbnails, etc.) from a much wider array of file types, not just image files.

The increased control extends to the updated ExhibitBuilder, as well. Now site users have a great deal more flexibility in designing their exhibit architecture. We have eliminated “Sections” from the exhibit structure, so that exhibit designers can create parent and child pages as their content requires. Furthermore, if a user wants to use an item in an exhibit, she can choose from any of the item’s files.

Omeka designers and developers will also find things to love in the new version. The software includes a more concise function list that dramatically decreases the complexity of creating new themes and plugins. So, we hope to see an increase in contributions of add-ons from the wider Omeka community.

In addition to all of this basic Omeka goodness, we’ve updated many of our most downloaded plugins to go with the new version (Follow the links below). Never fear, we are busy updating and improving the rest and they will be available for Omeka 2.0 soon!

Take things out for a spin and let us know what you think.

Plugins updated for Omeka 2.0

• Docs Viewer
• Dropbox
• Dublin Core Extended
• Library of Congress Suggest
• Simple Contact Form
• Simple Vocab

You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, well you just might find
You get what you need

With the immortal words of the Rolling Stones, we offer the Omeka 2.0 release candidate. New and improved based on the feedback and testing from the 2.0 Beta, this version of the software makes it possible for Omeka fans to get started on new projects today.

The Omeka Team is putting the finishing touches on updated themes and plugins that usually accompany our full release package. In the meantime, designers, developers, and translators can work with the core software, the default and Seasons themes, and the COinS and SimplePages plugins.

Omeka 2.0 sports a host of shiny new and improved features, including:

• an administrative interface that has been redesigned to improve workflow;
• an improved ability to customize site navigation with drag and drop;
• the opportunity to select a homepage from a range of available pages;
• the addition of Dublin Core Metadata fields to Collections;
• the ability to add comments or instructions to metadata fields for other users;
• the creation of thumbnail images for a fuller range of files;
• and, the availability of a new site-wide search.

Moreover, plugin and theme developers will discover more streamlined code, fewer functions to know (without any loss in capability), an increased number of hooks and filters, and greater overall consistency in how to use them. All of these improvements have been carefully documented by the Omeka Dev team.

Check out the screencast to get an overview of 2.0 goodness, and then go download your copy of the release candidate to get started!

Introduction to Omeka 2.0 from Omeka on Vimeo.