The Omeka team is very happy to announce the release of version 1.3. As we mentioned in a previous post, if you’re currently running a version of Omeka older than 1.2, you’ll need to upgrade to 1.2 or 1.2.1 before you can upgrade to 1.3. Everyone will find something they like in 1.3, including upgraded versions of the Exhibit Builder and Simple Pages plugins. Below are some details of these new and updated features.

• In Exhibit Builder 1.0, we’ve improved the interface for selecting items to display on exhibit pages, added a caption field for each item, and provided easier ways to sort sections and pages from the admin panel. Most importantly, Exhibit Builder now uses Omeka’s ‘themes’ directory instead of its own internal ‘exhibit_themes’ directory. This means you can now use any of the public themes in Omeka for your exhibit, and use that theme’s configuration options for each exhibit.
• In SimplePages 1.0, we’ve improved the display of pages in public themes, added nested navigation for child pages, and provided a breadcrumb navigation.
• Exhibit Builder 1.0 and SimplePages 1.0 both require Omeka 1.3, but they already come bundled with Omeka when you download it.
• Sortable items browsing. We knocked off the oldest open ticket in our Trac and added a sorting to the items/browse pages. Simply click on one of the active table headers to sort items. Theme writers can also add this functionality to their own themes with a little bit of work.
• Omeka now uses jQuery by default. All the Omeka admin scripts, and our plugins, use jQuery instead of Prototype. But if you’re using Prototype in your plugins and/or theme, don’t worry. We still bundle Prototype and Scriptaculous, and you can automatically load those libraries by checking a box in your admin’s Settings panel if needed.
• JavaScript and CSS queueing. We’ve provided some methods for plugin and theme developers to add JavaScripts and style sheets to a queue, to help avoid loading the same javascript library more than once.

If you want a complete list of changes, check out the release notes or the changelog for Omeka 1.3, and download it today!

Interested in upgrading to the soon-to-be-released 1.3 version (with improved Exhibit Builder and Simple Pages plugins)? Then, please be sure that you prepare your current installation by upgrading to version 1.2 or 1.2.1. In case you don’t remember how to upgrade, follow these steps.

Version 1.3 contains substantial changes, making an attempted upgrade from any version below 1.2 problematic. Seriously. We will include a version check in the installation process to prevent such problems, but it’s always nice to be warned ahead of time, right?

If you are not sure which version you are running, scroll to the bottom of the dashboard or any admin page find that information.

After more than two years of planning and development, and six months of Alpha testing, CHNM is pleased to announce the public launch of Omeka.net Beta. Anyone may sign up for an account today.

Omeka.net is a hosted web service that brings standards-based online collections and exhibitions to the internet cloud. Simply create a username and password at http://omeka.net, and your online collection or exhibition website is up and running. Similar to cloud-based content management services offered by WordPress.com, Blogger, and PBWorks—but geared to the needs of scholarship and cultural heritage—no server or programming experience is required to launch an Omeka.net website. With Omeka.net, users can build digital exhibits, map photographs, collect memories from web audiences, or publish new scholarship in a few easy steps.

Omeka.net will offer five plans for users that include a range of options from building one site using a few plugins and themes to deploying an unlimited number of sites that uses an extensive set of add-ons and designs. These plans, including a basic free option, are available to accommodate a variety of individual and institutional users.

Omeka.net is an outgrowth of the Omeka project, in partnership with Minnesota Historical Foundation and funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Library of Congress, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

Omeka 1.2.1 fixes a security flaw in the Omeka theme configuration. We recommend that everyone who is using 1.2 upgrade to this version immediately. This applies only to the themes configuration feature that was new in 1.2, so Omeka installations using older versions are not affected. No changes are required for plugins and themes.

Omeka’s newest release offers a glimpse of functionality coming with our new service, Omeka.net: configurable themes.

Omeka 1.2 includes two examples of themes that can be configured in the admin/themes panel. Rhythm and Seasons allow users to choose from a bundle of style sheets that change the color palette of the theme. Additionally, Seasons gives users the option to upload a logo that will be displayed in the left corner of the site’s header. All themes will be configurable in this way for the omeka.net service, so consider this a sneak peak of what is to come. If you’re interested in making your own theme configurable, check out the Theme Configuration page in the Documentation.

Version 1.2 also includes Exhibit Builder 0.5.2. We fixed a few bugs, including one in the TinyMCE editor that incorrectly converted absolute URLs to relative URLs. If you’re not ready to upgrade Omeka to 1.2, you can still download the new version of Exhibit Builder on our Plugins page.

We’ve also fixed a major bug in the Berlin theme by adding the standard plugin hook to items/show, so that all plugins can append content to that page.

A summary of all changes made in Omeka 1.2 can be found in the release notes.

Try it out, and tell us what you think.