CivicPress 0.7.0 is out. This release is mostly about page-building. We added four new patterns that cover the layouts agencies actually reach for, and we did some cleanup under the hood (including one change you’ll want to check before you update).
Let’s start with that change, because it matters.
Heads up: PHP 8.2 is now the minimum
0.7.0 raises the minimum PHP version to 8.2. Before you update CivicPress, check what version of PHP your hosting environment is running. If you’re on 8.1 or older, update PHP first, then update the theme. If you’re already on 8.2 or higher (most modern hosts are), you’re fine and there’s nothing to do.
This isn’t us chasing the newest thing for the sake of it. PHP 8.1 reached end of security support, and staying current is part of running a secure government site. The other dev-side change in this release (we dropped the deprecated FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING constant) is the same idea. Keep things current so they don’t break later.
Four new patterns
The headline of 0.7.0 is the patterns. Building government pages means assembling the same handful of layouts over and over, so the more of those we ship as ready-to-use patterns, the less manual work for your content team. This release adds four:
- Cover image with content. A full-bleed image with content laid over it. Good for page headers and section breaks that need some visual weight.
- Media and text with heading, subheading, and button. A structured media-text block that comes pre-built with the heading, subheading, and call-to-action button already in place. Drop it in, swap the copy, done.
- Call to action with image background. A CTA section with an image behind it. The layout most service pages and landing pages want.
- Sticky columns. Columns where one side stays put while the other scrolls. Useful for keeping a nav, summary, or contact block in view alongside longer content.
None of these are doing anything you couldn’t build by hand before. The point is you don’t have to.
Documentation page improvements
If you run documentation on your CivicPress site, the table of contents got some attention this release. Better column spacing, and a sticky scroll behavior so the TOC stays in view as you move down a long page. Small thing, but documentation pages are exactly where you want navigation that doesn’t disappear on you.
A look at the admin
We refined the admin colors in this release. On its own it’s a minor visual change, but it’s laying groundwork for some larger admin experience improvements we’re working on. More on that in a future release.
Everything else
The rest of 0.7.0 is the usual round of polish and fixes:
- Pattern width and spacing improvements
- Fixed visual bugs in the table, media text, and navigation blocks
- Fixed an undefined property in the admin updater
- Improved cache key handling
- Disabled unused comment content and endpoints for both human and robot users
The full list is in the changelog if you want every line item.
Ready to update? Check your PHP version first (8.2 minimum), then update. As always, test in a staging environment before deploying to production.
The complete changelog lives at civicpress.us/changelog.
Have questions or want to see CivicPress in action? Get in touch.