K 1.6 & K 1.7 Technical Requirements
From Kunena
Kunena 1.7
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Unless stated otherwise, all references below to K 1.6 also apply equally to K 1.7. |
Kunena 1.6
The technical requirements of Kunena 1.6 are different from Joomla itself, other components and from previous versions of Kunena. Due to the fact that Kunena might be running on sites with thousands of active users and millions of posts, performance features of certain newer components are required.
 Note: Joomla 1.6 is not supported; J! 1.7 will not be supported after 24 February 2012.
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Minimum system requirements
Kunena is a PHP/MySQL based component for Joomla. In addition other the basic server needs for Joomla, these are the minimum requirements if you choose to install Kunena on your system[1]:
PHP 5.2.3+ or 5.3.0+ MySQL 5.0.3+ or 5.1.0+ or 5.5.0+ Joomla 1.5.23+, 1.7.3+ or 2.5.0+
The Kunena installer checks minimum system requirements and will abort the install if requirements are not met. If you receive any such error message, it is advised to uninstall the component, upgrade your system and re-install Kunena. The abort is required as various Kunena system and database calls will fail (fatal error) on outdated PHP and MySQL. You can find the latest MySQL and PHP versions on their respective sites. [2] Kunena 1.7
K 1.7 requires PHP 5.2.3 or greater.
PHP Settings
Due to the size of Kunena as a component, some minor adjustments to the PHP settings of your server might be required.
max_execution_time >= 30 memory_limit >= 16M (>= 64M recommended) - depends on other Joomla extensions used safe_mode = off upload_max_filesize >= 3M GD, DOM, JSON support installed
You can validate the settings inside the Joomla back-end inside the System Information under PHP Information. Only when these settings are reflected in there are you ready to start the installation[3]
Joomla requirements
General
Kunena 1.6 is a Joomla native component (see below) but will not run in Joomla 1.0. Kunena 1.6 has not been tested with Joomla 1.5 running in legacy mode. User are cautioned against running Kunena with J! 1.5 with the System - Legacy plugin enabled [4].
Before installing Kunena, make sure that you have:
* Mootools 1.2 compatible template * Upgraded to latest versions all extensions that claim to integrate with Kunena * No plugins or modules that were developed for previous versions of Kunena or Fireboard
Kunena 1.6 cannot be installed on sites running Joomla before J! 1.5.20. The Kunena installer will abort if this minimum requirements is not met; the abort is unavoidably necessary. If you receive any such error message, you should upgrade Joomla and perform the Kunena installation again. Please check the Joomla website for the latest security release.
It is necessary that your Joomla website allows the use of Mootools 1.2.4 and that you do not have other extensions that introduce conflicting Javascript functions that interferes with this behaviour[5].
If you are using other Joomla extensions that integrate with Kunena 1.6 (or that claim to integrate with Kunena 1.6) you should also upgrade them to their latest versions. If you are using Joomla extensions that may have worked with earlier versions of Kunena they may or may not work with a particular version of K 1.6.x. The proper functioning of these other extensions and Kunena is dependent on the co-operation between the developers of other software and the Kunena project team. In the world of open source software this degree of co-operative development may change quickly and suddenly; extensions that used to work in one version may not work together in a later version or vice versa. If you have doubts you should first test other Joomla extensions are compatible with Junena before you use a combination of these things in a live system.
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Kunena 1.6 is not compatible with modules or plug-ins designed for previous versions and we recommend you disable all Kunena 1.5 extensions before installing or upgrading. |
Do not try to install Kunena 1.6 while you still have Joomla extensions that were developed for previous versions of Kunena or Fireboard. The data structures of Kunena 1.6 are different to the data structures of K 1.0 / K 1.5 / Fireboard and attempting to run extensions designed these older versions will result with unexpected and severe results.
Joomla 1.6.0
Kunena 1.6.2
Users may want to experiment with K 1.6 and Joomla 1.6. K 1.6.2 provides some capability to work with Joomla 1.6 and this capability will be extended in future releases. There are issues with installing or using K 1.6.x in Joomla 1.6 at this time. Some of these issues are show-stoppers if users are considering Joomla 1.6 to run their production websites. Many of these issues will be fixed in future versions of Kunena and Joomla. At this time users are encouraged to report issues with Joomla 1.6 as test cases but support may not necessarily be available to resolve them. Until otherwise advised, please use the K 1.6 test reports category to report issues that you are having with K 1.6 and J! 1.6.
Joomla versions before J 1.6.3 are not suitable as a basis for K 1.6.
Joomla 1.6.3
Kunena 1.6.4
There are still a few outstanding matters that have prevented K 1.6 meeting all our expectations to take full advantage of all the features of J! 1.6. As with other Joomla extensions, the Kunena project is not alone in this situation. During our extensive testing of K 1.6.4 the project team has discovered several issues with the Joomla 1.6 core and these have been reported to the Joomla development team. Rather than wait for Joomla 1.7 to be released (expected some time in July this year) we decided that it is better now to release a version of Kunena that handles most of what Joomla 1.6 is capable of providing. There is still further work needed to complete this task and we're continuing to work with Joomla developers to resolve those outstanding matters. If you are in any doubt about whether J! 1.6 is right for you, you should test K 1.6.4 on J! 1.6.3. to form your own opinion of whether J! 1.6 is best for your needs or whether you should use something else.
It is not necessary to have Joomla 1.6 in order to install Kunena 1.6. The version number is purely coincidental.
Joomla 1.6.6
Kunena 1.6.4
With the announcement by Joomla that all previous versions of J! 1.6 contain a security vulnerability that exposes websites to XSS code injection exploits, and with the announcement by Joomla that people should upgrade to J 1.7 before support of J! 1.6 is withdrawn, Joomla has released a security release of J! 1.6.6.
Joomla 1.7.0
Kunena 1.6.5
With the release of J! 1.7 it is essential to be running K 1.6.5 or later. As was the case with J! 1.6, there are still a few outstanding matters that have prevented K 1.6.5 taking full advantage of all the features of J! 1.7. These outstanding issues will not be resolved in K 1.6
Joomla 2.5.0
Kunena 1.7.2
With the release of J! 2.5, it is essential to be running K 1.7.2 or later. K 1.7.2 represents the conclusion of the K 1.7 project and marks the end of life for this important transition to Kunena 2.0. J! 2.5 introduced a number of changes that have made it necessary for Kunena to be redesigned so that it would install and operate effectively from a single installation package. This means that many third-party or Kunena project-written add-ons, designed for previous versions of Kunena leading up to K 1.7.2, are also affected. Third-party add-ons include Kunena templates.
Browser support
Kunena 1.6 has been tested with the following browsers:
Internet Explorer 7 Internet Explorer 8 Firefox 3+ Safari 4+
Kunena 1.7
Kunena 1.7 has been tested with the following browsers:
Internet Explorer 9 Firefox 5+ Safari 5+
Generally-speaking, Google Chrome should render similarly to Safari and, although Opera browsers are not officially supported, Kunena should work with Opera too. It may not always be possible to ensure that older browsers, like IE7, will always render your website consistently. It is recommended that you test your site with a cross-section of web browsers used by members of your community and, if it is feasible to do so, upgrade to the more current generation of browser technology used by most people today.
Because of the special requirements of IE6, Kunena 1.6 has not been designed to be backwards compatible with that particular browser.
Comparison against other versions of Kunena
| K 2.0 | K 1.7 | K 1.6 | K 1.5 | K 1.0 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active project | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Supported | No[6] | Yes | No | No | No |
| Joomla 2.5 | Yes | Yes[7] | No | No | No |
| Joomla 1.7 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Joomla 1.6[8] | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Joomla 1.5 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Joomla 1.0 [9] | No | No | No | Yes[9] | Yes |
| PHP4 | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| PHP5 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Mozilla Firefox 3 | Untested | Untested | Yes | Untested | No |
| Mozilla Firefox 5 | Yes | Yes | Untested | No | No |
| Internet Explorer 6 | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Internet Explorer 7 | No | Untested | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Internet Explorer 8 | Untested | Untested | Yes | Untested | No |
| Internet Explorer 9 | Yes | Yes | Untested | No | No |
| Internet Explorer 10 | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Safari 3[10] | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Safari 4[10] | Untested | Untested | Yes | No | No |
| Safari 5[10] | Yes | Yes | Untested | No | No |
| Javascript | Mootools 1.2.4+ | Mootools 1.2.4+ | Mootools 1.2.4+ | jQuery | jQuery |
| K 2.0 | K 1.7 | K 1.6 | K 1.5 | K 1.0 |
Further Reading
References
- ↑ For Apache Web Server (or IIS) environments, it is recommended to have "keepalive" off or less than 3 seconds
- ↑ For performance we highly recommend the use of PHP 5.3 as well as MySQL 5.1. Both of these versions are becoming a default in most hosting environments. Although well beyond the scope of this document, people might look into InnoDB, dedicated web servers and performance tuning for optimum performance.
- ↑ Various systems keep multiple copies of the php.ini file and only your hosting provider (through documentation or support) can help you locate the proper one. As long as the Joomla System Information does not reflect the proper settings, you have not modified the correct .ini file. In addition you will have to restart your Apache server service for some of these settings to take affect.
- ↑ Joomla legacy mode and Kunena
- ↑ The great Mootools/Javascript conflict discussion
- ↑ K 2.0 is under development at the time of writing. Support for this version will only become available when this version is released as a public stable release.
- ↑ K 1.7.2 recommended.
- ↑ Joomla 1.6 is not supported and not all features of J! 1.6 are fully operational in any event.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 This also implies Joomla 1.5 with System - Legacy plugin enabled
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Generally-speaking, Google Chrome should render similarly to Safari and, although Opera browsers are not officially supported, Kunena should work with Opera too.
