We are excited to announce that the Mautic 7 Columba edition beta version is now available for public testing!

With Mautic 7, we are focused on removing outdated code and functionality to ensure Mautic remains secure and performant aligned with modern coding standards, while also delivering more improvements and features to Mautic.

We’ve worked really hard to get to this point – a huge thanks to all the community members who have contributed to the release!

IMPORTANT NOTE:

This is a pre-release, which means it should never be used in a production environment. At this stage we do not test the upgrade path nor do we guarantee upgrading from Beta to later versions. 

Please only use it in testing environments, and report back your findings.

The major release focuses on a major update to Symfony 7, but it also brings several user-facing changes and some changes that are relevant for developers. Read on for more information.

What’s new in Mautic 7 Beta Columba Edition?

User-facing changes

• Improvements to user experience for scheduled sending of emails (#14254)
• Improvements in bounce recognition for Outlook and Exchange (#15371)
• New slider form field type (#15332)
• Improvements in user experience for text message and web notification previews (#15410 and #15247)
• Add Projects support for stages, dynamic web content and points (#15409)

Developer-facing changes

• API Platform implemented (see /api/v2) (#14812)
• Ability to define multiple mailer DSNs (#14254)
• Ability to replace DB cache with Redis or similar service (#15554)
• Add events in the Projects bundle to allow bundles/plugins to extend entity type to model key mappings (#15485)
• Projects unified in API endpoints (#15507)

Download Mautic 7 Beta and help speed up the releases

All these exciting new features and code improvements now need to be extensively tested so they can get into the hands of our users as soon as possible.

As an open source project, the Mautic Community is the foundation of our progress, so join us today and help speed up the release of Mautic 7 into the General Availability version.

The General Availability release of Mautic 7.0 is scheduled to be released in Q4 2025, and with your help we’ll make that deadline.

Here is what you can do to help:

Each Friday we will be having our usual Open Source Friday community sprints, a great way to have mentored onboarding to get started with contributing to Mautic. Join us on Slack and head over to #new-contributors if you’d like to get started, or jump right into any of the teams, whose channels start with #t-<team name>.

Right now we have Hacktoberfest running, which means there’s even more onboarding support from our awesome team leads!

Check the features, enhancements, refactoring and bug fixes which are slated for release in the Release Candidate, and help us by testing them. Check our docs on testing – which can almost always be done locally or using a GitHub Codespace in the browser by any user of Mautic. Don’t forget to leave a formal review, that counts as a contribution to Mautic!

Help us with completing the updates needed for the end-user and developer documentation by joining #t-education on Slack. We have regular onboarding calls to help you get started.  There’s everything from updating screenshots to reviewing our code examples, something for everyone!

Useful resources

https://github.com/mautic/mautic/blob/7.x/UPGRADE-7.0.md – developer-facing changes

7.0.0-alpha release – https://github.com/mautic/mautic/releases/tag/7.0.0-alpha

7.0.0-beta release – https://github.com/mautic/mautic/releases/tag/7.0.0-beta

7.0.0-Release Candidate milestone: https://github.com/mautic/mautic/milestone/127 

7.0.0-General Availability milestone: https://github.com/mautic/mautic/milestone/128 

I’ve been in and around technology for nearly 20 years. Everything from IT administration/end-user support, software development and technology marketing/sales. In each one of these lines of work, there has been a consistent theme. Testing.

Why Testing?

If we’re honest, all end user support starts with a lot of questions. What was happening when that issue happened? Were you doing another task when that happened? What led up to the error? What showed up on screen when it happened? These questions are all designed to provide answers that lead to preventing that issue in the future.

Every operating system, mobile application or other software that we may use, operates in an environment that is unique to it. Trying to determine the source of these issues, often means understanding the environment as well as every unique element related to it. Once a possible source is discovered, we test to determine if our hypothesis is correct.

In a similar fashion, whether you are designing digital learning tools, or a robust marketing automation solution, each newly designed feature or added capability requires testing to ensure that it operates in a manner befitting its goal. And likewise with marketing messages, there are companies that primarily work on focus group testing messages with a variety of audiences to ensure that their message is resonating with it’s potential customers.

If we can find testing in so many environments, then it makes logical sense that we equip our own organizations with systems that provide us with the opportunity to test out new software that will impact our business. That’s why we are excited to share that we will be re-launching a beta-release program with the announcement of Mautic 2.9.0!

Beta-Release

For those who don’t adhere to a release management process, in its simplest form there is a test server and a production server. Each of these have their own purpose. The test server provides organizations with the ability to load and test pre-releases of software in an environment that doesn’t interrupt your day-to-day marketing automation (or other business) activities. The production server typically contains the most stable version of the software that enables you to continue gathering data on your audience as well as provide them with value at every interaction.

Mautic makes it simple to access and test beta-releases. To set up a test server, follow a similar process for a production server, with the most significant change occurring in the setup of Mautic. Follow the link below for more configuration details.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please do not use beta releases in your production environment. There may be bugs still present in a beta release. Remember to always take a backup of your files and database prior to applying any updates, beta or otherwise.

Mautic 2.9.0 Beta-Release

For more detailed information on how you can access the Mautic 2.9.0 beta-release click here.

Now you are ready to test! Be sure to access Mautic’s Github Pre-release page to determine what features are being released and what issues are being resolved.