Yes, it’s been a while, and finally my favorite PHP framework has released its latest version 1.7.0 (Actually it was some 7 days ago but I missed it, what a shame).

When the previous version (1.6.3) was just more or less about maintenance and bug fixes, 1.7.0 makes a step further to add many new and enhanced features. To name a few (from the Change Log):

• Added a new Form Validation Class. It simplifies setting rules and field names, supports arrays as field names, allows groups of validation rules to be saved in a config file, and adds some helper functions for use in view files[...] (Me: Perfect. The old validation class was really a failure of CI, as it was ugly and prone to misunderstanding)
• Updated the Sessions class so that any custom data being saved gets stored to a database rather than the session cookie (assuming you are using a database to store session data), permitting much more data to be saved. (Me: I don’t save session data into database, so this doesn’t sound like a big change to me)
• Added the ability to store libraries in subdirectories within either the main “libraries” or the local application “libraries” folder[...] (Me: Finally. It has always pissed me up for not being able to organize my libraries)
• Added the ability to assign library objects to your own variable names when you use $this->load->library() [...] (Me: Yes, I’ve been wondering why this was not available in previous versions, when it DID with controllers and models)
• Added controller class/method info to Profiler class and support for multiple database connections.
• Improved the “auto typography” feature and moved it out of the helper into its own Typography Class. (Me: I didn’t pay notice to this feature. Looks like a VERY useful class now. Must make use of it)
• Improved performance and accuracy of xss_clean(), including reduction of false positives on image/file tests
• [...]
• Added support for mb_strlen in the Form Validation class so that multi-byte languages will calculate string lengths properly. (Me: So it didn’t make use of mb_strlen() in the past? OMG!)

With many other new features and bug fixes, this is definitely worth an upgrade. Way to go, CodeIgniter!

Update: Sorry, forgot this. You can download the latest version here.