What's new and version history

This guide describes Choir Master CMS version 1.6.12. If your site runs an older version, some pages here describe things it does not have yet, and the Updates page tells you how to move forward. This page points you to the full history rather than repeating it.

Where to read what changed

• In the admin panel. When a newer version is available, the Updates page shows a What's new block with the release notes for it. The dashboard also shows a banner, "Version 1.6.13 is available" for example, with a What's new button. Only a Site Admin or an Admin can open the Updates page; see Roles and permissions.
• In the download. Self-hosted installs include a file called CHANGELOG.md that lists every release, newest first. The notes in it are written for a choir's webmaster, and they are the same text the Updates page shows.

On a self-hosted site

The Updates page needs a LICENSE_KEY on the server. Without one, the site never asks whether a new version exists. See Your licence key and How updates work.

On a site we host

A site we host is updated by us, all at once. You do not install anything.

How version numbers read

A version has three numbers separated by dots, such as 1.6.12: major, minor, patch. Bigger numbers are newer, compared in order, so 1.6.12 is newer than 1.6.9.

A version may have a label after a hyphen, such as 1.7.0-beta.1. The label marks a version that is still being tested, and it is older than the same number without a label: 1.7.0-beta.1 comes before 1.7.0.

Version looks like	Channel	Who is offered it
1.6.12 (no label)	Stable	Every site
1.7.0-beta.1, 1.7.0-rc.1 (any label that does not start with dev)	Beta	Sites that chose the beta channel
1.7.0-dev.1 (a label that starts with dev)	Development	Only licences the publisher has put on the development channel

A site chooses its channel with UPDATE_CHANNEL (stable by default); a site on a channel is offered that channel's releases and those of every more stable channel. The Updates page says which channel you are on and marks a beta or a development build with a warning. See Beta versions and update channels.

See which version your site runs

• The dashboard shows a Version link (for example, "Version 1.6.12") at the top right. It opens the Updates page, which lists the current version and the latest known.
• The address /api/health on your site answers with a short line of data that includes the version, such as {"status":"ok","platform":"node","version":"1.6.12"}. This is what a monitoring service can check.
• The foot of the admin login page and the guided setup shows "Powered by Choir Master CMS" and the version number.

What arrived in 1.6.12

Released 11 October 2026. In the words of its changelog, in short:

• Links to your site show your choir's name. The page your site sends now carries your choir's name as its title, your Description for search engines, your favicon and the tags link previews are made from, so Facebook, Messages, WhatsApp, Slack and search engines no longer see a site called "Choir". The preview's picture is the background photo of your home page's hero, when you have set one; your logo is not used. A description you have not written yourself is left out. See How your site looks when a link is shared.
• Public pages say what their one proper address is, and the admin panel, the member portal and pages that are one person's (their tickets, their gift) ask search engines not to list them.
• Nothing to do on a site we host or a site on its own server. A site on Cloudflare Workers has two lines to change in wrangler.toml, together: see Changes a release needs in wrangler.toml.

What arrived in 1.6.11

Released 11 October 2026. In the words of its changelog, in short:

• A Resources page. In Site Settings, Features, switch on Resources page (it starts off). It adds a page at /resources and a Resources item to the menu, with a heading, an introduction, a few words about your music library, up to three cards, up to three link tiles and a note for members. Its wording is in Site Settings, Resources page. See Your Resources page.
• Two new icons. A magnifying glass and a download arrow, which can be chosen wherever a setting has an icon.
• A custom style sheet on self-hosted sites. In Site Settings, Theme; only a Site Admin can change it. See Custom style sheet: names to style by.
• A new font pairing, Georgia and Inter. See Themes, palettes and font pairings.
• More wording you can set (all empty until you fill them in): a sentence under "Connect With Us" in the footer, the footer's "Portals" heading and the label of its admin login link, a line under the season subscription box, and words in the note under your concerts that become a link.
• No glimpse of the sample choir. A first-time visitor no longer sees the sample choir's name and colours for a moment before your own appear; a blank white page shows for that moment instead.

For anything earlier, read CHANGELOG.md.