CMSB v3.84 Released (Show/Hide Fields & MCP Server)

Hi everyone,

We've just released v3.83 (our biggest single release to date!), and we're already running it on our site.

Here are some highlights from this release: 

• Field Editor
  • Show If: New option allows you to dynamically show/hide fields based on the values of other fields
  • Show for: Replaces old "Admin only" setting with options for everyone, editor, admin only, or new: Nobody (completely hidden)
  • Placeholder: New option for text and textbox fields to set hint text inside the field when empty
  • Field List UI: Lock and eye icons now mark restricted and conditional fields in your field list
  • Reorganized and simplified the field editor UI
• Admin → Advanced → MCP Server
  • AI coding assistants like Claude Code can now read and update your CMS directly
  • Read and write records, upload files, run queries, and view your database schema
  • Built-in /fix-cms command: AI reviews your recent PHP errors and offers fixes
• Admin → Backup & Restore → Website → Restore from Zip
  • Added restore button to restore from previous website backup zips (for uploading a local or dev site)
• Fields → List → pillbox (multi value)
  • Selected values can now be drag sorted to change the order
  • Dropdown options show checkboxes to select multiple values (easier for end-users)
• Admin → Advanced
  • Admin Favicon: Pick a colored favicon (green/yellow/red) to tell CMS installs apart in your browser tabs (e.g. dev, staging, live)
  • Server Links: Add dev, staging, and live server URLs for quick-switching between environments
• Developer Console
  • Automatically decrypts and displays contents from encrypted fields
• General code modernization and cleanup

Note: We still have a queue of pending user feature requests.  We're releasing what we have now so you can start using it.  Feel free to remind us what you'd like to see next. 

The full changelog for this release is as follows:

*** May 8, 2026 - Version 3.83 (Show/Hide Fields & MCP Server)

SERVER REQUIREMENTS (Since Jun 2025): PHP 8.1+ and MySQL 5.7+ (or MariaDB 10.2+)

FIELD EDITOR
    - Show/Hide Fields: Fields now show/hide automatically based on what users select
        - Example: Show "Speaker Name" only when Event Type is "Webinar"
        - Example: Show "Shipping Address" only when Delivery Method is "Mail"
        - Works with all field types: text, checkboxes, tabs, upload fields, related records
        - Custom expressions allow for multi-field AND rules (e.g. type=article AND status!=draft|hidden)
        - Configure in: Database > Edit Field > Visibility > Show If
    - Field Access: "Admin Only" replaced with clearer "Show for" dropdown
        - Options: Everyone, Editor and above, Admin only, or new: Nobody (completely hidden)
        - ***Behavior change***: List view now hides restricted fields as well (previously didn't)
    - Placeholder: New option for text and textbox fields to set hint text inside the field when empty
    - Lock and eye icons now mark restricted and conditional fields in your field list
    - Simplified field editor interface with cleaner organization
    - Textbox Fields: "Auto Format" renamed to "Line Breaks" (nl2br) and deprecated.
         - Off by default for new fields; existing fields can be turned off, but not re-enabled

MCP SERVER
    - AI coding assistants like Claude Code can now read and update your CMS directly
    - Read and write records, upload files, run queries, and view your database schema
    - Configure in: Admin > Advanced > MCP Server (IP allowlist, API keys, permissions)
    - Built-in /fix-cms command: AI reviews your recent PHP errors and offers fixes
    - Security: IP allowlist required, Bearer token auth, read-only enforced at MySQL session level
    - Write operations logged to the audit log

ADMIN > BACKUP & RESTORE
    - Website: Added restore button to restore from previous website backup zips
    - Website: Previous Backups dropdown now shows relative dates (e.g., "5 min ago", "yesterday")
    - Website: Removed "Only include code files" option (use .cms-no-backup marker files to exclude folders instead)
    - Database: Backup dropdown now offers option to include log tables in backup ("include skipped")

PILLBOX & FOREIGN KEY FIELDS
    - Replaced form dropdown component Select2 with Tom Select
    - Pillbox: drag pills to reorder selected values
    - Pillbox: dropdown options show checkboxes so you can see all options and their selection state at a glance
    - Type-ahead search to filter options instantly

ADMIN > ADVANCED (New Page)
    - Reorganized admin settings into "Admin Interface" and "Advanced Settings" sections
    - Admin Favicon: Pick a colored favicon (green/yellow/red) to tell CMS installs apart in your browser tabs
    - Server Links: Add dev, staging, and live server URLs for quick-switching between environments
    - Admin Shortcuts, Debug Footer, and WYSIWYG/Menu/Cookie settings moved here from General Settings

MINOR CHANGES
    - Email Settings: Developer Email now accepts multiple comma-separated addresses
    - File Uploads: Files are saved with dashes instead of underscores for better SEO, and .jpeg is normalized to .jpg
    - Audit Log: Expanded logging coverage for fields, tables, uploads, backups, and database operations
    - Security: Added additional .htaccess hardening for data directories (Apache 2.4+ compatibility)
    - PHP 8.5: Silenced deprecation warning by disabling unneeded register_argc_argv directive in shipped php.ini, .htaccess, and .user.ini
    - Improved text contrast for input fields, selects, and placeholders
    - Admin menus updated and reorganized for better usability
    - Upgraded Dependencies: PHPMailer v6 to v7, Firebase/JWT v6 to v7, and other library updates

BUG FIXES
    - SmartArray: Fixed TypeError when calling load() on SmartArrayHtml (changed type hint to SmartArrayBase)
    - Language: Fixed "No such file or directory" error when developer mode was enabled without a language selected
    - Upload Fields: Fixed "Create Thumbnail" checkbox re-enabling itself after saving when unchecked
    - Edit Page: Fixed false "unsaved changes" warning appearing after clicking in fields without editing them
    - Misc code and other minor improvements

**FOR PROGRAMMERS**
    - Modern PHP features enabled:
        - Native types: Database queries now return native PHP types (int/float) instead of strings
        - mysqli::execute_query() for one-line parameterized queries (available natively in PHP 8.2+, backported for PHP 8.1):
            $rows = DB::$mysqli->execute_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?", [$id])->fetch_all(MYSQLI_ASSOC);
            DB::$mysqli->execute_query("UPDATE users SET name = ? WHERE id = ?", [$name, $id]);
    - Database Encryption: Key now cached as MySQL session variable @ek
        - Faster: Computed once per-connection, not per-query
        - Simpler: AES_ENCRYPT(val, @ek) instead of AES_ENCRYPT(val, UNHEX(SHA2('key',512)))
        - Cleaner: Key hidden from SHOW PROCESSLIST and error messages
        - On-demand: Only initialized when encrypted fields are used
    - MySQL Console: Record edit page database icon now opens console with that record in column mode
    - MySQL Console: New {{column}} shortcut auto-expands to AES_DECRYPT(`column`, @ek) for encrypted columns
    - Moved /api.php to /api/ to better organize future API endpoints

**FOR PROGRAMMERS (BREAKING CHANGES)**
    - Note: These changes only impact developers who have written custom PHP code
    - Database queries now return native PHP types (int/float) instead of strings
        - If your code expects strings, cast them: (string)$row['id']
    - MySQL queries now throw exceptions instead of returning false (following PHP 8.1+ standard behavior).
        - Before: $result = mysqli()->query($sql) or die("MySQL Error: " . mysqli()->error);
        - After:  try { $result = mysqli()->query($sql); } catch (mysqli_sql_exception $e) { die("MySQL Error: " . $e->getMessage()); }
    - Library Updates: ZenDB has been moved to composer with several renamed and deprecated methods
        - DB::get() renamed to DB::selectOne() (DB::get() still works but is deprecated)
        - See ZenDB docs for full list of changes: https://github.com/interactivetools-com/ZenDB/

You can download the latest version here: https://www.interactivetools.com/download/

Please feel free to ask any questions or post any feedback or comments.

Thank you!