It has been an exciting (not to mention very busy) few weeks, and we are now entering the final approach towards the release of Elgg 1.0.

We have had some very positive initial response from our beta tester group, and from the screenshots that Dave posted the other day.

Elgg 1.0 features some rather advanced features such as the much improved object model which I’ve blogged about before (also see Ben’s post) as well as native support for OpenDD.

A lot of work has been done to make development for the new platform a breeze; with a view system separating code and logic, widgets and streams virtually for free, and many more functions in core that take much of the strain.

As well as all the work done under the hood, Pete has done great work in making the new version graphically pleasing. There has been a big focus on the UI experience which everyone so far has said is a big improvement over Elgg Classic.

Watch this space for more!