Here is tiki 1.9.8 (Sept 13th), the final release:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=64258&package_id=112134&release_id=539332

Here is tiki 1.9.8 Beta 2 (Sept 12th):
http://dev.tikiwiki.org/Tiki198Beta2.zip

Here is tiki 1.9.8 Beta: (Sept 1st):
http://dev.tikiwiki.org/Tiki198Beta.zip

security
It solves the HTML/embed object injection issue reported here:
http://securityvulns.com/Rdocument884.html

So please install on various setups. Once installed, play with it to see if all is OK. If you have some 1.9.7 and older sites, please test 1.9.8 Beta on a backup copy (you already make backups, right?). Make sure to run the db upgrade script from tiki-install.php

Please report all issues to:
http://dev.tikiwiki.org/

If your test was successful (or not), please email the dev mailing list with your configuration (OS, PHP version, DB version, etc).

Release Process Tiki 1.9.8

To do list

Dogfood bugfixes

Doc (blockers)

1. Confusion between links to docs and links to other admin panels (for admin settings which have been moved) done by marclaporte for 1.9.8

Doc (If time permits), can be after the release, as long as it's before big promo.

1. Improve Basic Docs Project on install, restore, upgrade and backup.
   • some work already done on Installation, and Upgrades.

Bugs (blockers)

We have done 95% of the job, let's squeeze in the other 5%

1. Change the default data type for tiki-preferences table to a text field (not a blob) Luci did tiki.sql
   1. tiki-admin.php?page=intertiki and tiki-admin.php?page=siteid warnings about 250 chars can be removed after tiki_1.8to1.9.sql is updated done
2. If & when somebody turns on Site Identity on clean install, and put something meaningful at the top like http://i18n.tikiwiki.org/tiki-index.php?page=TestForTop done

Let's-invest-some time-to-solve-and-avoid-support-requests

1. Problem with duplicate menus when running tiki_1.8to1.9.sql multiple times.
2. Improve Installer, possibly by splitting install script from upgrade script or hiding install part when db exists and thus, the person is necessarily updating
3. Change password invalid after x days from 999 to 1999 done by marclaporte for 1.9.8
4. Maybe adding an RSS feed in admin panel (to communicate with Tiki admins about updates, etc)
5. Reduce occurrence of lost edits ricks99 is fixing for 1.9.8
   1. tiki-editpage.tpl needs to be i18n
   2. Needs to optional, default "on" and appearing on upgrades (just once).
   3. "show categories" and "hide categories" should not cause a popup
   4. maybe a countdown in the tpl warning? (suggestion by Reiner Banken)
   • Countdown should work (based on the session life. You will get:
     1. A note about the time limit, on the edit form.
     2. A countdown timer in the browser status bar (if your browser allows JS to rewrite the status bar) -> how about in html?
     3. A popup warning when the timer is 1 minute remaining.
   • Still working on some js clicking oddities. :( -R
6. Various changes to admin user, + anonymous & registered groups.
   1. admin user + anonymous & registered groups NOT DELETABLE nor CHANGEABLE groups done in 1.10, and backported to 1.9.8
   2. Removing Registered group from a user doesn't work as expected done in 1.10, and backported to 1.9.8
   3. to avoid this
   4. Still need a warning when renaming "admin" done by marclaporte for 1.9.8
   5. Admins group should not be includeable anywhere
7. Better protection against accidental site breakage with improper use of code in modules marc added an admin tip in 1.9.8 Here is an example of a problem.
8. WYSIWYCA & default settings for inter user messages
9. mod-adsense -> default should be a public service advertisement

Bugs (If time permits)

1. Trackers & search highlighting are in conflict: Editing a tracker item after a search
2. Answers in the forum don't send notifications if not in the top-level of a thread fixed?
3. custom language strings: great new feature but has different syntax than language.php. Would be better to change to use the same Syntax before a lot of people start using this feature. And what about language.php.patch in get_strings.php?
4. Move perm plugin from mods to BRANCH-1-9 and add a way to have not just "if" but "if/else"
5. Make newsletter "send" email address an admin setting
6. update XML-RPC and other libs (if time permits)
7. Blog post: editing a post changes the author
8. Page: 1/0
9. File Gallery: Batch upload (Unzip all zip files) adds some garbage (.htaccess, etc)
10. Last editor is showed on article rss as author please test if it's still a bug
11. since_last_visit_new module links to new users in not WYSIWYCA

Enhancements to useability (If time permits)

1. Adding more tips
2. Adding a "high technical level needed" logo/icon/whatever to the more tricky features in Tiki (ex.: integrator, Galaxia Workflow, etc.)
   • Do you think that this will "turn-off" potential Tikiers? Or is this more like simply identifying each Tiki feature as basic or advanced?
     • I prefer to scare them away from complex features.
3. Changing the default install settings to simpler and more common choices (for new installs, not upgrades)
   • Such as...? Features: Wiki, Blog, Articles, Forum, Search
   • Additionally, how about including only 2 or 3 really good themes? Instead of all 20+ that are in varying states of XHTML/CSS compliance? ML: This is not feasible for 1.9.8 It would break a bunch of people's upgrades
4. Adding a few Profiles (forum-centric site, small non-profit, etc)
5. Improving the admin panels: (no fancy code, just reorganizing current options into a more logical way)
   • http://dev.tikiwiki.org/tiki-view_tracker_item.php?trackerId=5&itemId=959
   • http://dev.tikiwiki.org/tiki-view_tracker_item.php?trackerId=5&itemId=960
   • http://dev.tikiwiki.org/tiki-view_tracker_item.php?trackerId=5&itemId=961
   • http://dev.tikiwiki.org/tiki-view_tracker_item.php?trackerId=5&itemId=963
   • http://dev.tikiwiki.org/tiki-view_tracker_item.php?trackerId=5&itemId=965
6. Feature testing and reviews
   • classify mature features vs. "beta" features and break the features admin screen into respective pages.
   • Add warnings about some features that are known to be unstable
   • add feature reviews to doc pages?
7. Articles & wiki page notification for deletes and changes
8. open_basedir issues Make Tiki more robust to these.

Dogfood enhancements (nice to have but no rush, we can do after the release)

1. Trackers & categories: add a tracker item to a category via tiki-admin_categories.php
2. Trackers:: Trackerlist plugin :: filter by 2 conditions
3. Allow Tracker item rating to be seen or voted through PluginTracker and PluginTrackerList
4. new module: search page name, search text, edit page
5. Add a group filter on admin users page.
6. Watch forums links/icons on tiki-forums.php
7. Wiki editing: Preview with diff, like Mediawiki

Other enhancements (nice to have)

1. since_last_visit module should list calendar too

Done

Security

1. Forum security issue: Ref: H56 fixed by nkoth, will be in 1.9.8

Bugfixes

1. Webmail: prevent PHP notice and show correct date and time if delivery-date missing luci
2. RSS Feeds: Error trying to get RSS feeds for trackers as reported here fixed by sylvie
3. Trackers: some tracker items lack a description fixed by sylvie
4. Trackers: weird bug (mismatch tracker and missing comment & attachment tabs this seems like a very rare bug -> fixed by sylvie
5. not checking for local permissions while tring to download a tracker attachment fixed by nkoth
6. Typo in tiki-plugin_poll.tpl Please test and commit if appropriate fixed by Sylvie
7. Watching a tracker is no longer possible: recently introduced bug fixed by Sylvie
8. Link to validate email address (for Admins) is broken. Confirmed fixed It had been reported more than once
9. RSS aggregation is not working in BRANCH-1-9 Not exactly a bug but a dependency documented by nkoth
10. PluginVersions : doesn't work properly with more than 2 versions fixed by nkoth
11. For tracker ratings to work: Anonymous can see rating, Registered users can vote for or against a bug/feature request fixed by Sylvie
12. tiki-send_newsletters.php : pagination is broken fixed by Sylvie
13. change mods server from old (http://tikiwiki.org/mods) to new (http://mods.tikiwiki.org/) done in tiki-setup.php by marclaporte
14. Adding calendar returns notices: tiki-admin_calendars.php (67) fixed by Sylvie
15. Link Testing for 1.9.8 50+ links fixed Good to go!
16. Help system: upgrade script should update to new destination on doc.tikiwiki.org OK
17. accepting friendship request produces notice: undefined variable local_sender_email in messulib.php fixed by ohertel Should sender email be disclosed when receiver gets notification via email? goals: balance privacy & facilitate communication/collaboration
18. trollparty and gemsi: missing right & left columns fixed by nkoth

Enhancements

1. Polls: An admin can see who votes what sylvie
2. Polls: if the option titles begin witha a nunmeric, display an average in the result page sylvie
3. Trackers: can set the default sort for a tracker to lastModif or created sylvie
4. Improving the admin panels: (no fancy code, just reorganizing current options into a more logical way)
   • http://dev.tikiwiki.org/tiki-view_tracker_item.php?trackerId=5&itemId=964 fixed by Marc
   • http://dev.tikiwiki.org/tiki-view_tracker_item.php?trackerId=5&itemId=956 fixed by Marc
   • http://dev.tikiwiki.org/tiki-view_tracker_item.php?trackerId=5&itemId=958 fixed by Marc & Nelson
   • http://dev.tikiwiki.org/tiki-view_tracker_item.php?trackerId=5&itemId=962 fixed by Marc
5. Wiki: "Import page" make feature optional and off by default (nkoth done - default off only applies to new install)

Let's-invest-some time-to-solve-and-avoid-support-requests (done)

1. Move "batch upload" on tiki-adminusers.php to a separate tab done for 1.9.8 by marclaporte and improved by nkoth
2. Adsense module : ok Module adsense
3. Blank pages on tiki-install.php have been reported several times lately. Please see explanation by Nyloth Sylvieg backported Nyloth's fix to 1.9.8
4. More graceful error message when database is unavailable or crashed Sylvie did a bit but we can do more later
5. Move InterTiki checkbox from tiki-admin.php?page=features to tiki-admin.php?page=login or intertiki nkoth is handling this

Database Changes

1. Categories: add an index on tiki_categorized_objects for speeding sylvie

Dogfood fixes

1. 6 items here but 9 here: tracker item categorization problem. The database was incorrect (no category field in tiki_tracker_item_fields for some item. even if the value is null because the values are the categories, the empty field is needed for list) local fix on dev.tw.o done by sylvie