We are pleased to announce the release of Wildfire 5.0.

New websites can now be built using this powerful new release of Wildfire website builder software designed to meet the needs of translation teams and related organizations. Existing Wildfire 4 websites will be automatically migrated to Wildfire 5 in the coming months on a scheduled basis.

Rich Set of New Features and Capabilities

• Layout Builder – This powerful graphically driven tool enables the design and creation of more visually pleasing pages with greater ease and flexibility.

• Simplified Tool Palette – Build and maintain your website with an easy-to-use flexible tool palette.

• Sticky Menu Bar - Enable website visitors to navigate your website more easily.

• Clickable Slideshow – Enhance your slideshow with call-to-action clickable images.

• Clickable Text on Graphics – Implement this call-to-action with greater ease.

• Clickable Buttons – Create call-to-action clickable buttons with greater ease.

• Progressive Web App (PWA) Generation – Use automated PWA creation to enable the download of your website from a browser to any device.

• Cloud-Based Virtual Website Hosting Network – Serve your website visitors with Wildfire now hosted in the cloud with servers on three continents, multi-continent backup and recovery, and industry standard response times greatly enhancing your website visitors’ experience.

• Playlist – Enhance the look and ease of use of drop-down playlists with sleek, uncluttered point-and-click lists that include audio speed selection and auto-advance for sequential video segments.

• Automated Lumo Video Playlist – Select from a drop-down list of all available languages to add Lumo video access to your website in seconds.

• Training Videos – 30 short Wildfire 5 training videos are available online and are downloadable at https://5.wildfirehelp.net/tutorial-videos in English. The videos can also be viewed online (but not downloadable) with the option of subtitled text available in over 100 languages (using YouTube’s translation utility accessed via YouTube’s settings).

• Enhanced Reporting – Matomo reporting will replace Google Analytics reporting by December 2021. Google Analytics will still be offered where desired, but Matomo will provide more comprehensive information on how website visitors are using our websites enabling performance data based decisions on website content and promotion.

• Drupal v9 – Wildfire 5 is built on the latest release of Drupal, providing enhanced security, speed, integration, and seamless access across all devices.

Wildfire 4 Features Carry Over to Wildfire 5

Except where enhanced or changed, all Wildfire 4 features carry over to Wildfire 5. Several key capabilities that were added to Wildfire 4 and carry over to Wildfire 5 are worthy of note:

• Facebook Pixel Support – This key social media feature enables tracking and reporting on the connection of Facebook visitors to your website.

• Enhanced Video Support – Website visitors now have automatic resolution adjustment, up to full high definition 1080p based on available bandwidth.

• Faith Comes by Hearing Audio Support – Adding FCBH drop-down audio playlists is now fully integrated in Wildfire.

• Inspirational Films Support – Adding these films is now done via an integrated process enabling automated links to the content.

• Automated Migration from Wildfire 4 to Wildfire 5 – The nearly 1,000 Kalaam websites all run today on Wildfire 4 and will be migrated to Wildfire 5 on an automated basis in the coming months. You will be notified of the schedule for your website’s migration by your Kalaam Digital Publishing Manager (formerly known as your Implementation Manager).

Wildfire 5.1 is Coming

During the first quarter of 2022 Wildfire 5.1 is planned to provide the following new features.

• Verse of the Day –Inspire your visitors with daily displays of pre-selected popular and automatically generated verses from available Scripture.

• Forums – Provide feedback and encouragement to your website visitors via a shared online discussion and comment platform

• Websites Available on Google Play and Microsoft Store as a PWA – An automatically generated PWA of your entire website can be posted to Google Play and the Microsoft Store for download to the website visitor’s device.

• Selectable Slideshow Timing – Duration of display of the slides in a slideshow will be selectable.

• Detailed Website Status Report - This important management tool will be enhanced to include a broader range of status and performance information for use by the Website Manager.