René Herrmann

Published on July 25, 2026

Uni-Verein 1.3.0 brings a handy new search feature for sending newsletters, along with a number of under-the-hood improvements that make deployments and CI runs more reliable.

New Features​

• 🔍 Name search in the Broadcast email "Recipient" tab: Recipients can now be filtered by first or last name (fuzzy, Jaro-Winkler similarity), in addition to the existing member category filter
• ❤️ /health endpoint: A new unauthenticated GET /health endpoint plus Docker HEALTHCHECKs for backend and frontend

Improvements​

• 🩺 backend, frontend, and proxy now have proper health checks (previously only the database did), and each service waits for its dependencies to be actually ready (service_healthy) instead of just started, across all docker-compose*.yml files
• 🚦 CI now fails immediately with container logs attached when the stack doesn't become healthy in time, instead of silently continuing on to the Playwright tests and failing there with no diagnostics
• ⏱️ Increased the database health check's retry budget to tolerate occasional slow first-time initialization on CI runners
• 📝 .env.example now lists BACKUP_PATH, matching every value docker-compose-ini.yml generates
• 🔒 CI now enforces that PRs into main may only come from development (new enforce-source-branch job)

Bug Fixes​

• 🐛 The newsletter recipient category dropdown showed the raw translation key instead of the category name for custom (non-default) member categories
• 🐛 The proxy container could stay unhealthy indefinitely because its health check resolved localhost to IPv6 while nginx.conf only listens on IPv4
• 🐛 The backend Docker image build occasionally failed due to transient package-mirror errors during apt-get install

Security​

• 🔐 Pinned sharp to ^0.35.3 via npm overrides to pull in a fixed version instead of the vulnerable transitive one

Why These Updates Matter​

The name search saves a lot of time for larger organizations that need to quickly find individual newsletter recipients. Just as important are the health check improvements: they make deployments start up more reliably and surface CI problems immediately with meaningful logs, instead of only showing up late and without context.

What's Next?​

Work on performance and infrastructure continues, the next release already focuses on noticeably faster load times.

Published on July 22, 2026

Uni-Verein 1.2.0 closes one of the biggest gaps from the project's early days: the software was previously optimized for desktop and tablet only starting now, Uni-Verein also works on smartphones and can even be installed like an app.

New Features​

• 📲 Progressive Web App (PWA): Uni-Verein can now be installed to the home screen
• 📱 Mobile-optimized layout: On smartphones, a hamburger menu with bottom navigation replaces the desktop sidebar, tables collapse into cards or a single-column view, dialogs open full-screen, and filter bars stack vertically
• 📡 Offline indicator on the login screen: Shows "You're offline" whenever there's no connection or the server can't be reached, clearing automatically once reachability returns

Improvements​

• 🧩 Larger frontend refactorings: mobile-specific views (audit log, member list) and the sidebar navigation were extracted into dedicated, reusable components
• 🗂️ The create/edit dialogs (contribution plans, users, member categories, links, import errors, confirm, icon picker, member form) were moved into standalone components under src/components/dialogs
• 📄 A shared ResponsiveTablePagination component is now used by every paginated table (Members, Mail recipients, SEPA, Contributions, Audit)
• ✨ Consistent Prettier formatting applied across the frontend codebase
• ⚙️ The "Update Third-Party Notices" workflow now runs on feature branches instead of main
• 🐳 docker-compose-ini.yml now fetches the current version from the latest GitHub release automatically instead of requiring it to be maintained manually in .env

Bug Fixes​

• 🐛 The language switch button sometimes required two clicks before the language actually changed on first use
• 🐛 The init script (docker-compose-ini.yml) left duplicate VERSION lines in .env because sed -i failed silently against the single-file bind mount

Why These Updates Matter​

Mobile support has been one of the most requested features since the very first release, and it now makes Uni-Verein practical for board work on the go whether checking members in at an event or glancing at the member list between lectures. Thanks to PWA support, the web app also feels almost like a native app, including offline access to already-loaded data.

What's Next?​

This closes an important milestone from the original roadmap. Next up are further performance and infrastructure improvements, be sure to check back here again soon.

Published on July 16, 2026

Uni-Verein 1.1.0 brings the first major feature update since the initial release. This time the focus is on automatic update notifications, along with a few important bug fixes for everyday member management.

New Features​

• 🔔 Automatic update check: Uni-Verein now automatically compares the installed version against the latest GitHub release
• 📧 Admin email notifications: Administrators are automatically notified by email as soon as a new version becomes available
• 🔔 Notification bell in the frontend: A new bell icon in the frontend shows at a glance whether an update is available

Improvements​

• 🗂️ The backend Data folder was renamed to Models for a cleaner project structure
• ⚙️ Adjustments to the CI configuration

Bug Fixes​

• 🐛 Fixed an issue where new members could sometimes be assigned duplicate member numbers

Why These Updates Matter​

The automatic update check ensures organizations always know when a new version of Uni-Verein is available, no more manually checking GitHub. Combined with the fix for member number assignment, everyday work with Uni-Verein becomes even more reliable.

What's Next?​

Thank you to everyone who contributed feedback and bug reports for this release! Work on new features like mobile view and an event calendar continues, so be sure to check back here again soon.

Published on July 12, 2026

Just a few days after the big release of the first version, the first update has already arrived: Uni-Verein 1.0.1 is here. This time it's a small but important security update.

What Changed?​

A security vulnerability (CVE-2026-33630) was identified in the frontend's Docker image. This update adjusts the underlying Dockerfile to close the vulnerability.

• 🔒 Security fix: Updated the frontend Dockerfile to resolve CVE-2026-33630

Why Does This Matter?​

Since Uni-Verein is used by organizations with sensitive member data, the security of the software is a top priority for me. Security updates like this one are therefore rolled out as quickly as possible whenever known vulnerabilities are identified.

Published on July 6, 2026

It's here: After an intensive development period, I'm excited to introduce the first version of Uni-Verein, an open source software specifically designed for student organizations, student councils, and university groups.

The Idea Behind Uni-Verein​

Anyone who has been active in a university organization knows the typical challenges: member lists in Excel spreadsheets that are never quite up to date. Emails sent manually and individually. A patchwork of different tools that don't really work well together.

This is exactly where Uni-Verein comes in. The goal was to create a central, simple, and above all free solution tailored to the needs of student organizations, without unnecessary bells and whistles, but with the features that are actually needed in everyday club management.

Special thanks go to WiChem Kiel e.V., which, as a cooperation partner, contributed valuable real-world feedback from the very beginning and actively shaped the development.

What's in the First Version?​

With today's release, the following core features are already available:

• Central member management: all relevant data in one clearly organized place
• Email communication directly from the system: no more external tools needed to keep members informed
• Open source & free: the code is freely accessible, anyone can contribute or use the software for their own organization

Important Note About the Current Version​

Since this is an early release, the software is currently optimized for tablet and desktop use. A mobile view is already planned and will follow in a future update.

Also on the roadmap are additional practical features, including:

• 📄 Document management: for easier accounting and expense tracking within the organization
• 📅 Event calendar: for clearly planning and communicating club events

Uni-Verein is therefore a project that will continue to grow and evolve always with the goal of making everyday life in university organizations a little bit easier.

Feedback is Warmly Welcome!​

As an open source project, Uni-Verein lives from the community. That's why I'm happy to hear all kinds of feedback:

• Are you using the software in your organization? Share your experiences with me!
• Do you have technical feedback on the code or architecture?
• Is there a specific feature missing that would make everyday club life easier?

Anyone who wants to actively support the project as a contributor is also warmly invited to get in touch.

What's Next?​

This is only the beginning. In the coming weeks and months, I will continue working on new features and improving the software based on your feedback. Stay tuned and feel free to check back here on the blog regularly to stay updated on the latest developments.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this project so far above all WiChem Kiel e.V. for the great collaboration!

We have several exciting announcements to make: an official partnership with WiChem Kiel e.V., an earlier release date, and a public test demo!

We are excited to announce the first version of our project!

The release is currently planned for August/September 2026. 🎉 Until then, we are working hard to make everything stable, performant and user-friendly.