Update on next version

[John]

As some of you may know I have been away for the last little while mixing coding with a little R&R. The next version of vBulletin is moving along smoothly, and development is progressing at a steady pace.

At the moment, I cannot give an exact date for release yet, but for the sake of QA, it may be a little later than summer. (Summer has already pretty much ended here in the summer anyway, not that it ever really began ;) ) My current plans are to get beta copies to a few testers in about 4-5 weeks time.

Without letting too much out of the bag on the features front, you can be sure that there will be something for everyone. Many of the suggestions that I have received in the forums here and by email will be taken into account, as well as some of the old favourites such as polls, private messaging, and much more. I will try to whet people's appetites from time to time by revealing a new feature or two - so keep your eyes peeled :)

We value all the input that we have received in the first few months of vBulletin, and we have tried to respond accordingly to suggestions. We hope to be bringing out more languages (as in French or German, not Perl or ASP) for vBulletin in the future, as well as more support for more RDBMS systems (PostgreSQL, Oracle, MS SQL, Sybase all possibilities). We will try to keep you in the loop as the next version develops, as we feel that it is important to keep in touch with the community here as much as possible. While I have not been around so much recently due to my coding efforts, James has been managing support, with the capable aid of the unsung heroes, the moderators.

My thanks to all of you for your ongoing support. I look forward to working with you all to make this next version a killer application.

Sincerely,
John Percival
Developer, vBulletin

[Sharg]

John, I'm so glad to see you back and hear your very positive comments !

I believe that this next version will be really excellent.
I just want to stress on a particular point: It seems some of us have a very hard time including javascript advertising code on their headers... it might be cool if you could do something about it in the next version.

I don't have anything to say about the new features (I trust the next version will have a lot), my only worry is about this.

Thanks,
Benj

(oh, and please, next time you take a brainstorm tour, please, just drop us an official word before you go, so we will not harass the great moderators to know where you are :D)

Benj


[Edited by Benj on 08-22-2000 at 08:33 PM]

[Chris Schreiber]

Originally posted by John
I look forward to working with you all to make this next version a killer application.

Actually I think it already is ;)

Anyway, it's great to see you back and I am very excited to hear about all of the new features. You can be sure I'll be watching closely to see what everything you have planned.

-Chris

[thetakerfan]

woo-hoo!

[JimF]

Be well, Mr. Percival.

-jim

[WebStyles]

Welcome back John! :D

[Menno]

Hi john, as I said before, welcome back :)

[bigsoccer tech]

Welcome back my friend!

(to the show that never ends
we're so glad you could attend
step inside step inside
now the gypsy queen
in a glaze of vaseline
will perform on guiletine
what a scene what a scene
step inside the show's about to start
guaranteed to blow your head apart)

[Chris Schreiber]

Looks like Huss is quite the poet...
and I bet he didn't even know it ;)

[Parker Clack]

Glad to see you back.

Parker

[Menno]

Hey Huss, got anymore of that poëtry? :)

[eva2000]

well welcome back :)

i LOVE vbulletin :D

[TechTalk]

Yea good to have you back (or should I say good to have you around because youve been gone every since I joined the community)

Either way I look forward to the next release. Im sure it will be a good one.

Also I beleive i have a good amount of knowledge about the vb product and I would be more than happy to be a beta tester. As you probally know from all my posts in the bugs forum I do alot of my own testing anyway :D Just let me know if I can be of any assistance.

Regards,
Chris Miller

[firewire]

PLEASE, could we take the chat out of this forum and keep it for the important news/announcements only?

I always get exited when seeing there are new messages here... thinking there are news.

There is no offense intended, but I think this should remain the place for important/minor important official announces. It's nice to see that "we customers" are allowed to feedback (there are places/companies which don't allow reactions to their plans) and I really appreciate it, but I guess we should take it to another forum if it's nothing terribly important.

Regards

[Intec]

Question?
Can you think about, that you can made a "simple" next version, where some good and tested hacks are implemented and all known bugs are erased. A version 1.1.35 for instance. That was good for the users of this software. I I know, it is better for advertising that we had a big killer version but in the time before this version ist out all can use the good hacks and a fine working version. What do mean?

[JonnyQuest]

John,
Can you give us any clue as to the general functions the new version is going to efferct?
We are in the process of contemplating/beginning some hacks and it would be useful to know if we're going to hack something which is going to be drastically changed in the near future. Two that come to mind are User Groups and Permissions and Multiple Templates.
Thanks

[Craig A]

Welcome back John - you've been missed :)

A couple of quickies:

1/ Are you going to release a final 1.1.3 due to the delay in releasing 1.2.0 ?

2/ Will 1.2.0 feature the co-branding feature as promised at http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=51 ? This is really of interest to me right now as we allow several other sites to use our forums as there own - i'd like to be able to let them link to a forum in their own site style...

Stick around this time bloke!

[chrispadfield]

On the co-branding, i am new here so hope i am not talking rubbish but i seen someone who looks like they have done what you are talking about but not sure.

Anyway check out this site http://www.motorsportforums.com/ i think it does what you want not sure how though :-)

[Craig A]

Yep - that's the beastie.

Surprisingly, given that Mark and myself are not competing for the same audience or anything (:)), he is not prepared to tell me how. As I said to him though, no problem, it's coming soon to the standard package - hopefully. If John could confirm this, I could then decide if I need to commission someone to undertake this as a hack or not...

[TechTalk]

Originally posted by John
That is on my to do list for the next version.
Along with ... oh no I won't go into the polls, attachments, cobranding, user graphics, and other things that I plan to put in the next version... Ooops. I just did :)

Although we are planning some minor updates between now and the summer, this next major version will not be available until August.

John

http://vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=2 :D

~Chris

[Craig A]

Woohoo! If the co-branding is in there at the next release, i'll be a happy man :)

[chrispadfield]

Just wondering if the next release is still on for August as the month draws to an end and if not, any ideas when? Thanks :-)

[Craig A]

Read John's post above...

[chrispadfield]

oops. sorry my mistake. I thought the post was from April but then was when John registered.. I guess we have a few weeks to wait, oh well.

[Mark Hewitt]

It's always the same, you come up with a good idea and you never have full market share for very long. oh well.....

[Craig A]

Can anyone please confirm whether or not co-branding will be part of the next release ? I have mentioned it a couple of our partner sites and they are emailing me on an almost daily basis asking if it's a goer yet! I do hope that you're not going to let me down now!! Either way, a yes or no would be appreciated.

[Mark Hewitt]

I would be more than happy to accept them as partner sites :D

[Craig A]

Mark, do you want me to test if the swear filter is operational in here ?

OK, **** off! :D In any case, they are happy sticking with an established forum with a reat atmosphere and lots of interesting discussion. So there :p

If John is not adding this to the release, i'll have to pay someone to do it for me - interested ? Seeing as i'll be commissioning someone to do it anyway, you may as well tell me how much you'd want for your version...

[chrispadfield]

Mark, it is fine that you don't want to share your code with everyone else but be nice if you could not badger people about it.

I would also love to find out if this is going to be released. If not Craig, i would be happy to put something torwards the development cost of a mod. Perhaps a few people who want this can share it and get it made.

[Craig A]

Chris, i'm hopeful that this will be included in the new release as John said it would be - I am simply after confirmation so that I can keep my affiliates at bay!

Oh, and don't think Mark is getting at you - it's just a bit of banter between our two sites - initiated by me, no doubt :p

[Intec]

Give it a time, when came the final version 1.1.3 with new graphics and when came the next version with implemented a lot of fine hacks. (the killer application)

Someone wait for it, because is not very funny to integreted some hacks and then cames the new version and it beginns from the start.

[VirtueTech]

It would be nice if John gave some feedback to his LOYAL users who are looking to discuss additions to the new version, and many of them have great ideas.

This whole summer has been a bit weird.

John, how about a status...something like a changelog for the new VB your working on...so that we rest assured that our nest egg is progressng.

Thanks.

[eva2000]

yeah... cause i am stopping my additions of hacks now cause it's going to be a pain upgrading... which i hope it isn't :)

[VirtueTech]

Eva2000

I wish we had PM's I'd send you one. I love your sites homepage with all the latest post stuff.

I have the Active Topics templates and I tried Huss's hack...but I only get a white page. How can I make my homepage look like yours.

I posted here:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=655

Please help me out. Thanks :)

ICQ: 79286579
AIM: Paintball City

[eva2000]

Originally posted by VirtueTech
Eva2000

I wish we had PM's I'd send you one. I love your sites homepage with all the latest post stuff.

I have the Active Topics templates and I tried Huss's hack...but I only get a white page. How can I make my homepage look like yours.

I posted here:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=655

Please help me out. Thanks :)

ICQ: 79286579
AIM: Paintball City

hehe thanks :D i posted a reply in that thread too http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=655

[VirtueTech]

Eva2000 please check that thread with your active hacks. I need your .txt file for the 12 active topics down the center of your homepage.

Thanks

[John]

Apologies for the lack of response. Co-branding will be in the next version. Apart from that, I would rather not say so as not to disappoint anyone if a feature has to be left out for whatever reason. I keep an eye on the hacks forum for potential hacks to include in this next version though.

John

[bigsoccer tech]

Any date estimates yet for beta?

[eva2000]

Originally posted by John
I keep an eye on the hacks forum for potential hacks to include in this next version though.

John i can't wait... some of these hacks are extremely useful i.e. the jump to last post and last new unread post blue arrows in search result display :)

=> http://animeboards.net/forums/search.php?getdaily=yes&action=dosearch&searchdate=1

[Craig A]

Thanks John - you're a star!! :)

[Intec]

Hey John - the biggest question. Has you a release day for us!

[Freddie Bingham]

John you can dissapoint me, but did you get in custom profile fields? It is killing me not to be able to put in my own profile fields so that I can then write other hacks to feed off the results of these fields. I could of course put the fields in myself but then I greatly enhance my upgrade difficulties by doing that.

i.e. I want a birthday field so I can write a calender hack that will display birthdays for the month. I need a state/country field so that I can make a hack that will list users according to their state/country for those who want to find others near them. etc etc...

[CCollinz]

OK i will hope that you will release a german version, because i´m tired to use the german UBB.

Thanx.

[Menno]

Translation isn't really hard with templates

[chrispadfield]

Can't we have some status report of where you are going/getting with the script. There is 2 weeks left until you suggested beta testers would get a copy, there must be lots of confirmed new features by now arn't there?

Thanks.

[James]

Chris,

Rest assured that development of vBulletin 1.2.0 is proceeding steadily, but at the moment we are not going to commit to any release date.

There are plenty of new features that are in development or in final beta testing, but at present we're keeping the exact nature of the new features within the company.

All the best,

James

[Sharg]

1.2 ? Oh, I thought it was worth a 2.0 ;)

Benj

[TechTalk]

Hmm 1.2.0 .....that does sound kinda fishy! Your not gonna let us down are you John? :D

~Chris

[James]

The version number is a work-in-progress :) By the time we have implemented all features planned for the new update, it may have jumped to 2.0.0!

All the best,

James

[Sharg]

Can I help you with the beta test ? I'm very good at finding bugs.

Benj

[chrispadfield]

Without being silly, on the announcement you said the board was going to be delayed for 5 weeks which is 2 weeks from now. How much more can there be to add if there are only 2 weeks to go? 1.20 is a little worrying.

If it is going to take longer then that is ok, i just think people are much more interested in:

1) A realistic ETA instead of ones that just slip
2) A list of all the features that have been added so far (it is not as if you are going to take them away).

I hope you don't consider this "rude" but John did say at the start of this thread:



We will try to keep you in the loop as the next version develops, as we feel that it is important to keep in touch with the community here as much as possible.

and this has certainly not been the case in any way i can see :)

Thanks.

[James]

Chris,

I do appreciate your concerns. At the moment we are running a little behind schedule, so the 5 weeks John mentioned at the start of the thread is a little optimistic. I may post an updated timescale in the next few days after I have consulted with John.

As for posting a list of current features, I'm afraid we're not prepared to do this - we'd much rather keep the evolution of the product within the company for the time being, suffice to say that many of the features that have been requested in these forums will be implemented.

All the best,

James

[TechTalk]

Originally posted by James
At the moment we are running a little behind schedule, so the 5 weeks John mentioned at the start of the thread is a little optimistic.

Infopop? Is that you? Are you sure your not infopop running under a new name? :D

Ok ok, so that was a bit mean.....but you are kinda starting to sound like em :D ;)

~Chris

[Sharg]

Infopop ? I would have quoted this one:


As for posting a list of current features, I'm afraid we're not prepared to do this - we'd much rather keep the evolution of the product within the company for the time being

Benj

[chrispadfield]

Yeah, this is bad! I purchased on the understanding that the update would be avaliable reasonalby soon as it seemed that the 5 weeks was already a slip back. I have to decide if it is worth customizing the code and templates now or waiting for this update and the "sorry, it slipped again, we don't know what is going to be in the code" dosen't help much.

Oh well.

[Freddie Bingham]

This thread may disentegrate quickly but I don't see any reason to withhold upcoming features unless they are going to be much less than what has been discussed. (infopop?). If it going to not be much of an update at all, just tell us now!

[James]

rangersfan,

We are withholding information about forthcoming features for the simple reason that we don't want other bulletin board developers implementing them. When the next version is released, we would like vBulletin to have 3 or 4 more "killer" features that no-other products have. That's the reason why I am reluctant to provide further details at this time.

Saying that, I can confirm that several of the features that have been most asked for will be implemented - for example: private messaging and polls. We are also planning a revamp of the templates system and usergroups (improved support for moderators).

Rest assured that the update *will* be worth waiting for. I will be in touch with John to get an updated schedule posted in the next day on two.

All the best,

James

[The_Net_Muppet]

Hi James,

It is good to find a company who actually LISTEN to what their customers want installed;)

I want all them goodies you have just talked about, I do hope the user image hack will be installed. I have asked UBB for this for over a year now.

Keep up the good work.

[chrispadfield]

Thank you, that is far more helpfull.

Of course don't tell us about brand new features i think what people would like is a check list of the mods that have been made/suggested in the hacking forum though. Perhaps this is what you mean when you say you will talk to John. That would be great.

I still have every faith in you, have loved vBulletin and have only been using it for 3 weeks but please do keep us informed.

Thanks

Chris

[Shoe]

Will the new version be easy to integrate with our present styles?

[Freddie Bingham]

I'm afraid not since I see mention of "template system overhaul". Between that and "usergroup rewrite" we may have to re-do our templates and re-vise our hacks. If the board works better for the changes then I'm all for them though.

[eva2000]

Originally posted by James
Saying that, I can confirm that several of the features that have been most asked for will be implemented - for example: private messaging and polls. We are also planning a revamp of the templates system and usergroups (improved support for moderators).

James i'm happy... the 2 major features i have been wanting are going to be in the next release ... i think it's the only 2 hacks i haven't added lol

will the next release be able to allow the admin (me) to choose which moderators can view which private forums ? i'd like to be able to say this mod can view this private forum #1 and this other mod can only view private forum #2 :)

[Susan]

Eva, you can do that now. It's kinda convoluted how you go about it, but basically, you create the forum and then exclude those mods you DON'T want to be able to view it using the usergroups forum permissions. I forget exactly how I did it, but I set it up so that Kathy and I and a few other mods can see the "admin" forum, but noone else could--not even some of our mods.

[eva2000]

Originally posted by Susan
Eva, you can do that now. It's kinda convoluted how you go about it, but basically, you create the forum and then exclude those mods you DON'T want to be able to view it using the usergroups forum permissions. I forget exactly how I did it, but I set it up so that Kathy and I and a few other mods can see the "admin" forum, but noone else could--not even some of our mods. oh yeah forgot about that heh ... but the only problem is you would have to put those other mods in a group of their own apart from the mods with viewing privileges..

[eva2000]

whoops... checked it out and all i needed to do is add a forum permission to the mod that i want to remove private forum viewing privileges :)

[shri]

A request that you may want to consider.

PLEASE include the photoshop or editable versions of the buttons and non-logoed graphics. This would really help some of us who might want to change a few colors at the source, rather than edit gif / jpg files.

:)

[Menno]

I suppose some small changes made to your present templates will be necesarry, but I'm sure they'll be listed.

[doron]

Perhaps the template overhaul means a change to the template system. Searching them, multi-language support, extended find and replace? ;)

[Intec]

I dont heard about times for this fine releases? Can now you say anything about this? It would be fine to plan the next changes for our board?

[chrispadfield]

Well i think it was meant to be "the summer", then it got delayed by about 5 weeks i think (see originial post) but now it has been announced that it is going to be delayed again. So now, we have been pretty much kept in the dark about it but I would guess by the end of the year.

[chrispadfield]

Originally posted by James
Rest assured that the update *will* be worth waiting for. I will be in touch with John to get an updated schedule posted in the next day on two.

All the best,

James [/B]

If people want me to shut up about this just say but....

James, you said we would get an updated schedule in the next day or two. That was two weeks ago now.

People really need to know what is going on here, lots of websites depend on this software and the upgrade is a necessity for many of us. I for one are postponing updating the board waiting for the update.

Can we have some info, please, on what is happening. Is this John's full time job or more of a hobby type thing cos it has been ages since the last release with no updates since then!

Anyway, hoping we can get just some idea of how long (a realistic one this time!) it is going to take and also some indication of why it is so far behind. We can acccept delays and problems but just don't keep us in the dark anymore please!

Thanks

Chris

[Jake]

Yea, I would love to get an update on things please, Im dying over here :)

[James]

Hi Chris,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

At this time I can confirm that the following features will be implemented in the next version:

Private messaging (with code back end for future possible "hotmail" style email system)
Polls
Improved Usergroup/Moderator management
Revamped template system (with instant co-branding)
Database access optimisation
Improved email confirmation method
Updated control panel organisation / design
Sub categories (to an unlimited depth)

Note: This isn't a comprehensive list - we do have several other "killer" features planned for the update.

At present I'm not prepared to commit to a particular release date - however, we hope to have the new version code completed within a month... it will then be another couple of weeks of internal testing and tweaking before we release the final version officially.

All the best,

James

[Aquamarine]

Originally posted by James
At this time I can confirm that the following features will be implemented in the next version:

Private messaging (with code back end for future possible "hotmail" style email system)
Polls
Improved Usergroup/Moderator management
Revamped template system (with instant co-branding)
Database access optimisation
Improved email confirmation method
Updated control panel organisation / design
Sub categories (to an unlimited depth)



Absolutely cool! Thanks for updating us.

Something confuses me though... what is that "co-branding" feature all about? I'm totally lost on that one.

James, I just had an idea about templates. There have been some issues about vB using 12-18 sql queries on the template table just to get the main forum page to show. Well here's my idea how you can cut that down completely:

Instead of storing each and every template fragment (ex. forumbit, footer, fivelinks, etc...) in a separate entry, you can combine them into "forumdisplay", "showthread", "reply", "post", or whatever instead. The current fragment variables will still be there, but when you update, say... "footers", the admin will actually go through and replace all occurrences of "$footer" in all templates with the actual text.

When $footer is replaced in, say "mainforum", there should be a marker placed there:
example:
<!-- vb:$footer start --> to mark the start
<!-- vb:$footer stop --> to mark the end


Ok, so now suppose admin wants to edit the "mainforum" template. The admin script should go in and parse out everything between markers like:
<!-- vb:$footer start --> blahblahblah <!-- vb:$footer stop -->

and replace it with $footer.

Seems nice and dandy so far (i hope). But what about if a template contains a variable to another template? What if a template contains a variable to a variable that changes often (not a template, but a variable such as $numberthreads)? How will it know what to replace and what not to replace?

Well on this one I'm pooped (yeah, in fact, I'm info pooped!) since I've not investigated the code in depth. But one thing you can do is use a different token for templates and another for variables.

$blahblah for variables
$template:blahblah for templates


What I'm proposing here, basically, will be completely transparent to current users. Everything will be in the backend, performing its magic. And if accomplished right, will increase performance quite a bit while remaining just as easy to change templates as it is now.

[eva2000]

great stuff i mean the pm and polls are going to be a big hit with all users for sure :D ... i am also wondering what the cobranding feature is ?

Also i hope that the next release will allow admins to be exempt from certain options/restrictions such as flood control, displaying html when html is off, sig length unrestricted while a sig limit is imposed per forum.

I have some roleplaying forums where participants wish to only have sigs turned off for those RPG forums.

Will rangersfan's search display blue arrows be incorporated ? so to show the jump to new post unread and jump to last new post icons be displayed in search results ?


Originally posted by James
Hi Chris,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

At this time I can confirm that the following features will be implemented in the next version:

Private messaging (with code back end for future possible "hotmail" style email system)
Polls
Improved Usergroup/Moderator management
Revamped template system (with instant co-branding)
Database access optimisation
Improved email confirmation method
Updated control panel organisation / design
Sub categories (to an unlimited depth)

Note: This isn't a comprehensive list - we do have several other "killer" features planned for the update.

At present I'm not prepared to commit to a particular release date - however, we hope to have the new version code completed within a month... it will then be another couple of weeks of internal testing and tweaking before we release the final version officially.

All the best,

James

[chrispadfield]

James, thank - good to hear the unlimited sub-categories is in that trully makes my day trust me :)

Guys, the co-branding has been discussed quite a lot - ten-tenths.com is the person who asked quite a lot about it i think. The idea is that you can basically put your forums on someone elses site with their design probably using something like

http://www.theirwebsitename.yourdomain.com if you see what i mean. It will need a new set of styles and templates etc (currently) but it seems there may be a new way to do it which would be very very useful.

Anyway, thanks again James - please keep us informed of any slipages or how the code is going.

Chris

[Chris Schreiber]

Private messaging (with code back end for future possible "hotmail" style email system)
Very nice :) I *really* love the idea of integration into a free internet email account as well, I've been offering free email and it really does help with site "stickyness"
Polls
Another wonderful feature!
Improved Usergroup/Moderator management
Sounds good
Revamped template system (with instant co-branding)
I think this has some nice potential, especially since I can "share" my forums with other related sites, really a win-win situation for all :)
Database access optimisation
Much needed and I'm very glad to hear this is being addressed!
Improved email confirmation method
Updated control panel organisation / design
These both sound good
Sub categories (to an unlimited depth)
This is very nice, especially for those boards which have a very large number of forums


Thanks for the update on planned features.... I really can't wait! :)

-Chris

[TechTalk]

Yea thanks for filling us in :)

Dont forget about this thread (http://vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=2726) though! :D

~Chris

[Chris Schreiber]

Originally posted by TechTalk
Dont forget about this thread (http://vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=2726) though! :D

I really like your list there, hopefully some of them might be included in the release as "surprises" or soon after the release. I know one I'd still really like are the attachments, and the thread bookmarking.

-Chris

[Craig A]

Originally posted by Aquamarine
Something confuses me though... what is that "co-branding" feature all about? I'm totally lost on that one.

Co-branding is what I have been hoping for, for a long time :)

Put simply it allows multiple template sets for your forum - allowing you to sign up sites as affiliates and present the forums in their site style rather than your own (actually, that's not very well described - it allows you to serve up your forums in multiple styles) This is a similar feature to DMOZ - the central database is shared, but you can view it in a number of styles, depending on which site you view it on.

I don't know how this will work, but I would imagine that there would be a feature in the control panel where you can add a new affiliate site. You could then set forum styles, adjust templates, set which forums are visible, etc, etc. for each affiliate site.

[Craig A]

Originally posted by chrispadfield
Guys, the co-branding has been discussed quite a lot - ten-tenths.com is the person who asked quite a lot about it i think. The idea is that you can basically put your forums on someone elses site with their design probably using something like

http://www.theirwebsitename.yourdomain.com if you see what i mean. It will need a new set of styles and templates etc (currently) but it seems there may be a new way to do it which would be very very useful.

Oops, did I make /that/ much fuss ? :p

I hope that we do not need to use the subdomain method to force the alternative templates to display - i've seen this done elsewhere, and it has the unfortunate side effect of the visitor to log in for each and every site they might happen to visit the forums from. Much better to go to something like http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/index.php?style=affiliate1 or something along those lines.

[Troy Roberts]

(with code back end for future possible "hotmail" style email system)


That's cool!

Do you think that we will be able to import other systems into it? We're installing EMUmail right now. I really don't want to wait around before I add email for my users. I'm a little worried about the conversion process if I go ahead with EMUmail right now though and want to migrate to your solution in the future.

[chrispadfield]

Well, on that ?affiliate=1 problems are:

1) The site that uses the link will not see it as their own part of their site but more as an affilaite i would think.

Better then would be

http://www.domain.com/directory/index.php

i think.

Also, how are emails going to work? I hope that email notifications send people to the board they were visiting when posting.

Anyway, not much point second guessing i suppose. But just wondering.

[Mike Sullivan]

Hotmail style mailing... hmm... must... beat... John... with... that... one... :) I posted about it a while ago and talked to John about it and we were basically in agreement with the methodology.

[Craig A]

Originally posted by chrispadfield
Well, on that ?affiliate=1 problems are:

1) The site that uses the link will not see it as their own part of their site but more as an affilaite i would think.

Better then would be

http://www.domain.com/directory/index.php


No - that has the same problem in that the cookies will not work. Unless, of course, the cookie setup is revised.

[chrispadfield]

Really, would it not be easy enough to change the cookie code to do that? I know that cookies only work on the domain that they are set up on, can they be used on multiple subdomains or will a cookie set on http://www.sub.domain.com now work on sub2.domain.com ? sorry i guess i should look that up myself.. :)

If you can't i would much prefere the /folder/ option - it would only require a little more space to replicate copyies of showthread etc files there. I assume it will not be done this way however but hope it will be possbile to change it so that it is. I know if i was going to use someone elses board on my site i would be so much happier to link to http://www.domain.com/mysitename than http://www.domain.com/forums/index.php?site=mysitename - it is still just linking to "our site" but the first option makes it look like it is still more part of my site. Anyone who sees the index.php?= rubbish is going to have 2nd thoughts i would think.

Well, just ideas.

[Jake]

You could manually setup a subfolder, put index.shtml in it, and use an SSI call to index.php?affiliate=01.

[chrispadfield]

good plan, that would solve it. I think i will go for that option if they do do the affiliate?=x option. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Shoe]

Originally posted by John
Apologies for the lack of response. Co-branding will be in the next version. Apart from that, I would rather not say so as not to disappoint anyone if a feature has to be left out for whatever reason. I keep an eye on the hacks forum for potential hacks to include in this next version though.

John

Er sorry--but what is co-branding?

[Craig A]

Er, duh! Read the above... :)

[Aquamarine]

About the Sub categories (to an unlimited depth), will it allow for moderators in each sub-category as well? I hope it will.

And if it does, would there be a depth limit to each of them?

Hypothetical example:



Pets
Dogs
Chihuahua
Care
Nutrition
Hygene
Health
Breeding
Buying and Selling
What to look for
Certificates
Sell a dog
Buy a dog
German Shephard
Care
Nutrition
Hygene
Health
Breeding
Buying and Selling
What to look for
Certificates
Sell a dog
Buy a dog


Suppose a moderator "Jason" exists in Pets > Dogs > Chihuahua. Will he be able to create more sub-categories? Or will only the super admin be able to do that?

Or will the super admin be able to set the "depth" an individual moderator can go?
Example:
Moderator "Jason"s depth level = 3

That means "Jason" can create a new sub-category:
Chihuahua (depth 0) > Care > Nutition > Vitamins
or
Chihuahua (depth 0) > Care > Living Space

But can't create:
Chihuahua (depth 0) > Care > Nutition > Vitamins > Hormones


John, I'd personally like this last idea. What do you think?

[chrispadfield]

The user groups is being updated so it will probably be more flexible. Creating a sub category would require access to the control panel however so that would also have to be changed. Personally i don't like the ideas of moderators being able to make subcategories however a new "semi-admin" which can create subcategories and perhaps email users but not delete categories.

I hope that we can make different people with different access to the control panel like

1) Access to templates, Y/N (maybe even split the templates)
2) Can Email Users
3) Can update Counters
4) Can Add Categories
5) Can add Announcements
6) Can add Forums

etc....

this would also solve some things lke allowing moderators to add annoucements and things like that.

This should really go in the suggestions forum, sorry.

[Sharg]

It would be cool if we could choose which level depth to display on our frontpage.

For example:
I would like only to display category, and first sub... but have the other ones "openable"...

Benj

[Menno]

hmm. sort of like a windows folder display :)
that would be cool

[chrispadfield]

Started a new thread called Category Setup in suggestions... lots of ideas i think worth discussing but here i guess is not the best place

[Shoe]

Originally posted by Craig Antill
Er, duh! Read the above... :)

Yeah, I read the description of co-branding above but didn't really understand it. Is there an example of it somewhere?

[Shoe]

Would the administrator be able to read private messages. What are the legalities here?

[chrispadfield]

Yes because they would be in the mySQL database. Legalities, i guess depends upon what you put in your terms and conditions and privacy policy.

[hungrymonkey]

james, can you confirm that the next version of vbulletin can be integrated with ms sql instead of mysql?

[Shoe]

Originally posted by hungrymonkey
james, can you confirm that the next version of vbulletin can be integrated with ms sql instead of mysql?

Hope it's not instead of!

[hungrymonkey]

well obviously it would be stupid to use both at the same time....and also its obvious that mysql will be a supported option since its one of the only free database servers...i just want to know if mssql will be supported as well.

[Jake]

OMG, I would love it if I could run vB on SQL. That way we could run my forums on quad xeons :D

[Aquamarine]

About the "My Page" feature I mentioned before somewhere on this board, it is already working over at flashkit.com! It's their own hack though, but it works wonderfully.

Basically you find a thread you like, click the "add to favorite", and viola, it's in your "my page"!

Take a look:
http://www.flashkit.com/cgi-bin/myfk/favourites.cgi

[Mas*Mind]

This suggestion (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=1863#22523) please; Assign usergroups depending on the number of posts. So if a user posts his 50th post he would automaticly fall into another usergroup. This would make the usergroups very flexible

[Edited by Mas*Mind on 09-29-2000 at 06:01 AM]

[Menno]

I *think* vB is just gonna be able to run on several different SQL programs (oracle?)

[Shoe]

Originally posted by Shoe

Originally posted by hungrymonkey
well obviously it would be stupid to use both at the same time....and also its obvious that mysql will be a supported option since its one of the only free database servers...i just want to know if mssql will be supported as well.

Chill...I responded to what you said--not what you meant

[TWTCommish]

Originally posted by Aquamarine
About the "My Page" feature I mentioned before somewhere on this board, it is already working over at flashkit.com! It's their own hack though, but it works wonderfully.

Basically you find a thread you like, click the "add to favorite", and viola, it's in your "my page"!

Take a look:
http://www.flashkit.com/cgi-bin/myfk/favourites.cgi



Perl, eh? Yuck! :)

I'm writing a similar hack. Almost done! :D

[wetherow]

Edit: once I posted this, I read back far enough into this forum to find a discussion already underway about subcategories! It's probably an indication of how important this feature will be in a new edition, so I'll let my letter stand, rather than just deleting it).

The subcategory question probably reflects something about the evolving use of bb systems.

p.s. do any of the existing bb systems feature subcategories?

Dave
-------------------------
I've already written this privately to Eva, but thought that it might be a 'new feature' suggestion (rather than a current application question):

I'm about to set up a vBulletin application (my first) for a virtual community on assistive technology for people with disabilities (the full app will include training calendars, equipment lending pool, etc.).

Here's my question: is it possible to add at least one more 'layer' (category/forum/thread > category/subcategory/forum/thread > or category/forum/subforum/thread) to vBulletin?

I'll make a concrete example:

On the current vBulletin apps that I'm seeing, I would expect to see:

- Assistive Technology Devices (category)
-- Communication Devices (forum)
--- "Liberator" (specific discussion thread)
--- "How do I ...." (specific discussion thread)
--- "When I do this..." (specific discussion thread)
--- "The little screen broke when I..." (specific discussion thread)
-- Mobility Devices (forum)

What I'd like to see would be:

- AT Devices (category)
-- Communication Devices (forum)
--- Liberator (subforum)
---- Liberator Programming Issues (sub/subforum)
----- "How do I ...." (specific discussion thread)
----- "When I do this..." (specific discussion thread)
---- Liberator Maintenance Issues (subforum)
----- "The little screen broke when I..." (specific discussion thread)
-- Mobility Devices (forum)

Does that make sense?

I know I could achieve this by purchasing multiple vBulletin licenses (e.g. one for communication devices, one for mobility devices, etc.) but this would have the effect of fragmenting my community.

Finally (this is probably a separate question), is it possible for the community moderator to _re-title_ forum messages (e.g. from "Opinions needed" to "Communication partnerships - opinions needed"?

Is it possible to move a specific message from one thread or forum to another?

Thanks,
Dave Wetherow

[Edited by wetherow on 09-30-2000 at 11:25 AM]

[Craig A]

That will be part of the next release - as was stated above.

I notice that this topic is now on page 8... kinda shows the importance of the next release, so come on guys - what's the latest news ? Will it be ready tommorrow ? :) Don't forget, I only live five minutes away and I have your address - I might just pop in to see if John really is working away at it, or whether he's in Ibiza! :)

[chrispadfield]

Craig, i am 30 mins away, we can go together.. strength in numbers :)

Can we at least see some beta of how far it is? something please.. how long can it take!

[James]

Chris

At the moment we don't have any new news to share - and we're sticking to the release schedule I posted four days ago:



At present I'm not prepared to commit to a particular release date - however, we hope to have the new version code completed within a month... it will then be another couple of weeks of internal testing and tweaking before we release the final version officially.


We may consider releasing a beta version, but it will be at least a month away.

Craig (Re: co-branding)

The co-branding feature will work by looking for a variable on the url query_string, and assigning this value to the user's record in the database. This database value will then be used to select a set of templates / styles to use - that's the extent of my knowledge on this subject :)

hungrymonkey

We have no plans to offer support for any other database engine (mssql, Oracle, Sybase) in the next version.

Mas*Mind

I believe that John is planning to integrate some kind of "usergrouping by post count" feature.

Re: templates

The upgrade will not require any manual editing of the templates.

While I'm not involved with the development enough to post a daily update, I'll try and keep everyone informed of our progress.

All the best,

James

[Freddie Bingham]

Originally posted by wetherow

Finally (this is probably a separate question), is it possible for the community moderator to _re-title_ forum messages (e.g. from "Opinions needed" to "Communication partnerships - opinions needed"?


Yes by the Admin Edit link at the bottom of the thread



Is it possible to move a specific message from one thread or forum to another?

Yes by the Admin Move link at the bottom of the thread

[chrispadfield]

Originally posted by James
Chris
Re: templates

The upgrade will not require any manual editing of the templates.


What do you mean by this? Are the templates not changing at all (i don't see how this is possible as links to private messaging, polls etc must be in the teamplates?) or do you mean that the templates will just all over over written. If not there must be manual editing must it not?

Thanks, looking forward to the middle of next month.

[James]

Hi Chris,

Oops - yes, you are quite correct... some new variables will need to be added to existing templates manually.

I was trying to address the concern that the upgrade utility will forcefully overwrite templates without admin approval - which of course will not be the case :)

All the best,

James

[chrispadfield]

Thank you James.

On this, do you know how big the templates change is going to be. I think i heard somewhere that they was going to be quite a big change to them? Is this the case? The reason i am asking is that i am currently making my templates now but will not get work that much of them if there are going to be significant changes and i need to start again.

In the end what i am asking is, is it going to be easy enough to add the extra bits in manually or do you think we will be best to start again?

[hungrymonkey]

in the very post thread , john mentioned possible support with alternative databases..has this been dropped entirely then? or has it just been postponed? it's not a big deal, i just would prefer to be able to run a single database system rather then 2, as i prefer using ms sql for my own databases.

[eva2000]

Originally posted by James
Hi Chris,

Oops - yes, you are quite correct... some new variables will need to be added to existing templates manually.

I was trying to address the concern that the upgrade utility will forcefully overwrite templates without admin approval - which of course will not be the case :)

All the best,

James this is good news :) ... i am gonna be moving server and maybe remove all my hacks so as to make the upgrade easier... already started removing some of them already due to forum problems

[russellwarshay]

What about LDAP integration?

[Wayne Luke]

Originally posted by hungrymonkey
in the very post thread , john mentioned possible support with alternative databases..has this been dropped entirely then? or has it just been postponed? it's not a big deal, i just would prefer to be able to run a single database system rather then 2, as i prefer using ms sql for my own databases.

This shouldn't be hard to change on your own. PHP4 supports SQL Server natively. All you have to do is change all the mysql calls to the appropriate SQL Server calls. Since there are no stored procedures, subselects or other advanced features in MySQL you won't have to change much, if anything, on the database side

[JohnM]

Look at this:

http://www.vbulletin.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=20

[Roe Aquemini]

I have nothing big to say, I just wanted to participate in the longest Thread ever!

Wait.....actually, could you make it so that the VB doesn't put such a HEAVY load on servers, I had to shutdown my VB because my hosting was getting too expensive.

[thetakerfan]

actually, this isn't the longest post ever...
anyway, you should post something in the server config forum, I'm sure someone there (Chris S most likely) can help you out

[Roe Aquemini]

If I say it is the longest post ever....it IS the longest post ever!

Anyways, I have just convinced a BIG company to use the VB, I think I deserve something. Atleast I thanks, I can't tell you who it is yet though. They are still testing things out, but they are one of the largest Internet Entertainment companies out there.

[John Harrison]

I will just say:
Kwel

[eva2000]

yep i have been recommending vB to everyone and anyone that asks :D

[John Harrison]

hey eva2000

You are beyond a joke with that sig! :D

[Menno]

yeah, your sig looks more like a link index :)

[eva2000]

Originally posted by Menno
yeah, your sig looks more like a link index :)

LOL i cut it down my 3 lines already :D ... just sooo many people are emailing me asking how i did such and such on my forums.... makes it easier when you already get 300 - 700 emails /day to read :D

[John Harrison]

he he should I add more to mine?

Soon I will have more web sites (not bulletin boards) to add to my sig. :D

[Aquamarine]

Can you guys PLEASE PLEASE post relevant stuff regarding the next vB rather than "oh how long can we make this thread"?

Many of us come here and get all excited over this thread "vB announcements". After clicking a few times all we find is a "oh me too"... Sigh.....

Sorry if I sound a bit grouchy. It's almost 6am here and I NEED to goto sleep! :)

[John Harrison]

Originally posted by Aquamarine
Can you guys PLEASE PLEASE post relevant stuff regarding the next vB rather than "oh how long can we make this thread"?

Many of us come here and get all excited over this thread "vB announcements". After clicking a few times all we find is a "oh me too"... Sigh.....

Sorry if I sound a bit grouchy. It's almost 6am here and I NEED to goto sleep! :)

Oh sorry!

The current thread count is 25
If it hits 26 then you know there is something new!

[alleyezonme]

i think ubb6 is the way to go this new vb...

the coders need to start updating bugs as soon as they are found out not leaving a few months to do a mass update.

i dont care if you have php or mysql or whatever when your code is so redundant and uses up way more resources.

ubb6 is a much better choice than this new vb that will just put more strain on ur servers

<edited for language-James>


[Edited by James on 10-16-2000 at 04:23 AM]

[mferrell]

I’m truly impressed by your eloquent post and mastery of punctuation. Your rhetoric has persuaded me to drop vb and use ubb instead. I would have to say that the part that made me change my mind was, “…not leaving a few months to do a mass update its ****ing gay”

I feel it’s my duty to point this out: you’re a moron.

[Chris Schreiber]

You know that a pretty funny statement since UBB 6 is not even in beta stages yet, and no one has any idea of what kind of resources it will need :)

[werehere]

alleyezonme,

No one is actually going to use UBB because of what you posted!

Grow UP!

[alleyezonme]

ok u morons right now ubb5 and vb in its current state... ubb uses just a little less resources than a good vbulletin install (hours spent on)

then they are redoing the code to make it even more efficient while you retards are tweaking your mysql and php settings because of the horrible vb code ill just simply update my ubb and voila! all is good and better than your idiots boards!

[edited by werehere because you are a foul mouth person who should be banned immediately]



[Edited by werehere on 10-16-2000 at 01:20 PM]

[TechTalk]

Could someone please ban this guy? I personally am not offended by his words, but I dont beleive it should be legal to allow a person to make such an ass of himself. Do him a favor and ban him.

[chrispadfield]

he has been. It says banned below his username. Not going to stop him coming back though.

[GMTalk]

Glad to see that he was banned.

I am just curious. How much longer?!?!?! I am eagerly awaiting the new updates. I have been postponing Hacks on the board inlew of the new release. Hope it is soon!!!!

[Menno]

Damn trolls...
not paying any attention to them is the best cure.

As for the new release. It has been said it would be ready in a few weeks, but there would still be a beta testing period after that.

[Aquamarine]

I think this particular thread has strayed way way off the original topic. Perhaps time to close it?

[TotalBS]

yes, please close.

It's kind of frustrating as we are all waiting for new information about the next version (been holding off on hacks and such) and there always seems to be a new message in this 'update' thread.

Please close... and PLEASE, let's get another real update.

[James]

ok - I'm going to close this thread now.

I'll be in touch in the next couple of days with a new update.

All the best,

James