vBulletin 3.0.0 Release Candidate 1
Just under a month has passed since the release of vBulletin 3.0.0 Gamma, in which time a lot of teething problems with the new style have been identified and resolved, along with the usual scattering of PHP and Javascript code errors, but the code has now evolved to the point where we are ready to say that the code making up this Release Candidate version is potentially the same as that in the final, stable (Gold) release.
You will notice that the new images are not a part of this release, as they are taking more time than expected to produce, but they will be along in time for the final, Gold version of vBulletin 3.0.0.
All efforts in producing this version have been towards stabilizing the existing code, rather than creating new functionality, and hence at a glance you may see no difference between vB3 Gamma and vB3 RC1. However, more than 170 bugs and issues have been identified and fixed in the past month, resulting in the most secure and stable version of vBulletin so far.
Here is a short list of some of the bugs and problems that have been resolved since the Gamma release:
Feature Changes
Changes to the language system and phrases since Gamma have been minimal, although a small number of phrases have been added to the system.
Template Changes
A large number of templates have been changed since Gamma, primarily to fix cross-browser rendering issues. Rather than list all the changes here, you can use the Find Updated Templates control in the Admin Control Panel to find out which of your customized templates have had their original versions altered, so that you can see whether or not you need to apply changes to your custom versions.
A few noteworthy changes include the following:
To install vBulletin 3, or to upgrade from a previous version of vBulletin, download the zip file from the members' area, unzip the contents and upload the contents of the 'upload' folder to the forums directory on your web server, overwriting all existing files.
Open the 'includes/config.php.new' file in a text editor and alter the contents to match the settings for your own web server. Finally rename this file as 'config.php'.
Next follow the appropriate instructions below (replacing the text in red with the address of your own forums):
Installing a fresh version
Using your browser, navigate to http://your.forums.site/forums/install/install.php and follow the on-screen instructions.
Upgrading from a previous version
We strongly recommend that you back up your database by following the instructions in step one, here. Then, using your browser, navigate to http://your.forums.site/forums/install/upgrade.php and follow the on-screen instructions.
Just under a month has passed since the release of vBulletin 3.0.0 Gamma, in which time a lot of teething problems with the new style have been identified and resolved, along with the usual scattering of PHP and Javascript code errors, but the code has now evolved to the point where we are ready to say that the code making up this Release Candidate version is potentially the same as that in the final, stable (Gold) release.
You will notice that the new images are not a part of this release, as they are taking more time than expected to produce, but they will be along in time for the final, Gold version of vBulletin 3.0.0.
All efforts in producing this version have been towards stabilizing the existing code, rather than creating new functionality, and hence at a glance you may see no difference between vB3 Gamma and vB3 RC1. However, more than 170 bugs and issues have been identified and fixed in the past month, resulting in the most secure and stable version of vBulletin so far.
Here is a short list of some of the bugs and problems that have been resolved since the Gamma release:
- "Invalid birthday" error on registration (Link)
- Made all HTTP header redirects HTTP 1.1 compliant (Link)
- Missing "Browse" button on uploads (Link)
- Unable to log into moderators' control panel (Link)
- Page can't be scrolled in IE while page is loading (Link)
- Forms in drop down menus not submittable in Safari (Link)
- Password-protected forums show too much information in last post column (Link)
- Problems logging into password-protected forums (Link)
- Emails show headers in the body / emails rejected because they contain an invalid character in the header (Link)
- PMs unable to be deleted (Link)
- array_merge() causes errors on PHP5 (Link)
- Phrases case insensitive in the control panel, but case sensitive when used (Link)
- Improper language and encoding of RSS feeds (Link)
- Images paths incorrect when CSS is saved as files (Link)
- Problems deleting a thread (Link)
- Assorted style fixes
- Assorted phrase fixes
Feature Changes
- No longer limited to 30 options for custom profile fields of type: select and radio
- Attachment Manager now displays "File Uploading" message when user submits a file.
- Attachment Manager now updates the post window when an attachment is made.
- The required birthday field for coppa registration now includes the day.
- Admin can set force the Quick Reply editor to be standard, enhanced, or WYSIWYG (if user can use it), overriding the user's chosen editor.
- Custom profile fields can now be included during resgistration without making them be required.
Changes to the language system and phrases since Gamma have been minimal, although a small number of phrases have been added to the system.
Template Changes
A large number of templates have been changed since Gamma, primarily to fix cross-browser rendering issues. Rather than list all the changes here, you can use the Find Updated Templates control in the Admin Control Panel to find out which of your customized templates have had their original versions altered, so that you can see whether or not you need to apply changes to your custom versions.
A few noteworthy changes include the following:
- In order to remove hard-coded text in certain javascript (.js) files, the editor_clientscript template has had some significant changes. If you have customized this template you should seriously consider reverting it to the original code or you risk your members not being able to post messages.
- It was found that the experimental variable $vboptions[abspath] created more problems than it solved. Therefore, any template that contained the following text src="$vboptions[abspath]/clientscript/ has had that text changed to simply src="clientscript/
- In the Gamma release, all images were instructed to have 'vertical-align:middle' via the CSS editor. This caused problems for many people using images in tables, so this system has been abandoned in favor of a selective system, whereby images that need to have vertical-align:middle now get that styling via class="inlineimg".
To install vBulletin 3, or to upgrade from a previous version of vBulletin, download the zip file from the members' area, unzip the contents and upload the contents of the 'upload' folder to the forums directory on your web server, overwriting all existing files.
Open the 'includes/config.php.new' file in a text editor and alter the contents to match the settings for your own web server. Finally rename this file as 'config.php'.
Next follow the appropriate instructions below (replacing the text in red with the address of your own forums):
Installing a fresh version
Using your browser, navigate to http://your.forums.site/forums/install/install.php and follow the on-screen instructions.
Upgrading from a previous version
We strongly recommend that you back up your database by following the instructions in step one, here. Then, using your browser, navigate to http://your.forums.site/forums/install/upgrade.php and follow the on-screen instructions.
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