www.talkcyprus.org

erolz · Joined: 11 Aug 2005 Posts: 4195 Location: Kyrenia / Girne

Development work on improving and extending the functionality of phpBB forum software (the software used to drive this forum) continues.

At the moment the latest 'stable' release is 2.0.21 However wor is moving forward on a major revamp that will ultimatelt see the realse of a version 3.0 of the software.

To get an idea of the main 'improvements' to phpBB that will be in 3.0 have a look here

http://area51.phpbb.com/docs/features.html

The phpBB team have recently relased a public beta version of this new forum software. If anyone is interested in having a look at it I have installed the beta version here

http://www.visionmatters.co.uk/phpBB3/index.php

Please feel free to register, post and generaly play around if you feel so disposed to do so. However be aware this purely a 'test environment' using beta software. Anything posted there may disapear arbitarily and indeed the whole forum may do so at any time :)

As for us migrating this forum to the new software (or not) that is a decison for the future. Until the new version 3.0 moves from beta to a final relase the question is moot. If and when it comes out of beta we can discuss the possibility of migrating the forum to the new software, what the pros and cons would be etc etc and make a decision then.

I have to say from my so far brief intial impression it seems very stable and looks pretty nice. There are certainly many new features and even thouhg the test board is running in an mode that slows it down somewhat it seems faster too (though this may be related at least partialy to it being empty)

Hazza · Joined: 22 Aug 2005 Posts: 151

It looks very nice with some nice options. Wish I had seen this topic before. Only yesterday, I spent a good few hours converting, migrating and installing the SMF software on my forum with the MK Portal.

Had I of seen this, I'd have been more patient and waited for phpBB 3.0.

city · Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Posts: 3337 Location: Larnaca area

erolz wrote: To get an idea of the main 'improvements' to phpBB that will be in 3.0 have a look here

http://area51.phpbb.com/docs/features.html

Had a quick look and seems to have lots of new features. There are some though which I believe we should think twice whether to enable them or not.

f.e.
Private Messages

* Send to multiple recipients
* Send to groups

Will have a detailed look when I find the time, prob a day when there is no footie on or definitely after the World Cup. :-)

pg · Joined: 17 Jan 2006 Posts: 1485 Location: Cyprus

I have a rule I try to follow: If it works, don't fix it.

Do we really need the new features?

(I do not mind - just trying to lessen your workload...)

Crash Test Dummy · Joined: 25 Sep 2005 Posts: 4908 Location: London(ish)

pg wrote:
(I do not mind - just trying to lessen your workload...)

:lol: :lol: :lol:
dont insult the king. he lives for this kind of thing.

Hazza · Joined: 22 Aug 2005 Posts: 151

Its not about the features, its about the security. As php, apache and MySQL get upgraded, it leaves dirty big holes in the software that uses it, big enough for defacers to come in and do what they do.

pg · Joined: 17 Jan 2006 Posts: 1485 Location: Cyprus

I am sure the components needs their updates regardsless of phpbb...

In terms of security I also suspect version 2 will be more safe than 3 for quite some time. That is often the case with most softwares...

With no hands on experience myself, I may still think that this
http://packages.debian.org/testing/web/phpbb2
is the safest way to run it, with as little work as possible.

Just my 2c. I do not mind if the king spends his nights fixing it...

erolz · Joined: 11 Aug 2005 Posts: 4195 Location: Kyrenia / Girne

erolz wrote: As for us migrating this forum to the new software (or not) that is a decison for the future.

Really I just posted this up 'for interest'. Right now , as far as I am concerned, discussing moving the forum as it stands now to 3.0 is premature.

thebrix · Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 8:02 pm Post subject:

Looks interesting - certainly, some of the facilities such as detailed control over permissions and moderation are vital (and put phpBB well ahead of SharePoint - I have been using it for a bit, and that permissions are all or nothing is one of its worst features).

I'm a bit dubious about some of the user features - attachments of the degree suggested are not a good idea - but "search in topic titles only" and "bookmark topics" are worth the price of admission. Similarly Jabber (and, presumably, Google Talk) notifications - at last, a method of flagging things to the user which uses little bandwidth and doesn't flood an email account with messages!

erolz · Joined: 11 Aug 2005 Posts: 4195 Location: Kyrenia / Girne

There are deffinately some useful features. The permission system, whilst ok in 2.0 is acceptable its much better in 3.0. I also like the logging of actions (mod, admin and user) that is in 3.0 and missing in 2.0. The attachment features has lots of controls to limit it by user and group permission as well as by attachment type. Like wise there seems to be good controls over group PM facilites. There is no doubt that there is much good in 3.0 in my view.

By the way if anyone wants to be able to see and play with the admin or mod features juts drop me a pm and tell me what username you have signed up with on the test board and ill 'promote' you.

erolz · Joined: 11 Aug 2005 Posts: 4195 Location: Kyrenia / Girne

phpBB3 has reach RC4 (release candidate 4)

In the process of playing around and trying things out I have installed this latest version AND run the convert process from the talkcyprus forum.

I stress this is all just an experiment. This version of the forum remains the 'real' one for the foreseeable future.

However for those interested a version of this forum running under phpBB3 rc4 can be viewed here

http://www.visionmatters.co.uk/BB3/

You should be able to log in with the same username and password details used for this forum and all your posts, avatars, sigs and pm should be there. If you do decide to have a look and notice anything strange please do post it here.

100%cypriot · Joined: 27 Jun 2006 Posts: 2145

well done son

Mete · Joined: 16 Aug 2005 Posts: 1150 Location: Boston

Erol, I highly recommend upgrading the forum to the latest stable software. Being in the software business, I can tell you that the number of bugs solved between releases is enormous no matter how big/small a project is and there's hardly any case where you'd have some functionality that is better in a previous release than the latest release. Of course, I'd definitely wait for the official release but in the mean time, experimenting with the RCs is a good idea. I'll check it out.

What happened to Hazza by the way?

Mete · Joined: 16 Aug 2005 Posts: 1150 Location: Boston

Two quick comments about the new forum.

First, I like the fact that topics that I haven't review are highlighted with yellow color in the current forum. In the new forum, this is not the case so it's a little difficult to figure out which topics are new.

Second, poster name and avatar are shown on the right, instead of the left. I'm used to seeing someones name first before the actual post (and I do read from left to right :-)).

Is it possible to configure these in the new forum?

erolz · Joined: 11 Aug 2005 Posts: 4195 Location: Kyrenia / Girne

Mete wrote: First, I like the fact that topics that I haven't review are highlighted with yellow color in the current forum. In the new forum, this is not the case so it's a little difficult to figure out which topics are new.

I believe the new forum will do this as well, but starting with post that are new to you since the convert. I will make such a new post to the test forum now and hopefully if you view it and are logged on it will be highlighted as having new posts.

Mete wrote:
Second, poster name and avatar are shown on the right, instead of the left. I'm used to seeing someones name first before the actual post (and I do read from left to right :-)).

Is it possible to configure these in the new forum?

What you can do is design ones own style / theme set, controlling how things look. There are 2 sets that come with phpBB3 by default. The one you see and a style that is very similar to the old phpBB2 forum default style (which I have not yet installed on the phpBB3 demo board).

I would have to say that designing a complete style set for phpBB3 is outside my personal skill set. No doubt when phpBB reaches release more and more such style sets will become available as people create them and make them available, just as they have with phpBB2. I would also add that whilst phpBB , both versions, allows for multiple style sets with individual users free to chose the set they prefer I have avoided using such multiple style sets for the forum to date, principally because the severely increase the work and difficulty of modifying the forum and updating it.

On the general topic of should we move talkcyprus.org to the new release of phpBB there are quite a few things to consider. Talkcyprus.org as it exists at the moment runs on a highly modifed version of the current latest release of phpBB 2. Many of these modification do not exist in the plain version of phpBB 3 and neither have people created add on mods for these function yet. Things like the photo album, the portal page and RSS feeds do not have any equivalent in phpBB3. No doubt in time people will produce phpBB3 mods that provide these facilities but that will no doubt take some time before the range of features we have added to talkcyprus will be addable to phpBB3.

So at the moment I am still seeing a formal move to phpBB3 of talkcyprus as some time off yet. Of course if the members of talkcyprus want to move as soon as possible and are not worried about the loss of these features, then I am happy to go with such a desire, but we would need to consider the implications and discuss it.