http://www.fusionbb.com/forumThe latest announcements about FusionBB community software!en-usWed, 06 Mar 2013 02:25:02 GMTWed, 06 Mar 2013 02:25:02 GMThttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rssFusionBB 3.2 (www.fusionbb.com)01234http://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/12035http://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/12035
As many of you are aware, our development schedule has been much slower paced than I would have liked. I take full responsibility for that, as since Couch left due to family reasons, I have been working on FusionBB by myself. With other obligations, and dealing with support questions, issues etc.... there ends up being little time to actually work on new development of features that FusionBB desperately needs to be competitive and keep our customers' sites competitive too.

I am pleased to announce, that we have a new Project Manager joining the team, who's sole focus will be the development of FusionBB. His name is Alex Ali and he has many years of experience in the forum world. Please help me welcome him to the team. He has many great ideas and lots of much needed vision for FusionBB, so I'm very excited to have him on board.

Don't worry though, I am not leaving, I will still be involved in the planning and development for FusionBB.
]]>Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:06:23 GMThttp://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/11951http://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/11951
We scored 9 out of 10 stars, which is a very nice ranking!



The site also supports user reviews and user rankings, and you see that those display in our "badge" that we are now displaying above and in our sidebar. So if you are a FusionBB user and would like to rank us, it would be appreciated! You can see the review here: http://www.forum-software.org/fusionbb/review]]>Sat, 03 Sep 2011 18:02:50 GMThttp://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/11907http://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/11907 ]]>Sun, 05 Jun 2011 07:06:26 GMThttp://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/11906http://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/11906Member Area download forum. This is different from the way previous versions were downloaded, so click here if you didn't see the announcement about the license system.

For the most part, FusionBB 3.2 is a Minor Release and includes:
- Fixes some consistency issues between past versions
- Fixed some bugs when editing forums
- Fixed some bugs when managing attachments
- Fixed some issues with regards to post counts
- Added an HTML editor when editing site inserts and custom pages

Upgrade Instructions:
- BACKUP Your Files
- BACKUP Your Database
- Upload All Files
- Run /install/install.php in your browser

Professional Upgrade is available for $49 by clicking on the Purchase tab above.

Is this an amazing Kick A... Releas?
No, it's a minor release. There is not alot of new bells and whistles in it... yet. But here's the back story....

As many of you know, for years I have run FusionBB "on the side" while working a full time job. The last several years, Couchtomatoe has worked with us on coding. He did an awesome job and added some amazing things to FusionBB.

However, during his time helping, I was very busy with work and life etc... so honestly, my head wasn't in the day to day aspects of coding. I managed features and we talked about things etc....

Since his departure, I have spent some time re-engaging my head into the code. I've been working with some users on some support and bug issues. I've been getting my ducks in a row.

There has been a change in my work situation, which will allow me some more time to devote to FusionBB moving forward.

So why the release?
Sadly, in the past, we've had multiple versions of the same version. Meaning, we release 3.1 but then there's something wrong so some files got changed, and we repackaged and updated our package. Usually this was pretty quick, but the end result is you end up with multiple versions of each version, which should never happen. Because then someone is experiencing a bug in "3.1 Final 2" but not everyone has the same "3.1 Final 2" so headaches follow. LOL

Since 3.1 Final 2 got packaged multiple times, later versions of 3.1 Final 2 ended up having some of the 3.2 features and fixes in it. Sadly, since I wasn't "hands on" when all this was happening, I don't have a real clear idea of exactly what got included when. All I know from digging in to some people's issues, is that there are some consistency issues between the versions.

So my intention with releasing 3.2 is to set everyone with the same version. If I make any changes to it, it'll be 3.2.1 or 3.3 or whatever, but there won't be another 3.2.

Now that everyone's on the clean slate of 3.2, then we can begin working on some heavier features for what will be 3.3. ]]>Sun, 05 Jun 2011 06:45:29 GMThttp://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/11901http://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/11901
Just a couple of quick notes.

License System
One, we were using a software package called phpAudit for our billing and license system. This was a separate system from the forum software, a commercial product we purchased. Our IP address changed recently, and the license for that software is tied to the IP address, and after WEEKS of round and round with them, they wanted me to buy the software again just because our IP address changed, which doesn't make any sense.

Since it wasn't the world's best system anyway - and actually confused alot of our users, I've decided to nix it.

I currently have setup a purchase option using the built-in MyPaymentPal functionality here in FusionBB. It was kind of a puzzle, but I was able to export purchase data and bring it into FusionBB.

So in our FusionBB Support Forums section, you will notice a new forum titled "Download Forum" right at the top. This forum contains the download files.

If your license is currently active, you will be able to access that forum. If it's not, then you will be prompted to renew via PayPal and get instant access to the download.

As I said, it was a puzzle importing the purchases from the phpAudit system and matching up to users in FusionBB. 95% of them matched based on emails used when you purchased. If you don't have access to that forum, and feel you should, please submit a ticket with the details of your purchase and we'll get that corrected for you.

Development
The big question.... development. With the departure of Couch development is going much more slowly... however it is progressing. I have been focusing on some bugs and some code cleanup. It's my *hope* (fingers crossed, spin around 3 times, spit over my shoulder, kiss a leprechaun etc...) that we will have the next release out yet this month. I appreciate your patience and in working with several customers directly the last few months I've been able to track down some troublesome issues which will have a positive impact on the next release.
]]>Wed, 18 May 2011 02:25:10 GMThttp://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/11792http://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/11792
Besides bug fixes things that snuck into 3.1 Final 2

1) autocomplete for finding things easier in the admin panel..

2) Rewrite of all javscript to utilize JQUERY

3) Rewrite of Lightbox code to use JQuery Lightbox

4) Rewrite of Userpage code to use JQuery UI

5) Session Table now uses the InnoDB Engine rather than the ISAM Engine. Please check with your host prior to installtion to make sure you have the latest PHP and MYSQL versions as well as the ability to use InnoDB for session table. ]]>Thu, 25 Nov 2010 20:41:21 GMThttp://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/11631http://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/11631
I do appologize as the latest delay was my fault. Couch did a great job of getting the last few tweaks made and gave it to me to put for download right as I left town for vacation.

However after the long wait here is 3.1 FINAL.

If you have questions about how to access the download area PT me or open a support ticket. I have posted articles about this before and will update this post to link to those shortly.

Again a big thumbs up to Couch, Josh, Chris, Greg and the Alpha team for making this happen. Thanks to everyone's hard work we didn't need to leave it in BETA for long as there were very few issues that had to be tweaked for Final release.

Don't forget to always make a backup of your files and database before making an upgrade.

Some notes from Couch regarding the install:
1) Backup your site and its templates/skins/config

2) Now that you have a copy of your site delete skins and template directories

3) Copy all files from install over to site

4) Run the install

5) Change any custom templates to the new directory format. I would suggest examining the
fusionbb directory structure to see what is where. Also notice the new userpage and mail
directory structures.

Copy any custom templates over to server make sure to change the template directory name
to something other than fusionbb and smallscreen

6) Change any custom templates to the new directory format. I would suggest taking one of
the default ones and using that as a basis for any custom skins. This will be how the
format is from here out.

Copy any custom skins over to server make sure to change the skins directory name to
something other then the default ones

7) Go into the admin panel and set any new config variables.

Go to Admin Panel -> Site Tools -> Edit Skins and Edit Templates and import any
skins/templates that are not in the db, they should be the ones that appear with the
asterisk (*)

## If on a suphp or IIS Server your files will be owned by the site owner. If not on suphp
or IIS you will notice that files are now owned by the user that apache is set to write
files as. most cases it could be user 99, nobody, or apache. This will be dependent upon
how your host has your server setup. If for some reason your ftp program cannot change
file permissions or overwrite files there are two files included now to fix permissioning
one is in Admin Panel -> Miscellaneous -> Unlock Files, and other is in your main
directory called unlock.php which can be run as http://yoursite.com/yourforum/unlock.php

## Reasoning behind new setup for skins/templates directories is that it was becoming harder
to know what files were missing from each and the ever increasing time it was taking to
do an upgrade. From here on out it will be a lot easier, faster, and more reliable.

If you do notice any bugs please post them in the bugs section.

If you have any questions please open them up in the forums.

Please post any support or upgrade questions in the relevant forums.

Any kudos to the team or general comments about this release - feel free to make them HERE .

Enjoy! ]]>Sat, 24 Apr 2010 09:39:20 GMThttp://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/11615http://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/11615
If you have questions about how to access the download area PT me or open a support ticket. I have posted articles about this before and will update this post to link to those shortly.

Big thumbs up to Couch, Josh, Chris, Greg and the Alpha team for making this happen. Due to the alpha teams time, dedications and great feedback to our team we have a better product to show for it.

This is a BETA release. As always we never recommend updating a live environment with a BETA release. Your license does allow you to run a test / sandbox install and we recommend you do a trial upgrade first.

Don't forget to always make a backup of your files and database before making an upgrade.

Please give us your feedback on this release as that helps us move forward from a beta to a gold / final release.

Some notes from Couch regarding the install:
1) Backup your site and its templates/skins/config

2) Now that you have a copy of your site delete skins and template directories

3) Copy all files from install over to site

4) Run the install

5) Change any custom templates to the new directory format. I would suggest examining the
fusionbb directory structure to see what is where. Also notice the new userpage and mail
directory structures.

Copy any custom templates over to server make sure to change the template directory name
to something other than fusionbb and smallscreen

6) Change any custom templates to the new directory format. I would suggest taking one of
the default ones and using that as a basis for any custom skins. This will be how the
format is from here out.

Copy any custom skins over to server make sure to change the skins directory name to
something other then the default ones

7) Go into the admin panel and set any new config variables.

Go to Admin Panel -> Site Tools -> Edit Skins and Edit Templates and import any
skins/templates that are not in the db, they should be the ones that appear with the
asterisk (*)

## If on a suphp or IIS Server your files will be owned by the site owner. If not on suphp
or IIS you will notice that files are now owned by the user that apache is set to write
files as. most cases it could be user 99, nobody, or apache. This will be dependent upon
how your host has your server setup. If for some reason your ftp program cannot change
file permissions or overwrite files there are two files included now to fix permissioning
one is in Admin Panel -> Miscellaneous -> Unlock Files, and other is in your main
directory called unlock.php which can be run as http://yoursite.com/yourforum/unlock.php

## Reasoning behind new setup for skins/templates directories is that it was becoming harder
to know what files were missing from each and the ever increasing time it was taking to
do an upgrade. From here on out it will be a lot easier, faster, and more reliable.




Discuss this post HERE.
]]>Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:41:31 GMThttp://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/11597http://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/11597
I wanted to give a quick update as to the Status of FusionBB 3.1.

We have been Alpha testing it and the code and features are all performing well. So we are good to go on that front.

There were a variety of upgrade issues that our testers had been experiencing, and you may have seen some of these issues in the forum the last few upgrades. They were usually language file or permission issues. So the installer/upgrader is being reworked to make this process as smooth as possible. Everyone wants a smooth upgrade right?

I am pleased to report that our updated upgrader is performing well. Updated Upgrader? Say that three times fast.

We also used this opportunity to make a couple of other changes to the foundation of FusionBB. Many new forum admins struggle with getting file permissions setup correctly on your server. To make this even more difficult, everyone's server is different, so there's no steadfast rule about making stuff 755 but sometimes you need 777 etc... Then when you have directories, like those used to hold language files, templates, skins and configuration files, that are writeable, you run a slight security risk of someone being able to write your files.

This isn't a security risk from within FusionBB, but in some server configurations, if files are "world writable" so the apache user can update them, if another account on a shared server is compromised, it can allow a hacker to place files in writable directories, or update writable files. So we have made some changes here as well, washing most of this data, through the database. This helps improve the security as well as will make some stuff easier to update for the average site administrator. And this will make it a bit easier for some things, like headers and such, to not be overwritten during an upgrade.

We also discovered some issues, where when posts or forums are deleted, in some cases, attachments remain on the server. This can lead to file bloat on larger sites. So we're making some changes to resolve this as well.

So we are currently in the process of testing this and making sure the transition with these changes from 3.0 to 3.1 will go smoothly for everyone. Once we are comfortable that we'll be rolling it out here as a public beta.

Stay Tuned! ]]>Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:31:44 GMThttp://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/11349http://www.fusionbb.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/11349
What does this mean?
It means that versions of FusionBB 2.2 and prior will no longer receive FusionBB support.

Why Is FusionBB Making This Change?
Most issues that customers using versions 2.2 and prior run into could easily be addressed / fixed by simply upgrading to a current version.

We include bug fixes with every release so it does not make much sense spending hours fixing a bug or problem when an upgrade which usually takes less then an hour or can be done by the FusionBB staff for $49 (standard upgrade).

What will the EOL policy be fore FusionBB moving forward?
Moving forward FusionBB will only support the most current TWO stable releases of FusionBB.

Currently this means we will support 3.0 and 2.3.

When the next stable release of FusionBB is made we will mark 2.3 as EOL and 3.0 and the next stable version will be supported and so on.

What if I don't want to upgrade?
FusionBB will never force an upgrade on anyone. You are still more then welcome to run an EOL release (though not recommended).

You are also more then welcome to still post here on the forums, we won't ban you and other users can still chime in to help. If there is a quick answer to your problem or question a FBB staff member may still chime in. However FBB Staff will no longer officially support the product so a response from FBB Staff will not be required for problems with versions that have been EOL'd.

The official support will always be a a recommendation to upgrade to a current, supported stable release.

Is this normal?
Yes most software companies only support a certain number of current releases and regularly EOL older products.

Have additional questions or have comments about this post? Feel free to discuss this topic HERE .


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