09-10-06 05:49 PM - Post#36395    

We have upgraded our site here to version 2.0 Beta 3.

Yes, you heard me, Version 2.0. LOL We've taken some feedback from various places including this topic and have decided to call our next update Version 2.0 instead of version 1.1.

As many of you are aware, our first major update to FusionBB includes some dramatic new features, including the Calendar and MyPaymentPal. It's far more than a minor upgrade to say the least. And we've been around just over a year now, so calling it version 2.0 seems fitting.

We are well aware that the first major upgrade to FusionBB has been a long time coming. Too long for sure - for that we are well aware, and we apologize for the long delay. Many of you have been upset by this delay. Believe me when I say that it is in our best interest to get this version out just as quickly as possible. But we will be the first to admit that we tackled much to much for our first major release. And once we got into it, we needed to complete what we've started. Once we get this version complete and released, we will be tackling smaller, more frequent updates in the future.

As license holders, you definately deserve the opportunity to download version 2.0 once it's released, but some of the initial FusionBB supporters licenses have already run past 1 year. So to compensate for this, and say "thank you for your patience" we will be adding 6 months time to all licenses that have been purchased, and all licenses that will be purchased through the end of September 2006.

I know that doesn't totally make up for the delay, but I hope it helps show you the level of committment we have to our customers.

Now as per the status of 1.1 errr I mean 2.0. For the past several months, we have been Alpha testing this on our development site. This is where a small group of users have been using the software as we develop. This has proved very stable. I have been running the new version on a very active site of my own for aprox. 6 weeks, and it's proved quite stable. About 3 weeks ago, we released this version to our Alpha testers, to actually download and begin playing with. This flushed out some issues, mostly with configuration, upgrades and installations, but overall has been quite stable.

We are currently reworking our installer/upgrade scripts to be more user friendly and make the upgrade process from version 1.0 easier. Once this is complete (very soon) we will be rolling this out to our Beta test group, which is about twice the size of our Alpha tester group. We'll kick it around here for a short period of time, and see if there's any show-stopping issues, and once it's pretty stable, we'll do a public beta release. And after it's been in beta release for a bit, we'll tweak a bit and officially release 2.0 as a public, non-beta release.

We know this process is time consuming, but it's criticial in making FusionBB as stable as possible once you put it into use on your site. That stability is very very important to us. We hope you understand and appreciate our efforts.

We greatly appreciate your patience and support.

A taste of some of the new features in 2.0 (formerly named 1.1):
* A revamped Image Upload and Preview Process
* The ability to place uploaded images whereever you like in the body of your post
* Article Forums
* Favorite Topics
* Favorite Forums
* Calendar
* Mass Email Utility
* Forum Calendars
* Revamped post preview mouseover box (user preference)
* Hiding the session ID from googlebots (more search engine friendly)
* The ability to determine what forums incriment post count
* GD Library support for image resizing
* Cron scheduler improvements
* Custom forum headers/footers
* Option forum keyword for better search engine urls
* Post count based group advancement
* A variety of minor enhancements and bug fixes
* MyPaymentPal (PayPal interface)

Curently only the following skins have been updated to work with 2.0. The rest should be updated by the time we are out of beta:
- Professional
- Crisp
- Oxygen
- Mercury Rising
- Argon
- Amicae

Feel Better, Feel Younger, Sleep Better - Trans-D Tropin Visit www.BuyTransD.com - use coupon code 1004 to save $20

Edited by JoshPet on 12-02-06 07:54 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.

09-10-06 05:53 PM - Post#36399    

    In response to JoshPet

Looking good

09-10-06 06:07 PM - Post#36403    

    In response to JoshPet

• Quote:

Do you mean 6 months from the time we are able to download 2.0 public final?

09-10-06 06:11 PM - Post#36404    

    In response to Claude

6 months to the expiration date of whatever your license is. At this point, we expect that to cover 2.0 as well as 2.1.

Feel Better, Feel Younger, Sleep Better - Trans-D Tropin Visit www.BuyTransD.com - use coupon code 1004 to save $20

09-10-06 06:17 PM - Post#36406    

    In response to Ian

The extension on licenses is a nice thought, I'm looking forward to the calendar as we have major events in November and January.
Can't remember if Dave said this one would have post moderation or if it would be the next but that's still something we really need... the "druggie" spammers have finally found the Fusion install I administer so every day there are posts in our 3 "open" forums that have to be deleted.

Here's the test for your upgrade & install procedures...if I can do it myself without driving you and Dave crazy anybody can do it

New Idea Hosting: Honesty, Dependability, No-Overselling!

09-10-06 06:22 PM - Post#36407    

    In response to Don

Post moderation is definatley at the top of our list.

Feel Better, Feel Younger, Sleep Better - Trans-D Tropin Visit www.BuyTransD.com - use coupon code 1004 to save $20

09-10-06 06:37 PM - Post#36409    

    In response to JoshPet

• JoshPet Said:

Works for me.

09-10-06 08:45 PM - Post#36414    

    In response to Claude

When can we expect to see MPP in action? Can you set up a subscription group for a token amount ($1) and let us see the process?

Thanks

Grant Swaim aka Honda Guru Site Administrator autotech-elearning.com digitalliteracyproject.com

09-10-06 10:05 PM - Post#36420    

    In response to Honda Guru

Yeah, we've done that now in the test category. We've setup a forum for testing a forum based Calendar, a forum for testing articles and a forum for MyPaymentPal testing. You will see, but not be able to access the MyPaymentPal forum. But you can signup via paypal for a free 14 day trial. Then it's 5 cents after that. But if you cancel your subscription during the free trail, you are not charged.

Feel Better, Feel Younger, Sleep Better - Trans-D Tropin Visit www.BuyTransD.com - use coupon code 1004 to save $20

09-10-06 10:20 PM - Post#36422    

    In response to JoshPet

(Psssst Josh. Don't forget to change the 1.1 references to 2.0 in the Comparison box [Features page- off the Features link at the top])



:edit: ....and the FAQ and Purchase pages as well.

FBB Knowledgebase Your source for official FusionBB documentation. Lori's Blog Here buggy, bug...

09-10-06 10:39 PM - Post#36424    

    In response to Lori

Mucho gracious

Feel Better, Feel Younger, Sleep Better - Trans-D Tropin Visit www.BuyTransD.com - use coupon code 1004 to save $20

09-10-06 10:59 PM - Post#36425    

    In response to JoshPet

No problema
I'll keep an eye out for any more references. I found (& changed) a few that I had made in the Wiki topics.

FBB Knowledgebase Your source for official FusionBB documentation. Lori's Blog Here buggy, bug...

09-11-06 05:59 PM - Post#36452    

    In response to Lori

Congratulations, it's looking great!

Classical Music Forums

09-12-06 05:18 PM - Post#36480    

    In response to Lori

Is there anywhere on the site that shows our license expiration? I tend to be bad about tracking such things...

Bladekeep.com • COS Forums

09-12-06 07:44 PM - Post#36481    

    In response to Medar

We don't have the "member area" online yet (we were waiting for MPP. But I can regenerate the license email for you which will show the expiration date (before the extension).

Feel Better, Feel Younger, Sleep Better - Trans-D Tropin Visit www.BuyTransD.com - use coupon code 1004 to save $20

09-12-06 09:20 PM - Post#36484    

    In response to JoshPet

I hope the reworking of the install script will allow us to run the importer from .threads w/o creating the Super User account as you would with a normal install. That would at least keep me from having to merge two admin users as well as having duplicate sets of groups for users, admins, and moderators.

09-12-06 09:25 PM - Post#36485    

    In response to don Quixote

No the upgrade/install script has nothing to do with the import functionality. The import functionality is from the admin menu, so you need to have a user and be able to login to fusion to be able to import (since you can import data into an existing forum as well).

What I typically do is create my first user as "fbbadmin" don't name it the same as your Threads name, since you will only need it to import. When you are done imported (and you've given your old username proper permissions etc...) then the user you create at install can be deleted.

Feel Better, Feel Younger, Sleep Better - Trans-D Tropin Visit www.BuyTransD.com - use coupon code 1004 to save $20

Edited by JoshPet on 09-12-06 09:26 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.

09-14-06 11:25 AM - Post#36511    

    In response to JoshPet

Cool news! I'll find some time in the next few days to upgrade jambands.ca. I'm dying to get users working with the articles forum. I haven't had time to do anything with the site as of late.

Have you guys any thoughts on the full-on photo gallery, originally planned as a major feature for this release, but eventually put on hold?

Jambands.ca Come waste your time with us. Follow me on Twitter!

09-15-06 08:32 PM - Post#36524    

    In response to bouche

Yeah, we definately will expand the gallery. It wasn't slated for this release though, this was to flush out missing features and expand calendar and add MPP. But down the line, definately yes.

Feel Better, Feel Younger, Sleep Better - Trans-D Tropin Visit www.BuyTransD.com - use coupon code 1004 to save $20

09-17-06 04:13 PM - Post#36555    

    In response to JoshPet

Will the finished Calendar have a "forward" arrow? A lot of the events we post are ones where people need to make travel & reservations several months in advance.

New Idea Hosting: Honesty, Dependability, No-Overselling!