phpFox2 has reached its final Alpha release. Our next release will be our first Beta and there will be four Beta versions before we move onto RC (Release Candidate) versions. Alpha4 introduces 3 larger modules for the public to test as well as several improvements/fixes on the modules we introduced in past versions.

We will shortly cover what is new with Alpha4, however if you would like to catch up with what our 3 past Alphas introduced you can find more information here...

• Alpha 1
• Alpha 2
• Alpha 3

Marketplace

• Control if users can add comments on your own listing.
• AJAX popup private message tool so users do not have to leave the page to contact the seller.
• Tagging.
• Enable Captcha when adding a listing (User Group Param Setting).
• Privacy Settings.
• Featured Listings.
• "Report a Listing" tool.
• Short description text counter.
• Update category usage count each time the category is used.
• "Total Views" count on listings (User Controlled Feature).
• Custom Fields. This feature will allow Admins the ability to create custom fields for each category. For example for the category "Car" we could have custom fields such as Color, Transmission, Make etc...
• Location field should default to the users set location.
• Give out X (where X is an AdminCP setting) points to user for each listing they add.
• Add default listing image to the news feed. (Currently only text info displayed).
• Feature to rate/review a listing.
• Feature to rate/view the seller/buyer.
• Section to view ratings/reviews of a listing.
• Section to view ratings/reviews for a seller/buyer.
• When viewing a listing display a "More items from this seller" block.
• When viewing a listing display more detailed information about the seller (eg. Points, Rating, Reviews etc...).
• Feature to pay for items using one of the provided payment gateways (eg. Paypal, 2checkout etc...).
• Ability to attach "downloadable" goods, where listing owners can control when items can be downloaded (eg. after/before purchase).
• Send listing owner an email when one of their invites viewed their listing. (Privacy controlled).
• Add a search tool for the invite list. (Only for Listing owners).
• Simple/Advanced search filter.

• Invite routine works for guests to send an invitation, however there is no way to track if they visited the listing so they are always listed under "Not Responded".
• When creating categories there is no check if a category with the same name already exists in the parent category.
• The index page for the Marketplace does not include an SQL conditional statement, however this needs to be added once privacy settings are introduced.
• When viewing a listing and displaying the attached images there needs to be a border around each image since some images have a white background and its hard to identify where the image starts/ends.
• Auto complete of categories not working when posting the add/edit form when you have failed the validation.
• BBCode and Emoticons not working on IE.

Events

• Privacy Settings.
• Add default event image to the news feed (Currently supports a text feed).
• Enable Captcha when creating an event (User Group Param Setting).
• Featured Events.
• Reporting an event.
• Update category usage count each time the category is used.
• "Total Views" count on events (User Controlled Feature).
• Give out X (where X is an AdminCP setting) points to user for each event they add.
• If inviting a guest give them a unique ID so if they RSVP as a guest and sign up we know which user to add to the RSVP list.
• Add a count to the RSVP list (eg. Attending, Maybe, Can't Make It, Not Responded).
• Add a search tool for the guest list. (Only for Event owners).
• Feature to block a user from joining your own event.
• Send out a notification email to event attendees so they know the event is going to start in X days/hours.
• Feature to mass mail attendees.
• Enable attachments.
• Block to display the most popular events.
• Simple/Advanced search filter.
• Tab to display events from: Today, Tomorrow, This Week, This Weekend.
• Notify event owner when someone joined their event (User Setting).
• Feature to add Admins for your event to help run the event.
• Include Photo and Video module.


• When selecting a "start" or "end" date provide a small calendar to select the date (This feature will be built into other modules as well when there is an area to select a day/month/year.

• When creating categories there is no check if a category with the same name already exists in the parent category.
• Auto complete of categories not working when posting the add/edit form when you have failed the validation.
• BBCode and Emoticons not working on IE.
• Breadcrumb for sub pages needs to be added (eg. My Events, Events I'm Attending).
• Check to make sure the "end date" is not set before the "start date".
• Check to make sure the "start date" is not starting in the past, currently there is minimal support for this; however because of the time zone feature and no support yet for DST this cannot be fixed until those are fixed.
• Disable the ability to edit an event if is closed (eg. past event).

Groups

• http://www.site.com/index.php?do=/group/phpfox/
• http://www.site.com/group/phpfox/
• http://group.site.com/phpfox/
• http://www.site.com/group/phpfox.html

• Privacy Settings (Public / Private)
• Add default group image to the news feed (Currently supports a text feed).
• Enable Captcha when creating a group (User Group Param Setting).
• Featured Groups.
• Reporting a Group.
• Update category usage count each time the category is used.
• Total ViewsӔ count on groups (User Controlled Feature).
• Give out X (where X is an AdminCP setting) points to user for each group they create.
• Move the "Manage Members" to the main "Members" section so we can utilize the search filter.
• Enable attachments.
• Block to display the most popular groups.
• Simple/Advanced search filter.
• Notify group owner when someone joined the group (User Setting).
• Feature to add Admins for your group.
• Include connections to other modules. (eg. Photo, Forum, Poll, Quiz, Video, Music etc...).

• When creating categories there is no check if a category with the same name already exists in the parent category.
• Auto complete of categories not working when posting the add/edit form when you have failed the validation.
• BBCode and Emoticons not working on IE.
• Breadcrumb for sub pages needs to be added (eg. My Groups, My Group Memberships).
• There are no privacy settings yet, anyone can join a group as well as create events for the group.

Site Customizer

AJAX Notifications

Things To Test

1. ALT + 255 - The issue with using ALT codes and especially with #255 is this turns into a "blank" space, which allows data to be entered into the database such as when commenting on a users profile. Once displayed it looks like a blank comment. For more information on ALT codes go here. We need help testing where "ALT + 255" can still be added. If you find where please report it to our bug tracker with a full path to where it can be done on our live demo.
2. Non Alphanumeric & Non Latin Characters - With providing a multilingual product we strive to not only provide our clients with the ability to use it with different language packages but to also allow their members to post data from languages that do not use Latin characters and display them correctly. To solve this problem we convert all data inserted into the database into UNICODE allowing browsers to properly output characters without the need to rely on the database collations or websites character encodings. We need further testing done with such characters as there has been issues that have come up during the Alpha phases, however each one so far has been fixed. To test this specific issue try to add non alphanumeric & non Latin characters when posting anything on the site.
3. BBCode - With past versions BBCode was not working when adding more then one BBCode in a string. Note, that in some forms the BBCode editor does not work with IE. Issue related to BBCode not working correctly has been fixed, however we need a little more testing in this area. To test this specific issue try to add blogs with as many BBCodes as you can.
4. Comments - We redesigned how we enter comments into the database in relation to the news feed. Since we need to modify comments if a news feed has been modified we need to include a connection between the 2 modules. To test this issue simply add/edit/delete comments anywhere you find the possibility to add a comment.
5. HTML Parser Modified - When you enter data into the database such as a blog post we parse the text and save a "fixed" version of your entry so when we display it we save PHP the hassle of parsing the data each time a new person views the item. The issue we have dealt with for a very long time, even with v1.6 is to allow HTML and at the same time keep the site safe. This is always risky when allowing HTML. Another problem was characters such as ">" and "<" would also be removed since we used the function provided by PHP to strip HTML tags. With Alpha4 we have developed a new method to help the HTML parser. Since this routine is fairly new all sections will have to be retested to make sure XSS, CSS and general JavaScript, BBCode exploits do not come up. To test this you will need to add data anywhere on the site and try to exploit the site by means of a XSS, CSS, JavaScript or BBCode. Here is a cheat sheet for XSS exploits.
   Notice: We found an issue already with this new change and it is where you are unable to quote text strings (eg. within the forums).
   

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Developers Documentation

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Next Release

Hey guys!

Saw a post in the forums yesterday and thought that even while it is very easy to backup a site some might not be aware of how to do it, so instead of writing a step by step tut I thought a video would explain it better so here it is:

Backup phpfox sites

Hope its clear enough and you can all profit from it

Hello all!

In this primer I wanted to talk about JQuery a little and focus on the visual effects it allows.

JQuery is a JavaScript library, it is very very robust and provides awesome features, among the most important is the extension of the html DOM into a JSON like schema which allows ajax interaction very easily and many visual aids.

First we need to get a copy of JQuery, as of this writing the latest version is 1.2.6 and can be downloaded here.

The Basics:

<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.2.6.pack.js"></script>

$("#divId")....

Effects available

Effect::Show

<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.2.6.pack.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
function hShow()
{
$("p").show("slow");
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<input type="button" onClick="hShow();" value="show paragraph">
<p style="display:none"> This is the hidden paragraph </p>
</body>
</html>

Effect::Hide

Effect::Toggle

<html>

<head>

<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.2.6.pack.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
function hToggle()
{
$("p").toggle("slow");
}

</script>
</head>
<body>
<input type="button" onClick="hToggle();" value="show paragraph" id="bEffect">
<p style="display:none"> This is the hidden paragraph </p>
Third post

</body>

</html>

Effect::SlideDown and SlideUp

<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.2.6.pack.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
function hSlideUp()
{
$("p").slideUp("slow");
}
function hSlideDown()
{
$("p").slideDown("fast");
}

</script>
</head>
<body>
<input type="button" onClick="hSlideUp();" value="Slide Up" id="bEffect">
<input type="button" onClick="hSlideDown();" value="Slide Down" id="bEffect">
<p style="display:none">
This is the hidden paragraph<br>
This is the hidden paragraph<br>
This is the hidden paragraph<br>
This is the hidden paragraph<br>
This is the hidden paragraph<br>
</p>

</body>

</html>

Effect::FadeIn

<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.2.6.pack.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
function hFadeIn()
{

$("#censor").fadeIn(5000, function() // this is the fadeIn for the outer div
{
$("#censorTxt").fadeIn(4000) // this is the fadeIn for the text
}
);
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<input type="button" onClick="hFadeIn();" value="Fade In" id="bEffect">

<p style="" id="nav">
This is the hidden paragraph<br>
This is the hidden paragraph<br>
This is the hidden paragraph<br>
This is the hidden paragraph<br>
This is the hidden paragraph<br>
<div id="censor" style="display:none; width:300px; height:300px; background:red; position:absolute; top:0; left:0">
<div id="censorTxt" style="display:none; color:yellow">CENSORED!</div>
</div>
</p>

</body>

</html>

Effect:Animate

<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.2.6.pack.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
function hAnimate()
{
$("#nav").animate({width:"50%", fontSize: "30px", opacity: 0.3, borderwidth: "15px"}, 4000);
}

</script>
</head>
<body>
<input type="button" onClick="hAnimate();" value="Animate" id="bEffect">
<div style="background: yellow; width:100%" id="nav">
This is the hidden paragraph<br>
This is the hidden paragraph<br>
This is the hidden paragraph<br>
This is the hidden paragraph<br>
This is the hidden paragraph<br>
</div>
</body>

</html>

Aloha guys!

Today I wanted to talk about tableless design, have to admit it was a rather rough change for me and one of the steps my therapist suggested was to talk about it (lol!)

So, maybe you remember a couple of years ago (when internet was still a little less than 80% porn) that everything was done using tables, oh those were the days... but the real reason why everything was done with tables is because there was not another powerful enough alternative, so even when the almighty W3 said "Tables for layout is wrong..." there was not another way to accomplish the visual effects that we wanted. But hey! times change and internet browsers developers started listening to the W3 and for a couple of years now the html dom standard does offer all the ways needed to make an outstanding web page/site without using tables for the layout.

"But hey Mickey, it works fine with tables why make it more complicated?" The real thing is that it doesnt have to be more complicated, and once you learn the how-to you'll understand that tables are not a presentation tool... except for tables ;)

So lets see if it really is that much better, lets make a 3 columns page without using tables!

First the html:

<html>
<head>
<title>
Tableless layout
</title>
<style type="text/css">
@import "mystyle.css";
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="mainDiv">
<div id="divLeft" class="left-div">
Here some links
</div>

<div id="divCenter" class="center-div">
Here goes the content
</div>

<div id="divRight" class="right-div">
Here some advertisements
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>

#mainDiv
{
background-color: #ec4b4b;
height: 500px;
}

#divCenter
{
position: absolute;
top: 50px;
width: 500px;
background-color: #4bec4f;
text-align: center;
height: 200px;
margin-left: 28%;
}

#divLeft
{
position:absolute;
left: 50px;
top: 50px;
width: 250px;
height: 200px;
background-color: #4b80ec;
margin: 0;
text-align: center;
}
#divRight
{
margin: 0;
position:absolute;
right: 50px;
top: 50px;
height: 200px;
background-color: #ecdf4b;
width: 25%;
text-align: center;

}