Development

We are pleased to announce that we have partnered with oDesk to provide a platform where our clients can post jobs/projects via our group on oDesk. This will open our community to thousands of developers giving our clients a lot more choices when it comes to looking for developers and/or designers for their community.

To learn more about this venture or to learn how post a job check out our Project Section.

Additionally to start things off we created the first project to create a small but useful add-on that we will release to our community for free.

Last week we proposed a new development cycle to our community and based on their feedback we are pleased to announce that our next major version release (v3) will start this new cycle.

We had initially planned on releasing v3 by the 3rd quarter of this year but we are looking to release it earlier by focusing on completing the project we have started and instead of completing the remaining features we had planned for v3 we can instead start the new development cycle, which will give our community a chance to vote on the features they want the most right now.

During the progress of v3 we will continuously keep everyone updated on the new features being implemented with as many screenshots/videos as we can provide.

We still do not have an ETA for v3, however based on how things go this week we are hoping to get v3 out much sooner then expected.

Update: Note that the voting for feature requests hasn't started yet. This will start once the new cycle begins and we will announce when that is. More information on how the voting system will work will also be announced at a later time once we get closer to starting this new cycle.

We are very happy to announce the release of our latest version, Phpfox 2.1.0 Beta 1. This release focuses on adding new features, upcoming releases will be aimed at fixing deviations in the script, so for this it is very important that our clients test and report any problem they can find.

Please remember this is a Beta version, if you run a live site make sure you are not upgrading your live site, try this first on a development site. It is expected that this version introduces new bugs so it is not suitable for a live site yet, wait for the RCs or the stable version if you want more stability. You can download the package from the downloads section, it is currently in the "older versions" list and since it is not a maintenance release some of you may not have access to it, please remember maintenance releases are free upgrades for our existing clients but new full versions are not unless you are a recent client, for questions related to this please contact the sales department. Support for this version is only available in the bug tracker, the support department will start working on this version when we release the first Release Candidate.

Whats New?

• Log in security

Based on this request we have implemented an extra level of security that targets brute force attacks.
The administrator has three new settings to control this and a few new language phrases have been added.

• Google Maps on Events

Taken from this request we have implemented google maps on events, the administrator can choose who can view and add the map based on their user group.

• Emails in one easy to find location

As you know phpfox uses language phrases for sending out emails, but finding all those phrases is usually not so easy, so we listened and put them all in one place. Whats extra nice about this feature is that it scans all your relevant site files and finds when an email is being sent so the list does not have to be manually populated. You can find this by going to AdminCP -> Extensions -> Language -> Email Phrases.

• Automatic user ban after using forbidden word(s)

To empower our admins with an easier way to manage your site we have improved the ban system even beyond the original request so the administrator can set up a timed ban based on an arbitrary decision or a banned word, plus to add a reason for the ban so the user gets notice of what happened. You can reach this feature by using the drop down from the Browse Users in the AdminCP and by using the Ban Filters also from the AdminCP.

• Mass Uploader

Sometimes you want to upload many songs, photos, videos or attachments, but going back and forth with the input fields can be annoying, so we took this into consideration and implemented a flash based uploader. Users can at any time switch back to the simple uploader and admins can disable the new method from the AdminCP.

• Member Snoop

A feature that was previously available has been brought back (thanks for the feedback!), now again you can log in as any member from the AdminCP -> User -> Browse, in the drop down next to each user you will find the "Log in as this user" link.

• More hooks for plug ins

We have included man new hooks that should make it even easier to develop new add-ons. (one request for this is here but we also included unrequested ones and requested by other means).

• Improvements to the Birthday E-cards

Sending a card to a friend is nice, but if you can send an image with it thats even better, now you can also charge for that! We have introduced the ability for an admin to set up categories and add images that users can send along with the birthday message, the admin can also set up a price for each individual image. This feature uses the built in payment system.

• Email when denying a user

Before, if you enabled user approval at registration and you denied a user that person would get no notice, now you can send an email to the applicant (using language phrases or direct text).

• Alow iframes from youtube

The iframe tag is a very risky one, allowing it globally in your site is indeed very risky, but if you want to allow your users to include videos from youtube now you can do it and still keep your site safe. This feature adds a new setting to the AdminCP -> Settings -> System Settings -> Content Formatting section.

• Inactive Member Reminder

Nobody likes inactive members, now you can poke them and tell them of all the great things happening in your site!
You first the count of members and then send the message, you can limit how many messages to send per round and how many days back to check.
This feature is available from the AdminCP -> Users -> Inactive Member Reminder

• Send invites apparently from your personal address

When inviting friends to your event and other activities you can now choose to send the email as if it was sent from your personal address, this way they will not see the site's name and email in the "From" field.
This is available in several sections where inviting by email is possible.

• Improvements to the Ajax system

It all happens behind the scenes, but the ajax system has been improved to not abort previously opened connections and to make proper usage of the transport method (it now uses GET when appropriate).

• Better filters for viewing private messages

When solving conflicts and managing your site it may come the need to browse through your user's email, if this is a feature you use you will be happy to see better filters to find relevant correspondence.

• Contact Us auto responder

You can now set an automatic reply so when visitors send you a message via the Contact Us they get immediate notification that their message has been sent. We added 2 language phrases to this: contact.auto_responder_subject and contact.auto_responder_message

• Flowplayer Updated

We have also updated flowplayer to their latest version 3.2.6

• New input types for Custom Fields

You can now use the input types radio, checkbox and multiple selection in a drop down.

• Manage Activity Points

Changing activity points allocation is now easier with the new manager we added. From the AdminCP -> Users -> User Group Manager -> Manage User Groups section you can choose "Manage Activity Points" from the drop down next to each user group and it will show you a compound of the activity points affecting that user group.

• New Date and Time Zone System

Since PHP 5.2 there is a new class called DateTimeZone, it aims to give a definite answer to the time zones issues we have seen in the past. If your php installation has this class the script will attempt to use it, giving users a more accurate time and date control.

Change Log

For a full list of all the files that have been changed please go here

Live Demo

View this version in action here.

Download

This version can be downloaded directly from the clients area. When you have selected a license and reached the download page look for and tick/select "Download Older or Beta/RC Version". Then select "2.1.0beta1" from the drop down list.

Requirements

Requirements for phpFox2 can be found here.

Documentation

Our documentation can be found here.

Our next release (v2.0.7) will include several important changes and fixes with our Facebook module that includes the Facebook Connect feature. The new changes will use Facebooks Graph API, which uses the OAuth 2.0 protocol for authorization. Due to the change in API for those that want to use this feature requires a server that has the ability to connect to another server using a secure connection (HTTPS). Servers will also require that the PHP version you are on is PHP 5.2 due to the usage of a key PHP function called json_encode.

Just a quick heads up regarding Facebook Connect and what the new requirements will be.