phpFox2 Beta 2 Released

Posted May 20, 2009 by Raymond Benc in phpFox v2, Development Tutorials

phpFox2 Beta 2 has arrived. With this release we are introducing the Video module and a few other modules that complement it as well as other modules we have introduced in the past.

We will shortly cover what is new with Beta2, if you would like to catch up with what our past Alpha/Beta versions introduced you can find more information here...


Whats new in phpFox2 Beta2

Video

Beta2 introduces the Video module. We first introduced a Video module with v1.6.x and we have rebuilt that module for v2 and have looked into adding some new features to it over the next few beta releases and future updates. What we have worked on so far is the ability to upload videos from your computer to your web server and then have FFMPEG or MENCODER convert the video into a flash media format allowing us to then display the video using our default media player Flowplayer, which we introduced with Beta 1 and used it for our Music module.

While uploading a video, depending on the file size limit you set via your AdminCP; which is user group specific may take some time to upload and during that time we display a form so the user can start filling out information about the video. Such as the title, category it belongs to and a description. Once the video is uploaded it will convert the video so Flowplayer can properly render it. With a future release we are working on creating a cron script that will run when specified so users will not have to wait long during the entire upload/conversion process.

Once a video has been uploaded and when being viewed users can leave comments on the video. They can also rate the video. We also provide embedding codes for users in case they want to embed the video on another site. We also provide a Share link, which using the Share module allows users to share the video on 3rd party sites. We have also introduced the Report module with beta 2 and we will go into further details in a little bit, however just to summarize we have included a link where users can report videos if they deem necessary.

Editing a video can be done by either viewing the video or by browsing videos and hovering over the video image to find the edit link. The edit form will show up on the spot and use AJAX to update the video. There is also an advanced form, which allows you to edit the videos image, title, category and description as well as other fields/settings that will be added in the future such as privacy settings.

Each video can belong to one parent category and as many child categories. Categories are controlled by Admins direct from the AdminCP and works similar to how categories work with the Group, Event, Marketplace modules.

On each form that permits embedding of videos we have added a video attachment link. This link can be found on for example when adding comments, blogs, forum threads. Basically any form that has a text-area and supports our text editor. This feature allows users to either upload a video from their computer or directly share videos from sites like YouTube, MySpace etc... (Currently only testing with YouTube).

In v1.6.x we have a feature called "Add Video Stream", which would allow you to add videos from 3rd party sites (eg. YouTube, MySpace). We have included this feature with v2 and instead will be called "Video Sharing" or "Share a Video". Currently we are only testing support with YouTube and unlike how it worked in the past we will embed the actual YouTube video with the embed code they provide and not use our own Flowplayer to render their FLV file. The reason for this change is to first abide by their embedding policy and to respect the privacy of the user that uploaded the video on YouTube as there is an option to disable video embedding. If this is the case we are unable to "share" the video on our site. When adding a video from YouTube we not only pick up the title and image of the video like we have done in the past we also pick up the description and duration of the video so we have all the information needed to display videos on our site. Once video tagging is supported with v2 we will also pick up on tags.

Features planned to be added...
  • Include other video sites (eg MySpace, MetaCafe etc...)
  • Advanced embed options
  • FLV conversion cron background process (optional)
  • Privacy settings
  • Featured Videos
  • Video tagging
  • Add to Favourite
  • Advanced search filter
  • Related videos block
  • Users latest videos block
  • Video subscriptions

Notice: The feature to upload/convert videos is disabled by default as your server is required to have 3rd party script installed. Our documentation provides information on...

Groups

Our Group module has been updated and now includes the Video & Shoutbox fully integrated into each group.

News/Friends Feed

Updated how we display feeds. Instead of showing a 20x20 profile image for each user in the feed we now display a 50x50 profile image and only display these images when viewing feeds on the sites index page. The profile image is hidden in the feed when viewing feeds on a users profile. We have also removed the image associated to each feed as the profile image now replaces this image, however we will bring back these small icons when viewing feeds on a users profile since it currently only displays the text for the feed and can look rather plain.

Report

Beta 2 introduces the Report module. This module connects to all modules that have the ability to post items where other users can view it. Such items are blogs, videos, songs, groups etc... On each of these items a "Report" link is provided. We provide basic default categories for the report and these categories can be edited/deleted from the AdminCP. You can also add categories as well as create categories for a specific module. As an Admin you can view reported items from the AdminCP and can mass ignore reports or click on the report to view them and from there edit/delete them if necessary. We plan on adding the ability to delete items directly from the report section in the AdminCP. Each item will only show up once in the list and if reported more then once it will display the total amount of reports. Here we plan on adding a link to display all the reports separately. Each user can only report on an item once.

Notice: If you delete an item that has been reported it will not remove it automatically from the list. We plan on adding this functionality with a later release.

Rate

Our Rate module similar to our Report module works together with other modules in order for it to function. We currently provide the ability to rate videos, songs & music albums with this module. The idea behind this module is to allow us to rate any item on the site (if the option is enabled by Admins) and create a centralized page of all the "top rated" items on the site.

Music

Our music module has been updated to not allow musicians the ability to edit their gender and date of birth. It will also not display these fields on their profile. When editing their account instead of using the phrase "Full Name" we changed it with "Artist/Band Name". You are now able to add songs to your profile if you are not a musician. This can be done by viewing a song and clicking on the "Add to Profile" link/image. Support was added so you can share/rate both albums and songs. The "Play All" link can now play all the songs within the album without the need to click on "play" each time.

Change Logs


We have added a spec log here and a SVN change log here for Beta2.

Known Issues


Several known issues worth mentioning.
  • Continued issues with Internet Explorer 6 & 7 (Menus, BBCode etc...)
  • MySQL in strict mode causing install issues. If you encounter this please report it.
  • Windows servers have not been tested thoroughly.
  • Usage of the PHP mktime() function causing problems since there is no support for years prior to 1970, thus causing problems when users register.
  • YouTube videos being added via the video module may not import the latest data for the video due to a cache on YouTube's API thus allowing videos even if they have recently changed the embed/privacy settings.

To view more known issues check our bug tracker.

Live Demo


View this beta demo in action here.

Download


phpFox2 Beta2 can be downloaded direct from the clients area. When you have selected a license and reached the download page look for phpFox2 Beta2? to download the product.

Requirements


The current requirements are based on what phpFox2 has been tested on.
  • PHP Version - 5+
  • MySQL Version - 4.1+
  • Web Server - Apache
  • Operating System - Linux
  • GD complied with your PHP Build - Yes
  • PHP memory_limit - 32M

Notice: In order to run the music module:
  • PHP file_uploads - "1"
  • PHP post_max_size - "40M"
  • PHP max_input_time - "-1"
  • PHP upload_max_filesize - "38M"

Notice: In order to run the video module:

Developers Documentation


Our developers documentation can be found here.

Feedback & Bugs


Your feedback is appreciated, please feel free to leave them here. We also provide a bug tracker here so we can get ahead and start squashing bugs.

Next Release


Stay tuned for our next Beta release (June 3, 2009).

Good luck and Enjoy phpFox2 Beta2!
Tags: phpFox2