Davtra

I am trying to setup a membership style database with IP Content v1.1.0 beta and i have run into a few things that i think others would also benefit from.

It would be nice if IPS could create like a user to submit the info into the database, i.e. their regoistration form for the club. Currently you can do that no probs, hoever when it comes to viewing and editing i think its lacks because, we would only like the user to view their own submmited regoistration forms and edit them and not be able to see others information, besides admins and mods. + Have a maybe a wizzard that helps a user setup a membership style database pehaps?
Also maybe:

• membership number auto generate
  
• intergration with IP Subscriptions
  
• be able to export the info, e.g. into an excel file
  
• import data from excel file

There just my thoughts, i really would like to use this for my club as they need a new membership databse and a better communcations platform i.e. IP forums.

Any thoughts?

Subscriptions Manager

We know that many customers are waiting on the Subscriptions Manager to be released so they can upgrade to IPB3. We sincerely apologize for this delay. The Subscriptions Manager update to be compatible with IPB3 is currently our number one priority.

The release coming soon will be a compatibility release for IPB3. However, we will put resources toward making a significant feature update to Subscriptions Manager once this compatibility update is stable for everyone.

We are working diligently to get this update out. Thank you for your patience and keep an eye out for an announcement.

A quick reminder to check IP.Board 3.0.0's requirements before attempting to install or upgrade. We will be maintaining the 2.3.x branch for those on outdated hosting providers who have not upgraded their server software.

We are pleased to announce Invision Power Board 3.0.0 and its Applications have been released.

This is the first supported release of Invision Power Board 3.0.0! We would like to thank everyone who has helped beta test the product so we can release as stable a product as possible today.

Products Released

• Invision Power Board 3.0.0
  
• Invision Power Gallery 3.0.0
  
• Invision Power Blog 2.0.0
  
• Invision Power Downloads 2.0.0
  
• Invision Power Converge 1.1.0

Please note that this is the very first supported release of these products. As with any large software product, it can take several maintenance releases to work out most of the remaining bugs or oddities left in the software which are only discovered when many thousands of installs are done. We had an extensive beta period and a staggered launch of IP.Board 3.0.0 to catch most issues. Initial feedback on 3.0.0's first supported release has been great but, even so, we do expect to have a 3.0.1 release in the next couple weeks.


Downloading and Installing

You can download all products you have a license for in the IPS client area. There are no upgrade packs as this update requires you upload all files in the download.

Be sure to follow the install upgrade instructions. Remember that any skins, modifications, graphics, etc. on your version 2.x IPB will not work on IP.Board 3.0. You will not lose any posts or member information in the upgrade.


Technical Support

Technical support is now available for IP.Board 3.0.0 and the Applications. Please be patient during this initial launch phase as response times may be longer than normal due to the increased volume of requests. Phone support will also be delayed.

Important: If you would like our staff to install or upgrade for you, please be aware that there can be delays of many days for install or upgrade services during this initial launch phase. Whenever possible, please consider performing the install or upgrade yourself to save time waiting.



Above all: enjoy the new products! We have worked hard on the updates and wish you continued success with your online communities!







Subscriptions Manager and MS-SQL Database

The subscriptions manager and MS-SQL database driver are not yet available. They will be released separately very soon. Our apologies for the delay. Rest assured we are making these releases a priority.

New IPS Web Site

We are also launching our new company web site on invisionpower.com today. Please forgive any navigation issues on the site while we apply the new content.

Introducing Community Content System

Many clients have expressed interest in tools that would allow them to extend IP.Board's traditional forum community functionality by providing methods of creating new pages within the IP.Board framework.  Uses for such a system span from a simple custom portal all the way through to a complete website built utilizing IP.Board's powerful backend codebase.  When your community and site systems are truly integrated, single sign on and a matching website/forum theme become much easier.

Our new Community Content System lets you do all of this and more. CCS is a new application that allows you to create content for your site. Blog entries over the next several days will discuss some of its powerful features in more detail along with examples showing you just how easy it is to create website pages and other content just by clicking through the admin control panel. For now in this introduction, here is a brief overview of its main features:

• Page Templates
  If you are creating many pages for your website you will find that they generally follow a similar structure each time.  By utilizing page templates, you can create templates complete with the full functionality of our skin system, including use of template conditionals and plugins. You can create the HTML structure once, and reuse it for some or all of your pages. Novice users can type in normal HTML code or power users can choose to use the powerful skin tags.
  
  
• Page Manager
  The core of CCS: this tool allows you to create pages, plain and simple. No fancy terminology or new methods to learn. A wizard will guide you through creating your pages, and allow you to configure things like permissions for who can view the page, which page template to use, and more. Pages can be edited as raw HTML, raw PHP, or through our traditional WYSIWYG editor using BBCode. You can also set page-types as JavaScript or CSS and the system will automatically detect those special types.
  
  
• Media Manager
  A tool to allow you to manage images and other media for your site.  You can define the root path to your file storage directory, and then create folders and upload image files within that directory via the ACP.  You can move and delete files and folders from the ACP as well.
  
  
• Block Manager
  An extremely powerful tool that allows you to create "blocks" for your pages. Blocks are inserted utilizing template plugins so you can insert blocks anywhere in the CCS content or even anywhere in your forum community using the skin manager in the admin control panel. This means that content blocks you create in CCS are not just limited to that application!  There are three types of blocks you will work with:
  
  
  • Custom - create blocks by editing BBCode (using our WYSIWYG editor), raw HTML, or raw PHP. Input any information you like.
    
  • Plugins - some blocks require code to execute in order to determine what should be shown.  For instance, you may wish to show a mini-calendar on one of your pages or a login box so users can login right from your home page.  Plugin blocks allow developers to create blocks that can easily plugin to the system without having to create code modifications.
    
  • Feeds - not just limited to RSS.  You can create "feeds" of almost any type of data - forums, topics, replies, calendar events, blog entries, gallery images, download manager files, and of course traditional RSS imports.  A wizard will guide you through creating these feeds, allowing you to specify how the feed should be pulled (do you want to show the last 5 gallery images?  what about a random sampling of forum topics? how about all topics from the visitor's friends list since their last visit?) to make it simpler for you to define the block.

The system is very flexible, allowing you to do nearly anything you want, while at the same time providing a simple user interface and wizard-based approach for creating content to keep things easy for newer users. Power users can ignore all the special features and just type in raw-PHP if they prefer. The choice is up to the administrator.

The CCS supports friendly urls (you define the folders and page names while creating pages), and does not require the page output to be accessed through your forum directory. This means you can have your community at example.com/forums but your main web site can show under just example.com easily. You can use IP.Board's skin system (inheriting the forum skin) or you can elect to create raw pages without inheriting any CSS, wrapper, or JavaScript from IP.Board.


Pricing and Availability

The CCS was developed completely separately from the IPB3 and applications process allowing us to develop CCS without any delay in IPB3's development time. As such, we are happy to say we will be able to release CCS about two weeks after IPB3's first supported release! Pricing will be announced at that time.


We are sure there will be many questions about the CCS and we welcome them. Over the next several days there will be blog entries on our company blog going into greater detail on each of the core features of CCS. Hopefully all of your detailed questions will be answered then. Please accept our apologies if we may sometimes ask you to wait for the next blog update before answering your questions. Thank you!

We are (extremely) pleased to announce the first release candidate of Invision Power Board 3.0.0 is now available.

This is the first release candidate release so please take a moment and read this entire announcement before downloading. Everyone here at IPS is very excited to reach this milestone of development and we look forward to working with everyone to sort out any remaining issues that crop up during the RC stage so we can quickly move to the final release.

The release candidates for IP.Blog, IP.Gallery, and IP.Downloads will be available in about a week.


What is a Release Candidate?

A release candidate is a version of the software between the beta phase and a final release. With the first release candidate of IP.Board 3.0.0 you can safely assume that we consider the software stable enough to use on your live community. There will be bugs and issues but it is our belief that any issues that come up should not impact your overall ability to manage your community. Keep this in mind as you make your decision to upgrade to IP.Board 3.0.0 RC1 and only upgrade if you are comfortable working around any possible issues that are present. We will of course fix any issues that come up in IP.Board 3.0.0's final release.


Technical Support and Service

IP.Board 3.0.0 RC 1 can be considered safe to use on a live site but it is not quite the final version of the software just yet. We want to give those comfortable upgrading to an RC release the chance to do so and report issues before we encourage everyone to upgrade. Technical support and service is not offered during the RC stage but of course will be available when the final version is announced.




Download IP.Board 3.0.0 RC 1

To download, log in to your client area. You will see the RC download information by clicking into your downloads. As stated above, technical support is not available so please only download if you are comfortable testing software.

IPS Hosting clients: a build of RC 1 for your use will appear in the client area soon. Sorry about the delay there.

We are pleased to announce Invision Power Board 3.0.0 Beta 4 is now available.  Additionally, the following development releases are available in your client area to test:

• IP.Converge RC 1
• IP.Blog 2.0.0 Beta 2
• IP.Downloads 2.0.0 Beta 2
• IP.Gallery 3.0.0 Beta 2

  The fourth beta release of IP.Board 3.0.0 is now available for download to those with current, active licenses to IP.Board. This fourth beta is only available to active license holders.
  
  This is the fourth beta release so please take a moment and read this entire announcement before downloading.

• As this is a beta release there will be bugs and issues with the software. Please report any issues using our bug tracker. Before reporting please first quickly check to see if anyone has already reported your issue.
• This beta is encoded using IonCube. Beta releases are encoded so we can better control the release and ensure any reported problems are code-related and not due to modifications. Please ensure you are familiar with how to install IonCube encoded PHP software. The final version will not be encoded.
• Technical support is not available for this beta software.
• Do not use this software on a public install. Wait for the final series for your public installs.
• There may be no upgrade path between beta versions.
• You may upgrade from IP.Board 3.0.0 Beta 3, or from any pre-3.0.0 version of IP.Board.
• In general, only download and participate in the beta test if you are comfortable working with beta software.

  System Requirements
  
  This beta version of IP.Board 3.0.0 requires PHP 5.1.0 or greater and MySQL 4.1.22 (5.0 or greater preferred) to operate. We have included the Ioncube loaders with the download for 32 bit servers. If your server is running a 64 bit operating system, you will need to visit Ioncube directly to download the loaders.
  
  Testing Help
  
  This is the second beta to include the upgrade script. Please be sure to test this thoroughly on backup copies of your forum database. Do not upgrade your live site. Also, we would appreciate feedback from those upgrading from older versions of IPB as well.
  
  Also please give good testing to the skinning system, importing, exporting, creating new skins, etc.
  
  Known Issues
  

• The AdminCP help system is still being populated and styled. The final version will be complete and look much more integrated. It will also be hidden by default.
• Subscription Manager is not included in this beta.

  
  
  
  Download IP.Board 3.0.0 Beta 4
  
  If you have an IP.Board License:
  
  To download, log in to your client area. You will see the beta download information by clicking into your license purchase. As stated above, technical support is not available so please only download if you are comfortable beta-testing software.
  
  If you have IPS Hosting:
  
  Shared hosting customers can download by clicking into their hosting package. Forum hosting customers can also download but will not be able to install in their hosting account as Forum Hosting packages are limited to one install. Feel free to use another hosting account for this.