Tony

Invision Power Services, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of IP.Board 3.2.0 and its Applications!

Everyone at IPS is very proud of IP.Board 3.2.0 and the Application updates. We have worked hard to create a quality, modern community platform and the feedback from our clients has been tremendous.

We are releasing the following new software:


IP.Board 3.2.0
Fully featured community platform including forums, members profiles, calendar, status system, integration, and much, much more.


IP.Gallery 4.1.0
Categories and photo albums for your members to share their images and videos on your community.


IP.Nexus 1.3.0
Fully featured commerce system to sell products, membership access, advertising, digital downloads, and more. Includes tools like a support desk to help manage you clients.


IP.Blog 2.4.0
Allow you and your members to post blogs on your community or syndicate externally hosted blogs easily.


IP.Downloads 2.4.0
Complete file management application including file version control, commenting, and forum topic linking.


IP.Content 2.2.0
Content management for your community - run a full web site or a simply community portal. The possibilities are endless.


IP.Chat 1.3.0
Engage your members in real time chat or send them private chats while in the chat room.


IP.Calendar 3.2.0
Event calendar for your community with multiple calendars, public/private events, and iCal support.




What's new in IP.Board 3.2!

In addition to this list there are countless other minor improvements and changes based on client feedback too numerous to mention.


Calendar Improvements

• SEO Improvements: http://community.inv...o-improvements/
  
• Consistency: http://community.inv...ii-consistency/
  
• RSVP: http://community.inv...-part-iii-rsvp/
  
• Simplification and interface changes: http://community.inv...erface-changes/
  
• iCalendar support: http://community.inv...lendar-support/

Moderator Functions

• Report Center improvements: http://community.inv...r-improvements/
  
• Editing Member improvements: http://community.inv...r-improvements/
  
• Moderator Control Panel: http://community.inv...-control-panel/

New Text Editor

• New editor and auto-save: http://community.inv...ew-text-editor/
  
• Cleaner interface, quick reply, quick quoting: http://community.inv...editor-part-ii/
  
• New post alert while typing reply: http://community.inv...ditor-part-iii/

AdminCP

• New style: http://community.inv...-admincp-style/
  
• New "like" reputation mode: http://community.inv...tion-mode-like/
  
• Easy member management: http://community.inv...ber-management/
  
• Improved restrictions: http://community.inv...s-enhancements/
  
• Forum Management: http://community.inv...rum-management/
  
• Remote skin editing: http://community.inv...e-skin-editing/

Core Functionality

• View new content and topic marking improvements: http://community.inv...d-topic-marking and part 2: http://community.inv...t-improvements/
  
• New Photo Editor: http://community.inv...w-photo-editor/
  
• Shared media: http://community.inv...e-shared-media/
  
• Tagging and prefixes: http://community.inv...g-and-prefixes/
  
• Notification enhancements: http://community.inv...n-enhancements/ and http://community.inv...cations-part-2/
  
• New mobile skin: http://community.inv...te-mobile-skin/
  
• Facebook, Twitter, and mobile updates: http://community.inv...mobile-updates/
  
• Visual Skin Editor: http://community.inv...al-skin-editor/

Miscellaneous Changes

• "Delete All" button has been added to the SQL error logs page
  
• Linear+ and Outline modes removed for topic viewing (they're a hold-over from an older time on the web and it's time to retire them)
  
• Support for IPv6
  
• You can now use the member management tools to search for incomplete members
  
• Pagination added to the incomplete members page of the ACP
  
• If only one skin or language is choosable, the dropdown selector at the bottom of the page will be hidden
  
• Member photos and member avatars are being merged into one function: member photo. There was too much overlap between the two features.
  
• IP.Calendar and IP.Chat will no longer be bundled in the IP.Board download zip to reduce the size of the download. This also allows clients who have no interest in IP.Chat or IP.Calendar to choose not to download or install those applications. Of course those who do wish to use those applications can easily download from the client area and install them.
  
• Rebuild FURL cache button has been moved to the cache management page.
  
• It is now possible to rename the "hooks" folder to something else editing the constant IPS_HOOKS_PATH in initdata.php.
  
• You can now edit each group's report center permissions directly from the group management area
  
• Report center now supports item marking to remember and indicate which reports you've viewed
  
• Customers who have purchased Copyright Removal no longer need to enter a separate Copyright Removal key. The copyright will automatically be removed when activating your license.
  
• New settings for attachments to limit size of files stored on disk
  
• Separate ACP restriction options have been added for managing spam users and incomplete users (access to these areas were previously controlled by the option "can manage banned users").
  
• "Show X Last visitors in profile" now shows always the last 5 visitors if the setting is enabled rather than having a 3, 5, 10 dropdown choice.
  
• New ACP tool to create the cronjobs to rebuild sphinx indexes
  
• When adding a ban filter in the ACP you will now have an option to enter a reason visible to all admins (the reason won't show in the public side).
  
• Pinned, polls, and moved topic prefixes have been moved to language files (they were previously in the settings area)
  
• Many redundant or pointless settings removed. Other settings moved to more logical locations. Some settings groups merged to create fewer groups to go through when setting up your community. System Settings menu item moved to a top-level menu item under System tab so it's available with one-click anywhere in AdminCP.
  
• The note box in your My Settings (UserCP) area has been removed. It is a hold-over from years past and doesn't seem to make sense in community software. If you are one of the very few people who use this: make a copy of your notes before upgrade.
  
• The unread topic marking system will now remember what page of a topic you left off reading rather than assume you read the entire topic on the first click.

IP.Nexus 1.3.0

• Global Changes http://community.inv...global-changes/
  
  • Updated to match the new styling in IP.Board 3.2 both on front end and AdminCP
    
  • Search functions integrated with AdminCP live search
    
  • Attention icons to display items needing your attention
    
  • 2Checkout.com gateway added
    
  • Support for PayPal subscriptions
    
  • Subscription option for packages so a member can only purchase an item once
    
  • Better support to remember a member's original member group when you are using IP.Nexus group promotion feature
    
  • More admin-level notification options of new activity
• Hosting improvements: http://community.inv...us-130-hosting/
  
• Customers and purchases: http://community.inv...-and-purchases/
  
• Support: http://community.inv...us-130-support/

IP.Gallery 4.1.0
http://community.inv...-41-dev-update/




Other Applications

Other applications have been updated to work with IP.Board 3.2.0, have received cosmetic improvements, and other minor updates to improve functionality. All applications will get larger updates now that IP.Board 3.2.0 has been released. Keep an eye on our news feed for information.

Code-Level Changes

These are changes made at the code-level of our software during this release phase that may interest our power-user clients.


Performance Improvements

• Reduced several cache-load queries on the ACP index page
  
• Combined two permissions queries loaded on every ACP page into one
  
• Added some additional cache-loading calls to other ACP pages (manage applications, manage hooks, manage members)
  
• Added some caching for fetching the max version ID in the upgrade_history table, which reduces the number of queries on the ACP manage applications page by the number of applications installed
  
• Changed how modules are grabbed when IN_DEV is enabled for menu building (runs one query instead of one query per application)
  
• class_forums was getting loaded and initialized twice in the Manage Forums page - fixed so it's not reloaded a second time. Also removed a shortcut for the class in the manage forums file to reduce small amount of overhead/memory.
  
• Removed a query for group data on Manage Forums page (group_cache is already loaded, so used that instead)
  
• Removed several deprecated functions, reducing the size of some classes and reducing their resulting overhead
  
• Edited language export routine (for IN_DEV mode) so that it only exports the data we absolutely need. This reduces the size of our language XML files significantly, and also reduces memory overhead needed to process the language XML files.
  
• Index added on ibf_posts.post_parent to speed up certain update queries that previously required a full table scan
  
• A lot of unused code in the friend management files has been removed
  
• Avatar or profile photo cleanup tools in ACP were unnecessarily loading and instantiating upload class
  
• Removed outdated/non-functional coloring in admin logs
  
• Calendar has been rewritten, and much unused code has been removed.
  
• Caches used by calendar were not being properly loaded at runtime
  
• Changed most of the file_exists call in the code with is_file for a faster code execution
  
• The bbcode cache now uses the ‘bbcode_tag’ field as array key instead of an incremental integer, that allows a faster data access for single bbcode tags as there is no need to scan the whole array with a foreach.
  
• An unnecessary query has been removed from the forum index view (the query used to verify the name used for the friendly URL is correct)
  
• Removed unnecessary query from report center report view
  
• A cache used by report center was being queried separately instead of at page initiation
  
• Report center plugins are now cached for quicker runtime lookup without having to query the database
  
• Useless queries removed from report center
  
• Some queries that selected all rows and counted them (instead of running COUNT style queries) were changed to be better optimized
  
• ACP skin files previously extended the output class unnecessarily. This was removed, resulting in approximately 20KB or more memory savings in each ACP page.
  
• Report center plugins are now cached for quicker runtime lookup without having to query the database
  
• RSS import now is much faster on boards with lots of feeds setup in the ACP.
  
• overWrite header query / method_exists moved from every page load and value is cached in app_cache

Developer-Oriented Changes
Changes that may impact resource authors and skinners (including removed functions, database changes, new hooks, etc.)

• $this->DB->force_data_type has been removed. Mod authors should now call $this->DB->setDataType( $column, $type ) instead.
  
• $this->DB->no_escape_fields has been hidden. You should use the available $this->DB->preventAddSlashes( array( 'col' => 1 ) ); syntax instead.
  
• Login management custom configurations have moved to database handling. conf.php (or conf.dist.php) files are no longer needed (though acp.php still is).
  
• search_results, sessions.location, and cache_store.cs_extra are all removed
  
• If you have a findIpAddress extension you can now add an array of additional columns to pull from your table as the fourth array member. i.e. "'posts' => array( 'author_id', 'ip_address', 'post_date', array( 'pid' ) ),"
  
• IPB will now do a better job of cleaning up centralized application data during uninstall, so applications don't have to do it manually. (http://community.inv...support-ticket/)
  
• The way hook data to-be-exported is stored has changed. This should have minimal impact on developers as the upgrade routine will update it for developers. This should make working with hooks between multiple developers easier, and make hooks import, export, install and uninstall in a much more consistent manner whether IN_DEV is on or not.
  
• Many skin system bugs have been resolved, and improvements implemented, making the skin system more flexible to developers using it outside of normal contexts, while allowing it to be more forgiving of various formatting possibilities (i.e. typehinting for function parameters and spacing around function parameter definitions).
  
• Central permission management now correctly can handle more than one permission type within a single application
  
• IPv6 is now supported. You should ensure any database columns holding IP addresses are varchar(46) or larger.
  
• You should use the new ipsRegistry::getAppClass( $app ); call to load your app_class_(application).php class. This ensures any library hooks execute as appropriate and consolidates duplicative code.
  
• You should use the new constants IPS_FILE_PERMISSION / IPS_FOLDER_PERMISSION for file and folder permission values. i.e. instead of chmod( $file, 0777 ); use chmod( $file, IPS_FILE_PERMISSION ); instead.
  
• Calendar has been completely rewritten - the DB schema has changed, dates are stored as datetime parts in MySQL, etc.
  
• The ACP has a new interface implemented, some of the JS has changed, jQuery is now supported in the ACP
  
• Removed 4 data hooks in public_forums_forums_topics: topicViewTopicData, topicViewDisplayData, topicViewForumData, topicViewPostData. All 4 of them can be replaced with a simple skin overloader for the template "skin_topic > topicViewTemplate".
  
• Photos and avatars have been merged.
  
• Photos thumbs are now cropped at 100px and you can select which area to crop
  
• Twitter / Facebook photos are actually imported and re-sized where possible (needs fopen URL wrappers otherwise the thumb URL for the services is used)
  
• Some functionality for importing/exporting/rebuilding from and to XML files has been hidden unless IN_DEV mode is enabled
  
• Added a second parameter for the function “$this→cache→getCache( $CACHE_KEY, FALSE );” which allows to skip the loading from the database if the cache isn’t loaded already.
  
• A new option to define an application when creating an hook, if the application is filled the code checks if it is enabled and if not skips loading the hook file completely.
  
  
  
  class_forums::fetchTopicFolderIcon() has been changed to return an array of meta-data about the topic that can be used to generate the topic icon, although Rikki is changing how topic icons work in general anyways.
  pp_*thumb*_x is now pp_*small*_x
  
• The sessions API (admin/sources/classes/session/api.php) now supports a different cutoff time rather than the default one, additional joins, ‘where’ query bits, complete ‘where’ query part override.
  
• The function “IPSLib::unpackGroup()” now is “IPSMember::unpackGroup()”.
  
• ACP group_form.php plugins now support an optional third method: postSave(). This method accepts one parameter (the group ID), is only called if present, is called after the rest of the group data is saved, and should not return anything.
  
• Added a getCount() method to the like class to return just the number of followers
  
• The setting disable_reportpost has been removed. Our applications now check the report center permissions directly, instead.
  
• Hooks Improvements: http://community.inv...s-improvements/
  
• Applications Improvements: http://community.inv...s-improvements/
  
• A new extensions file per-app is supported: permissionsSync.php. Class name should be “(app)PermissionsSync” and supports a constructor (ipsRegistry reference passed) and one method with no arguments: updatePermissions(). This method can be used to rebuild application caches when the app permissions have been updated from the central permission manager.
  
• Deprecated function getBlogID() in the blog API has been removed, developers will need to use the more updated function fetchBlogIds()
  
• makeProfileLink, memberViewImages, makePassword, makeNameFormatted, canReceiveMobileNotifications have been moved to IPSMember
  
• unconvertSmilies has been moved to IPSText. The redirect method in the bbcode class has been removed.
  
• The “doneScreen” method in the admin output class has been entirely removed. Authors are encouraged to use the global_message/silentRedirectWithMessage() methodology instead.
  
• The “redirect” method in the admin output class now simply routes to silentRedirectWithMessage(), and is marked deprecated.
  
• The template “global_main_wrapper_no_furniture” has been removed from the admin skin.
  
• Function “rebuildSphinxConfig” has been moved from “IPSLib” to “admin_core_applications_applications”
  
• classCommunication.php was removed, and classFileManagement.php was extended to handle POST requests (encompassing the only functionality missing compared to classCommunication.php)
  
• Almost all private methods have been switched to protected to allow more robust hook capabilities
  
• New pagination potions to use a next/previous style pagination. Next/previous style pagination supports AJAX pagination.
  
• The column “ban_nocache” has been removed from the “banfilters” table.
  
• New adminOutput method setMessage() has been added. Allows to set the global_message, and allows to specify a “sticky” flag or not.
  
• ACP Settings are now in their own “settings” module and the templates have been moved as well in “cp_skin_settings”.
  
• menu.xml files for ACP modules now support specifying a language key, which can then be placed into “(app)_admin_menulang.php” as “menu__(language_key)” to support menu language abstraction in the ACP. This is optional for apps.

Invision Power Services, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of IP.Nexus 1.1.2 and IP.Downloads 2.3.1!

Please see below for the release notes for each of these maintenance releases.

IP.Nexus 1.1.2

This is a maintenance release for our IP.Nexus application. IP.Nexus is designed to help you earn money from your community both directly and indirectly. Direct options include features such as payment processing and shopping carts whereas indirect methods may be banner tracking and donations.


Purchasing

You can purchase IP.Nexus right in your client area by clicking the green New Purchase button in the upper right corner. New clients can purchase IP.Nexus right along with IP.Board. If you an IPS Community Hosting client, the IP.Nexus features are coming soon to select packages (more information will be posted regarding IP.Nexus on hosting).

Don't forget to try our free demo to see IP.Nexus 1.1 in action for yourself.

If you have already purchased IP.Nexus, you can download it in your client area.


Server Requirements

As IP.Nexus deals with financial transactions we wish to do everything we can to ensure the security of your community and business. To further this goal, IP.Nexus source will be encoded using Zend Guard and Ioncube. This means that your server will need the appropriate PHP capabilities installed to run IP.Nexus. You can download our system requirements script which will check your server for Zend Guard encoding support. We also support Ioncube encoding.


Installing & Upgrading

Installation Instructions
Upgrade Instructions
IP.Nexus Getting Started Guide

If you would prefer one of our technicians to handle the installation for you - please send in a support ticket.


IP.Downloads 2.3.1

IP.Downloads is our community file management platform for IP.Board allowing you and your members to upload files for sharing in an organized category listing with permissions, version control, and more. Changes and new features in this version include:

Purchasing

You can purchase IP.Downloads right in your client area by clicking the green New Purchase button in the upper right corner. New clients can purchase IP.Downloads right along with IP.Board. If you an IPS Community Hosting client, IP.Blog comes with all packages!

Don't forget to try our free demo to see IP.Downloads in action for yourself.

If you have already purchased IP.Downloads, you can download it in your client area.

A security issue has been discovered in IP.Board 3.1.x that could potentially allow a malicious user to insert JavaScript or other code into your community.

The damage this sort of attack can do is drastically mitigated by IP.Board's use of HTTP-only cookies and other security measures.

As part of our continued dedication to security enhancement, we are releasing a simple patch for IP.Board 3.1.2 to address this issue. If you are running IP.Board versions less than 3.1.2 simply upgrade your software version.

Download Patch

Simply upload the attached file to: admin/sources/classes/bbcode/custom/defaults.php

 312_sept_patch.zip   11.15K   3017 downloads

The main download zip has been updated at the time of this post.

The web has progressed a lot since 2.3, so it's not surprising that the size of our javascript has grown too. If people want the interesting new ways to use the software, then that's going to mean there's more javascript too.

The vast majority of the javascript is in standalone .js files, which means a user only downloads them once - they're cached from then on. Not only that, but we support additional features such as Minify, which intelligently compresses and optimizes javascript (and CSS) on the fly, and Google CDN so that Prototype and Scriptaculous are loaded from Googles servers instead (these are both options configurable in your ACP; Minify is on by default, Google CDN is off).

We shipped pre-compressed javascript files with IPB2, but then had to also shipped uncompressed versions for developers to use. In IPB3 we ship with uncompressed javascript files, because Minify handles the compression at run time on its own.

Although IPB2 had several smaller JS files, it would have required a new  HTTP request for each one, which takes time. Although IPB3 has bigger files, it can grab the main JS in one request. This is efficient.

Search engines do not load javascript files when they index your content. The size of a JS file (which is not even extraordinarily large anyway) will mean nothing to Google.

Finally, a large javascript file is not going to affect your server load in any meaningful way. It's a static file, it needs no processing

[edit]
I've just run the test on a couple of well-known sites, just for comparison.

digg.com: 130KB of javascript, 10 second initial response time, 9 second repeat-view time.
cnn.com: 564KB of javascript, 34 second initial response time, 5 second repeat-view time.

Compared to these mainstream sites, I think we're doing pretty well actually.

It has come to our attention that there is a Y2K10 bug in Blog which precludes one from making a blog entry with the year 2010.

To fix this in IP.Blog 1.4.x (IPB 2.x compatible)
Download and upload files from:
 blog_1_4_2_2k10_fix.zip   11.49K   359 downloads

To fix this in IP.Blog 2.0.4 (Current stable)
http://community.inv...html?record=303

To fix in IP.Blog 2.1.0 RC 1 (Current development)
Download and upload files from:
 Blog_Y2K10.zip   18.83K   312 downloads

The downoads for both Blog 2.0.4 and 2.1.0 RC 1 have been updated at the time of this reply.

We're pleased to announce that the following products are now available in your download center in the "Development Releases" category of each application:

IP.Gallery 3.1.0 RC 1
IP.Downloads 2.1.0 RC 2
IP.Blog 2.1.0 RC 1
IP.Chat RC 2

Please note that all of these applications require IP.Board 3.0.5.

As this is a release candidate there may 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.
Technical support is not available for this release.
Do not use this software on a public install. Wait for the final series for your public installs.
In general, only download and participate in the beta test if you are comfortable working with beta software.


IP.Gallery
Major new features in 3.1.0 include:

Friendly Urls
Image Notes
Improved Slideshow
Profile Picture Album
Sub Albums
Category and Album Covers
Friends Only Albums
Reputation Support
Interface Improvements

IP.Downloads
Major new features in 2.1.0 include:

Friendly Urls
Resume Breakpoints Toggle
Per Category Settings
Download Sessions
Storage Improvements

IP.Blog
Major new features in 2.1.0 include:

Efficiency Improvements
Categories
Interface Improvements
List View Returns
RSS Imports
Banish Entries
Admin CP Improvements

This RC 1 release also fixes a bug with entry deletion and HTML being incorrectly imported with an RSS feed.

IP.Chat
For more information on IP.Chat including a feature overview and installation instructions, please see our previous announcement.

Upgrading from an earlier non-RC release?

If you are running a version of IP.Chat older than RC 1, please note that the application key has changed to prevent further and future conflicts with the existing chat application included with IP.Board. You should do the following in order to use the RC 1 release of IP.Chat 1.0:

• Uninstall the "Chat Services" application from your IP.Board admin control panel
  • If you get an SQL error attempting to uninstall the application, please remove the folder admin/applications_addon/ips/chat/setup/ and then re-attempt the uninstallation.
• Remove the folder admin/applications_addon/ips/chat via FTP
• Install the new "Chat Services" application from your IP.Board admin control panel

We are pleased to announce IP.Chat, our newest application, is now available.

IP.Chat is a DHTML-driven chat room application that makes heavy use of JavaScript and AJAX technologies to present a feature-rich package that you and your members can use to chat real-time on your site.

• Ability to turn system online and offline, as well as ability to allow specified groups access to the system while it is offline
  
• Ability to require users to agree to a configurable terms of use page before being granted access
  
• Ability to ban and kick users from the chat room
  
• Ability to set chat room only opened between specific hours
  
• "Who's chatting" hook for board index
  
• Miscellaneous formatting options
  
• All your IP.Board emoticons are available in IP.Chat
  
• Your IP.Board bad-word list is imported into IP.Chat to filter messages
  
• Sound events for user entering and leaving room plus new messages. Sounds can be disabled per-user.

IP.Chat installs on your IP.Board installation and is configurable like any other IPS application for skinning, colors, and more. The chat message exchanges are handled by IPS servers eliminating the need for you to worry about high-volume chat transactions on your local community server.

Pricing

The IP.Chat service is priced based on the number of users in your chat room at any one time. As a benefit to active IP.Board license holders, the first chat service package of 5 online users will be free!

5 online - Free with active IP.Board license
20 online - $19.99 / year
50 online - $29.99 / year
250 online - $79.99 / year

How to Order and Download

• Login to the Client Area and go to New Purchase. Find IP.Chat: Free under Invision Power Board Optional Addons and click Buy Now.
  
• Order as normal, the package is free so you will not be charged.
  
• Go to Your Downloads and download the IP.Chat package.
  
• Go to Your Purchases and select the IP.Chat package.
  
• To use IP.Chat it must be associated with an IP.Board or IPS Community Hosting package. Select the package to associate with and you will then see a chat service key appear.

You can also upgrade or downgrade your chat service level in the purchases area.

Installation

• If you are not on IP.Board 3.0.5, upgrade to it.
  
• Upload all files contained within the upload directory of the IP.Chat zip file. This is just like installing any other application in IP.Board.
  
• Go to Manage Applications & Modules in your IP.Board AdminCP.
  
• Select the Install link next to the Chat Services application.
  
• Once the install is complete you can go to My Apps and select Chat Services. Just enter the chat service key found under Your Purchases in the Client Area to activate.

You can also view documentation in the Customer Resources section for more information.
It is recommended that you do not use IP.Chat in addition to existing chat services application. If you wish to use IP.Chat and are using ParaChat or AddonChat integration, you should first uninstall that.


As this is the first release of a brand new product there could still be some remaining issues. If you experience problems please post a bug report or open a ticket for technical support.

We're pleased to announce that the following products are now available in your download center in the "Development Releases" category of each application:

IP.Gallery 3.1.0 RC 2
IP.Downloads 2.1.0 RC 3
IP.Blog 2.1.0 RC 2

Please note that all of these applications require IP.Board 3.0.5.

As this is a release candidate there may 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.

Technical support is not available for this release.

Do not use this software on a public install. Wait for the final series for your public installs.

In general, only download and participate in the release candidate testing if you are comfortable working with testing software.


These will be the last release candidates for the products listed. The next release of each product will be a supported, final version release.

We are pleased to announce IP.Downloads 2.1.0 is now available in the client area.

The following is a list of what's new in this version of IP.Downloads, our file management application for IP.Board:

Friendly URLs

Friendly URLs have been implemented into IP.Downloads starting with version 2.1.

Ability to shut off "Resume breakpoints"

Most download accelerator clients support downloading multiple pieces of a file simultaneously.  While this means that the file can download faster for the user, it also means that you can have multiple connections open from one user downloading a single file.  Beginning with IP.Downloads 2.1 you can disallow requests for individual file parts to help control the number of open connections to your server.

Download sessions

Beginning with IP.Downloads 2.1, you can enable functionality that will cause IP.Downloads to create a unique URL for each file download request.  The URL will expire once used (or after 24 hours, whichever comes first), helping to prevent users from sharing direct download links to the files.

Global settings

IP.Downloads 2.1 will allow you to configure maximum file size and screenshot dimension settings globally, while still allowing you to override those settings on a per-category level should you need to.  This can help simplify updates to your download manager configuration for these particular settings which are commonly configured the same across all categories.

Support for link "types"

When submitting screenshot and file links, you will now be able to select what type of link you are submitting.  The link types are configurable in the ACP so administrators can add and alter link types to better suit their site.

Upload progress meter

Through integration with the flash uploader used for uploading attachments to IP.Board posts, the download manager now supports a true progress bar for all uploads (if the user is using the Flash uploader as specified in their user control panel).

One record, many files

To date, IP.Downloads was designed to allow you to submit one file at a time (and one screenshot, depending on the configuration).  IP.Downloads 2.1 takes the next step and allows you to submit multiple files and multiple screenshots per record.

Interface updates

The interface for the download manager has been tweaked and updated to provide a more polished feel, while distinguishing the user interface from the rest of the board.



Downloading

You can download IP.Downloads 2.1.0 if you have an active license in the client area. As always, make a backup of your community before proceeding.

We are pleased to announce IP.Content 1.2.0 is now available in the client area.

The following is a list of what's new in this version of IP.Content, our community content system for IP.Board:


Field default values
There is now a per-field option to define the default value for the field. This default value will be used when the "add new record" form is displayed as the default value to place in the field. The user can still, of course, change this value while configuring their record.

Disable fields in listing and display templates
Many have requested a method of disabling specific fields from displaying in listing and display templates without having to modify the default templates (i.e. to exclude certain fields in the foreach loop, or to manually define the layout). As of 1.2.0 there are two new settings when configuring your fields to do just that. If you disable a field in the listing template, it simply won't show up there. You can even disable a field in the listing and display template and have a hidden field attached to the record, if you wish.

Additional sorting for database feeds
You will now be able to sort database feeds by meta-data fields (record id, last updated, submitted date, comment count, etc.). This will allow you to more easily create database feeds to show latest records, for instance.

Text formatting options for text input fields
There are now per-field settings on text-input fields (only) to allow you to define the following automatic formatting options:

• Capitalize all letters
• Lower-case all letters
• Capitalize just the first letter of the string
• Capitalize the first letter of each word in the string
• Remove excess punctuation

You can mix and match, using more than one option, but of course some options will have no effect when used together (i.e. capitalize all letters, and lower-case all letters).

Attachment parsing for forum and blog feeds
Attachment parsing has been added for forum and blog feeds (provided you do not use the default strip tags and truncate calls in the template for the content value).

Attachment data available programatically
Some users have expressed interest in having access to attachment data in a more robust manner than simply passing the field through the IP.Content attachment parser. For instance, you may want to display 1 image from an attachment field in the listing, without having to worry about whether there are more than 1 images associated with the field.

Attachment data has now been added to a global cache during normal parsing routines, so that you may be able to programatically access the attachment data for the record and do more unique things with the data. A resource article on how to access this data will be forthcoming following the release.

WYSIWYG and Code Highlighter Support
We have added support into IP.Content to integrate with the following WYSIWYG and Code Editors:

• TinyMCE
• CKEditor
• CodePress
• EditArea
• (None/default textarea)

You can select which editor interface you would like to use (be careful using WYSIWYG editors when editing certain content, as they will strip special tags) and the editor will be available when editing templates and content throughout the ACP. Even better, the code highlighters will be "smart" and recognize what type of content you are editing (javascript, css, html or php, depending on the block, template or page details). If you have a favorite editor that you would like to see integrated let us know. We've designed the system to make it easy to drop in (and remove) editor types as needed, so if we can integrate with your favorite editor, we're happy to do so.


Downloading

You can download IP.Content 1.2.0 if you have an active license in the client area. As always, make a backup of your community before proceeding.

IP.Content 1.2.0 Public Beta is now available

This is a BETA release of the IP.Content 1.2.0 update. Please report any bugs you find in the bug tracker.

Major New Features

• Field default values
  
• Disable fields in listing and display templates
  
• Additional sorting for database feeds
  
• Text formatting options for text input fields
  
• Attachment parsing for forum and blog feeds
  
• Attachment data available programmatically
  
• WYSIWYG and Code Highlighter Support

The new features available in this update are detailed here: http://community.inv...120-on-its-way/


Downloading

You can download this beta if you have an active license for IP.Content in the client area under 'Development Releases' in the 'Your Downloads' section.


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.

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.

In general, only download and participate in the beta test if you are comfortable working with beta software.

Hi there,

Like The Geek, after a measured "wait-and-see" approach with Internet Brands and vBulletin 4, I am now considering transitioning my "Big Board" from vBulletin to IP.Board and IP's suite of software.  I have several questions that are mostly geared towards Enterprise customers, and hope you might be able to clarify them for me as they would really help me in planning my upgrade path.  Thank you so much!

Firstly, a bit about my board.  We are on a vBulletin 3.8.x forum, have 1.5 million posts, 40,000 registered users, and several hundred forums; our peaks are about 200-300 concurrent users.  We are on a multi-server Cloud platform after having made the successful transition away from a dedicated platform earlier this year, and so far, we are loving the improvements in efficiencies that Cloud technology offers us.


1.  Can you tell me more about your vBulletin conversion tools?  How well can it handle forums our size?  What is the end-user experience like for me, as an administrator?  (Will I have to worry about time-outs or huge issues during the conversion?)  About how much time should I plan to spend on converting my forums and posts?

2.  One of vBulletin's end-users released a modification called "vBOptimise", which makes brilliant use of caching of often-issued requests which vBulletin does not cache by default.  Does IP have a similar caching flexibility?  How does IP perform over the Cloud?

3.  Do you have a showcase of Big Boards and Enterprise customers, both big and small, that illustrate how firms are using IP.Board and your other IP products?  

4.  Do you offer a central repository/community of add-ons or modifications?  What does your user-generated and community-contributed content look like?

5.  I understand you do virtually all of your skinning through a single physical .css file.  Are there other advanced templating options available to those of us who want to radically alter the appearance and layout of IP.Board?  Are these sorts of layout modification features available on your other products?

6.  Can you tell me more about Invision Power Services, Inc. (the company)?  What is its value proposition and mission statement?  Are there any individual major stakeholders behind the company whose material ownership could impact the sale of assets, the direction of development, or other business functions?  

7.  What forums does IP view as its major competitors?  And how do you differentiate yourself from these competitors?

8.  Do you anticipate your pricing structure for licenses and renewals to change significantly anytime in the near future?

9.  Are you running a promotion or sale for vBulletin customers, especially vBulletin Big Board converts?  I would most likely be looking at purchasing permanent licenses for all of your software, so any discounts targetted for my demographic would help me make the pitch to our company.

10.  Does IP offer "universal search"?  That is, will your Search enable users to search all resources  (blogs, forums, content databases, galleries, etc.) with a single query?

11.  Because our site is on The Cloud (specifically, Mosso: The Rackspace Cloud), we have an atypical setup for our resources and databases, and as such, have only indirect access to our MySQL databases, and exports and imports tend to be cumbersome and require Cloud technician assistance.  If we purchased your Conversion service, are your technicians well versed to handle a conversion of this magnitude and complexity, or do you recommend we handle the conversion in-house?

Thanks!

Welcome!

The Geek, on 27 December 2009 - 12:16 PM, said:

1) I'm not sure what you are looking for specifically, but we recently blogged about one.

O'Reilly Answers

Then there is Skype forums, a great example of a highly customized layout.

Skype Forums

Now, I'm not sure if Skype has upgraded to 3.x or not (as you can see, it's not a very typical IPB look), but I do know the upgrade has been in the works for several months, and their new look is basically the same as the 2.3.x look anyways.

2) There are modifications that do this, but nothing out of the box. In reality, I think most customers find inserting ad javascript into templates is easy enough that a special textarea to insert the javascript isn't really needed. That said, I've seen at least 2 modifications that handle this for 3.x, so if you needed something a bit more robust than straight template edits, there are options.

3) lol - no

4) Not out of the box presently, no. Calendar improvements are on a personal wishlist of mine though, so you may see something in 3.1 or 3.2.

5) The second gunman on the grassy knoll, of course

6) Yes. Mark is still working on the 4.x converter, but the 3.8 converter works fine.

7) No, this is something not supported in any capacity in IPB out of the box. It's something oft-requested, so we may add something in the future. Additionally I know of some third party mods that could do this in 2.3, but nothing I've seen for 3.x yet.

8) You can switch between STD and RTE editor in your settings. You can also set the default editor in the ACP for new accounts.

9) No, but there is a "blog this post" button on publicly visible topics that users could use to blog about a particular topic. Of course there is also the old-fashioned copy/paste/delete option as well.

10) Yes

11) Yes

Hey guys,

Am contemplating a possible switch from vB to IPB and have been looking around quite a bit. I know the grass always seems greener, so I am trying to temper my spontaneity with a dash of cautious optimism.

What I would like to know is:

• Do you have a showcase of customers where you can really see some unique configurations and customisations (mainly of style)?
• Do you have any ad integration?
• Do you plan on being purchased in the near future by IB?
• Can you sign up to and leave comments for calendar events (or know of a mod to?)
• Who shot Kennedy?
• Will IPB convert vB forums, albums and blogs?
• Do you have social groups?
• Can you not switch between editors?
• Can you move content from forums into blogs?
• Do you have persistent read marking?
• Can you easily access whats new?

Think thats it for now.

TIA

We are pleased to announce IP.Content 1.1.2 has been released.

This is a maintenance release for IP.Content, our community content system, to fix issues reported from the 1.1.1 release. The following major changes in IP.Content have been introduced in the 1.1.2 version:

• Stability and performance enhancements
• Better MSSQL support
• Database feed plugin added
• Relational field plugin added
• Option to control truncate length of fields in listing
• Member lookup field plugin added

Please review this blog entry for more details.


Downloading

You can download IP.Content 1.1.2 if you have an active license in the client area. As always, make a backup of your community before proceeding.