New Version 5 Features

Today I'm going to introduce some more new features that you can look forward to in Version 5.

With the introduction of Version 4.5, all forums can already expect an update letting them restrict categories based on a member's post count rank. We've taken this a step further in V5.

In addition to having this capability for every category, every board will also have the option to be restricted to certain member groups and post count ranks.

This means that you won't have to create a new category specific for each member group (or post count) that you want to make boards for. Just go straight to making a board, throw it in whatever category you want, and only those with the correct permissions will be able to see and access it.

Another new feature we plan to add is a "name history" in each member's profile. Sometimes people get confused who a member is because they changed their display name. Now you will be able to see a list of names that any user has been known as in the last 30 days just by viewing their profile.

More updates soon!

Answering some questions..

I have had a few questions come out recently regarding the new icons (in the blog post below), so this entry is to address those questions along with one other frequently asked question.

Is this the actual size of the buttons?
Yes, this is the real size. All icons in v5 will be slightly larger than before and much more readable.

Am I stuck with the blue color?
No, you aren't. We will have many colors of icons to choose from available for every board so that you can pick what matches best. We'll also have one neutral gray set available that can work with any color board.

What if I want to resize the images down?
That is your option. The ability to change any image you want via the admin area will still be there waiting for you :)

Besides these questions about the menu buttons, we have one question that is consistently coming up:

When will v5 be released?
This is a tricky question. I know many of you are waiting on your server to receive version 4.5 still. We are working on that roll-out, but wanted to make sure we had every bug smashed first.

In terms of a planned roll-out for version 5, no date is set in stone. It is hard with such a large release to put a date out there. Knowing our members, if I set a date people will be hounding me to release on that exact date regardless of any bugs that may still exist in the system.

The fact is this is a major project, we are actively developing it and working hard to get it done. It is a ways off, and we are updating you about our progress on this blog to keep you informed. When an estimate does get announced, it will be simply a date that is the earliest possible release date. It will not be a planned release date. Please take it as just that - an estimate, not a solid release date. Everything from new features to unforseen events can all delay a release.

That being said, our very-rough-earliest-possible-estimated-release-date will be announced in the next issue of the ProVision: Vision Press due for around April 1st.

As we move down the road, the best I can do for you is to keep this blog updated with as much information as I can publicly reveal. We will keep you informed as to when things are in the final stages and at that time we will announce a better estimated release date.

A taste of things to come

I thought I'd share with you a few of the new graphics that will become the standard for Version 5. These will be the default menu buttons (other colors will be available besides blue).

Enjoy:

New Favicon / Logo

We have come up with a new logo for ProBoards, and along with it a smaller version will show up in your browser when viewing a ProBoards message board. You should already be able to see it if you are using a modern browser (right next to the address bar).

Here is a large picture of what our logo looks like:



In case you can't see it in your browser, here is the small "favicon.ico":



It may be a while before this logo shows up on our main web site, as we work on a new design to come with the future release of Version 5.

Quick note about our blog

If you have any issues or problems related to your forum, please use our support forum to post. We can not properly assist you if you post any issues you have using the comment system of this blog.

Any support related issues that come up in the comments area will be removed to keep this blog on-topic.

Thanks,

Patrick

Inside V5: More New Features!

With development of Version 5 in full swing here, we have many new and exciting features that are being added. Here are just a few of the literally hundreds of new features that we are adding:

• Split Threads
  
  Ever had a time when a topic's discussion went from on-topic to off? With the Split Thread feature, you can take posts out of an existing thread and create a new thread from those posts.
  
  
• Merge Threads
  
  Sometimes there are multiple threads discussing the same topic on a forum. You will have the ability to merge these topics into one single thread with this handy feature.
  
  
• Personal Messages: Conversations
  
  Currently when you exchange messages with another member of your forum via our Personal Message system, each message shows up as it's own item in your Inbox and Outbox. In Version 5, each conversation you have will group together and function more like a thread does. This will allow you to read your entire conversation from one single page instead of needing to go back and look for previous messages.
  
  
• Threads: "Look Inside" Option
  
  In Version 5, you will have the ability to "see" into a thread without actually clicking on it. After hovering your mouse over the subject of a thread for 1 second a small box will appear with a preview of the message that is inside the thread!
  
  
• # of People Viewing Thread
  
  In addition to the current feature which lets you see how many people are viewing a particular board, you will also have the option to display how many people are reading a particular thread.
  
  
• Password Protected Boards: Remembering Passwords
  
  For those of you with password protected boards, it can be a pain to enter that password every time you come back. If you are logged in (not a guest), once you enter a password for a board it will remember that password for you, automatically allowing access to that board in the future. If the password for the board is changed by an administrator, you will then need to enter the new password to gain access.
  
  
• Multiple Member Groups
  
  In version 5, you will be able to join multiple member groups. This gives additional flexibility to forum administrators in managing their members -- anything from restricting access to categories/boards, doing mass PMs to different groups, etc.
  
  
• Sub-sub-sub-sub-boards
  
  There are no limits in the next version on the number of sub-boards any board can have. For those of you who have very complex forums, organizing your forums into many sections will be very useful.
  
  
• New UBBC tags
  
  We will be adding the following new tags, and more may be announced later:
  
  
  • [spoiler] ... [/spoiler] - Hides part of your message unless people click on it to display it. Useful for when you want to reveal something (e.g. plot details in a movie) but don't want to spoil it for people if they don't want to see it
    
    
  • [youtube] ... [/youtube] - Allows you to embed YouTube videos in your posts
    
  
  In addition to the new tags, some changes to existing tags:
  
  
  
  • [code] ... [/code] Will be wrapped in a div that will prevent it from scrolling the page to the right and too far down, and provide an easy way to copy the code to your clipboard.

We will be announcing many more features over the coming weeks!

Inside V5: Custom Profile Fields

In this entry I'm going to talk about a new feature that our coders are sure to love. It is intended towards coders who have a firm understanding of JavaScript.

One issue that has come up for a lot of coders is the desire to store data on a per-user basis and be able to access it on any page. Many codes such as RPG codes, shops, and more need this functionality. This has proven difficult to implement, until now.

In version 5, every user has 10 custom profile fields that can store data. But what's better than the fact that these exist, is how you can modify them. Using AJAX we give you the power to update data in any of these 10 custom fields from any page.

We've designed a JavaScript function pb_set_custom_field that allows you to pass in parameters to update these custom fields. There are 3 parameters that need to be passed:

• field # - The number of the custom field you wish to update. This value will be anything from 1 to 10.
  
• value - The new value you wish to save, maximum 100 characters.
  
• handler object - This is a javascript object that you create which has 3 functions: sent, success, fail. The sent function will be called when the AJAX request is sent, success will be called if the result is a success, and fail will be called if the request failed.
  

A request would look something like this:

<script type="text/javascript">
function sendRequest(field,value) {
 if(value.length > 100) {
  // value is too big (max 100 char)
  alert("Value is too big.");
 }
 pb_set_custom_field(field,value,new ajaxHandler());
}
function ajaxHandler() {}
ajaxHandler.prototype.sent = function() {
 alert("Sent AJAX request.");
 };
ajaxHandler.prototype.success = function(transport) {
 alert("Request successful.  Response was: "+transport.responseText);
 };
ajaxHandler.prototype.fail = function(transport) {
 alert("AJAX request failed.");
 };

sendRequest(1,'New value!');
</script>

Wondering what that transport parameter is? Read about that here.

Now, you know how to save information, but how do you access it?

On every page there is a JavaScript array called pb_user_custom. To access the data for custom field 1 you would simply use the JavaScript variable pb_user_custom[1]. Likewise, if you had stored data in the custom field 7 you would then access the JavaScript variable pb_user_custom[7].

That's all there is to it!

In addition to this functionality, we will be giving admins the power to optionally display custom profile fields in the mini profile as well as your regular profile. There will be an area where you can "name" each field (so it doesn't just show up as "Custom Field 1").

Also, you will have the option to let users change their custom profile fields themselves. If you choose to let your members edit their custom profile fields, you can specify for each field if only certain options are valid (e.g. there will be a drop down box for them to choose), or you can opt to let them type in their own value.

Inside V5: Templates

Today I'm going to write about our new templating system. This system will give you full control over the HTML code for your forum. This blog entry is mostly intended for those who make codes for ProBoards forums. If you are familiar with HTML and JavaScript, you should be able to follow this post fairly well.

Currently many ProBoards coders spend a lot of time making codes that simply re-arrange where information is displayed on the page itself and re-working the HTML. Needing to use JavaScript codes to accomplish this will be a thing of the past in Version 5.

In each template there will be three important elements:

• HTML code
  
• Variables - These store information that can be automatically inserted into your template, anything from the title of a page to the currently logged in user's name. Each template will have it's own set of variables that you can choose to insert.
  
• Conditional Statements - These allow your templates to display, or not display, information based on a set of conditions. Examples of conditionals:
  
  • <guest>This code is only displayed for guests</guest>
    
  • <member>This code is only displayed for logged in members</member>
    

Let's give a basic example. On many pages on the ProBoards message boards you use, there are tables which are very similar to each other. For example, the table that you see when you go to the Admin area of your forum is the same table that you see when you go to login, create a board, modify a board, update your censored words list, etc. Literally dozens of pages use the same table, except that the title of the table changes from page to page as does the content of the table.

Here is a basic table structure we could use for that table:

<table width="80%">
  <tr>
   <td>
   Title Here
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
    Main content here
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Your have your HTML code, which makes the table.

You have your title for the table (in this example "Title Here"), which you want to change with each table to be an appropriate title.

You have the section where you want the main content to be displayed (labelled "Main content here").

There are no conditionals in this table yet.

We're not done with this table yet. How do we make it so that the templating system changes the title depending on the page it is on? How does it know where to insert the main content into the table?

This is accomplished by the inserting of variable tags. The tags we have chosen to use will look like [pb variable] where variable is the name of what is to be displayed. Each template will have a list of variables that you will be allowed to put in. For this basic example, let's say that the title for the table is stored in a variable called title, and therefore we would insert the code [pb title] where we wanted the title for the table to be.

Now, we need a second variable to tell the template where to insert the main content of the table. We call this the action variable, or [pb action].

What if we want to display something in this table if the user is logged in, and a different message if the user is a guest?

We use conditionals. Anything placed between the <guest> and </guest> tags is only displayed to guests. Likewise, anything placed between the <member> and </member> tags is only displayed to users who are logged in.

This would be the new code that will accomplish:

• Automatically updating the title for the table
  
• Place the main content of the table in the correct position automatically
  
• Add two conditionals, one for guests and one for members
  

<table width="80%">
  <tr>
   <td>
   [pb title]
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
    <guest>Welcome, guest!  Please login</guest>
    <member>Welcome back!</member>
    <br />
    [pb action]
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

I have bolded the two parts that have changed.

Now with this new code put in, any page that uses this table will have the correct title automatically inserted, it will display a different message for guests and members, and it will insert the main content of the table automatically.

Each Skin is Version 5 will have it's own templates that you can modify. There are dozens of conditionals and hundreds of variables which will be fully documented and released before Version 5 exits beta. Each template will have a list of the specific variables that related to it as well as the conditionals that you can use.

I hope this gives you a good idea of the basics of the V5 templating system.

Introducing the ProBoards Blog!

Welcome to the new ProBoards Blog, where we will post frequent updates, news, and behind-the-scenes information about ProBoards.

I'm going to start off by talking about where we are, and the direction that we are taking ProBoards.

ProBoards is the largest remotely hosted message board service with over 2,200,000 message boards created through our service. In the next couple of weeks we expect to get our 20 millionth registered member! Over 50 million conversations have been started on our forums accounting for over half a billion posts! We'd like to thank you, our loyal members, for getting us where we are today, and for your continued support!

Currently we are working on releasing Version 4.5 of our message board software to all forums. This process is ongoing, and at this time we do not have an official full-release date. This update includes many new features including increased character limit on posts, revamped polls, new sorting options for threads and members, and much more!

While the full release for V4.5 is on the horizon, we have been long at work on our newest offering, ProBoards Version 5. This is going to be the most exciting update to our forum software yet! There are going to be literally hundreds of new features included in this update. Many of these features have already been previously announced, but I will go into more detail about them in upcoming blog posts.

While we know that our most valuable offering for our users right now is our message board service, but we understand there are other complimentary offerings that our members would find useful. We plan, in the future, to offer image hosting, blogs, and much more.

Check back often for updates!