phpFox2 Beta 4 has arrived.

Beta 4 was initially scheduled to be the final Beta version for phpFox2, however due to recent unforeseen findings another Beta will have to be added to the line up. Beta 5 (ETA: July 15, 2009) will be the next release and is now scheduled to be the final Beta version for phpFox2 before moving onto RC. The new ETA for stable is November 4, 2009.

Hiting and finding an ETA for phpFox2 has been very difficult due to the product being redeveloped from the ground up and having never encountering any of the problems that arise, so allocating this extra time is crucial to the future stability of the product especially when in relation to the upgrade routine as it is still very risky to upgrade sites from v1.6 until more tests are done.

This extra time will allow use to fix issues with the core engine that need to be fixed before the script is used on live sites as well as complete the Admin Control Panel and Upgrader, which were both scheduled to be worked on during RC versions. RC1 will include the final version of the frontend product, AdminCP and Install/Upgrade script.

The time we added for Beta 5 we also included time to develop some new features requested by the community. We will continue to accept new features and complete them for RC1 instead of waiting until v2.1. The selection of these new features will be based on the communities feedback and the votes of each feature request. phpFox2 was concepted over a year ago and Social Networking has changed a lot since then so it is vital certain features have to be implemented before v2 is locked.

For anyone that will have their “Support & Upgrade Renewal” run out before stable release of phpFox2 will not have to worry about upgrading to phpFox2 and having to extend their “Support & Upgrade Renewal” package. Due to the recent delay every valid license holder can download phpFox2 free of charge on its final stable release date and any updates from that day and 30 days after.

Revised Release Dates

• July 15, 2009 - Beta 5
• September 9 - RC 1
• September 23, 2009 - RC2
• October 7, 2009 - RC3
• October 21, 2009 RC4
• November 4, 2009 - Stable

We will shortly cover what is new with Beta4, if you would like to catch up with what our past Alpha/Beta versions introduced you can find more information here…

• Alpha 1
• Alpha 2
• Alpha 3
• Alpha 4
• Beta 1
• Beta 2
• Beta 3

Whats new in phpFox2 Beta4

Photo Tagging

Beta4 introduces support to tag photos with text or with your friends names. You can control how many tags a photo can have as well as if a user can tag just their own photo and/or other photos. You may also control how many times they can tag their own photo and/or photos uploaded by other users.

Short video of this feature in action:

“No Image” image updated

Our default “No Image Available” photo has been used ever since phpFox was first created and we felt v2 would be a perfect time to change this image. Our new image that will be displayed when a users profile photo is not available will be:

We also included support for gender recognition and included by default the following female image:

Username Suggestion

The registration process now comes with a username suggestion feature, which on failure of a valid username or if the username is already in use it will attempt to return X amounts of available names (X is controlled by a global setting via the AdminCP).

Screenshot of feature:

Editing a User via AdminCP

All past versions of phpFox have never provided a method to edit a users account direct from the AdminCP. Due to how the script was designed, editing an account would require an Admin to login as the user via the AdminCP and then alter any information that belongs to that user. With phpFox2 we designed the engine so a user group, which in this case by default is the Admin and Staff user group, has the ability to edit a users account direct from the AdminCP. In order to find the users we worked on a browse section within the AdminCP, which includes a small filter to help find users we want to edit. More filters will be added to this page as well as links on a users profile that will link to the page where Admins can edit a users account.

Edit Username

Beta4 introduces the ability to edit our own username, which by default is disabled. The username is used to create a unique ID for the user, which will give them an easier time to share and access their profile. You can control which user group can change their username and how many times they can change their username before the feature is locked.

Note: We have enabled this feature on our live demo for public testing.

Under Age Profiles

Admins can not control if users account should be private based on their age group. The setting we created for this is “Force Profile Privacy” and the value defined for this setting will control which profiles will be forced to be private. On our live demo we set this value to “14″ and the design is to automatically set profiles that are in the 14 and under age group to private, where we provide a link to add the user as a friend. If the user accepts the friendship then the profile will be opened for you to view. We also provide a setting to control which user groups can view profiles regardless of their privacy settings and in this case all Admins by default can view any profile.

Blocking Users

The ability to block users isn’t a new feature, however we have added some improvements to the logic of mutual blocking of users and an override feature to view a profile even if you have been blocked. Mutual blocking in v1.6 has some problems and it starts when User A blocks User B, then User B cannot view User A’s profile thus not allowing them to block User A. With v2 if you have been blocked by another user you will be able to block them as well as unblock them by either viewing their profile and clicking “Unblock” or by visiting the privacy section where it lists all the users you have blocked.

By default Admins cannot be blocked and can view any profile regardless if they have been blocked. This sort of power can be granted to any other user group, however its only enabled by default for Admins.

Custom State/Provinces

v1.1 introduced U.S. states and ZIP code support. v1.6 allowed Admins to edit the U.S. states list to either change or include their own states/provinces. With v2 we worked on allowing countries to have their own set of states or provinces. For testing purposes with Beta 4 we provided a list of U.S. states and Swedish provinces, which will only be displayed when selecting the respective countries. With this change in the engine it will allow us and Admins the ability to add custom states/provinces in the future. They will be able to manage it directly from the AdminCP, however this area was put on hold until RC1.

Here is a short video of this feature in action:

Announcement Module

We initially wanted to create a block similar to v1.6 that would display an announcement on the sites dashboard for all the members to see, however we felt we can do so much more with this feature in the future so we decided to create a module and add some more features to it for us to test with Beta 4.

Announcements with Beta 4 can be added and managed directly from the AdminCP and members can view these announcements on their dashboard or via the announcements section. Each announcement can have a subject, intro and content. The “intro” of the announcement is optionally used for the dashboard and if your announcement holds too much data it will link to the full announcement where the “content” data is used to display it. When adding an announcement we pick up all the available language packages thus allowing Admins to create an announcement for each language package.

Future support will include:

• Start/End time stamp.
• Control if announcement should be displayed within the dashboard.
• Control if an announcement is active.
• User filtering based on User group, age group, location or gender.

Subscription Module & API Gateways

Beta 4 introduces the Subscription module and introduces a new method on how to handle memberships for pay. Unlike past versions of phpFox, which would allow you to create a subscription package based on the custom user group it now works where Admins can create as many custom subscription packages and connect them to any default or custom user group.

For each package you can provide:

• Title
• Description
• Image (Optional)
• The user group to “upgrade” the user after payment
• The user group to “downgrade” the user once payment has failed or has been canceled.
• Ability to add to registration form
• Ability to control if users must purchase a package during registration. User cannot access the sites features until payment is made.
• Initial Cost (Based on default currencies provided, Admins will soon have control to add more currencies)
• Recurring Cost, which is optional and Admins can control the recurring price and period (eg. Monthly, Quarterly, Biannually or Annually).)

The payment API gateways we have included with Beta 4 is PayPal and 2checkout. Gateways can be enable/disabled from the AdminCP and Admins can control if the gateways are in “test mode” or not. Each gateway has custom settings and can also be controlled direct from the AdminCP. The subscription packages are currently positioned within the users dashboard and can be found by clicking on the link “Upgrades”. A block will be provided to advertise packages on random within the dashboard.

Short video of the form when creating a subscription package:

Recent Logins Block

A recent logins block has been developed and is part of Beta 4. Past versions of phpFox have this block, however since the introduction of the ability to drag/drop blocks each block can have a set of custom settings to control how to display information. In this case users can control if they want to view recent logins from everyone or just their friends.

Site Online/Offline Support

Admins can now turn their sites Online/Offline direct from the AdminCP and leave an offline message for users to see. Admins can also control if a “blank” page should be displayed with the offline message instead of the entire site with all the links. By default Admins and Staff can login and browse the site even when its offline. Any user group can attain these rights based on how you setup other user groups.

Fullscreen Text Editor

When writing a blog or a message to a friend you may end up writing a lot of data and the form to input this data can get a little cramped. Instead of resizing the form we went with the method to fit the entire screen with a textarea form. To best explain this feature here is a short video:

Site Stats Block

Beta 4 introduces a Site Stats block that gives Admins and developers control over what statistics should be displayed direct from the AdminCP. Developers can include “stats” for their products and have Admins install them direct from the AdminCP. Currently we provide 4 stat blocks for testing purposes and they are Members, Polls, Blogs and Photos. The site stats block found in the users dashboard will list how many items each of the provided stat blocks have. These stat blocks can be managed from the AdminCP which include the ability to change the phrase, link, icon, activity, php code and the ordering.

Admins have control over if stats should be displayed at all and if stats should be cached and for how long. By default stats are cached and are keep static for 60 minutes and thereafter re-cached. The reason the stats are not live by default is due to several extra queries to the database which can cause a strain on the server if too many stat blocks are installed.

Here is a short video clip of this block in action:

Birthdays Block

Beta 4 introduces the Birthday Block to the users dashboard. It displays 5 friends with upcoming birthdays within a span of X days (X is controlled by an AdminCP setting and by default is 7). It also allows members the ability to send the users with birthdays a “Birthday E-card”, which currently only supports an optional text message. Once the recipient logs into the site they will receive an instant notification about the birthday e-card with a full link to view the message. More tasty features will be added to fully transform this feature into full blown e-card.

Screenshot of the birthday block:

Change Log

Our SVN change log can be found here.

Live Demo

View this beta demo in action here.

Download

phpFox2 Beta4 can be downloaded direct from the clients area. When you have selected a license and reached the download page look for “phpFox2 Beta4″ to download the product.

Requirements

Requirements for phpFox2 can be found here.

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.

Good luck and Enjoy phpFox2 Beta4!

phpFox2 is very near its final beta version and the start of our release candidates. With the release of beta 3 we mentioned that we wanted to release the list of final public features that will be developed and completed for the final release. Once we have reached RC1 (July 1, 2009), which will be the next release after our final beta version (June 17, 2009) the development of new modules will be paused until the development for v2.1 begins.

We provide a time line of what will be done over the upcoming months.

• Beta 4 (June 17, 2009)
  • Release of the final beta version
    for phpFox2.
  • Includes newly developed features
    to test.
• RC1 (July 1, 2009)
  • Release of our first RC version
    for phpFox2.
  • Includes newly developed features
    to test.
  • Includes final modules for
    v2.0.0.
  • Includes upgrade script that will
    allow the upgrade from v1.6.21.
  • Process started to move hard
    coded phrases into default language package.
  • Process started to update AdminCP
    to work with all the finalized modules.
  • Start work on fixing bugs.
  • Development of plug-ins begin:
    • OpenID
    • Facebook Connect
    • reCaptcha
    • Email Importer Service
    • Akismet
• RC2 (Jul 15, 2009)
  • Continued work on fixing bugs.
  • Continued work on moving hard
    coded phrases into default language package.
  • Continued work on updating
    AdminCP to work with all the finalized modules.
  • Improve upgrade script to support
    all past versions of phpFox.
  • Continued development of plug-ins
    started with RC1.
• RC3 (Jul 29, 2009)
  • Continued work on fixing bugs.
  • Continued work on moving hard
    coded phrases into default language package.
  • Continued work on updating
    AdminCP to work with all the finalized modules.
  • Improve upgrade script to support
    all past versions of phpFox.
  • Continued development of plug-ins
    started with RC1.
• RC4 (Aug 12, 2009)
  • Continued work on fixing bugs.
  • Release final default language
    package.
  • Includes final version of
    AdminCP.
  • Includes final version of upgrade
    script, which supports the upgrade of all past phpFox versions.
• v2.0.0 (September 9, 2009)
  • Final release of v2.0.0 and
    includes:
    • Completed Modules
    • Completed AdminCP
    • Completed Language Package
    • Completed Upgrader
    • Includes Beta 1 for plug-ins:
      • OpenID
      • Facebook Connect
      • reCaptcha
      • Email Importer Service
      • Akismet
  • Development begins for OpenSocial plug-in.
  • Development for v2.1 begins.

Final List of Features/Tasks

List of features/tasks leading up to v2.0.0 RC1, v2.0.0 and v2.1:

• Public features accepted and will be completed by v2.0.0 RC1
• Public features accepted and will be completed by v2.1
• Public tasks that will be completed by v2.0.0 RC1
• Tasks that will be completed by v2.0.0. (Includes AdminCP and Engine related tasks)
• Tasks that will be completed by v2.1

Features & Tasks accepted for v2.1 are not final and the list will grow over the next few months. The features & tasks for v2.0.0 and RC1 are final and are the remaining things we need to accomplish before we can release a stable version.

EDIT: Replies for Tasks are disabled at the moment as tasks are reserved for internal development discussions. Replies can however still be added to Bugs and Feature Requests.

SPAM has been a hot topic within our community and we wanted to inform the community on how we plan to combat spam with phpFox2.

There are several ways on how we planned on combating spam. First, we need to control content being added to the site; which could be text data from blog entries, bulletin posts to private messages. Such data contains a lot of characters and can be subject to an abundance of spam. In order to control this information before the data is entered into the database we will parse the data to check if we believe the text contains strings of what would be considered spam. To backup our efforts we will be creating a plug-in for Akismet, which will help us combat spam by processing the string and return a yes or no if they believe the string contains spam. Once a string of data is considered spam by us and Akismet we have come up with a system to monitor users that are spamming.

A good user that does not spam will start with the count “0″. If they spam an item the count increments. Currently we have worked out a one time warning before an automated ban for the user for spamming. The warning will be when their spam count reaches 5 (where 5 is controlled by a setting within the AdminCP and can be changed) we warn them and when adding items in the future they will be asked to enter a Captcha challenge. Since they have surpassed the count of 5, which is the number of times a user can spam before they are warned any data they add to the site will be considered spam. Admins can view these items within the AdminCP and moderate if they believe the item is spam or not. If the Admin deems that the item is not spam we decrement the users spam count, approve the item for public viewing and pass the information along to Akismet to look over the data so it will not be considered as spam in the future. A user can return back to a “good” user if their items are approved since we will decrement their personal spam count and once they are under the limit (5 in this case) they will not have to do a Captcha challenge or have their items moderated.

If a user continues to spam and they reach a personal spam count of 10 (where 10 is a setting that can be controlled from the AdminCP) we auto ban the user and log all their IP activity in order to prevent them from signing up in the future.

The method we have gone over to help stop spam can all be controlled from your AdminCP and can be disabled entirely. Benefits of using Akismet with our product is since Akismet parses data on their own server your site will always be up-to-date with the latest techniques on combating spam.

The spam count system we have come up with will also work in other areas:

• Disallowing URL’s in titles for items (eg. blog title, thread title, bulletin title etc…).
• Disallowing URL’s in full names.
• Disallowing URL’s on the site entirely or prompt the user to pass a Captcha challenge if adding external links.
• Disallowing URL’s in the users status.
• Replacing all external links on the site with script redirection, which will warn the user before they leave the site and store the URL’s in a spam table so Admins can monitor external links.

The spam count system and Akismet plug-in development will start once we reach RC1 and will be fully completed by RC4. During the RC releases we will release updates so tests can be done in preparation for the stable release.

If you have any questions or suggestions just let us know.

phpFox2 Beta 3 has arrived.

We will shortly cover what is new with Beta3, if you would like to catch up with what our past Alpha/Beta versions introduced you can find more information here…

• Alpha 1
• Alpha 2
• Alpha 3
• Alpha 4
• Beta 1
• Beta 2

Whats new in phpFox2 Beta3

Dashboard & Updated Blocks

Beta3 introduces several improvements to our dashboard (”My Account” for v1.6). The main improvements are under the hood and up until beta 3 the ability to move blocks were limited to our profile or group. There were limitations on when we were able to drag & drop blocks as well as where we could drop them. With the recent changes you are now able to drag/drop, add, remove, edit blocks within the dashboard, your profile and your own group. You do not need to leave the page to customize these blocks as it can be done on the spot. Due to the recent changes many of the already developed blocks have been updated or will be updated. These changes include the ability to control which blocks can be removed based on the user group and if the Admins really want users to be able to remove a specific block.

Lets go over some of the available blocks for Beta 3 that included some ways users can modify the blocks. To view our dashboard click on the “Dashboard” link on the main menu (previously “Home”). First, you will notice a new block “Dashboard”. This will be used to provide quick links and useful information about the user. Currently the information is split up into groups “Quick Links”, “Account Info” and “Activity”. The 2nd and 3rd groups are hidden until the user clicks on the tab to view them. We will create a feature to allow Admins to select if they want all this information available without the need to split them up into groups. We currently provide some quick links, account information and account activity stats; however not all the information about the user has been added due to the recent changes in the engine and the need to update all the modules to understand these recent changes. More information will be added about the user with later releases. The dashboard block is the only block within the Dashboard that cannot be removed.

Next, we have the “Updates” block which displays updates from the community (or just friend depending on Admins setup). The edit link for each block (if there is the possibility to edit it) is found on the far right hand site of the block header. The “Updates” block allows users the ability to edit how many feeds they want to display. Other settings we plan on adding is the ability to control what sort of information should or should not be passed (eg. blogs, photos, polls etc…) and the ability to block a user.

Another block we updated is the “My Friends” block and users can control how many friends they want to display within this block.

The “Whats New” block is not new as this is what we use on the sites index page for guests, however we added this to our dashboard with Beta 3 as well and users can control what sort of information they would like for it to display (eg. blogs, photos, videos etc…). We plan on adding a setting to control if the user wants to see data from all members or just their friends.

The remaining blocks found on this page have been available with past versions of phpFox2 and currently contain no special settings, however each block within this page can be removed and later added if the user chooses to (except for the dashboard block).

If you have removed a block you can add it back by visiting the “Customize Dashboard”. Once there click on “Blocks” and this section will list all the available blocks for the page which could be for the dashboard, group or users profile. More information about the block and an image will be added in the future to make it easier for users to understand what a block is and what sort of information it provides.

With the current development updates 3rd party developers can easily develop new blocks and installing them is easy as each block uses a plug-n-play method. To further explain the purpose of the “Customize Dashboard” area or the “Profile Designer”, we created this to allow users in the future to easily select themes, design their profile using an advanced style editor (eg. modifying colors, text, backgrounds etc…) or adding their own CSS code and during all of this each change is updated automatically on their profile allowing them to see the changes they have made on the spot. The ability to drag/drop blocks can be done from this “editor”, however it can also now be done by directly visiting the page (eg. dashboard, profile or group).

The goal behind these recent changes is to have something similar to iGoogle, which allows users the ability to add/edit/remove blocks (”Gadgets”) and 3rd party developers to create these blocks with ease.

Future plans…

• Ability to revert all changes made in relation to block placement.
• When adding new blocks we need a highlight “effect” to identify what block has been added.

Known issues…

• Moving blocks on an X-axis is still not perfected and can sometimes jump back to the original location.

Footer Bar

Beta 3 provides a Footer bar and is inspired by the footer bar provided by Facebook, MySpace and Bebo with a small twist. Similar to the sites mentioned the bar is located at the footer of each page of the site once you login. For Admins that do not like the idea of a Footer bar can disable this feature entirely from the AdminCP. If enabled the footer bar contains a “Start” button of sorts and by default it is called “phpFox” (can be changed via the AdminCP). Once clicked this menu provides the ability for the user to change their sites status, search and provide quick links to add/edit items or view items directly on their profile. A quick link is also provided to the dashboard next to the “phpFox” start button. To the far right of the footer bar we give the users the ability to hide the entire bar and if at a later time they would like to use the bar they can click on the same link used to close it. The main purpose of the footer bar is to provide quick links and useful notifications anywhere on the site without the need to be on the actual dashboard. It will also allow us to add future 3rd party apps and an on-the-spot instant messenger.

The Notification module has been updated to work with the footer bar and if enabled from the AdminCP, notifications can be seen anywhere on the site via the footer bar. Once a user has viewed the item they were notified about (eg. friend request, new mail etc…) it will automatically be removed from the notification area. A setting is provided to update the check for new notifications via AJAX every X minutes (AdminCP defines X).

Ads

Beta3 introduces our Ad module which allows you to place your ads in any of the blocks provided (currently 10 available positions). When creating your ad campaign you can select to either upload an image or directly add HTML code. You can define when the campaign will start and when it will end (option to not end a campaign is available by default). For each ad campaign you can control the total views or clicks. If these settings are surpassed the ad is removed from the line up until it is deactivated or removed.

Ad placements is controlled by block and module positioning. We currently provide 10 blocks for you to place your ads and a guide on what ad sizes we recommend (eg. 468×60, 120×600 etc…). You can also select a specific module for the ad campaign. For example if you were to select the Video module your ads for that specific campaign will only show up within the video module related pages (eg. viewing, adding, browsing videos).

Each ad campaign can have a selected audience from which you can select which user group (eg. guests, normal members, musicians etc…) can view the ads or based on the users location, gender or age group.

All ad campaigns are stored in the database and later cached to flat files (depending on cache settings) where it auto re-caches every X minutes (AdminCP defined - 60 minutes is the default). You may select the option to auto refresh ads via AJAX, due to many features now using AJAX; users may stay on a specific page longer thus your ads not updating. Using the AJAX auto refresh method you can select how long before the next set of ads shows up and by default we update ads every 2 minutes.

Future plans for this module…

• Ability to disable ads for a specific user group.
• Cron job to auto delete inactive ad campaigns.
• Ability for normal users to create ads.
• Ability to show more then one ad for a specific block. Currently several ads can be added to one specific block, however they can only show up one at a time and the order is randomized.
• Further improve ad placements based on modules:
  • Blocks: Ability to add 125×125 ads on a sidebar block.
  • Videos: Ability to add an ad before or after a video.
  • Forum: Ability to add an ad after X number of posts.
  • Login: Ability to add an ad after the user has logged in with an auto redirect.

Favorites

Beta 3 introduces our “Favorite” module. This module will be used to give users the ability to add any public item to their “Favorites” list. This list is displayed both on their profile and their site wide footer bar. There is a privacy setting to disable other users to view your own favorites on you profile. This setting does not affect the favorites found within the footer bar. We will be adding the ability to search/filter favorites within the footer bar area to give users an easier time to organize and find items. Currently there is only support to add photos, photo albums, blogs and users. More modules will be updated to include support for this new module.

General Updates

General updates worth mentioning…

• Feature request added: Report Abuse/ Spam/ Bad Member
• Feature request added: auto play youtube video
• Feature request added: TimeZone Control needed
• Feature request added: Turn user album photos 90°
• Ability to rate a user (default 1-5). We will give an option to change the rating system and to disable the feature entirely.
• Ability to report a user.

Change Logs

We have added a spec log here and a SVN change log here for Beta3.

Known Issues

Several known issues worth mentioning.

• Continued issues with Internet Explorer 6 & 7 (Menus, BBCode etc…)
• MySQL in strict mode causing issues in several areas. If you encounter this please report it.
• Windows servers have not been tested thoroughly.

To view more known issues check our bug tracker.

Live Demo

View this beta demo in action here.

Download

phpFox2 Beta3 can be downloaded direct from the clients area. When you have selected a license and reached the download page look for “phpFox2 Beta3″ 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:

• FFmpeg
• FFmpeg-PHP (optional)
• Mplayer + Mencoder
• flv2tool
• Libogg + Libvorbis
• LAME MP3 Encoder
• PHP file_uploads - “1″
• PHP post_max_size - “75M”
• PHP max_input_time - “-1″
• PHP upload_max_filesize - “75M”

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.

Future Development

Final List of Features

All the features/plans for v2 will be released as public document to clients and 3rd party developers sometime next week. This will be the finalized document and should help 3rd party developers know what final features will be developed for v2.

Information on v2.1

Some of you may have already noticed we added v2.1 to our line up when creating a “Feature Request”. This will allow us to get a head start on v2.1 and what needs to be done once v2 is completed. There is no ETA for v2.1, however we can say that it will be released sometime next year as it needs to go thru a Beta/RC release stage. There will be incremental version releases after v2 is out (eg. 2.0.1, 2.0.2 etc…), however such versions will not include major feature updates.

Admin Control Panel

The AdminCP has been a hot topic within our forums over the last few days and we wanted to update the community on the future plans of the AdminCP and what it currently offers. At the moment the AdminCP has been designed for us to add/edit/modify items used for modules we are developing. It currently has not been built for the end user as all of our past versions have been designed for developers. Our goal with the final version of the AdminCP is to have a very powerful and user friendly interface for Admins/Staff to control the site. We are currently focusing our development efforts on the product for the public eye and the engine that powers the product. We will begin work during the 2nd release of the RC versions due to the need for the public area to be completed in order for us to work with managing these areas. No updates to the AdminCP will be released during the next Beta versions, we estimate by RC2 is when we can factor in changes to the AdminCP based on the modules completed by RC 1, which is the final version we will include new modules/features for end users and is the final product up until v2 is stabilized.

Sign Up Form

The current sign up form provides the basic requirements we have had in the past. We will be adding custom fields to this form, allow users to select the custom user group they want to be in (eg. musician, artist etc…) and the ability to remove fields that you may consider not to be a requirement. When it comes down to it we only need the persons full name (or display name), email and password to successfully join the site. So the sign up form if desired could simply contain just those fields and since there is support for a “step-by-step” registration process you can send them to fill out such information after.

Feature Requests

If you would like to see a feature or a module developed for phpFox we base all future features for v2 on our communities feedback. The more votes a request has the chance of it getting approved and developed is very high if not certain. The communities feedback has been very crucial over the last few months helping use improve the product since its very early Alpha stages and the continued communities involvement to shape the future of the product is appreciated as this will allow us to build a product to suite your needs.

Click here to add your feature request or vote on other requests.

Next Release

Stay tuned for our next Beta release (Jun 17, 2009).

Good luck and Enjoy phpFox2 Beta3!

phpFox2 is near its 3rd beta release. Beta 4 will mark the final beta for phpFox2 and our next release after that will be RC 1 (Release Candidate), which will officially freeze the product up until our final stable release.

Yesterday we worked on updating our bug/feature tracker and organized the versions and added future versions up until v2.1.0, which will be our next minor version release after v2 stable is out. Note this does not include maintenance releases (eg. 2.0.1, 2.0.2 etc…) as such release are designed to fix any unforeseen flaws. Minor version releases (eg. 2.1.0, 2.2.0 etc…) will include new features and may include Beta/RC versions before its initial release. Maintenance releases will not include Beta/RC versions.

Our request system is based on the votes provided by the community. We require at least 11 positive votes to consider a request to be added. If a request gets more then 11 votes we will do our best to add the feature in v2 or upcoming minor version releases. We will not reject requests unless the idea is not in the best interest of the company or community or simply cannot be done due to either financial or coding resources. However, our goal is to accept any feature that gets a positive response from the community as this is a feature the community wants.

All requests will be marked as “Suggested” and will not change in order for users to continue voting on the feature. If a request does not reach the 11 positive vote requirement there maybe times a request brings up some really good points and can be accepted by us, however the community feedback on each request is what we base a lot of our judgement.

The 11 vote limit is subject to change.

After Beta 3 has been released no more features will be accepted for the final release of v2 and any requests accepted will be marked for v2.1.0.

We will Twitter each feature we accept so follow us if you want to say up-to-date with what will be added in future versions.

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…

• Alpha 1
• Alpha 2
• Alpha 3
• Alpha 4
• Beta 1

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…

• the requirements
• the process during an install
• the process post install on how to enable the module.

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 20×20 profile image for each user in the feed we now display a 50×50 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:

• FFmpeg
• FFmpeg-PHP (optional)
• Mplayer + Mencoder
• flv2tool
• Libogg + Libvorbis
• LAME MP3 Encoder
• PHP file_uploads - “1″
• PHP post_max_size - “75M”
• PHP max_input_time - “-1″
• PHP upload_max_filesize - “75M”

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!

This is a small update within our phpFox Community to tell that we have created a new user title for designers called 3rd Party Designers.

If you have applied for the Developer’s License and Program and you are a designer releasing themes and templates then please PM us and we will update your forums account.

Thanks.

As of today we have removed the mods that did not meet the Paid Mod Rules in the Paid Mods Section for 1.6.x.

If your mod has been removed and you wish to re-post it according to the new rule, but want to copy the details please PM our forum moderator Jack for him to assist you in this case - this applies to any version(including plugins for v1.1 and 1.5.x).

Thank you for your attention!

It has been a great experience and development process for us these past few months with releasing our product in its Alpha stages. This is something we have never done, but glad we did as we picked up a lot of very useful information from the community.

phpFox2 has now reached Beta1. Our Beta versions are targeted towards developers, similar to our past Alpha releases. However, anyone is more then welcome to test these next Beta releases. There will be 4 beta releases leading to our RC (Release Candidate) versions. Our Beta versions are not supported and are not completed products. We will continue to take in community suggestions and develop new modules during our Beta process. Once we have reached our RC stage our product will be considered final. Our focus during our RC stage is to fix all the remaining bugs.

We will shortly cover what is new with Beta1, however if you would like to catch up with what our past Alphas introduced you can find more information here…

• Alpha 1
• Alpha 2
• Alpha 3
• Alpha 4

Whats new in phpFox2 Beta1

Music

Beta1 introduces our music module. There is a major change with how this module functions in comparison to how this module worked with past versions of phpFox. In the past we allowed anyone to upload songs and this can still be done, however there is a process each user needs to go through.

The module is now designed for Musicians and during the install the module will create a new user group “Musician”. Only musicians can upload songs to your server. Users that are not musicians can listen to songs/albums and add them to their play lists, which will be on their own profile. The reason for this major change is due to copyright laws when in relation to uploading/sharing songs that users do not have the rights to.

The player we will be using as our default media player will be the one provided by Flowplayer. We will provide a free plug-in as well for those that want to use the JW Player, which is what we have used in the past to power our music and video modules.

Music module currently supports…

• Uploading a song
• Creating an Album, which includes uploading several tracks, adding album art and inviting people to view the album.
• Albums/Songs can be viewed on a Musicians profile.
• Albums/Songs can be commented on.
• Albums/Songs are added to the news feed.

Music module will support…

• Ability to shorten MP3 length to X (where X is controlled by admins) seconds.
• Add purchase links to iTunes/Amazon.
• Play songs in an entire play list without the need to click on play for each song.
• Disallow users from selecting the same genre more then once.
• Support to rate an album/song.
• Support to report an album/song.
• Support to add songs to our own profile (Non musicians).
• Update album play count (currently set at 0).
• Ability to order tracks that are part of an album.
• Add the Musician user group to the registration form.
• Develop and include a new module “Fan”, which will allow users to become fans.

Custom User Groups

With the music module this introduced the ability to create custom user groups since this module requires a custom group to control how the profile of a Musician functions. The goal with custom user groups is to allow different profile layouts based on the specific user group. It currently has support for custom fields and in the case of the music module when editing your profile you don’t get the conventional fields to edit such as “About Me”, “Interests” etc.. you will instead get “Record Label”, “Genre” etc… This allows you to create a lot more user groups and each can have a set of custom profile fields.

When creating a user group you can directly inherit permissions/settings from another user group and from there modify the permissions/settings accordingly. It currently only works to inherit from the default user groups. Deleting a custom user group will ask you to move users that are part of that user group to another user group.

Quiz

Beta1 includes a new and improved quiz module and supports…

• Ability to control max/min questions.
• Ability to control max/min answers.
• Ability to control if a user can take their own quiz.
• Ability to control if quizzes should be moderated.
• Ability to control who can approve quizzes.
• Ability to control moderation on own quiz or quizzes created by others (edit/delete).

We no longer have a fixed number of questions/answers, when you go to create a new quiz the minimum number of questions will be shown, but you will still be able to add more as you want/are allowed.

From the Admin Panel you can also choose the format in which you want the scores to be shown, you can choose between the traditional percentage way (i.e. 75%) or the more user friendly “success over total” ( i.e. 3/4).

Change Logs

We have added a spec log here and a SVN change log here for Beta1.

Known Issues

Several known issues worth mentioning.

• Continued issues with Internet Explorer 6 & 7 (Menus, BBCode etc…)
• PHP safe_mode & open_basedir causing problems, however recent changed has fixed these issues but further testing will be needed.
• 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.

To view more known issues check our bug tracker.

Live Demo

View this beta demo in action here.

Download

phpFox2 Beta1 can be downloaded direct from the clients area. When you have selected a license and reached the download page look for “phpFox2 Beta1″ 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”

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 (May 20, 2009), which will introduce the Video module among other changes.

Good luck and Enjoy phpFox2 Beta1!

phpFox2 has reached its final Alpha release. Our next release will be our first Beta and there will be four Beta versions before we move onto RC (Release Candidate) versions. Alpha4 introduces 3 larger modules for the public to test as well as several improvements/fixes on the modules we introduced in past versions.

We will shortly cover what is new with Alpha4, however if you would like to catch up with what our 3 past Alphas introduced you can find more information here…

• Alpha 1
• Alpha 2
• Alpha 3

Before we go on with what Alpha4 introduces we need to mention that this is not a finalized product and it is not supported by the phpFox staff. Similar to past Alpha versions this Alpha release is intended for the public to test and provide feedback on what can be improved with the core product and modules.

As this is our final Alpha release our next stage is releasing Beta versions. Our Beta versions similar to Alphas will not be supported by the phpFox staff. We are at a point where the products core engine and modular design is finalized and this will not be changed during Beta stages unless it requires a reconstruction due to a major flaw. During the Beta stage, we will still be developing onto the product to improve all the available modules that will be part of the final stable release. We will still continue to take in requests during Beta, however during that stage our main focus will be improving and fixing all the completed modules. Our Beta release will not include an upgrade script.

There will be 4 Beta versions and we will then move onto the RC (Release Candidate) stage. RC will be the final stage before our Stable release. Our RC version will not introduce any new features or modules unless a feature is designed to replace a feature that contains a flaw. RC versions will introduce an upgrade script that will allow you to upgrade any version of phpFox to v2. Since RC versions will be considered as “finalized” products we will move all hard coded phrases into the default language package, recheck all pages to be XHTML valid and add the final plug-in hooks in the script based on 3rd party developers feedback. Our RC version similar to Alpha and Beta versions will not be supported by the phpFox staff.

Marketplace

phpFox2 Alpha4 introduces the Marketplace module. This module will replace the Classified module we have with all past versions of phpFox as there is more we want to do with this module.

Currently each listing can belong to multiple categories based on a parent/child setup. For example if a listing belongs to a parent category “Car” we display sub-categories for the parent category and it could be Convertibles, Coupes, Hybrids etc.. Each sub-category can have its own set of sub-categories and there is no limit on how many child sub-categories can be created.

Each listing requires to have a title, which is what is used to create a unique URL string for SEO. Short and Full descriptions are supported and adding a price tag for the listing is as well. Currently we only have support for the USD currency, however with a later release we will introduce support to add more currencies direct from the AdminCP.

We have added support to have up to X (where X is defined by Admins) images per listing. Users can add/delete images even after they created the listing. Users can also control which image will be the default image that will be displayed when browsing the marketplace.

When adding or editing a listing a user can directly invite members or guests to view their listing. If editing they can manage this list by viewing who viewed their listing or hasn’t.

When viewing a listing users can add comments as well as share the listing. Each listing will be displayed on a users profile.

There is still a lot we want to add with this module and include…

• Control if users can add comments on your own listing.
• AJAX popup private message tool so users do not have to leave the page to contact the seller.
• Tagging.
• Enable Captcha when adding a listing (User Group Param Setting).
• Privacy Settings.
• Featured Listings.
• “Report a Listing” tool.
• Short description text counter.
• Update category usage count each time the category is used.
• “Total Views” count on listings (User Controlled Feature).
• Custom Fields. This feature will allow Admins the ability to create custom fields for each category. For example for the category “Car” we could have custom fields such as Color, Transmission, Make etc…
• Location field should default to the users set location.
• Give out X (where X is an AdminCP setting) points to user for each listing they add.
• Add default listing image to the news feed. (Currently only text info displayed).
• Feature to rate/review a listing.
• Feature to rate/view the seller/buyer.
• Section to view ratings/reviews of a listing.
• Section to view ratings/reviews for a seller/buyer.
• When viewing a listing display a “More items from this seller” block.
• When viewing a listing display more detailed information about the seller (eg. Points, Rating, Reviews etc…).
• Feature to pay for items using one of the provided payment gateways (eg. Paypal, 2checkout etc…).
• Ability to attach “downloadable” goods, where listing owners can control when items can be downloaded (eg. after/before purchase).
• Send listing owner an email when one of their invites viewed their listing. (Privacy controlled).
• Add a search tool for the invite list. (Only for Listing owners).
• Simple/Advanced search filter.

The list of features provided is part of our future spec list for this specific module and there is no set version/date as to when all these features will be completed. We mainly wanted to share this information with the community as we are getting closer to our Beta release and we feel its time for us to release more information on what some of the final features will be. Note that this is not a final list of features for this module and the door is still open for feature requests.

Currently this module comes with several known issues…

• Invite routine works for guests to send an invitation, however there is no way to track if they visited the listing so they are always listed under “Not Responded”.
• When creating categories there is no check if a category with the same name already exists in the parent category.
• The index page for the Marketplace does not include an SQL conditional statement, however this needs to be added once privacy settings are introduced.
• When viewing a listing and displaying the attached images there needs to be a border around each image since some images have a white background and its hard to identify where the image starts/ends.
• Auto complete of categories not working when posting the add/edit form when you have failed the validation.
• BBCode and Emoticons not working on IE.

Events

Similar to the Marketplace module and how we handle categories, each Event can belong to one parent category and as many child sub-categories. When creating an event you can attach an image and directly invite your friends or guests.

Based on how other modules work the title of the event will create a unique URL string for SEO and will add a unique keyword and description to the pages meta tags.

The Event module currently offers the core functionality of what v1.6 provides (RSVP & Commenting), with the exception of extras like sub-categories and an image attachment. Each event you belong too will be displayed on your profile.

Here is a list of some of the future features planned for this module…

• Privacy Settings.
• Add default event image to the news feed (Currently supports a text feed).
• Enable Captcha when creating an event (User Group Param Setting).
• Featured Events.
• Reporting an event.
• Update category usage count each time the category is used.
• “Total Views” count on events (User Controlled Feature).
• Give out X (where X is an AdminCP setting) points to user for each event they add.
• If inviting a guest give them a unique ID so if they RSVP as a guest and sign up we know which user to add to the RSVP list.
• Add a count to the RSVP list (eg. Attending, Maybe, Can’t Make It, Not Responded).
• Add a search tool for the guest list. (Only for Event owners).
• Feature to block a user from joining your own event.
• Send out a notification email to event attendees so they know the event is going to start in X days/hours.
• Feature to mass mail attendees.
• Enable attachments.
• Block to display the most popular events.
• Simple/Advanced search filter.
• Tab to display events from: Today, Tomorrow, This Week, This Weekend.
• Notify event owner when someone joined their event (User Setting).
• Feature to add Admins for your event to help run the event.
• Include Photo and Video module.
• When selecting a “start” or “end” date provide a small calendar to select the date (This feature will be built into other modules as well when there is an area to select a day/month/year.

Currently this module comes with several known issues…

• When creating categories there is no check if a category with the same name already exists in the parent category.
• Auto complete of categories not working when posting the add/edit form when you have failed the validation.
• BBCode and Emoticons not working on IE.
• Breadcrumb for sub pages needs to be added (eg. My Events, Events I’m Attending).
• Check to make sure the “end date” is not set before the “start date”.
• Check to make sure the “start date” is not starting in the past, currently there is minimal support for this; however because of the time zone feature and no support yet for DST this cannot be fixed until those are fixed.
• Disable the ability to edit an event if is closed (eg. past event).

Groups

Our Groups module we wanted to hold off until our first Beta release, however we felt Alpha4 was a good time to introduce this module for public testing as this specific module requires a connection of sorts with other modules. We have designed this module and designing other modules with the ability to make a connection with each other to create a community within a community.

For example with this release we included 3 modules to connect with the parent group module. You may have noticed Comments throughout the site already so this connection is nothing new, however the Group module includes an Event and User module connection. The Event connection allows you to create events within the Group. The User connection allows you to use the same browse tool found in the public browse page to browse members of the group. With this concept we will be able to connect other modules in the future such as Photos, Forums, Polls etc…

Each group similar to a Marketplace listing or an Event can belong to a category and as many child sub-categories. Each group can have a custom photo and while creating/editing a group you can invite your friends or guests to join the group. You can even manage group invites and delete any members from it.

On your profile we list all the groups you belong to for others to see. Each group has a unique name based on the group name provided by the creator. Unlike other modules that prepends a category or controller placeholder to view an item, groups will have its own unique URL name similar to your profile. If the name of your group is “phpfox” the URL based on the setting you have for URL rewriting could look like one of the following:

• http://www.site.com/index.php?do=/group/phpfox/
• http://www.site.com/group/phpfox/
• http://group.site.com/phpfox/
• http://www.site.com/group/phpfox.html

Each group can also be customized to have their own theme. This uses the new designer tool, which is also included on your profile. With this tool you can currently select a theme for your group and drag-and-drop boxes.

Here is a short video on how to customize your group:

Here is a list of some of the future plans we have for this module:

• Privacy Settings (Public / Private)
• Add default group image to the news feed (Currently supports a text feed).
• Enable Captcha when creating a group (User Group Param Setting).
• Featured Groups.
• Reporting a Group.
• Update category usage count each time the category is used.
• “Total Views” count on groups (User Controlled Feature).
• Give out X (where X is an AdminCP setting) points to user for each group they create.
• Move the “Manage Members” to the main “Members” section so we can utilize the search filter.
• Enable attachments.
• Block to display the most popular groups.
• Simple/Advanced search filter.
• Notify group owner when someone joined the group (User Setting).
• Feature to add Admins for your group.
• Include connections to other modules. (eg. Photo, Forum, Poll, Quiz, Video, Music etc…).

Currently this module comes with several known issues…

• When creating categories there is no check if a category with the same name already exists in the parent category.
• Auto complete of categories not working when posting the add/edit form when you have failed the validation.
• BBCode and Emoticons not working on IE.
• Breadcrumb for sub pages needs to be added (eg. My Groups, My Group Memberships).
• There are no privacy settings yet, anyone can join a group as well as create events for the group.

Site Customizer

We have introduced a new tool with Alpha4. We are calling it a Site Customizer at the moment as it does the job of allowing you to custom the site. It currently only works in 3 areas. We mentioned this feature in use earlier when introducing our Group module. This tool is designed to work with any area of the site, those areas simply need to have proper “callback” calls in order for the tool to work. First, lets look over how to change the theme we are using for the entire site. This can be done from the sites index page once logged in. Click on “Site Themes” and you can select what theme you would like to browse the entire site in. Here is an example of how to do this:

Note that the new “test” theme we provided is only out for testing and there are many things that do not look “right” with the theme, we basically created it to distinguish it from our default theme.

When using this tool on your profile you can select a theme for your profile which others and yourself can see once you select and save a new theme. Blocks can also be moved to a specific location on your profile and we have added a “Block” link which will toggle all the blocks to make it easier to drag-and-drop them. Here is an example of this tool in action:

Dragging and dropping of blocks currently only works on your own profile or on your own group. We want to include this on the sites index page as well so you can control how the index page is displayed. This tool will also include a feature to add/remove blocks and an advanced CSS editor to manipulate the layout of the page (Profile and Groups only).

AJAX Notifications

With past versions of our Alphas we introduced our notification system. Similar to how it works with v1.6 it can be by default found in the sites index page once a user has logged in. Once a user has browsed away from that page they receive no direct notifications. With Alpha4 we are introducing 2 methods to notifying users wherever they are on the site.

For the first method we added an icon beside where we can change our site status. Once a user receives a new notification or request based on the theme used, the background of the icon will turn gold. There wasn’t much thought into the design at the moment or the icon, however the idea behind this feature is to notify the user if they have a new message or friends requests anywhere on the site without being too obtrusive.

The other option we provide is an AJAX request that can be called every X (where X is defined by an Admin) minutes to see if a user has a new notification. If they do they will receive a “slide up” near the bottom right of their browser screen, similar to what you get with MSN messenger on Windows.

Both these features are disabled by default as it requires your server to handle 2 extra SQL queries and the extra AJAX requests to check for new messages. Note that you can disable the AJAX calls and simply use the first method.

Here is an example of how this feature will work:

There isn’t any settings to disable this feature just yet other then from the AdminCP. We will be adding a setting so users can disable this feature if they want, as well as an Admin override to disallow users from being able to enable/disable this feature.

Things To Test

Alpha4 has introduced some changes to how our core engine works based on feedback from our community, which alters the functionality and usability in many if not all the modules we provide.

These changes include:

1. ALT + 255 - The issue with using ALT codes and especially with #255 is this turns into a “blank” space, which allows data to be entered into the database such as when commenting on a users profile. Once displayed it looks like a blank comment. For more information on ALT codes go here. We need help testing where “ALT + 255″ can still be added. If you find where please report it to our bug tracker with a full path to where it can be done on our live demo.
2. Non Alphanumeric & Non Latin Characters - With providing a multilingual product we strive to not only provide our clients with the ability to use it with different language packages but to also allow their members to post data from languages that do not use Latin characters and display them correctly. To solve this problem we convert all data inserted into the database into UNICODE allowing browsers to properly output characters without the need to rely on the database collations or websites character encodings. We need further testing done with such characters as there has been issues that have come up during the Alpha phases, however each one so far has been fixed. To test this specific issue try to add non alphanumeric & non Latin characters when posting anything on the site.
3. BBCode - With past versions BBCode was not working when adding more then one BBCode in a string. Note, that in some forms the BBCode editor does not work with IE. Issue related to BBCode not working correctly has been fixed, however we need a little more testing in this area. To test this specific issue try to add blogs with as many BBCodes as you can.
4. Comments - We redesigned how we enter comments into the database in relation to the news feed. Since we need to modify comments if a news feed has been modified we need to include a connection between the 2 modules. To test this issue simply add/edit/delete comments anywhere you find the possibility to add a comment.
5. HTML Parser Modified - When you enter data into the database such as a blog post we parse the text and save a “fixed” version of your entry so when we display it we save PHP the hassle of parsing the data each time a new person views the item. The issue we have dealt with for a very long time, even with v1.6 is to allow HTML and at the same time keep the site safe. This is always risky when allowing HTML. Another problem was characters such as “>” and “<” would also be removed since we used the function provided by PHP to strip HTML tags. With Alpha4 we have developed a new method to help the HTML parser. Since this routine is fairly new all sections will have to be retested to make sure XSS, CSS and general JavaScript, BBCode exploits do not come up. To test this you will need to add data anywhere on the site and try to exploit the site by means of a XSS, CSS, JavaScript or BBCode. Here is a cheat sheet for XSS exploits.
   Notice: We found an issue already with this new change and it is where you are unable to quote text strings (eg. within the forums).

If you encounter any of the mentioned issues please report them to our bug tracker.

Live Demo

View this alpha demo in action here.

Download

phpFox2 Alpha4 can be downloaded direct from the clients area. When you have selected a license and reached the download page look for “phpFox2 Alpha 4″ to download the product.

Developers Documentation

Our developers documentation can be found here.

Change Logs

We have added a spec log here and a SVN change log here for Alpha4.

Feedback and 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 first Beta release (May 6, 2009), which will introduce more modules to test and updates on the current modules released.

Good luck and Enjoy Alpha4!