Topic: News - SMF 2.0 Beta 3 Released to the public

[Jim]

SMF 2.0 Beta 3 was released to the public yesterday around 5PM.  Here are some parts of the posted release:

Simple Machines is extremely proud to announce the long awaited release of the first public beta of SMF 2.0.

SMF 2.0 has now been in development for over 18 months, and in beta with our Charter Members since August last year. Feature complete, and having undergone considerable testing and bug fixing, we are now ready to put it into the hands of the public for wider testing.

And some more on the additional features:

The changes in this release from 1.1 are immense - and we can't list them all here. We recommend you take a look at the changelog on the download page - some of the highlights include:   

    * Database abstraction including support for PostgreSQL and SQLite
    * Post and attachment moderation - setup through board permissions.
    * Additional group management features such as group moderators and joinable and requestable groups
    * Comprehensive user warning system.
    * Paid subscriptions to allow people to make a payment with PayPal to get additional group access
    * Personal message labeling system and new viewing options
    * OpenID support - to enable users to login and register with their OpenID account
    * Custom profile fields to enable admins to setup new profile fields in addition to the default
    * WYSWIYG editor, to improve the user posting experience
    * Ignore boards and ignore user functions - so users only see what they want to see
    * Scheduled events and mail queuing systems to add additional functionality to the forum
    * Admin and user logs to track who makes what changes to a user's profile
    * A moderation center to bring together all moderation functionality into one place for all people with moderation abilities

As this is a beta release, I will not upgrade the forum just yet.  I am a Charter Member at SMF so I have had access to the previous betas but decided to wait till it is practically bug-free. 

In the next few months, I intend on installing the beta locally and may call on some of you to help me test some things.  If you are interested in what SMF 2.0 looks like, pop in at Simple Machines.  Click on the Community tab and you will be in the forum.

[Triss]

Jim, this is very exciting.  I am sure it will be wonderful one it is switched over and if you need a tester, I will be happy to help out!

[Hillhound]

Looks good to me Jim.

Is it me or do the pages load a lot quicker?

One odd thing..... don't know what happened but my computer jammed and when I rebooted some of my cookies had gone, I had to relog in here for a start
 

[Jim]

The Simple Machines site is running on a dedicated server so it is quite fast. 

Yeah sometimes the cookies get corrupt, thanks to this wonderful operating system most of us use.  You should be ok after logging in again.

[Hillhound]

Quote:
"One odd thing..... don't know what happened but my computer jammed and when I rebooted some of my cookies had gone, I had to relog in here for a start
ScratchHead"

Must have been something at this end, I can't replicate it....

 

[Jim]

I've been playing with the new SMF 2.0.  I found some software that you can download that allows you to simulate a server with Apache, MySQL.  I installed the server simulation and the forum on my USB memory stick and it works great.  The look from the user standpoint is about the same.  Some of the mods I had installed are standard features now.  One really neat feature is the ability to create custom profile fields, like Zone that Patti wanted.  The major changes are in the Admin and Moderators panel.

My next step is to download a copy of our structure and database and see what happens when I convert it to the new version on the memory stick.

Triss if you and Dan are still wanting to look at forum software and what you are looking at runs on Apache and MySQL let me know.  This software that simulates a server is neat and I have it as well as SMF running entirely on the 2GB memory stick.  It works great.

[Triss]

Jim,

I will mention it to Dan.  Right now he is in the middle of a total revamping of his software but once that is done he is going to want to start up the Forum for his customers.  One thing at a time over here is about all we can handle businesswise.

[Jim]

OK, I started over this morning and downloaded a backup of our SQL database.  That actually contains the structure and data that makes up the forum.  I restored the backup on a new database set up on my memory drive, downloaded the entire forum from the server so that I was actually running it from my laptop.  It really worked.

Next I downloaded the upgrade package for SMF 2.0 Beta 3 and ran it.  Took about 45 minutes to do the upgrade.  Everything worked the first time.  Several of the mods that we have are not part of the upgrade package so we will either have to do without them or wait till I can convert them.  I'm going to play with it on my laptop for a couple of weeks and see how many bugs I can find.

I think everyone will like it.

[jv]

Tried wouldn't let me in

[Jim]

Tried wouldn't let me in

I'm hoping you are talking about the Simple Machines forum that I linked to in the first post in the topic.  They are a very busy site with the release of 2.0.  You don't have to log in to see the site.  Try again when you get time.  The theme they are running is not the default that comes with 2.0, in fact the look will be very similar to this.  It has lots of new features.

[jv]

Tried wouldn't let me in

I'm hoping you are talking about the Simple Machines forum that I linked to in the first post in the topic.  They are a very busy site with the release of 2.0.  You don't have to log in to see the site.  Try again when you get time.  The theme they are running is not the default that comes with 2.0, in fact the look will be very similar to this.  It has lots of new features.

Yes I was Jim OK I looked this time does seem faster. They may have been swamped when I tried earlier