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ModernBB 2.0.0 “Zoe” now available

Finaly, we are proud to announce the availability of ModernBB 2.0.0! With version 2.0.0, we’ve finished 6 months of work on ModernBB, 63% of the ModernBB 1.6 core is modified, resulting in ModernBB 2.0! As always, you can download this version on our download page. Anyway, let’s introduce ModernBB 2 to you.

What’s new?

  • Backstage: we’ve redesigned the back end of ModernBB, the old Dashboard, in something we call “Backstage”, from here, you can manage your forum in a clean way, having everything only one click away, thanks the the always-on-top and hover menu.
  • Stay up-to-date, the easy way: While you had to check on updates for yourself in ModernBB 1.6, ModernBB 2.0 will check on his own! We understand how important it is to stay up-to-date, and well, here you go, an easier way to do so.
  • Redesigned front-end: Not only the Backstage, but the front-end, too, has been redesigned. With it’s new structure, it’s less complicated to create awesome styles. Just like the Backstage, the front-end is based on Bootstrap 3.0.
  • Simple login: The login form contained a menu, footer and so on. But when you are loging in, you only want the important things: the login form, a password request link, a registration link, and that’s it. With ModernBB 2.0, that’s what you get, a clean login.
  • Manage your database: It’s important for you to create back-ups of your database, not only when updating. So why is something so important, so hard to do? Not anymore, ModernBB 2.0 contains a build in back-up system. One click on a button, and go. The backup system is also able to backup custom tables.
  • StopForumSpam: StopForumSpam is integrated in ModernBB 2.0, the only thing you have to do is request an API key and then you can say goodby the known forum spammers.
  • New parser features: ModernBB 2.0’s parser contains lot’s of new features, it support video embedding from DailyMotion, Vimeo and YouTube, we support super- and subscript, acronyms, inline quotes, etc.
  • Toolbar: When you want to post something, BBCodes are a great way to give your posts some style, however, it’s hard learn them all, so we added a new toolbar you can customize on your own.
  • And many more!

With ModernBB 2.0 finished, we will move on with the development of the upcoming hotfix release ModernBB 1.6.3, and the normal releases ModernBB 1.6.4, ModernBB 2.0.1 and the next big milestone, ModernBB 2.1-beta. When you’re updating, please create a backup. Enjoy this brand new ModernBB! If you want to stay in the ModernBB 1.6 branch, we highly recommend you to use ModernBB 1.6.1, since version 1.6.2 contains some serious bugs.

ModernBB.be 2.2
With ModernBB 2.0, we also launch, once again, a big update for our website. Most of the improvements are done in the core, but we are also proud to announce that the documentation is finaly available for ModernBB 2.0.

ModernBB 1.6.0/1.6.1/1.6.2 LTS releases no longer available

Todays site update has removed the Long Term Support tab from our download page. With that, ModernBB 1.6.0 TLS, 1.6.1 LTS and 1.6.2 LTS are no longer available. If you’re searching for those versions of our software (which we do not recommend), you can download ModernBB 1.6.0, 1.6.1 or 1.6.2. However, at least ModernBB 1.6.3 would be a better idea.

The only difference between 1.6.0, 1.6.1 a,d 1.6.2s LTS and original version is the file it compares it’s version with. While the original version would ward you for ModernBB 2.0.0 and later being available, the LTS versions will warn you for a newer 1.6 release being available. Since 1.6.3, we only release versions that compare towards the 1.6-branch. We think it’s pointless to keep those version on the site, when they making it harder for us to keep track on things.

Anyway, todays site update doesn’t only remove things, we’ve added stuff too! The FAQ has been updated, we’ve added information about ModernBB 3.0 on our About page, we also added other milestones. The type of milestones are no longer showed, however. We’ve also updated our feature list and the ModernBB.be home page. Enjoy!

A new ModernBB.be

For the first time since April 2013, when ModernBB 1.6-beta was released, our very first beta, we’ve developed the website from scratch. What? Yes, indeed, we’ve worked on our website the last couple of weeks, during development of ModernBB 2.2 and here it is. When you visit our home page, you will find yourself on a brand new website.

Our new website is visual more appealing. The new design is supposed to give a cleaner look. We’ve kept the most important elements from our old website and used them again in today’s update. We’ve redesigned the home page to be a portal to other pages on the site. This is important for the accessability of ModernBB and all available resources. Talking about resources: we’ve some good news here too!

We’ve added a Development center (you can find it in the “Develop” menu item). Here, you can find resources to develop your own style and plugin. For designers, we’ve got a structure-only CSS-file ready for use to base your styles on. For developers that like to create plugins, we’ve updated the Example plugin from ModernBB 1.6 to work with ModernBB 2.1 and 2.2. The Developer center also gives access to the ModernBB changelog, source and bugtracker. The “About” and “Download” section are mostly the same. While the “Docs” section has been updated on its markup.

And maybe the most important update of all: ModernBB.be is finaly responsive with this update! It’s about time, I know. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the new website. More updates will be added later on, including a styles repository.

Our first patchround is coming!
In other news, in 8 days, 10 December 2013, we will have our first patch round. Starting that day, we will update ModernBB on a schedul, every March, June, September and December, the second Tuesday of the month. This month, we will release ModernBB 1.6.4 LTS, 2.0.2, 2.1.2 and 2.2.2 (yes, another update for ModernBB 2.2). For both ModernBB 2.0 and 2.1, this will be the last update before going EOL. Support for ModernBB 1.6 and 2.2 will continue, while we’re working on ModernBB 3 (and start working on 1.6.5 LTS and 2.2.3). However, before that (and 10 December) we still have 39 tickets to close (majorty in 1.6.4 and 2.2.2).

Moving to a better license

Some of you might know, ModernBB 1.6 is developed under the GPL v2 license, just like FluxBB. For ModernBB 2.0, we moved to GPL v3. A decision I do regret. So, with ModernBB 3, I’m going to fix this! We’ll move to another license, away from GPL (and with that, away from a FSF-licese). We’re moving to the way better MIT license.

When you compare MIT to GPL (no matter which version), you will have more feeling to read the MIT license then the GPL license. While GPL v3 has 5644 words in it, MIT has only 171 words, better to read, isn’t it. Also, the MIT license allows some more thing to happen with the ModernBB source. Anyway, you are still required to leave the copyrights as-is.

The commit that will switch our license to MIT will be pushed today to the version3.0 branch and will also update the copyright notation on top of every file to 2014. Also, if you want to read the licenses ModernBB is released under, you can find all information you need on our brand new licenses page. We’ve published both GPL v2, GPL v3 and MIT on this page for respectivly ModernBB 1.6, 2.0/2.1/2.2 and 3.0.

ModernBB 3.3 beta now available

In the past 39 days, we’ve been hard at work to bring you a better forum experience, and today, we think it’s beta-ready. The ModernBB 3.3 beta has arrived and it comes with some nice new and improved features, new styles, bugfixes and a lot more. We’ve also finished a nice little update for our website.

First of all: the ModernBB 3.3 beta can be downloaded from the index and download section on our website, like always. We recommend you to use this version for development and testing purpose only as this isn’t a stable release. ModernBB 3.3 Final will be available begin next month. A Release Candidate can be expected early next week.

Anyway, what does the new beta bring? Well, compared to the alpha release, I’m proud to announce the availability of Shy, Pinkie and Luna, 3 new styles that join the group of Random-styles. We’ve also finished our redesign of the Backstage style Aurora 5, which is now final. The Backstage has also been improved with some little features here and there: search results for users now have a hover effect and are striped to make it more clear what user you’re working with. The color of the Backstage can also be changed in your profile, where the “Backstage Style” feature was, we’ve replaced it with “Backstage Color”. Also, the editors that can use it, have been enhanced with the TinyMCE editor.

Futher on, names are now clickable in the board index and category view. Topics are styles better, idem dito for previews of new posts. We’ve improved the integration with TinyMCE, and so on. We’ve updated all of the included packages: Bootstrap, jQuery and TinyMCE all have been updated to their latest version, Bootstrap is currently the only unstable package in ModernBB, being version 3.2-dev. The most important change of all, might be the fact that the style engine has been redesigned completely. This includes the settings page (which is now a separate page) in the Backstage as well as the template and style system itselfs. This allows much more customization.

More information about the new features can be found at our changelog or the ModernBB 3.3 Shiplist.

Known issues in ModernBB 3.3 beta

  • When reporting posts, they do not appear in the Backstage making it impossible to manage
  • Videos can’t be added
  • The TinyMCE editor adds multiple spaces under headings, through they are gone when posting the post
  • Guests can’t post topics

Website update
We’ve also taken our time to update the website. Let me list them, note that some of the updates where already available, those are marked with a *.

  • More colorfull headers through accents in the background*
  • The footer now contains some stats about ModernBB*
  • The documentation has been updated to miror ModernBB 3.3
  • The documentation has been completed
  • Changelog pages now contain a navigation bar to navigate between versions
  • The FAQ has been updated
  • Small style improvements

Improving ModernBB.be

In the past couple of weeks, you’ve seen us do some changes to the ModernBB website. We redesigned and rewrote our changelogs, updated the style, reverted that update again… Updated our documentation. Changed our footer, etc. We did some nice small improvement. But all this where just minor enhandements and part of the update that rolles out today too ModernBB.be. Let me show you what’s new (this includes changes from the past weeks)!

Updated design
After the rollout of the design conventions we had to follow from the 384 Group, some changes where made to allow us to be more ourselves. And well, we’ve used that opportunity. The ModernBB website has got a little redesign. The navbar is part of that. We also updated the page headers, buttons, etc. When you’re visiting the changelog, the color of the design will change into that release’s color (every major update gets a color from us). The navbar now also includes a link to GitHub and Twitter, which are removed from the sidebar in the About section. And perhaps most important: our brand is now always visible in the navbar, no matter what page you’re on, no matter what devices you’re using.

New changelog
The changelogs have been enhanced a while back already, through we haven’t stopped there. Patch releases are now included in the major releases. The changelogs are now also more friendly. Starting from the changelog for ModernBB 3.3, we also take another style of logging our changes. We’ve also added an easier way to navigate the changelog by adding a link to every version on top of the page.

Removing the dev center
The dev center has also been removed. The pages in this section, however, are still there. The Changelog has been replaced to the About section, the style and modification page has been removed as they where already copies of the documentation, and the contributing to ModernBB and Tickets pages are moved to the documentation.

Features list
It’s time to end an area. We’ve officialy removed all information about ModernBB 1.6, most visible change is its removal from the features-page. Instead, we’ve added Luna to this list, as that is our next major point in development. We’ll update the feature list for Luna soon. We’re planning to remove ModernBB 2.2 from that list in the near future too, at the same time as the first alpha release of Luna will be released.

Documentation update
We’ve also updated our documentation, not only did we add new pages, we’re back to the per-version documentation. The documentation for both 3.3 and dev are now available in our documentation section. We also cleaned up a bit, improved the navigation, etc. We’ll keep providing information on older versions of ModernBB, however, that doesn’t mean those versions are still supported. We’ll keep the documentation for the at least the 2 latest stable releases up, starting from version 3.3, and the development release.

Forum
We’ve also, finaly, started working on integrating the design of our forum with the website (which I haven’t much time for, but it has to be done…). This integration, however, will end with some nice new integration abbilities in ModernBB, which could be part of ModernBB 3.4 or 3.5. Anyway, expect a global design for our whole site somewhere in the future!

Update – Our forums are now using the updated design! Enjoy!

ModernBB 3.4
Meanwhille, we’ve, of course, worked on our ModernBB 3.4 release. Some of you might be following this on GitHub. And it has to be said: we’re making very nice improvements. The new and enhanced editor is a blast! The updated parser works nicely, the improved integration of YouTube, DailyMotion and Vimeo works great. We’ve got some awesome new settings. The Cookie bar will get your site EU-ready, we reduced the size of the package, we’ve been fixing bugs… Yep, it’s a beautiful time. Anyway, expect a ModernBB 3.4 beta to be released soon, followed by the ModernBB 3.4.0 release 1ste July!

Round-up #14 – Let’s do a round-up about round-ups & more useful stuff

Well, it’s a very active month, I guess. It has been quite in the round-up category for a couple of weeks, and now, we’ve posted 3 posts in less then a week in it. This time, I want to spend some time to round-up all round-ups and talk about some more recent changes.

ModernBB.be blog
First of all, you probably noticed our completely redesigned blog. This is done as part of the 384 Group design and code conventions. The style blends in way better then our previous one. That’s clear. Anyway, you can’t access all posts very easy now, and comments aren’t available either (so is a sidebar and pagination). Those are things we will add later on. For now, you’ll have to deal with the stuff we got. At least, it’s now responsive and faster.

ModernBB is a growing platform
Perhaps you noticed on the ModernBB Twitter feed, but the first tutorial about ModernBB that isn’t from the 384 Group was posted yesterday on YouTube. A nice “thank you” to the people over at Coder’s Guide. What does this mean to ModernBB, you ask? Well, since yesterday, the amount of downloads is growing faster then before, and I’m prety sure we can thank this video for that. The fact that ModernBB has now a third-party tutorial, is great. On the other hand, the people at Wikipedia think we are also worth to have a page there. So, if that thing is running behind, update it! All of this is proof that we are actualy getting somewhere, we’re growing, and that’s great and prety important for a community.

For the mather, as part of the 384 Group coding and design conventions, ModernBB is going to get some official brand assets. This means that, very soon, an updated to our website will add a new “Brand Assets” page to the “About” section, here, you can find all of our logos (which means, all color schemes). You will be able to use those logos wherever you think you want to mention us. As much as possible, ofcourse. :)

ModernBB 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5
In the 4 upcoming feature releases, we will spend a lot of time on modernizing the interface of ModernBB. 3.2, 3.4 and 3.5 will focus on the front-end. While 3.3 will focus on the Backstage. The 3.2 updated is planned for late May. 3.3 should be here early this summer. We hope to get 3.5 out before the end of the year. 3.6 and onwards will focus on making ModernBB a platform with modern features, as we will put some work in a better template system and a plugin system (again). Another feature that is being worked on right now, is a fancy new update system that allows you to update ModernBB right from the Backstage with a click on a button.

That doesn’t mean that 3.2 until 3.5 will only focus on design, we’re also adding new features and improving others, just no big feature updates, unless realy required, or if I finish the new styling system and plugin system before the time it was planned. The development of both those features will start shortly and have their own branch and milestone on our GitHub project.

Looking for developers
If anyone is intrested in developing ModernBB: good news. Since I’m the only developer, I’m looking for people that can join me in creating a better piece of forum software. How can you get started? Join our forum, create a GitHub account (if you don’t have one yet), push some nice improvements to our repository, etc. If you’re good at that, I’ll add you to our team so you can claim some tickets for yourself.

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