Vikingboard

Vikingboard 0.2 Beta released!

jorgis — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:36:07 +0000

It’s been over a year since the last release of Vikingboard, and from the outside, there don’t seem to have happened much since then. Wrong. While we haven’t released a new version or made any big announcement, we’ve been happily hacking away at the source code all the time, working towards the next big release. And here it is. Vikingboard 0.2 Beta is now released, get it here.

Vikingboard 0.2 brings with it a lot of changes, way too many to be described here in detail. Some changes are at the core of Vikingboard and are probably only recognized (and much appreciated) by those hacking away at the source code, but some changes - like the new snazzy interface - is more obvious. A short list of changes is shown below:

Rewritten database driver, cache system and session/user handler
A new, more visually appealing design
Theme and language selection on a per-user basis
A custom error handler has been added
Basic topic moderation options has been added (open/close and sticky/unstick)
Custom BBCode
Passwords are now seeded

A bunch of other usability improvements as well as security improvements (too many to mention) is included. The Vikingboard development team is confident that Vikingboard 0.2 marks the entry into direct competition with the other big discussion board solutions out there, while still representing something different.

Note that this is a Beta release, and will have bugs (both known and unknown), so we don’t recommend using this on production sites. We would still appreciate if you took the time to download and test Vikingboard 0.2 Beta, and then report back any bugs or annoyances you encounter. Remember to read the list of known bugs (located in the download archive) before submitting a bug report.

If you discover any bugs in this release, please submit a bug report at the Bugtracker, including info about what platform/OS you are running Vikingboard on, and what version of PHP and MySQL you are using.

Vikingboard joins the GoPHP5 initiative

jorgis — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 22:40:30 +0000

The first beta release of PHP 5.0.0 was released on June 29th 2003, now over four years ago. I remember when PHP 5 was still in the betas, I read articles telling me about all the great new features that would make my life as web application developer so much easier. Now, four years later, I still dream about using those features. PHP 5 still has only a market share of below 20%, and thus we cannot make use of PHP 5’s features for the sake of backwards compatibility (BC) with PHP 4.

The problem is that since no web developer can afford to block out 80% of his potential users, more or less all web applications now has to support PHP 4, leaving no incentive for web hosts to upgrade to a more recent PHP version. We - along with the rest of the GoPHP5 initiative - believe that a group effort is required to force web hosts into adopting and upgrading to PHP 5. If enough software throws away their BC with PHP 4, web hosts will be forced to upgrade. Combine GoPHP5 with the recent announcement from the PHP team that PHP4 soon reaches end-of-life (EOL), and we are really getting confident that this will work.

The Vikingboard development team has therefore decided to join GoPHP5, and as a consequence, we will start accepting features that require PHP5 into our codebase starting with the development of Vikingboard 0.3. The upcoming Vikingboard 0.2 release will not require PHP5, and users who cannot upgrade for some reason is better off sticking to the 0.2 branch, which will be supported until the release of 0.3, some six months later.

Writing the forum rules, what should be included?

Marius — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:31:35 +0000

We are in the final stages of the Vikingboard 0.2.0 development, and would like to hear your thoughts about a default set of forum rules and guidelines. So head over to our forums and drop us a line or two.

Writing the forum rules, what should be included?

Comments are closed for this post. Use the forum to reply.

Woha, 2k downloads!

Marius — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:40:22 +0000

Time to pop open the Champagne, bring out the gigantic cakes and fire up some fireworks!

Ok, maybe not such a big deal if you compare the number to something like the download numbers of WordPress or phpBB, but to us it’s a milestone, if not only a small one. Vikingboard has been downloaded over two thousand times and we don’t even think Vikingboard 0.1.2 is something you should use in a production environment! So indeed, to us it’s a big deal, and we hope that later releases of Vikingboard are to be downloaded, and used, even more.

There are some sites that use Vikingboard 0.1.2 and are happy with that, but 0.2 has even more happyness to bring. Prepare for the most stable and best build of Vikingboard yet (I sound like a crappy advertisement, I know)! It will be something we are proud of making, and the first Vikingboard we will reccommend in a production environment. So that is indeed a big thing for us.

There’s still a lot of work to do, but we are getting closer by the day. Take a look at the roadmap to see what 0.2 will have to offer.

Wordpress 2.1

Marius — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 21:50:00 +0000

Finally upgraded from Wordpress 1.5.something to the new and nifty 2.1. What annoyed me most about 1.5 was that Askimet, the lovely spam plugin, required 2.x, and we got tons of spam. Every day. Spam just takes the fun out of blogging, but that will hopefully get better now :) And if you discover any weird stuff after the upgrade, just give us a tap on the shoulder.

Vikingboard 0.2 is doing some progress, and I’m currently working with the new design which is much simpler, cleaner and leaner than the one used in old 0.1. So here you go, a little sneak peak of the new template. It’s not finished, but you can see where it’s going. A lot of other sweet stuff is being put into 0.2 at this moment, and I can guarantee you that 0.2 will be a very exciting release.

Check out the latest build from SVN if you are interested, and feel free to comment on everything you like and dislike. Note that a lot may be broken in the latest trunk, so if something seems horribly broken, we probably know about it already.

Development update, week 50

Marius — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 18:58:58 +0000

It’s been some time since our last update, but here it is.

We are still working with the core rewrites, which took a lot more work than we originally thought. The database, template and cache drivers are as good as finished, there’s not much left. Now we’re mostly porting old db and template code used in the main files to the new rewritten core. One of the things I personally like the most about these updates is the support for if/else-structures in the templates, which will probably enable us to get rid of some unnecessary code.

Another new thing is the new directory structure. In previous versions, the static files (JavaScript, CSS, images) were spread throughout the file tree, but now we have organized them neatly in the static/{$skin_id}/ folder. Each template set (skin/theme if you like) will have it’s own CSS, images, JavaScripts and smilies, and every template can access the global variable {$skin_id} for easier template coding.

Tor is currently changing the variable syntax in templates from the crappy old {$data['something']} (not fun to write a hundred times) to the new and neat {$something} (Smarty-style!). The language strings will also be available in the templates, so a lot of the code we earlier put in the $html[] arrays are now gone or moved, reducing the total amount of code clutter.

So even though it doesn’t look like we are doing something, we’ve really done quite a lot since 0.1.2. Jørgen is also sort of working on a 0.1.3, a security update, and may be right around the corner.

Most of us have been busy at school lately, so that’s reducing our ability to spend time on Vikingboard, especially now that everyone has a lot of midterm exams. Thanks for keeping an eye on us, we hope to have Vikingboard 0.2.0 out soon. :)

Vikingboard 0.1.2 released

jorgis — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 22:57:14 +0000

Vikingboard 0.1.2 has now been released, and should be available for download right now. Vikingboard 0.1.2 is merely an intermittent release to get rid of a few bugs that existed in version 0.1.1, while not making you wait too long for 0.2, and as such, the changelog will be short;

Changelog:

Fixed bug 1569103: “deleting a topic messes up last post”.
Fixed a fatal error in the Member list, causing it to be blank in boards with more than 50 members.
Fixed some permissions issues (missing g_can_delete_own_topics, and wrong default values), causing trouble when users delete their own topics and posts.
Fixed bug 1583171: “Reporting posts does not require the user to log in”.
Fixed bug 1586269: “topic/forum subscriptions mail is empty”.

The release of Vikingboard 0.2 will be a few months in the future, as we are planning to do some major restructuring in it’s core, as well as introducing a whole lot of exciting, new features. The Team are confident that 0.2 will be the best Vikingboard to date, and we hope that our users will experience this first-hand when we release 0.2.0 in a few months. :-)

Development update, week 42

Marius — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 13:09:27 +0000

New backend

Much of the backend is being rewritten at the moment, Tor is doing a great job with the drivers. The database driver is as good as finished, and the cache driver is beeing worked on. The template system is also scheduled to get a major overhaul. All of this should make Vikingboard perform even better, as well as being easier to code. So during the next weeks, we probably won’t be doing anything but porting old Vikingboard code to the new “kernel”. How fun!

A designer

We’ve been waiting for this a long time now, but finally we’ve gotten a designer on the team. We never were quite happy with the current forum design, but that will hopefully change by the time Vikingboard 0.2 gets out. I’ll post an update when we’ve settled with a design.

Anything else?

Well, I’ve gotten a new iPod, but that’s probably not relevant.
Oh, and by the way, we’ve just had our first “official” IRL developer meeting. Some of us, anyway. Jørgen, Robin and I attended to a LAN here in Bergen, Norway a couple of weeks ago, and had a really good time. Among others, we discussed many of the new features that are going into Vikingboard 0.2, as well as stuff further in to the future. Too bad Tor couldn’t come, but apparently, he would rather meet his girlfriend than discuss nerdy stuff with us. That bastard.

Vikingboard 0.1.1 released!

jorgis — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 17:15:35 +0000

Finally, after a few months since our last release (we originally said we would release 0.1.1 in “a few weeks”…), Vikingboard 0.1.1 is now officially released. More stable and more feature-rich than ever, we are happy to announce what we believe is the best Vikingboard version ever released (yet).

Get Vikingboard 0.1.1 here

Changelog:

Admin CP has undergone major changes:
- Full-featured forum management
- Rewritten user management
- Board backup
- Help pages
- Site config
- The much-demanded post-report management
- General UI tweaks and fiddling
Forum/topic subscriptions added in User CP
General UI tweaks and stuff
Enormous amounts of fixed bugs, (vulnerabilities) and annoyances
Somewhat improved performance
Norwegian translation added

Check our sourceforge.net project page to report bugs or submit feature requests. We are very happy for your comments and thoughts, regardless if you like it or not. If you have anything to say, don’t hesitate to say a few words at the community forum.

Note: The demo will be up soon. Until then, try it out by joining the community forum.

Blog comments are now opened again

Marius — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 19:33:17 +0000

Today, we have deleted our “Article discussions”-forum from our community forums. Comments to articles should now be posted directly to the article, just as it used to be a while ago. Comments from a user (thanks Ben) made us do this change, and we do agree with him when he said that the “old way” was a bit clumsy.

Another thing we are going to do, is to add a demo forum as soon as Vikingboard 0.1.1 is finished. Which will be within days, if everything goes as planned. As mentioned in the forums, 0.1.1 contains mostly bugfixes, but also some new features that we were just to impatient to implent into Vikingboard 0.1(b). Around 5000 lines of code has been written since 0.1b. Until then, our community forums is as close you can get to a demo without downloading Vikingboard and install it yourself.

As you can see of todays little changes, user comments are very useful to us, as it is you who are ultimatly going to be using our software. We like feedback, good or bad, as long as it constructive, so do not hesitate with sending us an email. It will most liklely help us writing better software.

I would also like to mention that we will become better at updating you guys about what we are doing. I know that there have been very few updates latly, but that is now a thing of the past :)