Hi all.

While debugging Icy Phoenix before going final, I've decided to launch another project which may helps users to customize their sites.

The aim of this project is to provide some online tools to customize the design of this package.

In particular I would like to offer a real time customizing tool for:

• Buttons
  
• Ranks
  
• Template specific graphics elements
  
• Avatars
  
• Userbars
  
• Extras

At the moment I've just coded some core functions and I've decided to beta test them online with your help. Most of the features (many of them are still to be defined) will be designed and coded after the final release.

The name of the new project is CustomIcy and currently I've enabled two tools:

• CustomIcy Buttons
  
• CustomIcy Ranks

The usage is really simple... I'm sure you will understand it quickly...

I would like you to test these features and tell me what do you think about it. Awaiting your feedbacks...



Luca Libralato



P.S.: of course you are welcome to create some new graphics to be included in the tools.

Hi all,
I'm proud to announce the first Release Candidate of Icy Phoenix.

What's new in respect to latest beta.

• All template files reviewed and improved W3C compliance. Most important pages are now fully W3C compliant.
  
• Reduced the SQL charge on all the pages.
  
• Dropped the main IP config table and merged with standard config table.
  
• Blocks lang files removed and merged into one single file (thanks brandsrus).
  
• Overall code cleaning and optimization.
  
• Written some docs.
  
• Completed the CMS Menu System.
  
• Added some check while registering.
  
• Caching of some extra SQL for improving speed.
  
• Added extra switches and constants.
  
• Splitted some lang files to help customizations.

Bugs fixed:

• Custom profile fields while registering.
  
• Wrong BBCode parsing under certain conditions.
  
• Wrong caching instructions.
  
• Some bugs in CMS.
  
• Extended config double db insertion.
  
• Wrong html headers.
  
• Missing CSS definitions.
  
• Fixed wrong sessions handling.
  
• Many small bugs.

This package should be quite stable: I'm testing it on 4 different sites since a couple of weeks, and as for now I didn't notice any major issue.

I've compared the new performances with the old versions and with some competitors... I won't go further into results and names... but I'm quite happy with all the good results achieved by Icy Phoenix. I've also installed phpBB 3 on a test site (since yesterday night in phpBB 3 CVS there is the new proSilver template!) to check performances, and phpBB 3 is really fast respect to Icy Phoenix... but on the other side it has less features.

Anyway I'm still working on performances and I hope to have something a bit faster before going final... in the meantime, try Fast And Furious settings in ACP...

As I have promised I have written some docs to help users in understanding Icy Phoenix and in installing and upgrading their sites.

Here you'll have some of them:

• Overview
  
  Spoiler: [ Show ]

  Spoiler: [ Hide ]

  Readme
  
  
• Requirements
  
  Spoiler: [ Show ]

  Spoiler: [ Hide ]

  Readme
  
  
• Fresh Installation
  
  Spoiler: [ Show ]

  Spoiler: [ Hide ]

  Readme
  
  
• Upgrade From phpBB
  
  Spoiler: [ Show ]

  Spoiler: [ Hide ]

  Readme
  
  
• Upgrade From phpBB XS
  
  Spoiler: [ Show ]

  Spoiler: [ Hide ]

  Readme
  
  
• Upgrade From Icy Phoenix 1.0.9.9 Beta
  
  Spoiler: [ Show ]

  Spoiler: [ Hide ]

  Readme
  
  

You may also refer to this file for all these info:
http://www.icyphoenix.com/docs/readme_english.html

It will be translated soon into other languages.


And finally here is the download link:



During the Release Candidate testing, we will try to do our best to support this package. Should you ask for support, please consider that this is an open source community and me and all the Staff are doing all for free and in their spare time... be kind, be patient and respect other users efforts and hard work.

In these days I'll add some extra templates and addons in the Download section... Stay tuned!


It's quite late for me... so I won't add anything else...

I would like just to wish you an Happy Easter (for those who believe) to you and your family.

Enjoy Icy Phoenix!
Luca Libralato



Of course a big thank you to the Staff!

Hi All,
since I'm going to release the first RC of Icy Phoenix I've decided to starting to release even some customization package...

Here are the ratings stars and the ranks I have designed for this site.

The format is multilayer PSD so you can easily adjust them in Photoshop and then use the Save For Web feature to create your own graphic for your sites.

I hope you like it and you will share your work as well.

Here is the link:

http://www.icyphoenix.com/dload.php?action=category&cat_id=11


Enjoy Icy Phoenix.

Hi all,
I'm proud to announce that Icy Phoenix has come to the final testing phase.

I've fixed some small issues I wanted to fix, I've created a couple of new templates, some new graphics and some minor functions.

I'm testing live here and on another couple of sites this version of the package which will be released as RC version in few days.

I still need to finish testing the new menu system: I've completed it at 80% and I need to test only all its features and permissions things... and complete what is missed (only minor things).

Before going live with the final release I need help in writing the documentation for this new package.

It is not the first time I ask for help for this task, which I know it is boring, not fun and requires a big amount of time, but it is almost essential.

Having a good docs package it will:

• Save much time to everyone is going to help me in supporting Icy Phoenix
  
• Save much time to users who don't know this package
  
• Save much time to me so I can keep coding instead of taking snapshots and describe actions in HTML
  
• Give professional look to the package

If anyone is interested in helping me in writing docs, please drop me a PM so I can coordinate the work between the Staff.

20 peoples writing docs may work for one week and write almost everything is needed...
One people writing docs will stop the development of the project, because if I have to write all the docs, than I have no time to code, to fix bugs and to release a final version.

So if your english is good, if you have even only a couple of hours of time, if you like this project and if you want to contribute to this open source project, please join the Docs group.

Subscriptions are open...

Thank you for your help.


Luca Libralato

Hi all.

In one day I have edited something like 284 files of Icy Phoenix , and now I can say that the RC version is really near.

I need about a week of testing all the things I've changed and then I think I'll create the first RC of Icy Phoenix!

Many bugs fixed and some other functions created and optimized. Plus thanks to Steffen I've almost finished the Icy template... I need to change only a couple of images I don't like... but 95% of the Icy TPL is completed.

Try the new AJAX Chat... I've worked very hard on it... but I think now we have somethin better than chatbox...

Finally I would like just you to know that I'm learning AJAX so you'll notice some AJAX features installed: most of them taken from AJAX Features mod, but some small one coded by me... I hope that everything is working fine even for browsers which are not the two big one FF and IE. If you encounter some issues just drop me a note.

Help me testing this version live on this site, so we can have a more stable RC.


Thank you all and see you soon with RC.
Luca


P.S.: this site is now running live 1.0.10.10.

Hi all,
here is the second beta release of Icy Phoenix.

Click here to have some general info about Icy Phoenix.
Click here for some extra info about the beta testing phase.

Since latest beta many bugs have been fixed thanks to your contribution. Unfortunately, due to lack of time I didn't keep track of all the changes, because when I have free time I prefer to code instead of writing docs which are not so important after all.

This package includes also some new features and some improvements on the CMS system which will be the core of Icy Phoenix.

Some new implementations...

• BBCodes and smileys boxes reorganized for easy and better integration among all the site (now all editing windows should have the same layout).
  
• Some CMS blocks have been improved and now most of the blocks work fine even if included multiple times.
  
• CMS section improved to facilitate user access and understanding on how the CMS works.
  
• Some mods and functions updated for security reasons and code optimizations.
  
• Page Header rewritten from scratch and code optimized: now page loading should be faster.
  
• Some extra switches added in ACP.

What needs to be completed is:

• CMS permission level
  
• Dynamic menu (possibility to create menu and menu items in the CMS section)
  
• Ice Template

As usual... Even if this package is quite stable I would suggest you to install it on live environments only if you are quite good PHP and phpBB. During the beta testing period only a limited support (focused exclusively on fixing bugs) will be given on Icy Phoenix. If you are trying to upgrade your existing sites to this release you should consider that the final release may not contain upgrading instructions from this beta. Remember also that the old upgrading instructions won't work fine because the structure of the package has been changed... You have been warned...

Thank you for your cooperation and a big thank you to the whole Staff.

---

---

EDIT 2007/03/08 00.45 CET

Added some small modifications and fixes:

• Fixed album auth
  
• Fixed KB images in ACP
  
• Rewritten BOTS parsing function (should be optimized for quick parsing and BOT are parsed only once on index)
  
• Added a couple of functions to improve code modularity
  
• Fixed some small issues with calendar
  
• Removed URL rewriting for portal news
  
• Other small fixes

Hi all.

I'm finishing working on the CMS system to improve it and to make it as useful and flexible as possible.

I will try to create some pages to show what you can do with this new system, and I'll add the link here.

This post may be then used as a reference for creating new pages when Icy Phoenix will be out... and I may even consider to include here the SQL for the pages I'm creating.

Pages List

• Blog like page... http://www.icyphoenix.com/index.php?page=8
  
• Random topics supporting attachments... (useful for advertisements, or random messages from some forums)... http://www.icyphoenix.com/index.php?page=9

If you try to use these pages, please report any error you will find.

Thanks for your help and cooperation.

Hi all.
Now it's time for FAP 1.4.1, which fixes some issues found in FAP 1.4.0.



How to upgrade from FAP 1.4.0... click SHOW for step by step instructions!



Enjoy FAP 1.4.1!