after some months of development I have decided to release a new beta to test the new features included in Icy Phoenix.
What's New
- CMS Administration recoded with new features (some AJAX) and restyled
- CMS Blocks and Layouts recoded from scratch to increase flexibility and performance (now block style is in a single file to help designing new styles)
- New template structure: it is now possible to create brand new templates by just creating a CSS and a CFG file, this will reduce the number of files needed for each template, reducing also the job in case of updates or customizations; not only, you will be able to easily create combinations between different templates without having to duplicate directory structure
- Common CMS and ACP templates now fully independent from all other templates
- Common JS and CSS in common folder and possibility to include extra CSS and JS via PHP without editing TPL
- Some Functions and other common includes splitted among several files to reduce memory charge and increase performance
- Created new overall vars and switches to increase flexibility and performances (old switches were based upon loops, new ones are based on conditions, which are faster to be processed)
- English language files grammatically reviewed (thanks Lopalong!) and in some cases updated to the new phpBB 3 format
- New Junior Admin permission which gives full admin power while in the forum but restricted in ACP and CMS (ACP modules can be assigned via Junior Admin management and CMS permission for CMS management)
- Brand new Statistics system which integrates new features and replace also old Site History page
- Bots Parsing now is DB dependent and bots can now have REG access... also you can now add a switch for bots in TPL files to avoid bots spidering something you don't want them to
- URL Rewrite modified to be more efficient
- Print Page improved
- Added Google Search page to be used alternatively the standard search system, this will reduce the charge on your server
- Colorize username function recoded to reduce looping and cache issues with a large userbase
- Recoded caching system which in older Icy Phoenix version was proved to fail for high traffic sites: this new way to cache should be more efficient and should reduce CPU charge under stressing condition
- Birthdays and Calendar should now use less resources than before, again big sites will benefit from this
- New CRON system which should be easier to be customized and improved... basic functions already added, new features to come with future versions...
- Created new user related functions to simplify Icy Phoenix integration and coding: user_get_avatar, build_im_link, PM Class, generate_user_info
- AJAX Sorting in some ACP and CMS pages to speed up things in administrating things
- New Recent function allowing admins to track latest users activity
- Forums Sorting capabilities both by adding alphabetical sorts and columns headers links
- Higher Lang Encoding compatibility
- Mass PM feature integrated in Mass Email section
- Brand new Ads and Banners system
- Many smaller updates and features... install the beta to discover all of them!
Support
Regarding the support for beta, I'll quote phpBB beta release statement:
Acyd Burn wrote:
Please note that if you decide to install this package or upgrade your existing site into live environments, you do it at your own risk... and you may not be able to recover your all datas in case something goes wrong. Do it only if you know really well what you are doing.
As usual, no code changes will be released, and won't probably be released for any version in the future. This is because the package is quite huge and writing code changes requires much time: as I already said in the past, I prefer to focus my free time on developing the package instead of writing huge code changes that could be difficult to be applied. Trust me, in most cases it is quicker to replace old files with new ones and reapply eventually added mods (you should take note of the mods you have applied). My efforts will be dedicated to the upgrade procedures to allow you to upgrade your sites with the smallest unexpected issues.
Anyway for final release, I'll try to provide a changed files package and a small template changes guide... or at least a list with the changed files for those who have modded their site or released templates. I'll try to give translators a list of changed files as well.
Available Packages
Since this is a beta package, I prefer to release an all in one package which includes in several folders all the extras and templates. I know that this means having a bigger file, but I don't want users trying to install extras in the latest stable release, because with high probability modifications for older Icy Phoenix versions won't work in newer releases, because of the new modifications I made to the core files.
Currently available is only a single big pack.
Icy Phoenix 1.2.18.45 Beta 1
Package Name: Icy Phoenix
Package Version: 1.2.18.45 Beta 1
Release Spot: Pay attention to $_REQUEST parsing...
DOWNLOAD: Icy Phoenix 1.2.18.45 Beta 1
Package Version: 1.2.18.45 Beta 1
Release Spot: Pay attention to $_REQUEST parsing...
DOWNLOAD: Icy Phoenix 1.2.18.45 Beta 1
Should you ask for support, please remember 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.
Enjoy Icy Phoenix!
Luca Libralato
