The Official vBulletin Modifications Site.

vBulletin Project Tools 2.0.0 Beta 2

It's time for another Project Tools 2.0 beta release. This release contains bug fixes for issues reported in the previous beta. We recommend anyone using Project Tools 2.0.0 Beta 1 upgrade to avoid running into known issues.

The standard installation/upgrade instructions apply.

Note: You must be running vBulletin 3.7.0 or later to install any Project Tools 2.0.0 Beta/Stable release!

New Features in Project Tools 2.0
You can read details in my previous announcement or in my blog.

Significance of a Beta Release
This is beta software. If you are not fully at home with backing-up and restoring your forum, dealing with bugs and regular upgrades, do not install this beta version.

Customers should bear in mind that this is a public beta, not a certified 'stable' release so the following caveats apply:

• Beta software is unsupported and you install beta versions at your own risk.
• Some minor bugs remain unresolved at this time, so beta software should not be on production sites.
• You should always back up your database fully before attempting to install beta software.
• If you choose to install this version, you should be aware that we plan to release new beta versions in rapid succession as bugs are fixed and holes are plugged. Do not install this beta version if you are not willing or able to keep up-to-date with new releases.

About Project Tools

Project Tools is a versatile add-on product that enhances vBulletin with project management functionality, empowering your community members to create projects, contribute to tasks, submit issues and view progress of projects. Seamless integration with vBulletin ensures maximum usability, and an administration suite within the vBulletin control panel allows full customization of projects, issues, tasks and user permissions.

Project Tools is ideal for any community that shares a common goal - from developing software, keeping track of servers, writing a play, exhibiting at a trade show or building a car!

• Find out more about Project Tools and watch a video overview
• View the Project Tools' manual
• See Project Tools in action on the vBulletin.com community forums

More...

vBulletin Development Update

Things have never been busier for the vBulletin development team. The whole team is working flat-out writing specifications and code for new features and we are actively looking for and hiring new talent to assist us in this task.

With all this activity, now seems as good a time as any to talk a little about what is coming up.

Project Tools 2.0, Blog 2.0

The first things you'll see are new versions of Project Tools and Blog (both version 2.0). Those keeping up with the developer blog or the bug tracker will already know a fair bit about these two updates. The Project Tools update is already running in a beta form here on vBulletin.com, and is available to download from the Members' area. Blog 2.0 will follow in the coming weeks.

vBulletin 3.8

A little later this year, you will get your first look at vBulletin 3.8 here on vBulletin.com. While primary development efforts are focused on vBulletin 4, we felt that there is still mileage in vBulletin 3.x, so vBulletin 3.8 is a new feature release, designed to extend and improve some of the functionality introduced in vBulletin 3.7, while adding some additional goodies that we're sure people will appreciate while they wait for the arrival of vBulletin 4.

We will release more information about vBulletin 3.8 over the next few weeks, but here are a few choice morsels to whet your appetites:

Social Group Discussion Topics
This is probably the most-requested feature since the introduction of social groups in vBulletin 3.7. While the current 'social group messages' system allows messages to be posted to a social group, unlike forums it does not allow messages to be divided up into discussions. vBulletin 3.8 rectifies this, and social groups in 3.8 now have the ability to contain individual topics, each with reporting, inline moderation and many of the other tools one would expect from vBulletin.

Private Messaging Improvements
Since vBulletin 3.0, the private messaging system has remained largely unchanged. vBulletin 3.8 sees a number of changes and improvements to make the system easier to use and manage.

We have added Quick Reply to the private message viewing page, removing the need for a visit to a separate interface.
Users now have the ability to change the sort order in private message folders from the existing date-newest-first default.
In order to find what you are looking for more quickly and easily, there's now an inline search system too.

Also, as an anti-spam measure, it's now possible to limit the number of private messages any user may send in a given period of time.

Most Recently-Updated Albums
Bringing users' album pictures out of the dark recesses of their profile, vBulletin 3.8 has a system to display the most recently-updated albums from all users in a unified interface. Now everyone will know when your members upload new pictures!

Moving Album Pictures
It's now possible to move pictures from one album to another, rather than having to delete and reupload.

Thread Prefix Permissions
For those who want to be able to limit the ability of their users to access thread prefixes and prefix sets, vBulletin 3.8 now gives you that ability.

Social Group Categories
To allow users to more easily find a social group that they'd like to join, the administrator can now create categories to which social groups can belong.

Social Group Avatars
A picture is worth a thousand words, so when users create a social group, they can now upload a picture to represent the group, which will be shown both on the group page, and on the list of groups.

There is lots more to reveal, and Darren will be authoring some blog posts to introduce some of the new features in more detail in the very near future. We anticipate a Q4 release for vBulletin 3.8.

vBulletin 3.8 will have the same system requirements and recommendations as vBulletin 3.7.

vBulletin 4.0

The biggie. vBulletin 4.0 is ramping up now and is the primary focus for new development. Some may have noticed Andy Huang has been brought into the development team to help out with bugs and allow Mike and Scott to spend more of their time on new development.

vBulletin 4 is an extensive rewrite of the vBulletin system, aimed at providing a superior experience both for users and administrators, while providing a much faster development cycle for vB4-based features and products though code flexibility and stability.

Users will benefit from a new, intuitive interface designed to provide greater usability and accessibility through a clean, modern design. Administrators will also discover more power from the new semantic XHTML templates, whose layout can be restyled and edited with CSS.

Architecturally, vBulletin 4 follows MVC (model-view-controller) object oriented principles, allowing far greater capabilities in code re-use and extendability. It will make far more extensive use of caching and is being designed to be scalable on a level that previous vBulletin versions have not been able to achieve.

Because of the nature of the new code, we will be working much more closely with the plug-in community to provide information and help in getting existing modifications ready for vBulletin 4, so that there is already a library of exciting and well-written plug-ins ready at launch time.

vBulletin 4 will require PHP 5.2.3 and MySQL 5.0.22 or newer versions of each. Having APC and Memcache available on your server will be a significant advantage for vBulletin 4.

We look forward to bringing you a lot more information about vBulletin 4 in the coming months.

More...

vBulletin Project Tools 2.0.0 Beta 1

After running Project Tools 2.0.0 Alpha 1 here on vBulletin.com since last month, we're ready to do the first public beta release. Any customer with an active Project Tools license can now download the beta.

We'd like to thank everyone that has provided suggestions and feedback or reported a bug for the Project Tools. Many of the new features in this version were added specifically because of your requests. We're sure you like the improvements. :)

Some of the new features in Project Tools 2 include:

• Project Subscriptions
• Notification of Issue Assignment
• Persistent Read Marking / New Post Indicators
• Issue Closing
• Improved Tracking of Private Issues and Replies
• Milestones

You can read more details in my previous announcement or in my blog.

Note: You must be running vBulletin 3.7.0 or later to install any Project Tools 2.0.0 Beta/Stable release!

Significance of a Beta Release
This is beta software. If you are not fully at home with backing-up and restoring your forum, dealing with bugs and regular upgrades, do not install this beta version.

Customers should bear in mind that this is a public beta, not a certified 'stable' release so the following caveats apply:

• Beta software is unsupported and you install beta versions at your own risk.
• Some minor bugs remain unresolved at this time, so beta software should not be on production sites.
• You should always back up your database fully before attempting to install beta software.
• If you choose to install this version, you should be aware that we plan to release new beta versions in rapid succession as bugs are fixed and holes are plugged. Do not install this beta version if you are not willing or able to keep up-to-date with new releases.

About Project Tools

Project Tools is a versatile add-on product that enhances vBulletin with project management functionality, empowering your community members to create projects, contribute to tasks, submit issues and view progress of projects. Seamless integration with vBulletin ensures maximum usability, and an administration suite within the vBulletin control panel allows full customization of projects, issues, tasks and user permissions.

Project Tools is ideal for any community that shares a common goal - from developing software, keeping track of servers, writing a play, exhibiting at a trade show or building a car!

• Find out more about Project Tools and watch a video overview
• View the Project Tools' manual
• See Project Tools in action on the vBulletin.com community forums

More...

vBulletin 3.7.2 PL1 / vBulletin 3.6.10 PL3

An XSS flaw affecting the vBulletin control panel logging system has been identified, another was found affecting boards running in debug mode. It could allow an attacker to trick an admin into unwittingly performing an action within the control panel that they had not intended. To resolve this issue, it is necessary to release patch level versions of vBulletin 3.7.2 and 3.6.10.

One of the XSS flaws was discovered by Jessica Hope and the other by ourselves.

The upgrade process is the same as previous patch level releases - simply download the patch from the Members Area, extract the files and upload to your webserver, overwriting the existing files. There is no upgrade script required.

As with all security-based releases, we recommend that all customers upgrade as soon as possible in order to prevent any potential damage resulting from the flaw being exploited.


Upgrading from 3.7.2, 3.6.10 or their patch level versions

If you are already running 3.7.2, 3.6.10 or their patch level versions, the process you will be required to follow to make your board immune to the XSS problem is very simple.

There is no need to run an upgrade script if you are already running 3.7.2, 3.6.10 or their patch level versions.

Visit the Patches section of the vBulletin Members' Area and download either the patch for 3.7.2, or the patch for 3.6.10, according to the version you are currently running, then extract the files from the archive you downloaded, then upload the files to your board via FTP etc., overwriting the existing files. This will update your version to the PL1 or PL3 release respectively.

The 3.6.10 PL3 patch file also includes the PL1 and PL2 fixes.


Upgrading from Versions Earlier than 3.7.2 or 3.6.10

If you are not already running 3.7.2 or 3.6.10, you should download the most latest version from the Members' Area and perform an upgrade as normal.

Full instructions for upgrading vBulletin are available here.


Download vBulletin 3.7.2 PL1 or 3.6.10 PL3

As usual, both versions released today are available for all customers with valid, active licenses to download from the vBulletin Members' Area.

vBulletin Members Area


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vBulletin 3.7.2

As promised last week, today sees the scheduled release of a maintenance version for vBulletin 3.7.x.

vBulletin 3.7.2 contains only bug fixes, details of which can be found in the bug tracker.

The security fixes included in vBulletin 3.7.1 PL1 and PL2 are also included in vBulletin 3.7.2.


Upgrading from Previous Versions

3.7.2 is a maintenance release. We recommend that all customers running prior versions of vBulletin 3.7 upgrade to benefit from bug fixes and stability improvements.

Full instructions for upgrading vBulletin are available here.


PHP and MySQL Requirements

Please note that vBulletin 3.7.x requires at least PHP 4.3.3 and MySQL 4.0.16 or later.

However, we recommend that vBulletin 3.7.x is run on PHP 5.2.6 with APC (or a similar opcode cache) and MySQL 5.0.51 for best performance and stability.


End of Life for PHP 4

The PHP group has announced the end of life for PHP 4. We strongly recommend that customers update their servers to PHP 5.2.6 if they are still running PHP 4. vBulletin 3.7.x supports PHP 5 without any problems, though you may need to disable strict mode for MySQL, see here on how to enable 'force_sql_mode'.

Note: We will continue to support PHP 4 in the vBulletin 3 series.


Download vBulletin 3.7.2

As usual, vBulletin 3.7.2 is available for all customers with valid, active licenses to download from the vBulletin Members' Area.

vBulletin Members Area


More...

Please do not use this thread for support questions.