vBulletin 5 Connect Screenshots and Concerns
 

I'm sure most of you must have seen the vBulletin 5 screenshots on facebook. and the press writeup. vBulletin 5 doesn't just have a number, now it also has a name - Connect.

What I gather from the very limited information. vB5 "Connect" is/has/is claimed to have :

• Complete new software written from ground up. As mentioned by Wayne Luke here.
• Release in late 2012
• 125 new significant features and enhancements
• Sleek new UI with extensive social integration (oh no ... more twitter)
• Category-leading mobile optimization (relief from tapatalk?)
• Simplified site set up, customization and management
• New core architecture for improved search, better performance and easier modifications
• Dynamic tools for content discovery (Eh?)
• Expanded photo and video sharing capabilities
• Full integration with VigLink
• More than 100 other new features and enhancements (hmmm ... more bugs too?)

From what I deduce from the screenshots, my major concerns are:

• As it is a completely new software, it will be incompatible with all vb3x and vb4x mods.
• Much time and money will be required to get the same mods once again.
• New "Activity stream" which replaces New posts/what's new takes up a large amount of space and will show fewer new threads in visible screen. One may have to scroll down long distances/go through many pages to see the new activity.
• Extensive use of jquery. Higher page loading time.

Screenshots :


Please share your thoughts and concerns on the matter. :)

This really isn't much different than when vB4 came out and many vB3 mods stopped working. There may be some that are still compatible, others won't be.

The activity stream is already in use in vB 4.2. If it's anything like that in vB5, personally I don't see the problem. That doesn't mean I like the activity stream, but it's not an evil either.

I'm not a fan of jquery, but in some cases it's needed. We'll need to wait and see how it's used and how it affects the system.

In my opinion, anything posted here is going to be pure speculation. Nobody has a working copy of vB5 yet to be able to say what is or isn't a concern. Most anything posted will be what was seen between vB3 and vB4 amped up to apply to vB5.

Wowwww I like this

No, actually it is different because in vB4 you could initially use some of the vB3.6, 3.7 and 3.8 mods without any changes and in some cases with minor changes. You did not require a complete rewrite of all the mods. Mostly it was the styling system which got disrupted.

However It seems that in vB5 all the mods from 3.6, 3.7, 3.8 and 4.x will stop working at once from the onset including any paid mods that you have. If this happens, transition will surely take more time than vB4 did not to mention the additional expense of any paid mods.

That may be, but I hope that we are given the options to disable elements that we do not require.

As to the compatibility of mods: Not a single vb3/vb4 addon/modification will work on vB5. Not only will the underlying code be all new, but also the plugin system will work differently. This has already been established by Paul.
Still, I don't see how this can be avoided. You can't ask for an all new and modern codebase and expect old addons to work with it.

Regarding jquery: If anything, it will result in faster page loads. Now we're using two different JS frameworks plus a whole lot of custom vB JS. Better to use just jquery. If pulled offsite from google, chances are very high that the library doesn't even have to be loaded but is already present in the users browser cache from prior sites he visited.

Same as the above, new hook system has already bean said by Paul, so no vB 3 or 4 mods will ever work, they wll all have to be done again, along with Styles.

I won't be touching vb5 for many years.

That will depend on the quality of vB5. It won't be a quick switch, that's for sure.

It will also depend upon the people developing addons/mods and styles for vBulletin. vb.org will play a major role in this. If mods for vB5 are quickly developed then more people will be tempted to make a switch.

Now unfortunately due to various reasons a lot of very talented coders/designers are no longer with vB. Also one of the reasons why a lot of people did not go for vB4 initially is because a lot of the professional style developers refused to make custom styles for vB4. If the styling system is more user friendly on vB5 then this problem can be avoided.

Just as I said: That will depend on the quality of vB5 ;)

If vB5 is a great product, addons will follow, I'm pretty optimistic. We had a lot of addon-related pessimism after vB4 release, yet there is no shortage.

And if it has a good plugin system and is better stylable than vB4 is (or at least was), then even some coders and designers may come back.

wooo hoooo much fun for me... more clients will come to have their 3.x and 4.x board supported by third party coders.... same situation as when 4.0a arised... ;)

Its not completely new, its being re-written in stages.
The system is driven by templates, which in turn call the API and manipulate and present the data. Therefore the template system has been vastly extended, and the API is new, but there is still an amount of legacy code in use (more vanishes each week). This is especially true in the ACP.

Yes, the old php hooks are all gone, so anything that relied of them will not work.
Also the old template hooks are all gone (there is a new unrelated template hook system).

In theory, its possible that a very simple old modification would still be valid, but very unlikely.

Wordpress has been able to manage it for years for the most part. Hopefully with vBulletin 5 they build it thinking of the future, and going from major version to major version won't be such a pain.

Will you all quit complaining. If you don't like what you see, don't buy it.

Don't be that guy to condemn a coder for doing his job. Ffs.

This is not a complaint, it is a discussion of an upcoming product. And yes we wont buy it if we dont like it.

I think vBulletin 5 looks quite nice and definitely way more prettier. With the right balance of jQuery it could be great.

The modification thing is a let down but these things happen.

On the face of it as a product, it looks sleeker and more conducive to a social community, it has a facebook feel to it, directly extend code to enhance your community is a great idea except, and you'll probably complain at this, i like a system where my core code isn't changed and i can manage all my mods or tweaks in one place, i use the template modification system as it's brilliant for just that, i'd love to see this kind of thing incorporated in vb5, that way there's no headaches when upgrading..etc, similarly this is why every plugin i ever wrote i created as a product for better cataloging...etc

As we've only had minimal information on the actual inner workings all we can do is speculate, which, in my opinion, is a bad thing as it can create negativity for a product that hasn't been launched yet so doesn't deserve it.

Some of us who left the vB world after vB4 may do just that with vB5. I know I am certainly keeping an eye on the project. ;)

Yess - okay -

good

but finaly when can we expect this new voodoo tool ?

:D

Any Ideas?

MG

The launch wont be too far away, it's currently being beta tested to iron out any issues that may arise prior to it's launch and keep the patches to a minimum, vBulletin announcements should have been coming to your email inbox if you haven't turned off notifications from vbulletin.com.

I'm looking forward to it being released ;)

It looks like WordPress theme to me.

I can't wait for vB5. A new way of doing plugins and template hooks will be great. Have looked forward to this since they mentioned it.

I looks good. Although, I'm upset that it is being released in phases. :(

If you mean missing the CMS, I wasn't happy about that either :o

No, not interested in the CMS. More about mobile...

But don't you think "in phases" is a better stradegy?, less bugs to try and fix at one time, less clouded issues and more focus on each stage, i know we all want it and we want it now, human nature, but a controlled release should result in a more stable product and restore some much needed faith in IB products - it looks good, and for once, they seem like they are focussing on making it every bit as good as it looks :)

I agree with you

To be honest with you, I don't have any interest in upgrading my site now anyway ... I will in a year or 2 (I make major changes to the site every 3 years.) :)

Until then, I will be learning and tweaking this new vb5.

I wont be touching vb4 ever, let alone vb5. I will stick with vb3.8.4 until EOL, then I will be looking for something similar to 3.8 or give it all up & shut down my hosting & pc.
Vbulletin hurrys versions before all the bugs are worked out.

Let's wait and watch. Things are changing and if it lives upto its claim, then terrific otherwise I'm sure we all have our top secret plans to go elsewhere.

I for one don't understand why everybody wants to look like facebook if I wanted my site to look like Facebook I would go to Facebook why doesn't anybody have the imagination to make a product that is socially friendly and not look like every other product on the market. and of course since none of the existing styles, plugins or mods will work and who knows how long the lag time is till the coders catch up it is going to be pure vanilla for ages.why not take a que from Microsoft and at least let the wonderful coders here have something to work with so at least there may be some way to have a custom look to our new old Facebook look alike

i like some of the new features, but untill all the mods and my style are updated togo with the new version of vbulletin i will not be making the switch. i really cant complain about 4.2 considering i just upgraded my site from phpbb3.