[peterska2]

More information about version 2.0 development:

This was originally going to be version 1.5 but the amount of rewriting and new features being added warranted a whole new major version number so it is going to be version 2.0

Some of the features are going to be completely unexpected but as always it is easy to turn things on and off in the AdminCP.

At present, due to the complexity of the rewrite it is not upgradable. An upgrade script will be completed prior to version 2.0 being released which will need to be run before importing the new product. More instructions will follow regarding this when it is released.

As it stands, it is currently working well on vBulletin 3.7.0 RC1 (I've not upgraded my dev server to RC2 yet but full compatability will be checked). A lot of the original kinks have been ironed out, and many more glitches are being resolved as well as adding in the feature requests received and the new features that I have wanted to add to it for a while (they are top secret and will not be revealed until releasing it so don't bother asking what they are because I'm not telling).

The original code was designed to be extremely simple to use which, as a lot of people have rightly pointed out, introduced problems for anyone wanting to include any form of conditionals or calls to any functions. This is one of the reasons for the major rewrite and the necessity of having to also write an upgrade script. Most of, if not all of, the underlying code structure is being changed to resolve the issue. This does however cause it's own set of issues, by increasing the level of difficulty for use (no longer all settings, but using more templates which are edited to include the block contents) but it does not leave it overtly difficult. It does however solve the issues of not being able to add extra blocks easily by including 20 blocks in total by default which can be located as desired (yes - you will be able to add all 20 to one side only if you so wish - or more accurately you will be able to when that bit is finished being coded). An expansion product with a further 30 blocks will also be released. It will not be part of the main product as I doubt that many people will require more than 20 blocks, but of course there will always be someone who does.

The total code is approximately 40% complete at this time, excluding the expansion product and the upgrade script (that is one thing that I am not looking forward to!) although the upgrade script may not be required depending on how the final product installation code is written.

At the moment the script itself has evolved from a simple 3 plugin and 2 template product to a 30 template (and rising), 6 plugins (and rising), multiple phases (I lost count), 1 php file, and having a couple of entries added to the FAQ (not done yet but will be done before it is released). The sheer scale of the changes is why this is requiring 3.7.0 and will be unlikely to be backwards compatible with 3.6.9 (it certainly will not work with 3.6.5 or older).

Anyway, thats enough of me telling you what is included and the progress so far. I need to get back to actually doing it instead