[The Geek]

Progress report for vb3.5

Hi all - I know many of you are anxious to know how the new version is coming along for vb3.5 so I thought I would give you a quick update.

It has been a massive challenge redoing this in the sense that this mack requires massive amounts of file edits (though I think everyone is in agreement that they are a snap with theinstaller ). Learning to code for 3.5 changes and to do this without any file edits has made this a pretty massive redo however Im almost there.
The new system is actually called GARS (geek article and review system) and so far is requiring 0 file edits (and it looks to stay there). Here is a run down of the features:
1- Ability to create GAR types (i.e. Articles, reviews, tutorials, whatever).
2- Customize each of these types with their own attributes (choose which templates to use, which gallery, which rating system, etc. You can also set which verbiage to use like Search this Tutorial, etc...)
3- You can then assign each type to whatever forums you want (i.e. some forums are moview reviews, some are articles on movie production)
4- Ratings - you can create as many ratings as you want (i.e. for a game review type... you could create a standard rating for Graphics, Sound, Playability, etc)
5- named navigation - in essence you can use the old [break] bbcode or [break=onward ho] to produce a link to the next page that looks like: onward ho (page 1 of 4)
6- Mega customizable mod system. This has been a big challenge but its looking good now. Essentially, you can add as many mods (almost like hooks) in various places in the article/tutorial/whatever. The current locations are: Above the gar, inside the header (ideal for ratings), below the header, in a left sidebar, in a right sidebar. Each is customizable per type so your reviews and articles can use differing custom blocks. THis should make adding additional add ons or customizing the system a snap. I am also looking at adding addtional newthread/editpost hooks to make adding custom fields easy - however Im not sure if ill make this for the initial release.

So where am I with all of this? Im about 60% of the way done. Most of the hard stuff has been done and the largest problems overcome. Now Im working on finishing up the features and then cleaning up the code.
I was hoping to have an initial beta this weekend - however as these things go - I didnt anticipate spending 8 hours working on the mod system yesterday (thought it was already working and ended up rewriting it!). Anyway - ive been called down to London on business and now wont be able to work on it again until next weekend when I should be able to produce a beta - or something reasonably close.

nJoy