vBulletin 3.6 Beta 4 Released

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Original thread: vBulletin 3.6 Beta 4 Released (Mike Sullivan)

vBulletin 3.6 Beta 4

Nearly two weeks have past since the public release of vBulletin 3.6 Beta 3, and now it is time for what we hope will be the final beta release of vBulletin 3.6. The next step will be at least one "release candidate" before 3.6 is declared a stable release.

vBulletin 3.6 Beta 4 contains a number of fixes and tweaks to the Beta 3 code and we recommend that anyone currently running Beta 3 should upgrade to Beta 4.

The bugs found in 3.6 Beta 3 have for the most part been simple and quick to fix, so we are hopeful that this will not be a particularly long beta process. However, there are a number of bugs awaiting feedback - please check the bug tracker regularly to see if the developers require further input or feedback on bugs you have reported.


New Stuff

Improved Thread Redirect Expiration
The expiration of thread redirects can now be set at a per-thread level, rather than an all-or-nothing option.

Improved Phrase Search
You may now limit the phrase search to specific languages and phrase types and search only in translations.

Multi-Quote Updates
Enabling multi-quote does not explicitly disable threaded mode any more. However, keep in mind that multi-quote will reduce the usability of threaded mode, so it's generally recommended to only have one of the two options enabled.

You may now also limit the number of quotes that can be automatically inserted with multi-quote.

Ability to Make Public Polls Private
When editing a poll, you can now make a public poll private. However, due to privacy concerns, the opposite is not available.

Improved RSS Import Support
Changes were made such that an item's GUID is used to uniquely identify feeds when possible. This will eliminate many of the duplicate threads that you have been receiving. This also means that all of your threads are going to duplicate the first time that they are checked after you upgrade to beta 4.



The Usual Important Stuff

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.

• 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.
• The ImpEx import system does not support the 3.6 code yet, and will not support it until the release of 3.6.0 (stable).

Installation / Upgrade
If you are accustomed to the install and upgrade procedure used by vBulletin 3.5 then the 3.6 install and upgrade process will be familiar to you.
Please refer to an earlier release announcement for full instructions.

Hacking / Plugins
While there have not been extensive changes to the underlying architecture of vBulletin 3.6 from 3.5, it is possible that certain hooks may have changed. Therefore you should check with the author of whatever plugins and products to attach to your vBulletin installation to inquire about their compatibility with vBulletin 3.6. Plugin authors should be assured that we do not anticipate major code changes between the Beta 1 code and the final 3.6.0 code, so plugins written for or adapted to 3.6 compatibility should still work with the final code.

Javascript / AJAX Problems
Many of the Javascript files for vBulletin 3.6 have changed. However, if templates are reverted or adapted correctly there should be no issue with cached old Javascript files, as we have implemented a system that should force clients to reload Javascript files after an upgrade. If you discover what you believe to be a Javascript problem, please ensure that you are not using cached files by doing a ctrl+F5 hard refresh before reporting it as a bug.

Reporting Bugs
Please use the vBulletin 3.6 Bug Tracker to report any bugs you find in vBulletin 3.6.