vBulletin 3.6.6 Released

[Marco van Herwaarden]

vBulletin 3.6.6

It has been almost six months since our last bug-fix release (3.6.4) so the release of 3.6.6 represents a large number of fixes and tweaks to the system.

vBulletin 3.6.6 is the minimum required version for the upcoming vBulletin Blog and Project Tools products and includes various new hooks (including the much-requested fetch_musername hook) and code changes to accomodate these new systems. As a result, certain existing vBulletin features have been upgraded, such as date entry fields in the Admin CP, which now all feature the calendar popup date picker system designed for the project tools.

Setting the date of an announcement in the Admin CP with the new date picker

For the benefit of plugin authors, the information shown at the bottom of all vBulletin pages in debug mode is now greatly enhanced and shows not only all templates that have been called, but also all files that have been included by PHP and all hooks that have been encountered together with whether or not they executed code.

New debug info available in vBulletin 3.6.6

Complete list of problems and bugs fixed in vBulletin 3.6.6.

New Javascript Framework

With the use of AJAX and other client-side scripting systems increasing all the time, version 3.6.6 debuts various new methods of working with Javascript in vBulletin, many of which assist in the effort to remove as much Javascript from the templates as possible.

In order to facilitate this switch and to provide a solid framework on which to build, we have decided to employ the Yahoo! User Interface javascript library (YUI) for much of our DOM, event and XML-HTTP features, and in future versions you will see much greater use of this excellent library as we migrate some of our older Javascript code to a YUI base.

Included by default in vBulletin is the DOM/Event library (yahoo-dom-event.js) and the XML-HTTP connection handler (connection.js).

Upgrading from Previous Versions

3.6.6 is a maintenance release and we recommend that all customers upgrade to benefit from six months of bug fixes and stability improvements. Certain input validation errors in the Admin Control Panel have also been resolved so that unexpected errors are not encountered.

No patch or plugin is available to bring previous versions up to 3.6.6 without a full upgrade, as the various changes to implement all the bug fixes represent a large number of changes. To get the fixes from 3.6.6 onto your own board you must perform a full upgrade.

Full instructions for upgrading vBulletin are available here.

Template Changes

For this release we have changed the format of our customary Templates Changed Since X.Y.Z notice.

Previously the list was change-based, which often resulted in several templates being listed multiple times, sometimes with mandatory changes and other times not.

The 3.6.6 template change notice is template-based, so each template is listed only once and all changes to that template will be listed under the template name. If any of the changes to a template is mandatory, the entire template will be listed as requiring the change.

We hope that this new system will be easier and quicker to work with for those with modified templates.

PHP and MySQL Requirements

Please note that vBulletin 3.6.x requires at least PHP 4.3.3 and MySQL 4.0.16 or later.

Download vBulletin 3.6.6

As usual, vBulletin 3.6.6 is available for all customers with valid, active licenses to download from the vBulletin Members' Area.

vBulletin Members Area

Original Announcement and further info: vBulletin 3.6.6 Released
vBulletin.com discussion thread: vBulletin 3.6.6 Release Discussion

[Bacteria1]

looks nice , but can i upgrade from 365 to 366 normal? All hacks on board are still work if i use this lastest version?

Thanks already

[Zachariah]

Well most of the hacks should not have a problem.

- File edits made to "core" vBulletin files will have to be reapplied.
(some hacks instruct to edit VB files)

- There is a good amount of template changes to the new update.
(some templates will need to be "reverted" to default and custom edits reapplied)

[Shazz]

Testing upgrade...

the biggest edit i had to manage is "Thread Prefixes" addon... way too much edits... i hope this addon would be updated yet to so some automatic edits, and use the new $template_hook when possible (request more if possible too)

-- btw, took me 1:35 seconds to upgrade, uploading everything and passing the upgrade.php process counted!

EDIT: it's more like 1:35 minute than seconds.. lol

[Shazz]

Originally Posted by nexialys

the biggest edit i had to manage is "Thread Prefixes" addon... way too much edits... i hope this addon would be updated yet to so some automatic edits, and use the new $template_hook when possible (request more if possible too)

-- btw, took me 1:35 seconds to upgrade, uploading everything and passing the upgrade.php process counted!

That is very big, Did the upgrade go successful?

[daz1967]

upgraded great, i have a load of hacks installed, all working fine after

Originally Posted by Shazz

That is very big, Did the upgrade go successful?

from 3.6.5 to 3.6.6, it's like 7 or 8 clicks... simple..

[ReQueM]

Thanks vBulletin Team

[Fireproof]

This will be my first upgrade and I'm still very new with vBulletin (my site isn't even live yet).

I've only installed a handful of mods but need more clarity around what I should be looking to have to manually fix.

1. I have some "products" imported (like webtemplates, downloadsII). Will I have to re-install these or anything or should they still show up in AdminCP after the upgrade?

2. My custom skin (courtesy of CyberAlien) has some various template changes to Header and Navbar, and I've made even more manual changes to add drop-down menu items, etc. I'm confused as to how I handle this as part of the upgrade.

Thanks.