XF 2.3 What's new in XenForo 2.3.8?

Although you may be anticipating a XenForo 2.4 HYS, we invested considerable effort in 2.3.8, resulting in new functionality significant enough to deserve its own announcement. XenForo 2.3.8 will be released today!

Retina thumbnails​

To ensure attachments are displayed at a much higher fidelity, especially on high-DPI displays, we now generate two versions of every thumbnail. One which matches the configured size under Options > Attachments as usual and a second which is double that size which is displayed in place of the smaller one on compatible devices, resulting in a better quality viewing experience.

Null coalescing operator (??) support​

To catch up with some of the slightly more recent syntax niceties in PHP we have added null coalescing operator support to XenForo template syntax:

HTML:
<h1>Hello {{ $foo.property ?? $bar.value ?? 'World' }}!</h1>

REST API support for Search​

There are new API endpoints for performing searches and retrieving results. You can read more about the available endpoints in our REST API page.

New xf:addon-list CLI command​


Ever needed a quick view of which add-ons are installed and enabled while on the CLI? Yeah, me too!

Code:
php cmd.php xf:addon-list --help
Description:
  Lists installed add-ons

Usage:
  xf:addon-list [options]
  xf-addon:list

Options:
      --active          Only show active add-ons
      --inactive        Only show inactive add-ons
      --json            Output as JSON
      --verbose         More detailed output

Code:
php cmd.php xf-addon:list
 ----------- ------------------------- --------- --------
  Add-on ID   Title                     Version   Active
 ----------- ------------------------- --------- --------
  XFES        XenForo Enhanced Search   2.3.8     Yes  
  XFMG        XenForo Media Gallery     2.3.8     Yes  
  XFS         XenForo Site              3.10.0    No   
 ----------- ------------------------- --------- --------

 Total: 3 add-ons (2 active, 1 inactive)

New xf-make commands for developers​

Scaffolding your next add-on has never been easier. Use the new xf-make commands to generate common code constructs with ease with much less context switching back and forth from your developer tools and the admin control panel.

Code:
    xf-make:extension    Create a new class extension
    xf-make:finder       Create a new finder class
    xf-make:service      Create a new service class
    xf-make:route        Create a route and optionally its controller
    xf-make:repository   Create a new repository class
    xf-make:template     Create a template in the master style
    xf-make:job          Create a new job class
    xf-make:cron         Create a cron class and register a cron entry
    xf-make:entity       Create a new entity class
    xf-make:controller   Create a new controller class
    xf-make:listener     Create a listener class and register an event listener
    xf-make:phrase       Create a phrase in the master language
    xf-make:cli-command  Create a CLI command class
    xf-make:stub-publish Publish stub templates to an add-on for customization.

You can pass arguments and options in explicitly or, alternatively, all commands default to "interactive" mode with no options passed:

Code:
# php cmd.php xf-make:extension

 What class do you want to extend?:
 > XF\Entity\ForumWatch

 Which add-on is this for? []:
  [XFES       ] XFES - XenForo Enhanced Search
  [XFMG       ] XFMG - XenForo Media Gallery
 > XFMG


                                                                                                                     
 [OK] ClassExtension created successfully.                                                                           
                                                                                                                     

 ----------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Property          Value                                                               
 ----------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Extension Class   XFMG\XF\Entity\ForumWatch                                           
  Base Class        XF\Entity\ForumWatch                                                
  File              /path/to/src/addons/XFMG/XF/Entity/ForumWatch.php
 ----------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                                                                                     
 [OK] Class extension registered in database.
 
There has been huge advancement in AI Coding in recent months. It wont be long before most devs would be using it to help in one way or another in development.
My employer's corporate group has a whole team just investigating the potential of AI-assisted development and working with operating companies in the group to help them use it in their projects. We recently spun up a project to replace our core business system involving them. Never even considered it until the CEO suggested this as an alternative to migrating our current system to the cloud (to be fair, he had $$ in his eyes since the current system costs mucho bucks as a SaaS platform). I am PM and not doing any of the dev work (I pay people to do that stuff) so not taking any training but I guess spinning up my own add-ons would be a possible use for it if I did learn.
 
Slippery slope. A dev can easily have an ai generated tool that scans their codebase and then create phrase for example. Does that addon now become AI? What if it automatically generates code in the listener? Now?

There has been huge advancement in AI Coding in recent months. It wont be long before most devs would be using it to help in one way or another in development.

A slippery slope would imply that tightening standards regarding AI use would lead to further complications; at most it may lead to less add-ons by new resource providers who are solely using AI. The reverse is more likely to be a slippery slope as there is more room for complications or issues by not tightening standards.

I am not against developer using AI to assist them in their work, and actually encourage it. I am also not against it being used as a tool. I am against people who do not have the bare minimum understanding of what is outputted by AI to release things without a warning to potential users.
 
I am not against developer using AI to assist them in their work, and actually encourage it. I am also not against it being used as a tool. I am against people who do not have the bare minimum understanding of what is outputted by AI to release things without a warning to potential users.
I strongly agree!
 
Xenforo has a history of low quality addons in the resources and addon coders producing low quality code. Not to speak of those who release nothing and only offer coding by DM. Admins with big boards will probably have learned the hard way that its unwise to install addons with unknown code quality.

Using AI to develop faster is fine, as long as the developer has advanced knowledge to correct problematic code and approaches and to make sure that the end result is rock solid code. I'm sure Xenforo uses AI to develop faster.

Its good that more addons are getting released and the XF ecosystem gets richer. I'm sure dangerous AI slop is also added to the resources.

How on earth can webmasters know what is good and what is not? This puts good developers at a disadvantage as well, because webmasters should be very afraid to just install addons without code audit or vetting. As soon as trusted developers look at the code of a new unknown developer, and states the new developer knows what they are doing and produce quality code, only then would I start using the addons. I know there are many admins who take a similar approach.

This means that new developers may release good addons here, do not get good sales and move on to another platform. This is bad for everyone.
I'd love to see some form of developer validation here on XenForo.
 
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Xenforo has a history of low quality addons in the resources and addon coders producing low quality code. Not to speak of those who release nothing and only offer coding by DM. Admins with big boards will probably have learned the hard way that its unwise to install addons with unknown code quality.

Using AI to develop faster is fine, as long as the developer has advanced knowledge to correct problematic code and approaches and to make sure that the end result is rock solid code. I'm sure Xenforo uses AI to develop faster.

Its good that more addons are getting released and the XF ecosystem gets richer. I'm sure dangerous AI slop is also added to the resources.

How on earth can webmasters know what is good and what is not? This puts good developers at a disadvantage as well, because webmasters should be very afraid to just install addons without code audit or vetting. As soon as trusted developers look at the code of a new unknown developer, and states the new developer knows what they are doing and produce quality code, only then would I start using the addons. I know there are many admins who take a similar approach.

This means that new developers may release good addons here, do not get good sales and move on to another platform. This is bad for everyone.
I'd love to see some form of developer validation here on XenForo.

I honestly have given up on any form of developer support or developer validation, as I and others pushed for it early on and it went nowhere. There are drawbacks to it, but it basically prevents situations like Fahad, or other issues with past developers happening. It also holds developers accountable by losing access to whatever form of perks XF would have given supported developers.

At least in regards to having a stricter standard on AI usage it is fairly easy to enact, does not lead to the classism situation that was one of the main arguments against previous developer validation attempts, and the actual involvement of XF falls within moderating existing standard guidelines.
 
as I and others pushed for it early on and it went nowhere

I would also add: unfortunately. Nowadays, I only work with developers who have skin in the game with various add-ons, and fortunately we have people internally who can do code reviews.

I imagine it must be a real nightmare to extend Xenforo's functionality for those who don't have internal developers and want to offer extra services that aren't already sold by reputable developers.

Honestly, I think Xenforo now has to guarantee higher standards. Especially with the arrival of AI.

There is a real risk of running into unpleasant situations.
 
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