XenForo 1.0.0 Beta 5 Released

Thankfully, we are starting to settle back in to the kind of development schedule we had anticipated before unforeseen circumstances did their best to derail it, so today, earlier than many of you may have expected, we present our fifth public beta release of XenForo 1.0.0.

All licensed customers may now download the new version from the customer area.

This is Beta Software

Please remember that this is beta software. It contains known bugs and incomplete functionality. We do not recommend running beta software in a production environment, and support is limited at this time to questions here on the community forums.

If you choose to run beta software, it is your responsibility to ensure that you make a backup of your data.

Notable Changes

There are lots of changes worth mentioning between beta 4 and beta 5, so instead of cramming them into this post, we will list some of the more interesting ones in posts subsequent to this one, later in this thread.

 

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Installation Instructions

If you are installing XenForo for the first time, please ensure that you do not download the upgrade package from the customer area.

To install XenForo, you will need to extract the zip and upload all the files from the contained upload directory onto your web server. You may upload into your web root, or any folder within the web root. This shall be referred to as your XenForo Directory.

Having uploaded the necessary files, you should direct your web browser to the URL that corresponds to your XenForo Directory and add '/install' to the address (eg: http://www.example.com/xenforo/install). This will trigger the installation process, which will guide you through the necessary steps to get a working XenForo installation running on your server.

Please note that the installation routine will direct you to ensure that the data and internal_data directories within your XenForo Directory are writeable by the webserver (ie: chmod 0777).

 

[XenForo]

Upgrade Instructions

If you are planning on upgrading, please ensure that you download the upgrade package from the customer area.

To upgrade an existing XenForo installation, you will need to extract the zip and upload all files within the upload directory to your existing XenForo Directory, overwriting all files.

Note that you should ensure that the data and internal_data directories remain writable by the webserver (ie: chmod 0777). In most cases, they should remain writable and you should not need to take action.

Once the files are uploaded, your XenForo installation will automatically be closed until the upgrade is complete. To begin the upgrade, go to the URL that corresponds to <your XenForo Directory>/install (eg: http://www.example.com/xenforo/install). You will be instructed to login as an administrator and guided through the steps. Once the upgrade is complete, your XenForo installation will automatically be reopened.

 

[XenForo]

Attachments

Insert All Attached Images Function Enhanced

The 'Insert All' function for images attached to messages has been enhanced in the following ways:

1. The controls no longer count non-image attachments as a criteria for display.
2. The controls will only display if there are two or more images attached.

Notification of Attachments

Both the alerts and news feed / recent activity systems now distinguish between a normal reply to a thread, and a reply that includes attached files, providing a different message for each.

It is now possible to specify in your alert preferences that you want to receive alerts only for replies that include attachments.

Additionally, when someone posts a message that includes attachments, or likes a message that includes attachments, any images attached to that message are shown as thumbnails in the corresponding news feed item.

 

[XenForo]

Improved Log-in Panel

The slide-down log-in panel has been re-styled to make better use of space, restore the previously lost 'Forgotten Password' link, define a place for future external authentication schemes (Twitter, OpenID etc.) and to generally improve the appearance of the form.

 

[XenForo]

Facebook Integration Enhancements

With beta 5, we have switched from using the basic <iframe> method of including Facebook's Social Plugins to the more advanced XFBML method exposed by the Facebook Javascript SDK.

Like / Recommend


The Facebook 'Recommend' button at the bottom of thread pages has been revised to prevent rendering errors and to make better use of space, and now has the ability to add a comment to a recommendation, which produces a larger 'story' on the Facebook news feed of the person who clicked the button.

Simple Recommendation:

Recommendation with Comment:

Like / Recommend Member


As you can see from the screengrab above, it is now possible to like / recommend a registered member of your forum to your Facebook news feed.

Recommend Member:

See Registered Friends


If you have enabled Facebook registration, the member list page, Facebook registration page and Facebook account association pages now all show a list of your Facebook friends that have joined your forum.

See Recommended Content


The current activity page now shows an aggregation of content from your site that has been recommended or shared on Facebook.

Facebook Test Area

Further, the XenForo Admin Control Panel now includes a Facebook Integration Test Tool, which allows you to verify that your forum is interacting correctly with your Facebook application.

 

[XenForo]

Template and Phrase Searching Enhancement

If you are working with a particular style or language, using the quick search boxes on the 'Appearance' splash page in the Admin CP, or using the full search form for each system will now default to searching the style or language with which you have most recently worked.​

Option for Registration Defaults

To keep the registration form short, many user preferences are not exposed to it. You can now control the default values for these preferences using an option in the control panel.​

Time Limit for Editing/Deleting Posts

There is now a permission that allows you to specify a time limit for editing or deleting posts (in minutes). To maintain backwards compatibility, this defaults to unlimited in all upgrades.​

Option to Disable Gravatars

You can now prevent your users from choosing to use a Gravatar instead of a custom-uploaded avatar. Note that this option does not remove Gravatars from users that are already using them.​

Language Export Options

When exporting a language, you now have two additional options. First, you may limit the phrases being exported to a particular add-on. If you choose to do this, when imported, only the phrases from this add-on will be replaced. Secondly, you can now export untranslated phrases. This allows people to do translations via this XML file if desired, rather than the interface in the admin control panel.​

Option to Override the Default Email Sender Name

Normally, the name attached to emails from your board is simply your board title. There is now an option that allows you to override this default with another name.​

Zend Framework Updated to 1.11.1

Zend Framework 1.11.1 includes a number of bug fixes over 1.10, as well as several new components and improvements.​