XenForo 2.0 Discussion

[Jake Bunce]

I fear the same. XF2 will be based on new framework similar what VB4 to VB5 did (and drove me to XF).

The vB4 / vB5 comparison is extremely... no.

If you want to look at relevant vB history then you should look at vB2 and vB 3.0-3.6. That was before the buyout when the devs had control over development. K&M weren't even around for vB4.

 

[Moshe1010]

Zend Framework 3 will be out Q3 2015:
http://framework.zend.com/blog/announcing-the-zend-framework-3-roadmap.html

Just sayin'`

 

[Chris D]

Doesn't really make a difference to us.

We are not explicitly building on top of a particular framework. However, we are bringing in libraries to help with common tasks. This might be a component from Symfony and another one from Zend Framework and another from an unrelated project. It's mostly down to what we feel fits our needs.

So, at best we might implement one or more of its modules for a specific task, but as we're still targeting PHP 5.4 which means we'd still most likely implement a ZF2 module vs ZF3.

 

[imthebest]

@Chris D I got a question regarding XF 2.0 and XFMG.

At the time when XF 2.0 gets released, is there going to be a new version of XFMG available and compatible with XF 2.0?

 

[Chris D]

We don't have anything to say about that yet. Our main focus is XF 2.0. Certainly it wouldn't be logical for us to start building add ons on the XF 2.0 code base until it is nearing some degree of completion. So, the answer to that question will become more clear as time goes on.

 

[imthebest]

A navigation and menu manager is probably one of our most requested features. It's certainly something we've wanted to implement for ages, but we have been held back by the sheer scale of the feature and how much code would be altered to accommodate it, but XenForo 2.0 is the perfect opportunity to look at features like this. If we had implemented something like this for 1.4, there would have been an extensive list of serious backwards compatibility breaks and a lot of what would be done (by add-on developers and end users) likely would have been broken by further changes when 2.0 rolls around. While backwards compatibility issues like this have happened before, we have endeavoured to keep them to a minimum in x.X-level releases.

It looks like it wasn't that complicated: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/custom-tabs.4117/

 

[Chris D]

You're right, that isn't that complicated.

 

[ŽivaAkcija]

i think but that is only my opinion next reelase 1.4.7 need option to remove/disable trophy/points and stupid google map.

 

[ibrian]

I'd love to see tags become default in XF2.0. Or, at least, the ability to create pages where you can esily add dyanmic content to them, such as tagged threads.

I'm currently using Dinh Thanh's tagging plugin, but I would love it even more if - instead of having the url /tags/word1+word2 I could simply create a page in "applications", give it a title such as "Word 1 Word2", and then be able to assign threads to that page, perhaps based on tagging.

And as above, some form of widget framwork, where we can totally customise the appearance of additional features for general users. I still like the idea of having the power to make my forums look more like Facebook or Twitter, rather than email lists - the latter of which forums have never really moved away from. Of course, it's all up to individual user choice as to how they might want their forums to look - which is all the more reason why a widget framework that would allow the choice to personalise would be - potentially - fantastic.

XF has been a great piece of software so far, including more and more features. Whether all are needed in any future development is a matter of opinion, but anything that extends the choices that admins have can only be good, IMO.

 

[imthebest]

Hi devs quick question (if it has been already decided), for XenForo 2.0 are you still going to use a mix of MyISAM/InnoDB/Memory tables?

 

[Chris D]

Regardless of what happens, the current mix of different engines has been utilised for reasons based on performance and what is appropriate for the data being kept.

So the simple answer is, yes, if a table would benefit from using one engine over another, then we will.

 

[Alpha1]

I hope that XF2 will have a more efficient way of handling deferred / rebuilds.

 

[Chris D]

If you have a suggestion that ought to be posted as a suggestion with an example as to why it should be improved and why it needs to be improved.

 

[Alpha1]

If you have a suggestion that ought to be posted as a suggestion with an example as to why it should be improved and why it needs to be improved.

You already posted part of that suggestion(combine rebuilding of addons/styles) and Jake posted the rest (more effective template rebuilding). I added my comment to both threads.

 

[erich37]

How about some more technical details?

Some assorted changes:

• While you can still write CSS directly, LESS is now the primary language for styling. If you're not familiar with LESS, it's effectively CSS that's more powerful, including things like nesting selectors, mixins, and color manipulation functions. You can read more here: http://lesscss.org/
• The template syntax has changed to some degree to provide more flexibility. This includes a more powerful function syntax, more direct math/operator access, the ability to create values with specific types (including arrays) in templates, support for macros (callable/reusable templates) with recursion, and support for calling functions on an object.
• The base unit for working with data is no longer a bare array. It is now an object that represents the specific type, giving you access to call methods on that object or access other data related to it trivially (getting the forum from a thread from a post).
• While you can still write SQL directly, most data access is done through a builder object. The builder can control what related data is fetched, what conditions are applied (including against related data) and the order of the results. This can be done in any order.
• We are not explicitly building on top of a particular framework. However, we are bringing in libraries to help with common tasks. This might be a component from Symfony and another one from Zend Framework and another from an unrelated project. It's mostly down to what we feel fits our needs.

I just found a huge and nice website and figured it is build based on the Yii-Framework:

http://www.yiiframework.com



I am wondering if XF is also using parts of this framework ?

It seems it has a great performance vs. other software:
http://www.yiiframework.com/forum/index.php/topic/13717-realselfcom-15-million-monthly-visitors/

Interesting read:
http://erickennedy.org/Drupal-7-Reasons-to-Switch

 

[thedude]

I just found a huge and nice website and figured it is build based on the Yii-Framework:

http://www.yiiframework.com



I am wondering if XF is also using parts of this framework ?

It seems it has a great performance vs. other software:
http://www.yiiframework.com/forum/index.php/topic/13717-realselfcom-15-million-monthly-visitors/

Interesting read:
http://erickennedy.org/Drupal-7-Reasons-to-Switch

It currently uses parts of the Zend Framework. That's it, AFAIK

 

[The Geek]

Would like to reiterate the need to separate UI from the data. If the system was API first (or allowed each call to just return json) then I would heart the hell out of it.

The could enable a much lighter responsive design and even make it easier for a competitor to Tapatalk to come along. We made the switch to xF last weekend and I was pumped to ditch TT. I just had to cave in and reinstall it because even though I loathe it, a huge chunk of my users have come to depend and greatly prefer it over responsive.

 

[ŽivaAkcija]

Framework winner by country
http://www.sitepoint.com/best-php-framework-2015-sitepoint-survey-results/

 

[Chris D]

A lot of the talk about which is the best or fastest framework is mostly irrelevant. Effectively in terms of "framework", in terms of the bits that matter for performance, that code is written by us. That was still true for most of XF1. It's actually more true in XF2 because there is some Zend stuff we've written ourselves. Also the stuff that we bring in to do certain tasks might not even be part of a framework per se. It may be parts of a separate project that we think would do the best job for that task. Mail for example was previously in Zend Framework, it's now coming from a project that isn't even part of a framework per se.

 

[zeuxxx]

I have discovered nodeBB and I am very impresive, take a look:

<removed>

I wish xenforo 2.0 go in that line