Steve K
01-13-2008, 06:24 PM
As some of you may have noticed we have done a routine upgrade of our forum software to ensure we meet our security standards and also to remain up-to-date on the latest features that these forums have to offer. With the upgrade to 3.7.0 Beta 3, there are many new features as well as security/bug fixes and template modifications. Below is a list of some of the features that have been added in this version, however be aware that we are still experimenting with these new additions and that they may be removed after a trial period.
Thread Tagging: A new way to facilitate searching and grouping of threads, it is now possible for users to add tags to threads they post or read.Tags can be added when creating a new thread, or to an existing thread by any user (with appropriate permissions).Any users who then click on these tags will not only find all thread that have the same tag as the one clicked, but will also contribute to the building of a search tag cloud, which gives users a quick guide as to what has been searched for recently and most frequently.
Reciprocal Friendship Between Users: As part of our new social networking system, users can now request that people on their buddy list confirm their friendship, after which time a person's list of confirmed friends will be viewable to other users.
Public Messaging: While private messages between users have been in vBulletin since version 2.0, vBulletin 3.7 introduces the public messaging system, allowing users to communicate publicly via their profile pages.
User Picture Galleries: RCPro users can now create albums and upload pictures to their account. The ability to view these albums and pictures can be limited by the user to just board staff and people on their buddy list if they want privacy.
User Created Social Groups: To further social cohesion between users and to encourage people to make friends, vBulletin now includes a facility to allow users to create their own social/interest groups.These groups are enhanced by having their own public messaging system, and the ability to add pictures to the group from user albums.
New Member Profile Page: In order to accomodate all the new features in vBulletin 3.7, the member profile page has been completely redesigned from the ground up. The new page presents information in a far cleaner and more logical manner, while dividing up information into manageable chunks using a tabbed interface. Individual profile field categories can be displayed alone in blocks in the right column, in addition to appearing by default in the 'About Me' tab.
Member Custimization of Profile Page: The administrator may choose to allow his members to use the profile page customization tool, which allows users to alter fonts, colors, background and borders etc. of their profile page in order to create a more personalized look.The administrator can lock-down customization permissions, in order to prevent the personalized pages being made too offensively awful by aesthetically challenged members... nobody wants to see some of those really ugly MySpace pages on your vBulletin installation!
Inline Editing of Profile Field Values: The 'About Me' tab of each member's profile page has edit controls, allowing them to quickly change values without leaving their profile page.
Attachment Viewing Lightbox: Clicking on an attached image will now open a lightbox rather than open a new window, with the image scaled to fit the browser viewport. A click on the image in the lightbox will open it in a new window as before.
Post Edit History: For boards where the history of posts is important, it is now possible to log all edits to posts and then review the changes at a later date.
A few other things not touched on...
Here is a brief list of some of the ones we haven't yet touched on:
Visitor tracking on profile pages
Automatic resizing of attached images to match filesize or pixel dimensions
Enhancements to custom bbcode system
All AJAX systems now employ the Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI) for a more consistent and predictable system to decrease page loadtimesMore information to come...
Thread Tagging: A new way to facilitate searching and grouping of threads, it is now possible for users to add tags to threads they post or read.Tags can be added when creating a new thread, or to an existing thread by any user (with appropriate permissions).Any users who then click on these tags will not only find all thread that have the same tag as the one clicked, but will also contribute to the building of a search tag cloud, which gives users a quick guide as to what has been searched for recently and most frequently.
Reciprocal Friendship Between Users: As part of our new social networking system, users can now request that people on their buddy list confirm their friendship, after which time a person's list of confirmed friends will be viewable to other users.
Public Messaging: While private messages between users have been in vBulletin since version 2.0, vBulletin 3.7 introduces the public messaging system, allowing users to communicate publicly via their profile pages.
User Picture Galleries: RCPro users can now create albums and upload pictures to their account. The ability to view these albums and pictures can be limited by the user to just board staff and people on their buddy list if they want privacy.
User Created Social Groups: To further social cohesion between users and to encourage people to make friends, vBulletin now includes a facility to allow users to create their own social/interest groups.These groups are enhanced by having their own public messaging system, and the ability to add pictures to the group from user albums.
New Member Profile Page: In order to accomodate all the new features in vBulletin 3.7, the member profile page has been completely redesigned from the ground up. The new page presents information in a far cleaner and more logical manner, while dividing up information into manageable chunks using a tabbed interface. Individual profile field categories can be displayed alone in blocks in the right column, in addition to appearing by default in the 'About Me' tab.
Member Custimization of Profile Page: The administrator may choose to allow his members to use the profile page customization tool, which allows users to alter fonts, colors, background and borders etc. of their profile page in order to create a more personalized look.The administrator can lock-down customization permissions, in order to prevent the personalized pages being made too offensively awful by aesthetically challenged members... nobody wants to see some of those really ugly MySpace pages on your vBulletin installation!
Inline Editing of Profile Field Values: The 'About Me' tab of each member's profile page has edit controls, allowing them to quickly change values without leaving their profile page.
Attachment Viewing Lightbox: Clicking on an attached image will now open a lightbox rather than open a new window, with the image scaled to fit the browser viewport. A click on the image in the lightbox will open it in a new window as before.
Post Edit History: For boards where the history of posts is important, it is now possible to log all edits to posts and then review the changes at a later date.
A few other things not touched on...
Here is a brief list of some of the ones we haven't yet touched on:
Visitor tracking on profile pages
Automatic resizing of attached images to match filesize or pixel dimensions
Enhancements to custom bbcode system
All AJAX systems now employ the Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI) for a more consistent and predictable system to decrease page loadtimesMore information to come...