We'll be posting some information here concerning version 8 as it progresses. Since this is a major rewrite we won't be posting every small change, but we'll try and list out some of the major ones.

We'll be using the Yahoo User Interface (YUI) Library and testing in the supported browsers.

We'll be saying goodbye to the table heavy design we have now. We'll still use some tables for tabular data, but we'll be using CSS for the layout. This ia a major change in itself and we'll be validating all pages to be XHTML Transitional compliant as we go along.

The majority of our graphics will be in .png format. All of these will be completely new and designed by professional graphics designers.

We're working on the Control Panel redesign first so you can expect to see notes and maybe some screenshots for this soon. Please note that any screenshots posted are subject to change as we certainly will be tweaking and adjusting colors, fonts, etc.

[UPDATE: Jan 14 2010] Most of the early screenshots look much different now with the latest design changes.

CHANGE: All config variables except for database connection info have been moved into the database.
CHANGE: Include files in the includes/ directory are now stored in the database as well.
CHANGE: Most all confirmation/intermediate screens are gone. When settings are updated, you will be returned back to the settings page with a confirmation up top. If there are any issues, the error will be noted. Form values will be retained, so you will no longer need to hit the back button to fix problems.



CHANGE: Ordering Categories is now done via a drag and drop method. On the Category Settings screen, you can change the name and description and instead of having to type in a number for the order, you can just drag the category up or down in the list to set the order.



CHANGE: Many of the old admin pages had fields where the admin needed to type in comma delimited values. We've changed this to something a little more advanced so the admin can easily add/remove from a list of values, without worrying about a typo on the separator.



FEATURE: Added an option to test the Email Settings from the control panel. This will allow the admin to send a test email to a specified email address to verify the settings are correct and working.
FEATURE: On the Gallery Settings Page, there are now buttons to test the graphics library settings to check if they are working and will give information on any errors if they are not.



FEATURE: Implemented sliders on the graphics setting page for setting full,medium and thumbnail image quality. Instead of typing in a number, the sliders can be adjusted in increments of 5 with a final value between 0 and 100.

FEATURE: It will now be possible to change a forum's parent from the forum list in the control panel instead of needing to edit the individual forum. Drag and Drop would not work for this instance due to subforums. The way this will work is you can click the "Change Parent" button and upon doing so you can then choose the New Parent for the particular forum. The forums that will be moved will be highlighted for clarification as in the example screenshot below.

Member Administration:

The Member Management area is currently being split up, so it will be easier to find what you're looking for. Some new features are just about finished like the ability to add users from within the control panel. The screenshot below gives the current layout of this area:

Database library just about completely rewritten which accomplished a couple of notable things.

• It is no longer necessary to pass the __LINE__ and __FILE__ parameters when doing a query.
• It is now possible to specify a slave database server. When a slave is specified all database writes will be done on the master, while all reads will be done on the slave.
• If multiple slaves are specified then when a connection is established it will choose a random slave to connect to from the specified slaves.

Member Viewing / Editing:

Initially when editing a member you'll now get a summary page which will include things like registration info, last visit, rating, total PM's as compared to their quota, and other information. We'll add information to this screen as necessary:



Also, as seen on this screenshot, in the new control panel anywhere that you are asked for a color for something you'll be able to pull up a color picker to make things easier:

Avatars:

Avatars have always given some trouble, such as not sizing properly, especially when a remote avatar was selected. We're changing how avatars are handled to help prevent this:

• Remote Avatars. If CURL is enabled or if GD has the ability to grab a remote image, the image will be stored locally and resized to fit the max width/height specifications. (If neither is available, the avatar will remain a remote avatar).
• Uploaded Avatars will be resized upon upload to fit the max width/height specifications.

The resize will be done using GD or ImageMagick, depending on which graphics library is chosen in the Control Panel. Images will keep the scale intact when resized.

Member Administration Continued:

A few more screenshots from the Member Administration area. The first couple have a bit of a dark color going on, because there are modal dialog boxes open.

The first one is for the member profile. Any field the user can edit in their own profile, you can edit through the Control Panel.



This second screen is from the Tools tab when editing a member. This will allow you to do a variety of actions on the member, banning, merging, etc.:



This third screenshot will be one of the more helpful new features. Currently if a member belongs to multiple groups, it's hard to get a grasp what their actual permissions are. Using the "View Permissions" from the Tools tab, you'll be taken to a screen that will show you exactly what permissions they have. You can view for each forum, site wide permissions and control panel permissions. No more guessing:

More Member Management Changes

We've altered the way things work once you have a list of users that you've searched for. Previously, if you only wanted to take action on a couple users that were on different pages, it was quite troublesome as you'd need to remove all of the other results first.

With these changes, your selected results will remain intact as you switch from page to page. Once you've selected everyone that you want to work with then you can choose to perform a bulk action such as Email, on all selected members on all pages. (Previously this would only take action on members checked on the current page).

Mass Mailer

Lots of changes to the Mass Mailer. First there is a WYSIWYG editor available. In the screenshot below this is the window on top and this is where you'll compose your HTML formatted email. There is a toggle to go directly to edit the HTML code itself as well.

You can then generate a plain text version of that email, where all of the HTML tags are stripped out. After that you can further edit the plain text version of the email in the lower window.

There is also an option to save the current email as a template where you can reuse it at a later date. You can save as many templates as you like each with their own name for easy identification.