SurfiOnline

According to the Wheelman, I don’t update this place as much as I should be updating it and i’m inclined to believe him. I mean, why is it so hard for me to spend 10 minutes of my not-very-precious time writing out a new post? So, from now on i’m going to try and keep this place updated a couple of times a week and have a few ideas for a bit of interesting content such as tips and tricks for developers, designers, and just general tips on software usage.

I signed out of school yesterday as my exams finished last Thursday for good. So many people have gone around asking me how it feels to be free, and to be totally honest, to me it doesn’t feel a piece different from before.

I have lots of things going on at the moment such as doing my schools website (still!), the yearbook CD for my year, getting MyBB 1.0 Final ready for release/beta, working at Target, and much more. My spare time is actually more scarce than before! Heh.

Now MyBB 1.0 Final. I’m posting this here instead of the MyBB Community Forums, for a change. Work is progressing along at a pretty ordinary pace at the moment with a few new features whose implementation has been completed:

• Archive/lo-fi version of the board content (forums, threads, posts).
• New permissions system including support for users being in multiple groups.
• Users can join ‘publically joinable groups’, these groups can optionally have group leaders who have to approve memberships before members are listed in the group.
• New theme system, allowing pretty much full customisation of the board via CSS, with theme inheritance and parenting systems.
• New header layout design (and a new logo!)
• New postbit and New Thread/Post Reply images
• A built in module system allowing easy expansion and control of new features.

With the module system in MyBB, we plan to offer a variety of modules such as a shoutbox, gallery, and blog system which are not included in the MyBB release by default, but can be downloaded via the MyBB website and installation is as simple as uploading the required files, going to the Admin CP, modules section and clicking ‘Install’ or ‘Activate’. The module will then be able to be deactivated, managed, or uninstalled via the same modules section.

The new header design resolves the incompatibility problems with various old web browsers (such as Mac versions of IE), and provides a more attractive and ergonomic menu and toplinks section as well as the welcome back message. The new header design incorporates a new clean version of the MyBB logo which gives a stylish look but still maintains the simplistic layout design.

You’ll learn more about these changes when we post more information regarding the new features as well as some screenshots of the new version in the MyBB Community Forums, but i’m telling you now - this release is something to really look forward to!

In that scarce free time I mentioned above i’ve also been experimenting with WordPress 1.3 Alpha 4, the new features it contains - specifically the new theme system, to work out how i’m going to get this website updated when 1.3 is finally released, as well as how I can use the custom page designer included with the release to my full advantage to generate pages as well s the menu’s which you see throughout the site. I’ll probably end up posting more information about this further on in the week as well as some of the code I will be using. The WordPress team have done a really nice job with the release too, incporporating more than I could ever imagine, but just what I need in to their awesome software.

I think its a bit of TV time now, while I get some Windows and Linux updates downloaded and installed.

Catchya later!