The new and improved (Overview of the changes)
Lots of rewritten and cleaner code
This is a big release for us - we've scoured the code and cleaned it up a lot. We've renamed functions, rewritten features and completely rewritten some parts of the board (including the post parser, moderation features and javascript).
The code now for the most part also includes support for PHPDoc comments allowing code documentation to automatically be generated.
Super administrators
By default, the initial administrator on all copies of MyBB can no longer be deleted, edited or banned by other Administrators in the Admin CP. You can also add other users to the list of super administrators and the same will apply to them.
AJAX
It's been requested many, many times and we kept saying "Hold your horses! It's coming!"
MyBB now makes use of the javascript XMLHttp extensions. Included AJAX based functionality includes auto completion and suggestion of usernames whilst composing private messaging, inline thread subject editing and inline post message editing.
Custom moderation tools
Custom moderation tools can be set up which are essentially moderation macros. You can create new "tools" which perform a series of moderation tasks to threads and posts at one time. Moderation tools can be used in both the standard moderation tools and the inline moderation system.
Database backup
The board administrators can directly make backup copies of their database via the Admin CP interface. You can create backups of certain tables, download the backup now or save it on the server, or download the backup as a compressed GZIP file (if your server supports it) or plain-text SQL file.
Improved RSS and syndication support
We realise that content syndication is a very important technology and we've greatly improved support for it in MyBB. Feeds can now be served as Atom feeds, all data is properly sanitized and validated before being used in feeds and we've also designed a class which can generate an RSS feed from any data you pass to it as well as a class that can parse RSS feeds and return an array of information from them.
New reputation system
The old reputation system in MyBB had some serious flaws (it was very easily abused, votes could not be edited or deleted without diving directly in to MySQL). The folks over at the
Messenger Plus! Community Forums addressed this by cleverly designing a reputation system similar to the feedback system of eBay. A similar modification was also written for MyBB called the "Alternative Reputation System" by
Smethead (Who I'm very sad to hear is leaving the modifications community). Our new reputation system is based around the ideas and implementations of those two wonderful additions made to MyBB.
You can now only give a reputation to a user once but you can in the future edit or update your reputation of that user. Reputations are also publicly displayed (limits abuse) and can be deleted by administrators.
Multi-quote
A popular feature on other competitors applications is the ability to select multiple posts to be quoted and then on the "New Reply" page, have them loaded automatically in to the message area. We've implemented this in to MyBB - we find it extremely useful and hopefully you do too.
You can also cross quote replies from other threads and then have them loaded in to the message area using AJAX by clicking on a link which states there are external quoted posts.
Full-text searching (and search improvements)
If your database server supports full-text searching in boolean mode then you can switch over to using this amazing functionality which allows users to create complex search queries (along the lines of '"mybb rocks"' or 'example or tester' - and even more amazing). The database server handles the searching and quickly returns sets of results.
Search functionality has also improved overall. Results are now cached after the initial search which means browsing results is now much more efficient.
Hooks in Admin CP
By popular demand, plugin hooks have now been implemented in the MyBB Admin CP allowing plugins to extend their functionality right throughout the entire board.
Data handlers
Data handlers were a concept which
I talked about back in January. They provide a centralised method for performing data validation, insertion and updating for common things like users, events, private messages, posts and threads.
The data handlers do exactly this - provide centralised methods for validating and managing data. This means developers can easily extend functionality such as posting and it also makes it easier for third party modifications to add/insert data to these tables whilst ensuring it is all correctly validated.
Rewritten post parser (and custom MyCode!)
The post parser has been rewritten from the ground up and greatly improved in many ways!
[code] and [php] tags no longer parse MyCode or smilies within them, HTML is completely cleaned to ensure it doesn't contain client side scripting (when HTML is enabled in a forum), and best of all - custom MyCode tags can be managed in the Admin CP!
Improved CAPTCHA images
The CAPTCHA images used when registering have also been improved. They now support slanted and randomly positioned text, random TTF font selection and random characters and symbols in the background.
The same system has also been implemented when guests attempt to make a new post or reply to ensure they're not automated systems (bots)
Improved update & latest announcements checking
One of the things we've been worried about is people not keeping their copies of MyBB up to date and that means they may be susceptible to vulnerabilities discovered in MyBB.
MyBB now warns you once every two weeks in the Admin CP if you haven't recently checked for new versions of the software. If a new version is found, it'll then place a persistent message on the welcome page of the Admin CP notifying you of this.
The latest news feature is also syndicated from the RSS feed on the MyBB site.
Also new and changed (but not all!)- Ability to globally disable private messaging, the member list, the calendar, the reputation system and thread ratings
- Redesigned install script
- Ability to search for users in the Admin CP based on their custom profile field values
- Ability to change the order of user groups on the "Forum team" page (as well as enable or disable showing moderators)
- Ability to manage installed languages via the Admin CP
- Themes can now be restricted to different groups allowing you to specify which user groups can use which themes
- The minimum length for posts can now be specified (setting in the Admin CP)
- Theme CSS can be cached directly to files (takes effect once the setting is on and the theme is updated)
- New forum permission allowing control over if a user can view a forum and the list of threads in it, but not view threads themselves
- Admin CP uses session IDs which prevent CSRF (Cross-site Request Forgery) attacks
- Search and destroy orphaned attachments (files in the attachments directory which don't exist in the attachments table, and visa-versa)
- Recount and Rebuild functionality
- Limit the number of login attempts to a certain number within a specified timeframe
- Ability for users to enable or disable "friendly redirection pages" for themselves in the User CP
- Attachment statistics shown in the "Attachments manager" in the User CP
- Sub-forum status indicators shown on sub-forum lists allowing you to see if they have new posts or not
- Unapproved thread and post counts are shown in the forum and thread listings allowing moderators to quickly identify threads and posts which require approval
- Mini "paperclip" shown on thread listing for threads which contain attachments
- When moving a thread, the moderator can specify that after X days any redirect threads are automatically deleted
- Duplicate private messages are now detected and within a 5 minute period the same private message cannot be sent more than once to the same recipient
- Moderators can now view all previously reported posts that have been marked as "read"
- Forum settings and forum permissions can be copied from one forum to another allowing similar but different sets of forums to be quickly set up
- Avatar dimensions are now stored with uploaded avatars which prevents users uploading avatar images with false dimensions in the headers
- Better error handling meaning you no longer have to click back to go back to a posting page if you have made an error - they're all shown directly inline and your preferences are saved.
- + Many more changes!