Fun, Fun, Fun!
I am now three quarters of the way through the first of what will be three upgrades (yes, three!) happening in rapid succession during the next few weeks.
Some Background
For several months, I had been patiently waiting for the new version of the IP.Board Community Suite to go "golden release," and at the same time, I had been working behind-the-scenes with another programmer on a custom application to handle our Playlists.
Phase One
What I have in place now, phase one, is IP.Board 3.1.0 ( released on June 1), and the matching updates to Blogs, Chat, Downloads (inactive for now), and Gallery. I am still uploading thousands of files, still throwing hundreds of new switches 'on' and 'off,' and still making custom tweaks.
Playlists
We actually had to wait until 3.1.0 came out in order to make sure the Playlists application was going to work with it. It did not. Several changes had to be made. I am happy to report, though, that we now have the display mechanism online. Everything is working properly. Playlists will actually begin to show up very, very soon now. And, by that, I mean in a couple more days!
We are still working on a database entry system for the playlists. When completed, rather than having to format playlists manually, which is a very complex and time-consuming process, they will be "automagically" generated for us (to use Disneyese). Way cool, but still a month or two away.
New Features
Many exciting new features will begin to appear as soon as I get them properly configured. Many new features are already working. When I have time, I will create a forum post that covers some of the major changes, but in the mean time I suggest everyone visit their User Control Panel and see what's new "under the hood."
Make sure to look at 'Notification Options,' and set things up the way you want them before you start receiving all sorts of unexpected e-mails and/or PMs. There must be eleventy-seven settings there! [member=Horizons] is probably dancing a jig right now (as he loves his notifications)!
Phase Two
In another week or so, I will be going through much of this same process all over again in order to install a series of 3.1.1 maintenance releases. Many minor bugs will be patched. However, a few minor bugs will still remain. Such is the nature of the beast with sophisticated software such as this.
Should you ever encounter a problem with something, by the way, be sure to let me know via e-mail or PM, and I will try to get it taken care of as soon as possible.
The Right Choice
Thank goodness I carefully studied the roadmaps for both IP.Board and vBulletin before converting Magic Music over from the old YaBB/SMF freeware junk back in December of 2008. I definitely made the right decision when I opted to go with IP.Board! We are now running the best of the best!
Pity the website owners who are using vBulletin, as the new 4.0x software is nothing but a hideous bug-filled nightmare. If you notice, most of these websites have remained behind at 3.8x, and it's because they're scared to death to make the jump. Well, that, and they don't like the exorbitant new licensing fees. I still have a couple of websites running vBulletin, one is actually 4.0.3, but they will be changed over to IP.Board as soon as I get the chance.
As someone who has been involved in the business of selling, installing, maintaining, and/or managing BBSes, forums, and other online services (anyone remember CompuServe or GEnie?) for over 25 years now (long before Al Gore invented the Internet), it is a hoot for me to watch all of the vBulletin websites that are now turning into IP.Board installations.
I tip my hat to Matt Machem and the rest of the gang at Invision Power Services!
Phase Three
This one is going to be a nightmare (for me)! I don't even want to think about it right now!
But it's coming...
I am now three quarters of the way through the first of what will be three upgrades (yes, three!) happening in rapid succession during the next few weeks.
Some Background
For several months, I had been patiently waiting for the new version of the IP.Board Community Suite to go "golden release," and at the same time, I had been working behind-the-scenes with another programmer on a custom application to handle our Playlists.
Phase One
What I have in place now, phase one, is IP.Board 3.1.0 ( released on June 1), and the matching updates to Blogs, Chat, Downloads (inactive for now), and Gallery. I am still uploading thousands of files, still throwing hundreds of new switches 'on' and 'off,' and still making custom tweaks.
Playlists
We actually had to wait until 3.1.0 came out in order to make sure the Playlists application was going to work with it. It did not. Several changes had to be made. I am happy to report, though, that we now have the display mechanism online. Everything is working properly. Playlists will actually begin to show up very, very soon now. And, by that, I mean in a couple more days!
We are still working on a database entry system for the playlists. When completed, rather than having to format playlists manually, which is a very complex and time-consuming process, they will be "automagically" generated for us (to use Disneyese). Way cool, but still a month or two away.
New Features
Many exciting new features will begin to appear as soon as I get them properly configured. Many new features are already working. When I have time, I will create a forum post that covers some of the major changes, but in the mean time I suggest everyone visit their User Control Panel and see what's new "under the hood."
Make sure to look at 'Notification Options,' and set things up the way you want them before you start receiving all sorts of unexpected e-mails and/or PMs. There must be eleventy-seven settings there! [member=Horizons] is probably dancing a jig right now (as he loves his notifications)!
Phase Two
In another week or so, I will be going through much of this same process all over again in order to install a series of 3.1.1 maintenance releases. Many minor bugs will be patched. However, a few minor bugs will still remain. Such is the nature of the beast with sophisticated software such as this.
Should you ever encounter a problem with something, by the way, be sure to let me know via e-mail or PM, and I will try to get it taken care of as soon as possible.
The Right Choice
Thank goodness I carefully studied the roadmaps for both IP.Board and vBulletin before converting Magic Music over from the old YaBB/SMF freeware junk back in December of 2008. I definitely made the right decision when I opted to go with IP.Board! We are now running the best of the best!
Pity the website owners who are using vBulletin, as the new 4.0x software is nothing but a hideous bug-filled nightmare. If you notice, most of these websites have remained behind at 3.8x, and it's because they're scared to death to make the jump. Well, that, and they don't like the exorbitant new licensing fees. I still have a couple of websites running vBulletin, one is actually 4.0.3, but they will be changed over to IP.Board as soon as I get the chance.
As someone who has been involved in the business of selling, installing, maintaining, and/or managing BBSes, forums, and other online services (anyone remember CompuServe or GEnie?) for over 25 years now (long before Al Gore invented the Internet), it is a hoot for me to watch all of the vBulletin websites that are now turning into IP.Board installations.
I tip my hat to Matt Machem and the rest of the gang at Invision Power Services!
Phase Three
This one is going to be a nightmare (for me)! I don't even want to think about it right now!
But it's coming...