We released Beta 2 of our forthcoming version 4.2 the other day and then both forgot to write a quick blog post!
Hopefully we picked up all the major issues that the first beta round showed up. We particularly want to get the Install and Upgrade routines less likely to fail which they have on a very small number of users in the past. Please report on the 4.2 Beta support forum any problems you may encounter in this area.

It would actually be nice to hear from people who do NOT have any problems! Support forums tend to just get filled by those encountering issues which can sometimes give us the false impression that nothing works. So if you have installed or upgraded to 4.2 beta and all went smoothly then it would be good to hear from you as well.

Please remember this is still beta software. Download the ‘readme’ file and backup before installing. And thanks for using Simple:Press Forum.

Version 4.1.0 appears, on the whole, to have had a good reception but there were the few inevitable teething problems and one or two major niggles for a small handful of users. Hopefully these are addressed in our 4.1.1 update which is mainly a bug-fix release. The main items covered in 4.1.1 are:

• A few people have had problems with our uploader (used in Avatars, Smileys and Forum Rank Badges). This was a Flash based tool which seems to basically be the problem. We have replaced this with a jQuery Ajax uploader which we hope will solve the problems for those who experienced them.
• There were some cases of people losing their Smileys. This is fixed in 4.1.1 and the upgrade will attempt to rebuild the default list.
• Two or three users had problems with the odd admin form failing to update. These problems seemed random. We have reworked virtually all the admin panels to now use the jQuery AjaxForm plugin which will hopefully dispel further problems.
• Two users reported problems with searching ‘Topics members had posted in or started’. We have changed the URLs these searches used.
• Several users pointed out some discrepancy with first and last post dates being the same. This has been fixed.
• A problem some users had editing a sub-forum and having it move to a different parent has been fixed.
• The occasional display of the wrong forum rank badge in profiles has been corrected.
• Moderators unable to access their admin options has also been fixed.
• An .htaccess file has been added to the forum root for extra security and to prevent index listings.
• Turning off statistics display in the forum will no longer also turn it off in the admin dashboard.
• A problem with double escaping in signatures has been corrected.
• The TinyBrowser uploader not showing thumbnails under some circumstances has been fixed.
• Mismatched timestamps on posts and subsequent edits has been corrected. From version 4.1.1, SPF now uses the WordPress timezone setting. The server timezone setting in SPF has been deprecated and will be removed in the next version.
• Problems some users experienced with the admin tools popups being badly rendered due to theme ‘leakage’ has been corrected.
• Database errors some users had when accessing subscriptions and watched topics has been fixed.
• A handful of more general display problems have also been addressed.
• Security and data validation has been enhanced throughout SPF.

For a complete list of all changes please visit our bug tracking pages.

Just a quick note to say that we have made Release Candidate (1) of Simple:Press Forum Version 4.1 available for download today. All being well, this will be the last stage prior to a final release.

We would like to thank the many hundreds of people who have downloaded and installed the beta and given us such valuable feedback.

As always, RC-1 can be downloaded here.

If you are planning to upgrade your WordPress site to their shiny new version 2.8.1 then you will require version 4.0.4 of Simple:Press Forum which fully supports the administration and menu changes that have been made.

Please visit the download page for all the usual download options including a set of patch files for those comfortable with using them.

Between our Version 4.0 and 4.0.4, we have had to make 3 interim updates simply to support WordPress core changes. Hopefully they will leave it alone for a while to enable us to finalise our V4.1 due to be available in beta some time later this month.

I am stunned to learn that it is exactly four months since we wrote Kick-Starting Version 4.1 and therefore high time for a follow up and update on progress. We had to take our eye off the ball for a few weeks because the WordPress team made some substantial engine changes to WP version 2.8 which resulted in our 4.0.3 update which, at this time, is available in beta and will drop pretty soon (when WP 2.8 releases).

Having said that, work on Simple:Press Forum 4.1 never stopped and here are just a few of the things that have made the cut so far. So – on top of topic titles being included in searches and our new auto-subscription feature some of the major items our users can expect to see include:

• A new, replacement uploader. Long overdue, the new uploader will work for images, videos and other media as well as other file types – all configurable by the admin. There is also an option for each member who is permitted to upload to have their own, personal folder. The uploader has a decent browser and can handle multiple files.



• Topic Tags. Tag new topics with… well… tags! We have auto-suggest, tag management and tag searching as well as a related topics dropdown based on the current topic tags.



• Sub-forums. Yes, we have been talking about them for a long time and they have been a frequent request and finally they will make their debut.



• Support for WP Roles. To help ease the management of user and their membership in spf user groups, 4.1 will now support auto user group assignment based on their WP Role. Give an existing or new user a new WP Role and he can be auto moved into a corresponding user group. This new feature fully works with the Role Manager plugin and other role modifying plugins that use the standard WP interfaces. This has been called a must have feature by many users. It’s in 4.1!
  
• Storage Location Configurator. That’s an awful title for something that sounds very dull but can actually be a great aid to performance and organization. With 4.1, you will be able to store a lot of the forum items such as skins and icon sets, hooks and custom code, outside of the plugins folder down in wp-content. This can also become the home of avatars, smileys and the new forum user badges as well as uploads you may allow your users to make.
• Forum Slugs. We have made some changes and improvements to the creation of ’slugs’ which should aid our non-English speaking users – although to be honest, we have a lot of testing left to do to make sure all is well.
• Admin Redesign and Restructure. The entire set of admin pages – already surely one of the prettiest in the WP world! – have undergone a complete overhaul and rewrite with heavy emphasis on Ajax and only loading what is necessary.



• Special Forum Ranks. Joining the already existing forum ranks (based on post count) will be the new special forum ranks. Special ranks allow you to assign custom ranks to any user and is not based on post count. Want a special rank that matches the User Group? Done! Want special ranks for donators or paid members? Special ranks will allow that!
• Forum Badges. With the new forum badges, you can now assign a unique badge (ie graphic image) to each forum rank and special rank. The user’s badge will display in the userinfo area.



• Improved User Management. This will be welcomed by those users with large memberships – quicker and easier user group and forum rank assignments – and no more long, long waits for the data to save!
• Spoilers. We have had quite a few requests for handling ’spoilers’ and think we have come up with a neat solution
• Print a Post. Ever wanted to print out the content of a post? Well, we know some of you have as we have been asked for it. Just a click on the new print icon!
• More Display Options. It sometimes feels like every user would like to hide something different from the display. Well we have tried to cover as much as we can think of that can now be turned off.
• Meta Description Tags for Forums and Topics. Another often asked for feature, meta tags and keyword descriptions will make their appearance in 4.1. As is customary with Simple:Press Forum, you have multiple options on how to configure the meta description. You can have a fixed meta description, have it based on the forum name or even the topic name. You can also customize the meta keywords or, if using the new tags feature, have the meta keywords based on the tags for a topic.
• Block Admin Pages. It’s a common complaint against WP that after registration or login, users are dumped into the admin pages (profile and dashboard) to be confused! This has given rise to many plugins to plug the hole and now we have built the feature into SPF.
• Profile Overhaul. The user profile is getting a complete overhaul. There will be more configuration options as to what fields are available and now the admins will have access to the fields. We have added some additional custom profile field types too. This one is still in development, but looks promising and often requested!

There is much more of course. In particular, a LOT of code and query optimizations have taken place and continues to be implemented. The speed improvement should be quite noticeable. A lot of small problems have also been corrected. And there are still some more big-ticket items in the planning stage.

As always, you can check out the other features and our current status on V4.1 by viewing our mantis bug tracker 4.1 page.

We look forward to getting this feature laden release out to our users this Summer!

Andy (Yellow Swordfish) and Steve (Mr Papa)