Something that's already A HUGE improvement!

[Graeme S.]

I just want to say that something is definitely right about IPB3.0.

In the couple weeks that IPB3.0 RC1 has been out, I've already downloaded a dozen hooks/mods that have drastically improved my forum. My members are loving the little features here and there.

Although I can't say I know much about the code, I will admit that it seems a lot easier for modders to create really awesome hooks (with relative ease?). New mods are released almost everyday, and it's obvious that there should be some really awesome applications in the near future!
Specifically, want to give credit to some of the community devs/coders who have already released some really useful mods: SOSInvision, Michael, m4rtin, Alex, MichaelJohn, teraßyte

It's really positive to see developers releasing so many mods so quickly, as I felt one of the biggest problems in IPB vs vB was the modding community. Hopefully more coders will pick up IPB3.0 and start developing new and intuitive modifications!

I, for one, know I'll be spending money rewarding some of these awesome coders!
Just my 2 cents!
:D

Keep up the great work and look forward to RC2 and beyond!

[chasz]

if sucking up gets me RC2 then i will do it as well ;)

[Graeme S.]

You're absolutely right. All praise = sucking up.
Anyway, I doubt RC2 will be out for at least another week.. Most likely end of next week. "Sucking up" as you call it won't speed up bug fixing :).

[Lee Craven]

I agree just after seeing some of the dev's making mods and then more and more over a 2 day period I decided to get the Lynda "PHP & MySql" so I can learn!

[Alex]

Thanks for the kind comments :) From my personal experience I have to say that whereas hooks might be easier for the end-user (no file edits and all that), it does take some getting used to. I can create the hooks fine but it takes a lot of brainstorming on how to overcome certain issues :P

For example the reputation hooks I released yesterday, I needed access to the post data ID without having to perform the same query every time (would make 2x as many queries per page load). Had to experiment and come up with some nice javascript to get around that :P

I think the reason more and more mods are coming out every day is the actual IP.Board3 code being so easy to follow, not just the hooks system ;)

[Will Munny]

In spite of ACP editor failings, I'm finding the skin templates much easier to work with.

[Zepher]

I'm glad to hear that Mod Developers are already writing custom code for the new version. I'm hoping IPB3 is easy for the Mod Development community to write hooks, mods, modules, components, plugins and integration packs. Personally I'd be looking for a IP.articles and IP.reviews components, but might have to wait till it's addressed by developers.

[Brandon D]

I never actually wrote components or directly modified IPB2 but I find getting what you want done in IPB3 to be simple and pain free (and, tbh, actually quite fun/interesting). I'm porting over bfarber's Links System for IPB3 and I've already managed to get the ACP ported along with several improvements to it. I like how they made it easy to integrate your app with several of the forum's core functions like searching, item marking, editing members/groups in the ACP, etc. without editing a single file. Of course, it helps that in IPB3 pretty much everything is now an application, even the stock functionality like core, members & forums, so 3rd party app developers benefit from whatever IPS does to make integrating their own apps easier :P

[bfarber]

[quote name='Brandon D' date='29 May 2009 - 12:54 PM' timestamp='1243616058' post='1806188']
I never actually wrote components or directly modified IPB2 but I find getting what you want done in IPB3 to be simple and pain free (and, tbh, actually quite fun/interesting). I'm porting over bfarber's Links System for IPB3 and I've already managed to get the ACP ported along with several improvements to it. I like how they made it easy to integrate your app with several of the forum's core functions like searching, item marking, editing members/groups in the ACP, etc. without editing a single file. Of course, it helps that in IPB3 pretty much everything is now an application, even the stock functionality like core, members & forums, so 3rd party app developers benefit from whatever IPS does to make integrating their own apps easier :P


That was actually part of the goal. In theory (not at this time, but at some point perhaps) we could remove the "forums" application for instance, and make everything based around something else. Perhaps at some point you could buy IPB with just the blogs, for example. Who knows? Our primary concern was making things abstracted and easily reusable. It's going to make it a lot easier to push out new things in the future.

[Matt]

Indeed. It was something that I extended from IP.Dynamic (then IP.Nexus). We wanted a solid framework on which you could plug in applications to extend it. In theory, we could release just an update to 'members' or 'forums' without the need to update anything else.