IPB3's Application Framework

[Brandon D]

I think I've made one of these posts before, but I felt another was appropriate with 3.2 now released.

IP.Links was one of the (if not the) first 3rd party application released for IPB 3.0 utilizing not only the new application structure at the time, but also all of the various extensions available to add on applications. It was incredibly easy to integrate my application with IPB3 using these extensions making it feel like it was part of the core product.

Fast forward to today with the release of 3.2, and while I haven't been near as quick to adopt the new features as I was with IPB 3.0, it has been equally as easy to do so. So far I have implemented the "Like" system (note the reputation was already implemented in previous versions), following content, and tagging. Even though there wasn't any documentation (that I could find), I was able to quickly integrate those features by simply looking at the forums application. I look forward to tackling notifications within the next couple days, and from a first glance it seems it too is just a matter of implementing a file and a few lines of code here and there.

Point being, you guys introduced a great framework in IPB3 for modification authors, made only better by the fact that not only do your own 3rd party applications make use of it, but core functionality like the forums do too.

[Ryan H.]

Yup. A bit of work to get your head around at times, but it's good.