UPDATED! I'm happy to announce jCore 0.6! Marking one year with jCore I thought it was time for a new look too, so besides new modules like Poll, Video gallery and moving to HTML5  we also have a new default template. I'm pretty happy with this new version, it starts to feel more like what I had/have in mind and with the new changes/fixes is the most robust release. Read on for the detailed list of changes if you dare :)

UPDATE (Sep 4): CKEditor updated to 3.4, fixed error when replying to a comment in shopping orders, fixed tableprefix errors.

NOTE: as of this release all downloads have been opened up for guest users too so no more registration needed to download.

Core system changes

  • Fixed spelling for "Guests can comment/rating too."
  • Removed security image when user logged in
  • Changed message when MySQL connection cannot be made (Site Temporary Unavailable) so it's more understandable and valid HTML
  • Fixed empty form-entry- class name if no name or title defined
  • Fixed Admin Settings section in Global Settings (it was mixed together with Security Image Settings)
  • Added module title/description when installing module
  • Fixed ratings and comments reply/ratings for guest user
  • Added flushing display to blocks to speed up page loads
  • Load jQuery at the top and jQuery plugins at the bottom so you can use jQuery in the document/code
  • Changed "Quick reply" to "Reply" in comments
  • Added caching control to icons using .htaccess file so they will be cached for 1 year
  • Show attachments icon in admin too
  • Added option to totally disable jQuery (will let you make a html only website and still work in admin)
  • Added option to load separate jQuery plugins for admin only
  • Added "Moderated comments" option to settings (which turned on will show comments only after x minutes if not deleted, or can be set to only show comments once approved)
  • Fixed Filemanager if ajax paging enabled and uploading a file
  • Fixed posts counter for Menu Items when moving/copying posts
  • Fix shopping orders ajax paging
  • Dropped png fix for IE5 and IE6
  • Changed "Forget your password?" to "Forgot your password?"
  • Send out new order notification emails only if no Post process is required (for e.g. no Payment needed) or if order payment confirmed
  • Dropped www as subdomain from member system so there won't be any difference if site used with www or without
  • Added option to be able to create blocks without IDs for e.g. just with css classes
  • Fixed ckEditor file browser if site url specified without www but loaded with www
  • Added ajax content/video support to Lightbox also no loading shown if image cached or slideshow is playing and better transition effect between images
  • Changed post titles to h1 html tag from h2
  • Added form-entry-error class to form fields/entries when submitted and error noticed
  • Pictures/attachments/comments/videos classes can now be used without an owner (should be handy for developers)
  • Fixed string phraser to allow blockquote and br tags too
  • Better separate module translations so you won't have to duplicate translations from the core file (for e.g. like comments)
  • Fixed set element to be sub element of its own sub elements (which resulted in an infinitive loop)
  • Ordering is updated when new item is created and order number defined
  • Fixed ordering of items to take their owners in cosideration (for e.g. dynamic form field values)
  • Fixed email address validation for mass email "From" email field too
  • Dropped menu title from meta description
  • Optimizing jQuery scripts, displaying ajax loading message for all ajax requests
  • Show html code in ajax requests (for e.g. tooltip error and success messages are shown just like real tooltip messages)
  • Fix Email field in shopping order form, title modified to "Shopping Order Form"
  • Added direct links to new shopping orders in webmaster notification emails
  • Fixed shopping orders digital goods downloads mysql error for older jCore versions
  • Dropped self:: as it cannot be rewritten from extended classes.
  • Added star rating for posts
  • Fixed possibility to rewrite shopping locally
  • Added option to suspend member registration/login (for e.g. closing site when moving to other server, or having a closed community)
  • Added option to define items to show (limit) for photogallery, videogallery, shopping, orders, filesharing
  • Fixed thumbnail broken error if editing image without thumbnail and also use defined url if not defined for the new image when adding an already uploaded image with url defined.
  • Added option to define an URL for posts to use for Read More
  • Fixed if site under maintenance css/js requests returned "Site under maintenance"
  • Show rating votes in tooltip: votes: 8, average: 7 out of 10
  • Added option to show the latest pic/video as icon for the folders as preview
  • CSS file made smaller and droped all redundancies from css definitions where possible
  • Added option to logout a member using logout=1 get variable (use login=1 to invoke member login form)
  • Fixed Only in/Except in menu checkbox to be set correctly when editing a block
  • Added static variables for selected languages, menuItems, posts which can be accessed like languages::$selected and is an array with all fields from the sql table
  • Dropped -j from phpMailer which should fix emails not being sent out on systems like GoDaddy
  • Added new color form input field with jQuery color picker
  • Show selected date in the jQuery calendar
  • Made lightbox black overlay curtain to be fixed which should fix part of the site being transparent if big image enlarged
  • Replaced javascript for hilighting table rows with css :hover as it works in IE7+
  • Added option to show all posts from all menus with content code and limit them like: {posts}7{/posts}
  • Added option to send out mass emails in chunks which should solve problems with shared hostings where you are only allowed to send out x amount of emails/hour
  • Added auto link functionality for http:// to new comments so you don't have to add link html tags manually
  • Added option to upload icons to shopping, filesharing, photogallery and video folders/categories
  • Show maximum allowed upload filesize in forms where input type is file
  • Added tabindex to admin list order id inputs which should make your life easier when reordering lists
  • Added automatically closing html tags when posting new comments (so your site won't gt messed up)
  • Added possibility to define minimum price and minimum order items for shopping cart to checkout
  • All Gnome default icons from Fedora have been added to the library (now you should find an icon for almost anything :))
  • Fixed setting mysql timezone without needing to import zoneinfo to your mysql db (this should fix all problems regarding mysql timezone on shared hostings)
  • Fixed selected post's back link which now remembers the paging
  • Fixed selected shopping item back link to remember paging also items won't link directly to their category instead if item selected no subcategories are shown this way its more logicall to browse for items.
  • Added static.php file to access static files directly trough this script which will set cache to one year and will not load session or any additional files which speeds up things. From this version on this file is used to deliver CSS/JS content
  • Moved jQuery to the top of the html so you can use jQuery while the page is loading but all jQuery plugins are loaded at the bottom together with jCore's jQuery plugin.
  • Changed the way we handle new password requests, it is now exactly the same way as it is on PHPBB forums so it should be more user friendly (no need for two emails)
  • Changed the registration process to be the same as for phpBB meaning you are able to pick your own password on registration and an account activation link will be emailed instead
  • Changed security image to bigger letters and to EN words which are randomly loaded from a dictionary file, also added posibility to use random fonts
  • Added robots.txt with default Allow all
  • Cleaner sql error messages wich display only a text message about the problem but no information on the place or query while logged in as administrator you will see a full traceback and sql error message
  • Rounded corners jQuery plugin dropped and replaced by css (it won't work for IE but you may try css3pie)
  • Added Tipsy plugin as tooltip for most of the links, also added option for input tooltips in the Dynamic forms and tipsy will display them on focus
  • Shopping cart buttons changed from divs to inputs
  • Added SEO Options to define different Title/Description/Keywords for menu items wich should server for SEOing.
  • Added path as main blocks classes and dropped subblock class as I didn't found any need for it
  • Changed dropdown menu to slideDown/Up and also dropped sub-menu-of-id-X as it's not needed anymore.
  • Added Minimum Password Length to settings and set to 5 by default
  • Limited user registrations to one email address/user (administrators will still be able to add multiple users with the same email)
  • Added option to define custom thumbnail width/height, watermark position on upload, also to have custom thumbnail separately uploaded for a picture
  • Added Latest, Active, Popular, Discussed, Rated options to shopping module when attaching to a menu, and if no option is choosen only the categories will be shown just like for Filesharing/Photogallery/VideoGallery modules and the latest Items won't be shown.
  • Added option to show randomized items with content codes using the "rand" arg for Posts, Photo gallery pictures, Video gallery videos, Polls and Shoppping items.
  • Added .htaccess file with RLimitCPU for admin so huge mas uploaded files can be processed
  • Set user login state to now if registered trough shopping checkout so it won't be deleted by the cleanup process
  • Added "latest" command for arguments in poll, photo/video gallery, filesharing, shopping, posts to display the latest items
  • Form footer text "Field marked with an asterisk (*) is required" is now automatically displayed only if there is at least one field that is required and is set to plural if there are more fields required
  • Added new tooltip type "success" and updated all tooltips to use this where relevant
  • Added option to delete comments from client area too if logged in as administrator
  • Dropped auto signing of email messages sent out by the system and upgraded all emails to sign them manually.
  • Dropped slideshow play button from picture preview if there is no more then 1 picture in a gallery
  • Rewrote how jLightbox (picture preview) is applied to images which is now a lot faster and won't freeze browser even if there are hundreads of images
  • CSS class will now automatically replace icons.jcore.net to point to your own jCore server path
  • Dropped meta_title from global settings as we didn't use it anywhere
  • Upgraded all jQuery plugins to the latest versions
  • Recompiled all jQuery plugins using closure without --debug which saves ~300Kb
  • Upgraded ckEditor to 3.3.1 and added Media Embed plugin to easily insert embed codes
  • Added latest css3Pie, you can use it in your css like: { behavior: url("http://jcore.net/static.php?request=css3pie"); }

New additions

Added new jQuery Plugins

Added new fonts

  • AntykwaBold.ttf
  • Candice.ttf
  • Ding-Don~dyO.ttf
  • Duality.ttf
  • Heineken.ttf
  • Jura.ttf
  • StayPuft.ttf
  • TimesNew~old.ttf
  • VeraSansBold.ttf

New modules

  • Poll module which can have unlimited and also guests answers, pictures, attachments)
  • Video module just like photo gallery just with videos and you can add YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe, DailyMotion videos (let me know if you need any other site to implement) and also upload your own flv, mp4 files if you want to. Uses html5 player if available with fallback to our own flash player.

NEW: Switched to HTML5, template validated, also added new html5 input types

Installer changes

  • Added set_time_limit(0) so the installer will work even if download is slower
  • Upgraded to the new template
  • Fixed error (select database) when the defined db wasn't available but couldn't be created by the installer
  • Fixed table prefixing for UPDATE queries
  • Upgraded all classes to the latest versions
  • Dropped installer id requirements as jCore can be now downloaded by guests too

Plans for next release

For the ext release I have plans to include a new Template manager so you can install/uninstall templates easily for your website, also an update manager which should make the updating process of jCore client sites a lot easier.

I also would like to mention the help of Sebastian who is doing all the translations for a German jCore and has released jCore.eu with most of the information from here in German language. Thanks Sebastian!

Enjoy the new release and don't hesitate to let your thoughts known in the comments.

Good to know

If you are having problems with icons saying Internal server error 500 usually it means you don't have apache headers enabled which is used for the icons so they can be cached and won't have to be downloaded every time you load the admin page. 

You can overcome this problem by enabling apache module headers by

  • if installed from source recompile apache using --enable-headers
  • if installed from build add LoadModule headers_module modules/mod_headers.so to httpd.conf
  • or by simply deleting the .htaccess file in lib/icons/ directory.