News
Why we make b2evolution (vs. WordPress, Joomla and Drupal)
Some time ago, I got asked why we are making b2evolution. I started writing a blog post about it, but didn’t finish it at the time. Today seems like a good day to round it up ;)
Short answer: we want a system that saves us time on website maintenance. Even more so when you maintain multiple websites: you don’t want to handle upgrades and tuning multiples times.
b2evolution does that by reducing the number of independent pieces that need upgrading and catering. Everything you need is integrated in a single package, including user accounts, forums, private messaging, documentation publishing, and of course: blogs. And that single package can support multiple web sites on a single installation. Finally, it can auto-upgrade itself.
Granted, the amount of integrated features can be a little overwhelming at first, but if you’re in for a rather large and complex website, or better yet: multiple websites, nothing will save you as much time as b2evolution in the long run (meaning: once initial setup is done).
Personally, I have built many websites since I started crafting my first HTML pages at UPenn in 1993. And, throughout the years, I’ve used many different tools to get that done. It started with a plain text editor. That lasted for several years. Then came Dreamweaver. That was a syntax coloring editor with automation functions that made it easy to maintain sites with dozens or even hundreds of interlinked pages. But as the web continued to grow and the amount to publish was growing likewise, I quickly found myself in a situation where I had to publish thousands if not tens of thousands of pages. That is when I had to switch to what we called at the time "a blog engine". Today we call it a CMS: Content Management System.
At the time I chose to use b2 as my blog engine. But, as it turned out, it quickly got abandoned by its author. So I picked it up where he left it, and started extending it under the name b2evolution. Eventually, we rewrote the whole thing. That is the short story. You can find a longer version an dhow it relates to WordPress here.
But today, why continue building our own rather than using another CMS like Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal?
Well, because I tried them and they failed me. They’re probably fine if you want to publish a single website and if that site doesn’t require too many plugins to get to what you need. But in my experience, they quickly require too many different plugins and modules to be installed, upgraded and maintained separately and/or too much custom code, with an even higher maintenance burden. Furthermore, they completely break down if you want to publish many different websites.
The goal with b2evolution was to have everything we needed integrated into a single platform. Install it once. And upgrade it once when there is a new release. No need to upgrade each plugin independently and solve incompatibilities with the other plugins along the way. Beyond that: with a single install of b2evolution, we can actually run multiple sites at the same time. Again a huge time saver on upgrades.
Today b2evolution integrates all the features we need for every new website we create, including user forums, private messaging, email lists, reference materials, multilingual support and of course: multiple blogs.
No other CMS (content management system) is as integrated as b2evolution. No other CMS is as easy to maintain.
b2evolution saves us so much time on website maintenance compared to any other existing solution. In our experience, nothing else even comes close.
That’s why we do it ;)
What could make b2evolution even better?
For a long time b2evolution has insufficient documentation. I believe we hugely improved on that point in the last couple of years. Check out the Online Manual here.
We’ve also been thinking of making feature presentation videos for a long time to show them in action. We have always pushed that to "next month", knowing there was a new user interface coming out soon. That’s an endless loop. At some point we’ll need to just bite the bullet and start cranking out those videos!
Finally, we recognize some users have a hard time getting b2evolution up and running, despite web hosts offering automated install. The auto installers work fine but many times there are other configurations on the web host side that create problems (e-g: Mod Security).
Thus we are wondering if we should offer "b2evolution hosting" ourselves, i-e: a SaaS (Software as a Service) version of b2evolution. That means you could just sign up for a plan that matches your needs and get going. You’d never need to worry about installing b2evolution, about .htaccess files, Linux file permissions, apache modules, upgrades, backups, etc.
Your thoughts on those matters are welcome in the comments below!
Happy May everyone! :)
Original post blogged on b2evolution.
Bringing Federated Search to the State of Georgia
The State of Georgia’s Digital Services team (DSGa) supports a network of over 100 websites running on Drupal. Originally built in Drupal 7, DSGa began transitioning to a new Drupal 8 platform in 2019. Until this transition is completed, DSGa is responsible for supporting both Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 sites.
Sites in the network need the capacity to search content from both their own site and other sites, regardless of the version of Drupal being used. While both platforms are hosted on Acquia and use Acquia Search, their Drupal 7 search solution could not incorporate content from the new Drupal 8 sites. This left the DSGa team in an awkward position: either lose functionality while they waited for sites to transition to Drupal 8 or delay the launch of the new platform until all sites were ready.
Fortunately, there was another option. Using the open source Federated Search solution, Palantir collaborated with the DSGa and their development partners to re-launch network-wide search with added functionality in both Drupal 8 and Drupal 7 without any service interruption for site visitors.
e107 v2.2.1 Bootstrap CMS Released
After the release of 2.2.0, we have been working on crushing some bugs that did have some impact on functionality.
We have therefore decided to release 2.2.1 sooner rather than later, and recommend everyone to update.
Please note that the 2.2.0 release was a major release with some important notes. Please refer to the previous post for more information on that release, including an overview of numerous great new features which were added!
New features:
- Added new
Newsshortcode{NEWS_AUTHOR_EUF}to retrieve Extended User Fields (e.g.{NEWS_AUTHOR_EUF: field=biography})
Fixes & Improvements:
- Fixed a database check/update issue that occurred when the database name contains a hyphen (
-) (#3800) - Fixed an issue with the Menu Manager preview not loading in some cases (#3815)
- Fixed frontpage button link to Admin Area (#3775)
- Fixed an issue with inserting a new custom page when using PHP 7.3 (#3812)
- Added tablerender id to error pages (#3801)
- Fixed an issue with (un)seralization (#2990)
- Fixed comment author avatar not showing correctly in comment form (#3813)
- Fixed issue in
Downloadplugin with batch userclass options - Fixed issue in
Forumplugin with forum mderator userclass recognition (#3814), with the Userlist shortcode links (#3809), and added placeholder option in{SEARCH}shortcode - Several
Forumtemplate optimizations for Bootstrap 4 (#2969) - Several PHP 7.3 compatibility improvements
For a full list of changes, please go here.
Please see our downloads section to download a copy.
Thank you for continuing to use e107. Please feel free to tell us what you think about e107 in our Gitter chatroom!
Posted May 29, 2019 | 3:00 am
Geeklog v2.2.1 Release Expected Quarter 4 of 2019
I just wanted to give an update on Geeklogs next release. I was hoping it would happen by the summer but that unfortunately looks not to be the case. We are hard at work on Geeklog v2.2.1 and hope to see the first beta by September 2019.
Some of the new features in Geeklog v2.2.1 include:
- New PHP Session Handling System (move to use PHP built in system)
- A Likes System for articles, comments and plugins (can include likes and/or dislikes)
- PHP 7.2 and PHP 7.3 support
- Updates to the latest library files for CKEditor, jQuery, Uikit, etc...
- Plus more and a large number of bug fixes as well...
Update (2019-06-24): Please note for Geeklog v2.2.1 we plan to up the minimum PHP version required to PHP v5.6.
Posted June 7, 2019 | 6:09 amJoomla 3.9.11 Release
Joomla 3.9.11 is now available. This is a security fix release for the 3.x series of Joomla which addresses one security vulnerability and contains over 25 bug fixes and improvements.
Nucleus CMS is Back (Sort of)
Despite project close announcement one and a half years ago, some enthusiastic Japanese developers and users have been maintaining Nucleus CMS core.And today, we are pleased to announce Nucleus CMS 3.70. This is a direct descent of the original Nucleus CMS, supports the same multiple languages.
Major fixes and improvements in this release are including (but not limited to) the following:
- Enforced password security using phpass library instead of md5 hash
- Default character code set is now utf-8, not iso8859-1
- Added new event PreLoadMainLibs
- Fixed vulnerability described in VCE-2011-3760.
- Support for PHP7 (Fixes in installer, embedded wrapper for mysql functions, etc.)
- [New] Duplicate Item button in the item list screen
- [New] Now you can arrange category order
- ... and more!
You are always welcome to post suggestions and questions for Nucleus CMS in the same old English support forum.
Also, all the core and major plugins are now maintained on GitHub. Please feel free to submit issues and of course pull requests.
Beside this code base, LMNucleus a fork from Nucleus by Leo is also available at http://nucleus.slightlysome.net/ and GitHub.
Cheers, and happy blogging!
The Japanese Nucleus TeamPosted January 27, 2016 | 12:24 am
phpBB 3.2.7 Release
Greetings everyone,We are pleased to announce the release of phpBB 3.2.7 "Bertie’s Force Field". This version is a maintenance release of the 3.2.x branch which resolves issues reported in previous versions.
The fixed issues include, among others, issues with form token validation during login, the inability to change topic types after posting, an issue with viewing private message folders, and potentially incorrectly shortened URL links when using the
[url=] BBCode.Full backwards compatibility for styles released before phpBB 3.2.6 has been introduced, which will enable logins even though these styles have not yet been updated with the latest style changes.
The full list of changes is available in the changelog file within the docs folder contained in the release package. You can find the key highlights of this release on the wiki at https://wiki.phpbb.com/Release_Highlights/3.2.7 and a list of all issues fixed on our tracker at Issues fixed in 3.2.7
The packages can be downloaded from our downloads page.
The development team thanks everyone who contributed code to this release: JoshyPHP, Matt Friedman, mrgoldy, EA117
If you have any questions or comments, we'll be happy to address them in the discussion topic.
- The phpBB TeamPosted May 5, 2019 | 1:18 am
Plone welcomes four students for the 2016 Google Summer of Code
We welcome these promising students exemplifying great diversity in geography and topics, and wish them a great Summer of Code!Posted April 24, 2016 | 5:55 amFive Nights at Freddy's 4 Full Version - Feel the fear one last time
Review
Five Nights at Freddy's 4 is the fourth, and last (supposedly) release in the Five Nights at Freddy's saga. Developed and published by Scott Cawthon, this horror game has delighted all the fans of horror games, and has also raised the criticism from those that say that there are too many FNaF games. This time, you are not a security guard fighting for your life against creepy animatronics. Instead, you are a defenseless kid who struggles every night because of his terrifying nightmares (nightmares about creepy animatronics, of course).
Now, animatronics don't kill you, because they are just nightmares, but they can scare you as they have done since forever. Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy have come back, and they have brought new nightmare friends with them. Also, the location is not an office anymore. It takes place in your own room, a room with a bed, two doors, and a dark closet. Each part of the room is dangerous since they are places where the animatronics can hide.
Moreover, the mechanics of the game have significantly changed compared to the previous tree installments in the saga. Now, you do not depend on your vision, or the cameras, because in this release, you don't have them. Now, you have to hear; you have to pay attention to every sound, breath, and laugh, because sound indicates where enemies will come from. It's recommended to play with earphones or with a very high volume. You are free to play with a regular sound volume, but you will not be able to hear your enemies.
Are you ready to say goodbye to your beloved animatronics?
As mentioned, the mechanics have changed. Now, you have nothing more than your senses and a flashlight to defend yourself. You have to control both doors, the closet, and the bed behind you. Animatronics can appear in any of the four places. What you have to do is walk bravely to the doors and the closet, listen carefully and if you hear something, close the door as fast as you can and hold it shut until the sound disappears. In case you don't hear anything, use the flashlight to prevent enemies from coming. The bed at your back has a little Freddy fluffy toy, but sometimes dreadful miniature Freddy's appear, followed by Nightmare Freddy himself. You have to shoo them with the flashlight unless you want Freddy to appear. It can seem easy, but the slightest mistake (using the flashlight when you hear a breath, or not closing the doors in time), will bring an end to the game.
Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy have come back, and they have brought new nightmare friends with them
Talking about your friends the animatronics, when you download FNaF4, you will have to face six of them, eight if you take into account the "nonofficial" ones. You already know Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy (nightmare version) but let me introduce you to Nightmare FredBear and Nightmare (plainly). All the animatronics in nightmare version are decrepit, broken, and especially scary. They have very long sharp teeth and glowing eyes, but Nightmare FredBear and Nightmare have even longer teeth, and they are very dangerous because they are unpredictable. This is especially true of Nightmare, since he is black and semi-transparent. They start appearing on nights 5 and 7, respectively.
Features
In this version, you can check out the main features of Five Nights at Freddy's 4:
- A new story that reveals what happened in the Bite of the 87
- A gloomy mini-game that allows you to skip the first two hours of the nights (if you are successful)
- Nightmare version of the old and well-known animatronics (Bonnie, Freddy, Chica and Foxy)
- 4 new animatronics: Nightmare, Nightmare FredBear, Plushtrap and Nightmare Cupcake (Chica's cupcake can attack you know)
- A new location
- New mechanics based on the sounds
If you like this horror adventure, feel free to visit the developer's official website to discover all the features before you download it.
System Requirements
You can read here the minimum PC system requirements needed to download and play this game:
- Operating System: Windows XP or later versions
- Processor: AMD Athlon, Intel Pentium @ 2GHz or better
- RAM Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Hard Drive Space: at least 1 GB free available
Posted August 20, 2015 | 6:19 am
Re: Visual Verification system stopped working
https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Visual_verification_code_-_It_doesn%27t_work._What_should_I_do
reinstalled my fonts library just in case, still didn't help...
wo...Posted August 22, 2019 | 3:33 pm
People of WordPress: Amanda Rush
You’ve probably heard that WordPress is open source software, and may know that it’s created and run by volunteers. WordPress enthusiasts share many examples of how WordPress changed people’s lives for the better. This monthly series shares some of those lesser-known, amazing stories. Meet Amanda Rush from Augusta, Georgia, USA. Amanda Rush is a WordPress […]Posted August 9, 2019 | 2:23 pmXOOPS PHPMailer Security Patches Released
The XOOPS Development Team is pleased to announce the release of security patches for XOOPS 2.5.8 and XOOPS 2.5.7.2.These patches includes the latest version of PHPMailer to address a serious vulnerability. All XOOPS users are encouraged to update as soon as possible.
Both full distributions and patch files (from the most recent prior release) for both the 2.5.7 and 2.5.8 series are available.
Any users that are running older XOOPS versions are advised to update to XOOPS 2.5.8.1 now.
Get XOOPS 2.5.8.1
Release files are available on GitHub.
The 2.5.8.1 files are also mirrored on the XOOPS File Repository on SourceForge
Get XOOPS 2.5.7.3
Release files are available on the XOOPS File Repository on SourceForgePosted January 1, 2017 | 12:51 am
