keith mentioned on beyond that the beta of 2.2 is going to be zend encoded. My question is: why?

Because it will be time limited to stop people using a beta version as an official forum.

It occured for the last public beta, but the full source was released for the RC versions. I assume they will be taking a similar approach this time.

I hope they only encode small sections so us mod authors can get a look at the inner workings of this very nice IPB upgrade.

bah!

better question: will the language files be encoded? i want to port my 2.1 lang pack to 2.2,,, and that would be not possible if its encoded

You probably won't need to import it to test the Beta, would you? The final release should be unencoded so you'd be able to import it then.

the public beta should be open source, every encoded file is a file too many as far as mod authors are concerned.

The private beta tests have all been Zend encoded and have given me no problems, simply upload in binary and install as usual.

i won't import it, i want to start the translation of the new language strings in 2.2, to release the language file @ the day of release!

We can make the language files available, that's no problem.

ok. thx matt

From what I remember, only the 2.1 Alpha Version was encoded. All Beta's and RC's were open. But, they are not releasing any 2.2 Alpha - so we cannot go by 2.1's timeline for 2.2

I seriously cannot see any good reason to encode it.

If there's a good reason I'm happy to learn about it.

The very first beta will be encoded for two reasons:

1. We do not want it out there long as it will be confusing for us to support. We still have people running 2.0.0 Beta 1 so you can imagine

2. The very first beta is just to see if everything works. Once we're sure the base product works we will release an unencoded version everyone can play with.

As long as the RC/final isn't encoded I don't see an issue. Fair enough, mod authors will want to see the code to update their mods, but the code is likely to change between beta and final anyway so surely waiting until RC is a better idea.

1. that's a different story, ipb 2.0 beta's still fell under the free flag, of course there are still people running it as they basically don't need a license to run it... Now with ipb 2.2 you need to have an active license to have access to the download in the first place...

2. it seems to work on the company forums

As you can deduct from my posts I don't really agree with the policy, but as long as the final product is not encoded I'm relatively happy...

Peter.... the first beta will be encoded so its release is better controlled. After it's out for a week or so (as explained in the announcement) we'll give details on the next beta and/or RC (depending how it goes) which will not be encoded.

Look at it this way boys and girls, if they want to set a time whe they have to release the next version, I am all for it since its that much quicker I wil get IPB 2.2.x

This is no difference then Microsoft having a time-bomb in the Vista Beta and RC builds, they could easly make it use a valid Windows XP license to install ( yes dumb idea I know ) but I am just saying. They have to release Vista before those builds expire, so people don't lose their systems to the time bomb, and yes I now those builds have no support but still.

Of course the final release will be unrestricted. We aren't paying for time-encoded software, save a few beta releases here and there. And if I remember back to the 2.1.x beta days, the code changed quite a bit between Beta 2 and RC1.

I wouldn't mind having the final release, where it would expire every 6 months, that would mean we would get a new version every 6 months

It only would suck if IPS shut its "virtual" doors, of course I think we are more "screwed" due to the recent attacks over the last 3 months of "old" moldy holes in the software ( no offense by this statement, all software is inperfect ).

When will we be able to upgrade our forums? At 2.1 I remember we had 5 BETAS before Final. Will this be the case for 2.2 or will we only be able to upgrade when the product goes Final.

What do you mean by "shut its 'virtual' doors?" Shouldn't 2.2 be a lot more secure now that they've hired a third-party security firm to check each release before it's... released?

As mentioned in the announcement, after the first public beta is released, a more finite timeline will be constructed.

Yeah and there isn't anyone whos not going to use the RC versions in full public view.

I wouldn't say that.

I'm looking forward to using the zended 2.2 on localhost to get a better feel of the skinning system and start working on upgrades.

Since IPS is a company that is on the internet, they would close "virtual" doors, ie the company would close. Yes, I know they have an office, but they would also have to close their "virtual" office, no?

I was making an internet joke

Yes they did hire a security firm, and yes it should be more secure, but all software has bugs and anyone who doesn't believe that is pulling your leg.

I will put $.02 on the fact within 6 months IPB 2.2.x will have fixed at least on security/bug and release a patch for such security/bug to customers.

We're just doing this very first public release encoded so we can control it better. The very last thing we want is a beta floating around that could possibly (though we hope not!) be filled with brand-new-out-of-the-box issues.

Once we are happy it appears stable then we'll release a second round that is not encoded. Like MetalFrog pointed out - we willl announce the release schedule then. I would estimate a release schedule could be posted this time next week.

Where will we work from? ™

(don't ask - IPS joke)

You must be as bad at jokes as I am, because I don't get it, I suppose I deserve not to get it due to my vague random joke that made no sense clearly.


Unless to people who have been involved in the company, and perhaps can see the rumor, I swear I do have one

One question. Will we be able to update skins with the zend version or wait?

You will be able to do skins but any changes probably won't carry over so don't do anything too important.

I'm not worry about it being encoded. Good chance I may just use it to do some extreme stuff to see if it can handle it as well as test out my custom made cms on it to see what I have to do to get things work for it, then once the RC versions come out I can then go into doing more of my custom code work as well as skinning. I know I'll have tot totally made a new skin set adn then copy my skins into them as porting them I think will end up being to much of a mess.

Yes but what if someone has used the ZEND encoaded board as their live board? and the time runs out for that encoded tiem of peirod and the new release hasn't been posted. customers will be running a non existent board till they releast a stable source beta. I argee with Peter on this one. IPB 2.0.0 Was still under the free flag along with IPB 2.0 Final. before matt desided to go corpate with the script. I can agree that a weeks time will be fine that will give you and your site staff some time to get use to running it as a test board.

You really wouldn't want to use a first public beta on a live board that is just asking for trouble.

Lord Katsuhito - if they do that's THEIR OWN FAULT as the news post clearly states not to use it on a live board.

Then how are we supose to test it in a live enverment if we don't use it as a live board? its like looking for support for a small group of people then a community of 50,000 members then why encode it

You're not supposed to

OK you want the public to test it with encodide but you don't want them to? sounds kinda weird I can understand its a way to get your staff members use to the new release of the script.

So how are we supose to test it select a few members from our forum to register to the board and test tes tes? you can do that on a fully sourced out board

Well if you realllllllllllllly want to put an initial public beta on your live board you can certainly do that but I really wouldn't suggest it.

I wasn't planning on doing that but is there going to be any betas release FULL SORUCED meaning can we edit files for our own hacks sites skins, what have you thats why I think everyone is so pissed they don't understand that The first Beta ONLY will be encoded.

The first beta is to allow hundreds of owners to test the code and find the bugs, even with only one user. More bugs will be found and fixed. This will bring the code to a stable level. Then IPB can look to releasing a production version. This also allows modders to plan their upgrades.

I am sure the first Privet Beta testers got a full scrpted beta test of 2.2 I think thats why everyone is so hot. I can understand having an encoded beta 1 for testing to see if it works on all servers and what not.

Beta 2 throug RC3 Shoulg get the mod writers enough time to code their hacks with small fixes to the release every so often so when Final is released they can have a stable hack for the boards ready to go.

But I remember back in the day IPB 2.0 beta and release canidate you had different templates. then the final. you had a different Admin CP setup then final. 2.0 was when you started to work hard on the gallery and blog systems of IPB. SI thats understandible

Below is a char of how this will work if I am correct?



Beta 1 (Encoded)
Beta 2 (not encoded)
Beta 3 (not encoded)
RC1 (not encoded)
RC2 (not encoded)
RC3 (not encoded)
Final (not encoded)

You weren't planning on it... why ask all the questions about if you do then?

because there are stupid people out in the world today just clearing up stuff Im smart enough to run a Beta in its own folder. I do the same thing for scuff I code. I don't make it live till I know all the bugs have been worked out

Yeah I wouldn't be using a beta on a live baord at least not over your board. I would which I'm thinking of doing is installing the beta's on another domain of mine and then chooing say 10 of my members to come over and mess with it. Kind of like my own private beta testing. Hell thats a good idea as it help me work out the bugs faster.

That would be legal to do right? As long as the board would be locked to members only no one can sign up and once the full stable version comes out it goes down right?

I see no problem with your above plan, I and planned to do that myself. You make sure people can't use it and stuff, and let a select group of members play around with it and see what it does.

Or maybe leave it up as a preview so people can just look and see what the new version looks like.

That's what I said.

Wow... It isn't hard to understand, but I will break it down for the people who still don't get it.

IPS is encoding the first Beta so it can be properly controlled. The last time they released a public Beta, users immediately upgraded their boards, and thus, made it extremely difficult for IPS to support; considering that the they were still fixing bugs. So, by releasing the beta encoded, they can force those who want to upgrade their boards with the Beta to wait for the more stable releases.

I hope that clears it up a bit.

Last time we had a beta we asked that people did not use it to upgrade their boards. Even big red bold letters were used, but people still did it. It's been a while, but I think when we released the first beta for 2.1 the upgrade script was not finished so it wasn't included.... Despite the warnings and red letters people tried to upgrade their boards with the installer script.... (only to find their board in bad bad shape...)

Like it has already been said... It's so the release can be controlled.

Ok.. Public betas and RC's are for you to play with it but not to use it as production as in "live" just play with it to get feel of it before the final is out then switch over to final 2.2. That's the purpose of Beta in Forum world.


Different from Software world. where you want to use beta software with bleeding edge and expect a bumpy road but usable in everyday life.

So, don't let people sign up on public beta boards. It is for you, holder of license, to play with and learn so you can get your handles on it before it goes final to make transition easy. like for example install public beta on localhost and play with it. instead of installing it over your previous. encoded or not.

TILL Final Release... you can install that over the last stable releases.

It is also good idea to tweak and mod over several releases before Final but don't use it in public setting. just to yourself then when Final comes out you can look at your test version to copy from ie: modding code as such.

In the end it won't really matter. We hope the first public beta will be very short.

As you can probably tell from the lack of major issues - we have been testing this internally for some time.