Dove Forums - Version 2

[eluser]Bainzy[/eluser]
Hello everyone,

So the time is nearly here after a month of hard graft to release Dove Forums - Lite Edition.

What's Changed ?

Themes - Dove Forums now has themes, these can be changed via the admin panel. New themes will be added on the Dove Forums home page and are simple to add-in to the site. Themes can also be created by users and submitted to the Dove Forums home page for other users to download.

Achievements - I have built a full blown achievements system and added this into the coding of the site. Achievements can be edited via the admin panel to display custom titles and descriptions and the points awarded may also be changed. There is also pictures that can be added to the achievements again this can be done via the admin panel. There is a huge bundle of achievements already included but for now you will not be able to add any new ones. However this ability will be coming in a future update.

Settings System - I have build and coded a full blown settings system into Dove Forums, these include settings for tuning the site on/off, allowing email registration confirmation, turning the achievements system on/off, changing how many topics are displayed per page, and lots of other little settings all controlled via the admin panel.

Avatars - I have changed the way the avatar system works, you can now either upload your own custom avatar, or if you have a Gravatar account you can use this to provide your avatar.

Friends - You can now add other users of the site as friends, these feature can also be turned off via the admin panel.

Rankings - As you progress through using the forums, you are awarded points, these points build your ratings system. Unlocking achievements also contributes to the rankings system, new topics, posts, adding friends all help build your ranking.

Leaderboards - This again is all part of the rankings and achievements system. Users can see where they stand against other users of the site and compete for the top slot.

Email notifications - A fairly standard feature of forum software however this was missing from Dove Forums version 1, Now when a topic is replied to, the user will get a email notification letting them know of this. There is also notifications for the site admin to let them know when new users register.

Report system - I have added the ability to be able to report users for abuse or anything that breaks site rules.

Home page - Dove Forums now has a home page ( can be turned off via the admin panel ) this allows users of the forums to have a landing page, the boxes on the landing page can be turned on/off via the admin panel, boxes include :

- Latest registered users
- Latest topics
- Latest posts
- Blog posts ** Coming soon **
- News posts

Blog ** Coming soon ** - I have also started to add a blog feature into Dove Forums. Again all these features can be turned on/off to make the site how you want it, be it lightweight and simple or a bit more indepth.

There is many more features too, however I have listed the major changes above and a full feature list will come with the final release.

For a sneak peak at any of the features, head over to the demo build here :

http://www.doveforums.com/dovelite/

If you have any questions of features that you would like to see added into the final build then please post them up here and I will be happy to look into them.

Regards
Chris Baines
Dove Forums

[eluser]Phil Sturgeon[/eluser]
User / Pass?

Also an invalid login takes you to the main page, it should probably head back to the login form for a retry.

How is the PyroCMS integration looking?

[eluser]Bainzy[/eluser]
User / Pass - Register and create a new account. I am not letting the admin details out as i am currently working away on it and i dont want people messing with it just yet also this will let you test the achivements system

I know of the redirect issue and its on my todo list

As of intergration i still have not had the time to look through the library and change all the functions over but this will happen before release

[eluser]Phil Sturgeon[/eluser]
Sweet. As I said the main thing will be using Ion Auth and trust me, that will get a LOT of people interested in this as integration will be ridiculously easy for them (and me ). :lol:

[eluser]Pschilly[/eluser]
Its pretty awesome I'm not going to lie

Well done Bainzy everything is working great so far... (Haven't found any bugs yet )

And I agree with Phil, having Ion Auth would make integration sweet

[eluser]Bainzy[/eluser]
thanks Pschilly

I wondered who the user was and i was looking at the username thinking ... im sure i know that lol.

Ion auth is on the cards so dont worry about that ... and seeing as its in demand i shall get busy coding it in when i get in from work this evening ... just a fair bit to change if i switch over.

Glad everything is working now ... i just think the coding may be a bit OTT ... but its clearley commented for anyone wanting to delve into the workings.

Is there anything minus Ion Auth that you would like to see as a feature ?

[eluser]victorche[/eluser]
Interesting project, really ... Looks really promising and with fast development. Couple of questions though ... As the title says, this should be version 2. Then why you're talking about Dove LITE? Should we expect Dove FULL then?

Also ... Your whole site is not so clear to me. For example, there is:
http://www.doveforums.com/demo/forums/topics - Which is different than:
http://www.doveforums.com/dovelite/forums/topics

Also, you're speaking about a new, main, landing page ... Where can I see it? Because on the link you provided, there are the forums actually. Maybe:
http://www.doveforums.com/ - This is the landing page? And if it is ... why it is not leading to the "dovelite" demo?

Really, I am confused How many demos there are? How many versions ... And which is actually the demo, the lite, the full version?

[eluser]Dennis Rasmussen[/eluser]
I was afraid to look stupid by asking the questions that victorche did, but now that he did, I'll go ahead and say... where's the so called main page?

Oh and something else, isn't achievements the same thing as forum ranks?

[eluser]Bainzy[/eluser]
victorche & dennis ... wow really dint think this through before i put up this thread. soo let me explain.

Right Dove Lite is the new version (version 2) and as most of you know i already have a thread for the original version its a little confusing at the moment with there being multiple versions, its built on the original version of Dove Forums ( http://www.doveforums.com/demo/ ) The reason the original demo is still there is because that's the current version that can be downloaded and used ... this will be removed and replaced by Dove Lite at the time on release.

You are correct in thinking there is going to be 2 version Dove Lite and Dove Full. Dove full is going to be more like this forums laid out with the traditional forum style and having a few extra features. However development has not yet started on this version as i wanted to get Dove Lite out and start getting feedback.

The Main page feature is currently turned off as i still have a few things to do but that should be live again in the next few days, it will reside at www.doveforums.com/dovelite/home/ and a Home link will be added to the navigation bar at the top so users can navigate between the front page and the forums. I apologize for this feature not being running at the moment.

Onto the achievements .... Achievements have being implemented to give users of the site a incentive for doing various forum tasks, It's similar to the achievements found on the Xbox 360 while playing games. From experience i have found the hardest part of creating a active forums is getting the members to stick around so i added this feature in for the hope that people would find it fun and unique. It's tied into the rankings system to help boost a users rank but if the system is turned off then the rankings system is not effected and will continue as normal.

I hope this has cleared things up a little bit.

Regards
Chris

[eluser]Bainzy[/eluser]
Hey everyone,

Little update ... I have changed Dove Forums over to use Ion Auth as the authentication system for the site. The new version is not online atm as i am still working out the bugs caused by the changeover however i hope to get this off my local development over the next day.

Chris