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Version 2.3: This version has the following enhancements/features:
- HTML Post enabled for Admin
- new ini.asp architecture to prevent redirection with the external registration routine
- photo batch import (admin w/ FTP access only)
- search remembers more of users original specification
- improved full-text search engine performance
- restrict message forward by number of post
- Moderator PM capability is not restricted by the flood control
- Improved paging sps for message listing
- option "set as album photo" available to album owner
- improved attachment handling to prevent orphan attachments
- slide show interval configurable by admins
- an option to require moderation on posts w/ attachments
- an option to track online user while hiding online user list on default.asp, tt.asp, tm.asp and m.asp to improve performance for busy forums
- session redesign (reduce memory use)
- Application redesign (removal of Application Variables)
- Online users list now tracked in database (w/o Application variables)
- Bad word filter first char symbol problem
- group manager's ability to remove users from a group
- store group titles and group graphic in database and automatically assign group title when a user joins a group, and remove group title when users are removed from the group.
- Improved search engine capability for photo gallery
- Improved search engine capability for members (can also search for content in "short" customizable fields),
- Improved search engine capability for messages (search subscribed forums, search multiple forums).
- removal of the RC4 encryption algorithm
- a My Forum type of index page (with improved site integration kit), which can be used as an alternative default page.
-- Dec. 19th, 2003
Version 2.2: This version has the following enhancements/features:
- feature: Photo Gallery
- can set up multiple galleries, albums, and photos
- complete group based permission:
- public/private gallery
- can guest view the gallery
- can member create album
- number of albums a member can create
- can member upload photos
- disk space limit per photo
- disk space for each user
- can member delete album / image
- can member comment / rate
- can member add photos in this gallery to my favorites
- moderation required for newly uploaded photos?
- 3 types of album: private/public view/public upload
- batch upload (5 photos at once)
- can set image as album/gallery photo
- edit album/photo
- move a photo to another album
- users can report photo
- moderator can approve photo
- Advanced / simple views for Albums and photos
- Slide show
- Real-time thumbnail generator: 2 levels -> 120X120 and 640X480 and cache for fast performance
- rebuild thumbnail (use New Bitmap instead of the GetThumbnail method if there is an embedded thumbnail in the original photo)
- New photos/Popular photos
- My Favorites w/ slide show
- search for photo
- feature: Online User List - showing the exact message/forum URL for members
- feature: sitewide announcement
- enhancement: deleted by
- enhancement: deleted post takes up less screen space
- enhancement: an additional language string for profile e-mail
- enhancement: ability to enable post rating while hiding member's score
- enhancement: public calendar can be set to Guest viewable
- enhancement: new download mechanism -> still tracks download counts if fored download (admin option) is set to false, remember uploaded file name in PM and Events, and better handling for inline attachment
- enhancement: new CSS classes: offline, online, forum title, and message subject
- enhancement: specify thumbnail size
- enhancement: admin control panel option for table width (under the dynamic header/footer feature)
- feature: search within this thread
- enhancement: admin can change user's password in the admin control panel
- enhancement: optimized popup posting code (auto select best dimension)
- enhancement:confirmation, registration improvement (redirected to default.asp)
- enhancement: upload waiting message
- enhancement: increase the capacity of link address to 1024 characters for "link" forums
- enhancement: user banning effective immediately
- enhancement: subforum new message indicator
- enhancement: profile's [homepage] column is increased to 100 chars
- enhancement: google tool bar body onunload compatibility
- enhancement: posts by deleted member now show authors as "deleted member" (can change to whatever you want in your database -> mem = -2)
Version 2.1.5: This version has the following enhancements/features:
- feature: ability to turn uploaded image into thumbnail (require ASP.NET runtime), optional
- enhancement: ability to preserve attachment file name, and count the number of downloads. Will also show the attachment file size
- feature: ability to add "links" as forums (so it can be used as Ads) and will track number of redirects.
- feature: view related threads in current forum/all forums
- feature: support 2 new CSS definitions for new/old post in tt.asp
- enhancement: calendar improvement for "upcoming events" (signup, join discussion, etc.)
- enhancement: improved search engine query building algorithm
- enhancement: remember "advanced search" preference
- feature: more complete search result page with # of replies and "last post by", Plus a sorting by date parameter.
- feature: PM an entire group.
- enhancement: allow setting pm limit beyond 100
- feature: group based PM storage limit
- feature: PM number of recipient limit
- feature: setting guest permission for 1) search 2) profile 3) member list 4) using the forum
- feature: post/edit/reply/poll/event: instead of using pop-up window only, I will add a inline posting interface -> this will improve compatibility with those poorly designed pop-up blockers for IE.
- feature: quick reply window (optional)
- feature: unlimited forum filters: name, email, ip, and bad words.
- enhancement: the quick search box in message listing now recognize the timefilter setting, and includes other options that can be specified.
- enhancement: shows detailed error message for avatar uploads and profile interface.
- enhancement: alphabetic order for the buddy list, and PM folder list
- enhancement: option to remove the todays event/birthday from the default page
- enhancement: read tracking - set cookies from the last login parameter from the database, so this feature is not tied to a browser.
- enhancement: remember a few user preference in database (PM save, subscription, timezone,speed options, etc.), and they do not rely on cookies anymore
- enhancement: ability to notify a user using e-mail after his post is moved to the recycle bin
- enhancement: show user's online status on beside his message.
- enhancement: show users viewing message as active users in the forum.
- enhancement: the >> link in tt.asp directs user to the last page.
- enhancement: the tooltip in tt.asp now without PGDCode tag.
- enhancement: new admin contorl panel option allowing you to hide recycled posts from regular members
- feature: ability to close/open all categories on default.asp
- feature: allow different modes of subscription (notify only once/always; notify only new topics/always)
- enhancement: flood control is now applied to event posting and PM
- enhancement: paging system for PM/address book
- remove the dependency on "http_referer", and by doing so a lot of users who turn off referer logging will not experience 500 error from now on.
- refined popup code.
- redesigned session keep alive routine. Does not depend on parent window to keep session alive while posting.
- feature: you can now specify 4 different time unit for the feature "time limit before a user can edit/delete" in the admin control panel.
Version 2.1.1: This version has the following enhancements:
- improve the message link format -> use only tm.asp?m=xxx for messages.
- Read tracking using cookies
- ability to mark a forum read (instead of all forums)
- support for unlimited sub forums and sub categories.
- new section in default.asp to display upcoming events as well as today's birthdays
- new default calendar - event overview for the week (avoid going to the forum announcement calendar every time)
- Advanced full-text search capability, allowing uses of keywords: "AND, OR, NOT, NEAR"
- Include query link to show subscriptions (searchfor=subscribe) via searchpro.asp
- Extra protection against hot-linking
- improve cookie handling function
- ability to allow admins to hide their profiles / from online user list even when the options are turned off
- Add duplicate name/email check in the "user detail" interface in the admin control panel
- PGDCode now produce e-mail links for addresses that contain more than 2 dots.
- New external registration and login samples
- e-mail notification for moved threads and deleted threads
- Thread moved to recycle bin can be deleted without having to restore it first.
- Admin control panel addition: allow meta tags to be added.
- ability to specify whether to add an divider to separate "topped" messages
The following is the original feature list for version 2.0 Advanced Edition:
Red Color: New additions after the initial feature list published on 2003-05-01
- Group based forum permission:
- Group based forum permission for each forum
- One user can exists in multiple groups, and forum will assign permission by comparing the permission differences among groups
- Permissions:
- General Permission:
- Post & Reply
- Post
- Reply
- Read
- No Access
- Can Create Poll
- Can vote
- Can Rate Post
- Upload
- Size and extension restrictions can be assigned differently for each group
- Activated/Deactivated:
- You can create a permission setting, but disable it temporarily by clearing a checkbox.
- Examples:
- I want to grant Reply permission to certain groups to answer questions Guests have, but all other members can only read the messages:
- Add the groups and assign Reply permission
- In the Edit Forum interface, select read permission for all members
- In the Edit Forum interface, select post permission for guests.
- I want to disallow access to certain groups, but all other registered members should be able to read:
- Add the group and assign No Access permission
- In the Edit Forum interface, select read permission for all members
- In the Edit Forum interface, select No Access permission for guests.
- Group based Calendar:
- Admins can set up multiple calendars for the public
- Multiple Private Calendars (group based)
- 2 default calendars:
- Forum Announcements
- Birthdays
- Calendar supports:
- Month View
- Day View
- Event View
- Calendar Subscription (new event notification)
- Integrated Event discussion with the message board can be enabled per Calendar/Event
- Event Types:
- One-time event
- Recurring event
- Periodic Events:
- every x days
- every x weeks
- every x months
- every x quarters
- every x years
- Monthly Events:
- Repeat on every (1st-5th) (Sunday-Saturday) of every month
- Repeat on day x of every x month
- Anniversary: specify month and day for the repeat
- Event Signup:
- Enable/Disable signup per event
- Event owner can view members who sign up and contact them with Private Messages for event updates
- Members who sign up an event can track the event with a single mouse click
- General Permissions per Public/Private Calendar:
- Event creation
- Create one-time event
- Create recurring event
- Read-only
- Subscription on/off
- Delete event on/off
- Select a forum for event discussion
- Upload:
- Size and extension restrictions can be assigned differently for each Calendar
- Activated/Deactivated:
- You can create a Calendar, but disable it temporarily by clearing a checkbox.
- Group Permission per Public/Private Calendar:
- One user can exists in multiple groups, and forum will assign permission by comparing the permission differences among groups
- General Permission:
- Group Member can create event
- Only Group Manager can create event
- Group Manager is defined per User Group
- Read-only
- No Access
- Can Create Recurring: Choose to allow group members to create recurring events
- Is Moderator: Select this option to make this group the moderator of the calendar. Moderators will have all the permissions enabled.
- Can Delete Own Events: Whether to allow members in this group to delete events posted by themselves
- Can Subscribe: Whether to allow this member to subscribe to this calendar (to receive event notifications)
- Upload
- Size and extension restrictions can be assigned differently for each group
- Activated/Deactivated:
- You can create a permission setting, but disable it temporarily by clearing a checkbox.
- Examples:
- I want to grant Add Event permission to certain groups, and all other members can only read the events:
- Add the groups and assign "Member can create event" permission
- In the Edit Calendar interface, select "No - Only admin or qualified user group members can create events"
- I want to disallow access to certain groups, but all other registered members should be able to add events:
- Add the groups and assign No Access permission
- In the Edit Calendar interface, select "Member can create event"
- Search Engine Friendly Forum interface:
- Utilizes the native capability of IIS 5 to convert .asp pages to .htm pages for optimal search engine indexing compatibility.
- Combined with the redesigned server-side PGDCode conversion to improve indexing compatibility.
- Does not need any special software installed on the server.
- Admin can choose whether to include the link title into the URL to improve relevance.
- Maintains strong security; we do not generate hackable physical .htm pages.
- Admin can disable URL conversion.
- User Group Properties:
- Group Description: Description that will be shown to the public.
- Group Type: Choose one of the three settings:
- Public: Public group will be shown to everyone except Guest
- Private: Private group and the users under this group will be shown only to group members. If membership application is enabled (see below), the group name will be shown to everyone except Guest so that other users can apply for membership (user list is still hidden from other users).
- Hidden: This group and its members are only shown to admin.Use this setting if you just want to use this group to manage users.
- Group Manager: Use the Browse/Remove button to assign/remove group manager. Group Manager can do the following tasks:
- Change Group Name
- Change Group Description
- Enable/Disable Welcome Message
- Change Welcome Message
- Enable/Disable Membership Application
- Approve/Disapprove Membership Application.
- You can set up a group based calendar to allow only Group Manager to post events.
- Welcome Message: This message will be sent to users automatically when they join the group. You can choose to disable or enable it.
- Allow membership application: Allow/Disallow other users to apply for membership.
- 2 more Default Groups :
- User Managers: Can change the settings under User Configurations
- Forum Managers: Can change the settings under Forum Configurations
- Users under these 2 groups will have Admin privileges for the entire user aspects of the forum (calendar, forum, member list, etc.)
- User-defined fields:
- 32 short fields (varchar 200), and 5 long fields (text) defined in a separate table that link back to pgd_members with foreign key on the member id column
- As an admin, you can specify the following for each field:
- whether to show on registration page
- whether to allow members to hide this field from the public (4 different options)
- whether to allow members to update the field
- whether to show this field to member (like a hidden field)
- change display order
- input validation:
- allow admin to specify multiple regular expressions to validate the input; We provide a test area for testing regular expressions before deployment.
- allow admin to specify multiple error messages once input validation fails
- allow admin to specify the HTML interface for the field. e.g. if you want to show a drop-down instead of a text field
- User Profiles:
- Birthday: optional; can hide age
- Hide Profile
- One mouse click to see the group membership information for each user
- Choose Forum Language Interface
- Member list:
- Filter the member list by group
- View Group List
- "Am I a member of this group?" indicator beside each group
- Apply for membership when enabled
- Send and Resend messages via PM or e-mail to the Group Manager to expedite the approval process
- Send a reason to the member if you disapprove membership application (Group Manager)
- View pending members (self or Group Manager)
- Subscription:
- New forum subscription interface:
- View entire forum list, and subscribe/unsubscribe multiple forums at once
- One mouse click to subscribe all forums under a category
- "Am I a moderator?" indicator beside each forum
- New thread subscription interface:
- Unsubscribe multiple messages at once
- Bookmark feature: you can select not to get mail from the thread
- Forum and author are shown beside each subscribed message
- Multiple File Attachments / Forced Download:
- Admin can set the maximum number of files allowed to upload per message for each forum
- Supports "forced download" for the file attachments:
- Completely hide the file path for the attachments
- Compatible with all 4+ browsers
- Recycle Bin:
- When delete (posts or thread) is enabled in the forum, members can only move their own messages to the recycle bin
- Moderators can choose from "move to recycle bin" or "permanently delete"
- Moderator can specify a reason when he move a post to the recycle bin
- Moderator can restore entire threads, or restore individual posts
- Unified Interface for message viewing for:
- Today's posts
- Posts since last visit
- Active (hot) posts
- All polls
- All FAQ's
- Can be used as an entire FAQ system
- Supports Search within FAQ's
- All posts pending approval
- All posts in recycle bin
- A member's posts
- Filter each of the above option with:
- No filter
- Category filter
- Forum filter
- Site configurations:
- Allow users to hide from online user list, but still visible to all admins
- Allow users to hide their profiles. If a person chooses to hide their profiles:
- his name will be hidden from the member list.
- his public profile page will be hidden
- his info will be hidden when he posts messages
- Display Preference for today's posts and new posts since last visit
- Avatar and Public Photo upload size and extension restrictions
- Forum filters:
- Centralized interface for
- Bad words
- IP
- Single E-mail or E-mails from an entire domain
- Login Name filter
- E-mail or Login Name filter support Javascript Regular Expression matching, which can be used to create extensive filters (w/ examples).
- Forum configuration:
- Copy Forum button: You can use the setting of one forum to create a new forum (template).
- optional settings:
- copy moderators
- copy private users
- copy group permissions
- Server messages:
- New interface: The first line of each server message becomes the subject line, so subject can also contain parameters. This allow easy formatting without touching the ASP code as in 1.X
- 4 new parameters for Message notification: Category name, Category URL, Forum Name, and Forum URL.
- SMTP authentication and server port configuration:
- Supports SMTP authentication as well as port number configuration for SMTP servers that disable anonymous relay.
- Smiley / Avatar Upload and Management:
- Unified interface for managing custom smiley faces and avatars
- Admins can upload multiple smiley faces at once (no configuration required), and delete unwanted smiley faces.
- Admins can upload multiple avatars at once (no configuration required), and delete unwanted avatars.
- Admins can create and delete avatar groups through the administrative interface.
- Color Scheme & CSS:
- Admins can specify background graphics for regular and alternating cells (optional setting).
- Redesigned CSS loading interface for maximal compatibility with HTTP compression software.
- No session redirection; improved session performance:
- No cookiecheck querystring appended to the end of URL
- Completely eliminates the need for global.asa. Count users without global.asa
- session tracking is now way faster than before (no resource expensive character matching)
- Bilingual Interface :
- Default is disabled (performance reasons)
- When enabled (slightly modifying language.asp, detailed instruction included), the language selection drop-down list will be shown to users in their profiles for them to choose from
- Can easily be modified to support more languages (detailed instruction included)
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