Konsort Version 1.5.1 Build 7 has been released. This build will fix various issues that have been reported.

For a full list of what has been modified/fixed and to download the build you can visit this page:

http://clients.phpfox.com/patches.php?id=7

If you plan to install this patch you need to have version 1.5.1 installed.

This build is now part of the “Full Install” and “Upgrade” package, so for those that do not have a Konsort site installed or plan to upgrade from an older version can do so without having to install the patch.

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Konsort Version 1.5.1 Build 7 Beta has been released. This patch will fix various issues that have been reported.

For a full list of what has been modified/fixed, and to download the patch you can visit this page:

http://clients.phpfox.com/patches.php?id=6

If you plan to install this patch you need to have version 1.5.1 Build 4 or higher installed.

Note that this build is currently a Beta build and the Stable release will be on the 25th of May. This build is still however supported by our support team even in its beta state. This build will not be included in the “Full Install” package until the 25th of May.

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Was able to test Halo 3 Beta a few days ago. There was some problems at first for those that got the Beta via the game Crackdown, but once those issues were resolved it was a nice experience being able to play the beta version. I wasn’t to impressed with the general graphics, the only parts that did look like they put some more effort into was the 3D water effects and footprints in the snow was a nice touch to the game. The actual characters where much like Halo 2 and most of the game looked as if I was playing Halo 2 in high resolution. The online game play ran flawless for me. I did hear from others that they hit a lot of lag but I was not affected by this. I liked the idea that you were able to record your entire game play when a round was over but was disappointed that you were not able to place it on the net. We are only able to share it with our friends. I haven’t played it enough to give it a thumbs up or down just yet but will try it a few more times over the next few days.

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The Tag Cloud feature has been fully completed. This feature will be located on the main index page when a user is either logged in/out and on the main blog section. It will have a cloud of the most frequently used tags which will be pulled out from the Blog database. If a user clicks on one of the tags it will link to the blog section and list any blog that it finds with the the tag. It will then highlight the tag with a link to the full text view of the blog. Check it out here if you want an idea of how it will look.

One of the “Most Wanted” feature is the email importer which will do the task of importing your contacts from one of the populer email gateways:

1. Yahoo
2. Gmail
3. Hotmail
4. AOL
5. Lycos
6. Rediff
7. Mail.com
8. Indiatimes
9. Outlook
10. Express
11. Thunderbird
12. ICQ
13. Katamail
14. Email.it

We are happy to announce the brand new partnership with GetMyContacts will now have this feature added into Konsort version 1.6. The integration with the software is already completed for the Beta 2 release. This new feature will require clients to have libcurl and OpenSSL installed. The default product requires open_basedir for PHP to be set to “no value”, though with some slight re-building of the product this won’t be a problem anymore. We also modified the package to make sure the actual folder where the script resides does not need to have full write permission so we created a cache folder in our “file” folder that will store the cached information the software needs to import contacts. The software package will be located in the “plugin” folder and we have modified it to work with our language package system to make sure it will be part of our new multilingual system. We also added a new table in our database structure called “contacts” which will store all the emails that is being imported and once the emails have been invited to the site it will then be removed from the “contacts” table.

Other improvements have been added to the Konsort package today:

1) SEO URL tags added to the blog module.

2) Moved StyleReplace class direct into the pre loader file to speed up the load of both the users data and their design for their profile page.

3) Improvements added to the “Top Friends” module where it will list all your top friends when viewing the actual friends section on a profile or if you edit your friends from the
“My Account” area. It will list your top friends on top and then have the normal list with all your other friends. This feature is intended to make it easier for users to point out
who they have on their top friends list and if need be it they can delete a specific user with ease. The old way would be that if a user wanted to remove one of their top friends they would have to browse all their friends and this can be a task if that specific user has over 10,000 friends. By adding this functionality we brought a limit on how many top friends a user can have. By default this setting will be “6″ but this can be changed to any number you desire if needed.

4) Added language select box which can be found to the top right of a site when a user is not logged in. This will give an oppurtunity for those that have multi-lingual sites and want to allow non-members the chance to change the language they want to view the site in. Once the guest does signup the language will be kept and it won’t revert back to english which was an issue with the Beta 1 release.

5) Fixed gallery flaw, when viewing an image it would redirect to the main page which was brought by the optimizing of the gallery table.

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For those that use Firefox you might notice it can be rather slow at times.  After a little research I found some common settings that can help fix the speed of how Firefox displays a website and to fix the infamous memory leak the software has.

For those on a broadband connection, in your address bar type in the following “about:config” without quotes.
Once there, filter each of the following below and change each of the settings by double clicking on them:

1) network.dns.disableIPv6 -> true
2) network.http.pipelining -> true
3) network.http.pipelining.maxrequests -> 8
4) network.http.proxy.pipelining -> true

If you would like to attempt to fix the memory leak issue go back to the main area of “about:config” and right click anywhere, select New, then Integer.
In the prompt type in the following “browser.cache.memory.capacity” without quotes. Another prompt should appear and this is where you can allocate how much memory you would like Firefox to use. The more memory you have on your system then the more memory you can allocate to Firefox. Good start would be 16M. If you need more you can always go back and add more. So in the prompt box you need to enter the numeric value in bytes so 16M would be “16384″ without quotes. Click “Ok” and you should be on your way.

For these changes to take affect try first to restart Firefox. If that does not work, I have read that for some they had to restart their computer.

Once these changes are in place you should already see a drastic change in how Firefox handles websites, especially sites that have a heavy load of content like Flash videos and what not.

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I would like to release a progress report for version 1.6 and announce the next Beta release date which will be on May 14th 2007. We will also be releasing version 1.5.1 (Build 7) on the same day.

Version 1.6 will be released as “Beta 2″ and will include numerous changes within the core package to improve the general functionality of the system and introduce some new features as well.
Our initial main goal with releasing version 1.6 was to introduce the multilingual system. With version 1.7 we wanted to focus on optimizing the database but we feel this is something we need done
now so the stable release of version 1.6 will be pushed back so we can focus on optimizing the database and source structure. Pushing back the release of version 1.6 is something we don’t want to do but feel its vital that we work on optimizing
the database now and not wait for that till version 1.7. With the release of v1.6 Beta2 there should already be a significant difference on the server load compared to past versions. We will be releasing
a few benchmark sites so we can all see how 1.6 handles comared to older versions and to other products on the market. We will also be working closely with Mysql AB and have them analyze the software
package to help improve it.

Version 1.6 will also introduce a new install/upgrade package which will have improvements for those upgrading from older versions. It will also be a multilingual package and will include
a FTP package that will make things a lot easier to CHMOD all the needed files and setup the configuration files which had to all be done manually in the past. Upgrading to future versions
will be a lot easier as you will be able to upgrade from any version in the past from one place and not have to upload a new package each time you have to upgrade which is something that needed
to be done in the past.

We had planned for version 2.0 to bring in the Email import package which in short will import your friends emails from say Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail etc… and then invite them to your site. We
are looking into this part of the project now and to see if we can have this released with v1.6 stable. More information regarding this feature will be released once a final decision has been made.

For the changes being made, below is a list.

================================================
:: Changes made with v1.6 Beta 1 release
================================================

- Point system can be fully turned off from the admin control panel.

- Mysql “Repair Table” added to admin control panel

- HTML issue(s) fixed where if adding HTML with long URL’s it would add a break which in return would destroy the functionality.

- Bad word filter fixed in various areas where it was left out in previous releases

- “New Blogs” added a HTML
which in return would cause issues with certain languages.

- Mailer routine updated to help solves various issues with the “Mass Email” routine.

- The invite service would try to call for a users image which was not needed so this function as removed.

- Full forum link added to all email links being sent out to a member.

- Error 404 page added.

- Fixed issues with the internal mail service where reports came in that certain users could not open their messages. These fixes however will not fix any old messages only
new messages being sent out.

- Fixed top users routine where the image was missing.

- Option added where admins can change the URL of the admin panel. This can be changed in the file: /include/settings/common.sett.php
The current “test” default URL will be “adminpanel” which is what we had in v1.1. So the new admin panel will be located at: http://www.yoursite.com/adminpanel/

- Language package system added. Currently we have installed both English and German. Please note that the German language package that was added is only
for testing purposes and is not to be deemed as the official German language pack. We used Babel (http://babelfish.altavista.com/) to create the German language pack
and we used it mainly to differentiate from the English language pack.

- Site Content in the admin panel has the option to modify templates from any language package that is available.

- Option added in admin cp to turn on/off the option of members to change the language they are viewing the site in.

- Full option added to where you can turn off the “point system”.

- Mysql queries improved and dropped total query count by half compared to v1.5.x.

- Feature Added: Issue #97 - Privacy Setting: Gives bad impression

- Added back the public and private events.

================================================
:: Changes made with v1.6 Beta 2 up-to-date
================================================

- Added new feature to where users upload songs and it will list a drop down of the album that the user currently has.

- CSS templates details are now cached to improve SQL and Server load.

- Sub-Menu in the my account area added to the core template to improve bringing down the total memory being used by the system

- Added new feature. Lightbox javascript package added to the gallery, profiles and users personal gallery. To learn more about Lightbox feel free to check:
http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/

- Bulletin system has now changed to how it used to function. Currently everyone will be able to view all bulletins listed in the “My Account” area and if for example User1 tries to view
a bulletin created by User2 and these 2 users are not friends then it will give a warning to User1 that they are not friends and if User1 wants to view the bulletin they will have to first
request to be friends. This “warning” page will have a link to User2’s profile and a link to request to be friends as well.

- Mysql backup routine added to the admin control panel. Feature uses the “exec” command so this must be allowed on a server for it to work. It will backup your entire database and then create
a tar.gz archive from which you can download from a secure FTP connection. We are looking into have a direct download feature via a browser but a database can get rather large and it is safer
downloading a file via a secure FTP or SSH connection.

- Ajax signup form added back which was like v1.1. This feature has only been tested thus far on Firefox 2 and Opera 9. Currently we have seen issues with Opera 9 so more testing will be needed
for this feature. Should be ready by the final Beta 2 release.

- Added a new feature. The ever so popular Tag Clouds. These will be located on the main index page for both a user that is logged in and not logged in. It will also be located on the Blog section.
Currently it only pulls out the Blog content but we plan on having it for all sections in the near future. Currently it works by pulling out all of your sites blogs and then picking up the most
popular/user words and caching the information. There is a feature on how often you would like this done. Having it live is not a good idea as the routine is rather strenuous on the server if you
have a very large blog database.

- Footer template removed and instead added direct into main core template.

- Core template for a users profile has been removed and there is only 1 core template file.

- Browser Compatibility removed from the bottom of each page. Making space for more useful links that is being added in the near future.

- RSS Feeds link page added to list RSS feeds for blogs, events and main forums. The link is located at the bottom of the site.

- New feature added to where the site admin can change the URL of a module such as blog for example. This feature was mainly added for the admin panel. Currently the admin panel location
would be “www.yoursite.com/admin/” but has been changed to “www.yoursite.com/adminpanel/” as there is a conflict with 1 hosting control panel and this should resolve that issue. Though
this feature also allows you to change the URL location of the following modules “blog, gallery and browse”. More testing needs to be done but once confirmed that this feature is fully working
we will bring it into all modules. So how it works now is if you would like to change the URL location of say your “Browse” section which would look now something like this
“www.yoursite.com/browse/”, you could change it to for example “search” and it would end up like “www.yoursite.com/search/”. This will also be handy for those that have multilingual sites.

- HTTP authentication added in the admin panel for extra added security. This feature can be turned on/off and it uses the normal username/password to login.

- Admins can now verify an account if the user has not verified their account via their email. This feature can be found in “Admin panel >> Browse Member’s”

- Character support added in common config file for the multilingual system.

- When someone would for example upload a very large image on a profile it would stretch the middle content of the site but leave the top and bottom part of the site normal and would give an
odd look to the page. This issue has been resolved to where it would equally stretch the page to give it a more normal look.

- Support added for text class functions. This feature can be found in the file “/include/functions/Text.functions.php.sample”. In short all parts where content is being added by your members
is parsed by a Text class which is located at “/include/classes/Text.class.php”. We have seen a lot have been modifying that file to create their own rules on how to handle certain parts
of text being added by their members. So this new feature simply creates a “plugin” environment which connects to a function file which will not be updated in the future so you will not lose
any modifications made to that file.

- TinyMCE which is powering our WYSIWYG editor has been upgraded to their latest version 2.1.0. They did not have support for the Safari browser on Macs but have had some progress with this
version. Before we can confirm this we will be doing some testing on our side.

- php121 which is now our official instant messenger package has been upgraded to version 3.0 which is their latest supporters version and has a new “Buddy” feature to make the mini IM world
even more enjoyable for your members.

- New feature added to where Top friends now shows non-top friends as well.

- New friends database and routine created to speed up site majorly. Will require importing of all friends into the new table which will be part of the upgrade package. This one change has
been a major improvement in the sites SQL and Server load.

- Database prefix feature has been added. So for example the main user table is called “user” it can now be called for example “phpfox_user”. This will make it much easier for those that only
have 1 database and need to share it with for example vBulletin and they also use the same name of their user table.

- In the admin panel under the “Server Stats” we have added “Server Uptime” which will show how long your server has been online and “Server Load” to check how your server load is
and to make sure it is not out of control. These 2 were mainly added for debugging purposes but can be useful information non theless.

================================================
:: Fixed Issues with Beta 1 & 2
================================================

Below you will find issues that have been reported by clients and beta testers. Each report was made here: http://tracker.phpfox.com/index.php
To search an issue this can be done here: http://tracker.phpfox.com/index.php?cmd=search

- Issue #110 - Script do not convert all symbols correctly.

- Issue #141 - 1.6 Beta Errors

- Issue #128 - Lost password doesn’t work

- Issue #140 - Navigation error in Gallery

- Issue #133 - No email confirmation

- Issue #136 - Design My Profile Text Error

- Issue #135 - Account Settings Language Error

- Issue #142 - Access Denied

- Issue #137 - Header and Footer 1.6

- Issue #134 - can not delete of save default theme

- Issue #131 - Groups Description Does not line break

- Issue #130 - HTML Dissabled but will still work

- Issue #127 - The language always reverts to English for new users

- Issue #126 - group title display wrong code with non-English in 1.6 beta

- Issue #125 - There is no way to translate the months or dates in 1.6 languaging system

- Issue #124 - The Guestbook and My Pictures “delete confirmation” question doesn’t call back to the language file

- Issue #123 - “Forums >> ” is non-translatable

- Issue #122 - The “Sorry, this is for official members only…” message is non-translatable

- Issue #119 - Welcome Guest, Login or Signup is untranslatable

- Issue #121 - server stats in admin panel

- Issue #120 - email_blank.html

- Issue #117 - (PRIORITY) Bulletin has alot of translation issues…

- Issue #118 - Post Reply button in the forum (New Languagin System issue)

- Issue #116 - There is no “contact panel” thing in the new languagin system

- Issue #115 - (PRIORITY) Messages has alot of translation issues…

- Issue #114 - The submit comment button (Has to do with the new languagin system)

- Issue #113 - The EditForm file in events doesn’t have the new codes (Has to do with the new languagin system)

- Issue #112 - 1.6.1beta set default style error

- Issue #107 - Groups Invites Send short URL

- Issue #102 - Finishing installation

- Issue #105 - Can’t change the style from admin menu

- Issue #101 - Konsort 1.6 Beta 1

- Issue #98 - first space in link text being removed - forums

- Issue #96 - forum post - replacing text in HREF

- Issue #77 - User image thumbnail issues

- Issue #95 - No User Name Popup for Recent visitors

- Issue #87 - New Crush Alerts Email Notifications check box

- Issue #88 - Editing classifieds

- Issue #90 - doubled friends

- Issue #92 - Bad Word Filter

- Issue #83 - CSRF Exploit

- Issue #57 - Site Config: logo.gif does not show throughout

- Issue #65 - Forum Announcement’s & Sticky’s missing

- Issue #64 - Events - Featured Issue

- Issue #71 - User IP missing in admin panel (Browse)

- Issue #75 - bad words filter in blog title not working

- Issue #39 - Site Stats Inaccuracy

- Issue #22 - Post Redirect Error

- Issue #34 - Photo uploading doesn’t resize

================================================
:: Current version 1.5.1 with Build 7
================================================

On May 14th 2007 we will also be releasing version 1.5.1 (Build 7) which will fix several issues that have been reported by clients. This version will still be under development and if any
issues come up will be fixed right away and fixed with patches or a new build. Even with the release of version 1.6 stable this version will continue to be under a development state
to resolve any issues that may come up. Currently there are 0 open cases in our bug tracker, so if you are having any issues please be sure to report them here:
http://tracker.phpfox.com/index.php
Any issues reported over the next few days will be fixed by the 14th of May for the Build 7 release.

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