What's new

XF2.2 Upgrade to XF2.2

thomas

The Crank Engine
Nov 1, 2005
2,085
605
Just a brief heads-up: we'll soon be upgrading our core software to Xenforo 2.2.x and introduce several new features.

Here's what's under the bonnet (in no particular order):

  • User profile banners: allows members to upload an image to their profile page that will also be displayed on the member tooltip
  • Username change management: users can now choose to change their usernames; this procedure needs to be approved and can be restricted in regard to frequency. Requires to add a reason for username changes.
  • Writing before registering: allows guests to reply to posts but ask them to register before being able to post. Hope this will generate more registrations! ;)
  • Progressive Web App (PWA): PWAs aim to bridge the gap between websites and native applications on both mobile and desktop devices using a series of emerging web standards. This will not work on Safari on macOS and any iOS-based browsers though. Not sure whether to use this or not...
  • Activity summary emails: a configurable periodical email members can opt into, which will give them an overview of what they have missed since their last visit to the forum.
  • Text editor and attachment manager improvements: the new text editor is still based on Froala but sports a fresh new look. It fits better on narrow devices, has a button manager, new preview features, a new attachment interface and rendering abilities.
  • Forum and thread types: this allows to create new types of fora and threads, such as question threads and forums (a la Stackflow where the best answer can be upvoted), article threads and forums, and suggestion threads. All that, of course, in addition to regular discussion threads.
  • Other improvements: prefix descriptions and usage help, improved draft save trigger, improved alerts behaviour.
  • Enhanced Search - Similar Threads: once we upgrade we will switch to Enhanced Search, a module that offers improved search results - and similar - related - threads which will be displayed under each thread.
  • Media Gallery: a new lightbox for larger images, improved image and video uploading, and attachment mirroring which means that attachments uploaded to posts will automatically be added to preconfigured categories in Media.
  • Giphy support, and more...

The new thread types will come in very handy, e.g. question threads for the Tech forum and article threads for a Wiki subforum (time to revive the Wiki!).

We will also change to a new style designer but emulate the current style as much as possible.

I expect the upgrade to take place next week and shall post a short announcement prior to pushing the button. :)
 
Thomas, as always a huge thank you..

When this COVID is over I reckon a leisurely ride to Chiba, Hakone or Izu for anyone that can make it might be good. The forum is one of my happier places to spend a few minutes and I'd like to think that we could also get along in person.
 
Thank you Thomas. Sounds great. (Apart from the Safari thing...) Looking forward to Wiki2.

Do you suppose it's time to admit that the once-much-anticipated Kanto Cycling Book Project is dead, and remove it? It's been ten years...
 
FYI: we'll be closing the forum for a short while this afternoon to upgrade the software. We do not expect the basic procedure to take longer than an hour but we'll continue to tinker with the settings and the design after the upgrade.

Thanks for your understanding and patience! :)
 
Well done, @thomas ! It all seems to work. Well, ahem, I mean the little that I normally use works as well as it did before; perhaps I'll try some of the new goodies later.

I didn't take screenshots of anything before the upgrade, and my memory (like the rest of me) isn't so good, but hasn't there been some change to the display of regular message text (eg this very sentence)? Maybe greying what had been black, or a more spindly typeface. Whatever it has been, it's for the worse, in my curmudgeonly opinion. OTOH I may just be imagining it. Of course your website should reflect your taste. (And the software doesn't force this style on the writer; perhaps I'll make a point of writing like this, though in a context of spindly grey it might come off like shouting.)
 
Thank you for your feedback, @microcord, I appreciate it and we are listening to it: I have changed the typeface to XF's custom font ("Helvetica Neue"), slightly increased the font size and changed the font colour to black dark grey (rgb(20,20,20)). Do you see any improvement?

I will introduce the "goodies" at a later stage, our first objective was to upgrade the software without too much of a disruption.
 
@thomas - All is looking well for me.

I do have 1 question tho, are there skins available like vBulletin? I am not offended by the color scheme, but I usually do prefer a 'dark' theme. I find it easier on my eyes. Since I stare at computers all day for work, this is one of the 'brighter' pages I visit.
 
I do have 1 question tho, are there skins available like vBulletin? I am not offended by the color scheme, but I usually do prefer a 'dark' theme. I find it easier on my eyes. Since I stare at computers all day for work, this is one of the 'brighter' pages I visit.

It's not perfect yet, but here you go (it's in the top menu):

dark-light-switch.jpg
 
I see the button and clicked it.... slight flicker, but no change.
Assuming the CSS didn't get published yet?

BTW - it is just a "nice to have" so don't sweat it. I will appreciate it whenever it is done.
Thanks as always for keeping the site up and rolling!

It's not perfect yet, but here you go (it's in the top men
 
It's working fine here on W10 and iPadOS. In mobile view, you will have to use the "Style Chooser" link in the footer though.
 
I can get it to switch between the default and some blue option that is even brighter! :D
 
I guess I prefer certain parts of the old appearance. The new font is too big (even for my old eyes), and thread titles end up taking three lines. It doesn't read well. It seems to make the right sidebar bigger, too--speaking of which, is there a way in preferences to hide that whole thing? (see just thread titles?)

And to see what's new, you're looking for a small green dot buried between a (large font) thread title and a much larger icon (which is sometimes green, too) The previous format of bold for unread/new, vs not bold for nothing new, was fine... or at least visually easier than the small green dot.

OTOH, no apparent issues with safari. I never look at TCC on mobile, so no input/feedback for that--maybe the green dots are easier to see there? Larger font, too?
 
I guess I prefer certain parts of the old appearance. The new font is too big (even for my old eyes), and thread titles end up taking three lines. It doesn't read well.

Can you send a screenshot? Even on my old laptop's 13" screen none of the thread titles exceeds one line.


It seems to make the right sidebar bigger, too--speaking of which, is there a way in preferences to hide that whole thing? (see just thread titles?)

There's a "Toggle sidebar" link in the footer.
 
We have upgraded the forum and the media gallery to the latest version of the software. Please post any glitches or inconsistent behaviour (referring to the software) right here.

Thank you!
 
I have a stupid question: how do I manually copy and paste quotes with the new design? I have been on bulletin boards since 1999 or 2000, and this is the first time I am having issues.
 
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