Developing the Future

After almost 8 years, MyBB has certainly come a long way. Its popularity among forum software is strong, and with the release of 1.6 almost a year ago it just keeps growing and growing. With its simplicity and extensions, there’s really nothing you can’t do with MyBB. Every member of the Team, past and present, are no doubt proud of where we are today.
However, we can’t sit still in the ever moving world of forums and message boards. New software appears – it seems, every month – which people expect MyBB to better, and who are we to disappoint? It’s time for us to develop the future.
MyBB 1.6

While there are no new ‘features’ expected for the 1.6 series of MyBB, we’re still dedicated to maintaining it and making sure your forum (and business) is safe.
1.6.4 – where there are over 100 issues that have been fixed – is going to be available very soon. It fixes some (very) old issues dating back years including some obscure security issues. While none of these are ‘high risk’ issues or bugs, it’s always a nice feeling knowing that your site is as stable as it can be. We aren’t just stopping there though – this version is the first in a minor release to have ‘feature updates’.
These feature updates are small improvements to MyBB – as apposed to feature releases which are big changes – and range from things like a setting to globally switch on/off all plugins to providing better access for Plugin Developers and Administrators to check for updates. These will be coming throughout the 1.6 series – and if they affect Plugin Developers or Theme Artists, we’ll keep you informed before their release on the MyBB Community Forums.
Spam Prevention

This year, there has been somewhat of an explosion in the amount of human-cooked spam. More realistic than the robot kind, this spam can range from signature links to forums filled with posts in hours. While the best method is moderation – and reporting users who do spam – there’s always going to be better methods and controls for protecting your forum and cleaning up after them. That’s why we’re working to produce Spam Ninja – a feature update for the 1.6 series that will introduce basic controls to help you eliminate spam and their robot|human chefs permanently.
The Spam Ninja update will be available later this year and will be completely optional if you use it or not. More information on the new features it introduces will be announced closer to the time.
Alongside maintaining 1.6 however, developing MyBB 2 is just as important.
MyBB 2.0

At MyBB, we tend to keep 2.0 secrets close – it’s not that we don’t want you to know! It’s because as the development process moves on, coding and features are more than likely going to change so we don’t want to promise things that might never materialize. Rest assured, while many may think that 2.0 is a mere myth, it does exist and we’ll be walking through some of the boring stuff that won’t be likely to change.
We’ve made no surprises that Justin – our Lead Designer – has created the awesome 2.0 default theme. It brings sweeping changes to the thread and forum layout that will make MyBB stand out from other software, and contrary to a popular thread on the Community, it definitely does not look like vBulletin. While the software still has that MyBB look and charm, it does mean that we’ve had the chance to reorganize various other areas – such as introducing conversation-style Private Messaging, a simplified User CP and Moderation Queues to make things much more modern, efficient and user friendly. As you would expect, it looks and feels like a state-of-the-art forum system.
While we won’t be showing off the software just yet, we can still keep you in the loop.

2.0 Login Page
​

MyBB 2.0 has been written from scratch in a MVC (Model-View-Controller) method and we’ve been using Yii as its base framework. Standing for “Yes It Is!”, Yii is a powerful, very secure and fast framework and after a very long process, we found it to be the best choice for MyBB. Its database abstraction layers introduces various options (including PDO transactions and Active Record, Yii’s Object Relational Mapping (ORM) techniques) and it provides some fantastically simple language and internationalization ideas. We’ve also used the Twig Template Engine for views, increasing security and adding various possibilities of using PHP in templates. You can see an example (currently part of the 2.0 “login” page) of a Twig template and its output in the screenshot to the right.
For languages, we’re embracing Yii’s language translations. As an example, to translate a string in 2.0 you simply call like this:
// Structure of the 'global' language file
return array(
'mybb_welcome' => 'Welcome to MyBB {version}!',
'language_string' => 'Another language string',
'language_string_2' => "Yet another language string that's awesome."
);
// An example of use in the software
// Will display 'Welcome to MyBB {version}!'
$foo = Yii::t('global', 'mybb_welcome');
// Will display 'Welcome to MyBB 2.0!'
$foo = Yii::t('global', 'mybb_welcome', array('{version}' => Yii::app()->mybb->version));

You can call on whatever language file you want from anywhere in the software. Making a language pack is just as easy as it was in 1.6 too – if not easier!

2.0 Installation
​

Another area we’re keen to improve on is MyBB’s installer. The new version introduces a one-click install – you just simply enter all your details and the process practically completes itself. See the screenshot of the introduction page!
As you can tell, we have the basics of the software prepped and ready to start. It’s no longer ‘Planning’, but what I would call ‘Pre-Production’ – where we concrete ideas, features and most importantly, a road map, are written. After working with 2.0, I can tell you that the future definitely is exciting. It’s never tasted so good!
Developing for MyBB

Being apart of the MyBB family and developing the future of forum software is no small task. Being volunteers takes dedication and patience as well as the skills to pull off your role. Take a look at Joining the Team, and if you meet the descriptions, send us an application – we’d love to have you on the Team!


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MyBB 2.0 looks great - especially the new templating system (which allows for a LOT more control). I'm also super excited for Spam Ninja too - the bundled Akismet plugin just doesn't cut it (let's face it: it's rubbish - it blocks genuine members often and doesn't block spammers).

 

Wow, not long until they unleash MyBB 2.0. Just by the new features and the screenshots I cant tell it will be beast. Cant wait for it to be released.

 

Yeah. It means that it's going to take a bit of effort to update plugins, but I'm sure it'll be worth it xD

 

Yea I know, when MyBB 1.6 came out all you had to do was changed the version number in the php file of the plugins to make them work because 1.6 wasn't really much of and update... Hopefully 2.0 is something big.

 

2.0 will be something big Since they're moving to the Yii framework, everything will have to be re-written - including templates (they're using a new template system too). Big problem is, I'm only just finishing my biggest plugin and I'm going to have to re-write it all again for 2.0 if I want to upgrade it... Could be fun.

 

Oh wow sorry to hear, bad timing you started coding your plugin at lol. And cool, I never heard of the Yii framework, will check it out soon. And yea I cant wait to see how mybb 2.0 turns out.

 

Don't worry about it - 2.0 is still a long while off. All we have presently is what we've shown off in the blog post: The basic framework is there, you can install it, and you can login. As Tom said in the blog post, it's pre-production - some of the basic building blocks are there, but that's it.

 

So the screenshot is parts of the MyBB 2.0 structure? Basically incomplete? Well take your time guys, we want MyBB 2.0 to be great, dont rush

 

Yeah, I get that I know the timescale for a project like this is huge, but I'm sure you guys will pull it off no problem. Just working with a framework will be an entirely new experience for me

 

Im sure you will get the hang of it Haha we are talking as if MyBB 2.0 will be released anytime soon which it will not

 

Oh yeah, I know. I'll likely be finished university by the time it arrives - I may not even be around to see it

 

What is that suppose to mean?

 

Well, I might not be hanging round the internet so much and might have other commitments that take priority

 

Oh I see, I was thinking you meant you would be dead or something haha. I will still be around that time for sure, who knows AdminBB will be huge by then.

 

Nah, nothing sinister like that All I'm saying is that it could be like 4 years or so and who knows what might happen in that time?

 

Yea 4 years is definitely along time. I dont know why they blogged about MyBB 2.o. I dont like the teasing

 

I think it was just to quell the rumours and to let developers know about the future of the project in terms of the framework and theme system so we can prepare for it.

 

Well I will be waiting for it

 

MyBB 2.0 is almost among us. I'm practically shaking with anticipation!

I've already read the article, it looks sweet.

Hopefully it won't mess up the flow of plug-ins and themes coming in though.