ocPortal 7 released!

Version 7 has now been released. This version is a major release with many feature improvements that maintains compatibility with previous releases. Upgrading is suggested.

To upgrade follow the steps in your website's http://mybaseurl/upgrader.php script. You will need to copy the URL of the attached TAR file (created via the form below) during step 3.
Please make sure you take a backup before uploading your new files!


We have recently had the pleasure of receiving a lot of very strong constructive feedback that has helped guide us to create the most robust, attractive, and user friendly version of ocPortal yet. We would like to thank all our users for this feedback, and ask that it keeps coming so that we can continue blazing ahead.

Feature improvements:

• New iPhone preview feature (on any preview, you can show how it will look on an iPhone-sized screen, in ocPortal mobile-mode, and test how it will scroll)
• In the WYSIWYG editor Comcode tags now have a tooltip to show what they will look like
• Big changes on how you choose content to edit
  • Table of data, rather than a simple list
  • Pagination
  • Sorting
  • Previews of content in tooltips
  • Tree-lists have an 'edit in separate window' option, so you can easily edit lots of things simultaneously
• Comcode Page cloning feature (like the page template feature many CMSs have)
• Speedier navigation by searching
  • Open Search is now enabled by default, so Google Chrome will auto-detect it (i.e. you can search your site directly from the Google address bar)
  • Added Admin Zone search "@" syntax, for limiting search scope to get to results faster (intended for power-users)
  • The Admin Zone search result sections are now sorted alphabetically
  • Added some additional Admin Zone search synonyms
  • Theme Options are now covered in the Admin Zone Search
  • Entry-points are now covered in the Admin Zone Search (i.e. particular ocPortal screens within pages)
• Drag and drop of images into the WYSIWYG editor when using Firefox, and other browsers when in source view mode
• Content mass-adding feature, saving you clicks when adding large quantities of the same kind of content
• Improved Site Tree Editor
  • The Admin Zone front page now shows a link to the Site Tree editor, for the benefit of those more-accustomed to content-tree based CMSs
  • An 'Add zone' link has been added to the Site Tree Editor's root node
  • You can now move between the Site Tree Editor and Permission Tree Editor, and the current position is remembered
  • The Site Tree Editor now has edit links for content categories
  • New 'Find in Site Tree Editor' option in the page rendering tools in the footer
  • Put a link to the redirects editor on the Site Tree Editor
• Simplified Setup Wizard
  • Removed unnecessary choices by moving 50% of the addons under a contracted 'Advanced' expander (some are checked, some are not)
  • Added block choice preview
  • Made it more clear that the shown rules on the Setup Wizard responds to your selection
  • For usability of navigation, the Setup Wizard no longer has separate choices for the Welcome and Site zones - instead the Welcome Zone has a new 'splash screen'-like default text
• Specific-permissions have been renamed to Privileges
• Support for proper Time-zone selection has been added, so different users can have different daylight-saving periods; migration from the old system of offsets is automatic
• Added AJAX-driven error messaging for a number of possible field errors, such as codenames already existing, or CAPTCHAs being entered incorrectly
• Changes to comply with EU cookie legislation
  • New option to control whether Google Analytics cookie retention times are minimised
  • Javascript assumed on by default (there is an option to change this)
  • 'Remember me' not checked by default (there is an option to change this)
  • Guest timezone detection no longer enabled by default (only a minor feature, can be re-enabled via config option)
  • Stopped recording and using user's screen width (this was unnecessary anyway)
  • Commented out calendar RSS feed feature (we considered this feature bloat anyway)
  • Permanent session cookies are now only created when using the shopping cart, and explained that using the shopping cart will create a permanent session cookie
  • Updated default privacy policy
  • Updated site rules to say you need to agree to the privacy policy
  • Linked to privacy policy clearly from chat rooms and posting forms
  • When disabling the WYSIWYG it now asks if you'd like to save your setting (using a cookie), and similarly when activating other settings in the user interface
• New option to allow guests to have fully cached pages served to them
• 10% speed improvements (to be fair, we probably had previously lost 5% due to improvements made since the v6 betas, so this is more like a 5% gain), and memory usage optimisations
• New option to disable the mobile support, if you don't want to worry about mobile themeing
• Contact forms now send a courtesy email back to the sender, so they have a record of the message they sent
• Added poll preview
• Added IOTD preview
• New hidden option to allow disabling of animation effects, useful for thin-client machines (such as Citrix workstations)
• The main_content/main_multi_content block can now operate without 'add' or 'archive' links if you turn them off via a new block option
• Improved Comcode Page award display to include a summary if there is no meta description set
• mp3 files now show via jwplayer (flash or HTML5) rather than a default media player, for consistent playback
• Renamed the comment field 'Post title' to 'Subject' as people still misinterpreted it and entered job titles
• Improved zone editor tab/pane UI
• Moved the Admin Zone front page blocks to the end of the Add Block helper tool, as they are unlikely to be used
• Improved the page title on the newsletter page
• Improved the page help on the Comcode page editor
• Made the main editing area on the Comcode page editor bigger, and removed the unnecessary header above it
• The search block can now take a title parameter
• You can now hold down the ctrl key when clicking on the '+' icon on the tree lists, to expand all child nodes recursively
• Auto-expansion of tree-lists to show what is currently selected
• Commented the HEADER.tpl template better
• Added inline edit button for the top panel
• Rearranged the default order of the Account Zone's menu
• Made all inline add links redirect back after you finish adding
• Explained that catalogues may have their own template sets
• Rep-images now auto-thumbnail
• The submit links in award blocks now auto-checks the award on the requisite add-form
• Changed zone menu to only use in-current-zone highlighting when a link explicitly points to a zone's default page
• You can now edit multiple templates at once when choosing templates to edit from the Admin Zone
• Simplified the 'DESCRIPTION_CODENAME' language string
• Simplified the 'SUBMIT_UNVALIDATED' language string
• Simplified the 'SETUP_WIZARD_2_DESCRIBE' language string
• Improved usability of theme image selection interface by editing the 'DESCRIPTION_ALTERNATE_STOCK' language string
• Renamed 'Select context editing tool' to 'Select page rendering tool'
• Clarified the purpose of the "Real-time Rain button" option
• Added 'Go to Admin Zone' links on the code-editor and config-editor scripts
• Added clear table cell outlines in WYSIWYG editor for the virtual Comcode table cells
• Admin Zone front page blocks now save via AJAX rather than refreshing the whole page
• Admin Zone action-log block no longer shows pagination, and instead provides a link to the main action-log browse screen
• The FAQs catalogue now uses auto-increment for the default order field, so it does not need filling in
• Made CSS colour chooser more user-friendly
• Clarified explanations of dates for the main_countdown block
• Removed leading zeros from main_countdown block's countdown time
• Made adding the 'random' Comcode tag more user-friendly
• Re-ordered the Comcode tags in the 'Add tag' screen, to put the important ones first
• Removed WYSIWYGable Comcode tags from the 'Add tag' screen to cut it down (as we already have buttons for them in the WYSIWYG editor)
• A note about permission-inheritance tooltips is now included in the Permissions Tree Editor, and the tooltips are tidied up
• If possible the default theme will no longer be used for emails, even if the email is triggered from a zone running the default theme
• Emails are now always sent in the correct language for the recipient (as opposed to the language of the triggerer/CRON)
• The new CSS editor now shows CSS class definitions in tooltips over the selector links
• Improved boolean searches and autodetection of boolean searches, if the explicit option has been disabled via the hidden option to do so
• Support for auto-truncating to avoid chopping-off text mid-word
• Compulsory WYSIWYG fields may now be marked in red when not filled in
• ocPortal chat usernames now include the local logged in user as well as the site name
• If stack traces are enabled for all errors, a message says that this is the case and not to consider them all bugs
• Added HTTP caching for downloads
• Added HTTP caching for attachments
• Added a note in the FOOTER template on how to insert site date/time
• Added explanation of how to remove tracking notifications on the tracking emails themselves
• Renamed 'edit CSS' to 'edit CSS (styles)'

Default-Theme changes

• Fixed-width on by default
• New background shown behind the fixed-width layout
• New subtle background shown behind blocks
• Support for putting a large header at the top of the screen in place of the usual ocPortal logo and banner space
• The emoticon chooser popup now has better layout
• Opera speed dial icon added
• Changed how headers look
• Changed box borders to be lighter
• Changed how breadcrumbs look
• Improved layout of side_calendar block
• Small improvements to the chat lobby layout
• Fixed some small layout uglynesses on fixed-width
• Fixed some 'orphans' when fixed-width is on (i.e. lines that run on slightly too far and wrap slightly)
• Made the IOTD choice screen look a bit nicer
• Cut down nocache.css due to browser improvements in Gecko and Webkit
• The default flagrant text is now blank
• Awards are no longer shown in a box (it looked bad with most award-types, due to it leading to nested boxes)

Accessibility improvements

• Changed the table summary text for better accessibility, after testing on JAWS
• Fixed double read out of labels on JAWS (accessibility)
• Removed unneeded paragraph tags inside table cells
• The banner image edit button now has a title attribute
• Fixed accessibility issue in the COMCODE_ERROR_HELP_A language string (referred to something purely visual)

Fixes for expected behaviour

• Completely rewritten and upgraded Facebook syndication functionality, as Facebook had changed their systems and it was no longer working
• Fixed Setup Wizard memory usage when uninstalling addons
• Fixed issues with the main_poll block not working right in certain cases (issue since last patch release)
• Fixed preview button on the latest version of Google Chrome
• Fixed various problems in the sound manager (we upgraded it in the last release, but had to work around some bugs)
• Added "persistent database connections" option into config-editor
• Fixed infinite number of 'recommend site' URLs if you click it in a loop
• Fixed recommend URL when linked clicked from menu to not include corrupt from-link
• Ordered the query list by query time
• Fixed some potential bugs running on Quercus PHP (although Quercus PHP is still too buggy for Tempcode to work stably)
• Fixed some cases of us not formatting numbers correctly according to locale
• If images/videos are disabled in a gallery, they won't be given tallies
• Worked around a minor permissions bug in CKEditor, and applied a bug fix relating to anchor placement
• Reworked Comcode editor so that the Comcode-portions do not continue on on Google Chrome
• Fixed that empty catalogues would not show up for choice in the menu editor
• Made Comcode titles with unsupported high numbers default to the closest match of title
• Comcode link detection will now not include trailing full stops in the link
• Small fix to thumbnail rendering on browsers that show white-space around anchor contents
• Fixed bug with video commenting: the comment topic link went to the wrong URL
• Fixed problems with PHP upload_max_filesize/post_max_size setting detection, for odd PHP configurations
• Modified the Theme Wizard so dark themes can modify background images to also be dark, rather than just re-hueing
• The page rendering tools now only disable the block cache when used, in order to make them run with more reasonable performance
• Fixed bug with localhost proxy server bypass
• 'tmpfile' is no longer allowed by our Code Quality Checker, as phpfog doesn't support it
• New warning in the installer if you give an invalid multi-site-network forum database
• Fixed problem with back button after completing the Setup Wizard, on Google Chrome
• Fixed errors about missing theme images in the Setup Wizard
• Fixed bug where panels were not being considered in the page rendering tools
• Fixed tooltip placement on ocPortal.com-sourced error explanations
• Fixed that the news auto-summarisation feature did not use a grammar truncation length (it used a literal truncation length, i.e. counting HTML)
• Removed Guestbook link, as uninstalling the Guestbook addon left a broken link; people can put it in manually easily if they decide they want it
• No 'edit' links are shown by theme images when already editing a theme image
• The 'big_tabs' Comcode no longer sets a width, it relies on CSS to auto-expand (due to issue on Google Chrome)
• The chat room colour now defaults to just using standard layout colours
• The chat room colour no longer applies to the input box, as on a dark theme it has a very different background colour
• Fixed issue with using the 'code' tag when the WYSIWYG editor is on
• Fixed theme image breadcrumbs in Admin Zone search
• Fixed problem on Google Chrome with how we implemented HTTP resume support (affected attachments, etc)
• Fixed problem with HTML to Comcode conversions where <li>'s converted when complex <ul>'s were intentionally not (now the <li>'s also won't be in this case)
• Fixed that Javascript and CSS should be separately cached on SSL
• Fixed problem importing IPB
• Fixed stats graphs on shared installs
• Fixed that Guest replies were being sent out on support tickets
• Fixed problems with some theme images, regarding consistent dimensions and clean support for the Theme Wizard
• The STRIP_TAGS symbol now can be configured to not strip all tags
• Forum post search results now have a clearer 'go to' link
• The main_content/main_multi_content blocks now won't default to using a downloads award-type if the downloads addon is no longer installed
• The helper panel images have been made a bit smaller, and more transparent
• If a form is submitting to a new window, the button will no longer temporarily disable once clicked
• Simplified how the file-size field works for the edit-download form
• Fixed problems with database saving when the database character set is in Unicode and the website character set is not, for some submitted forms
• "Edit/merge authors" renamed to "Configure/merge authors", for consistency of terminology
• Renamed multi-lang to multi-language, for consistency
• Fixed bug with usergroup names being revealed for hidden usergroups, in some cases, and clarified the description of the feature
• Improved the auto-completion UI to be less jerky and support key navigation better
• Fixed weird IE9 bug with form validation when there were upload fields
• Fixed ambiguity in the wording of our licence (made it clear that it is a liberal license)
• Improved layout of the 'top' menu type, so hovering over the last item fully highlights it
• If you don't have access to parts of the Admin Zone then those links no longer show in the drop down menu
• Available hooks for use in block options are now sorted alphabetically in the add-block screens
• Minor fix to forum CSS, due to browser improvements in Gecko and Webkit
• Minor fix to quiz CSS
• The stats block now regenerates when a member joins
• The 'forum posts' search is now renamed to 'forum' search, for consistency
• The search module no longer shows in an iframe if there is an error
• Tidied up display on advanced search screens a bit
• The THUMBNAIL symbol may now be used without a width (it will use the configured thumbnail width in that case)
• 'Edit post' links are no longer shown on the root CEDI page if you do not have permission to manipulate that page
• Fixed typo in the 'LEADERBOARD_PAGE_TEXT' language string
• Fixed problem with double messages being sent on the default feedback page, as disabled blocks were still being parsed
• Fixed possible stack trace when uninstalling addons that have hooks active on the addon management page
• Fixed catalogue file download if downloads addon uninstalled
• Fixed problems with the chat-flood-control option and the shoutbox
• Fixed ffmpeg_movie PHP extension support, for thumbnail auto-generation
• Code-edit link no longer shown in Site Tree Editor if collapse-zones option is on, because it might be broken in that case
• Fixed forum topic mass-moving
• Fixed empty div tag if the forum has panels enabled
• Fixed error on quiz CSV download, if there are unanswered questions
• Fixed stack trace showing graph of regions if there are no stats results
• FFMPEG thumbnail generation now uses 'shell_exec' instead of 'system' as that is not disabled on so many PHP installs
• Fixed problems of menu-usage display in New Page Wizard, and arranged more clearly to help the user select a menu that is appropriate
• Reduced the default number of new fields on the add/edit catalogue form, for memory-usage reasons in the PHP output-buffering limit
• The 'Add child page' link no longer displays if the main_comcode_page_children block is not used
• Stopped using the technical term 'string' in any language strings
• Fixed that some CSS colours were not being touched by the Theme Wizard
• Fixed IE6 rendering problem on the side_calendar block
• Fixed ascending/descending sorting links on catalogues
• Fixed case-sensitivity when typing in instructions to browsers that don't support showModalDialog
• Enabled showModalDialog on Chrome now that it does not cause browser crashes
• Removed 'page' tag's "p_filter" attribute which was not used or documented
• Fixed some situations where strange ocPortal bootstrapping orders (caused by exceptions of some kind) could result in functions being needed but not defined yet
• Fixed that the developer 'inspect' function always exited, rather than attaching debug info to the output screen
• Decached the main_image_fader block when manipulating gallery contents
• Disabled the 'auto_detect_line_endings' PHP option for performance and consistency
• Fixed problems on Windows servers serving certain Javascript files
• Stopping dynamically removing form tooltips using Javascript from forms that open in a new window, as they serve a greater purpose than accessibility
• Theme image edit links no longer show for small theme images, but they show a bit quicker for the rest
• Fixed CSS editor tooltips on IE and Firefox
• Fixed bug in generate links to a zone's default page
• 'mailto' links are now accepted in more places (e.g. menus)
• Fixed Comcode page selection on shared-installs
• If there are too many language string results when doing an Admin Zone search, it shows this and no results (to preserve memory usage/performance)
• Theme Wizard help panel help now shown
• Fixed Zone-editor bug of wrong Comcode page choice, on shared-installs
• The blocks on the feedback page now have a page consistent with this page's title, or can have no block titles if configured like that
• Made the poll block 'interlock' when shown on panels
• Fixed the hidden save frame becoming visible when doing an expand of the 'Original' template version in the template editor
• Zone editor preview now loads any Javascript and CSS that is required to do a proper preview
• Fixed the view link for security alerts shown on the investigate user screen
• Fixed a missing language string on the investigate user screen
• The main_multi_content block will now refuse to do a 'rating' based ordering for content that does not support it, instead of producing a stack trace
• Topic poll voting choices are now shown even if you need to post before you can vote
• The topic poll vote button no longer disables temporarily if it gives out an error
• The topic poll min-answer error message is now a bit more user-friendly
• The online-members screen no longer has cropped IP addresses
• A warning has been added that animated emoticons won't look good with the Theme Wizard
• Fixed problems with tooltips getting 'stuck'
• Fixed problem if a comment-topic gets a 'redirect' URL stuck in it's content URL
• The member box's now make it clear that the 'posts' count is actually 'forum posts' (due to confusion when shown on blogs)
• Fix to possible Javascript alerts in chat room (theoretical, based on non-reproducable bug report)
• Fixed small transparency issue on upload button
• Added error if no addons are selected for installing/uninstalling and the multi-action button is clicked
• Fixed issue in XML database with corrupt non-empty files
• Fixed labelling of gallery 'partial delete' option, and clarified it
• Added better incorrect-field errors for multiple incorrect fields when upload fields are present and not filled in when they should be
• Fixed error in authors module if downloads were uninstalled
• Fixed error generating XML sitemaps for catalogues
• Worked around issue on servers where escapeshellarg is disabled
• Automatic cache clearing for changes of base URLs (when no base URL is configured) now is only triggered from page scripts, to stop problems with AJAX scripts doing this in the background and causing big performance issues
• Signatures are now hidden for mobile browsers
• Small fixes to truncation/tooltip code
• The MAKE_RELATIVE_DATE date symbol now uses normal dates if contextual dates are disabled
• Added length constraints to all field inputs
• Fixed some small issues on the CEDI tree editing screen, if buttons are clicked with no values selected
• Sped up the time the CSS sheets are detected for use in the new CSS editor (two-phase detection process, instead of waiting long enough for all frames to have loaded)
• Fixed problems with block display and spacing in the WYSIWYG editor on Google Chrome
• Worked around problems with mod_security and the new easy 'edit theme image' buttons, as well as the add bookmark link and the multi-site-network and tracker links
• Fixed bug on the download links when browsing download categories when anti-leech was enabled
• Clarified that we do not recommend people use the backups module if they have a better alternative, and that people must test their backups
• Changed CPF_VALUE symbol to require one less parameter when extracting member fields for the current logged in member
• Fixed panels to interlock properly when tray expand/contract is enabled
• Fixed tiny spacing issue on the OCF forumview
• Allowed 'enable/disable WYSIWYG' button to be removed from templates
• Scrolling is improved in the new CSS editor when the selector links are clicked

Notes for developers

• Better deprecated the 'HAS_JS' symbol, now using 'JS_ON' instead, for consistency
• Debug mode no longer randomly deletes templates, now that we are sure that there are no hidden bugs relating to assumption-of-caching
• Fixed some type-strictness errors
• Made the Javascript caching more robust against domain name changes (w.r.t. Javascript security)
• Fixed vertical text rendering when cookies not enabled on debug mode
• Fixed Code Quality checker warning on the image-fader block
• Fixed some invisible bugs picked up by the Code Quality Checker (a full re-scan conducted for this release)
• (Other very small code cleanups)

With this release we have also conducted a huge market review, ensuring we were ahead of all our competitors (whether they are commercial or not) in all areas we consider relevant to our user-base. A number of the improvements in ocPortal 7, and to our website, came out of this review. In cases where our competitors have a significant feature that we don't that we think is a bad idea, we have documented our logic for not including it on our What ocPortal is not page.
There are two areas where the development team still requires the help of the community:

1. Producing extra documentation
2. Producing new themes

There is great sign of progress on these fronts. If you can help, please get involved!

We have also prepared a video that shows us creating a completely new advanced website from scratch, with no cheating (no prepared CSS or graphics) in under 45 minutes. This will soon made available on our front page.

Any common upgrade problems are being tracked in this forum topic.
If you have another problem, please file a bug report and ocProducts will respond and update the topic accordingly.