• Hello and welcome to the MyBB 2.0 Development Thread, in this thread you will find all the latest news about what's going on with MyBB 2.0 and also any new features which will be added. This thread will be kept up to date as much as possible and will also serve as a discussion point for members within the community. So please have a read through and see what the latest news is and then join in on the current conversation. After the added features in this thread the following posts will contain all official Development news released by MyBB.

• URL Structure, Meta Tags and Canonicals
  Out of the box, MyBB 2.0 uses a "pretty" URL structure in which thread titles, user names, forum names, etc. are included in the URL. It also provides out of the box <meta> description tags and canonical links.
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)The link structure is as follows:
  Topic: /topic/9/me-thread
  User profile: /user/1/admin
  Forum: /forum/1/my-category

• Liking Content
  In 2.0, we've added the ability to "like" content. This like system provides a very simplistic implementation allowing only the liking of content, not the "disliking". However, the system is extremely easy to extend and to implement on custom content types. This feature has been often requested throughout MyBB 1.x's lifetime and there have been a large number of third party plugins implemented to perform this.
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)

• Profile Field Enhancements
  Profile fields in MyBB 2.0 have received a much needed update. Profile fields can be organised within groups, and can be a configured to use a variety of different input types. In addition, profile fields can also have validation rules to ensure only certain types of data can be entered by users.
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)

• Collapsing Single Posts
  MyBB 2.0 has now picked up the ability to be able to collapse posts out of view. In the future, we will be adding the option to automatically collapse posts created by certain users (as an enhancement upon the current user ignore system found in MyBB 1.x). This allows users to automatically hide content from other users that they find distracting but optionally expand them if they wish to.
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)

• Selective Quote
  Quotes are an integral part of the forum experience – being able to respond to another post whilst keeping the context of that post eases inter-member communication. In MyBB 1.x, we’ve had the ability to quote multiple posts and single posts in full, in MyBB 2.0 we’re taking this a step further. In addition to quoting single and multiple quotes, you can now also select a section of text and automatically quote it within a reply. This greatly speeds up interactions and should be a welcome addition for many users.
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)

• Redesigned User Control Panel
  The User Control Panel in MyBB is the one-stop place for users to manage their details, update their signature and avatar, edit their preferences and more. In MyBB 2.0, it has received a significant redesign and overhaul in order to simplify the way things are presented to the user.
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)

• Template Engine
  MyBB 2.0 is using the Twig templating engine rather than the current system of basic PHP templates. Twig offers a lot more functionality, such as built in support for conditional "if" statements, loops, including other templates and more. Twig was chosen for its clean syntax, readability and high level of usage (it is used in hundreds of other projects, meaning it's fairly easy to learn and many people already understand it).
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)To give a brief introduction to how Twig works, here are a few samples of templates from the 2.0 core. This should give you a taste of the syntax, but we highly recommend reading the "Twig for template designers" guide if you are a theme designer.

• New look forum view
  What’s a forum system without forums? In MyBB 2.0, the forum overview has received a minor facelift, and the commonly requested feature of showing the avatar of the last user to post a reply to a topic has been integrated into the core.
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)

• Private Conversations
  MyBB has long had the ability to send other members Private Messages, which are hidden from public view. This system has become rather restrictive in recent times though, with the PM system only showing the last message and allowing only two participants. We therefore decided for MyBB 2.0 to overhaul this system to act as a much more powerful Conversation based system.
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)

• Moderation System Enhancements
  The moderation system is receiving a major overhaul for MyBB 2.0 thanks to a lot of work done by Will. The new system allows plugin developers and integrators to easily add both new and existing moderation tools to their new content types and to add entirely new moderation tools by simply writing a class or implementing a PHP Trait.
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)
  A few screenshots of this new moderation system are below, showcasing multiple post selection, the new inline modification toolbar that follows your navigation throughout the page and the moving of a topic to another forum.
  
  

• Avatar Management Enhancements
  In MyBB 2.0, it is now possible to automatically crop and position your avatar after uploading it rather than having to edit your images in some specialised desktop software. This is an extremely useful feature that can lead to much nicer looking avatars for everyone.
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)In MyBB 2.0, it is now possible to automatically crop and position your avatar after uploading it rather than having to edit your images in some specialised desktop software. This is an extremely useful feature that can lead to much nicer looking avatars for everyone.

• New look member list
  As with the rest of MyBB 2.0, the old member list has received quite a face lift. Rather than the tabular list of old showing very few details, members are now presented as individual user cards, with their personal avatars given front and centre.
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)

• Feature Name
  Feature Description
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)
  More information/image.
  

• Feature Name
  Feature Description
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)
  More information/image.
  

• Feature Name
  Feature Description
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)
  More information/image.
  

• MyBB 2.0 Dev Post #1
  Release Date: March 9th 2015
  Released By: Paul H.
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)
  This will be the first of a series of development update posts regarding MyBB 2.0. Currently in pre-alpha, MyBB 2.0 is the long awaited upcoming major version of the open source MyBB forum software. We’ll be posting regular updates (we promise!) in regards to the development to keep you all updated.
  
  Development Cycle
  
  Being a pre-alpha, many basic functions of forum software are not yet implemented. Right now, all development is being done in private by a subset of the development team led by Euan T. Once we have a working software with all the basics, the alpha release will be announced and we will open up the GitHub repo and the community at large will be able to begin contributing. Once the majority of features have been implemented a beta will be released, and after that, a gold 2.0 will be let loose!
  
  Currently no public timeframe is on the table. We have an internal roadmap, but we’d rather not disappoint the public if we fail to make one of our milestones. As always it will be released when it’s ready. That being said, from the dev blog posts you should be able to make educated guesses.
  
  What We Have
  
  Here’s the juicy content you’ve all been waiting for. MyBB 2.0 is being coded in PHP, using the Laravel 5 framework and the Twig templating engine. Various screenshots of 2.0 prototypes have been posted to MyBB’s Facebook and Twitter social media pages, revealing a long anticipated and rumored responsive theme. “Pretty” URLs are available out of the box, taking the form “/topic/me-thread.1”, along with several other useful tools aimed at enhancing the search engine optimisation of the software such as relevant meta tags and canonical links. In addition, the new default theme makes use of semantic HTML5 elements, rather than the old and now defunct table-based layout that’s been a part of MyBB since the early days.
  
  Here’s some screenshots of a super-secret development copy live on the Internet somewhere (don’t bother looking for it; it’s protected by HTTP auth and a rather obscure URL).
  
  Everyone’s favorite features, /me and /slap, are live in the very first 2.0 “/me topic”. By the way – we’ve transitioned from the old, usenet email group term of “thread” and changed the language to say “topic”, a much more modern and relevant term.
  
  Image
  
  Buttons, as you can see, are provided in SVG format by fontawesome. Another thing you may notice is the timestamps seem to be rather archaic; have no fear, relative time and more human readable dates are on the way.
  This is by no means all that has been implemented so far, but as we plan on having regular dev posts we’ll save some for a later date!
  We as a team are very excited by the prospects of MyBB 2.0 and are looking forward to a very exciting future. We hope that you too can share in this excitement with us and keep making MyBB great.
  

• MyBB 2.0 Dev Post #2
  Release Date: April 13th 2015
  Released By: Euan T.
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)
  It’s that time again, time for another MyBB 2.0 dev blog! This post is the second in a series of development update posts regarding MyBB 2.0. Currently in pre-alpha, MyBB 2.0 is the long awaited upcoming major version of the open source MyBB forum software. We’ll be posting regular updates (we promise!) in regards to the development to keep you all updated. The development team have been hard at work since our last dev post, adding new features and polishing existing functionality. This post will explore some of these new features and highlight our approach to the development of the system.
  
  Some development background
  As we announced in our previous post, MyBB 2.0 is being developed using the Laravel 5.0 PHP framework, and utilising the Twig templating engine. In this post, we want to explore some of the more specific development practices and techniques that we are using in order to prepare third party developers for what’s to come. In MyBB 2.0, we have decided to follow the PSR-2 coding style, meaning our code styling rules of old are to be abandoned with the 1.x series of releases. This change means that the code behind MyBB follows a common standard followed by many other modern PHP applications, meaning switching between differing platforms during development should be far simpler. Additionally, MyBB 2.0 follows the PSR-4 autoloading standard and utilises the Composer dependency manager to manage third party libraries and dependencies. Both of the above are common standards and tools used to develop modern PHP applications and should provide a much easier entrance to writing extensions and modifications for the MyBB platform. As part of the development process, several core components of the core MyBB system are being split off into separate packages. This allows core components from MyBB which were previously tightly coupled to the main codebase to be easily used in other projects. So far, we have split packages for parsing posts from BBCode to HTML (and performing filtering on said parsed HTML), as well as our core settings package. As we progress, other core components will be split into reusable packages and released for public use. All of these packages will feature a full set of unit tests and documentation for usage and will be installable within any Composer based project. This means that projects building upon a MyBB core can easily utilise well tested components core to their forum platform and build on top of the solid base we have already provided. In the future, we will be doing development posts focusing on individual packages that are available for use, including examine their package structure and the features they provide. This will start next month with a look at our core settings package, which provides both general board settings and individual user settings.
  
  And now for a quick look at some of our new features
  So for everyone who’s managed to stick with us so far, here’s what you’ve been really looking forward to – screenshot time! In this section we’ll have a look at one of the new commonly requested features coming to MyBB 2.0 and at the new look some existing features have received.
  
  Liking content
  The ability to like content has long been a requested feature in the MyBB core, as has been evidenced by the large number of third party plugins that provide just such functionality. We’re glad to acknowledge that this functionality is now a core feature in MyBB 2.0 and upgrading boards will have all existing reputation points received for posts converted to these new likes.
  
  Image
  
  For developers, it’s extremely easy to add the ability to like content to their own custom code. This means that third party systems such as image galleries can easily add the ability to like their content with only a few lines of code, as can be seen below.
  
  Image
  
  This should mean that this feature will be extremely common across third party applications and extensions. This approach to easy extension and customisability has always been at the core of MyBB, and we aim to keep it so throughout the lifetime of 2.0.
  
  The new look member list
  As with the rest of MyBB 2.0, the old member list has received quite a face lift. Rather than the tabular list of old showing very few details, members are now presented as individual user cards, with their personal avatars given front and centre.
  
  Image
  
  The new look forum view
  What’s a forum system without forums? In MyBB 2.0, the forum overview has received a minor facelift, and the commonly requested feature of showing the avatar of the last user to post a reply to a topic has been integrated into the core. The approach to the forum view is to offer a minimalistic approach to bringing your content to the forefront. It is for this reason that there is very little clutter or extraneous information presented – we want to bring what really matters straight to the attention of your users.
  
  Image
  

• MyBB 2.0 Dev Post #3
  Release Date: May 30th 2015
  Released By: Euan T.
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)
  It’s that time again, time for another MyBB 2.0 dev blog! This post is the third in a series of development update posts regarding MyBB 2.0. Currently in pre-alpha, MyBB 2.0 is the long awaited upcoming major version of the open source MyBB forum software. We’ll be posting regular updates (we promise!) in regards to the development to keep you all updated. The development team have been hard at work since our last dev post, adding new features and polishing existing functionality. This post will explore some of these new features and highlight our approach to the development of the system.
  
  New approach to feature suggestions
  Some of you who frequent our community forums may have noticed the newly reorganised MyBB 2.0 Development forum. The new structure makes it far easier to suggest new features and enhancements, and to track the currently confirmed and planned features we are implementing. Previously, the suggestions forum has been hectic and unorganised with no clear structure. I hope you agree that this more structured approach is for the better for all of us, but please do suggest any additional changes that you think might help.
  
  Some Development Background
  We’ve been trying to provide some background on how we’re actually developing MyBB 2.0 as part of this series rather than just using it to look at features and such. In this post, I’d like to talk about how we’re working on the front-end of the software – namely the CSS stylesheets and the JavaScript.
  
  During the development stages for 2.0, we’re utilising Sass to develop the core theme. Sass brings a whole lot more flexibility to the table, and is allowing us to rapidly work on the style and make use of useful features such as CSS variables for colours and mixing to provide common rule sets. We chose Sass due to its easy to learn syntax and rich feature set, though we also considered alternatives such as LESS.
  
  We’re also trying to follow the BEM syntax for the core theme, in an effort to make the CSS classes used in the core much more understandable to other developers and to make the reuse of useful classes far easier.
  
  We’re also currently investigating how easy it would be to provide the use of Sass and LESS to theme authors straight from the Admin Control Panel. This would give theme developers a great deal more flexibility, and would see Sass or LESS being used to create a theme, with the compiled CSS served up to end users.
  
  Our approach to JavaScript at the moment still uses raw JavaScript (rather than a language such as CoffeeScript or TypeScript that compiles to JavaScript), though all JavaScript components are being written as separate modules under a global “MyBB” namespace. We’re also still making use of jQuery, though the version has been ed to version 2.1.4 as of the time of writing.
  
  Here’s a taster of this new approach to writing our JavaScript, as seen in our MyBB.Spinner module:
  
  Image
  
  In order to aid the process of compiling our SASS files and combining our JavaScript modules, we’re making use of the gulp.js build system. This system compiles our SASS stylesheets into CSS, saves them and then minifies then into “*.min.css” files for use in the main theme. It also combines all of the JavaScript files (including vendor scripts such as jQuery) and minifies them too, along with optimising all of the images used by the theme.
  
  This whole process is allowing for a rapid iteration of the front-end development and design of MyBB 2.0, and we look forward to bringing some of this power to theme developers and site owners. We’re currently intending to have an Admin Control Panel area under the Templates and Styles module to allow the management of JavaScript files rather than requiring manual template edits. This, combined with the automatic minifying of source files and the use of CDNs being made far easier should offer administrators much more flexibility and provide a welcome speed boat to the loading of forum pages.
  
  Private Conversations
  MyBB has long had the ability to send other members Private Messages, which are hidden from public view. This system has become rather restrictive in recent times though, with the PM system only showing the last message and allowing only two participants. We therefore decided for MyBB 2.0 to overhaul this system to act as a much more powerful Conversation based system.
  
  This new system allows for multiple participants within a conversation, and a fully threaded approach to messages. This allows for much greater communications between users in private outside of the usual forums.
  
  Image
  A sample Private Conversation, with several participants taking part.
  
  Redesigned User Control Panel
  The User Control Panel in MyBB is the one-stop place for users to manage their details, update their signature and avatar, edit their preferences and more. In MyBB 2.0, it has received a significant redesign and overhaul in order to simplify the way things are presented to the user.
  
  The Control Panel maintains its sidebar (and the easy extensibility it provides for plugin developers), but trims down the default entries by combining items that may be combined. In addition, the section to manage your Private Messages has been removed, and is instead accessible via the conversations management page and the conversations drop-down menu found in the header of all pages.
  
  Most of a user’s details are configured via a single “Profile” page within the new User Control Panel. This page also shows all custom user profile fields configured by the board administrator, allowing users to fill in all of their details in one single easily accessible location.
  
  Image
  The new User Control Panel, showing the Profile management page. Note that almost all actions related to your user account are managed via this page rather than being spread across several.
  
  Image
  Some of the administrator configured custom profile fields. Fields can be grouped together and shown under different headings, as well as having validation rules attached, being set to be required and having several different input types.
  
  Custom profile fields have been greatly enhanced in MyBB 2.0 and should replace the functionality provided by many plugins used with MyBB 1.8 today. We’re looking forward to covering this additional functionality in more depth in future blog posts.
  

• MyBB 2.0 Dev Post #4
  Release Date: July 1st 2015
  Released By: Euan T.
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)
  It’s that time again, time for another MyBB 2.0 dev blog! This post is the fourth in a series of development update posts regarding MyBB 2.0. Currently in pre-alpha, MyBB 2.0 is the long awaited upcoming major version of the open source MyBB forum software. We’ll be posting regular updates (we promise!) in regards to the development to keep you all updated. The development team have been hard at work since our last dev post, adding new features and polishing existing functionality. This post will explore some of these new features and highlight our approach to the development of the system.
  
  This month has been slightly slower than most due to many of our team members being busy finishing up university courses, exams and more. However, we’ve still managed to work away on new features and plan out new features. In this post, we will review some of the exciting new features and some of the plans we have for the future of 2.0.
  
  CircleCI to ensure working builds
  In order to ease and enhance the development of MyBB 2.0, we are utilising Unit Tests via PHPUnit. This allows us to automatically test our code to ensure fewer bugs and issues caused by our development. To take this even further, we’re also using a continuous integration service called CircleCI. CircleCI automatically runs our Unit Tests and checks our code style every time that we commit code to the MyBB 2.0 core, ensuring all of our developers are following the same standards to produce a clear and maintainable codebase.
  
  This integration will also be rolled out to all third party contributors as the MyBB 2.0 repositories become public, which is something we’ll be talking more about in the future. We just wanted to give you a heads up now so that developers can know what to expect when the time comes.
  
  Image
  An example Circle CI build, where all of the unit tests and code style rules have passed successfully – the green badge is the one we like to see.
  
  Profile Field Enhancements
  Profile fields in MyBB 2.0 have received a much needed update. Profile fields can be organised within groups, and can be a configured to use a variety of different input types. In addition, profile fields can also have validation rules to ensure only certain types of data can be entered by users. Some of the currently supported field types are:
  
  Select – a drop down box of options from which a single value can be chosen.
  Text – A simple textbox.
  Email – A textbox allowing only valid email addresses.
  URL – A textbox allowing only valid URLs.
  Number – A numerical input box, with up/down arrows.
  Text Area – A simple text area to input larger amounts of text.
  All of these different input types will use semantic HTML5 input types, and we plan to add support for running the parser upon profile fields and using the rich text (WYSIWYG) editor.
  
  Image
  The profile field management index in the ACP. Note that the design for the ACP is not complete, and this is simply a “working layout” to allow us to work on the logic of the system.
  
  Image
  Creating a new profile field within a group. Note that this user interface may change too.
  
  Image
  Modifying the options for a “select” field type. Profile fields with a type of “select” can have any number of configurable options that can be added to and changed at will by administrators.
  
  Quoting a small subsection of a post
  Quotes are an integral part of the forum experience – being able to respond to another post whilst keeping the context of that post eases inter-member communication. In MyBB 1.x, we’ve had the ability to quote multiple posts and single posts in full, in MyBB 2.0 we’re taking this a step further. In addition to quoting single and multiple quotes, you can now also select a section of text and automatically quote it within a reply. This greatly speeds up interactions and should be a welcome addition for many users.
  
  Image
  Quoting a small subsection of a post
  
  Parser enhancements
  We’ve been working hard to enhance and improve the post parser. Parsing MyCode has traditionally been one of the slowest parts of MyBB – and one of the most prone to issues. With MyBB 2.0, we’re aiming to provide a parser that is not only faster, but is also fully unit tested and much more reliable. In addition, the parser will also be picking up some new features – such as the ability to handle Markdown as an alternative to MyCode.
  
  Looking to the future – community interaction
  Over the last months, we’ve been trying to improve the way that the staff team interacts with the community at large. Starting this dev post series was one step towards improving this interaction, then we started organising the 2.0 suggestions forum to make our direction more clear. We’ve started making steps to being more open, but we still have a long way to go.
  
  In the future, we plan to be holding public RFCs (Requests for Comments) regarding the direction of MyBB and some of our planned features. This will allow community members to have their say, and to see the direction in which MyBB is headed.
  
  We’re also looking for volunteers to help us improve the current MyBB documentation and, when the time comes, to help us write a full suite of documentation for MyBB 2.0. We’ll be writing a post with more details about how you can contribute to the documentation soon, so keep your eyes stuck to the blog.
  

• MyBB 2.0 Dev Post #5
  Release Date: August 16th 2015
  Released By: Euan T.
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)
  It’s that time again, time for another MyBB 2.0 dev blog! This post is the fifth in a series of development update posts regarding MyBB 2.0. Currently in pre-alpha, MyBB 2.0 is the long awaited upcoming major version of the open source MyBB forum software. We’ll be posting regular updates (we promise!) in regards to the development to keep you all updated. The development team have been hard at work since our last dev post, adding new features and polishing existing functionality. This post will explore some of these new features and highlight our approach to the development of the system.
  
  Note that all screenshots and details contained within these posts are subject to change and is taken from early developmental software; details are in no way indicative of the features or presentation of the final software.
  
  Request for feedback regarding the attachment system in 2.0
  This month we created a topic asking for feedback regarding the new attachment system in 2.0, which can be found here.
  
  This thread is the first of hopefully many as we try to promote community input into the future of MyBB. We’ve been trying to be more open for a while now and this is the next step in that evolution. All feedback is encouraged and gratefully received, though we do ask that users check if their suggestion has already been posted rather than repeating suggestions. If somebody has already posted a suggestion and you wish to just note your agreement, please simply quote the original suggestion and state your agreement.
  
  We will be using this system to announce any new features we’re working on or at least considering before we start implementation, allowing us to run our ideas past the community. Before creating a thread, the staff will have already agreed on a basic set of features that we both want and definitely do not want (for example, with the attachment system, we have agreed as a staff team that we definitely do not want a gallery system).
  
  Enhancing organisation of the 2.0 forum
  As part of our ongoing restructuring and reorganisation, we’re going to start writing new threads within the MyBB 2.0 Implemented Features forum. This will be an ongoing effort which I should be making a start to this week. This will make it easier for users to comment upon and provide feedback to features we’ve already announced and/or shown within these development posts.
  
  How we code 2.0: Code style
  As we have been doing in recent posts, I’d like to take a chance to look at the coding standards that we’re following to write MyBB 2.0.
  
  For 2.0, we’re following the PSR–4 autoloader specification for how we structure the physical lay out of our classes within files. Basically, it boils down to the following (class is shown on the left, the resolved path is shown to the right):
  
  MyBB\Core\Database\Models\User — ./app/Database/Models/User.php
  MyBB\Core\Http\Controllers\UserController — ./app/Http/Controllers/UserController.php
  As you can see, this specification leads to a very clear layout and organisation of code rather than the MyBB 1.x approach of just putting every file inside ./inc/.
  
  In terms of the actual code format, we’re basically following the PSR–2 standard, though we are using tabs rather than spaces. We know that the issue of tabs vs. spaces is rather divisive, so we’d rather not get into any arguments here but our basic reasoning is that we’d rather not waste 4 characters where one character suffices. Additionally, most modern code editors can handle either tabs or spaces as pretty much the same.
  
  In order to aid in the following of these standards, Jones has created a set of rules that can be used with PHP CodeSniffer. These rules are ran automatically by Circle CI (see Dev Post #4 for more information on how we use Circle CI to provide continuous integration!) to make sure that all code committed to our Git repositories follows the same standards. This leads to the MyBB 2.0 codebase having a very clear and readable codebase that’s cohesive throughout.
  
  Obviously, we will not force these code standards on plugin authors and such, but everybody contributing to the core will be expected to follow them (and will in fact be forced to by CircleCI).
  
  New feature: collapsing single posts
  MyBB 2.0 has now picked up the ability to be able to collapse posts out of view. In the future, we will be adding the option to automatically collapse posts created by certain users (as an enhancement upon the current user ignore system found in MyBB 1.x). This allows users to automatically hide content from other users that they find distracting but optionally expand them if they wish to.
  
  Each post can be collapsed and expanded using a simple toggle switch found at the top right of every post. Users who use Reddit may find this feature rather familiar.
  
  Collapsing posts
  
  Image
  Image
  And here Justin’s post is collapsed as I decided I didn’t really need to know how happy he was.
  
  Moderation System
  The moderation system is receiving a major overhaul for MyBB 2.0 thanks to a lot of work done by Will. The new system allows plugin developers and integrators to easily add both new and existing moderation tools to their new content types and to add entirely new moderation tools by simply writing a class or implementing a PHP Trait. This makes the moderation system far more flexible than it previously has been.
  
  A few screenshots of this new moderation system are below, showcasing multiple post selection, the new inline modification toolbar that follows your navigation throughout the page and the moving of a topic to another forum.
  
  Image
  Selecting and managing multiple posts within a topic. Note the post tool bar that is “stuck” to the bottom of the screen. This flows with you as you scroll, giving instant accost the moderator tools.
  
  Image
  The same approach is used when managing topics from the forum view, giving a consistent user interface experience throughout.
  
  Image
  Moving a topic to another forum. Basic moderation tools such as this one can be utilised without loading another page via the use of modals, greatly improving the experience and efficiency of the moderator tools for staff.
  
  Avatar enhancements
  In MyBB 2.0, it is now possible to automatically crop and position your avatar after uploading it rather than having to edit your images in some specialised desktop software. This is an extremely useful feature that can lead to much nicer looking avatars for everyone.
  
  Additionally, avatars can be uploaded by simply dragging and dropping an image onto any place on the screen that your avatar is shown. Doing so will automatically upload the image and present the crop screen to the user.
  
  Minimum PHP version announcement
  Since the release of Laravel 5.1, which is a long term support (LTS) release, the minimum PHP version required for MyBB 2.0 has been updated to PHP 5.5.9, which is required as it fixes several bugs found in previous PHP releases. Laravel 5.1 is guaranteed bug fixes for 2 years and security issues for 3 years, allowing peace of mind and stability for the project.
  
  As part of this change, we’ve started to compile a list of hosts which support PHP 5.5.9 or later out of the box. Given the forthcoming End Of Life of PHP 5.4 (September 14) major providers are expected to begin the natural process of making higher versions (PHP 5.5 or 5.6) available or preset by default, which is why we’d love to receive community input on keeping it up to date. In order to facilitate this effort, we’ve created a new repository on our GitHub account that we are asking the community to contribute to so that we have a list of hosts that we know will support MyBB 2.0 ready for release.
  
  Looking to the future
  These development posts haven’t exactly been following a strict schedule recently and I can only apologise for this. We’re going to be trying to commit to a more regular update schedule going forward.
  

• MyBB 2.0 Dev Post #6
  Release Date: September 27th 2015
  Released By: Euan T
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)
  It’s that time again, time for another MyBB 2.0 dev blog! This post is the sixth in a series of development update posts regarding MyBB 2.0. Currently in pre-alpha, MyBB 2.0 is the long awaited upcoming major version of the open source MyBB forum software. We’ll be posting regular updates (we promise!) in regards to the development to keep you all updated. The development team have been hard at work since our last dev post, adding new features and polishing existing functionality. This post will take a slightly different approach to previous posts by focusing on a single aspect of 2.0 in slightly more detail, namely the new responsive styling.
  
  Note that all screenshots and details contained within these posts are subject to change and is taken from early developmental software; details are in no way indicative of the features or presentation of the final software. The screenshots and media featured within this post is intended to give an impression of the current direction we are heading in and any and all feedback is as always highly appreciated.
  
  The Overall Style
  The base theme has been designed to offer an optimum experience across both desktop web browsers and mobile browsers including Smartphones and Tablets. Individual elements resize and are shown and hidden as needed, following the responsive web design approach. The overall style is intended to be simple and modern, with a focus on content above all else.
  
  In order to capture this responsive style, we’ve recorded some short footage of a current 2.0 install in action across a range of devices, showing how it reacts to different devices without losing functionality yet still remaining easy to use.
  
  Please note that my local server is at the minute suffering from a few ghosts in the machine and as such JavaScript is not working due to content negotiation issues. When I get this fixed I will update the footage included in this post, but I wanted to get this published as soon as I could!
  
  MyBB 2.0 On Desktop
  This footage shows how some of MyBB 2.0 operates when on a traditional laptop or desktop machine, showing off some of the basic functionality such as viewing topics, creating topics, creating polls, replying to polls, changing your user settings and starting a new conversation.
  Video
  
  MyBB 2.0 On Tablet
  This footage shows how some of MyBB 2.0 operates when on an iPad or Tablet. It shows how the controls translate to the slightly smaller screen and how all of the standard functionality is still as easily accessible as if on a laptop or desktop.
  Video
  
  MyBB 2.0 On Mobile
  This footage shows how some of MyBB 2.0 operates when using a Smartphone with much less screen real estate. Controls resize to fit the display and operate smoothly. Unfortunately there are a few small glitches in the theme still at the moment, but we are working to resolve these – we just wanted to show you how things look right now.
  Video
  
  Other thoughts
  We’d like to thank the community for their continued input on the direction MyBB 2.0 is heading in. Particularly, the discussions around the new attachment system have been extremely useful and are helping to guide us as we start to implement attachments over this coming month – something I hope to be able to share this time in October!
  

• MyBB 2.0 Repositories Are Finally Public
  Release Date: December 24, 2015
  Released By: Euan T
  
  Spoiler (Click to View)
  Yep, you read that right. The MyBB 2.0 repositories are finally open to the public for browsing and contribution. The repositories we are opening are:
  
  mybb/mybb2 – the core of MyBB 2.0, based on a Laravel skeleton template. This repository contains the core forum and is where the majority of work happens. The overall structure of this repository will be changing through the New Year to make deployment easier on shared hosts and other setups.
  
  mybb/Auth – a modified authentication package for MyBB 2.0. This is based around the Laravel 5.0 Auth package, and is about to receive a major overhaul to make use of the Laravel 5.1 and 5.2 authentication changes.
  
  mybb/Parser – the core post parser for MyBB 2.0. The majority of the parsing logic has simply been imported from MyBB 1.x in the current incarnation in order to get a working parser implementation. The future plans for this repository include adding further unit tests and refactoring the BBCode/MyCode parsing to use a proper parser/lexer rather than a large jumble of regular expressions.
  
  mybb/Settings – the core settings system of MyBB 2.0. This package provides both site-wide and user settings and can easily be used for other projects and plugins. Settings are split into “packages”, with “mybb/core” being the core MyBB package. Further documentation and details will be explained about this package in an upcoming development post.
  
  Browsing these repositories should make it fairly clear that while MyBB 2.0 has had a good start so far, it is still far from done. Original plans were to have an Alpha release available by the end of 2015, but these plans have unfortunately not come to fruition. It is our hope that making these repositories public will bring more contributions, suggestions and feedback from you the community.
  
  For now we are simply opening these repositories, but over the New Year and Christmas holidays we will be documenting our code formatting, contribution guidelines and our roadmap and plans for MyBB 2.0 more fully in the MyBB 2.0 Planned Features forum. Rather than blogging about each of these, we will be writing topics that will be stuck to that forum to provide guidelines about our expectations.
  
  We also plan to keep up our (recently lacking) development blog posts which will cover the usage of the components we are open sourcing as well as other components that will be created in the future. Future components and progress will be developed fully in the open, utilising our new BSD-3 licence.
  
  As a closing note, MyBB 2 is in no way stable yet and should not be used on a live forum at all right now. Open sourcing these repositories is aimed primarily at developers and experienced administrators wanting to provide input and feedback on the future direction of MyBB. No support will be provided for any of the code in these repositories until we reach a Beta release.
  
  We wish all of our users a happy holiday season,
  
  The MyBB team
  

(Sep 14, 2015 08:06 AM)Misaya Wrote:  Hi,

thanks a lot for covering the MyBB 2.0 development, it's a lot of stuff which needs to be covered and I'm happy to see all of the stuff you covered already. I'm looking forwad to the overhaul.

(Sep 14, 2015 04:41 PM)Webmasters Wrote:  Looks very interesting, I like keeping up with software. Going to help a lot with my forum I'm launching.. (because of domain name ;))

(Sep 14, 2015 04:42 PM)Payslip Wrote:  This looks clean, I think this is going to be my first option when picking a forum software.