Release notes for Tetra-WebBBS 6.20

Tetra WebBBS Documentation

Installation

For detailed instructions on setup of Tetra WebBBS from scratch or on upgrading older implementations of Darryl Burgdorf's WebBBS please read the appropriate sections of the setup guide.

New Features

Ready for TetraBB PRO 0.30
This is the major new featue in Tetra-WebBBS 6.20.
The major topic of the next PRO release (0.30) is to add a photo gallery feature to the forums. Actually it's a set of new features which are all related to images uploaded with posts. Of course all features are optional and configurable.

Automatic resizing of images uploaded with posts.
This is a great help for those posters who don't know how to resize their images for the web.
Thumbnail created automatically for what's considered the "main" image of a post.
A new "Gallery Index" as an alternate message list to allow browsing forums by photos rather than subject titles. Configurable of course. Please check it out on the demo site.
Optional private "User Galleries" for registered users.
Optional private "Albums" which allow Users to sort images in their User Gallery.

TetraBB PRO 0.30 forum extension currently is available as a Beta release, which is running stable on a couple of sites for months. Main reason it's not released as a final is my lack of time to write the corresponding docs. Won't release a final without docs finished.
If you're interested please drop me a note via the contact form accessable from the main navigation to the left. I'll be happy to send you a quote for installservice and license for TetraBB PRO 0.30.

Max-Posts-Per-Day
This is a new feature to limit the maximum number of posts submitted by a single user within a configurable time frame.
To learn more about it, please read the documentation for the two variables involved: $MaxPostsPerDay_Limit and $MaxPostsPerDay_DateTime.
Feature sponsored by Rus. Thanks a lot Rus!

Select DBM modules used for the forums
Tetra-WebBBS utilizes DBM databases to store certain data on disc. There are various flavors of DBM databases and Perl modules to access these databases. Tetra-WebBBS, like Darryl's WebBBS before, figures the best available DBM database module on the fly to ensure the forum software always makes use of the most efficient DBM database type available. Thus rarely ever a site owner will need to deal with this underlying database stuff. However, in special cases a webmaster may want to determine which DBM module the forums should use. This options is now available via a special configuration variable: @any_dbm.
To learn more about the background and the new option, please read the documention for @any_dbm.
However, ..... don't play with this variable unless you know what you're doing. In case of questions don't hesitate to ask on support board.

Custom callbacks
Tetra-WebBBS is ready to allow for customized code to determine how filenames for profile datafiles are calculated (derived from user input). This code can be changed by a plugin and doesn't require changes to the core scripts any more. This is a major benefit for maintenance friendly upgrades in future.
Currently the custom callback feature only deals with this special case to determine the name of profile datafiles. In future we'll add more such callbacks to help site owners who are in need for special solutions.
To make use of custom callbacks a special plugin is required. I'll release it to the public as soon as I find time to pack and write docs. Meanwhile get in touch via support board if you feel you're in need for the feature.

Changes And Fixes

Extended config options for trimming users capabilities on the forum
To allow for even more flexibility setting up special purpose forums there is a new configuration option for $AllowURLs, $AllowPics, $AllowUserPicsUpload and $AllowEmailNotices.
If those variables are set to '2' the corresponding feature is only available for new topics but no longer for responses. This is helpful to allow full-featured threadstarting posts but simplify posting of responses, AKA limit them to simple "comments".