Currently being worked on (part 2)

[Adonis]

After last week's major update, i'm ofcourse not sitting back doing nothing Below you'll be seeing a list of what i'm currently working on. The list will be expanded along the way:

• done - Better smilie system - This improved smilie system will allow you to also create your own smilie codes. Also, more smilies will be allowed.
• done - Better ban system - This is an improved way of banning IP's. In this new system you can ban whole IP ranges with wildcards. Also the bans are checked for validity in the admin panel.
• done - Captcha - This anti spambot feature will be off by default, but can be turned on if required. With this feature, the shoutbox will have a captcha displayed. A captcha is a series of letters/digits that have to be typed in correctly for the shout to be posted. This can be used in addition to the Repost limit, or only use Captcha, or use neither.
• done - Registration confirmation - New shoutbox registrations will need to be validated by e-mail. Also, instructions on how to access the admin panel will be sent to the registrant.
• done - User system (adminpanel) - A usermanager is added to the adminpanel. This will allow the shoutbox admin to create users, modify users, select icons, etc. The way of logging in to the panel also has changed.
• done - Moderators - The shoutbox admin is able to upgrade users to moderator and admin status. These moderators will have limited access to the admin panel to moderate shouts.
• done - Login screen - When called from the shoutbox, the login screen is shown in the colourset defined by the shoutbox  admin.
• done - IP address in binshouts - The IP address is now also listed in the deleted shouts section on the adminpanel.
• done - Moderation option - A moderation link which is only visible after logging in as moderator, admin or owner. With this, moderators can moderate (edit, delete, flag, search) shouts.
• done - User registration - Users can register/signup (can be turned off). This uses captcha verification.
• done - Ability to stay logged in - When logging in, you have the option to stay logged in.
• done - Avatars and properties - The admin and (if option is turned on), user can set properties and an avatar for his/her displayname. This can be changed via the profile link.

[Adonis]

I am currently also working on a user system. I'm not sure yet which direction i will go with this. Maybe i will use it to allow for Multiple admins/moderators, or i might expand it with a password protected shout posting system. Ofcourse all this will be handled in a way where you can disable or enable part of the system.

I'll post more details when i know more. It's a major change to the shoutbox system, so this is something that may take a while to complete 

[Adonis]

I have just updated the first post to show what parts are 100% completed. I have only limited time to work on it, so things are not progressing as fast as i would wish, but we're getting there. 

I still have a list of items i need to implement. The most difficult item will be extending the usermanager section towards the shoutbox itself. When finished, this will mean that users can register themselves (if that option is turned on) and thereby securing their nickname on the shoutbox so that it cannot be used by anyone else.

This post is just to show you that the shoutbox service is being worked on

[Adonis]

I have updated the first post with new items that are 100% completed. Right now all the main features are added and the only thing i have left to do is tying up loose ends, cleaning up some code and write conversion scripts (a lot has changed so a lot has to be converted). I have no estimation yet as to when the new version will be moved over to the production sites, but it can't be long now. 

[allyours]

Well just wondering. It's been since earlier this afternoon that the shoutbox has been showing the message "Shoutbox service is being moved to a new server." Are we going through the transition? 

[Adonis]

Nope unfortunately not. Progress has been really slow on the new shoutbox update, due to work and personal circumstances. I will not forget about it, but it will take longer. I hope i'll get a month off work somewhere this year and then it should be quite easy to finish the update

It can take a while before this "Shoutbox service is being moved to a new server." message is gone. I have removed that message on the new server, and i can see people accessing it there, but there are also still people accessing it on the old server. It depends on how soon your DNS cache is refreshed. In general... if you leave it alone for a while (couple of hours) chances are good that the DNS is refreshed on your end, but if you access it very often, it can take a while (which i found out the hard way).

By the way, this new server is a lot faster than the old one. One tiny bad thing was that i had to clear the hits for the shoutbox service. It was around 15million records, and it was just too big to successfully import... somehow that resulted in table errors and what not. So now it should appear even faster with this near empty hits table

[prince]

thanks for conformation

[allyours]

OK, been a long time since I have posted about the long awaited new shoutbox format and hope this is the thread. 
If not I'm sure there are more wrong places to post this. 

I tried to make a post a link with a target in the current shoutbox. Then went to the beta shoutbox to try. Neither seem to support links with #targets unless they are placed in the "Website" input area. The links stop after index.html

Can an update to the development shoutbox be modified to include targets? index.html#target

Any idea if further work and possible release? 

[Adonis]

Thats strange. I thought that #'s were allowed. I will have a look soon when work on the shoutbox resumes. I will have another holiday coming up in November, and since it's almost done it should be rolled out sometime early December. The only things that needs to be done is write upgrade scripts and maybe solve a few bugs. That means no more new features until after the release (otherwise it keeps getting postponed).