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We’re back from our vBulletin April Fools joke to throw a very full episode at you all as we catch up on the plethora of phpBB news that has been churning out over the past week or two.

We start off by briefly chatting with David about Star Trek Guide’s Deck 15 Stunt that they pulled for April Fools Day, including lobbying for him to release the code he used for Deck 15 as a MOD. Afterwards, we spend a little time talking about the upcoming phpBB 3.0.1 release (can you say “bugfixes,” anyone?), and discussing the beginning of the minor release candidates and the associated phpbb-qa mailing list.

We then turn to the 3.2 “Ascraeus” front and discuss some of the latest SVN checkins, including the beginnings of the new BBCode parser that Marek (APTX) checked in, and the new Database Abstraction Layer (DBAL) function that DavidMJ has committed, as well as the beginnings of a completely retooled posting API. We’ll be sharing more details about these new features soon once we learn more about them ourselves.

We take a bit of time to discuss once again the future of phpBB2, and how long it will last. NeoThermic calls in to offer some of his comments, and we spend some time discussing why some people would be in favor of killing phpBB2 and why others would be against it.

For the main part of the show, Yuriy Rusko (Marshalrusty) joins us to talk about Londonvasion 2008, the first major phpBB conference taking place all day in London on Sunday, July 20th, 2008. We chat with Yuriy about how Londonvasion came about and what will be taking place there, as well as beginning some initial discussions for how phpBB Weekly will plan to cover the event. If you have any suggestions for how you want us to cover this event, please see our Londonvasion Topic in the phpBB Weekly forum.

There was no MOD or Style of the Week this week since we were limited on time for this episode.

phpBB Weekly is a proud member of the Tech Podcast Network. Check them out for other great technology podcasts.

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We start this episode with some updates from the Subversion front. Recent updates in Subversion are showing that phpBB 2.0.23 and phpBB 3.0.1, both primarily bugfix updates, are going to be on their way soon. Also, in the weird description of the MOD team, the MODs Manager (codename “Blinky”) was “leaked on purpose,” as revealed in this Star Trek Guide thread. You can now check out the MODs Manager on the new phpBB Code Forge. (We also learned that the Code Forge is powered by a program called Redmine.)

However, the focus of this episode is a tutorial on BBCode. In this show, we discuss the reasons why BBCode was created and why it’s more secure to use than HTML (which is also why phpBB3 does not allow HTML to be used), and then discuss a bit about how adding custom BBCodes in phpBB2 and phpBB3, along with a recap of the significant changes coming to BBCode in Ascraeus.

Links Mentioned in the Episode:
BBCode (Wikipedia article)
phpBB BBCode Guide
Adding Custom BBCodes in phpBB3 (Flash Tutorial)
phpBB2 Multiple BBCode MOD
Popular Custom BBCodes for phpBB3

The MOD of the Week is First post on every page for phpBB3 by rxu, and the Style of the Week is envision for phpBB3 by AkaNSu.

phpBB Weekly is a proud member of the Tech Podcast Network. Check them out for other great technology podcasts.

February, the shortest month of the year, is almost upon us, and so I wanted to fill you in on our plans for the next couple of episodes here on phpBB Weekly to give you a heads up on what we’re going to be covering.

This Saturday, February 2nd, is not only Groundhog Day (my most favorite obscure holiday of the year), but David has promised me that he will be back on phpBB Weekly! Also, now that the fanfare of the Olympus release has calmed down a bit, we are going to do our first phpBB tutorial in about two months. We will be focusing on BBCode. I have myself done some research on the history and purpose of BBCode, along with a bit on how BBCode worked in phpBB2. Then David will fill us in on what’s new with BBCode in phpBB3, including an overview of how to use the Custom BBCode maker in phpBB3, and we’ll see if it’s possible for us to get some more info on what to expect from the brand new BBCode system coming in phpBB 3.2. Also, we’re inviting anyone who wants to share your favorite custom BBCode syntax with us, which we’ll highlight to share some examples of custom BBCodes.

Next Saturday, February 9th, we will be celebrating the fiftieth episode of phpBB Weekly–a significant milestone for most podcasts to celebrate. So, what’s the best way for us to celebrate a significant milestone? Why, by featuring a special guest, of course! For what is sure to be an interesting discussion, we will be inviting Patrick O’Keefe, administrator of phpBBHacks.com, to join us to talk a bit about phpBBHacks.com, including how and why it was formed and where it is today. We will probably also have a friendly debate with David as we discuss the differences behind phpBBHacks.com and the phpBB.com MODs Database, and the differing philosophies behind those differences. Patrick will also be telling us a bit about his new book, coming out in April. It’s definitely sure to be a very interesting episode of phpBB Weekly and one that I’ve been looking forward to putting on for a long time.

I am going to be completely away from my computer (and thus, the internet) from February 14-23. Because of this, we are not going to be doing a phpBB Weekly episode on February 16, and we might not do a phpBB Weekly episode on February 23 (up to David whether he wants to do one solo or not). Furthermore, David will also be doing a solo episode on March 1, because I have to take a test that morning (aren’t SATs fun?). So, similar to how David just missed a month of shows, I’m going to be missing about a month’s worth of shows beginning in mid-February.

But anyway, that pretty much covers what we have planned so far for our next few episodes. I hope that you’ll be able to join us live on Saturdays at 12 PM EST (1700 UTC), or else continue to subscribe to the podcast version which I will usually release within 36 hours of the live episode. Have a good February, and stay healthy!

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For the first time, Douglas steps off of the air on a phpBB Weekly episode and lets David take the helm. It’s probably risky, particularly after our excellent episode last week, but Coastal Cleanup Day in the San Francisco Bay Area and Douglas once again goes to do his part this year.

Meanwhile, David spends some time talking about how phpBB3 parses styles and how you can use certain styles only within specific forums in phpBB3. He then moves on to talk a bit about how you can integrate BBCode throughout your site and in your MODs, and then he talks a bit about how the module system works and whether or not a MOD should use it or not.

The next release (either RC-6 or final) of phpBB3 will include a new hooks functionality and a new DBAL tool, and what will this mean for MOD authors and how can they be implemented? This also means that MOD authors no longer have any excuse to not support all 8 DBMS types supported in phpBB3.

And for our weekly dose of MOD Team news, we talk a bit about MOD validation on phpBB.com and its importance, and we welcome Paul back on the MOD Team and also welcome Esmond Poynton (poyntesm) as the newest member of the MOD Team!

The MOD of the Week is ACP Add User MOD for phpBB3 by Highway of Life (that’s self-promotion for you!), and the Style of the Week is nDesign v2 for phpBB3 by Midnight Phoenix.

Additional links mentioned:
phpBB MODs Documentation
Geoffreak’s phpBB3 MODX Script Generator