img(Let me tell you about v4){http://www.tymoon.eu/data/uploads/filer/37-sui_smirk.png} So, v4 is finally public! Took a long time to get this far and I'm glad that I could move on from v3. There's a lot of changes to the system, with such a major upgrade, and I'll note them here.
**** title{Text Formatting} This is probably the most important feature, as it concerns not only registered user stuff. As you might know from my previous blog, v4 uses a new format, called FEM, to allow users to fancy up their posts. This system is pretty different from BBCode and regular html, as it follows different principles. I'll just give some examples, as that is probably the easiest way to understand it: code(BBCode){[b]Bold text[/b]} code(FEM){!{Bold text}!} code(Output){Bold text} code(BBCode){[img]http://img.tymoon.eu/img//icons/ubuntu.png[/img]} code(FEM){!{}!} code(Output){} So, instead of wrapping the tag into brackets, you put it before the bracket block in your text. Here's a more complex example: code(BBCode){[url=http://argh.tymoon.eu/]ARGH[/url]} code(FEM){!{ARGH}!} code(Output){ARGH} But it goes further! code(FEM){!{[ARGH](http://argh.tymoon.eu/ ,:title Just argh,:target _blank)}!} This creates a link that looks like “ARGH”, goes to “http://argh.tymoon.eu/”, shows the title “Just argh” when hovering over it and it will be opened in a new tab. FEM supports entering arguments in the fixed order that they are defined, or by using the keywords that they're named after. Keywords have to be preceded with a colon. Here's another example: code(FEM){!{youtube(:autoplay 1,:width 640,:height 480){http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B454pxSiDfU}}!} This would embed the specified youtube video in autoplay mode, with a dimension of 640x480. I hope that the idea behind the system is somewhat clear now.
title{User Accounts} The user account system has been completely remade from scratch. As such, it wasn't worth the effort for me to migrate these over, as it would've required too much work for something barely anyone besides myself used anyway. I do promise that I will migrate accounts from now on, if I ever do make another major version jump. Which I doubt I will. Anyway, the account settings have been cleaned up and everything should be easier to organize now. You can also leave comments on the profiles of users, if you want. You do need an account to access certain sections of the site. F.e. you need to be logged in in order to modify the wiki pages.
title{Comments} As the comment system is another thing that got rewritten from scratch and had too many changes to its structure, I didn't bother to migrate the data. If you want a more in-depth explanation as to why I didn't bother with it, ask me and I'll gladly explain.
title{Blog & Gallery} The blog and gallery have been re-written from scratch as well and are now a lot nicer looking and a lot more capable of things. I can even give you your own folder in the gallery if you so desire one, or give you permission to publish blog entries.
title{Forum} The forum has not yet been coded for v4. I am sorry about this, but it just didn't seem important enough to rush it in time for the release. I'll get to it when I have the will to work on it again. As it was barely active at all, I don't think it's a big loss anyway. I'll publish the information about my travel event in another blog entry, as that was the only important info on there.
title{Stevenchan} Now, this is probably the part most people are interested in. Stevenchan itself has had a lot more renewings than I originally anticipated. I'll list some of the important things: >Updated themes >Javascript bugfixes and speed-ups >HTML has been optimized for HTML5 >Mobile theme specifically for mobile devices >Faster page serving >Renewed API >Better internal structure >Unstable and unneeded features have been dropped >Loadsa bugfixes The largest change for you as a user will probably be the new themes and the new markup. Everything else is more of the “quiet, background” stuff that you won't notice immediately. Regardless, I hope this is an improvement, rather than a step backwards.
title{Future} There's still a lot to do. Many things are missing and other things are still untested and potentially unstable. Other parts should be polished further, etc. It'll take time until this can be considered complete, but I'm ok with that. It works well enough now and the flaws that still exist will give me enough to work on in the future, so I don't have to start over for a fifth time.
I am going to give more precise info about what, why, how, when in another blog. I am also planning on releasing the source of this sometime soon, even though the attention it'll receive will probably be minimal, since there's already way larger and better frameworks out there, such as wordpress, joomla, etc. Still, I am glad I started this, as none of the other solutions gave a satisfactory result and this does actually (finally) do about the job I imagined it should do.
All in all, it's a success and it'll hopefully continue to improve on its way. That said, I'd love to get some feedback from you. What do you dislike, what do you think could be different, what do you actually think is done well? I can't make something good if I have to base everything on myself, as I am flawed and even more so are my capabilities and perception, so I need you help with that. img(:title Have a nice time!){http://megaki.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/1301836335299.jpg}
Written by shinmera