Yes! Its here! Phorum 5.2 has reached alpha status. Its been over a year since we branched the 5.1 code and started on 5.2. A lot has changed and Phorum is better for it. Much of the success of Phorum 5.2 goes to Maurice Makaay. He has done a lot of work to make the core code cleaner and easier for module developers. He has also been instrumental in the documentation project. As for new features and changes, below are a few. We are still updating a wiki page with all the changes and features at http://www.phorum.org/development/wiki/Phorum52News.

For your users:

  • Brand new template. Emerald is a more modern, full featured template. It uses many interface design recommendation used by usability professionals.

  • Rewritten search engine for faster search with more options.

  • New hybrid read page that is threaded and shows all messages

  • Better error messages when posting to help your users know what is wrong.

  • All new code for forum feeds. Both RSS 2.0 and Atom are supported.

  • New announcement module that gets announcements out of the message list and into a more prominent position.


For the admins:

  • New APIs for making modules that work with the core. (Along with full docs)

  • Template core changes so that similar vars in different templates have the same name.

  • More modules included with Phorum and officially supported.

  • Module run time ordering. You can not control in what order you modules run.

  • Sanity checks updated to help admins know if their Phorum is running properly.


There is a lot more that I don't want to list here. Please have a look at http://www.phorum.org/development/wiki/Phorum52News for the full list. We will be updating that list as we go along as well.

What is alpha status you ask? Well, while in alpha status, Phorum 5.2 may still get new minor features and code may be reworked extensively. Basically, it means that the major features we wanted for 5.2 are done. They need testing and that is where you come in. If you have the facility to test the code with your data, please do and report bugs.