Posted by Simon Goodchild  at September 21st, 2012

Status

Current phase is: Released

• Feature set scope is frozen as per the voting page, excluding reported issues (see below).
• Development phase has been completed.
• Testing phase has been completed.
• Final cleanup has started.
• Release date 17th November 2012.

Please see notes on the release schedule for more information.

Upgrading automatically

Via your WordPress admin, go to Dashboard->Updates to see if an upgrade is available. If it is, select WP Symposium under Plugins and upgrade. You will have to wait a minute or so probably whilst the new version of the plugin is download and installed.

After you have upgraded, if you experience problems with what is shown in the forum (for example), go to WP Symposium->Manage->Templates and click on the “reset to default” links below each text box and click Save. Forum Topics (list) is a likely candidate to reset.

You may see the following after upgrading:

Don’t panic – this is expected. If you get the above warnings, simply go to your Plugins->Installed Plugins and re-activate the WP Symposium plugins that you use. The reason is part of the standardisation of WP Symposium’s naming conventions in the code and filenames.

Manual upgrade or installing Nightly Builds/Release Candidates

It is very important (actually vital) when manually installing, to:

1. take a backup of your current wp-symposium plugin folder and database
2. delete the current wp-symposium plugin folder via FTP - do not delete via WordPress admin->Plugins->Installed Plugins as this will delete all your WP Symposium content!!!
3. upload the contents of the download into your plugins folder (so that you have new wp-symposium folder with everything of inside of it)
4. re-activate your WP Symposium plugins (they will have been de-activated).

If you are manual installing the same version (ie. you are installing a newer release candidate, for example), then you can skip steps 1 and 2. If you are upgrading from v12.10 to v12.11 (for example), then you should perform steps 1 and 2.

After you have upgraded, if you experience problems with what is shown in the forum (for example), go to WP Symposium->Manage->Templates and click on the “reset to default” links below each text box and click Save. Forum Topics (list) is a likely candidate to reset.

Download current version

The current version is available via the WordPress repository and you can upgraded in the normal way via WordPress admin -> Upgrade.

Alternatively, you can download the latest code manually, as running on www.wpsymposium.com, on the Download page. Following the instructions above.

Download version is suffixed with NB for nightly build during development phase, or RC for release candidate during testing phase. If not suffix, current download is the same as available via wordpress.org.

Reporting bugs

A dedicated area on the forum is available for reporting bugs.

Feature set

The feature set for this release is as follows:

Standardise on function prefix
Currently PHP functions sometimes include symposium_ and sometimes do not. Create a standard function naming topology whereby functions start with __wps__, eg: __wps__function_name().
Rename files so they do not use the unnecessary symposium_ prefix.
Important notes:
1. The site search, if using the PHP code, will now be echo __wps__search(150) as per the notes on the Options->Plus admin page.
2. If you are a developer and use the WP Symposium functions, please test your developments.
3. If you have custom CSS entered, please check (use FireFox+FireBug to check IDs and CLASSes).
Status: Development complete, available in download.

Group “page”
To act as an introduction, welcome, instructions, whatever. Content entered by WYSIWYG editor. See here.
Status: Development complete, available in download.

Subscribe to all forum activity
Add admin option to enable this (off by default) as can “kill” some installations with large number of users.
Status: Development complete, available in download.

Forum images
Display in the order in which they are uploaded (earliest first).
Status: Development complete, available in download.

Add Directory sort option
Add an option to sort drop-down list to show by surname first. Surname is determined from the user’s display name (not the internal private last name field) where users have put at least two words separated by a space. For example, my display name is “Simon Goodchild”, so “Goodchild” can be picked up as my surname. If a user’s display name is one word, eg “Simon” that that would also be used as their surname. Also provide default view of member directory (via directory options).
Status: Development complete, available in download.

Maintain options over upgrade
Ensure option selections are preserved over upgrades. See here.
Status: Development complete, available in download.

Allow “Friends” to be changed
Set up a new manage tab called Thesaurus and start with Friends
Status: Development complete, available in download. 

Don’t list empty gallery albums
If a gallery album is empty, do not include in the aggregated view.
Status: Development complete, available in download.

Profile Widget URLs
Check that all widgets go to the correct URLs (check all widgets). See here.
Status: Development complete, available in download.

Add option to member directory shortcode
So you can limit roles to one or more. See here.
Status: Development complete, available in download.

Forum started/replied
Option to show both who started and last replied to a forum topic. See here. New installations will include codes in the template to show these by default. Those who are just upgrading will need to reset the Forum Topics (list) and Group Forum Topics (list) templates (under WP Symposium->Manage).
Status: Development complete, available in download.

Forum for high ranks
If using ranks, set Forum Categories to be visible to users with a certain rank or higher.
Status: Development complete, available in download.

Edit Gallery Comments
Make it so that gallery comments can be edited (user set timeout, and always for album owner and admin). Like with the forum.
Status: Development complete, available in download.

Allow selection of roles from bulk mail
Allow users to select one or more WordPress roles (or all users) when sending out bulk mail via admin Options->Mail. See here.
Status: Development complete, available in download.

Profile page menu – horizontal/dropdown style
A bonus item, added to the release for Profile Plus Bronze members. On Options->Profile Plus you can activate the new horizontal menu, as used on WPS site. Note that you can create your own menu structure (that appears on Options->Profile when the option is activated).
Important! As informed on the Options->Profile Plus page below the activation checkbox, you will also need to change your Profile Page Body template (via Manage->Templates).
Status: Development complete, available in download.

Group forum “new topic” subscriptions
Added as previously missing.
Status: Development complete, available in download.

Template development tutorials
Check they are updated and work to reflect the new standardised filename and function prefixes (etc).
Status: Development complete, available in download.

Update Admin Guide
Available to download as a PDF.
Status: Development complete, available in download.