As you might know, UseBB 2.0 development already started previous summer, and a number of components have been completed (for the time being). This mainly includes the language system (unexisting in 1.0) and the first parts of the database layer. Around the end of September, development turned inactive (for personal reasons). I am indeed the sole developer in this project, and thus there have been no code changes since then. This situation may question some people about the need for the UseBB project, especially 2.0. Aren't there more than enough PHP forum projects around already? This is certainly a good question which I will try to answer as good as possible.
When the project started, the main goal was to create a light and usable forum package that suits the needs of most small to medium sized web sites which don't need the features of the big commercial and non-commercial products. Even though UseBB 1.0 has been completed some time (nearly 1.5 years) ago and the actual product has mostly reached its goals, it is lacking a good and future-proof PHP implementation and developer features. This was the reason to start up the UseBB 2.0 project and to rewrite everything in PHP 5. This certainly hasn't been a bad idea: continuing to maintain and extend the 1.0 codebase would be like drudging through mud, continuously adding more. PHP 4 is also nearing its end of life and is getting replaced by PHP 5 nearly everywhere.
So, what is UseBB 2 exactly about? A flexible forum package written in PHP 5, using object orientation as much as possible and taking advantage of the new components available in PHP 5 (including SimpleXML, PDO, etc). The base system will remain "light", allowing more functionality to be plugged in. It will also overcome the other limitations UseBB 1.0 had. Some new functionality that will be added in core are threaded topics, topic tagging and UTF-8 support. If we take all the currently available PHP forum packages, leave out those that are not implemented in OO PHP 5, don't support threaded topics, don't have topic tagging, etc... not many packages will remain, if any. As a forum software enthusiast, the only ones I know of and that in some way can be considered similar to the UseBB 2 idea are Phorum, Woltlab Burning Board 3 and bbPress. Though, Phorum and bbPress are not object-oriented. WBB 3 is, but it is commercial software. So, is there a substitute for UseBB 2? I seems not. That's why the development of 2.0 should continue.
What concerns myself, I will certainly continue to develop UseBB 2 when I have the interest and time. This also certainly doesn't mean that there is no need for a team. Though, finding capable people willing to dedicate their free time and continue doing so isn't that easy. Over the past four years, I've had a number of people who were willing to help in the development of UseBB 1.0. Not a single one actually got to it. Some of them just vanished and never returned, others suddenly left when they discovered that the project actually wasn't that big as they expected it to be. There are also thousands of people on the Internet who are willing to help in the development and claim to be good PHP developers, while they actually even never heard about PHP value types. Does this mean that there are no capable people out there? There sure are, but finding and attracting those people is hard. So, my first concern was to complete 2.0.0, get some buzz airing and the potential developers will appear automatically.
To give you an idea of the requirements for UseBB 2 development: next to the obvious stuff you should know(TM), including XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and SQL, you should be familiar with object-oriented design and programming, PHP 5 (preferrably 5.2 and its new components such as SimpleXML, PDO, etc.), cross-RDBMS SQL (this means, when necessary you should be able to write MSSQL or Oracle specific statements), XML, the usual web development security issues matter, GNU/Linux (UseBB mostly runs on GNU/Linux and all development upto now was performed on *NIX boxes), Subversion, etc. Next to the technical knowledge, you should be familiar with the idea behind Open Source, willing to dedicate your free time (there is no "minimum amount of commits per month", just pick up some work when you have the interest and time) and preferrably have an interest in Internet content management and forum software.
A last item in this letter is the previous decision of keeping the v2 code secret until there is a "decent codebase" (called 1.99). The main reason for this decision was the number of GPL violations occuring in 2005 and 2006 (remember Revo Forum, XennoBB, etc). This decision could be called obsolete at this point, so the code will most likely soon be made available in our public Subversion repository. As of then, you are also welcome to offer code changes and ideas (instead of having to wait until 1.99 - which will thus never exist).
So, that's about it for now. An announcement will be made when the code is available in SVN. Also be sure to watch the forums, development mailing list and my blog for any updates. If you are willing to contribute in 2.0 development (and have read the requirements), feel free to contact me.
-- Dietrich Moerman, UseBB developer
(This message has been crossposted on the forums, mailing list and development blog.)
« Last edit by Dietrich on Wed Dec 26, 2007 4:14 pm. »
)