Icy Phoenix

Hi all,
I am really happy to announce that Icy Phoenix has been selected as the Featured phpBB on phpBBHacks.com for the month of November 2008.

What is the Featured phpBB?
http://www.phpbbhacks.com/features/phpbb.php

Quote:

phpBBHacks.com recognizes a different phpBB every month. They are recognized for their exceptional use of the phpBB forum software. They are the standard by which phpBBs should be measured by. The pride of phpBB.

For more information, please check out the announcement related to this event:
http://www.phpbbhacks.com/forums/co...19-vt74018.html




A big thank you to Patrick O'Keefe for the nomination.

This topic is now outdated, you can refer to this new one:

Icy Phoenix Project Moved To GIT Only

________

Hi all,
I have decided to move Icy Phoenix to SVN to have a better control on the code and to provide to all that are interested a way to better follow this project.

A quick introduction on what SVN (Subversion) is:

Quote:

Subversion is a free/open-source version control system. That is, Subversion manages files and directories, and the changes made to them, over time. This allows you to recover older versions of your data, or examine the history of how your data changed. In this regard, many people think of a version control system as a sort of "time machine".

In a nutshell SVN allows developers to automatically keep track of all the changes to the package, and allows all interested users to follow the project by a different point of view.

Most of you won't be interested in SVN because it requires some skills and time do dedicate on it, but for the few of you which are interested in the development phase this will be a great opportunity to be an active part in this project.

If you want to be just a normal end user of Icy Phoenix you may stop reading this announce here, as what it follows requires some technical skills and time to be spent on this project.

I will try to give you a quick overview on how Icy Phoenix Project will be managed from now on (remember that things may change :-P)

Until last week I used to code on my own PC making daily backups and keeping all old files archived on several backup locations. Few months ago hpl joined Icy Phoenix Development Team, and started to code new things for the project. Of course some things changed for me: I needed to keep hpl updated with all the new files and decisions about the project. This is of course time consuming... and something it is frustrating to merge the files which have been modified by both of us...

This is why I decided to switch to a system which offers a better "communication" method between developers.

I have started a new project @ Assembla.com

Icy Phoenix @ Assembla

I have set up an SVN Repository that is always updated with the latest version of the files, so we can automatically download the latest version and update our local working copy.

Not only... I have decided to leave this repository open to the public, which means that everyone that is interested may now download the latest available Icy Phoenix code and test it.

A Disclaimer is needed...
Please note that this doesn't mean that these files are there to be used or that new release will be released through SVN!

All the files in the Icy Phoenix SVN Repository are meant for developing purpose, so if you decide to use files in the Repository you do it at your own risk.

Official release will be ONLY published on this site and you should use for Live environments ONLY the latest available version in the Download section of this site.

Now that you have understood :wink: what SVN is, here is the Icy Phoenix SVN Repository:


Some FAQs:

• What is SVN?
  Subversion is a free/open-source version control system. That is, Subversion manages files and directories, and the changes made to them, over time. This allows you to recover older versions of your data, or examine the history of how your data changed. In this regard, many people think of a version control system as a sort of "time machine".
  
  Further informations can be found here: Subversion Book
  
  Other useful links:
  Subversion: Introduction
  Subversion: Advanced
  
  
• How can I access to the Repository and keeping it up to date in my own PC?
  There are some software for doing that... and software depends on the OS you are using.
  I personally use Windows based OS and I use TortoiseSVN as a client.
  You will find the documentation to this tool here: Tortoise SVN Documentation
  
  
• Why should I be interested in Icy Phoenix SVN?
  You don't necessarily have to. Icy Phoenix is an open source project, and like all open source projects benefit by its own users contributions. Contributions may consists in:
  
  1. Helping in the development.
     
  2. Helping in finding bugs.
     
  3. Providing localizations.
     
  4. Providing customizations (both code and design).
     
  5. Helping in supporting the community.
     
  6. Making Donations.
  
  Bullets from 1 to 4 all will benefit with SVN, because having access to the whole development code of a project gives a great overview and help in developing, finding bugs, localizing (this is great when near release date), customizing/designing. Even point 5 may benefit from SVN: a good supporter will help developers and users to keep track of new features and bug fixing via SVN history.
  
  
• I have seen new features in this site, will I find them in SVN?
  If the features you are referring to are strictly related to Icy Phoenix per se, then yes, you will find in the SVN all the features of this site and probably some others which may not be reflected yet in this site. As I pointed out some lines above... if you decide to use the code in the SVN you do it on your own risk.
  
  
• Can I be an active part in Icy Phoenix development?
  Of course the answer is yes. If you have good PHP, CSS, HTML skills just start studying the package and try to actively participate to this community. After a period of "training" if you feel comfortable with the project and you think you can do more for it, then try to contact me and we will discuss about it. If you are not familiar with PHP, CSS and HTML, do not desperate, we still need you: a good project is not only made by coder. It is really important to find people with good attitude in Team Working to keep the community alive: providing support, writing documentation, creating customizations, designing styles, providing translations and so on. If you have time to dedicate to this project, then we will find a place for you in the Staff. :wink:
  
  
• How can I start using this SVN then?
  Here are some few basic steps for TortoiseSVN for Windows (steps should be similar for other programs installed in other OS):
  
  • Download and install TortoiseSVN
    
  • Create a folder on your hard disk where you want to download Icy Phoenix Project
    
  • Right click on that folder and choose SVN Checkout
    
  • When asked insert the Icy Phoenix SVN Repository address and click ok:
    
    Code: [Hide] [Select]

    Code: [Show]

    http://svn.assembla.com/svn/icy_phoenix
    
    
  • After few minutes you will have all the Icy Phoenix Projects in your folder (remember that the last available version is in ip/trunk)
    
  • For any other help, please refer to the manual: Tortoise SVN Documentation

That's all for now. :P

Thanks for reading.

Luca Libralato

Hi all,
here is a patch for Icy Phoenix 1.2.0.27 which fixes all known bugs (until today 2008/08/22) of the latest stable release.

All you have to do, in order to apply this patch, is to replace all files in your Icy Phoenix 1.2.0.27.

And apply a small DB change to upgrade the version. :wink:

You are invited to update your sites ASAP.




Only changed files since Patch B: http://www.icyphoenix.com/_release/ip_20080821_12027_patch.zip

Changelog: http://test.lineameteo.it/diff_tools/install.xml


P.S.: if you downloaded full package after 2008/08/22 you don't need to apply this patch.
P.P.S.: special thanks to Andrea75 for the help in creating this patch.

Hi all,
I'm glad to announce that Icy Phoenix has been added to the reviewed CMS @ OpenSourceCMS.com.

You will find here the link to Icy Phoenix with the details to test the package both as an admin and a user (you should have access to all ACP and CMS features as well).

http://www.opensourcecms.com/index....sk=view&id=2321

Thank you all for using Icy Phoenix.

Luca

Hi all,
I'm finally glad to announce that we have completed porting of iThemes templates.

I have decided to create a common base for all themes and then use only CSS and images to customize each template... this will ensure an higher compatibility with mg_themes and will make future upgrades really easy. :wink:

In the process of porting the themes I have been helped really much by two great guys which I want to thanks.

• hpl who helped me with the basic CSS structure and porting the first themes.
  
• DWho who helped in porting many of the remaining themes.

Since the new themes are 60... it is likely that some minor bugs are still there awaiting... :roll:

Please report in this forum any bug you will find.

The installation process is very easy if you follow these instructions...

• Each theme is composed by two parts: iThemes Root (Nuke) and the theme itself (CSS and IMAGES).
  
• To install any theme you need to install iThemes Root (Nuke) that can be found in the downloads section (if you don't install this you won't be able to install any other iThemes theme).
  
• After having installed iThemes Root (Nuke) you can then download and install any other theme in that section.
  
• Upload all files and go in ACP => STYLES & TEMPLATES => STYLES MANAGEMENT to install the new styles.
  
• Enjoy your new themes. :wink:

Last but not least, I would like to thank you muratti aka FortKnox aka iThemes aka Fabio for creating such a bunch of themes and letting us porting them.

Should you be interested in his work or maybe just drop in and thank him, please visit his site: http://www.ithemes.eu/

And finally... here is the Downloads link:

iThemes Downloads

Enjoy!

Hi all,
I'm proud to announce a new service for all Icy Phoenix users.

Since I have received some donations in the last months I have decided to invest part of the money to buy a software which will be useful for all users who wants to customize my templates both for Icy Phoenix and phpBB 3.

The software I am talking about (and that you may already know) is ColorizeIt! by CyberAlien.

It's one week that I am working on it to adapt the structure to Icy Phoenix site and templates, and now it is working almost fine so I have decided to open it publicly.

At the moment I have inserted the most common Icy Phoenix templates (some of them slightly modified) so you can start using it and maybe provide some feedbacks. In the future I will add some extra graphics and buttons (as well as translations) and I may consider adding also others Icy Phoenix templates which are suitable to be colorized.

Icy Phoenix templates are accessible only to registered users, while phpBB 3 templates are free.

Here is the link to access this new service:


Icy Phoenix ColorizeIt!

You will find all the basics instructions in that page.




I want to thank all the users which are contributing to this project in any way: giving support, sharing knowledge, donations, clicking on sponsors, paying for customized works. I have bought and worked on this service to thank you all for your contributions.


THANK YOU and enjoy Icy Phoenix ColorizeIt!


Regards,
Luca Libralato

Hi all,
after 10 months from the first public release, I'm proud to announce the release of Icy Phoenix 1.2.

Many things have been changed since first release with the main objective to add stability and improve overall performance.

As many of you already know just few months ago phpBB 3 has been released. Icy Phoenix still rely on phpBB 2 core code, even if the code has been improved by backporting some phpBB 3 functions and some new features coded from scratch. The result can be considered an hybrid platform in the middle between the "furious brand new" phpBB 3 and the "old but still good" phpBB 2. I think that Icy Phoenix code is now mature and the platform may be considered stable, but as you know I'm not a professional and even if I put in this project all my best efforts Icy Phoenix is far to be perfect. Overall I can say that the main goal has been reached: Icy Phoenix is a CMS which offers many features integrated, a friendly interface, and it is suitable for small/medium web communities which are looking for an integrated system to manage their contents.


What's New respect to Icy Phoenix 1.1.0.15

• CMS features: now it is possible to assign blocks on single pages, not only as global blocks, but as specific blocks. It is possible also to duplicate blocks from others layout.
  
• Groups system: the old color group mod has been dropped and a new system has been recoded to make groups management close to phpBB 3 way.
  
• ACP: I've recoded ACP section related to Icy Phoenix with an easiest to use modular panel. Now it is really easy to add switches and new items in ACP, without having to modify TPLs. Some old files have been deleted and new ones have been created. Make sure to clean your old ADM folder if you are installing this.
  
• Save as draft: it is now possible to save posts and PM as drafts. The function is similar to phpBB 3 one, but much more simpler and with less features.
  
• Caching images: all images are now sent in cache, even external ones. A direct link is then included in the post for saving CPU charge (despite of more disk usage). This will speed up Icy Phoenix a bit, especially for those servers that don't like getimagesize PHP function. Only dynamic images won't be cached.
  
• New Downloads System: since I need this pack for an extra work, I've decided to integrate it in Icy Phoenix so you can use it in conjunction or alternatively to PA File DB. There is no link for this, but you can choose in constants.php where download link should point to. This feature it is still under test, and currently it is configured to not use any extra SQL charge to the package. (Because I've disabled features who where SQL consuming for Icy Phoenix).
  
• Friends List: this is a light version of the Friends and Foes feature in phpBB3. The objective of this feature is to easily access your friends profile and allow them to be the only people allowed to send you PM (there is an extra switch in your profile).
  
• Pages sessions: phpBB 3 has a much more flexible pages sessioning system, allowing better tracking of what users do. In Icy Phoenix I have partially replicated it, by modifying the way sessions work.
  
• Actions logs: I have coded a small and simple logging system which stores on files all the actions performed by users which alter in some way the DB. The logs are difficult to read, so it is disabled by default and the switch to enable it is hidden. If someone is interested in I may show how to enable it... but I won't help in reading it, because it is tough for who doesn't know PHP, and how requests are made.
  
• Extra stuff not enabled by default and not supported: since many of you requested integration of Cash and Activity, I have decided to integrate this in Icy Phoenix, and I will continue to keep them updated as the release is going on... but no support will be given with these extra features.
  
• Templates: some small adjustments have been applied to the templating system to make it a bit more flexible and some new templates designed by me will be available with this release.
  
• Extra BBCodes: there are now extra BBCodes you can use to format your posts... as soon as I have the time I will include some demos. Plus there is now a random number generator.
  
• Extra debugging: phpBB 3 has a cool debugging feature which tells you the queries of each page and the time used for them. I've tried to enhance this feature a bit including some extra info and memory usage. This will be tremendously helpful for those webmasters who wants to understand the entity of Icy Phoenix charge and settings. Extra info about the usage of this feature, will follow.
  
• Small fixes, improvements and adjustments: several small fixes, improvements and adjustments have been applied to the package. I don't have a full list of them, but you will notice some changes somewhere... I hope you will appreciate all new thingst. Just some of them: resend registration, remove cookies, album rss, new thumbnails functions, possibility to disable cache for some images (cache=false), ability to sort recent and search by forum... and others.
  
• Security fixes: unfortunately I've found during the dev phase some extra security holes... maybe some others are still there, I will try to do my best to assure an higher level of security and quick updates just in case other security issues will arise in the future.

Older templates: Please note that templates designed for 1.1.0.15 won't work fine with this version. All older styles have to be updated before using them. I will try to show template creators the way the may follow to upgrade their templates.


Translations: Please note that lang packs for 1.1.0.15 won't work with this version. Lang packs need to be updated before you can use them on your site. Especially the ACP modules requires one brand new file (even if most of lang vars may be imported from old lang files). Some old files have been deleted to limit the number of includes and speed up things a bit.


Older files: Please note that this version has some brand new files and some old files have been deleted. This means that if you are going to use this release you have to clean up your files from old unused stuffs which may create problems if you don't. I have created a file to help you in this, it is called clean_old_files_ip.php and its purpose is to remove old unused files (this file may not run correctly on some servers configurations).


Let's summarize for those who are going to upgrade from older versions:

1. Make a full backup (both db and files).
   
2. Lock your Icy Phoenix from ACP.
   
3. Upload and run update_to_ip.php chosing the best option for your current configuration.
   
4. Upload all files making sure you are not overwriting your CONFIG.PHP and other core files like DEF_*.
   
5. If you are not using English or Italian make sure there is a lang pack available for this release, otherwise your site won't work properly.
   
6. Upload and run clean_old_files_ip.php.
   
7. Remove update_to_ip.php and clean_old_files_ip.php from your root.
   
8. Go to YOUR_IP_ROOT/adm/erc.php and empty the cache of your site.
   
9. Check that your site is working fine and then unlock it.
   
10. Enjoy your brand new Icy Phoenix!!!

Installation And Upgrade

As usual, no code changes will be released, and won't probably be released for any version in the future. This is because the package is quite huge and writing code changes requires much time: as I already said in the past, I prefer to focus my free time on developing the package instead of writing huge code changes that could be difficult to be applied. Trust me, in most cases it is quicker to replace old files with new ones and reapply eventually added mods (you should take note of the mods you have applied). My efforts will be dedicated to the upgrade procedures to allow you to upgrade your sites with the smallest unexpected issues. Please consider also that due to some core changes almost all files have been modified since first Icy Phoenix version.


In install folder now you have some extra files you may use to convert your board, delete old files, fix db tables...

• install.php: this is for brand new installations.
  
• update_to_ip.php: this is for upgrading from phpBB or any XS or Icy Phoenix versions.
  
• clean_tables_ip.php: if you want to clean up your tables, resetting them to the default Icy Phoenix ones, you can use this files. This file is meant for standard Icy Phoenix, not for modded versions. This file may be used even when upgrading from other platform: phpBB Plus, IntegraMOD, FullyModded... etc. Please note that this action cannot be undone, make sure you have a full db backup before proceding.
  
• clean_old_files_ip.php: this files will delete all unused files from previous installations of Icy Phoenix. Please note that this action cannot be undone, make sure you have a full backup of all files before proceding. (This file may not run correctly on some servers configurations)

• Overview
  
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  Readme
  
  
• Requirements
  
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  Readme
  
  
• Fresh Installation
  
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  Readme
  
  
• Upgrade From Icy Phoenix 1.1.0.15
  
  Spoiler: [ Show ]

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  Readme
  
  

Available Packages

The release package includes only the basic package with two skins and English language. Extra languages, templates and features are (or will be) available in Download section. The package is quite big because there are many files and images in it.





Special Thanks

I'll be short... but it doesn't mean that only few people have to be thanked... on the contrary there are so many people who helped me so far which I could not even remember all their names. So I would like to thank all the people involved directly or indirectly in this project especially the Staff of this site.

Thank you!

A special thank goes to my family, and especially to my mother: it is her birthday today and I would like to dedicate this release to her. Happy Birthday Mamma!


Support

Should you ask for support, please remember that this is an open source community and me and all the Staff are doing all for free and in their spare time... be kind, be patient and respect other users efforts and hard work.



Enjoy Icy Phoenix!
Luca Libralato

Hi All.

Finally CustomIcy goes RC1 :P .

Some extra features have been added... Please make some tests and feel free to provide some feedbacks:

• CustomIcy Avatars
  
• CustomIcy Banners
  
• CustomIcy Buttons
  
• CustomIcy Ranks
  
• CustomIcy Userbars

Please notice that the Colorize feature is not working for GIFs because of compatibility problems... but you can use the TINT to apply some makeup on GIF buttons... and remember that GIFs images (some elements are GIF unfortunately, but I plan to add only PNG from now on...) have palette optimized so not all the colors may be shown as desired.

I've added just some graphics elements to let you test, I'll add more graphics soon.

If you want to contribute with graphics, feel free to do it, keeping in mind that I would prefer having PNG 24 bit with alpha channel for transparency.

Finally... please provide graphics elements which is free to be distributed or provide an attached file with allows you to distribute them. No copyrighted objects or other author works please (unless you can demonstrate you can :P ).

Thank you.


Luca Libralato