phpBB Weekly - MOD Author Convention

Hello Everyone!
I hope you all had a good June, better than I did at least. We had no rain here, and it was very hot, everything looks so brown. Welcome to summer!

In our second edition of the Subspace Communication Newsletter, WGEric and the phpBB MOD Team are inviting all of you who are aspiring phpBB3 MOD Authors to join us for an all-day MOD Authors Convention on June 30th, I will be there along with most of the phpBB MOD Team. If you are interested in MODing or currently MOD for phpBB3, or just have questions regarding any aspect of MODing, don?t miss it!! See the post for more details on the times.

WebMacster87 (Fountain of Apples) a former phpBB MOD Team member tells us about his phpBB Weekly Live Podcast show. Hopefully some of you will have the opportunity to call or write it to the show your questions or comments... I will be.
Derky tell us about the phpBB3 styles demo, full previews of styles released so far for phpBB3.
Featured MOD this month is Geoffreak?s Thank Post MOD, and WebMacster87 gives us a small glimpse into an important tool for all MODs released for phpBB3... the MOD Update Check, a sequel to the popular Advanced Version Check for phpBB2.

If you are a MOD author, and would like to submit your MOD for consideration as the next featured MOD, please PM me a request.
If you have any questions about this newsletter, have a bug report or suggestion, please let me know through a PM or by clicking the "Reply" button you see below.

Enjoy!!

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MOD Authors Convention

With the release of phpBB 3.0.0RC1 and subsequent opening of the phpBB3 MODs forum s, the phpBB MOD team would like to invite MOD authors to the MOD Authors Convention. The convention will be hosted in the #phpbb-mod IRC channel all day on June 30, 2007. The convention will go on all day. The topics of discussion will be anything MODding-related, specifically phpBB3-related MODding. Have you been meaning to start MODding? Do you have some questions about phpBB3 MODding that you would like cleared up? If so, now is the time to come and find out! Many members of the phpBB MOD Team will show up, I will be there most of the day as well. This is your chance to speak up to ask your own questions, give us feedback, discuss your concerns, and talk about the future of MODding! Constructive criticism is welcome.

In order to have structure during this convention, we will have specific slots during the day in which each topic will be discussed. It is not mandatory that you ask questions during the exact specified time slots, though it will help facilitate discussion. There are two 2-hour time slots for each topic, in order to accommodate participants in different timezones. You can use TimeAndDate.com in order to calculate your local time from these given times. Here are the time slots.

Discussion Topics Time Slots
0:00 to 2:00 UTC, 6:00 to 8:00 UTC: MODX
2:00 to 4:00 UTC, 12:00 to 14:00 UTC: Writing MODs for phpBB3
4:00 to 6:00 UTC, 14:00 to 16:00 UTC: Getting to know phpBB3's inner workings for MODding
8:00 to 10:00 UTC, 18:00 to 20:00 UTC phpBB MODs Database
10:00 to 12:00 UTC, 16:00 to 18:00 UTC: phpBB MODding Documentation
20:00 to 24:00 UTC: Open MODding Discussion

Summary
What: MOD Authors Convention
Who: You! And the phpBB MOD Team.
When: all day on June 30, 2007
Where: phpBB MOD IRC channel (#phpbb-mod on chat.freenode.net)
Topics: phpBB3 code, phpBB3 MODding, MODX, new phpBB MODDB, MOD Documentation, etc.

You may use this Java applet provided by Freenode if you do not wish to install an IRC client. Go here if you would like to learn more about IRC.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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phpBB Weekly is a live podcast that I (webmacster87, aka Fountain of Apples) record every Saturday to talk all about phpBB. Every week on the show, I discuss the latest news about phpBB, and I often give a tutorial about a certain aspect of phpBB. For example, past episodes have included tutorials on everything from finding your way around the new phpBB3 Permissions Panel to what ranks are and how to use them. Also, phpBB Weekly occasionally features exclusive interviews with actual phpBB team members. And every week, I select a MOD and Style of the Week to highlight on the show.

However, what makes phpBB Weekly unique is that its format is similar to a call-in talk show. The show is recorded live every Saturday at Noon Eastern time (that's 1600 UTC) on TalkShoe, which is a website that allows people to listen live while the show is being recorded. In addition, anyone who registers with the TalkShoe website can participate in a live chat room during the show, or even call in and be on the show. What this means is that every week, I invite listeners to call in to the show to ask questions about phpBB, discuss phpBB, or to get support for problems that they're having with phpBB. I also do my best to read questions out of the chat room for users who don't have the capability to call in. This show is a great unofficial resource to get advice and assistance with phpBB.

If you want to find out more about the show, check out the phpBB Weekly website. There you can listen to past episodes, learn about what's on tap for upcoming episodes, and also find out how you can join in live. There's also links there which allow you to subscribe to the podcast feed, and where you can e-mail in your questions if you aren't able to come in live on the show. Future editions of this newsletter will include the show notes of a recent episode of phpBB Weekly that you can go listen to, so stay tuned!

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If you are looking for a phpBB3 style, check out this styles demo.
You can select and preview any style currently available as pre-release for phpBB3. All information such as author, author?s website, style version, phpBB version, languages and download link included.
If the author has their style listed on ColorizeIt, a link to change the color scheme is provided as well.

If you are a Style Author and would like your phpBB3 style included in the styles demo, please reply to this topic or send me a PM.
Thanks!!

Note: I will only add styles with the permission from the style author and I don't ever change the style or copyright itself.

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Thank Post MOD is a simple mod which allows users to thank other users' posts

Features:

• Thanking user's posts on viewtopic
• Gender profile field to make the wording nicer for the thanks text (optional - install evil<3's gender mod to enable)
• subsilver2 and prosilver buttons for thanking

This MOD has only 4 edits total and one SQL query making it one of the simplest mods to install.
Rest assured, although it is simple, your users will thank you for it

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Cross-posted from the phpBB.com MOD Development Forums

MOD Title: MOD Update Check
MOD Description: Adds a Version Check system to phpBB that checks for the latest version of phpBB and various other phpBB MODs that may be installed.
MOD Version: Still in development

MOD Download: Not available yet
Latest stable version: N/A for phpBB3, phpBB2 version available here: http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=277654

This is the phpBB3 version of the Advanced Version Check MOD. The different name is simply to help differentiate between the phpBB3 and phpBB2 versions. You can check out the latest stable release (3.0.6) of AVC (for phpBB2) or the development roadmap for AVC 3.2 (for phpBB2).

MOD Authors: Fountain of Apples and Highway of Life

Author Notes About this MOD
MOD Update Check is the brand new, phpBB3-port of my Advanced Version Check MOD. The goals of this MOD will be to effectively implement the awesome Advanced Version Check MOD for phpBB2 into the new phpBB3 admin panel, to take advantage of the new phpBB3 technologies, and also to comply with the new phpBB3 Coding Guidelines. In addition, this project will be done alongside the development for Advanced Version Check 3.2 so that all of the new revisions being made to AVC 3.2 will also be implemented into this MOD, and so that any code revisions/cleanups that take place in this MOD can be effectively mirrored in AVC as well.

What's Highway of Life doing here?
I'm really excited that Highway of Life will be helping me out as co-author of MOD Update Check. Highway of Life has been working with phpBB3, and writing MODs for it for about two years now, but is fairly inexperienced with phpBB2. On the other hand, I have been working with phpBB2 for almost three years now, but am quite intimidated with phpBB3. We will be collaborating together on this project to port and implement AVC into phpBB3, and to learn from each other about the very different sets of code on each platform.

So, what's with the names again?
Advanced Version Check == phpBB2 (only)
MOD Update Check == phpBB3 (only)
Even though both MODs have essentially the same functionality, we will be referring to them as effectively two separate MODs with separate version numberings. This also will be important for helping to differentiate other MODs which take advantage of either AVC of MUC as either phpBB2 or phpBB3 MODs. For example, MODs for phpBB2 will want to do the appropriate options to integrate with Advanced Version Check, and MODs for phpBB3 will want to do the appropriate options to integrate with MOD Update Check. More on this will become available during the development process.

Are there any new features coming?
The roadmap for Advanced Version Check 3.2 lists new features that will be added on to the current AVC codebase. Overall, the development process for MOD Update Check will simply focus on implementing the system for phpBB3, one step at a time.

Wait, there's no download yet?
This topic is being posted now because we want comments, suggestions, and other feedback. Any feature ideas or other suggestions that you'd like to offer? Please feel free to reply below.

More information about this MOD and all of my other MODs can be found at the new Fountain of Apples phpBB MODs website.

Thanks for your interest in MOD Update Check!

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