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Invision Power Board
Image:Ipboardlogo.jpg

The IPS Company Forums, running IP.Board 2.3.5.
Developed by Invision Power Services
Stable release 2.3.6  (02 October 2008; 99 days ago) [+/−]
Platform PHP / MySQL / Oracle9i / MSSQL
Type Forum software
License Proprietary
Website www.invisionpower.com

Invision Power Board (abbreviated IPB or IP.Board or IP Board) is Internet forum software produced by Invision Power Services, Inc. Written in PHP and primarily using MySQL (other database engines are available), it is comparable to other forum software.

While Invision Power Board is a commercially sold product, there is a large modding community and many of these modifications are free. In addition, many groups offer the download or design of free and paid skins.

Contents

History

Invision Power Services (IPS) was created by Matt Mecham and Charles Warner in 2002, after they left Jarvis Entertainment Group (who produced Ikonboard). Their first product was IPB, another forum package, which quickly gathered a community of former Ikonboard users.

Although the software developers originally maintained that it would remain a free package, in 2004 IPB ended its free releases for non-commercial uses. A downloadable trial version of Invision Power Board 2.0.0 PF[1] versions 1 and 2 were made available, but were discontinued on September 27, 2004. It was replaced with a free demo with restrictions of 5000 posts, 1000 threads, 200 members and other restrictions, thus ending its claims that IPB will be free forever.

Many users were upset with this, and some attacked Mecham, making allegations of copyright infringement.[2] On July 1, 2005, IPS changed the demo time frame from 15 days to 5 days,[3] and a few months later, it was again reduced to 24 hours, and now it has been reduced to 8 hours for private use.

IPB 2.1 was released on September 13, 2005. The administrator's control panel was completely redesigned, and the posting options were renovated to feature viewable text properties (Rich Text Editor), such as bold, italics, underline, etc. The viewing styles were also redone, and a number of various other changes were made including the use of Ajax in many new features.

Version 1.3

The last free full version is Invision Power Board 1.3.1, which is not as widespread as 1.3 because of the short available time before 2.0 replaced it. Since then many known exploits have been found. Patches have been produced by the community[4].

Version 2.0 and 2.1

When version 2.0 went final, Invision Power Board became a paid product a week later. Just as with IPB 1.3, some users still using the unrestricted trial versions of the 2.0 PF[1] versions but again, contain a lot[citation needed] of security holes and are no longer supported. However, no modifications exist[citation needed] which make IPB 2.0 secure. It was also renamed to IP.Board.

Version 2.2

Invision Power Board 2.2 included many improvements, new features, and security fixes. It was the first version to undergo a security audit by a company named Gulftech to find any security holes missed by the IPS development team as part of their ongoing effort to keep IPB as secure as possible. The new version also includes minor changes to the Administration Panel, and also an entirely redesigned profile system. The Invision's team also continues to employ AJAX in its software. All versions of IPB from 2.0 and on are commercial software, with no downloadable demo version available. Potential users may request a twelve hour online trial, hosted by IPS.

Version 2.3

Version 2.3 has recently been released and is the latest version of IP.Board. [5]. Starting from this version, the product will ship with 2 skins, the old default light blue skin and a new default darker skin. [6]. The release is mainly to assist in forums that have larger traffic and include advanced integration with other IPS product lines. IPS also implemented a new ACP Help System which made it easier to navigate around the Administrator's Control Panel, along with an ACP "Dashboard" page, showing an overview of the system. This page replaced the "Admin" tab as the default page in the Admin Panel.

Version 3.0

Invision Power Board is the next major release milestone of the Forum Software. It will include many promised features such as a new overall design of the software, a reputation type feature where users can rate individual posts, the PM (Personal Message) system becoming a conversation styled feature (as Google has done with GMail) and many more enhancements. IPS has made a public alpha available to the public[7], and on December 22, they released the first encoded beta to all current IPS customers. [8]

See also

  • Ikonboard - forum software originally created by Matt Mecham.
  • Invision Power Services - company which produces Invision Power Board.
  • IpbWiki - integration of IPB with MediaWiki.
  • IPBWI - Invision Power Board Website Integration

References

  1. ^ a b Pre-Final, aka a Release Candidate made available for use before the final code is released for public consumption.
  2. ^ CEO Invision Power Board, Matt Mecham Is a Liar, Thief!
  3. ^ New Demo Accounts - Invision Power Services
  4. ^ Security Fixes, Updates And Enhancements For IPB 1.3.1
  5. ^ IP.Board 2.3.0 Released
  6. ^ New Default Skin
  7. ^ IPS announcement about public alpha
  8. ^ [1]

External links

Official

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invision_Power_Board"

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