POP Forums v16.0.1

The v16 release concentrates on performance and optimization, along with significant refactoring and bug fixes. Forthcoming releases will focus on UI refinement and modernization. Also note that the documentation is now in the repo itself as markdown, and is published to https://popworldmedia.github.io/POPForums/

Upgrading

There are a number of schema changes in this release. Run the PopForums15to16.sql script included in the PopForums.Sql project manually against your existing database. If you're starting from nothing, check the documentation for those instructions.

If you're going from v16.0.0 to v16.0.1, you'll have to modify Startup to use Newtonsoft.Json (see below under Known Issues). The only library to change is PopForums.AzureKit.

What's new?

• Update to .Net Core v3.1. #151
• Redis connection failures recorded as "information" instead of "error." #162
• Optimize user objects and caching. #44
• Using "page" in routes can potentially interfere with Razor pages. #150
• Close dormant threads on a background job. #67
• Allow topic author to edit title. #80
• Refactor all the things to async/await. #132
• Refactor external logins to decouple from Identity (uses POP Identity). #140
• Cleanup startup configuration. #129
• Refactor the posting service classes. #121
• Cleanup unused methods and tests. #133
• Add unique constraints for user name and email. #144
• Add ReCAPTCHA option for login. #143
• Update to a stronger hash algorithm for passwords. #142
• Reintroduce profile caching. #148
• BUG: Failed reply doesn't wire up error message and attempts to redirect. #160
• BUG: Delete, undelete, hard delete doesn't remove from search index. #154
• BUG: Give background job to delete indexed words in self-rolled search more time. #149
• BUG: Creation of Redis connection not thread safe, possible race condition. #135
• BUG: Delete/undelete does not trigger a search reindex. #136
• BUG: Search indexer Azure function does not respect settings for provider setting. #137
• BUG: External login list has duplicate entries for description. #139

v16.0.1

• BUG: Redis cache helper can't serialize forum view/post graphs. #168

Known Issues

• I was hoping to have the Azure Functions live as part of the Azure Kit library, but the SDK as of the time of publish could not reliably scan the assembly for functions and create the manifest. So if you're using Azure Functions, you'll have to either use that project directly or derive from it.
• Because of incompatibilities in the new System.Text.Json library, I had to revert to using Newtonsoft.Json in several cases. The queue messaging uses the new library, but the web API serializer uses the old (set in Startup under ConfigureServices()), as does the Redis CacheHelper in the PopForums.AzureKit library. The hope is that the new library is more well-formed in .Net 5, some time in 2020.

POP Forums v16.0.0

The v16 release concentrates on performance and optimization, along with significant refactoring and bug fixes. Forthcoming releases will focus on UI refinement and modernization. Also note that the documentation is now in the repo itself as markdown, and is published to https://popworldmedia.github.io/POPForums/

Upgrading

There are a number of schema changes in this release. Run the PopForums15to16.sql script included in the PopForums.Sql project manually against your existing database. If you're starting from nothing, check the documentation for those instructions.

What's new?

• Update to .Net Core v3.1. #151
• Redis connection failures recorded as "information" instead of "error." #162
• Optimize user objects and caching. #44
• Using "page" in routes can potentially interfere with Razor pages. #150
• Close dormant threads on a background job. #67
• Allow topic author to edit title. #80
• Refactor all the things to async/await. #132
• Refactor external logins to decouple from Identity (uses POP Identity). #140
• Cleanup startup configuration. #129
• Refactor the posting service classes. #121
• Cleanup unused methods and tests. #133
• Add unique constraints for user name and email. #144
• Add ReCAPTCHA option for login. #143
• Update to a stronger hash algorithm for passwords. #142
• Reintroduce profile caching. #148
• BUG: Failed reply doesn't wire up error message and attempts to redirect. #160
• BUG: Delete, undelete, hard delete doesn't remove from search index. #154
• BUG: Give background job to delete indexed words in self-rolled search more time. #149
• BUG: Creation of Redis connection not thread safe, possible race condition. #135
• BUG: Delete/undelete does not trigger a search reindex. #136
• BUG: Search indexer Azure function does not respect settings for provider setting. #137
• BUG: External login list has duplicate entries for description. #139

Known Issues

I was hoping to have the Azure Functions live as part of the Azure Kit library, but the SDK as of the time of publish could not reliably scan the assembly for functions and create the manifest. So if you're using Azure Functions, you'll have to either use that project directly or derive from it.

POP Forums v15.0.3

This is the first release since the v14 port to .NET Core. It focuses mostly on scale-out, bug fixes and refactoring. It also includes a rewrite of the admin area using Vue.js more as a rough-in to decide if it's capable (hint: it is!).

Upgrading

There are a number of schema changes in this release. Run the PopForums14to15.sql script included in the PopForums.Sql project manually against your database.

What's new?

• General update of dependencies.
• Rewrite of admin to use Vue.js. #120
• Scaffolding for recording view data, correlating between users and topics (for future analytic use). #104
• Optionally run background processes as Azure functions. #76
• Social icons in profile. #119
• Redis backplane for SingalR in multi-node hosting. #64
• Migrated to Bootstrap v4.x. #94
• Abandon decade-old constructors in models. #96
• Remove first post preview from topic lists (no one used it). #97
• Truncate error log instead of delete all. #103
• Adopt Dapper usage in PopForums.Sql library. #105
• Improve performance for IP history and security log. #106
• Realign social links in profile to modern services. #107
• Provide a standard way to fail distributed events. #117
• Add support for ElasticSearch. #116
• BUG: Over-zealous regex hangs unparse of client HTML. #118
• BUG: Fix Favorite & Subscription Topic pages. #111
• BUG: It's possible to submit empty posts with just returns. #82
• BUG: TinyMCE is mangling hyperlinks. #125
• BUG: TinyMCE is inserting extra attributes in image tags, breaking parsing. #128

v15.0.3

• Delete and ban buttons missing from admin user edit. #130

Known issues

• The Azure Functions should be in the PopForums.AzureKit project, but they're not because of some goofy dependency problems with the Azure Functions SDK. It'll also throw up a warning about the Newtonsoft.JSON version that you can safely ignore.

POP Forums v14.1.0

This is a minor update that reorganizes the project a bit (see "Start Here" in the wiki for information about integrating via packages), and updates everything to v2.2 of .Net Core.

What's new?

• Update to .Net Core v2.2.
• General package updates.
• Move all MVC views to a project that can be published as a Razor class library package.
• Remove ability to resize images in TinyMCE editor, since attributes are ignored anyway.
• Bug: for pager links in faves and subs (#90 and #91).

Known issues

• The unit test code coverage is very incomplete at the web app level, because it will likely be gutted in the next version. Porting these tests was going to be laborious. Unit test coverage for the core project is fairly robust.

POP Forums v14.0.0

This release is a port from "old" ASP.NET MVC to ASP.NET Core v2.1.0. The wiki has instructions for setup:
https://github.com/POPWorldMedia/POPForums/wiki

What's new?

• This is a port of v13 to ASP.NET Core v2.1.0. It's mostly intended to achieve feature parity.
• Experimental AzureKit allows for multi-instance use and scaling.

Known issues

• The unit test code coverage is very incomplete at the web app level, because it will likely be gutted in the next version. Porting these tests was going to be laborious. Unit test coverage for the core project is fairly robust.

POP Forums v13.0.2

Yes, it has been entirely too long since the last release, but v13 is here, and it's a big one! This is the first release here on GitHub.

Demo: http://popforums.com/Forums

Upgrading?

Run the PopForums12.xto13.0.sql script against your database, which is found in the PopForums.Data.SqlSingleWebServer project.

What's new?

• Completely revised UI uses Bootstrap, replaces separate mobile views.
• New Q&A style forums.
• Preview your posts for formatting.
• Social logins using OWIN 2.x.
• StructureMap replaces Ninject for dependency injection.
• Admins can permanently delete a topic.
• Facebook and Twitter links added to profiles.
• IP ban works on partial matches.
• Bug: Initial user creation didn't salt passwords (Codeplex 131)
• Bug: Replies not triggering reindex for topics (#4).
• Bug: LastReadService often called from Post action of ForumController without user, throws null ref (#1).
• Bug: Reply and quote buttons appear in posts even when the topic is closed (#8).
• Bug: When email verify is on, changing email does not set IsApproved to false (#10).
• Bug: Image controller throws when Googlebot sends a weird If-Modified-Since header (#13).
• Bug: Reply or new topic can be added to archived forum via direct POST outside of UI (#15).
• Bug: Multiple entries to last forum and topic view tables causing exception when reading values into dictionary (#17).
• Experimental: Support for multiple instances in Azure with shared Redis cache (not production ready).

Known issues

None.

New in v13.0.1

• Bug: Change password causes a null ref error (#19).

New in v13.0.2

• Fixed some unit tests that should have been run before v13.0.1.

POP Forums v12.1.0

This is a point release with bug fixes and a language update. v12.0 was a significant upgrade that includes updates to various packages and use of .NET 4.5.1, as well as MVC 5.

Upgrading?

There are no changes from v12.0. For other versions, this release has data changes. Run the PopForums9.2andLaterto12.0.sql script against your database, which is found in the PopForums.Data.SqlSingleWebServer project.

What's new?

• Added Taiwanese Mandarin translation
• Fixed HtmlHelper to remove reference to DependencyResolver. #122: HtmlHelper for role checkboxes referenced static DependencyResolver
• Disable submit buttons on new topics/replies for mobile views. #121: Port the submit button disable for posts in mobile view
• Fixed mobile view of edit doesn't parse text for overridden mobile mode. #123: Mobile post edit view has HTML, save doesn't persist line breaks

For v12.0.0:

• Updated to use .NET 4.5.1 and MVC 5, including the latest library code (jQuery, SignalR, OWIN, etc.)
• User passwords now include per-user salt, backward compatible to existing user data. #120: Salt passwords by user
• External logins implemented via OWIN, for Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft accounts. #117: Integrate the OWIN external auth stuff
• YouTube URL's not formatted as hyperlinks converted to embedded video, provided images are allowed in posts. #116: Parse YouTube URL's to convert into YouTube iframes
• Controller dependencies converted to private members. #115: Refactor controller dependencies to private members

Known Issues

None at this time.