Advanced Forum & Advanced Profile Kit status report
[Note: The project that was supposed to fund some of this collapsed which means everything is going to take longer. I'm still working on the modules and will get to 1.0 soon as I'm able but I'm doing this for free so it's not top priority anymore. I'm hoping to have 1.0 of everything except possibly APK for D6 out in February. APK D6 depends on exactly how much I decide to put in the 1.0.]
This post is for people who use or are thinking of using Advanced Forum and/or Advanced Profile Kit. It contains important information to navigate the version mess I have going on right now.
The current supported versions are AF Alpha 16 (D5 & D6) and APK beta 1 (D5). If you are using these modules on a live site, stick with those versions until we get past this reshuffling. I will be doing "unstable" releases while I get them into shape. You'll know it's safe to upgrade when I go back to named alpha/beta releases. Hopefully this won't take more than a couple more weeks but it's hard to predict with my sporadic time to work on this. I am getting sponsored to work on the D6 version of APK for the bits the client's site needs but there's also bits that won't be going into APK that pull my focus away from it. I haven't abandoned the D5 versions but they aren't getting as much attention as my focus is on D6 and so are lagging behind.
If you are looking to help test the new versions, the rest of this will tell you what you need to know. If you aren't comfortable running devel and giving me reproducable steps, this isn't for you. These instructions are for both D6 and D5 but D6 is farther along at this point and will work better as D5 still needs some things backported to it. Once I've done that, I'll release "unstables" for D5 as well to make testing easier.
Advanced Forum:
AF Now requires the new Author Pane module. This new dependency isn't new code; I took the code out of AF and moved it to a new module. So it's not adding to the amount of code you're using. I didn't want to have AF dependent on anything, but I didn't have a choice.
You will want to disable AF on the modules page, delete any *author-pane.inc files you copied to other module directories, then clear your cache, then delete the entire directory, then untar the new AF as well as AP, then re-enable AF and enable AP. Making the jump without clearing the cache will result in errors as it looks for the author pane files in the wrong project. This will hopefully be fixed before I resume normal releases.
There is a known issue with the theme registry when devel isn't installed that I need to hunt down so please don't report that again unless you're attaching a patch. :) Other than that, AF unstable seems to be working ok in D6. I haven't done recent testing in D5.
Advanced Profile Kit:
I haven't tested the D5 version in a while and am really not sure what shape it's in. Best to wait until I get an unstable out of that. [Edit Jan 10: Because I have two live D5 sites to use as guinea pigs, the D5 versions got enough testing that I went ahead and made new alpha/beta releases instead of unstables.]
The D6 version is coming along nicely, but it's waiting on some code in other modules:
http://drupal.org/project/content_profile Jan 4 or later for user -> profile node panels relationship
http://drupal.org/node/349987 to get fieldgroups working in panels
http://drupal.org/node/210987 for activity
As with AF, APK now requires Author Pane. If you have AF on the same test site, that needs to be upgraded at the same time or you'll run into errors when the code from AF collides with the code in AP.
I think that covers everything you need to know to test the new versions. I am actively working on all of these and will be until either I get full 1.0 releases of everything out or my brain explodes, whichever comes first. So the devs will continue to be more unstable than the unstables. Use them with care and, remember, not on a live site. I don't want to be responsible for crashing anyone's live site.
Michelle
Comments
24 comments postedJust wanted to shoot some thanks for this. APK is the main module that's keeping me from using Drupal 6 on all my sites. I LOVE your modules and just wanted to send some joy your way!
Thanks again!
I also just want to send some joy your way :-)
Thanks for all your work.
introfini
Thanks for the encouragement. I think it should be usable for D6 soon. It works well for me, but I don't want to tell people to use it until I'm sure I'm not going to make any more major changes. The alpha 6 rewrite was really hard on early adopters and I don't want to do that to people again. So I'd prefer people not try to use this until it's stable.
Michelle
I think the thing that probably made the biggest impact in the original D5 version was your tutorial page. That step by step guide made a world of difference!
Thanks for coding away like crazy on this. I can only begin to imagine the amount of work and organization involved to keep it all together. I wish I felt comfortable testing the recent work myself. Still, I'm very excited at the prospect of a release us newbies can feel comfortable trying.
Thanks again Michelle.
@Michael: Yeah, a lot of people used that tutorial. But it was pretty complicated. APK is a lot simpler for the end user. Panels really opened up a lot of possibility.
@Eduardo: It's getting confusing keeping track of changes across three modules and two branches. I'll be glad when everything stabilizes. :)
Michelle
but the project page http://drupal.org/project/advanced_forum shows something else.
I created a support request about the unstable tag: http://drupal.org/node/355482
@Pasqualle - They are already aware of the limitations of the release system in edge cases like this and there's plenty of issues about it.
Hi Michelle,
I have AF/alpha16 installed on D6 and it is looking good ... I am looking forward to the next version as well as APK ...
One question: It looks like there is a dependency on the "bio" module -- how is APK for D6 going to function without a D6 version of bio?
Thanks for all your hard work!
Rachel
Hey, thanks for your hard work, and for keeping us informed. Few maintainers in the drupal community are as active and helpful as you are. The rest really need to take a page from your book.
rock on!!!
WOooooo (O_O)\m/
@RachelNY: It's not dependent on bio. Bio is just the one that I use so I make sure it works with bio. It probably works fine with nodeprofile but providing active support for both was just getting to be too much. As for D6, there's just content profile so that makes it easy. :)
@HighVoltage: Awww, thanks. I just try to make sure everyone knows what's going on, especially when I'm doing some major shakeups. Even though they're still in alpha, there are a lot of people already using them and I want to make these bumpy transitions as easy as possible.
The good news is that I expect to have 1.0 releases of all three modules by the end of the month in both branches. Then people can just stick to that while I make a mess out of the 2.x line. :)
Michelle
You are awesome.
Where can I send $ donations. Do you help with install/configs?
I've got a donation link over in the left sidebar here. I don't have a business paypal account, though, so can't take credit card payments.
I do freelance as well and part of that is people hiring me to get things set up for them. I won't be available until February, though, as I am pretty swamped between getting 1.0 releases out for all my modules and the project that's paying for the D6 APK.
Michelle
Thank you very much for your job Michelle! Your modules rocks!
We are all waiting for APF and AF stable releases, because, let´s face it, those modules are like Views, CCK or Groups, indispensable! :)
Thanks for your work, good disposition and patience!!!!
Rosamunda
Hehe, thanks but that's a bit much. I'm not in the same league as those. Glad you like them, though. I'm trying real hard to get a stable release out. But I'm having to juggle between that and client work and supporting what's already out there and I don't get that much computer time in a day. So it's coming along but not as fast as I'd like.
Michelle
Just wanted to say keep up the great work....
This really is one of those modules that just makes life that much easier so thank you for your ongoing effort in bringing it to the public....
Good stuff!!
Awww, thanks. You guys are so sweet. :)
Michelle
Being a dumbass i cant get it working!
All i want is a nice community where people register and share photos n comment eachothers images and u know...communicate!
Im using drupal 6.x
first problems arrived with the BIO thing...its so confusing.
And i am a noob at drupal as it is so i cant make the profile thingie work.
Im pretty sure im just too damn dumb to get it up and running since i read all the feedback and it seems you have done a great work!
Do you offer a online setup quide or something? Like via skype or something!
Would be a great business idea :D
Best regards
Unjoyer
On a different computer so not logged in right now...
I do offer paid support when I have time but I really don't recommend new folks run APK for D6 right now as it is under active development. Bio hasn't been ported to D6 so that's not going to work. If you really want to try and use it, you need content profile. If you wait until the module is ready to be used, it will be documented which should help a lot.
Michelle
Thanks for the update Michelle.
Just wanted to echo everyone else's praise. You are doing incredible work. If you need any help with docs maybe tutorial videos etc when you are done on d6 version give me a shout.
Thanks again
Thanks for the offer. I don't do video so that would be great if you're willing to do that. I know a lot of people like video docs but that's just not my thing.
Michelle
I'd just like to express my thanks for your modules, they really are essentials for a community website built with Drupal.
Thanks. :)
Michelle