The 0.9.0.4 stable release includes a security fix to stop a potential XSS attack on login pages with Internet Explorer 6, so it is highly recommended for all users.

Additionally, the 0.9.0.4 release includes a significant MySQL speed-up fix for front pages and forum pages that was discussed in the forums. Thanks to anotherdan and _ck_ for their efforts on that one.

The 1.0-alpha-5 release also includes the above fixes as well as an important fix to WordPress integration. Namely, automatic synchronisation of user roles should now work as expected.

You can get them both from the download page.

I’d like to say that there are significant differences between the two releases, but this is basically a bug fix release, and more specifically a release to fix one major bug!

Download from the download page is now available.

A couple of major improvements include new re-added support for “deep” integration and a new notification system that will report fatal errors in plugins on activation. BackPress is now also up to scratch with the code it borrows from WordPress 2.7, meaning a lot of bug fixes in those files.

I need those that are interested in the “deep” integration with WordPress to do some pretty hefty testing to ensure that it is robust enough to remain as a supported option. Keep in mind that some of the existing login and cookie integration issues remain.

You can view the changes in bbPress between 1.0-alpha-2 and 1.0-alpha-3, as well as the changes that have been made to BackPress between revision 161 and 178.

Hackers out there should note that a lot of filenames have changed in the bb-includes directory.

The flaw meant that regular users could not edit their own email address at all via their profile page. Which sounds like it would be something that would take less than 8 months to float to the surface, but there you go.

This release contains some other less important changes as well which you can view here.

The release is recommended for all users of current bbPress 0.9.x versions.

Download bbPress 0.9.0.3 here.

A lot of the features were covered in a previous post. You can view the changes in bbPress between 1.0-alpha-1 and 1.0-alpha-2, as well as the changes that have been made to BackPress between revision 109 and 161.

The XML-RPC functionality now built into bbPress 1.0 alpha has made possible a new plugin for WordPress called “bbPress Live“. Currently this plugin can grab a list of forums and latest topics for display on a WordPress blog. Two configurable widgets are provided to pop the information into sidebars. Future versions of the plugin will allow WordPress posts to be copied to a bbPress forum, much like the bbSync plugin does for earlier versions of bbPress. The difference is that bbPress Live does not require the bbPress and WordPress sites to be on the same server, as all interaction is via XML-RPC calls rather than direct database queries.

I expect the next alpha release to be made sometime in the next two weeks. This release will include our first implementation of Pingbacks both to and from your bbPress installation. The first draft implementation of this is now in trunk.

Also to be included in the next release is an implementation of the pseudo cron feature from WordPress. This will allow plugin developers to schedule jobs in the future or on a regular basis. It is 100% compatible with the WordPress implementation, so the existing documentation is all you need to get started with using it.

To enable cron I’ve included the very new WP_Http class in BackPress. This new class is a robust HTTP fetcher which is meant to replace the Snoopy class in WordPress. This will allow all sorts of RESTFUL services to be utilised within bbPress plugins, like fetching data from other pages, embedding search APIs and even pulling data from WordPress via RSS or XML-RPC.

On the drawing board is the beginnings of an XML-RPC publishing interface. This will make it easier to use bbPress as a data store for more exotic clients like custom flash applications and XML-RPC desktop clients. It also opens the door to creating an iPhone app for bbPress much like the existing WordPress iPhone app.

An alpha version of bbPress’ new export/import format and tools has also landed in trunk thanks to our Google Summer of Code student Dan Larkin. You can read a little more about that at the BBXF website.

There will also be several fixes for bugs found by our courageous alpha testers.

The more adventurous among you may want to help out with testing these alpha versions. Probably the best thing to do is create a duplicate version of your installation (including a duplicate database) and then test there.

We would appreciate help with people looking for issues with upgrading, the user interface and any bugs in the new admin interface.

You can download the alpha releases via the download page.

You can use trac to report bugs as you would with the normal release. Please remember to add the version number to any new tickets.

I’ll be going through how to integrate bbPress (0.9.0.2) with WordPress (2.5.1) as well as talking a little about where bbPress is heading at the moment.

There is lots of other great stuff going on, full details are available via their blog.

Or just buy tickets here.

I hope to see some bbPress users there!

Many thanks go out to Steven J. Murdoch for identifying the issue (CVE-2008-1930) and working with us and WordPress to resolve it.

Note: Those of you with integrated WordPress/bbPress installs should upgrade WordPress first and then will probably have to update the “WordPress database secret” setting in your Settings -> WordPress Integration: Cookies admin panel after upgrading bbPress.

Primarily this is a compatibility release so that we can continue to provide the same integration levels with WordPress as in the past, however quite a few other improvements have made their way into this version.

Improvements and changes include:

• New installer: 
  • Creates your bb-config.php file for you when possible.
  • Allows for setting up integration with WordPress at install time.
  • Supports languages other than English when language translations are available.
  • Looks pretty.
• Additional RSS feeds for views.
• A “new topics” RSS feed, available on the front-page and on each forum. This feed only returns the first post from each new topic as it is created, instead of all posts.
• More configurable <title> tag available to themes.
• More secure authentication cookies which are compatible with WordPress 2.5
• Passwords now stored using “phpass” hashing library instead of md5. If you still want to store your passwords as md5 for any reason, there is a plugin here which will do that for you.
• A second core theme called “Kakumei Blue”. This theme demonstrates just how little you need to do to start creating a new theme.
• “General” and “WordPress Integration” options configurable via admin interface.
• Built-in support for Gravatars, implemented in a way that makes 3rd-party avatar plugins much easier to author.
• New “Date and time format” and “Date format” options.
• Akismet and Bozo functionalities have been moved to plugins. Akismet key now enterable via an admin interface.
• Removed “replies” querystring argument (?replies=#) from topic links. If you still want that functionality, there is a plugin here which should emulate it.
• Fixes to use of PHP “glob()” function to avoid errors on hosts that don’t support it.
• Moderators can now manage tags by default.
• Fixes to slug incrementing.
• The old “admin_email” setting is now called “from_email”. This is now the email address that emails from your installation appear to come from.
• “No replies” view is now technically “no replies and greater than 2 hours old”.
• Improvements to the export script towards the integration of an upcoming import script.
• RSS feeds now sent as UTF-8
• Full support for slug-based feeds on forum and topic feeds.
• Keymasters can no longer be demoted by non-keymasters.
• Many other smaller bug and typo fixes.

Installation

We have provided updated and more detailed installation and integration instructions in the documentation.

Upgrading

Upgrade instructions are available in the documentation here.

Dedication

bbPress 0.9 is named “Brubeck” after American Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck. In his early career he often performed with saxophonist Paul Desmond, after whom bbPress 0.8 was named. Brubeck has composed a number of jazz standards many of which employ complex rhythms and unusual time signatures.