Please read: This release candidate isonly meant for people who want to participate in the QA process - ifyou are interested, please subscribe to the QA Mailing List to be notified about additional release candidates.

Hello,

Inan effort to increase product stability we are happy to announce theavailability of the first release candidate for the next release -phpBB 3.0.6.

This release contains a lot more features, bugfixes and changes than previous releases, therefore we expect a longerRC phase and maybe one or two additional RC's this time. Everyone ableto should test this release and report critical bugs (those, stoppingthe operation of the forum) and issues to the bug tracker or directlyto the developers.

We recommend international support sites toupdate their sites to RC1 too. We are able to provide direct support tothem within our international support sites forums.

Note to people using 3.0.4 files in 3.0.5 installations

Weknow that some replaced their includes/functions_messenger.php filefrom their phpBB 3.0.5 installation with the version from phpBB 3.0.4due to the following bug:
Ticket #46725 - functions_messenger [...] causing emailing issues

Ifyou update to RC1 please *re-upload the 3.0.5 functions_messenger.phpfile* and any other file you replaced with previous versions. If you donot use phpBB 3.0.5 files all modifications will be identified asnon-phpBB modifications and merged during the automatic update. Thiswill result in wrong updates where to-be-updated parts for phpBB 3.0.6will not be included and you will not benefit from the bug fixes - oreven notice grave errors.

Tagging/Reviewing fixes

Everymember is now able to verify bug fixes and mark them as fixed withinthe trackers. To mark a bugfix as verified go to the bug and click on"I have verified the fix of this ticket" in the "Options" section onthe right. Of course prior to clicking you should have properly checkedwhether the bug was really fixed. Of course you should comment on therespective bug if you find problems so the fix can be corrected.

To make it easier for you to find fixed bugs that need testing we created a bug overview page.It lists unfixed critical bugs at the top. Then a list of critical bugsthat have been fixed - these should be thorougly checked to confirmthat the problem has really been solved. And then all other bugs thathave been fixed since the last release are listed. You should focus onthe least tested bugs when selecting one to test.

Language Packs and Styles

Wealready gave out instructions to language pack authors to let themupdate their language packs in a timely manner. The changes areprovided with the code changes package (see downloads section below).Style authors should also download the code changes package and adjusttheir styles accordingly. Please post within our Styles forums if youhave questions or encounter problems.

The package is downloadable from:
<!-- m -->http://www.phpbb.com/files/qa/phpBB-3.0 ... hanges.zip<!-- m -->
<!-- m -->http://www.phpbb.com/files/qa/phpBB-3.0 ... es.tar.bz2<!-- m -->

New features, changes, bug fixes

The following is a list of major new features implemented in phpBB 3.0.6:

• Backported 3.2 captcha plugins:
  
  • Classic and GD CAPTCHA
  • reCaptcha (based on API from recaptcha.net by Mike Crawford and Ben Maurer)
  • Q&A CAPTCHA
  • 3D Wave (by Robert "Xore" Hetzler)
  • Introduced new ACM plugins:
    
    • null (to disable caching completely)
    • memcache (<!-- m -->http://pecl.php.net/package/memcache<!-- m -->)
    • APC (<!-- m -->http://pecl.php.net/package/APC<!-- m -->)
    • XCache (<!-- m -->http://xcache.lighttpd.net/<!-- m -->)
    • eAccelerator (<!-- m -->http://eaccelerator.net/<!-- m -->)
    • ATOM Feeds
    • bare-bones Quick Reply editor in viewtopic
    • Users can report PMs to moderators which are then visible in a new MCP module
    • Ability to copy permissions from one forum to several other forums.
    • Send statistical information (anonymously) about PHP and phpBB configuration to help improve phpBB.
    The following is a list of minor feature additions to phpBB 3.0.6:
    
    
    • Add language selection on the registration terms page
    • New groups option to excempt group leaders from group permissions
    • New"Newly Registered Users" group for assigning permissions to newlyregistered users. They will be removed from this group once they reacha defineable amount of posts.
    • Ability to define if the "Newly Registered Users" group will be assigned as the default group to newly registered users.
    • Add new option to disable avatars board-wide
    • Enhance obtain_users_online_string to be able to return user-lists for other session-items
    • Add unapproved topic icon for moderators on forum list
    • Ability to define minimum number of characters for posts/pms
    • Store signature configuration options in database
    • Detect when a post has been altered by someone else while editing.
    • Add unread posts quick search option
    • Add option to disable avatar uploads from remote locations.
    • Ability to delete warnings and keep warnings permanently
    • Ability to empty a user's outbox from the user ACP quick tools.
    • Ability to search ACP / MCP logs
    • Parse email text files with the template engine.
    • Use email-style quoting when bbcodes are disabled.
    • Added new functionality to inactive users module:
      
      • Ability to set users per page.
      • Ability to sort by posts/number of reminders/last reminded date.
      • Show number of posts and ability to search posts.
      • Show number of reminders sent to user.
      • Show date of last reminder sent to user.
    • Display version check on ACP main page.
    • Ability to control the display of custom profile fields on viewtopic
    • Fallback options for missing language files.
    • Separate PM Reply and PM Reply to all in prosilver.
    • Place debug notices during captcha rendering in the error log - useful for debugging output already started errors.
    • Ability to define constant PHPBB_USE_BOARD_URL_PATH to use board url for images/avatars/ranks/imageset...
    • Added function to generate Email hash.
    • Styleauthors are now able to define the default submit button used for formsubmission on ENTER keypress on forms using more than one. Prosilveruses this for the posting page(s) and registration screen.
    • Ability to specify amount of time user is able to delete his last post in topic.
      The following is a list of smaller changes implemented in phpBB 3.0.6:
      
      
      • submit_post()now accepts force_approved_state key passed to $data to indicate newposts being approved (true) or unapproved (false).
      • Change the data format of the default file ACM to be more secure from tampering and have better performance.
      • Add index on log_time to the log table to prevent slowdown on boards with many log entries.
      • Template engine now permits to a limited extent variable includes.
      • Quote BBCode no longer requires the f_reply permission.
      • Banning/unbanning users now generates an entry in their user notes
      • Smilies no longer require the f_bbcode permission.
      • Ability to define column split in FAQ/BBCode help
      • Changed behaviour of group_create() function to support specifying additional group columns
      • Hide avatar when avatar-type is not allowed
      • INCLUDEPHP not depending on phpbb_root_path
      • Ability to fetch moderators with get_moderators() even if load_moderators setting is off.
      • "Post details" links with image in MCP.
      • PM history now only shows PMs of users you currently reply to.
      • Show quote button for own PMs in PM history.
      • Fetch requested cookie variables directly from cookie super global.
      • Add confirmation for deactivating styles
      • Add confirmation for deactivating language packs
      • Add confirm-box when deleting permissions
      • Add pagination for icons and smilies in the ACP and smilies in the smiley popup
      • Cache get_username_string() function calls on viewtopic.
      • Cache version check.
      • When creating a new forum without copying permissions, ask again.
      • Parse multiline url title for [url] BBCode tag.
      • Introduce new parameter to page_header() for forum specific who is online listings.
      • Lifted minimum requirement for Firebird DBMS from 2.0+ to 2.1+.
      • Unapproved topics can no longer be replied to
      • Require user to be registered and logged in to search for unread posts if topic read tracking is disabled for guests
      • Allow three-digit hex notation in Color BBcode.
      • Simplified login_box() and redirection after login. S_LOGIN_ACTION can now be used on every page.
      • Do not take edit post time into account for determining permission to delete last post in topic.
      • Resize oversized Topic icons
      • Banned IPs are now sorted
      • phpBB updater now skips sole whitespace changes. This reduces the chance of conflicts tremendously.
        The following is a list of bugfixes since phpBB 3.0.5:
        
        
        • Allow whitespaces in avatar gallery names.
        • Sorting by author or subject on viewtopic now preserves the order.
        • Correctly determine writable status of files on Windows operating system.
        • Show report button in prosilver for guests who are allowed to report posts.
        • Correctly show private message history
        • Various XHTML mistakes in prosilver, subsilver2 and the ACP.
        • Fix some ACP style issues
        • Move post bump information markup to the template.
        • Show error in the ACP when template folder is not readable.
        • Adjust viewonline filename regular expression to be less strict.
        • Correctly apply the can change vote permission again. Regression introduced in r9470.
        • Also remove data from friend/foe table when deleting user.
        • Correctly hide skiplink in prosilver right-to-left mode.
        • Fix dynamic config update routine error if firebird is used
        • Allow friends/foes to be added and removed at the same time.
        • Only change topic/post icon if icons are enabled and user is allowed to.
        • Fix saving custom profile fields in ACP if Oracle is used.
        • Make view_log() more resilient to corrupt serialized data.
        • Show error if hostname lookup doesn't return a valid IP address when banning.
        • Fix incorrect layout when loading private message draft.
        • Show proper error message when trying to add bots to friends/foes list.
        • Fix Oracle database backup
        • Update attachments table when deleting user and retaining his posts.
        • Correctly detect files in subfolders when viewing cached template files.
        • Display user's Jabber address in popup when Jabber functionality is disabled
        • Correctly exclude forums from active topics list.
        • Do not display birthdays of banned users
        • Fix function to recalculate Nested Sets
        • Display but also highlight already used rank images when creating new ranks.
        • Correctly orientate quoted text image on RTL languages
        • Do not display "View user notes" and "Warn user" links in user profile if corresponding MCP modules are disabled.
        • Show proper error message when trying to create a private messages folder with an empty name.
        • No longer state that it is possible to manage group leaders from the UCP.
        • Do not throw an error when PDO is a shared module and not loaded preventing SQLite from being loaded.
        • Fix censoring of unicode words.
        • Display coloured usernames in ACP groups management screens
        • Correctly describe founder permissions on trace-information
        • Correct the width value for poll_center.gif omitted in imageset.cfg for subsilver2.
        • Correctly load complex language variable using acp_language
        • Fix reapply_sid() to correctly strip session id in certain circumstances
        • Correctly state why one language pack is marked with an asterisk in the ACP.
        • Correctly check if install directory is still present.
        • Correct banned user behaviour when "force password change" is enabled
        • Correctly display ACP logs options, without permission to clear logs.
        • Display topic icons in MCP forum view again (only prosilver).
        • Properly display post status messages in topic when post is reported and unapproved
        • Do not remove recipients when loading private message draft.
        • Add author name to moderator log when deleting post/topic.
        • Fix broken "Report details" link in the MCP.
        • Resolve accesskey conflicts in prosilver.
        • Check if template file is empty before trying to read from it.
        • Correct descriptions of the permissions to use BBCode, smilies, images and flash to be more relevant.
        • Fix style issues in print mode.
        • Fix minor issue with L_QUOTE language string missing in several PM composing modes.
        • Also fetch posts of guests and deleted or deactivated users when searching for author names.
        • Show end of ban in MCP and ACP when user is banned by duration.
        • Correctly count posts awaiting approval in the MCP.
        • Display user's posts count in private message when it is equal to 0 (prosilver).
        • Only allow users to disable word censor if globally allowed.
        • Fix database updater and db tools to support multiple column changes/additions/removals with SQLite
        • Correctly detect GZIP status in debug mode.
        • Posting smilies in view more smilies now work again in IE
        • Properly convert and show filesize information.
        • Add ability to prune users who never logged in.
        • Show smilies and images in topic print view.
        • Force full date in private message print view.
        • Fix "Always show a scrollbar for short pages" for IE8 and Firefox 3.5
        • Do not allow setting group as default group for pending users.
        • Fail gracefully if store folder is not writable during update.
        • Hide profile-icon from viewtopic-page if user has no permissions (subsilver2 only)
        • Correct escaping/unescaping in the LDAP authentication plugin.
        • Add hard limit for smilies.
        • Remove redundant SQL query from ucp.php.
        • Reorder frame order of animated subsilver2 topic icons to be useful when animation is disabled.
        • Ensure user errors are displayed regardless of PHP settings.
        • Permit null values for non-required integer custom profile fields and ensure zero complies with the range limits.
        • Allow changing forum from select box under certain circumstances.
        • Display required fields notice on registration above the custom profile fields.
        • Copy poll options properly when copying topic.
        • Fix error with disapproval of topics having several queued posts only.
        • Preservenewlines in template files (one newline had been always dropped after atemplate variable due to PHP's handling of closing tags)
        • Be less strict with FTP daemons when getting directory filelists.
        • Fix set_custom_template for database-stored styles
        • Banning an already banned user states to be successful, but has no effect
        • Do not add style-parameter to URL again, after admin re-authentification
        • Do not cut post-message in between HTML-Entities on search.php
        • Correctly set attachment flag for topics, posts and pms after deleting attachments
        • Display "Locked" button instead of "Reply" one for locked forum in viewtopic (prosilver).
        • Correctly propagate umlauts over search result pages
        • Preserve post options when refusing to save the post as a draft.
        • Do not send private message back to sender if sender is in the same group the private message was sent to.
        • Correctly add user to a group making it a default one.
        • Add log entry when copying forum permissions.
        • Min/max characters per posts no longer affects poll options
        • Correctly log action when users request to join a group
        • Do not try to create thumbnails for images we cannot open properly.
        • Apply locale-independent basename() to attachment filenames. New function added: utf8_basename().
        • Adjustbuild_url() to not prepend $phpbb_root_path if path returned fromredirect() is an URL. This fixes redirect issues with someinstallations and bridges.
        • Do not mark global announcements as read if all topics in a forum become read
        • Fix general error while registration, through undefined variable $config in validate_referer
        • Correctly extract column default value when exporting PostgreSQL tables.
        • Allow updater to work correctly with PHP filename extensions other than ".php".
        • Update search index if only post subject changed.
        • Fix who is online displaying incorrect data.
        • Fixed incorrect "topic does not exist" when unapproved posts were visited without global moderator permissions.
        • Prevent style switcher from blocking the tab key.
        • Correctly redirect on MCP main page after posts approval/disapproval from it.
        • Donot display topic approval status image for shadow topic if a user isnot a moderator in the forum the topic has been moved to.
        • Fix email problems on servers with PHP installations not accepting RFC-compliant subject string passed to the mail()-function.
        • Correctly orientate Control-Panel-Navigation background-image on RTL languages.
        • Sort private messages by message time and not message id.
        • Make sure only logs for existing users are displayed and user-specific logs removed on user deletion.
        • Only show "Add friend" and "Add foe" links if the specific module is enabled.
        • Correctly display list items in forum description in prosilver and administration.
        • Fix handling of bookmarks and subscriptions on "split topics", "merge topics" and "merge posts".
        • Only embed cron.php if there is no cron lock present to reduce overhead.
        • Add header gradient back into subsilver2 but keep site logo easily replaceable with smaller and bigger ones.
        • Send activation email when activating user from user settings.
        • Do not show resend activation email link when using admin activation.
        • Do not display links to user/post search if search is disabled.
        • Fix icon alignment for forums with large descriptions in subsilver2.
        • Correctly display underlined links placed in last line in viewtopic.
        (Forthe complete list, including ticket numbers and full credits forpatches have a look at the comprehensive changelog file within the docsfolder)
        
        Available packages:
        
        With this release, there are five packages available.
        
        Full Package:
        Contains entire phpBB3 source and english language files.
        
        Automatic Update Package:
        Update package for the automatic updater, containing the changes from previous release to this release.
        
        Changed Files Only:
        Containsonly those files changed from previous versions of phpBB3. Please notethis archive contains changed files for each previous release.
        
        Patch Files:
        Contains patch compatible patches from previous versions of phpBB3.
        
        Code Changes Package:
        Package contains changes to the following sections: Language changes, prosilver style changes and subsilver2 style changes.
        
        Select whichever package is most suitable for you. As a tiny guide we recommend the following methods based on the requirements:
        
        
        • For a new installation you should use the Full Package
        • Forupdates of boards without modifications you can basically use theAutomatic Update Package (guided udpate) or the Changed Files Onlypackage (manual update).
        • For updates of boards withmodifications you should use the Automatic Update Package. If you areconfident with patch files and patching you can use the Patch FilesPackage.
        • Style Authors and Translators may use the Code Changes Package to update their styles or language packs directly.
        • InternationalSupport Teams may use the Patch Package in conjunction with the CodeChanges to better support users having problems with conflicts orspecific code sections.
        • If you are a hoster/provider, you may want to use the Patch Files Package to update all of your client installations.
        Please ensure you read the INSTALL and README documents in docs/ before proceeding with installation, updates or conversions!
        
        Download:
        
        Full Package:
        <!-- m -->http://www.phpbb.com/files/qa/phpBB-3.0.6-RC1.zip<!-- m -->
        <!-- m -->http://www.phpbb.com/files/qa/phpBB-3.0.6-RC1.tar.bz2<!-- m -->
        
        Automatic Update Package:
        <!-- m -->http://www.phpbb.com/files/qa/phpBB-3.0 ... .6-RC1.zip<!-- m -->
        <!-- m -->http://www.phpbb.com/files/qa/phpBB-3.0 ... C1.tar.bz2<!-- m -->
        
        Changed Files Only Package:
        <!-- m -->http://www.phpbb.com/files/qa/phpBB-3.0.6-RC1-files.zip<!-- m -->
        <!-- m -->http://www.phpbb.com/files/qa/phpBB-3.0 ... es.tar.bz2<!-- m -->
        
        Patch Files Package:
        <!-- m -->http://www.phpbb.com/files/qa/phpBB-3.0.6-RC1-patch.zip<!-- m -->
        <!-- m -->http://www.phpbb.com/files/qa/phpBB-3.0 ... ch.tar.bz2<!-- m -->
        
        Code Changes Package:
        <!-- m -->http://www.phpbb.com/files/qa/phpBB-3.0 ... hanges.zip<!-- m -->
        <!-- m -->http://www.phpbb.com/files/qa/phpBB-3.0 ... es.tar.bz2<!-- m -->
        
        
        IMPORTANT
        
        Tocorrectly perform an update, do not forget to re-enable the PHPBB_QAconstant within your includes/constants.php file. Else you are notprompted for an update within the ACP and the automatic update willeventually fail.