RELEASE Notes 310

From WRM

[edit] Release 3.1.0 of phpRaid.

phpRaid has new "management". As phpRaider from SpiffyJr had replaced phpRaid as the raid scheduling system he was putting his time into, the phpRaid code was considered dead. Since phpRaid still has an online community, and since the code for phpRaid was accessable at the time of this writing, I have decided to carry it along.

This update contains some basic changes that make it more functional for my guild. Where appropriate i've tried to include options to get the system to work as it always has in the past. In the few instances where i've changed functionality to make it different from the 3.0.9.2 system I have tried to document those areas, both in code as well as here in the notes.

If there are changes that have made the system unliveable to the users for your specific guild please let me know and i'll be happy to try to get a release out that manages those areas better. The intent of 3.1.0 is as a drop in replacement update of all prior versions of code, not as a system written specifically for my needs or a handfull of guilds.

[edit] Modifications for 3.1.0

New Extensible Authentication System. While writing new authentication modules is still a codeing project, the concepts behind writing a module to link in with another system have been made easier. There are now 4 functions that need to be

written to install a new authentication system. There is no need to touch any of the base phpRaid code to add a new system to authenticate against. See authenticating_against_new_cms.txt in the docs directory for more information.

Support for the e107 CMS system. e107 is now a natively supported system for user authentication. Please see the documentation in the install/auth/ directory in the install_e107.php file. This is in addition to the phpBB and phpRaid authentication that already existed.

Support for three distinct classes of users. Raid Administrators (those with the raids permission set in the permissions area), Raid Leaders (the user who started and thus owns a raid, displayed as "Leader" (used to be officer) on the raid list, and "Users", those people signing up for a raid who are not Admins or the RL. This change allows those with "Raids" permissions to be granted enhanced permissions for raid signups or to administrate multiple raids at once. This change helps support the phpRaid system being used for 5 man group signup as well.

Group Support. phpRaid has been changed at a fundamental level to support being used as a signup system for 5 man groups as well as raids. Please see the online documentation "enable_groups.htm" in the docs folder for more information, you can access this documentation through the "help" link on the phpRaid configuration page under the "Enable Groups" checkbox.

New more easily modified user signup flow. For those guilds who have a slightly different process for signing up users for their raids, the phpRaid system now supports an easier method of changing what buttons users have access to. In the "signup_flow.php" file are 3 functions, one controls user access when they're in the queue, one controls access when they're in the "signed up" area, and one controls the access for users in the cancelled area. Simply turning on and off buttons in the documented "if" statements will change the process flow to allow more or less access or even completely changed process flows.

Note: this is a temporary solution till I can get a fully functional configuration based system up and running for this. Look for it in the next version of the software.

Note: The default signup flow (what buttons users have access to) may have changed in this version. If you are finding that your users aren't able to do things they're used to doing, or can do more than they should, you can easily edit signup_flow.php (read the comments) to modify the behavior.

Granularity for time dropdowns (Signup Time, Raid Time, etc.) has been changed to 15 minute intervals. Users will no longer be able to schedule a raid for 8:07 pm with a signup time of 7:32 pm. Instead your "Minute" options are: 00,15,30,45. While this is a basic change to the system, I simply don't see the need to populate the dropdown with (and thus force people to scroll through) 60 options when 4 is really sufficient. I could be convinced to go to 10 minute granularity instead of 15, but really i've never encounterd a guild that is so punctual as to be able to make an 8:05 raid start time as opposed to 8:06.

To support the 3 levels of raid access introduced in 3.1.0 (see above) and the 5 man group support added for phpRaid in this version, the name "officer" in the header of the raids listing has been changed to "Leader", the underlaying database and code has NOT been changed to reflect the new name, only the display.

[edit] Fixes for 3.1.0

Locations with a ' in them (For instance "Gruul's Lair" or "Onyxia's Lair" were failing to load properly when creating new raids or editing raids. The problem with the underlaying java code is now fixed.