vBulletin 3.6.6 Released

vBulletin 3.6.6

It has been almost six months since our last bug-fix release (3.6.4) so the release of 3.6.6 represents a large number of fixes and tweaks to the system.

vBulletin 3.6.6 is the minimum required version for the upcoming vBulletin Blog and Project Tools products and includes various new hooks (including the much-requested fetch_musername hook) and code changes to accomodate these new systems. As a result, certain existing vBulletin features have been upgraded, such as date entry fields in the Admin CP, which now all feature the calendar popup date picker system designed for the project tools.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.6.6/datepicker.gif
Setting the date of an announcement in the Admin CP with the new date picker

For the benefit of plugin authors, the information shown at the bottom of all vBulletin pages in debug mode is now greatly enhanced and shows not only all templates that have been called, but also all files that have been included by PHP and all hooks that have been encountered together with whether or not they executed code.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.6.6/debuginfo.gif
New debug info available in vBulletin 3.6.6

Complete list of problems and bugs fixed in vBulletin 3.6.6 (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/projectsearch.php?do=dosearch&projectid[]=6&addressedversion[]=27&issuestatusid[]=4).

New Javascript Framework

With the use of AJAX and other client-side scripting systems increasing all the time, version 3.6.6 debuts various new methods of working with Javascript in vBulletin, many of which assist in the effort to remove as much Javascript from the templates as possible.

In order to facilitate this switch and to provide a solid framework on which to build, we have decided to employ the Yahoo! User Interface (http://developer.yahoo.com/yui) javascript library (YUI) for much of our DOM, event and XML-HTTP features, and in future versions you will see much greater use of this excellent library as we migrate some of our older Javascript code to a YUI base.

Included by default in vBulletin is the DOM/Event library (yahoo-dom-event.js) and the XML-HTTP connection handler (connection.js).

Upgrading from Previous Versions

3.6.6 is a maintenance release and we recommend that all customers upgrade to benefit from six months of bug fixes and stability improvements. Certain input validation errors in the Admin Control Panel have also been resolved so that unexpected errors are not encountered.

No patch or plugin is available to bring previous versions up to 3.6.6 without a full upgrade, as the various changes to implement all the bug fixes represent a large number of changes. To get the fixes from 3.6.6 onto your own board you must perform a full upgrade.

Full instructions for upgrading vBulletin are available here. (http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/upgrade)

Template Changes

For this release we have changed the format of our customary Templates Changed Since X.Y.Z notice.

Previously the list was change-based, which often resulted in several templates being listed multiple times, sometimes with mandatory changes and other times not.

The 3.6.6 template change notice is template-based, so each template is listed only once and all changes to that template will be listed under the template name. If any of the changes to a template is mandatory, the entire template will be listed as requiring the change.

We hope that this new system will be easier and quicker to work with for those with modified templates.

PHP and MySQL Requirements

Please note that vBulletin 3.6.x requires at least PHP 4.3.3 and MySQL 4.0.16 or later.

Download vBulletin 3.6.6

As usual, vBulletin 3.6.6 is available for all customers with valid, active licenses to download from the vBulletin Members' Area.

vBulletin Members Area (http://members.vbulletin.com/)

Original Announcement and further info: vBulletin 3.6.6 Released (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=229448)
vBulletin.com discussion thread: vBulletin 3.6.6 Release Discussion (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=229449)


More... (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=146986&goto=newpost)

Thats Good,

I was about to buy a new License, thanx. I will buy now this version. Is there any change is cost? I Am in hurry so not going to check :D

Thanx

Thats Good,

I was about to buy a new License, thanx. I will buy now this version. Is there any change is cost? I Am in hurry so not going to check :D

Thanx

If you have an active license, you can download this version. :)

Oh WOW, there are some MAJOR changes to templates such as Forumhome, postbit and pb Legacy, memberinfo, navbar, and others.

This really is a major upgrade...

Yup, this one is a doosey people, keep your hats on -- Make sure you have an extra hour or two to redo template edits. :eek:

How will this affect those with custom skins? DO we know if the older skins will work?

How will this affect those with custom skins? DO we know if the older skins will work?

I got three of my custom skins working fine with template reverts. On one board the FORUMHOME template got completely screwed after a revert, I wound up having to copy/paste everything from the what's going on box down from a back up -- it's back to normal now.

Other than that I had to redo all my postbit, memberinfo and User CP edits. I have 95% of my default template done, all I need to patch up now is the vB default which a few members still use.

There's some new stuff in the config.php that isn't covered in the manual - the section from
$config['Misc']['memcacheserver'][$i] = '127.0.0.1';
Do we need to change this to our server IP or just leave it as is?

I posted this question over an hour and a half ago on vb.com and whilst other stuff has been answered, this one has been studiously ignored...

Let's see how quick the answer is here.

NO idea Dave.

As for the other - Joey, to answer your question, this is going to royally screw those with custom skins. And no, the older custom skins will not work, without serious template edits.

crapppppppp... my weekend is shot doing upgrades - I have 7 forums to do (clients) not to mention my own 2. I'm looking at about an hour each, if not more. :rolleyes:

Dave, please link us to that question you asked on .com. I have a reputation for bugging the crap out of them til Steve answers my question. ;)

If you have an active license, you can download this version. :)
ACtually Sir, that would be for my friend, who is using a Pirated one as I was using in the begining. So I will have to buy one for him!

The thread/question is here (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=229497).

I was hoping someone who has already done an upgrade could answer here quickly.

I'll be doing an upgrade sunday or monday hopefully

It does look like a major update compared to some of the latest updates.

There's some new stuff in the config.php that isn't covered in the manual - the section from
$config['Misc']['memcacheserver'][$i] = '127.0.0.1';Do we need to change this to our server IP or just leave it as is?

I posted this question over an hour and a half ago on vb.com and whilst other stuff has been answered, this one has been studiously ignored...

Let's see how quick the answer is here.

Going on my general knowledge of networking, 127.0.0.1 refers to "localhost" (ex: the same server your site is running on), unless you're running a separate memcache server, which would be unlikely unless you have very large board just leave it as is.

Again just in my humble experince -- I updated 4 boards today across different servers and didn't touch that setting, no problems here. :)

There's some new stuff in the config.php that isn't covered in the manual - the section from
$config['Misc']['memcacheserver'][$i] = '127.0.0.1';
Do we need to change this to our server IP or just leave it as is?

I posted this question over an hour and a half ago on vb.com and whilst other stuff has been answered, this one has been studiously ignored...

Let's see how quick the answer is here.

You don't need to do anything, the whole block that line is contained in is commented out.

Thank you for answering that for us Paul :)

Thanks Paul for clearing that up.

BTW: In the response time race, if we factor in that vb.com had a 1.5 hour start, vB-FAQ won by about an hour :p

Wheew, I'm finished with my own heavily modified forum. Took me about an hour, but had to do it the slow way, disabling plugin system, disabling individual products and plugins and re-enabling them one by one, I didn't wanted to end up with a non functioning forum.

Thanks for the report-back Hell3.

I'd be interested to hear from other forum owners of heavily-modded forums...

I am going to upgrade ours this week.

What an ass....... read this - http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1352988&postcount=119

What an ass....... read this - http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1352988&postcount=119

I do kind of agree with him though. I have spent a good amount of time fixing templates that I've took a long time to get just the way I wanted. Now, because vB wanted to add hooks I had to go back and redo everything, I'm a little tweaked about that.

If there were some new end user features or a decent new admin tool I wouldn't mind so much but what ever bugs they had in 3.6.5, I never ran into them. 3.6.6 to me is only a technical update so vB can charge for add-ons, IMHO.

Yeah I do kind of agree with you there Dan. I just hate it when someone goes in there with such an attitude and mouths off. What ever happened to voicing ones' opinion nicely??

That said - I am rather stumped on my forumhome template - if I just save it, I lose the new stuff. If I revert, I lose my modifications that I've done to it - and they are ALOT! :mad:

I'm on kind of a similar situation of this guy, but I don't see the hassle. If you heavily modify the software then you'd better be ready to work for it.

Which is what I'm doing. I've been working on my own forum TvB for HOURS. The upgrade totally screwed up the skin, side columns, etc on my forumhome. Got Danny in there now trying to fix it.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.... THIS is exactly why I design only simple css-based styles, not these heavily modified skins.

It is my humble, uninformed and inexperienced opinion that they released this monster upgrade W A Y too soon! :mad:

Today has been a friggin' nightmare. I've tried 4 times to run the upgrade script on a clients' forum - from 3.6.0 to 3.6.6 - and it won't run the entire upgrade script!! Goes through the first 5 steps, then takes me to the acp login, and STILL says 3.6.0, of course.

AND - I STILL don't have everything fixed, that this upgrade broke, on my own forum yet!!
SOMEONE help me find my sanity - I lost it somewhere around mid-afternoon:faint:

When I ran it, I had some errors on step 2, but I just changed the url to -3 and went on. Everything is working fine. If you want a hand Peggy, you know where to find me ;)

cheers

Thanks Brandon, I appreciate it. :) I think I have my forum at least 1/2way fixed, for now. Still can't run that upgrade on my client's forum tho. However, now there's a few posts on .com about fixes and patches, etc - so I'm not doing anything more for a few days.

It's always a little nerve racking updating client sites :( I have one coming up that is from 3.0.x series and 500k post.. :D Oh and they have a few mods and a custom style..yeah for me huh...lol

Personally (read, in my own very limited vision), I think it was overdue. All that changes could have been rolled out gradually on two month releases. Since they are not supposed to affect regular functionality, rolling them out on one big monolithic upgrade only multiplies the things that could be a break point on so many untested situations.

I only had to move from 3.6.5, but I can only imagine the pain that must be to move from more than 3 revisions ago.

When I ran it, I had some errors on step 2, but I just changed the url to -3 and went on. Everything is working fine. If you want a hand Peggy, you know where to find me ;)

cheers

What do you mean by "changed the url to -3?" the step? :)

Personally (read, in my own very limited vision), I think it was overdue. All that changes could have been rolled out gradually on two month releases. Since they are not supposed to affect regular functionality, rolling them out on one big monolithic upgrade only multiplies the things that could be a break point on so many untested situations.

I only had to move from 3.6.5, but I can only imagine the pain that must be to move from more than 3 revisions ago.
I was at 3.6.5 as well - and this upgrade totally wreaked havoc with my forum. Broke my skin, broke my side column (even tho NONE of that code changed!) - took me almost 6 hours to fix my forum. All I can say is I'm just glad that it was my forum and not a clients' forum :eek:

I SO agree with you that they should have rolled these out gradually, over a couple of smaller releases, rather than one monster (and it has been a nightmare!) release. I really feel bad for new vB owners, who know little about what they're doing. So much for user-friendly? :confused:

Four styles in operation...two done and two to go.
3 hrs work so far, including the actual upgrade script which only took 15 mins including the upload. The main style I'm leaving til last.
Only one problem so far, a modification from vbulletin.org, waiting to hear if it needs to be updated.

The price we pay for MODifying the default product. The easiest edit for me was the vBulletin default, got that running ASAP so as not to have the board disabled too long.

For template updates I really suggest you refer to details that get posted (link (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1352372)).

This tells you what's changed in each template, in almost all of them, the actual changes are only one or two lines, so you can search your customised templates for the changes and apply them.

Paul I would LOVE to do it that way. However, not being a coder, when the post says "removed logout (something or another), and placed in clientscript...." well ok, but which logout code is that? Login/out code is called to at least twice in forumhome. Up top and at the bottom beneath the forum icons. So how would I know which code it was?


EDIT: - both vb.com and .org have been "unavailable" for the past 45 mins. I wonder what's going on there?

This upgrade appears to be quite problem plagued...I am very hesitant to jump right into trying to upgrade over 50 commercial styles until I see the dust settle down a bit. I have a fresh install of 3.6.6 for a testboard and have stupid problems myself...can't imagine screwing up my live board.

My humble advice, John, is to not touch this upgrade with a 10-ft pole. At least not anytime soon.

My humble advice, John, is to not touch this upgrade with a 10-ft pole. At least not anytime soon.
Yes, I'm not impressed at all...it seems as though there was a rush to release in preparation for the new vb products and that is very disappointing compared to Jelsoft's typically bug free updates. I really would like to see Jelsoft consult more with the cottage industry that plays a HUGH role in their success before these type things...but I suspect that is unlikely with the corporate culture over there...

I'm way less than impressed, seeing as how it took me hours to fix Top vB. :mad:
Thank GOD I didn't try to upgrade Themes by Design - y'all would have had to have me carted away in a straight-jacket. I'm not so sure I don't still need one :rolleyes:


BTW - .com and .org are back up.

Just discovered to my horror that reverting a template wipes out the template history
What good is that . :mad:

Just discovered to my horror that reverting a template wipes out the template history
What good is that . :mad:
ut oh............. :(

This upgrade appears to be quite problem plagued...I've upgraded three forums so far without any real issues (and vb.org is quite customised, there were 27 templates to update, plus some file edits and plugin changes).


EDIT: - both vb.com and .org have been "unavailable" for the past 45 mins. I wonder what's going on there?Yeah, that was fun, one of the web servers decided to give up while I was in the middle of the upgrade, aarrgghhh .....

I've upgraded three forums so far without any real issues (and vb.org is quite customised, there were 27 templates to update, plus some file edits and plugin changes).

Yeah, that was fun, one of the web servers decided to give up while I was in the middle of the upgrade, aarrgghhh .....oohhhh NOT a good time to go down -

I found the upgrade from 3.6.5 to 3.6.6 fairly painless. However, I did take a few precautions before starting.

Backing up the db is a given, but I also take the precaution of keeping a copy of my edited templates that are listed as needing a revert. I did miss a .php file edit for the one hack and that's broken, but in the blur of adding some new stuff over the weekend I've forgotten which one it was. But everything else is working fine.

I didn't disable the hacks - just went for the upgrade and then re-installed whatever broke and that worked fine (except for that one hack).

The heaviest template issue for me is the navbar template. Perhaps it is time that was broken into two sections - the breadcrumb and log-in section and then the navbar itself.

For the skin and style makers out there, I think you got off lightly - no revert needed for the header and footer templates. I'm quietly dreading the day that comes with my current skin.

I think the additional hooks are going to save pain in the future - it's not just vB add-ons that are going to be able to use them and used properly they save a lot of trouble at upgrade time.

For the skin and style makers out there, I think you got off lightly - no revert needed for the header and footer templates. I'm quietly dreading the day that comes with my current skin.

EEEERRRRRRRRRRRRR - WRONG! No way did we get off lightly! We make changes in forumhome, postbit/legacy, and several other templates that were listed for mandatory reverts. I talked with miner last night - It's going to take him days to upgrade his skins. He got 4 done over the weekend.

Like I said - a nightmare upgrade.

Document your edits - copy and paste - what's the problem?

Or maybe you didn't document the changes....









Just ribbing you :p

It's a bit of a schlep doing one forum - sorting a whole pile of skins must be murder.

hahaha - I know you're teasing.
But that's among the very first things we learn -
Always do db backups
Always document your template edits.
ALWAYS

Everyone should do that, not just designers.

Well, something good is coming out of this upgrade :) My Top vB (http://www.top-vb.com) forum has a relatively new look.

I was just doing some reading at vb.org. It seems that the hooks that were added to templates for the upcoming add-ons, are useful to other coders as well. Abe1 updated his Post Thank You and Post Groan hacks using the hooks. Now no more template edits for those hacks. Nice.

So...if I already have a VBulletin license, this new upgrade isn't going to cost me anything, is it?

Will the yearly payment of 85 change? O_O

You are entitled to upgrades for a period of one year.

Wolf, if your forum is growing, I would highly recommend that when you have to do your yearly payment, upgrade to an owned license. Sure, it will be a nice hit to your wallet at that moment, but following years you will pay only the fee for renewing members area access.

I completely agree with Hell3

I'm new to vBulletin and did the upgrade to my old forum 3.6.5 to 3.6.6. The upgrade went well. I have three skins: Default, Smooth Fluid and Hexcell Fluid.

My Admin CP states I have 17 templates to update or revert and have no clue where to start. I have tried the vbforums .com and .org, but they appear to be down.

The templates for Default are:

MEMBERINFO
memberlist
navbar
postbit
postbit_legacy

Smooth Fluid & Hexcell Fluid:

All the above including FORUMHOME.

I'm really not sure what it is I'm supposed to edit or revert...for that matter.

Any guidance is greatly appreciated and I want to thank all who reply constructively in advance.

Well, If you haven't documented your template edits or you have installed custom skins, the better place to start is on the "find updated templates" link and using the "compare" tool provided and check for differences.

Thanks, Hell3...

I can see the changes that were made in red yellow and green highlights. The only problem is that I'm not sure what to do next. Like I said...I'm totally new to this stuff and really don't want to mess up my forum. I've compared the templates and see an old and a new, but what do I edit? Do I add the old template changes to the new ones?

I'm at a loss when it comes to modifying these things, but I do seem to muddle through them when and if I'm given decent directions.

Thanks for the quick reply.

I am just glad I have not upgraded to 3.6.6 yet. I think I will wait a few weeks lol
I have to upgrade from 3.6 and I have a lot of hacks/mods etc, so I have been shaking in my boots just contemplating an upgrade, especially this one.

Can someone tell me. Can I take a backup of my forums and upgrade it to 3.6.6 as a test before I attempt the real dealy.

Wolf, if your forum is growing, I would highly recommend that when you have to do your yearly payment, upgrade to an owned license. Sure, it will be a nice hit to your wallet at that moment, but following years you will pay only the fee for renewing members area access.

Upgrade license? What's the difference from what I've got now? Meaning money wise.

Upgrade license? What's the difference from what I've got now? Meaning money wise.
What Hell³ was saying is that you currently have a leased license, which costs you $85 annually. If you upgrade to an owned license, you will pay $160 (which was the 'nice' hit to your wallet he mentioned), but from then on it is only a $30 annual fee to maintain update availability. If you believe you are in for the long run with your forum, you will start saving money in the third year.

What Hell³ was saying is that you currently have a leased license, which costs you $85 annually. If you upgrade to an owned license, you will pay $160 (which was the 'nice' hit to your wallet he mentioned), but from then on it is only a $30 annual fee to maintain update availability. If you believe you are in for the long run with your forum, you will start saving money in the third year.

Oh, alright. I understand now.

Well, I'll think about it. My site is slowly growing, but I'm not sure precisely how long it will stay active. All depends if I can get some advertising in to pick up some speed.
Thanks :)

Another advantage is that you can resell the owned license, not at a full price but you can at least recover a good part of the investment. The leased licenses you can't resell them.

Well, I'll think about it. My site is slowly growing, but I'm not sure precisely how long it will stay active.
Well, if you spend the money for an owned license, then you have positive reason to ensure the forum will stay active. ;)

Well, if you spend the money for an owned license, then you have positive reason to ensure the forum will stay active. ;)

True, true...
Hmm...looks like I've got something to think about. Thanks :p