KM-CODEX

I released the code for the wpBBS WordPress Flash Forum System made with Koolmoves 7 to Flashkit and the KoolExchange today. You will find setup instructions in a dedicated page here at the Codex.

I want to thank a few people for helping me get this submitted.

Thanks to:

Stoke (my partner) without whom none of this would be possible.

Wilbert Brants for his expertise and insight into his Koolmoves components. Wilbert saved my ass a few times on this one

lmlasher (my heart) , Phil, blanius, LizzieMac and Jovan for their tireless posting to help me bug test and get the board to where it is now. I couldn’t have done it without your help and I will always be grateful to all of you.

On to coding admin….

The front end for the wpBBS forum is nearly finished and we’ve zeroed the test posts (thanks everyone who helped by posting!) and reset the database so all the new backend coding can be integrated. All accounts for users already registered at our WordPress blog are intact. Only the post counts were zeroed for users. You can login as normal.

The tree is dressed out (with some extremely helpful pointers from Wilbert Brants) and now utilizes a three bitmap switch to accommodate the pinned and locked icons and the search filters and display have all been reworked across the board.

Some screens of the new colors and icons:

The user control panels are all online and users can upload SWF, JPG, GIF or PNG files to use as avatars (5k in size or less):

We’ve decided to release this first version as a complimentary board for WordPress to get it out the door as soon as possible. There are a lot of questions in the Koolmoves forum about dynamic code and a look at this will clear up a lot of things for a lot of users. The admin panel will follow soon after and is meant to be run from the desktop. In the next few months we will code a standalone version and submit that as well.

We just started testing fake installs today and so far everything is on schedule. All posts in my version here will now remain intact and the stats and counts are all live.

Stay tuned (and get the hell on the board and say hello!).

This subject came up in the Koolmoves forum at Flashkit so I threw this together as an example with source code. It requires a PHP4+ enabled server and the file to be written to needs write permission (chmod). Things have changed a lot since AS1 so hopefully this will help users get going with POSTing variables to a server side and in this case writing the POSTed htmlText to a server side text file and then re-reading it to confirm it was written. Download the source below.

Enjoy!

km7_post_response source

After three days of coding and hundreds of lines of code, our wpBBS WordPress forum made with KM7 is ready to go live. The login/password for the forum is the same as the one you use for our WordPress blog. Be sure to use a correct email as the board will send you details of your account and attach a copy of our TOS. The test database was zeroed at 3am 2/18/09 and the board is ready for posting. We will be adding bits and pieces to dress it up in the next few days (tree icons, who’s online, avatar uploads, etc) and this board will eventually be available at the Koolmoves Exchange as a standalone (will not require WordPress). Have fun and we hope to see you on the board!

Chris & Stoke

Project: wpBBS Forum System

Description: WordPress based forum system created with Koolmoves 7.0.2, compiled as a Flash 9+ movie (AS3). MySQL/PHP based.

Status: Live Build

Finished so far:

1. Logins authenticated against WordPress database.

2. Sessions coded (for later display of who is online).

3. Welcome emailer and terms of service (TOS) scripting working. On first login users are sent a welcome email and copy of server terms.

4. Member detection. If user has never logged in before, the board asks them to do so. On success, emailer is sent (one time) and board enables itself. If member has logged in before, the board autologs them in and enables itself.

5. Flash cookie scripting working.  Shared Objects are utilized for autologin.

6. Forum database created and populated with test data for build.

7. Forum and Thread list display working (Tree component based)

8. Post display of chosen thread working. (Concatenated html text)

9. HTML Text editor (RTE) for new threads or replies added. We are simply working on tweening the panels right now and no post submissions are enabled yet. All threads and replies to use html text.

10. Login panel added and working. Will be resized to later be tweened in from bottom if no cookie found or user has never logged in. The one online now will change once sizing is decided.

11. User levels coded and working (Users only see forums they have appropriate user level to view).

12. Twin thread titles (one editable one not) added and tweened.

13. Submit buttons added and tweened.

14. Finalized layout to prepare for slide in top panels (who’s online, search).

15. Tree component utilizes Wilberts methods in various ways to select/deselect correct forum depending on button actions (will explain in later article).

16. Back end search script created and tested. Search returns will repopulate the tree in real time and is more fluid than earlier ways I’ve handled it.

17. User levels tested (I plan on hosting a private forum for beta testers so this was important).

18. Board is nearly ready for first post tests to ensure timestamps, ascending/descending, pinned and locked flags are set and being read correctly.

18. User levels finalized and tested. This board supports public and private forums.

19. Back end swear filters added and tested. End users can add as many as they wish.

20. Board entrance routine altered to confirm user level before loading tree data no matter if manual login or auto login.

21. Slight coloring to match sidebar.

22. Tested pinned, locked and post display order routines and confirmed frontend and back end are in sync.

23. Search panel added. Search by title returns a list of threads that contain the search term in the title itself. Search by posts returns a list of threads that have posts that contain the searchterm.

What’s next?:

1. Finalize who’s online panel (slide in).

2. Add icons to the tree.

3. Work out avatar upload routines for user control  panel (slide in).

4. Build Administrator panel (desktop based) to manage board. Admin is NOT web based (on purpose). This can be done at any time and the board can run live while building so it’s trivial. I want to wrap it for the desktop with SWF Studio 3.7 (next scheduled release) which will let me ensure the entire board and admin is using a Koolmoves 7/AS3 core. Koolmoves cannot utilize SWf Studio 3.6 so this is a must wait situation as I need this new SWFS release

5. I’m sure there is more I’m too tired to think of…..

As a follow up to Stoke’s post about the ScrollBar class he came across, HexLuv has a reflection class that is also compatible with KM7 (running above).

We’ll be adding it to the Confirmed Classes section of our wpBBS forum.