VaultWiki Roadmap

[pegasus]

At this point, VaultWiki 4.0 is relatively feature-locked. You may have noticed in the last few releases, the biggest thing we added was the ability to turn things on or off. There are a few things we want to get in before gold, like some more options for moderators, but nothing major.

I think we will be moving to RC after one or 2 more Gammas. The features that we add after that will be minor until we get a stable release (a new setting here or there, maybe a new search filter, etc).

Prior to 3.0, I'm sure you noticed that new features typically did get added on second point releases: 2.0 had namespaces, 2.1 had Syntax Manager and Namespace Manager, 2.2 had SEO/custom URLs, 2.3 had an updated installer, 2.5 had a lot of improvements to namespace design.

But we got to 3.0, and I think we never increased the second point because around the time that 3.0 was gold, we announced what we were working on for 3.1. We didn't want to release a 3.1 that didn't include everything we had announced, so any new features that we wanted to release early had to be added to 3.0. But it turned out what we had announced was a much bigger project than we thought it would be, and we never saw a version 3.1 anyway. Even so, we did feature lock 3.0 around 3.0.8 and told users they would have to wait for version 4 to see certain things, so that flux you refer to was only in the beginning of its life cycle.

I don't think we'll be following that route again. VaultWiki 4 is so abstract, there's very little I can see us needing/wanting to rewrite at all, and most of it is small stuff that could be done within a single third point release, if we wanted to. So I don't see us wanting to do anything so big it would be VaultWiki 5, at least not for a very long time. For VaultWiki 4, we didn't want to release a Gold version before we had support for the big 3 forums (vB, XF, IPB), but IPB4 doesn't have a release date in sight, and we don't want to keep our version 4 in testing forever.

That said, we are already working out our plans for 4.1. We don't want to say much about it now. There's plenty of new stuff in 4.0 that people can get excited about.

[Alfa1]

There's plenty of new stuff in 4.0 that people can get excited about.

Is there a list of new features that were not in VW3?

[pegasus]

I just threw this together now since you asked. We have announced most features in the news with each update.

• Compatibility with PHP 5.4+
• More intuitive Wiki Areas
• Easier editing of the wiki index
• No extra config to create landing pages for wiki areas
• Save a namespaced (Prefixed) page in any Area
• Sidebar blocks for wiki pages and CMS
• New combinations: make an Anonymous Book or a Template Category... use your imagination
• Upload files and add categories via the editor
• vBulletin Activity Stream integration
• Live stream of wiki activity
• Improved wiki search, now persists on all pages
• Show last wiki update on forum index
• Have more than 1 discussion for each wiki page
• Finer control over wiki permissions
• New pages can be automatically protected
• Notifications for moderators
• Possible to have both Source and Edit tabs at the same time
• Improved subscriptions and more customizable subscription options
• History for uploaded files, so new uploads can be reverted if necessary
• One-click install, upgrade, import processes
• In-place upgrades - users won't get errors while you run the upgrade
• New URL customization options and easier installation of custom URLs
• More useful Conflict resolution tools
• Full IPv6 support
• Full UTF-8 support without the mbstring PHP module
• CSS uses Stylevars
• Forum headers can be extended to other forum pages easily (thread headers, profile headers, project headers, blog category headers, and more)
• Use any wiki page as a forum header, not just Header: pages
• More intuitive management of page synonyms
• More easily translate pages into other languages
• Faster auto-links
• User preferences for auto-links and auto-subscribing when editing
• Improved memory management for large wikis
• File Health Check
• Social group wiki actually renders inside the social group's page
• Add pages to a group from the group view
• Add pages to a category from the category view
• New Special page: Users with the Most Contributions
• Book table of contents now uses navigation for long lists
• AJAX previews now work for links to section headlines
• Category subscriptions - notifications for updates to pages that are in the category

[Alfa1]

To be honest, most of those points are part of the rewrite and backend improvements. Some of the new features were important once, but are not important anymore to those who are moving away from vb. To the end user there are only a few important improvements in the list: synonyms for the end users and notifications for moderators are two things that my members and staff will notice. I think there are one or two unlisted new functions which are also important to the end user. The rest of the points are very nice to have as its a much better basis, but not a compelling argument to upgrade.

My members have been awaiting the features that were promised long ago and that will greatly impact their experience. And this is where the true value of software upgrade lies.

Please mind that I and other webmasters have communicated your statements to our communities. For 4 years my community has been asking about the arrival of these features and complaining about the absence of these. So I hope that these promised features will be included in the upcoming gamma releases:
http://www.vaultwiki.org/issues/2057/ (sponsored feature since 2010 and listed as 'in progress')
http://www.vaultwiki.org/issues/1737/ (listed under sponsored features, accepted in 2010 and listed as 'in progress')
https://www.vaultwiki.org/issues/2253/ (accepted in 2011 and has milestone vw4 beta)
https://www.vaultwiki.org/issues/1730/ (accepted in 2011 and has milestone vw4 beta)

Including the above 4 features would make VW4.0 gold the upgrade that my members have been waiting for.

Can you confirm that the following accepted features will be in VW4.0, 4.1 or 4.2:
https://www.vaultwiki.org/issues/2316/ (accepted in 2010, listed as 'in progress and milestone 4.0 beta)
https://www.vaultwiki.org/issues/1739/ (accepted in 2010, promised to be in VW4.0 gold)
https://www.vaultwiki.org/issues/2899/ (accepted in 2012, milestone vw4.0 beta)
https://www.vaultwiki.org/issues/2151/ (accepted in 2010, milestone 4.1)
https://www.vaultwiki.org/issues/2950/ (accepted in 2013, stated to be implemented soon)
https://www.vaultwiki.org/issues/2604/ (accepted in 2012, milestone 4.1)
https://www.vaultwiki.org/issues/2634/ (accepted in 2012, milestone 4.1)
https://www.vaultwiki.org/issues/3490/ (milestone 4.1)
https://www.vaultwiki.org/issues/2837/ (accepted in 2012, milestone 4.1)
https://www.vaultwiki.org/issues/2862/ (accepted in 2012, milestone 4.1)
https://www.vaultwiki.org/issues/2708/ (accepted in 2012)
https://www.vaultwiki.org/issues/2835/ (accepted in 2012, milestone 4.1)
https://www.vaultwiki.org/issues/2640/ (accepted in 2013, milestone 4.1)

I know that its not usual to give detailed plans about upcoming releases, but as the development of VW4 has taken a very long time, this also means that there is an extraordinary situation were a lot of end users have been awaiting promised and announced features.

I hope that the above overview will also give you more insight about what features have a large impact on end user experience. The above message is intended as such.

[pegasus]

Thank you for the compilation, at least of issues that you deem important. It is easier to look at this than to look through ~70 active requests to determine which ones are actually features and that are important to the community.

Typically we can get to 2 - 3 new (or updated) minor features per release (1 - 2 major). Our current release schedule has been where we release new features during alternating releases, with each between being mainly bug fixes (high-feature, low-fix; high-fix, low-feature; repeat). If you look at the last 3 weeks of resolved issues, you will notice ONLY bug reports, which makes Gamma 5 a high-fix, low-feature release.

[Alfa1]

Is VW Gamma 6 coming up? It has been some time since the last release.

[pegasus]

Yes, Gamma 6 is coming up. We recently changed the back-end for our internal compiler and download system. It requires new tools to properly setup new versions, so there is a slight delay in getting Gamma 6 up.

[alpha]

I Hope vw will be in Short time for IPS, there is nothing usefull to find ... Vbulletin is no good system for me anymore ... Looking forward for good news

[pegasus]

Is VW Gamma 6 coming up? It has been some time since the last release.

Should be tomorrow. Everything is exported, awaiting final syntax checks and caching to the Members area as build 001.

[DragonSigh]

Is there any way to see the list of removed files in every version?
For example /includes/block/vwactivity.php was removed but caused error message on my forum while still there.

[pegasus]

We used to put info like that in this thread: https://www.vaultwiki.org/threads/2109/
But we should start a new thread for VaultWiki 4 since there are no common files or templates.

I will work on getting one started and up-to-date today.

EDIT: The new location for such changes is here: https://www.vaultwiki.org/books/Docu...tween-Releases

I will be adding changes for each version throughout the afternoon.

[Alfa1]

I wonder if there are any big boards or highly active sites running VW4 live. The reason why I ask is that if this is not the case yet, then the first ones will likely run into a significant number of exotic bugs and a few large bug fix releases would follow. Has this occurred yet or is this to be expected?

[Alfa1]

Hi @pegasus
As VW4 is now feature locked and aimed at a stable gold release I am wondering: What is your plan with fixing regressions?
At what point will we be able to migrate from VW3 to VW4 without data or functionality loss?

[pegasus]

A few points:
- We do not consider fixing regressions as "new features" when it comes to a feature lock, even if they might be advertised that way at release. So most regressions would be fixed regardless.
- Also, any features that are already partially implemented will likely be finished regardless of the lock.
- And finally, we don't really care about feature-lock for some really minor features like a new toggle setting.

Otherwise, major features or behavior changes would be deferred to a second-point release.

[pegasus]

I Hope vw will be in Short time for IPS, there is nothing usefull to find ... Vbulletin is no good system for me anymore ... Looking forward for good news

We've launched a crowdfund today with its goal to bring fast support to IPS. You can check it out here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/v...hpbb/x/9206010
Please share this with as many people as you think could benefit. Thanks!