A bit more than a year passed since the latest miniBB release.
Today we have united all the collected changes, suggestions and requests into the new version, 3.1.
Which means, the project is still on hold.

What's important in this version:

[-] mysqli support. Now miniBB will gradually switch to a new connection module (setup_mysqli.php), because the older mySQL will be deprecated in PHP starting from the version 5.5. This will be used as default from the 3.1 release. Currently, we run miniBB project completely on mysqli, including the primary website and support forum. In 3.1, there's still provided the older mysql module's support (setup_mysql.php), as many users most likely will keep the earlier PHP as long as they can: switching to mysqli or PDA, sometimes the whole website should be re-coded, for many this will be a tough task. Also, it's quite possible PHP developers could change their minds and recode mySQL in some way to continue to support it because of requests. There've been also updated many add-ons and tools, now supporting both support of mysql and mysqli (the list follows).

[-] important change in more sophisticated "not found/gone/forbidden/moved" headers handling (resp. 404/410/403/301 headers). Now it should fully meet IETF internet standards, like described here. This would also bring more SEO effect from Google and other search engines, since this makes the verification of missing/forbidden/moved URLs more precise.

[-] adjustments in the registration/profile update processes; sending emails; search; administrative panel; and some more.

Besides of the official package, we also have updated demo page, Compiler, and miniBB website now completely runs using mysqli chain. We also appreciate the sponsoring help of Is My Website Penalized website in this release.

Up to this moment, there are also updated some add-ons and tools meeting the support both for mysql and mysqli:

- Determine Fields - now it will make possible to use either mysql or mysqli
- Database Upgrading script - for switching from very old versions of miniBB to the recent one, now also possible to connect via mysqli

- RSS and 1st Page News Add-ons - now will relay on $DB setting instead of pure mysql
- User Month stats - will use an extended command either mysql or mysqli
- Multiple Topics Action - iframe script will now relay on $DB setting.
- Favorites 1.2.1 will now support both mysqli and mysql.

As always, you need to follow Updates' History for proper upgrading of your forums. Download the whole list, take a look at the very bottom of the file, starting from the line

There is mentioned each new file to update, and the way of updating it.

More add-ons updated will follow in October. I will mostly add the security option to all file-upload-related add-ons (scanning for PHP tags in binary files); some of them will be also fixed and improved. I will post notes on this process in this thread. By now, you are welcome to install and test the core version.

Stay tuned, and thank you all for the patience of waiting for so long time.
Hopefully this release will be as stable as the previous version!

Enjoy using miniBB :)

Congratulations, mr.Paul, and thank you very much for this long-awaited release. I should upgrade my forums and website to mysqli now. I was following your blogs all that time and wondering, if you ever get closer to software jobs; now I see the project is not forgotten, really! Good luck! I will come with my comments later......

Thank you. More add-on updates should follow soon, but yes, you already may start upgrading the basic core.

The following add-ons have been updated today:

* Avatars. There is added a function, using scanFilePHP function of the new release; also made adjustments to templates to provide more customized messages regarding uploaded files. There are also back some functions which were lost in the past for some reason; resp., if file uploads are disabled ($avatarMaxFileSize=0) or pre-defined avatars are disabled ($chooseTableCells=0), these options should be removed from the Avatars section of the Profile.

Updated files are:

- addon_avatar.php
- templates/addon_avatar_upload.html
- templates/addon_avatar_userform.html

* File Bank. Now it will also use scanFilePHP function, which allows to pass only binary files NOT having <?php tag inside. Updated file is addon_storage.php.

I have also improved miniBB's Requirements page, and the core installation file (_install.php) to provide more instructions and analysis of short_open_tag function of PHP.

Since the new version 3.1 uses the scanning for <?php tags in all case combinations, it would make no sense if you have short_open_tag set to ON and so allowing 3rd party scripts being executed, even if they are not PHP. short_open_tag should be set to OFF; if PHP codes wouldn't be allowed to execute through the short tag i.e. <? that adds important bits to security in all file uploads-related scripts, which are mentioned above and which are going to be updated in the nearest future, too. That actually means, if an intruder uploads a malicious file in some backdoor-way, it would not pass if it has <?php tag inside; and if it has <? tags, it won't execute.

That's why there is also a special note about the maximum size of uploaded files (name of this setting varies for different add-ons). The file uploading script will scan the uploaded file for possible PHP tags, to avoid "trojans" and PHP-codes built-in a binary source. That's why our recommendation is to keep the maximum size of uploaded files reasonable. As it has been tested, on most of servers files less than 20 Mb in size are being scanned in an allowed time (it may take couple of seconds); however bigger size files become slower in scanning, 'cause the script needs to open a large array of data and pass it through line by line. In most cases, files of couple Mb in max. size are enough for most forums, so try to not exceed this value.

Yet another two add-ons have been updated today, following my list of post-updates to miniBB 3.1:

- Moving Replies - optimization and bugfix added to addon_movepost2.php script, supposing more proper re-calculation of users messages and topic's posts, after a certain message has been moved either to the existing either to a new topic, as well as Archives handling added.

- Private Messages - just a few minor optimizations performed regarding compatibility with the latest miniBB 3.1:

* addon_pmail.php - display_footer() replaced the old footer's output
* addon_pmail_send.php - removed `if(!isset($reply_to_email))...` as it's already defined in 3.1.

To be continued...

Continuing updates of 3.1-related add-ons, today I have replaced the older footer's code to display_footer() in the following add-ons:

- Human Authorization (CAPTCHA) - there is also added more proper handling of $_SESSION

- Anti-Guest add-on - vocabulary has been updated as well with this release.

Today display_footer() was added to the following add-ons, that way also making them more lite and 3.1-compatible:

- Forum Checker
- Members List

YouTube solution now contains a minor update regarding straight HTML iframe code from the bb_codes.encode.txt part, $pattern[] value. In some cases the iframe code could contain extra parameters, which are not mandatory in displaying.

Premoderation add-on has been updated (to the ver.1.3.9) to have display_footer() function instead of the older footer output.

This finishes the series of miniBB 3.1-related add-ons updates. I'm crossing the line at this point.

So far I have collected a few minor non-critical updates for the post-script release 3.1.1 which should be released in November. These changes, however, are not major and will not affect the current functionality of 3.1, which you should be safe to upgrade for most forums.

Enjoy.

Hello, I'm new with miniBB, just installed today.

Trying a costum db with, working with mysqli, i got this error message:

Warning: mysqli_query() expects at least 2 parameters, 1 given in bb_plugins.php on line 339

I changed myself mysql_query for mysqli_query - the i was missing. The same mistyping occurs on line 336
I guess i could be better to refer to $DB variable in way to choose the proper command.

It would be nice to know, what do you have on the lines 336/339. Without that it's impossible for me to determine, what's wrong... probably it is some add-on causing this. But I'm not sure which one - I was sure I've updated all the add-ons being mysqli-compatible.

Here are bb_plugins.php's line 335 to 340

if($row=db_simpleSelect(0, $Tun_topics, 'post_id', 'topic_id', '=', $topic, '', '', 'user_id', '=', $user_id)) {
mysql_query("update {$Tun_topics} set post_id={$topicData[9]} where topic_id=6410 and user_id={$user_id}");
}
else{
mysql_query("insert {$Tun_topics} (topic_id, post_id, user_id) values (6410, {$topicData[9]}, {$user_id})");
}

It seems I've got it. You're about the Unread Messages Indicator add-on, which I have missed in the list of my updates... probably because it is not used by our forum and it's not present on the demo forum; actually, it's rare in use, but here goes the update.

There are more things regarding mysqli updates you mention - actually I've updated 5 or 6 places where the straight mysql request appears. I have also updated the headers location routine.

You may recompile your package if you were using the Compiler, or you may update just the code for this add-on in bb_plugins.php. The package now is updated under Downloads and the Compiler.

Thanks for discovering this :)

Thanks to you ... to fixed that fast.

Hi Paul,

I also just taken the first step to update from the 3.0.3 to the 3.1. There are mine now only the adjustments to the various addons to do ;-)

In my own Footer (PHP) i have this:
However, I now have the same problem as Marsbar describes it here.

Just for your information! ... So far, everything works without further problems.