Release notes for FusionForge 5.0 --------------------------------- FusionForge 5.0 is still an incremental step over 4.8, but many changes have been made, some of which may require caution when upgrading. In particular, the rewriting of the version control subsystem created the possibility for many new VCS tools to be integrated, and indeed several new plugins were implemented (Arch, Bazaar, Darcs, Git and Mercurial). To avoid crowding the chroot, all repositories are now hosted under a two-level subdirectory structure. For instance, where you had a CVS repositories stored under /var/lib/gforge/chroot/cvsroot/, you'll now have it under .../chroot/scmrepos/cvs/. As a consequence, you need to move the repositories by hand and/or add symlinks. Previously existing symlinks will also have to be updated, as well as previously existing working copies obtained by users. Also, the Mediawiki plugin was rewritten to allow for each project to get their own independent wiki. The wiki for project foo-bar is now stored in the plugin_mediakiki_foo_bar in the same database as the rest of the forge. This means the data should be migrated from the existing database to this new location. Depending on your setup and the amount of data involved, it might make sense to either cut and paste by hand or dump the tables and reload them in the new schema. On the internal side of things, access to the database has been converted from the db_query() abstraction layer to the db_query_params() one. This means SQL queries are no longer built as strings with unwieldy and fragile escaping code, while ensuring no data coming from the user can be used for SQL injection attacks. The db_query() function, while deprecated, is still present for the benefit of out-of-tree code that might use it. It might be removed at some point in the future, so maintainers of local plugins or enhancements are encouraged to migrate their code to db_query_params(). For really complex queries that need to be built dynamically, there's also a db_query_qpa() abstraction, with a db_construct_qpa() method to manipulate "QPA" (query+params array) objects. On a more visible note, the default theme has been reworked to increase the accessibility of the web pages; this rewrite also brings better maintainability, easier customisation by CSS and more conformant XHTML. Release notes for FusionForge 4.8 --------------------------------- FusionForge 4.8 is an incremental step from 4.7, and the changes are less far-reaching than the ones in 4.7. Most notably, they include: - A new project classification system based on tags (with a tag cloud). - A new reporting page on the FRS displaying the number of downloads per package. - The “Project List” can now display a list of all projects. - The “wiki” plugin now uses the latest PHPwiki code. The upgrade from 4.7 should be straightforward. Release notes for FusionForge 4.7 --------------------------------- This is the first public release of FusionForge. FusionForge is based on GForge, and started as an identical copy, with only a name change to avoid confusion with the proprietary versions of GForge (known as GForge Advanced Server or GForge AS). As such, it benefits from mature code and known-good infrastructure, and builds on it for the future. This 4.7 release is focused on bringing the recent evolutions out to the community in an official stable release. This should provide a solid base as a starting point for community-based development, making it easier for enhancements to be maintained. The FusionForge name was chosen to reflect this: this is a community effort, and we hope to hear about your improvements. Contributing these improvements would make their future long-term maintenance easier for everyone. Major changes since previous versions (of GForge) include: - Support for PHP5. - Support for PostgreSQL 8.x. - Translations are now managed by gettext. - Support for several configurations running on the same code. - Improved security, no need for PHP register_globals. - Available as full install CD. - New wiki plugins (using MediaWiki or phpWiki). - New online_help plugin. - New phpwebcalendar plugin. - New project hierarchy plugin. Things to keep in mind when installing: - FusionForge is based on GForge, and the renaming is quite recent. So the code still contains lots of references to GForge. This will be fixed as time passes. - Full text search using the primitives provided by PostgreSQL 8.3 isn't quite complete yet. - Not all plugins are packaged for all distributions yet. Things to keep in mind when upgrading: - Since internationalisation was changed from a hand-made system to standard gettext, locally customised translations will no longer override standard ones. This will be addressed in a future release. For more up-to-date information, please visit http://fusionforge.org/ or http://fusionforge.fusionforge.org/ -- you can even join us on IRC from there! -- The FusionForge development team