My vBulletin Blog ;-)

vBadvanced is proud to announce that our newest product, vBadvanced Blogicles, is now ready for private beta testing. For those who may be interested in participating in the beta test, please continue to read below for more details.

What is a Blogicle?
A Blogicle is a funny word that we made up from the words "Blog" and "Article". Though the product can be used for MUCH more than a blog or article system, we didn't want to combine too many words and make the name extremely long. ;)
Our main focus for this product has been to make it extremely dynamic so that it can serve a wide variety of purposes. A few examples of this would be a members blog system, articles, file downloads directory, classifieds section, or just about anything similar. Key phrases such as "Category" and "Entry" can be changed via a setting and will affect every instance of that word on the user side of the software. This, combined with some of the options and features of the software make it very easy for you to customize things and use the product to showcase just about anything you would like.


Key Features

• vBulletin Integration - Of course, vBa Blogicles is completely integrated with and built around vBulletin.
  
  
• Settings - Over 140 options making just about every aspect of the software easy to customize to fit your needs.
  
  
• Members' Categories - Make any of your categories a "Members' Category" in which any entries submitted will automatically be placed in a sub-category named after that user. Also included is an option to display a main Members' Category on your index page with a category-type display of all members who have submitted an entry, linking to a page displaying all entries submitted by that user.
  
  
• Advanced Module System - Includes a complete module system which is similar to vBa CMPS, though a bit different. It includes most everything from the CMPS, though with the ability to completely control the layout and position of each module on every different section of the software. There are also optional features to allow your members to customize the modules active on their pages and even add their own BB Code modules. Since the code is based on the CMPS module system, most CMPS modules will be compatible with vBadvanced Blogicles.
  
  Included Default Modules at This Time:
  • About Me
  • Calendar
  • Generic List
  • My Buddies
  • My Favorites
  • My Links
  • Quick Moderation
  • Quick Navigation
  • Random Entries
  • Search
  • What's New
  
  
• Search Engine Optimization Careful attention has gone into SEO for this product. In addition to strategically placed 'rel="nofollow"' tags to help direct search engines, the product also offers spider friendly URL's using mod rewrite. By changing a setting and uploading a .htaccess file from the download package, you can easily change your links from looking like this:
  http://yoursite.com/blog/browseentries.php?c=2
  http://yoursite.com/blog/showentry.php?e=1
  
  To this:
  http://yoursite.com/blog/main-category-2/
  http://yoursite.com/blog/main-catego...est-entry.html
  
  
• AJAX Technology - AJAX technology used throughout including the mini calendar module, quick reply (with no page refresh), ratings, and inline moderation.
  
  
• User Categories - Allow your users to create their own categories and, if you'd like, give them the ability to enable/disable viewing, ratings, replies, and new entries from other members. Also includes options allowing the user to password protect the category and, if desired, give them moderator abilities for that category.
  
  
• Attachments - Allow users to attach files with their entries, similarly to the vBulletin attachment system. Includes thumbnail generation for image files.
  
  
• Permissions Settings - Over 30 different permissions that can be set on a per-usergroup basis, giving you control of what each usergroup is allowed to do. Most of these permissions settings can also be changed on a per-category basis as well.
  
  
• Custom Fields - Different types of custom fields (textarea, text input, radio, select, and checkbox choices) may be added to collect and display additional information about entries.
  
  
• Inline Moderation - Similar to vBulletin's inline moderation system, members with moderator abilities can mass manage entries and posts while browsing through the user side of the program. Abilities include deleting, opening, closing, un-/sticking, un-approving, and moving entries, as well as deleting, moving, and un-approving replies to entries.
  
  
• Private Entries - Allow users to mark their entries as private, meaning only that user and members on their buddy list will be able to view the entry.
  
  
• Drafts - Allow users to save their entries as drafts, meaning that the entry will not be visible to the public until published. The entry will still be accessible via the "My Drafts" link under the "My Stuff" menu.
  
  
• Moderation - Ability to moderate new entries, categories, and posts submitted by users on a per-usergroup basis.
  
  
• Unlimited categories, sub-categories, entries, posts, and etc.
• Sticky Entries.
  
• What's New & What's Popular sections.
• Allow users to comment on entries.
• Allow users to rate links.
• User favorites.
• User subscriptions.
• Advanced searching features.
• Shows the number of views, posts, last person to reply to entries, and etc for each link.
• Advanced sorting options in each category.
• Allow users to send a link to an entry to their friends.
• Allow users to report problematic entries.
• Image verification for guests for searching, submitting, reporting, replying, and sending entries to friends to prevent spam bots.

Live Demos
We have setup a couple of different demos here to show how flexible and dynamic vBadvanced Blogicles is. In the first link below, we have it setup to act more as a blog, and also a few of the default modules enabled.
http://www.vbadvanced.com/blogicles

We have set our second demo up to act more as a file uploading directory, which focuses a little more on file uploads and does not have as many active modules on it's pages.
http://www.vbadvanced.com/blogicles2

As you can see on both, we have also imported some posts from the forums here so that things won't look completely bare at first.

Lastly, here is a link where you can see the admin side of things:
http://www.vbadvanced.com/forum/demo/?script=blog



"Multiple Instance" Licenses
Do you have more than one use in mind for vBadvanced Blogicles? Not a problem! We will also be offering an additional license option called a "Multiple Instance" License. A Multiple Instance License will grant you the right to run as many instances of vBadvanced Blogicles as you would like, though they must be limited to the same domain name. Installing a secondary instance of the software is almost as easy as installing the first instance. Simply select the "Install another instance of vBadvanced Blogicles" option from the install file, choose a prefix to use for your secondary instance, and then you will be asked to add a new line of code to your blog_config.php file. That's it! Each secondary instance will have it's own templates, phrases, database tables, and etc so it will be just like running a totally separate product.



Apply For Beta Testing
First off, remember that this is Beta software! There WILL BE BUGS, and everything may not work properly at first. We will of course do our best to fix any bugs that come up in a timely manner, but we cannot guarantee any time frame for these bug fixes. Also keep in mind that the severity of bugs can be different and there's a possibility that some could result in the loss data from vBadvanced Blogicles or even your vBulletin forum. We certainly hope that there are no bugs that serious, but it is not always possible to discover these problems before beta testing.
Also note that if a problem arises that we are not able to reproduce ourselves then we will ask you to submit a support ticket, including your FTP and forum admin account info. We understand that some people are not comfortable giving out information such as this and allowing others to access their server. If this includes you, we suggest waiting for the public version to be released.

For those who are interested in participating in the beta test, we will be offering both license types at a discount during the beta test. A normal, single use license will be $35. A Multiple Instance License will be an additional $25 (or a total of $60 for the Multiple Instance License). As with our other products, we will be offering our normal Branding Free option as well at $39.99 (sorry, no discount for beta testers on this one). If you purchase a Multiple Instance License along with the Branding Free option, the one time fee of $39.99 for the Branding Free option will cover all instances allowing you to remove the copyright on each. Once the private beta testing is complete and vBadvanced Blogicles is publicly available then the price for each type of license will go up, with exception of the Branding Free option.
To apply to be a beta tester, please send an email to blog_betatest@vbadvanced.com with the following information:


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vBadvanced username:

Real name:

Web site URL:

Type of license you are interested in: (single or multiple instance)

Please describe how you intend to use vBadvanced Blogicles (ex: Blog, Articles, File downloads, etc):

Are you currently using another product that you wish to import data from?
If so, which product?
If an import script cannot be created for the product, are you still interested in switching to vBadvanced Blogicles?


Server / vBulletin Info
PHP Version:
MySQL Version:
Operating System (Linux, Windows, etc):
Do you use table prefixes in your vBulletin tables?

Any additional comments (optional):

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Please be sure to include all information above as incomplete applications will not be considered.

Please note that we will only be accepting a limited number of beta testers, so don't wait to apply if you are interested. Also note that we will be looking for specific server setups, uses, and etc, so not everyone who applies will be accepted.



I belive that should cover most everything. If you have any additional questions or comments though please feel free to post them in this thread.