XenForo
| Developer(s) | XenForo Limited, Kier Darby, Mike Sullivan |
|---|---|
| Initial release | March 8, 2011 |
| Stable release | 1.0.2
/ May 25, 2011 |
| Written in | PHP |
| Operating system | Cross Platform |
| Platform | PHP / MySQL |
| Available in | Official support for English |
| Type | Forum software |
| License | Proprietary, commercial |
| Website | http://xenforo.com/ |
XenForo is a commercial Internet forum software written in the PHP programming language using the Zend Framework (A Rapid Application Development Framework). The software is developed by a team led by former vBulletin lead developers Kier Darby and Mike Sullivan. The first public beta release of XenForo was released in October 2010. XenForo 1.0.0 Stable has been released on March 8, 2011 [1]
Development
One of the developers of XenForo, Kier Darby originally served as a lead developer for the community platform vBulletin. The original owner of the software, Jelsoft, was acquired by the American new media company Internet Brands in 2007. Disagreements between the lead developers and the new management over matters involving the next big release of vBulletin, version 4.0 (including a rejection of their desire to make 4.0 a complete rewrite of the platform as opposed to Internet Brands preferring the use of agile development) led most of the original vBulletin developers to step down from employment at Internet Brands in 2009.[2][3]
Internet Brands lawsuits
One day before the originally scheduled release for the first public beta of XenForo in October 2010, Internet Brands announced that it would file a lawsuit against the XenForo team in the United Kingdom claiming; copyright infringement of property acquired by Internet Brands, that code in XenForo was re-factored from vBulletin code (despite XenForo's claim that the system was built from the ground up using an object-oriented framework and, the fact that a public release had not even been made yet), breach of contract, and engaging in unfair business practices.[3] Representatives also claimed that XenForo "unfairly stands on the shoulders of more than a decade of development", development which had become the property of Internet Brands through the acquisition. In November 2010, Internet Brands sued XenForo and also Kier himself in California District Court in the United States, additionally claiming that Kier had not returned confidential information from Internet Brands regarding the vBulletin software. The XenForo team has denied the claims made by Internet Brands in these lawsuits. Additionally, Internet Brands also denied that the timing of the lawsuit was to coincide with the first public beta of the software.[4]
On 7th February, Judge Manual Real denied all three motions, by XenForo and its developer Kier Darby, to dismiss the case on grounds of forum non conveniens, non-subject matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction in California arguing that the California lawsuit is duplicative of the UK action[citation needed]. On 4th April, Judge Manuel Real granted a motion by XenForo to dismiss the 7th and 8th claims of the litigation which dealt with alleged violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and California Penal Code § 502[5]
Version Release Dates
XenForo Beta 1 Released October 5th 2010
XenForo Beta 2 Released October 21st 2010
XenForo Beta 3 Released November 11th 2010
XenForo Beta 4 Released December 3rd 2010
XenForo Beta 5 Released December 10th 2010
XenForo Beta 6 Released January 13th 2011
XenForo Release Candidate 1 Released January 20th 2011
XenForo Release Candidate 2 Released February 3rd 2011
XenForo Release Candidate 3 Released February 22nd 2011
XenForo 1.0.0 Stable Released March 8th 2011
XenForo 1.0.1 Stable Released April 5th 2011
XenForo 1.0.2 Stable Released May 25th 2011
Release history
| Colour | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Red | Pre-release beta versions |
| Green | Supported stable branch |
| Blue | Future versions |
| Version | Release date | Notable changes |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0.0 beta 1 | 5 October 2010 | Initial pre-release |
| 1.0.0 beta 2 | 21 October 2010 | |
| 1.0.0 beta 3 | 11 November 2010 | |
| 1.0.0 beta 4 | 3 December 2010 | |
| 1.0.0 beta 5 | 10 December 2010 | |
| 1.0.0 beta 6 | 13 January 2011 | |
| 1.0.0 beta RC1 | 20 January 2011 | |
| 1.0.0 beta RC2 | 3 February 2011 | |
| 1.0.0 beta RC3 | 22 February 2011 | |
| 1.0.0 | 8 March 2011 | 'Gold' release |
| 1.0.1 | 5 April 2011 | |
| 1.0.2 | 25 May 2011 | |
| 1.1 | TBA (summer 2011) | Topic prefixes, RTL, etc... |
References
- ^ "Nearly There..." xenForo. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
- ^ Metz, Cade. "vBulletin denies busting downloads in paid-up protester ban". The Register. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
- ^ a b Metz, Cade. "vBulletin sues ex-devs over 'from scratch' competitor". The Register. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
- ^ Metz, Cade. "Forumware giant vBulletin sues ex-devs (again)". The Register. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
- ^ "A Statement Regarding the Current Litigation". XenForo. Retrieved 15 April 2011.