We don't usually introduce new features in patch releases. In this particular situation, I wanted to make sure all Active Forums 4.2 customers received the patch and didn't want to hold these new features for another release. Most of these new features are very subtle, but offer great benefits.
Shorter URLs
It's 2010 and no longer acceptable to have a url filled with unnecessary parameters. While this still isn't our ultimate URL solution, it is the first step we needed to take. For example, prior to Active Forums 4.2.5, a link to a particular topic would look something like this:
/tabid/123/aff/123/afv/topic/aft/123456/default.aspx
With Shorter URLs enabled it will now look like this:
/tabid/123/aft/123456/default.aspx
All old urls are still supported and will be redirected using a 301 to keep search engines happy and reduce the appearance of duplicate content. New installs will have Short URLs enabled by default, but upgrades will need to enable this option from Community tab under the Settings section in the Active Forums Control Panel.
Breadcrumb Skin Integration
Active Forums has always provided a breadcrumb navigation element as part of the templates. However, this doesn't provide the best usability option when a site design already incorporates a breadcrumb object. Active Forums will now update the breadcrumb object of your skin instead of using the one in the module template. This is the default behavior for new installs, but upgrades will need to enable this option from the community tab under the Settings section of the Active Forums Control Panel.
SEO Improvements - Page Titles and Meta Tags
Active Forums has always updated the page title for the page listing forum topics and also the the actual topic page. We are now updating the title for all views: Unanswered, Not Read, My Topics, Active Topics, My Profile, Members and Search. The Search title will also be updated to include the keywords supplied for search as well.
The Forum Topics list and Topic View also have a new option that will allow you to template the Title, Description and Keywords. More details about this will be posted in the Active Forums Knowledge Base.