Will M
Forum Admin
Active Modules Staff
Posts:2042
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| 09 Jun 2008 07:31 PM |
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It looks like we will have a preview version of Active Forums 3.8 available late tomorrow or Wednesday. This will not be an upgrade version. We will not release the preview to customers that do not have a test environment.
We have really made some drastic improvements and need to make sure the upgrade process is seamless. Why did we make such drastic changes? Mainly, the code base for Active Forums is almost 5 years old. Many improvements have been made since then and we have learned a few things along the way too. Also, we have some pretty exciting features lined-up for Active Forums, which just weren't possible with the current architecture.
What else are you getting in Active Forums 3.8 other than new features? How about some major performance improvements.
One of my personal development philosophies since my ASP 1.0 days is if you can't generate the view you want with one database hit then you are doing something wrong. While we can't control the main DotNetNuke shell, we certainly can control our own modules. As you can see from the table below, Active Forums has not been following that process. One of the architecture goals for 3.8 was to make sure we adhered to that rule for all the main views. Here is a spreadsheet that will give you a rough idea of the performance improvements.
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3.7 |
4.0 |
| Database Objects |
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| Tables |
23 |
22 |
| Stored Procedures |
193 |
78 |
| Views |
4 |
5 |
| User Defined Functions |
4 |
3 |
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| Server Footprint |
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| Total Files |
1140 |
675 |
| Total Install Size |
2,500kb |
1,425kb |
| Main Assembly |
670kb |
420kb |
| Data Assembly |
64kb |
30kb |
| Persisted Memory Utilization |
64-128kb+ |
0 |
| Session State |
~2kb/user |
0 |
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| Database hits |
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| Main View |
4 + 2 per forum |
1 |
| Topics View |
4 to 6 |
1 |
| Topic View |
4 + 2 per reply |
1 |
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| Results generated with all caching disabled
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Will Morgenweck
Active Modules
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Chris
Customers
Posts:43
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| 10 Jun 2008 12:47 AM |
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Great news Will! Can you add me to the disti for the preview release? I most definitely have a test environment and am chomping at the bit to start poking at this new release. BTW, I know you guys probably can't force people to convert to sql 2005 but you can get drastic performance improvements for your remaining UDF's by developing them in .net under the CLR. I am sure one of the reasons you guys decreased your UDF's is because of the major performance hit they caused in 2000 and even 2005 when they aren't compiled code. Anyhow, you can find major gains by writing UDF's in 2005 under the CLR, I have seen 10x performance improvements in some areas.
Thanks,
Chris
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My Name is George, I have a hat. |
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Will M
Forum Admin
Active Modules Staff
Posts:2042
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| 10 Jun 2008 01:40 AM |
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Thanks Chris. I will definitely keep you updated.
Actually, right now our build is optimized for SQL Server 2005. We have changed the way we handle record paging and it's a method not supported for SQL Server 2000. Forcing customers to SQL Server 2005 isn't really an option, but we can try and make it more appealing.
The new stored procedures are much better than what is in 3.7, but even the new procs will be further optimized over the next few updates. |
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Will Morgenweck
Active Modules
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John Henley
Customers
Posts:55
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| 10 Jun 2008 09:21 AM |
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| Will, I would be happy to do some testing for you on the 3.8 release as well as the upgrade process. |
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mrnags
Customers
Posts:8
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| 10 Jun 2008 10:12 AM |
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Thats good Will.
I am ready to test it as i have a test environment.
Also, I can install it on my site also, as I have not yet launched the forum with version 3.7 (I have postponed the launch as I don't want to confuse the visitors with a changed layout so soon.Therefore decided to wait for 3.8) if you think thats perfect.
-K.S.Nagarajan,
New Horizon Media |
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palaceguard
Customers
Posts:11
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| 10 Jun 2008 10:25 AM |
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| I also have a test environment and I'm willy to test. |
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mymagiczone.com - social networking for magicians |
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Duane B Sims
Customers
Posts:71
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| 10 Jun 2008 11:05 AM |
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| Will, great improvements, can't wait to see the rest. Please put me down for testing 3.8 release too. I just installed a new server with 2k5 sql just for this. |
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swebster
Customers
Posts:120
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| 10 Jun 2008 11:18 AM |
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| Me too Will. |
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Steven Webster
Overlook Technologies
www.overlooktechnologies.com |
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Marc Huijbregts
Customers
Posts:70
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| 10 Jun 2008 12:33 PM |
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Hi Will,
I will be able to test the upgrade process to version 3.8 in my testenvironment together with Active Profile & Active Message installed.
Regards,
Marc |
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Regards,
Marc
www.biservices.eu for FREE nl-NL ResourcePacks (Incl. AF & AM) |
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Shad Pulley
Customers
Posts:48
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| 10 Jun 2008 03:48 PM |
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| I have a dev/test environment and would be willing to help you test the upgrade path.. |
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Shad Pulley
Webmaster - Model Railroads Online
Follow my progress as I convert to DNN in my blog:
http://RenovatingMLS.blogspot.com |
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AllanE
Customers
Posts:41
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| 11 Jun 2008 06:58 AM |
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Sign me up too, Will.
Just like "mrnags" I've been delaying the lauch of my new site until the release of 3.8 and I have a test-environemt ready.
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Brad Molzen
Customers
Posts:224
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| 11 Jun 2008 10:11 AM |
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Very nice..... seems like it should be a 4.0 product. :-)
Add me to the testers list as well... I do have a test environment. |
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www.VinoCellar.com - Drinking Wine Makes You Smarter |
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swebster
Customers
Posts:120
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| 11 Jun 2008 01:01 PM |
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Will,
How do you plan to communicate with those of us willing to test 3.8 upgrades? This post? |
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Steven Webster
Overlook Technologies
www.overlooktechnologies.com |
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Will M
Forum Admin
Active Modules Staff
Posts:2042
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| 11 Jun 2008 01:23 PM |
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Thanks for all the replies. I will be emailing all of those interested in testing later today.
Thanks,
Will |
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Will Morgenweck
Active Modules
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Jason Peterson
Customers
Posts:30
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| 11 Jun 2008 03:04 PM |
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| Nice, put me down as well for testing, I have a few test environments to install on. |
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liewforum
Customers
Posts:8
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| 11 Jun 2008 06:16 PM |
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| Since this is on testing stage .... When can I buy it ??? |
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Han
Customers
Posts:57
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| 11 Jun 2008 06:18 PM |
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| I would also like to have a test version. I have from different forums test environments. |
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swebster
Customers
Posts:120
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| 15 Jun 2008 10:40 PM |
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| I never got an email Will. Should we assume you're still working on this? |
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Steven Webster
Overlook Technologies
www.overlooktechnologies.com |
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Will M
Forum Admin
Active Modules Staff
Posts:2042
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| 16 Jun 2008 12:15 AM |
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Thanks for all the replies. Some good and bad news. The bad news, which you already know is that 3.8 hasn't released yet. As you may have noticed from my other posts, this release incorporates numerous changes and improvements. Our original plan was to gradually incorporate the largest changes over three releases: 3.8, 4.0 and 4.5. Releases 3.8 and 4.0 would be the biggest changes architecture wise. However, the upgrade process was proving to be extremely difficult. We did not want to chance jeopardizing anyone's existing install. The decision was made to make this next release a completely new install with a migration path from 3.7. This will allow you to run both versions side-by-side, configure the new version the way you like then import all of your existing data from 3.7. If you think about it, we have had code and files in the NTForums directory that we couldn't remove, but hasn't been used since the 1.0 release. This strategy will allow us to start with a clean slate for Active Forums 4.0 and provide you with the most stable and efficient version of Active Forums we have had to date. I wouldn't say that's entirely bad news, but probably not what a lot of you wanted to hear. Now for the good news.
Many months of development have gone into this release and we have been working non-stop for the past four weeks preparing to finalize this release. Active Forums 4.0 is a complete re-write. A completely revised and optimized data structure that will allow us to support our vision for the most powerful collaboration and social networking solution for DotNetNuke and ASP.NET websites. We have completed features and enhancements that were not planned for completion until late September. We have been working with standards, css, seo and design experts to help improve all aspects of the application. We have reviewed nearly every feature request that we have received over the past two years and incorporated those requests that added benefit to all. Not to mention the fact we are still working on a seamless integration with Active Profile and Active Messaging. Active Forums 4.0 is a fantastic product, but it's really just a key piece to the total solution we are working towards for Open Force 08 in November.
Moderation is the last piece we need to finish up for this release. I do expect that we will have a demo site online and beta package ready no later June 24th. Our new target release date is now July 9th.
I have created a new topic in the Active Forums General Discussion forum for answering questions or addressing any concerns that customers may have.
Thanks,
Will |
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Will Morgenweck
Active Modules
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Jashan Chittesh
Customers
Posts:18
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| 16 Jun 2008 03:31 AM |
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That sounds great to me! Like many others, I've been delaying adding the forum to my page as I've been waiting for 3.8 (or now I guess 4.0 would be more appropriate?) - I've had 3.7 on another page and was very happy, and now I'm all excited about getting the new version on the new site.
The thing I'll be most interested in for a start is customizing the appearance, as I want to fully integrate ActiveForums into my site "design-wise"...
I'd also have a few testing environments, and the new Website is for a game which is not even in beta, yet, so one might consider that a "testing environment", too ;-) Let me know if I could install a beta of ActiveForums 3.8/4.0 to that site (I'm planning to go "productive" in August).
Sunny regards,
Jashan
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