/**
* @version $Id: README.txt 4352 2011-02-01 05:05:23Z fxstein $
* Kunena Component
* @package Kunena
* @Copyright (C) 2008-2011 Kunena All rights reserved.
* @license http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU/GPL
* @link http://www.kunena.org
**/

Kunena README

PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE FILE BEFORE INSTALLING Kunena 1.6.4-DEV!

Introduction
============

The Kunena Team is excited to announce the release of Kunena 1.6.3. This is a 
maintenance & security release for Kunena 1.6 but its main goal is to provide 
native support for Joomla! 1.6 and all users are recommended to upgrade to 
Kunena 1.6.3 (backup and testing are strongly recommended!).
Since the stable release of Kunena 1.6, the Kunena team has been focused on 
fixing over 100 bugs; including fixing issues with CSS, router, API, HTML 
validation, issues with Joomla! 1.6 and usability. Official Kunena modules and 
plug-ins have been updated as well as language translations.
Kunena 1.6 marks a major milestone for the Kunena Project. A long list of open 
source contributors have committed over 3,000 changes helping make Kunena the 
leading forum solution for both Joomla 1.5 and 1.6. A long list of new features, 
various optimizations, and code restructuring have resulted in the most advanced 
version of Kunena to date.
We continue to put a big emphasis on usability and ease of installation. The 
installer has been further enhanced to allow for multiple installation and 
upgrade options. It performs incremental steps to avoid timeouts on slower hosts. 
It automatically performs actions such as taking the forum offline during the 
installation or upgrade and re-enables it after completing the install.
Kunena now supports Joomla 1.6 style languages files that are backward 
compatible with Joomla 1.5. Multiple languages are included in the base install 
packages and more will be available soon. They can also be installed separately. 
Kunena 1.6 support multiple languages installed on a single system and, together 
with Joomla, allows users to select their preferred language.
Templates have now been separated from the underlying code, which allows for 
version-independent template development. Templates can embed various options 
that can be set via the included template manager (e.g. avatar position on left, 
right, top, or bottom in the new default template, Blue Eagle).
The Kunena Team is fully committed to Joomla 1.6 and beyond and a number of 
modules have been developed to lay the groundwork for future releases of Joomla.

What is New?
============

The new features in Kunena 1.6.x include:

Improved Language Support:
--------------------------

Included languages: Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, 
Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, 
Polish, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Taiwanese, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese and 
Yugoslavian.
Uses standard Joomla! 1.6 language files (backwards compatible with Joomla 1.5.x)
Added support for installable language packs (using the Joomla installer)

New Kunena Template Manager:
----------------------------

Centralized template system with installable templates
New default template Blue Eagle
New auto-blending option (codename: "Skinner") as part of the default template
Example template included, for use as a foundation when creating new templates
Template parameters that allow more freedom for template designers and site 
administrators
Added support for icon sets allows different button and icon variations

New Integrated Polls Feature:
-----------------------------

Allow forum members to setup and participate in polls
Category specific: enable the feature from Category Manager
Global settings to modify the poll behavior
Migrate data from the Kunena 1.5 poll hack

Improved Topic and Post Moderation:
-----------------------------------

Ability to restore and purge deleted posts within the Trash Manager (backend)
Unapproved or deleted topics and posts can be seen in many views
Delete, restore and approve posts while reading topic
Simplified move, merge and split
Move current or newer posts into another category or (new) topic
Ability to move or delete all posts of a particular user (supports better spam 
management)
User profile access for moderators even if integrated with JomSocial, CB or 
others

New User Moderation Features:
-----------------------------

Users can be banned directly from their profile
Ban only from the forum (= read only access) or from the entire website
Ban user for a limited time (ban from the forum only)
Allow moderators to share ban reasons and add comments to it
Ban history and show all previous bans on the user's profile page
List banned users in the Ban Manager on the moderator's profile page

New Posting and End User Features:
----------------------------------

Multiple attachment support (AJAX-based)
Category subscriptions
New 'Thank you' system for thanking the poster for their message
Users can delete their own messages (configurable by time)
Anonymous Tipping: allow users to post topics in a defined category completely 
anonymously (no IP, no tracking, totally anonymous)
Google Maps integration - display basic maps inside of posts
New BBCode tags like [article], [attachment], [confidential], [map], [table], 
[tableau] and others
Enhanced BBCode [quote] with reference to user and post
Selectable date/time format display options for all time displays and 
independent for tooltips (relative "ago" vs absolute)

Usability Improvements:
-----------------------

Improved RSS features
Color coded categories
Color coded usernames
Code highlighting with Geshi
Many improvements in administrator backend interface

Integration with Other Components:
----------------------------------

New integration system that allows easy integration of avatars, profiles and 
user lists, login and registration, private messaging, activity notifications 
and basic access control
Integrations included: Alpha UserPoints, Community Builder, JomSocial and UddeIM
New Router and Menu System
Uses Joomla menus to navigate the Kunena component
Easy to build your own custom Kunena menus with Joomla's Menu Item Manager
Option to have categories located outside main forum
Automatic super-routing uses best matching menu item for each page

New Installer:
--------------

Step-by-step details of the installation process
Fully automatic migration from Kunena 1.0.x and 1.5.x
Migrate from FireBoard 1.0.0 - 1.0.5 without using external tools
If migration fails, restore from backup or try again
Option to cleanly uninstall Kunena 1.6 completely from your site
Support third party ACL components with Joomla 1.5
Add ACL support with JXtended Access Control
Add ACL support with NoixACL Access Control
Add ACL support with ArtofUser
Integration with Jomsocial Groups
Discussions in Jomsocial groups are now saved and synched in Kunena thanks to a specific plugin

Other Changes:
--------------

Converted from jQuery to MooTools 1.2 for better compatibility
CSS and JavaScript minification using the YUI compressor for faster loading 
(disabled when debug is turned on)
Uses CSS sprites for faster loading and fewer server hits
Almost all code moved out of templates
Basic API for Joomla modules and plug-ins
Now uses #__kunena prefixed tables instead of #__fb
Use /media/kunena instead of /images/fbfiles for avatars and new attachments
Latest version checking
Native Joomla! 1.6 support

System Requirements
===================

Joomla 1.5.20 Minimum Version Required (Mootools 1.2.x)
-------------------------------------------------------

Kunena 1.6.x no longer uses jQuery and requires MooTools 1.2+. Since the release 
of Joomla 1.5.20, the Mootools 1.2.4 system plug-in is now included with Joomla 
1.5 and this Joomla! contains various fixes on router mecanism. The MooTools 
plug-in that was included in previous development versions of Kunena is no 
longer needed. Going forward, Joomla 1.6 will include MooTools 1.2.4 and Kunena 
is already compatible with this version.

PHP 5.2.3
---------

Kunena 1.6.x requires PHP 5.2.3 or higher. We have also tested it on PHP 5.3.x. 
In general we currently recommend PHP 5.2.x due to its maturity.

MySQL 5.0.0
-----------

Kunena in general and especially version 1.6.x rely on advanced SQL features 
introduced in MySQL 5.0.x. MySQL 4.x is no longer support even though Joomla 1.5 
itself can be run on certain versions of MySQL 4.x. The main difference is the 
amount of database workload generated by a forum component compared to the 
basic CMS functionality.

Third party components requirements
-----------------------------------

If you want running with Kunena 1.6.3, Jomsocial, Community Builer, UddeIm or 
Alpha User Points, you need to have the following versions of these components 
to avoid any issues :

Jomsocial 1.6.x
Community Builer 1.2.3
UddeIm 2.1
Alpha User Points 1.5.12

Third party ACL components requirements
---------------------------------------

If you want use third party ACL components with Kunena 1.6.3 and Joomla! 1.5, 
you need to use at least the following versions :

NoixACL 2.0.6
JXtended Control 1.0.7
ArtofUser 1.0.5

Downloading Kunena
------------------

Find the latest package files here: 
http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/kunena/frs

We use the power of JoomlaCode as our main repository for the public SVN. 
We encourage all users and open source developers to help develop fixes, 
features and enhancements to the existing code base. If you are interested in 
contributing, please provide a patch or enhanced branch and we will be happy to 
consider it for inclusion in the main code branch (quality and feature 
completeness permitting).
Find the SVN source code repository here: 
http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/kunena/scmsvn/

The only official Kunena distributions are available from the links above or 
directly at http://www.kunena.org. 
There are currently no officially supported alternative download mirrors 
supported and users are encouraged to visit http://www.kunena.org for the latest 
version of all available Kunena packages.

Compatibility with Third-party Kunena Templates
===============================================

Templates designed for Kunena 1.5.x will NOT work with Kunena 1.6.x due to major 
architectural changes in the code and structure of the component.

All the logic has been removed from the template to make it much easier for 
template designers to create Kunena templates.
Check out the short guide on how to quickly customize a Kunena 1.6 template 
in just a few minutes: 
http://www.kunena.org/forum/159-common-questions/53519-the-5-minute-quick-and-dirty-kunena-16-template

More tutorials and instructions are available in the forums to make templates 
for Kunena 1.6.x.

Compatibility with Third-party Kunena Modules
=============================================

Kunena 1.6.x is not compatible with modules or plug-ins designed for previous 
versions and we recommend you uninstall all Kunena 1.5 extensions before 
installing or upgrading.

Kunena 1.6.x now provides an updated API for easy creation of modules or 
plug-ins. The Kunena team has created several new plug-ins and modules which 
leverage the new API and can be used with Kunena 1.6.x. These extensions can be 
found in the Kunena Extension Directory: 
http://www.kunena.org/ked

Installing or Upgrading Kunena
==============================

Be sure your setup meets or exceeds the minimum Technical Requirements or the 
install/upgrade process will fail. If it fails, your data will be left untouched.
To install Kunena, make sure you read our Installation Instructions before 
beginning. To upgrade Kunena from previous versions (including FireBoard), 
make sure you read the Upgrade Instructions.
The Kunena installer now handles both installs and upgrades of existing 
installations without the need for user intervention, manual SQL execution, or 
migration procedures. It also keeps a detailed log of all Kunena versions 
installed on your site in order to perform incremental upgrades as necessary. 
This means that a site administrator doesn't have to worry about complicated 
installation or upgrade procedures.
We would like to underscore the importance of backups before and after any 
upgrade process. Never perform an install or upgrade without a full backup.

Credits
=======

An open source project like Kunena requires the dedication and investment of 
personal time from various contributors. This version of Kunena Forum has been 
made possible by the following contributors:

fxstein Kunena developer and admin of http://www.starVmax.com/forum/
Matias Kunena developer
severdia - Kunena developer, Joomla Leadership Team Member, and admin of PlayShakespeare.com
xillibit Kunena developer
@quila Kunena contributor
810 Kunena contributor
alakentu Kunena moderator
LDA Kunena contributor
Rich Kunena moderator
sozzled Kunena moderator

Special thanks go to Beat and the CB Testing team, Cerberus, DTP2, LittleJohn 
and JoniJnm for significant contributions to Kunena. In addition many members of 
http://www.Kunena.org have contributed and helped make this a more stable and 
bugfree version. Our thanks go out to all contributors of Kunena!

Language credits
================

English translation was made by Kunena Team with many suggestions and corrections
from our community. We also like to give special thanks to all our translators, 
who have worked hard to localise Kunena to their own languages.

ONLINE README
=============

For details about this release and how to install or upgrade to it please see:

http://docs.kunena.org/index.php/Kunena_1.6.4-DEV_Read_Me

END OF README
=============
