This is where I'll attach new versions of the package.  This is a fully working piece, just upload, run the SQL, and change the following variables in Settings.pl:

Code ####### Database Settings ######## $forumdbdb = ""; $forumdbserver = ""; $forumdbuser = ""; $forumdbpass = ""; $forumprefix = "";

You'll still need to make your own user and insert the id into the members part of the ranks table.  Other than that, a lot of the stuff should work.  Admin options should work fine now (a lot of them anyway ).

benefits?

- Speed
- Reliability
- Easier to manage (from my side especially )

What more can I say?? lol

I've started work on the Installer (and in turn the fully working converter ).

I started and finished the search functions.  All I can say is searching 50,000 messages in less than a second or two is pretty nice.    Searches are still cached the old way (so the only new stuff is the actual search features).  Searches are limited to 300 results (though that may be decreased).  Right now I don't know that the "new posts" things work, but posts since last visit should.

Lots of things are cached.  There are about 8 cached queries each load.  Most of these are small files (my total cache is less than 30KB's).  I've compared other forums, and the number of queries E-Blah pulls appears to either be the same or lower (on a normal load it's looking to be around 5 to 10, with another 5 to 8 being cached).  The key is also to have less data being transacted, which I've tried to lower and will continue to do before release.

Extensive log was added yesterday.  Member deletion was completed yesterday.  It's a lot nicer code.  

Speaking of code, the SQL version is sitting around 769KB's right now (10.2 was 851KB's).  There's just a lot of bulk that can be removed.

There will still be a Prefs directory, which will house the Sessions data, Search data, and possibly the cache directory.  Temp data will probably not be sent to the database (such as temporary posting data, which tracks the number of attachments you have).  This would just been queries that simply aren't needed and that are just a waste.  Some of them will be added to the database though.  The key with the SQL version is both better speed and reliability, while also being more flexible and all.

After the next release, I plan on taking a long break from coding for a while and actually do something away from the computer ... this new version has taken a lot more time than I anticipated.  I admit, I think it's going about as fast as it could, though -- and I wasn't actually planning on being able to actually do this.  There's still a lot of work to do on it, but it's coming along.  I still hope to be able to convert the forums here by the end of the week, and also make a search engine friendly fix for the new thread ids.  I still can't promise anything though.

Questions?  Ask them.  

What defines long break?  Weeks/Months/Years?  Will you still push out security patches?
I'm not worried about them, just curious.  Splendid job, btw. This is a truly amazing piece of software.  

When would you recommend changing over to the SQL version for forums?  
Sorry for the multiple part questions.

Not for a while yet.  You can convert them, but be prepared to do some table changes.

And with the break, I'm not really sure.  I'll still do bug fixes and such.