Hi, I documented a solution for generating JSON data for flot graphs in UserSpice.

http://pastebin.com/GCDXNB4K

Feedback invited

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My original plan was to call this version 3.0.5, but I've told a lot of folks around the net that they could get all of the new classes that are going in version 4 in any release of UserSpice 3.1 or later (which used to be the beta). It turned out that it was easier to build this version of UserSpice on top of the 3.1 beta than to roll back to 3.0.4 and build from there, hence the version jump.

Version 3.1 was truly another community effort. Much thanks to users DaVaR, Astropos, and Em as well as the rest of you who have posted feedback in the forums and via email. With that out of the way, here's what's new...

1. Added all the classes that are being used in version 4.0 and are being documented on UserSpice.com. They are not being used in version 3.x, but they are there so users can get to know them. They're completely optional...but they're awesome. These features are documented in the documentation menu. The DB class has my new feature for those like astropos who like to keep things procedural. After doing your query, you have the option of getting your results with something along the lines of $results=query->results(true); as opposed to the normal $results=query->results(); That word true returns your query as an associative array or an array of arrays as opposed to returning an object. Party like it's 2005!

2. Deleted some unneccesary files

3. Added .htaccess to some folders. Will add more after testing.

4. Used Google's own test keys as defaults for ReCAPTCHA - Thanks to user astropos for pointing this out

5. Added ini_set("allow_url_fopen", 1); to the top of login and register files to deal with server incompatibilities for some users. Thank you so much Em for giving me a day on your server to properly track this down.

NOTE: If your login/register forms are not working after this update, I NEED to hear back from you. My guess is that commenting out that line will fix it, but I need to make sure adding that line didn't break anything. So far it hasn't but you never know.

6. Thanks to feedback and coding from user astropos, I broke the footer into two files to allow users to use per-page javascript.

7. All code was reindented.

I've come to realize those long php echo forms that were part of UserCake actually cause a performance hit on the server. Recoding those is next on the agenda for version 3.1. It's already done in version 4, but I think that's one thing I should port back to version 3.

As always, feedback is appreciated.

An audit table and functions for UserSpice 3.0.4

http://pastebin.com/8yeYUJ29

My first cut&paste offering - feedback welcome.

As I'm working through the installation process for the new UserSpice, I'm seeing the potential of an entirely new open source project. Basically, instead of editing config files and things like that, the new UserSpice is writing them on the fly. It's also performing validations and things like that to make sure everything is going to go smoothly. I'm sure there will be bugs and I'll offer a fallback option in the interim, but I haven't really seen anything that is free that works that does this. If anyone knows of anything, I'd love to see it. In the mean time, here's a sneak peek at the recaptcha setup.

I created a little check that shows if you entered valid recaptcha keys.
http://puu.sh/mFZbr/67b15d2fb4.png

And if you didn't, it just shows...
http://puu.sh/mFZgO/17dc7188e9.png

I've done a little bit of talking about the direction of US4 and just made a post about putting UserSpice 2.5.x to bed. So where does that leave UserSpice 3.x?

US3 seems to be really stable and about as feature complete as its going to get. As users find bugs due to different server configurations, I'm going back and adding little fixes here and there. So, who should still use US3 today?

1. Users upgrading from UserCake.
US3 with a few documented modifications serves as a direct upgrade to UserCake and US 2.5.x. You basically only have to make one change to the login procedure to deal with the different password hashing algorithms.

2. Anyone wanting to start NOW!
UserSpice 3 works and it's going to be supported for a while, so if you want to start now, go for it. I just want to make ONE suggestion. If you'd like to have the ability to upgrade to US4, don't muck around with the default database tables. Feel free to make additional tables, but don't mess with the originals. The reason? I'm building a migration tool to move your tables to the new table structure and it won't know what to do with your modified tables. It's basically going to copy your existing info to the new tables and leave the old ones alone, so that's pretty nice for testing purposes.

3. Anyone wanting to use purely procedural PHP.
I have some pretty cool things to basically make a hybrid of OOP and Procedural database calls (and results) in US4, so you can still do things the old fashioned way for the most part, BUT, if you want to go 100{3bc1fe685386cc4c3ab89a3f76566d8931e181ad17f08aed9ad73b30bf28114d} procedural, then US3 is the product for you. The code has been working procedurally for 7 years and it will continue to.

A beta release of US4 is expected by February 7, 2016, hopefully sooner if you want to check out what's next.

Unless there is a relatively easily fixed security vulnerability found, we have reached the end of the line for UserSpice Version 2.x.

That project was primarily designed to be a UI and Recaptcha Upgrade for UserCake version 2.0.2 and it is just that. Any UserCake User can drag and drop that on top of their existing code and get a ton of benefit, but the fact remains that the underlying UserCake code is not very practical anymore.

If someone insists on using UserCake and doesn't want to muck around with their database and passwords, 2.5 is a great option, but I personally wouldn't build a NEW project on UserCake 2.0.2 or UserSpice 2.5.x, although I'm amazed that in the UserCake forums there seem to be people determined to do just that.

To each his own. I'm still willing to help, but time and code marches forward and any updates to 2.5.x will either be out of necessity to help a user or because I'm bored.

I wanted to create a thread to make it clear where version 4.0 is going and where I plan on going from there.

Version 4.0
Complete code rewrite
Complete code reorganization
Fully documented classes and features with practical examples
All new classes available to both UserSpice and the you as a developer
Fallback Procedural PHP Querying Options
Much faster code, no more clunky php form echos!
Separate views to speed up front end development
Additional security through additional validation options and PDO database access



Beyond Version 4.0

The goal of 4.0 was to be more or less feature equivalent to UserSpice 3 but with the above benefits and flexibility.
From there, the plan is to add additional features either through plugins, tutorials, or direct code integration.
Additional features such as the ability to pay at registration and other login options will have the ability to turn off and on easily.

More info to come in this thread. Beta test version coming soon!

Hello there,

I just found out about UserSpice and it looks exactly like what I need. So I tryed to get it running on localhost to see if I can get it build into my current project. Setup worked fine but I cant register or log in. I changed the reCaptcha with my own from google and it is working as far as I can see. But when I submit the form the request times out.

Warning: file_get_contents(https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/sit...Bf3ow63e8y in C:\xampp\htdocs\usercake\models\recaptcha.config.php on line 68

Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in C:\xampp\htdocs\usercake\models\recaptcha.config.php on line 68

I tried to figure out where the problem lies but I am kind of lost at the moment.
If you have any idea I appreciate the help.

Best regards

Although I will be changing the database schema, I am also in the process of writing a new install tool that will offer the ability to migrate your database to the new schema. Oh, and you won't have to edit PHP files anymore before starting the install. It just walks you through that process and writes your init file for you.

I knew this day would come, although I didn't think it would happen this quickly. I'm currently in the Alpha stages of a complete rewrite of UserSpice...a completely new codebase that will contain zero code from the original UserCake.

Why? Well, it's time. I could not meet the objective of building a fast, secure, PHP User Management Framework that completely gets out of the way on the existing codebase.

I'm using all new classes that are going to be fully documented. Some of the documentation will come in the form of showing the actual development of the core classes with full explanation. Basically showing from clean sheet to full production. In addition, there will be extended documentation to show real world usage of the core functionality. That's coming slowly but surely in the menu above.

So....What's it going to look like. In early alpha, the code is really setup to meet my get out of the way mentality. Basically, when you install US4, your root will look like this.

/classes - Contains both classes that are available to both US4 and the developer
/core - Core initialization and configuration files
/users - everything else UserSpice related
index.php - Your starting point for your project.

EVERYTHING else is out of the way and giving you a relatively clean slate to start building whatever your heart desires.

If you want to check out the classes, go download version 3.1.x off the homepage. It's more of a dev release to allow people to see what the classes do. Any of the documentation that is up will show what that release has the potential to do, although the bulk of version 3.1 is still sitting on the old codebase.