This past October, we announced a comprehensive update was in the works for Extend MyBB. Today, we are pleased to announce that those changes are now live. As we mentioned then, the entire Extend MyBB platform has been completely redesigned with a new, far more intuitive user interface.

The majority of the functionality remains the same; however, there have been some notable changes and improvements worth mentioning.

What’s changed?

New build review process

Previously, when a new build was uploaded, it was marked as a dev build. These builds were available for download to the public. You could then mark a build as stable, which would then place the build in a queue for a member of the MyBB staff to review. This queue often became long, leading to siginifcant delays in reviewing builds. Additionally, the distinction between dev builds and stable builds was not abundantly clear.

Starting today, for both new and existing projects, you will be able to mark builds as development or stable at any time without any review from MyBB staff. Instead, there is a new Reviewed by Staff badge and queue, separate from the dev/stable status, to distinguish builds that have been reviewed by the MyBB staff. Both dev builds and stable builds can be submitted for review by MyBB staff. Whether or not a build has been reviewed by MyBB staff is indicated on the build’s download page.

All builds that, prior to today, had been marked as stable are now also marked as Reviewed by Staff.

Build version numbering

You can now specify a version number for each build rather than relying on the change logs and build numbers to differentiate between builds. Build version numbers do not have to be unique, meaning, for instance, you can upload development builds of a new version of a plugin before uploading a stable build with the same version number. When uploading a new build or editing an existing build, you also have the option of automatically updating the project’s version number to match the build you are uploading or editing.

Recommendations are now Stars

Recommendations have been renamed to stars. The functionality is identical; however, you can now see a listing of all projects that you have starred by going to your My Projects page and clicking on Stars. We felt the name change was appropriate given this added functionality.

Select multiple categories

There are often plugins (and themes) that fall into multiple categories. Previously, you were required to select a single category that best described your project. No more. You can now select multiple categories for plugin, theme, and graphics projects, or, if none of them fit, you don’t have to select any category (eliminating the “Miscellaneous” categories). Most of the plugin categories remain unchanged; however, theme categories have changed significantly and most themes will need to select a new category.

Translations improvements

In an effort to make finding the MyBB translation for your language easier, we have streamlined translations projects to ensure they will be more consistent moving forward. Translations can no longer upload preview images; instead, there are a number of pre-defined languages with pre-selected flags that you can choose from when uploading a translation. If the language for the translation you are uploading is not available, you can manually specify the language. However, we encourage you to contact us in Private Inquiries so your language can be added to the drop down menu, allowing a flag to be displayed alongside your translation.

Changes to preview images

Preview images can now be re-ordered rather than being displayed in an arbitrary order. Additionally, we now recommend you upload a square image of at least 200px x 200px for your cover image.

Additionally, due to changes with thumbnail sizes for all preview images, it is highly recommended that you re-upload your preview images so that the thumbnails can be re-generated at the appropriate size.

Wrapping up

A lot of time has been spent in redesigning and improving the MyBB Extend platform and we hope you find it easier to use. While it has undergone significant testing, it is still likely that there will be a few bugs in the upgraded platform. Please post about any bugs or issues you experience in the MyBB.com Community & Site Issues forum, including detailed instructions on how to reproduce the bug.

Enjoy!