The first public beta of ProofBuddy 2.0 is available and ready for download.

Edit: It appears that this version of the beta does not work on servers that still have PHP version 4 installed rather than the current version 5.  The developers of PHP officially stopped supporting PHP 4 on 12/31/2007.  The most recent release is from 8/7/2008, but is only a bug release.

It does seem that many ProofBuddy users are stuck on servers still using PHP4 however and we are currently working through a series of issues specific to PHP4 that should allow ProofBuddy to again fully run on these servers. 

Changes & Updates

Customization

The biggest changes between version 1.0 and 2.0 are under the hood.  ProofBuddy 2.0 was totally rewritten to allow for plugins.  Version 1.0 had a plugin system but after working on a couple of plugin ideas we realized that the system just wasn’t up to the level it needed to be.  The plugin system in 2.0 gives plugin authors the ability to add tabs, add options, and apply filters to pages before they’re displayed.  And we do have several plugins in the pipeline to go with the few that are already online.  Be sure to check out the plugin browser under Options -> Plugins.

And along the same lines, be sure to check out the Theme Browser under Options -> Themes.  There was a theme browser in 1.0 but it was a small link that many users didn’t notice.  You can now browse available themes and, depending on how permissions are set on your server, install them with one click.  You also will notice a better file editor.

Ajax

Ajax is one of those web design buzzwords that you see thrown around.  Done right, Ajax can make a web application function much more like a desktop application.  And we feel, and hope that you agree, that ProofBuddy 2.0 is Ajax done right.

One of the most common problem reports we received was that it is difficult to resort pricing items in ProofBuddy 1.0.  2.0 uses Ajax to allow you to drag and drop pricing items up and down in the list. Together with that you can also put pricing items into categories which will, for example, allow you to group Prints, Canvas, and Framed Prints together.

Most of the admin pages are broken down into sections.  Using Ajax ProofBuddy allows you to drag these sections around into whatever order makes sense for you and to minimize the ones that you don’t necessarily want to see.  It’s difficult to explain, but once you see it you’ll like it.  For those of you that are using a recent version of WordPress it’s similar to how the WordPress dashboard works. 

Help

Across the top of the admin pages is a link to our new help system.  Rather than have the help included as part of the download it is now hosted on our site.  This gives us the ability to change the help pages as the need arises rather than only when a new version of ProofBuddy is released.

One issue with the help right now is that it’s not in a finished state.  We’ve been working on getting this beta out so our work on the help system has been lacking.  The pages are going to come online; they’re just not there yet. 

We also plan on extending the comment system on this site onto the help system so that you can post questions and comments directly on the help pages. 

More?

Well, of course there is.  ProofBuddy 2.0 is a major upgrade from 1.0.  But rather than reading about it, how about you click the download link on the bottom of this page and give it a try?

Upgrading

Upgrading from 1.0 should be simply a matter of uploading the files from the 2.0 zip on top of your 1.0 files.  The first time you go to your ProofBuddy site after uploading the new files it will prompt you to update your database.

However, we highly suggest that you backup your files and database first.  And FTP client like FileZilla is your best choice for backing up files.  Be sure to download the entire folder where you have ProofBuddy installed.  You will also want to do a database backup.  On the Admin -> Tools menu is a link that will let you save a dump of your database that can be imported if something goes wron

Notes

Registrations & Upgrades

During the beta period the Pro version of ProofBuddy will be $129.95.  This is $20 off the $149.95 that it will cost after coming out of beta.

For those who are using the Pro version of 1.0 upgrading to the Pro version of 2.0 will be $39.95 during the beta period.  For the first 30 days after the final release upgrades will be $49.95.  After 30 days they will go up to $79.95.  Your discount should be automatically applied when you fill out the registration form.  If it’s not please contact us.

Like with version 1.0 there is still a Lite version that you can download, install, and use as long as you like for free.

Support for the beta

There is a board setup on our support forums specifically for issues found in the beta version.  If it’s something fairly small and trivial there is a comment section on the bottom of this page, although if it’s something that looks to be more than a quick fix we may move the discussion over to the forum. And if you’d prefer we also have a problem support form setup that you can use to email us.

Download

This download has been removed as a newer version of ProofBuddy is available.  Please see our downloads page for the latest version.