This is the fourth IPB 2.0.0 development update. These updates are designed to keep you informed on the development progress of Invision Power Board v2.0.0.
We've almost completed IPB 2.0.0 PDR 3 and this is where things get quite exciting as we begin to wrap up the 'middle' part of the last stage of development and testing. So far we're very pleased with the progress and the great work in finding and reporting bugs.
The last few features are being added for PDR 3 including the last elements of the new skinning and templating system. We have also fixed up a number of the largest bugs reported and are pleased with the overall stability and security of the system.
New feature: Template Search and Replace
We have included a very useful search and replace tool to improve upon the functionality offered in IPB 1. The new search now enables you to 'quick' search through the template set and its parents for keywords or HTML tags. The results are shown in a familiar format and you can edit them from there or preview the matches. This is very handy if you've seen a block of HTML in the output and wish to trace where it is stored within the database system.
There is also a more powerful 'search and replace' tool which enables one to enter regular expressions to match and optionally replace HTML. You can simply preview the matches and the replacements if you wish to just search using regular expressions or to ensure that you have your expressions correct. Of course, you can just search and replace normal text without needing to learn regular expressions.
The usefulness of this tool shouldn't be overlooked as it enables one to make global and sweeping changes to your templates with little work. An example: you might wish to make sure that all your DIVs are called using IDs and not classes. To enable this, all you'd need to do is enter "<divs+?class=(["'])" and replace with "<div id=\1". (Of course we're not suggesting that you actually do that...)
Latest Release Date Estimates
PDR3 (next beta release): Monday 17th May
RC1 (first supported release): Thursday 27th May
Please note that these dates are only estimates and should only be used as a guide. They are subject to change without notice due to the unpredictable nature of software development. Put simply: they are dates that seem reasonable based on the current speed of development.
What's left to do?
We've still got a fair bit of work to do before IPB 2 reaches release candidate quality. The full feature set is now implemented (apart from a few minor tweaks and enhancements). I hope to have full database abstraction for PDR 4 and the remainder of the reported bugs should be fixed by then also.
Skins and Languages
As mentioned in other announcements, the skins and language sets are not complete and will receive an overhaul during the development cycle. As a rule of thumb, the skins and langauges will not be complete until PR 1 (RC 1).
Upgrading to PDR 3 from PDR 1 or 2
We have initiated our new upgrade system and a new upgrade module will be written for PDR 3.
Upgrading from 1.3 to 2.0.0
There is currently no upgrade path from 1.3 to 2.0.0. We plan on writing the upgrade script for around PDR 4 (Beta 4). Until then please don't try and import a 1.3 database into 2.0 - it simply won't work.
I can't wait to get more trolls so we can use those new ACP features. 
