Invision Power Services
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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|---|---|
| Operating system | Cross Platform |
| Platform | PHP / MySQL (MSSQL available) |
| Type | Forum software |
| Website | http://www.invisionpower.com/ |
Invision Power Services, Inc. (sometimes abbreviated IPS[1]) is a software and web hosting company established in February 2002, probably most well-known for Invision Power Board.
Contents |
[edit] History
Invision Power Services, based in Forest, Virginia[2], was created when Matthew Mecham and Charles Warner left the company known then as Jarvis Entertainment Group (now Westlin Corporation). Mecham, the original author of IkonBoard alleged that JEG intended to charge for the software rather than maintain its free status. A large number of supporters from Ikonboard followed Matt and Charles to the new company.
Initially Invision Power Board was free, including user-provided support, and the company maintained the product would remain free. The license has since been changed incrementally, so that the free version became an unlimited free trial. On September 27, 2004, IPS announced that the free trial download was to be withdrawn from the Invision Power Services site, and the product moved to a paid-only model with a 15 day hosted trial[3]. Eventually, the 15 day encrypted file trial was discontinued and replaced with a shorter trial available on IPS servers. Some have criticized this change as hypocritical as Invision Power Services was started in protest to JEG's desire to sell IkonBoard and is now selling its own product despite its assertions that the program would remain free.
On February 2, 2006 Invision Power Services announced that the new official resource site named IPSBeyond had completed its BETA phase. IPSBeyond was then opened to IPS Customers with active support contracts. With the opening of IPSBeyond, the Customer to Customer Support forums were closed.[4] Since then, however, IPSBeyond has been closed and support has moved back onto the IPS Company Forums.
On September 20, 2006 Invision Power Services announced to offer continued product and support enhancements they have implemented a change to their pricing and license structure for Invision Power Board. Gone are the Yearly and Perpetual license purchase options which caused much confusion as their differences were often not clear. The new license options are Standard License, Business License, and Enterprise License options. It was announced that all current licenses are still valid for their duration. Any renewals, etc. of current licenses will adopt the new license offerings. IPS also added their IP.Community Suite: a single purchase which encompasses their entire suite of community products - IP.Board, IP.Gallery, IP.Blog - for a significant discount off purchasing them separately. Some people criticised the price "increase", despite the fact that existing customer's service (who were within their contracts) would either not change, or be cheaper.[5]
[edit] IPS Community
The IPS Community Suite consits of its flagship products Invision Power Board (IP.Board) and four components for IP.Board - Invision Power Gallery, Blog, Downloads and I.P. Content.
[edit] Invision Power Board
Invision Power Board (sometimes abbreviated to IP.Board or IPB) is a commercial Internet forum package written in PHP, similar to other forum software such as vBulletin, phpBB and others. Even though it is a commercial product there are many large communities dedicated to creating and distributing free modifications for the software.
The latest version of IP.Board (3.0.5) was released on 8th December, 2009[6].
[edit] Invision Power Blog
Invision Power Blog (sometimes abbreviated to IP.Blog or known as Invision Community Blog) is a commercial addon for Invision Power Board. It allows members of the Internet forum to create and host their own blog on that site, it is similar to the add-on Blog available for vBulletin forums.
The latest version of IP.Blog (2.0.4) was released on 6th October, 2009[7].
[edit] Invision Power Gallery
Invision Power Gallery (sometimes abbreviated to IP.Gallery) is a commercial add-on for Invision Power Board. It allows users of the forum to create upload and share their pictures with other users. It allows videos to be uploaded as well as images.
The latest version of IP.Gallery (3.0.4) was released on 6th October, 2009.[8]
[edit] Invision Power Downloads
Invision Power Downloads (sometimes abbreviated to IP.Downloads) is a commercial add-on for Invision Power Board. It allows users of the forum to upload and share files with others. It can supports many file types by default and more permitted types can be added by the Administrator should they wish.
The latest version of IP.Downloads (2.0.4) was released on 6th October, 2009.[9]
[edit] Invision Power content
Invision Power Content (sometimes abbreviated to IP.Content or CCS) is an add-on for Invision Power Board that allows administrators to create content pages which can be fully integrated with the Invision Power Board framework.
Invision Power Content was released on August 12th, 2009. [10] it has now been updated to version 1.1.2 [11]
[edit] IPS Business
The IPS Business suite has undergone many transformations during its development.
Originally, IPS Business was designed to be a group of products separate to the community suite providing business solutions such as CMS and billing software. The various software that were planned have now been condensed into a single product, IP.Nexus[12] and during late 2007 various betas were released to customers.[13] Development of IP.Nexus has been dropped as Invision Power Services continue to improve their existing community line, several features within IP.Nexus such as the CMS can now be found in recent products such as the introduction of the Community Content System. [14].
[edit] IPS Hosting
Invision Hosting was the first service that was released by Invision Power Services. They originally used it to generate income while developing the first version of Invision Power Board.
Now they have expanded that hosting service to include three different types of hosting; community; website and dedicated hosting[15]. IPS operate their own Datacentre and Servers[16], meaning that they are able to optimize and run everything within their hosting department to their own expectations.
[edit] Community Hosting
This is simply a hosted installation of IPS's flagship product Invision Power Board, the only webspace that you receive with this hosting is space for forum users to upload attachments and avatars. This is the cheaping hosting package they offer.
[edit] Website Hosting
This is normal website hosting that you will find with any other host on the internet. The only difference is that you get a free (although encoded) copy of Invision Power Board to use on the website.
[edit] Dedicated Hosting
This option allows the customer to purchase a dedicated server for their website and community. Again, this option comes with a free encoded copy of Invision Power Board.
[edit] Invision Power Converge
Invision Power Converge (sometimes abbreviated to IP.Converge) is a piece of software that allows "ready" web applications to share login details, meaning that a user only has to register once to be able to log into all the applications connected to the Converge installation. The applications connected to Converge do not have to be on the same server. By default all IPS products are able to be imported into Converge and documentation is available to allow third-party developers make their applications connect to Converge as well should they wish to. IPS Developer's Documentation
The latest version of IP.Converge (1.0.1) was released on 25 March 2008.[17] It is free to anyone who has an active IP.Board license. An active IP.Board license is required to continue receiving support and upgrades. It is an encoded application in IonCube format.
[edit] Discontinued products
Invision Power Services has, in the past, released products and services which have since been discontinued.
[edit] Invision Power Dynamic
This product was never released past a beta stage. Instead it was integrated into IP.Nexus as a CMS module. Therefore IP.Dynamic technically no longer exists as an individual product.
Dynamic is a commercial content management system still in development but a public beta is expected to come out later this year. Key features include member management, page permissions, subscriptions, page rollback, content blocks, content groups and file management tools. This product is now entering the beta stage and a release is expected next year.
[edit] Invision Power File Manager
Previously named "Aquonics File Manager", this was a multi-user web-based file management system.
[edit] Invision Power Top Site List
A top site list featuring integration into Invision Power Board. Members have now gone on to create their own mod topsite for people to use on their boards. The link can be found in the different links below.
[edit] Invision Power Chat
A rebranded Java-based chat solution which was integrated into Invision Power Board. While IP.Board still offers integration with two separate chat systems by default, all support and billing is handled by the chat vendor.
[edit] Staff
Management
- Matthew Mecham - Chief Software Architect
- Debbie Mecham - Customer Accounts Manager
- Nakisha Thomas - Director of Customer Satisfaction
- Lindy Throgmartin - Chief Executive Officer
- Charles Warner - President
Software Developers
- Brandon Farber
- Jason Lombardozzi
- Matthew Mecham (see Management)
- Rikki Tissier (Designer)
- Joshua Williams
Designers
- Olivier Turbis
Support Staff
- Blake Cheatham (Hosting)
- Jason Hanna
- Josh Harris
- Mark Wade
- Giuseppe Casagrande
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.invisionpower.com/ "Welcome to IPS"
- ^ Invision Power Services :: Corporate :: Contact Us
- ^ IPS: A New Focus - Invision Power Services
- ^ IPS Beyond Opened - Invision Power Services
- ^ Coming Soon: Invision Power Board 2.2 - Invision Power Services
- ^ IP.Board 3.0.5 Released - Invision Power Services
- ^ IP.Blog 2.0.4 Released - Invision Power Services
- ^ IP.Gallery 3.0.4 Released - Invision Power Services
- ^ IP.Downloads Manager 2.0.4 Released - Invision Power Services
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ http://forums.invisionpower.com/index.php?showtopic=237157
- ^ http://forums.invisionpower.com/index.php?showtopic=237583
- ^ http://forums.invisionpower.com/index.php?showtopic=274141
- ^ http://www.invisionpower.com/hosting/index.html
- ^ http://www.invisionpower.com/hosting/about/index.html
- ^ IP.Converge 1.0.1 Released - Invision Power Services
[edit] External links
Official
