[DEVLOG] forumify 1.3: editor additions, QoL features & performance improvements
By
jannes
,
Sep 13, 2026
Hi all!
You may have noticed 1.3 was just released with a huge list of improvements, so I figured I'd create this topic to put the spotlight on some of the new features that might've been drowned out by all the noise.
Editor Additions
Quote Replies
Every comment how has a "Quote" button. When pressed, we will automatically append a quote of the comment you selected to your message.
Image Resizing
Prior to 1.3 you had to resize your images in photoshop or an external tool to get them to fit nicely in the forumify editor. Now, you can resize your image straight from the editor! This also works for any image when editing comments too. Just click on the image to activate the controls, and resize away!
(use the corner controls for uniform scaling while keeping aspect ratio, and the edge controls for horizontal/vertical scaling)
Tables
Using the new "Insert Table" tool, you can insert tables of any size:
Ran out of rows or columns? Don't worry, just right click inside of a cell to get more options!
File Uploads
The new file upload easily adds downloading existing content or clearing the set image from it. Removing an image once uploaded has always been a pain point with our old file upload, and our recommendation was to "upload a 1x1 transparent PNG" 😂. Now with our platform wide image resizing, we noticed another drawback which was finding the original size asset and downloading it again.
Those 2 issues are fixed with the new upload. It adds an option to clear the current content, as well as download the original unmodified file.
For plugin developers this new input also simplifies the image uploading process a lot. Plugin devs no longer need to manually handle the file upload and moving files to permanent storage, this new input type now handles everything internally.
Please note that this is a new input, so old file inputs added by plugins will need some time to adopt the new input. The old file input is deprecated but will continue to exist until forumify 2.0.
Users And Compliance
Banning/Deleting users
Banned users will now have a tag "Banned" on their profile, on any comments they placed on the forum, and in the admin user list.
When banning or deleting a user, the admin now also has the option to delete all content created by this user (for example to execute a request for data deletion, or just removing spam/bot content). This includes topics, comments and private messages. When this option is selected, an event is also thrown that plugins could hook into to delete any content created by the user that is safe to delete.
Privacy Policy
forumify platform never required consent or a cookie banner to run. All collected data was simply required to run forumify, no data was shared with 3rd parties. Since the introduction of identity providers, namely Google and Discord, it is actually required to disclose this in a privacy policy.
This is why the platform now has settings to configure a privacy policy page in Admin -> Configuration -> Compliance. There are 3 different modus operandi, "Auto Generated" (recommended for most forums), "CMS Page", and "Off".
When turned on, a link to the privacy policy is added to the registration page, and in the footer of every page. The auto generated privacy policy contains everything that your users need to know in regards to their data. This list is generated based on which identity providers your platform has activated, which plugins you're using, and can change when installing new plugins or updating the platform.
If you go for the CMS page, we've also added a new CMS widget "Privacy Disclosures", which contains all the dynamically added disclosures so you don't need to manually update your page constantly. But it does allow you to add more partners or add more disclosures. If you're self hosting, building your own plugins, or your own app, you can add your own disclosures in a provider that implements PrivacyDisclosureProviderInterface .
(when upgrading from 1.2 to 1.3, the default is "Off" to prevent backwards compatibility issues, we strongly urge you to enable the auto generated privacy policy to be compliant with California's CPRA/CCPA and EU's GDPR).
Unsubscribe From Messages
Tired of getting spammed by a group chat where 2 participants are having a heated discussion that doesn't concern you? Yeah,... we've all been there. Now it's possible to simply "unsubscribe" from a message thread. New message notifications now follow the default subscription process that already existed for topics, comments, etc. So when you create a new message thread or if someone adds you as a participant, you are automatically subscribed to it. Simply click "unsubscribe" to stop receiving notifications and emails for this thread until you re-subscribe to it.
Performance
While adding new features is a lot of fun, sometimes we have to go back and re-evaluate old features when they grow past their intended usages. We noticed a couple of painful performance issues which we've addressed in 1.3. Here is an in-depth comparison between 1.2 and 1.3.
(opening the forum index page on a real world decently sized instance with 108 forums, ~2000 topics, ~8000 comments)
Other localized performance improvements include:
What's Next?
In our 1.3 release we've also included several features specifically geared towards plugin development. So I think 1.4 might still be a little while,.. but in the meantime, we've got some great plugin ideas we'd like to work on while the core platform gets a little rest. So stay tuned for those!
A note regarding usage of AI to develop forumify:
Working on forumify is a hobby, and programming is a hobby for me. Unlike many software developers, I actually enjoy writing code and solving puzzles. But I also realize that using AI can greatly increase my productivity when working on certain projects. Hence why, going forward, AI will be incorporated more in forumify related tasks. Specifically to debug and resolve bugs, writing automated tests, creating more animated/dynamic user interfaces or working on less exciting features. This gives me more time to hand-code the technically exciting features (which is most of the platform anyway 😆). All code will continue to be reviewed by myself, each line generated by an AI will be read by a human. And we have strict quality gates in place to ensure the end product as well as the code are in tip-top shape. At the end of the day, we remain responsible for everything we create, and if I notice more bugs slipping through or productivity not reaching a higher level, I will re-evaluate this decision immediately.
This is a bit of a longer dev log, but I hope the graphics and contents kept you entertained.
Until next time 🫡