2025-10-23
05:56am
Site restoration
Site has been restored 2025-09-05 from the 2014 backup. Beware not all links are working yet. You may also view my GitHub for source code.
RT Updates
RaidTracker version 3.02.1 security update is ready. Feel free to download today
RaidTracker 2
RT2 is no longer supported. Upgrade to RT 3 today!

RaidTracker History

Versions are denoted by the following: A.BB.x where
A is the major version (many structure changes). (0 stands for pre-release beta)
BB is the minor version (minor changes.) (00 stands for the first release of the major version)
x is a security fix (one or two changes, not enough to warrant a minor version). If not included, this is 0

Releases are shown with a date of release, and using the following tags:
[New] New feature included.
[Update] Feature is updated, usually for ease of use.
[Fix] (known version) A feature that was bugged is fixed, version being where it was first identified.
[Caveat] A known issue or bug with a certain feature released in this version.

Click on the tab below to see changes within a certain major version
General conceptVersion 4Version 3Version 2Version 1

How RT was created

I was a young druid. I was playing World of Warcraft since 2006 when I was introduced by a friend at the time to the game. My first two characters were a druid night elf on a PVE realm, and an undead rogue on my friend's PVP realm. The druid was the first, and most interesting character, and I let it develop to the level cap. I managed to run my own guild, and organized groups. As we got to 60, the idea of raiding was starting to take steam, but it failed miserably. The new Burning Crusade expansion also changed things.

To make a long story short, I had switched realms, and then returned after I joined a guild doing instances and raiding. I came back to my original realm, and started to raid with a fun guild. I disagreed with their DKP policy as it was very unfair, and looked for another guild. That guild was Reflection of Perfection (RofP). RaidTracker was becoming a concept for this guild.

The two guilds I were in that had raiding had used a form of phpRaid to organize raids. But RofP didn't have such a system. In fact, they used the BB subscription method, which was rather confusing if you asked me. Then, the guild leader gave up the game, and the guild was going to chaos. A new guild leader was appointed, and I sought to help out the guild by installing a raid organization tool on my server.

I immediately sought after the popular ones: phpRaid, phpRaider, EQDKP, and others. But I didn't like how complicated it was to install, use, adapt to WoW, or the limited features. I approached Dareal, who was the interim guild leader on December 15, 2007, and said that I could create a raid organizer by the first of the year. Well, it only took me 2 weeks to come up with an initial test for RofP. The first version was 0.3, released on December 28, 2007. It was a barebones version, not much more than the alternate of using a forum thread to subscribe. But it was organized. Easier to see who had signed up than to fish through a thread. And it was simple to use. Features I liked to see. The test was a success. The guild liked the ease of signing up, officers liked planning with it, and it progressed as more features were added. The first 'feature complete' version was released on January 20, 2008.

To me, RaidTracker is always considered my baby. I believed that the webapp has the greatest potential because it is simple to use for anyone regardless of the type of user (ordinary person, planner, administrator). Yet, it is full of features and customizations to fit the needs of almost anyone. I believe that RaidTracker can be used by anyone who has the need, and will continue to develop whenever I can. I am no longer into World of Warcraft right now, as I have other pressing issues in my life. But for the people who remain, and even myself, the RaidTracker project is a success.

--Frank Spychaj
Martie (Quel'Thalas EU)

Brief explanation on major versions

The pre-release versions (0.3 to 0.9): 0.3 was released literally 48 hours after discussion with me and the guild leader at the time, and was a test for the guild I was in at the time (Reflection of Perfection in World of Warcraft.) It was very primative, but it was accepted easily by the guild that development progressed on it. There was a lot of testing done, and features were starting to be added and test/temp files were removed.

The initial release (Version 1.x) was released early 2008 to signify that the core was stable. Features would be added since then, but essentially this was functioning like a stable system. It was intended to release a standalone version for others to use early on, but it took much longer than I intended (because of real life, and to change some hardcoded values.) One finally came out in 1.91, ready for global use.

RaidTracker2, RT2 and the 2nd major incantation, was to be one to fix the shortcomings that version 1.x had exhibited. It would be highly flexible, customized, and could potentially be used in more applications than World of Warcraft. It did change the backend database to where it was not compatible at all with 1.x. Unfortunately, the customizations and globalization was never totally implemented, and features that were in the older 1.x systems were slow or never totally included. I also had changes in real life that took me away from games in reality. But I still had connections with my old guild to help fix the bugs in RT.

RaidTracker 3 or RT 3 (note the space) is the 3rd major version. This was a complete rewrite, since RT2 was inflexible, and also not so well documented. Not so surprising, it inherited a lot of version 1.x code. RT 3 was designed to truly be customizable, and also as simple on the eyes as possible, both in themes, and appearance, thus returning to the KISS principle. It also allows addons to be integrated, such as the DKP module. It took about a year to complete, but does allow upgrade from RT2

RaidTracker version 4 took a change from previous versions. Originally slated as 3.10, several changes made it seem radical enough to raise the major version to 4.00. (Partly influenced by other software products like Firefox, Chrome and Opera, for example.) It still has the feel of version 3.00 but internally the code is more suitable for a newer release.