Flowforge v3.0 - New Decimal Position System

[ManukMinasyan]

Flowforge v3.0 - Major Positioning System Overhaul

We're excited to announce Flowforge v3.0, featuring a completely redesigned positioning system.

What Changed

From Lexorank to DecimalPosition

v2.x used a string-based Lexorank algorithm (Rank.php) that stored positions as VARCHAR with binary collation. While functional, this approach had limitations:

• String comparison required special collation settings
• No built-in collision prevention for concurrent users
• No automatic rebalancing when positions exhausted
• Maximum 1024 character positions

v3.x introduces a decimal-based positioning system (DecimalPosition.php) using BCMath for arbitrary precision:

• DECIMAL(20,10) column type - 10 decimal places for precision
• Cryptographic jitter prevents concurrent insertion collisions
• Automatic rebalancing when gaps become too small
• Retry mechanism handles race conditions gracefully

New Features

Collision Prevention with Jitter

Each position calculation adds random jitter (±5% of gap), ensuring concurrent users never generate identical positions.

Auto-Rebalancing

When gap between adjacent cards falls below 0.0001, positions are automatically redistributed evenly.

Operations Toolkit

Three new artisan commands for production management:

• flowforge:diagnose-positions - Health check
• flowforge:rebalance-positions - Manual rebalancing
• flowforge:repair-positions - Interactive repair

Breaking Changes

1. New Dependency: Requires ext-bcmath PHP extension
2. Column Type Change: Position column must be DECIMAL(20,10) not VARCHAR
3. Removed: Rank.php service (replaced by DecimalPosition.php)

Migration Guide

See release notes for detailed migration instructions.

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We believe this new system provides a more robust foundation for kanban boards at scale. Please report any issues!