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  1. [IPS Blog] 4.0 - Q&A Forums

    One of the most distinctive uses for a forum is that of a 'knowledge community', where users visit in order to get help with a problem or question. Our own Pre-sales forum uses this model, but we also have many customers who run forums that are almost exclusively knowledge-based (such as Roxio and Evernote). IP.Board 3.x introduced the concept of a "Best Answer" flag, allowing topic creators and staff the ability to highlight the reply to a topic that they deem best answers the question. This shows a snippet of the post in green at the top of the topic. Many sites now use this feature, but for IPS4 we wanted to expand the functionality offered for these types of forums. Question & Answer Forums Forums in IPS4 will enable you to set a forum as a "Q&A Forum". This adjusts the forum to be specifically designed for knowledge sharing. Instead of topics and posts, it has questions and answers. On the forum index, the forum will be shown as a Q&A forum with its forum icon (unless you've set a custom forum icon for that forum): Forum View When you enter the forum, instead of the normal topic listing, you see a list of questions: You'll see here that questions that have a best answer are indicated with a green checkbox. You'll also notice that one of the stats on the right hand side is 'votes'. In Q&A forums, questions can be voted up or down by users, in order to give them more visibility. More popular questions will bubble to the top (depending on the age of the question). You can of course still order by more traditional methods, if you wish. Popular questions from the past 30 days are also highlighted at the top of the forum, providing an up-to-date 'knowledgebase' that other users can see. Using our own presales forum as an example, if someone asked a question about an important feature and it was voted highly, other users visiting the forum would see it right at the top, which is great for content visibility and helping users get the answers they're looking for with minimal fuss. Question View Clicking into a question shows an adjusted topic view: The question (i.e. the first post) is shown at the top of the page on all pages, with answers listed below. You'll see that replies can also be voted up and down - in fact, this determines the order in which answers are shown inside the question. Popular answers, as determined by the community, will appear at the top, with worse or incorrect answers being pushed down. This is great for quickly finding the best information for the question at hand; in IP.Board 3.x, all too often a high-quality answer will appear in the middle of a topic and unfortunately go unnoticed by the topic creator or others looking for an answer. You can still sort answers by date, if you prefer. In the screenshot above you can also see the first post is marked as the best answer. "Best Answer" always appears at the top, regardless of its vote count. Question/answer ratings are separate from reputation, so you can of course still "Like" posts even if you don't think they're a good answer to the question. Conclusion So that's the new Q&A feature for IP.Board. We think it'll a big step forward for knowledge-driven communities using IP.Board, or even individual forums in other communities (like our pre-sales forum), helping users find answers to their questions more efficiently, and ultimately making your communities more useful. As always, screenshots are from pre-release software and are subject to change before release. Attached Thumbnails Kompletten Blogeintrag lesen
  2. We are releasing patches for IP.Board 3.3.x, IP.Board 3.4.x and IP.Nexus 1.5.x to address three potential file inclusion issues recently reported to us, as well as one cross site scripting issue reported to us. It has been brought to our attention that certain PHP configurations allow for a potential file inclusion security issue through some of our files intended to be run from the command line. We are releasing patches today to resolve this issue. Additionally, it has been brought to our attention that through social engineering it is possible to direct a user to a page which can trigger an XSS (cross site scripting) attach. We are also releasing a patch today to resolve this issue. To apply the patch Simply download the attached zip for your IP.Board version and upload the files to your forum server. You do not need to run any scripts or the upgrade system. The attached zip files also include the patch for IP.Nexus, if you are using IP.Nexus. IP.Board 3.3.x 3.3.x.zip 28.75KB 56 downloads IP.Board 3.4.x 3.4.x.zip 31.31KB 510 downloads If you are an IPS Community in the Cloud client running IP.Board 3.3 or above, no further action is necessary as we have already automatically patched your account. If you are using a version older than IP.Board 3.3, you should contact support to upgrade. If you install or upgrade to IP.Board 3.4.6 or IP.Nexus 1.5.9 after the date and time of this post, no further action is necessary as we have already updated the main download zips. We extend our thanks to sijad ( http://community.invisionpower.com/user/194954-sijad/ ) for notifying us of the file inclusion issue privately and promptly. We extend our thanks to Christian Schneider (@cschneider4711) (http://www.christian-schneider.net/) for notifying us of the cross site scripting issue as well. Quelle: http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/399747-ipboard-33x-34x-security-update/
  3. One of IPS Community Suite 4's main goals was to overhaul the user interface. We wanted to go further than just a few cosmetic changes to the theme, we wanted to examine each part of the user interface and see what could be improved. The community suite has a lot of functionality and there's a lot of tools that we all use regularly so we felt that any improvements on these common areas would be very welcomed. I'd like to focus on such a change in IP.Downloads. IP.Downloads has always had version control. Essentially, this allows you to upload new versions and keep a historical record of the older versions. You can read change logs and even download older versions where allowed. Let's take a look at how IP.Board 3 does it currently: Although there's nothing particularly wrong with this form, we can see that it mixes up the ability to upload a new version with the general file settings such as title and description. The end result is a bit confusing and a little intimidating the first few times you use it. The section to add your change log is a little lost in the file information block. Now lets take a look at how IPS Community Suite 4 handles this: The first step is to enable download revisions for this category inside the Admin CP. Now that this has been enabled, lets navigate to the "File Actions" menu to upload a new version. This loads the "Upload a new version form". As you can see, it's very clean, very easy to follow and isn't cluttered with settings and text fields that you aren't interested in editing. Once you've uploaded your new version, you can see what's new on the file listing page. You can even view previous change logs and the download link without leaving the page. Conclusion As this blog entry shows, IPS Community Suite 4 is really focused on making real improvements to everyday interfaces. We believe that these changes are very important to modernise the suite and to make it as easy to use as possible. Attached Thumbnails View the full article Quelle: http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/399694-40-ipdownloads-version-control/
  4. One of IPS Community Suite 4's main goals was to overhaul the user interface. We wanted to go further than just a few cosmetic changes to the theme, we wanted to examine each part of the user interface and see what could be improved. The community suite has a lot of functionality and there's a lot of tools that we all use regularly so we felt that any improvements on these common areas would be very welcomed. I'd like to focus on such a change in IP.Downloads. IP.Downloads has always had version control. Essentially, this allows you to upload new versions and keep a historical record of the older versions. You can read change logs and even download older versions where allowed. Let's take a look at how IP.Board 3 does it currently: Although there's nothing particularly wrong with this form, we can see that it mixes up the ability to upload a new version with the general file settings such as title and description. The end result is a bit confusing and a little intimidating the first few times you use it. The section to add your change log is a little lost in the file information block. Now lets take a look at how IPS Community Suite 4 handles this: The first step is to enable download revisions for this category inside the Admin CP. Now that this has been enabled, lets navigate to the "File Actions" menu to upload a new version. This loads the "Upload a new version form". As you can see, it's very clean, very easy to follow and isn't cluttered with settings and text fields that you aren't interested in editing. Once you've uploaded your new version, you can see what's new on the file listing page. You can even view previous change logs and the download link without leaving the page. Conclusion As this blog entry shows, IPS Community Suite 4 is really focused on making real improvements to everyday interfaces. We believe that these changes are very important to modernise the suite and to make it as easy to use as possible. Attached Thumbnails Kompletten Blogeintrag lesen
  5. Effective moderation features are essential for online communities. Forums, blog entries and member-to-member messaging are particularly attractive for spam bots and nuisance users alike. IPS Social Suite has always been best in class when it comes to moderation features with features like the free IPS Spam Service that are completely unmatched by other web applications. Over this series of 5 blog entries I'm going to introduce you to some of the new moderation features in the IPS Community Suite 4.0. Part 1: Setting up moderators Part 2: Approval Queue Part 3: Reports Part 4: Effective Moderation Part 5: Warnings Introduction A lot of what I'm going to cover in this blog entry is similar to the warning system in 3.x which was recently overhauled. Since warnings and moderations are such an important aspect of running a community though, I wanted to reintroduce the system, showing off the new UI for 4.0 and highlighting some of the tweaks that have been made. The warnings system in the IPS Community Suite is point-based. When issuing a warning to a member, you select a reason, and each reason is tied to a number of points, and then when a member reaches a certain number of points, an action (such as to ban them from the site) is taken. This is the setup page for reasons - I've set up each one to give one point which is never removed. For each reason, I can choose if moderators can override that or not: This is the setup page for actions: I've set up a number of actions so that the following flow happens: On the first warning, nothing happens (it's a verbal warning only)On the second warning, all posts the user makes for the next day will need to be approved by a moderator.On the third warning, the user will be banned for one day and all posts the user makes for the next week will need to be approved by a moderator.On the fourth warning, the user will be banned for a week.On the fifth warning, the user will be permanently banned.You can control whether members can see their previous warnings or not. Moderator Permissions For each moderator you can control is they can see, issue and revoke warnings, and control how often they can give warnings: Viewing Warnings You will be able to see the current warning points for a member from their hover card (which shows whenever you hover your mouse over their name throughout the suite) and can see the details in their profile. Clicking on a warning brings up the details which show a link to the content the user posted which prompted the warning, the notes both for the member and for other moderators, and lists the actions taken (points given, if the member was suspended, etc.): In addition, when viewing content (posts, comments, etc.) if that post prompted a warning, this will be shown to moderators: Issuing Warnings When issuing a warning, selecting a reason will automatically fill in the number of points and actions to take based on the number of points the member already has (these can be changed if the administrator has allowed it). You can clearly see the pre-defined actions for each point level on the right. You can optionally add notes, both a note for the member and for other moderators. Acknowledging Warnings You can optionally set the system so that members have to acknowledge a warning before they can post again. When this is the case, the member will se a message on every page: Viewing the warning details will have a button allowing the member to acknowledge the warning: Even if you do not require warnings to be specifically acknowledged - members who have restrictions applied to their account (are on moderator queue, are restricted from posting or are banned) can clearly see this and the reason why. For example, this is what a member who is on moderator queue sees when making a comment: Revoking Warnings A new feature in 4.0 is that warnings can be revoked. You can reverse all the actions of the warning, or just delete the record of it: Attached Thumbnails View the full article Quelle: http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/399573-40-moderation-part-5-warnings/
  6. Effective moderation features are essential for online communities. Forums, blog entries and member-to-member messaging are particularly attractive for spam bots and nuisance users alike. IPS Social Suite has always been best in class when it comes to moderation features with features like the free IPS Spam Service that are completely unmatched by other web applications. Over this series of 5 blog entries I'm going to introduce you to some of the new moderation features in the IPS Community Suite 4.0. Part 1: Setting up moderators Part 2: Approval Queue Part 3: Reports Part 4: Effective Moderation Part 5: Warnings Introduction A lot of what I'm going to cover in this blog entry is similar to the warning system in 3.x which was recently overhauled. Since warnings and moderations are such an important aspect of running a community though, I wanted to reintroduce the system, showing off the new UI for 4.0 and highlighting some of the tweaks that have been made. The warnings system in the IPS Community Suite is point-based. When issuing a warning to a member, you select a reason, and each reason is tied to a number of points, and then when a member reaches a certain number of points, an action (such as to ban them from the site) is taken. This is the setup page for reasons - I've set up each one to give one point which is never removed. For each reason, I can choose if moderators can override that or not: This is the setup page for actions: I've set up a number of actions so that the following flow happens: On the first warning, nothing happens (it's a verbal warning only)On the second warning, all posts the user makes for the next day will need to be approved by a moderator.On the third warning, the user will be banned for one day and all posts the user makes for the next week will need to be approved by a moderator.On the fourth warning, the user will be banned for a week.On the fifth warning, the user will be permanently banned.You can control whether members can see their previous warnings or not. Moderator Permissions For each moderator you can control is they can see, issue and revoke warnings, and control how often they can give warnings: Viewing Warnings You will be able to see the current warning points for a member from their hover card (which shows whenever you hover your mouse over their name throughout the suite) and can see the details in their profile. Clicking on a warning brings up the details which show a link to the content the user posted which prompted the warning, the notes both for the member and for other moderators, and lists the actions taken (points given, if the member was suspended, etc.): In addition, when viewing content (posts, comments, etc.) if that post prompted a warning, this will be shown to moderators: Issuing Warnings When issuing a warning, selecting a reason will automatically fill in the number of points and actions to take based on the number of points the member already has (these can be changed if the administrator has allowed it). You can clearly see the pre-defined actions for each point level on the right. You can optionally add notes, both a note for the member and for other moderators. Acknowledging Warnings You can optionally set the system so that members have to acknowledge a warning before they can post again. When this is the case, the member will se a message on every page: Viewing the warning details will have a button allowing the member to acknowledge the warning: Even if you do not require warnings to be specifically acknowledged - members who have restrictions applied to their account (are on moderator queue, are restricted from posting or are banned) can clearly see this and the reason why. For example, this is what a member who is on moderator queue sees when making a comment: Revoking Warnings A new feature in 4.0 is that warnings can be revoked. You can reverse all the actions of the warning, or just delete the record of it: Attached Thumbnails Kompletten Blogeintrag lesen
  7. I can distinctly remember 5 years ago reading a blog entry on this site about the "personal conversations" feature in IP.Board 3.0, which we were working on at the time. Up until then, the messenger system in community software and other websites was much like email - you sent one message at a time, with little continuity between messages. We were one of the first, on the entire of the web, to introduce what we called "personal conversations" - a sort of "private topic" between invited members - it was a really exciting idea back then. For 4.0, we wanted to really focus on the experience of using the messenger - making it super fast and easy to compose, navigate and participate in conversations. Starting a conversation When browsing the site, you'll see a messenger icon at the top of every screen just like you do now. When hitting the "Compose Now" button inside though, the form to send your message will appear as a modal window, and when you send, it will disappear again with no page reload. This makes it incredibly fast and easy to send a message from wherever you are, without interrupting your flow. You can also send a message to a specific member by hovering over their name wherever you see it on the site and clicking the "Send Message" button in the hover card that shows. Browsing conversations We've completely redesigned the main messenger pages. You now see a (infinitely scrolling) list of all your messages on the left-side. Clicking on any message opens it up in the main pane. All the common actions are enhanced with AJAX so you can open a conversation, add a user and reply all really quickly. Mobile We've not forgotten about mobile devices! The new responsive design in IPS 4.0 means the whole messenger works and looks great whether you're on a desktop or on your phone. Summary We recognise that when members send a new message, it is often as a response to content read in all areas of the suite. You can now send messages in place without disrupting your flow. We have improved all aspects of sending, receiving and managing messages and are confident these changes will make communicating with other members in private simpler and faster. Attached Thumbnails View the full article Quelle: http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/399480-40-messenger/
  8. [IPS Blog] 4.0 - Messenger

    I can distinctly remember 5 years ago reading a blog entry on this site about the "personal conversations" feature in IP.Board 3.0, which we were working on at the time. Up until then, the messenger system in community software and other websites was much like email - you sent one message at a time, with little continuity between messages. We were one of the first, on the entire of the web, to introduce what we called "personal conversations" - a sort of "private topic" between invited members - it was a really exciting idea back then. For 4.0, we wanted to really focus on the experience of using the messenger - making it super fast and easy to compose, navigate and participate in conversations. Starting a conversation When browsing the site, you'll see a messenger icon at the top of every screen just like you do now. When hitting the "Compose Now" button inside though, the form to send your message will appear as a modal window, and when you send, it will disappear again with no page reload. This makes it incredibly fast and easy to send a message from wherever you are, without interrupting your flow. You can also send a message to a specific member by hovering over their name wherever you see it on the site and clicking the "Send Message" button in the hover card that shows. Browsing conversations We've completely redesigned the main messenger pages. You now see a (infinitely scrolling) list of all your messages on the left-side. Clicking on any message opens it up in the main pane. All the common actions are enhanced with AJAX so you can open a conversation, add a user and reply all really quickly. Mobile We've not forgotten about mobile devices! The new responsive design in IPS 4.0 means the whole messenger works and looks great whether you're on a desktop or on your phone. Summary We recognise that when members send a new message, it is often as a response to content read in all areas of the suite. You can now send messages in place without disrupting your flow. We have improved all aspects of sending, receiving and managing messages and are confident these changes will make communicating with other members in private simpler and faster. Attached Thumbnails Kompletten Blogeintrag lesen
  9. The site eGullet.org was literally the first client of Invision Power Services when our company was founded over 12 years ago. Steven Shaw, along with his partner, stepped up and supported IPS in its first days and stayed with us all these years. They were our first paying client, our first hosting client, and often the first to get early betas of our releases. It was with great sadness that I read today of the passing of Steven Shaw. Steven was a friend and mentor to me personally. He advised me as IPS grew, provided valuable feedback, was our first attorney, and was always on board to hear out ideas. My first trip to New York City, my first cruise, and many great dining ideas were all based around his friendly advice. He honored me with a copy of his book when it was released. And of course he introduced me to the joys of Julia Child by shipping me some old recordings of her show. Steven Shaw will be missed. I personally am in debt to his generosity and advice over the years as is IPS as a company. View the full article Quelle: http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/399439-in-memoriam-steven-shaw/
  10. [IPS Blog] In Memoriam: Steven Shaw

    The site eGullet.org was literally the first client of Invision Power Services when our company was founded over 12 years ago. Steven Shaw, along with his partner, stepped up and supported IPS in its first days and stayed with us all these years. They were our first paying client, our first hosting client, and often the first to get early betas of our releases. It was with great sadness that I read today of the passing of Steven Shaw. Steven was a friend and mentor to me personally. He advised me as IPS grew, provided valuable feedback, was our first attorney, and was always on board to hear out ideas. My first trip to New York City, my first cruise, and many great dining ideas were all based around his friendly advice. He honored me with a copy of his book when it was released. And of course he introduced me to the joys of Julia Child by shipping me some old recordings of her show. Steven Shaw will be missed. I personally am in debt to his generosity and advice over the years as is IPS as a company. Kompletten Blogeintrag lesen
  11. Some sites make use of multiple calendars to help differentiate what type of events are being contributed to the community. You might have a staff calendar that allows staff members to add events and a community calendar for the rest of your users. Or you may have a holidays calendar as well as a gaming "raids" calendar on your community. Individual calendars are a form of categorization in IP.Calendar, and we wanted to bring some enhancements to them in the 4.0 Community Suite. Colors You will now be able to specify colors for each calendar you create. The software will automatically suggest a new unique color each time you create a new calendar with several pre-determined colors to start with (and then falling over to randomly chosen colors if you happen to create enough calendars to use these defaults up), but you are able to specify any color you wish for any calendar you create. (As an aside for developers - you can easily implement similar "color" fields in your own forms using the form helper class IPSHelpersFormColor) Merged view If you are familiar with the current iteration of IP.Calendar, you might be wondering what good implementing calendar colors actually does. After all, the software does not show events from different calendars mixed together right? As of 4.0, IP.Calendar does indeed support a merged-calendar view. In fact, it is the default in IP.Calendar. Your users will see all events from all calendars (that they have permission to view) merged into one view, but can click a menu at the top of the page to filter by calendar if they so desire. They will see events from all calendars merged together When viewing an event the calendar it has been saved to is of course indicated here as well. The merged calendars model is supported for all of the major views in IP.Calendar: the monthly view, the weekly view, the daily view...and the new "event stream" view which we will talk about in a future blog entry (shhh). Conclusion We feel these minor changes makes Calendar more intuitive, and especially makes handling multiple calendars within your IP.Calendar installation more practical and useful. We hope you find working with multiple calendars to be easier and clearer with these changes, and we hope you find new ways to make use of the multiple calendar support present in IP.Calendar as a result of the merged views and better calendar differentiation. Attached Thumbnails View the full article Quelle: http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/399427-40-improving-multiple-calendars/
  12. Some sites make use of multiple calendars to help differentiate what type of events are being contributed to the community. You might have a staff calendar that allows staff members to add events and a community calendar for the rest of your users. Or you may have a holidays calendar as well as a gaming "raids" calendar on your community. Individual calendars are a form of categorization in IP.Calendar, and we wanted to bring some enhancements to them in the 4.0 Community Suite. Colors You will now be able to specify colors for each calendar you create. The software will automatically suggest a new unique color each time you create a new calendar with several pre-determined colors to start with (and then falling over to randomly chosen colors if you happen to create enough calendars to use these defaults up), but you are able to specify any color you wish for any calendar you create. (As an aside for developers - you can easily implement similar "color" fields in your own forms using the form helper class IPSHelpersFormColor) Merged view If you are familiar with the current iteration of IP.Calendar, you might be wondering what good implementing calendar colors actually does. After all, the software does not show events from different calendars mixed together right? As of 4.0, IP.Calendar does indeed support a merged-calendar view. In fact, it is the default in IP.Calendar. Your users will see all events from all calendars (that they have permission to view) merged into one view, but can click a menu at the top of the page to filter by calendar if they so desire. They will see events from all calendars merged together When viewing an event the calendar it has been saved to is of course indicated here as well. The merged calendars model is supported for all of the major views in IP.Calendar: the monthly view, the weekly view, the daily view...and the new "event stream" view which we will talk about in a future blog entry (shhh). Conclusion We feel these minor changes makes Calendar more intuitive, and especially makes handling multiple calendars within your IP.Calendar installation more practical and useful. We hope you find working with multiple calendars to be easier and clearer with these changes, and we hope you find new ways to make use of the multiple calendar support present in IP.Calendar as a result of the merged views and better calendar differentiation. Attached Thumbnails Kompletten Blogeintrag lesen
  13. Copying Settings Sometimes you need to change the same setting across multiple categories. For example, let's say up until now I've not allowed comments on files and now I want to enable it for most categories. In IP.Downloads for 3.x, I'd have to go into each category one by one and toggle the setting on. In 4.x, when editing a category, each setting has a "Copy" button next to it, when opens a window asking which categories to copy that setting value to, so I can make the change to one category and then copy it to others (or all) quickly. This feature is also available when editing things in other applications, such as forums in IP.Board or products in IP.Nexus. New Settings We've moved some settings which were previously global settings into per-category settings to give you even greater control over your community: "Require approval of comments""Log all downloads" and "Prune download logs" - we also added a new per-category setting: "Allow file submitter to view log?""Allowed file extensions" (this used to be managed using complicated "Mime Type Masks" - now you can just provide the extensions which are allowed in that category, or allow any file type)."Enable versioning control" and "Number of revisions to keep" Attached Thumbnails View the full article Quelle: http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/399283-ipdownloads-category-management/
  14. Copying Settings Sometimes you need to change the same setting across multiple categories. For example, let's say up until now I've not allowed comments on files and now I want to enable it for most categories. In IP.Downloads for 3.x, I'd have to go into each category one by one and toggle the setting on. In 4.x, when editing a category, each setting has a "Copy" button next to it, when opens a window asking which categories to copy that setting value to, so I can make the change to one category and then copy it to others (or all) quickly. This feature is also available when editing things in other applications, such as forums in IP.Board or products in IP.Nexus. New Settings We've moved some settings which were previously global settings into per-category settings to give you even greater control over your community: "Require approval of comments""Log all downloads" and "Prune download logs" - we also added a new per-category setting: "Allow file submitter to view log?""Allowed file extensions" (this used to be managed using complicated "Mime Type Masks" - now you can just provide the extensions which are allowed in that category, or allow any file type)."Enable versioning control" and "Number of revisions to keep" Attached Thumbnails Kompletten Blogeintrag lesen
  15. Copying Settings Sometimes you need to change the same setting across multiple categories. For example, let's say up until now I've not allowed comments on files and now I want to enable it for most categories. In IP.Downloads for 3.x, I'd have to go into each category one by one and toggle the setting on. In 4.x, when editing a category, each setting has a "Copy" button next to it, when opens a window asking which categories to copy that setting value to, so I can make the change to one category and then copy it to others (or all) quickly. This feature is also available when editing things in other applications, such as forums in IP.Board or products in IP.Nexus. New Settings We've moved some settings which were previously global settings into per-category settings to give you even greater control over your community: "Require approval of comments""Log all downloads" and "Prune download logs" - we also added a new per-category setting: "Allow file submitter to view log?""Allowed file extensions" (this used to be managed using complicated "Mime Type Masks" - now you can just provide the extensions which are allowed in that category, or allow any file type)."Enable versioning control" and "Number of revisions to keep" Attached Thumbnails View the full article Quelle: http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/399428-40-ipdownloads-category-management/
  16. Copying Settings Sometimes you need to change the same setting across multiple categories. For example, let's say up until now I've not allowed comments on files and now I want to enable it for most categories. In IP.Downloads for 3.x, I'd have to go into each category one by one and toggle the setting on. In 4.x, when editing a category, each setting has a "Copy" button next to it, when opens a window asking which categories to copy that setting value to, so I can make the change to one category and then copy it to others (or all) quickly. This feature is also available when editing things in other applications, such as forums in IP.Board or products in IP.Nexus. New Settings We've moved some settings which were previously global settings into per-category settings to give you even greater control over your community: "Require approval of comments""Log all downloads" and "Prune download logs" - we also added a new per-category setting: "Allow file submitter to view log?""Allowed file extensions" (this used to be managed using complicated "Mime Type Masks" - now you can just provide the extensions which are allowed in that category, or allow any file type)."Enable versioning control" and "Number of revisions to keep" Attached Thumbnails Kompletten Blogeintrag lesen
  17. Effective moderation features are essential for online communities. Forums, blog entries and member-to-member messaging are particularly attractive for spam bots and nuisance users alike. IPS Social Suite has always been best in class when it comes to moderation features with features like the free IPS Spam Service that are completely unmatched by other web applications. Over this series of 5 blog entries I'm going to introduce you to some of the new moderation features in the IPS Community Suite 4.0. Part 1: Setting up moderators Part 2: Approval Queue Part 3: Reports Part 4: Effective Moderation Part 5: Warnings Multi-moderation It's really important that moderators can quickly take action against undesirable content without spending too much time or effort. If your community is the victim of a spam attack, or perhaps even just an over-enthusiastic poster, you want to be able to hide, lock, move, merge and delete content quickly. Throughout the entire suite, whenever you content (be that topics in IP.Board, files in IP.Downloads or even comments on a particular file in IP.Downloads or anything else you can think of), as a moderator, when you move your mouse over it, you will see a checkbox, and at the top of the list, you have controls to quickly select particular items: As you can see, in addition to checking individual items or all items, quick options are available for me to select all hidden, unapproved, pinned, locked or featured items, or even the items that I personally have read or not read. After selecting one or more items, you will see a menu appear at the bottom: This menu is incredibly smart. It automatically shows you options available based on the type of item you're looking at and the specific items you've selected. For example, here in IP.Downloads I see the options (from left-to-right): feature, pin, hide, lock move and delete (if you hover over any of the buttons a tooltip will show you what it is). If, I'm in IP.Board instead, I see a slightly different bar: Here, I have two new options: merge and Saved Actions (the new name for the IP.Board "Multimod" feature which allows you to define specific actions to do multiple moderator actions quickly). Also, it takes into consideration the specific items I've selected - if I select items which are not currently hidden, there is the "hide" button - if I select items which are currently hidden, there is the "unhide" button - and if I select a mix of both, I see both buttons. After clicking a button, the action is performed on all items and I'm taken back to the screen. Here's a short video demonstration of this in action: Quick editing Editing posts and comments is something moderators do on a daily basis. We already have quick reply (where when making a post or comment, it appears using AJAX without a page reload) and now in 4.0, we have quick edit too. When you click edit, the post/comment immediately changes into an editor: And when you click save, the editor disappears and is replaced by the new content. Here's a short video demonstration of this in action: Attached Thumbnails Kompletten Blogeintrag lesen
  18. Effective moderation features are essential for online communities. Forums, blog entries and member-to-member messaging are particularly attractive for spam bots and nuisance users alike. IPS Social Suite has always been best in class when it comes to moderation features with features like the free IPS Spam Service that are completely unmatched by other web applications. Over this series of 5 blog entries I'm going to introduce you to some of the new moderation features in the IPS Community Suite 4.0. Part 1: Setting up moderators Part 2: Approval Queue Part 3: Reports Part 4: Effective Moderation Part 5: Warnings Multi-moderation It's really important that moderators can quickly take action against undesirable content without spending too much time or effort. If your community is the victim of a spam attack, or perhaps even just an over-enthusiastic poster, you want to be able to hide, lock, move, merge and delete content quickly. Throughout the entire suite, whenever you content (be that topics in IP.Board, files in IP.Downloads or even comments on a particular file in IP.Downloads or anything else you can think of), as a moderator, when you move your mouse over it, you will see a checkbox, and at the top of the list, you have controls to quickly select particular items: As you can see, in addition to checking individual items or all items, quick options are available for me to select all hidden, unapproved, pinned, locked or featured items, or even the items that I personally have read or not read. After selecting one or more items, you will see a menu appear at the bottom: This menu is incredibly smart. It automatically shows you options available based on the type of item you're looking at and the specific items you've selected. For example, here in IP.Downloads I see the options (from left-to-right): feature, pin, hide, lock move and delete (if you hover over any of the buttons a tooltip will show you what it is). If, I'm in IP.Board instead, I see a slightly different bar: Here, I have two new options: merge and Saved Actions (the new name for the IP.Board "Multimod" feature which allows you to define specific actions to do multiple moderator actions quickly). Also, it takes into consideration the specific items I've selected - if I select items which are not currently hidden, there is the "hide" button - if I select items which are currently hidden, there is the "unhide" button - and if I select a mix of both, I see both buttons. After clicking a button, the action is performed on all items and I'm taken back to the screen. Here's a short video demonstration of this in action: Quick editing Editing posts and comments is something moderators do on a daily basis. We already have quick reply (where when making a post or comment, it appears using AJAX without a page reload) and now in 4.0, we have quick edit too. When you click edit, the post/comment immediately changes into an editor: And when you click save, the editor disappears and is replaced by the new content. Here's a short video demonstration of this in action: Attached Thumbnails View the full article Quelle: http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/399226-40-moderation-part-4-effective-moderation/
  19. [IPS Blog] 4.0 - AdminCP Reordering

    Different staff members typically have different roles within a community - especially larger communities, where you may have staff responsible for the theme, others handling tickets and different staff maintaining the system. In 3.x, we had a 'Bookmarks' system in the AdminCP that allowed you to create a menu of frequently-used sections in an effort to make them easier to get to, rather than navigating the main menus. As with every feature in IPS4, we took some time to think about what this Bookmark feature aimed to achieve, and whether it was the best way to achieve it (seriously - we have considered everything you'll see in IPS4 very carefully; nothing gets a free pass). We determined through speaking to administrators that the primary use of this feature was actually to get to one place quickly - whatever place that might be. It appeared to be rarely used as an actual bookmarks menu, and besides, duplicating browser functionality should always send up a red flag. We decided to rethink the idea. What we decided to do instead is allow AdminCP menus, both primary and secondary, to be reordered on a per-admin basis. This means each admin can set the AdminCP menu up however works best for themselves. If you use the theme system a lot, you can make that your first menu item. Or, if you use the ticket system in Nexus, you can put that first. Here's how it works: Attached Thumbnails Kompletten Blogeintrag lesen
  20. Different staff members typically have different roles within a community - especially larger communities, where you may have staff responsible for the theme, others handling tickets and different staff maintaining the system. In 3.x, we had a 'Bookmarks' system in the AdminCP that allowed you to create a menu of frequently-used sections in an effort to make them easier to get to, rather than navigating the main menus. As with every feature in IPS4, we took some time to think about what this Bookmark feature aimed to achieve, and whether it was the best way to achieve it (seriously - we have considered everything you'll see in IPS4 very carefully; nothing gets a free pass). We determined through speaking to administrators that the primary use of this feature was actually to get to one place quickly - whatever place that might be. It appeared to be rarely used as an actual bookmarks menu, and besides, duplicating browser functionality should always send up a red flag. We decided to rethink the idea. What we decided to do instead is allow AdminCP menus, both primary and secondary, to be reordered on a per-admin basis. This means each admin can set the AdminCP menu up however works best for themselves. If you use the theme system a lot, you can make that your first menu item. Or, if you use the ticket system in Nexus, you can put that first. Here's how it works: Attached Thumbnails View the full article Quelle: http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/399110-40-admincp-reordering/
  21. One of the goals for IPS Community Suite 4.0 was improving content discovery. In other words, making sure content still receives exposure even if it is posted in less used areas of the suite. The sidebar that shows on the IP.Board index page in 3.x helps with this goal to some extent, however people who visit the forums app infrequently may miss out on valuable content. This became an even more important issue when the decision was made to decouple IP.Board as a standalone application. What if the focus of your site is Gallery or what if IP.Board is not even enabled for example? Our solution was to extend the sidebar across all applications as shown below in IP.Downloads. You may notice from the screenshot that the announcements block is not specific to the downloads application. Any block can show in any application and they are configurable using moderator permissions. This immediately addresses the issue of content discovery. While the sidebar is now global in 4.0, it is important to note that individual areas can enable and disable the sidebar if necessary. Some areas of the suite simply require more room in order to display ideally, so the sidebar is disabled in these cases (e.g. the calendar "monthly" view needs a full page table grid to display in its ideal format). Further, you can configure sidebars differently for different areas of the suite in context-sensitive manner. You may show a recent topics block in the IP.Board application, for instance, while showing a recent files block in IP.Downloads. Or you can show both blocks in both areas - the choice is yours. Many areas of the suite have specific things they wish to automatically show in the sidebar and will do so. This is determined at a programmatic level and is not something that can be shut off. For instance, in IP.Downloads the primary screenshot and the download button show in the sidebar, while in IP.Calendar a map and a button to download an event show. Each application has the ability to output arbitrary content to the top of the sidebar where-ever necessary. It is also worth noting that advertisements have the inherent ability to display in the sidebar site-wide as well. Editing Editing is carried out inline from the front-end, rather than the ACP, and can be customized based on the application, module or individual view. The technicalities of this are beyond the scope of this blog entry but what this means in practice is that you can vary what is shown in the sidebar for each individual area of your site. Ordering of the blocks is of course fully supported using a simple drag and drop interface, and some sidebars additionally have configuration options available to them as needed. Here is a video demonstration of how editing the sidebar works in IPS Community Suite 4.0. Caching With this approach it was important that performance was not compromised and for that reason sidebar blocks support varying degrees of output caching. The active users block which must always be kept up to date utilizes no caching, a more general block showing overall statistics is cached for all users at once and other blocks that rely on permissions are cached for each user group combination. The level of caching used is determined by the developer when writing the block so, while it is important to mention that this performance aspect has been considered, it is something that is transparent to end users and admins in day to day use. Summary Community integration is a key strength of the IPS platform and the new sidebar in version 4 expands on this even further allowing you to share content across all areas effectively. Attached Thumbnails View the full article Quelle: http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/399019-40-global-sidebar/
  22. [IPS Blog] 4.0 - Global Sidebar

    One of the goals for IPS Community Suite 4.0 was improving content discovery. In other words, making sure content still receives exposure even if it is posted in less used areas of the suite. The sidebar that shows on the IP.Board index page in 3.x helps with this goal to some extent, however people who visit the forums app infrequently may miss out on valuable content. This became an even more important issue when the decision was made to decouple IP.Board as a standalone application. What if the focus of your site is Gallery or what if IP.Board is not even enabled for example? Our solution was to extend the sidebar across all applications as shown below in IP.Downloads. You may notice from the screenshot that the announcements block is not specific to the downloads application. Any block can show in any application and they are configurable using moderator permissions. This immediately addresses the issue of content discovery. While the sidebar is now global in 4.0, it is important to note that individual areas can enable and disable the sidebar if necessary. Some areas of the suite simply require more room in order to display ideally, so the sidebar is disabled in these cases (e.g. the calendar "monthly" view needs a full page table grid to display in its ideal format). Further, you can configure sidebars differently for different areas of the suite in context-sensitive manner. You may show a recent topics block in the IP.Board application, for instance, while showing a recent files block in IP.Downloads. Or you can show both blocks in both areas - the choice is yours. Many areas of the suite have specific things they wish to automatically show in the sidebar and will do so. This is determined at a programmatic level and is not something that can be shut off. For instance, in IP.Downloads the primary screenshot and the download button show in the sidebar, while in IP.Calendar a map and a button to download an event show. Each application has the ability to output arbitrary content to the top of the sidebar where-ever necessary. It is also worth noting that advertisements have the inherent ability to display in the sidebar site-wide as well. Editing Editing is carried out inline from the front-end, rather than the ACP, and can be customized based on the application, module or individual view. The technicalities of this are beyond the scope of this blog entry but what this means in practice is that you can vary what is shown in the sidebar for each individual area of your site. Ordering of the blocks is of course fully supported using a simple drag and drop interface, and some sidebars additionally have configuration options available to them as needed. Here is a video demonstration of how editing the sidebar works in IPS Community Suite 4.0. Caching With this approach it was important that performance was not compromised and for that reason sidebar blocks support varying degrees of output caching. The active users block which must always be kept up to date utilizes no caching, a more general block showing overall statistics is cached for all users at once and other blocks that rely on permissions are cached for each user group combination. The level of caching used is determined by the developer when writing the block so, while it is important to mention that this performance aspect has been considered, it is something that is transparent to end users and admins in day to day use. Summary Community integration is a key strength of the IPS platform and the new sidebar in version 4 expands on this even further allowing you to share content across all areas effectively. Attached Thumbnails Kompletten Blogeintrag lesen
  23. IP.Calendar has supported an RSVP system for events for the last several versions, and this has been a well received addition to Calendar. Where allowed, users can request RSVP for events submitted to the calendar, and where allowed, other users can RSVP (and subsequently un-RSVP) for these events. This functionality is useful for real-world events being coordinated through your site to help event organizers know who will attend. Some minor but useful enhancements have been made to the RSVP functionality in calendar for 4.0. RSVP Limits Often times, you may only have a limited number of spots available for an event. You may only be able to accommodate 10 users or 20 users at an event, and you typically will know this up front. Subsequently, it makes sense to limit the number of users who can RSVP for a given event in such scenarios. To this end, event submitters can now limit the number of RSVP responses allowed on a per-event basis. If you know only 10 users can be accommodated at an event, you may now specify this up front. Yes? No? Maybe? While being able to RSVP for an event is useful, many users online are familiar with other attendance systems that allow you to specify yes, no or maybe when RSVP support is available. In other words, instead of simply allowing you to say "yes I'm coming", sometimes it is just as useful to allow users to specify they are not coming, or that they might attend (in which case the organizer may plan to have extra food available, for example). The 4.0 Calendar will now support yes/no/maybe responses when RSVP is requested for an event. One caveat to mention - when an upper RSVP limit has been specified, the "Maybe" option is not available. A gray area becomes apparent when there is a limit to the number of attendees allowed for an event and users begin to RSVP as "maybe". Does that fill up a spot? If not, what if they decide to come after all? It is much clearer for all involved to simply limit responses to yes or no when there is an attendee limit specified for an event. When you have RSVP'd for an event, you will be presented with the option to leave the event in case you change your mind. Download guest list When RSVP has been enabled for an event, anyone who can see the list of attendees will be able to download a guest list in PDF format. This is especially useful for the event organizer in case they need to print out the guest list to bring with them to the event. RSVP for imported events When you configure iCalendar feed imports in the admin control panel, you will now be able to enable or disable RSVP status for events from the feed. As the administrator, you had no control over whether events imported from a feed had RSVP enabled or not in previous versions of Calendar. As of 4.0, you can specify whether to enable or disable RSVP for imported events on a per-feed basis. As with 3.x, events exported through iCalendar feeds will include the attendee list with them. When events are imported through an iCalendar feed, if an attendee is specified (through the iCalendar specification) and that attendee is also a member of your site (based on their email address), the member on your site will automatically be set as RSVP'd for the event. We believe these several minor but useful enhancements to the RSVP capabilities in Calendar will make the feature more useful in real world usage scenarios, and will allow you and your event coordinators to get more out of Calendar than ever before. Attached Thumbnails View the full article Quelle: http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/398905-40-rsvp-enhancements-in-calendar/
  24. IP.Calendar has supported an RSVP system for events for the last several versions, and this has been a well received addition to Calendar. Where allowed, users can request RSVP for events submitted to the calendar, and where allowed, other users can RSVP (and subsequently un-RSVP) for these events. This functionality is useful for real-world events being coordinated through your site to help event organizers know who will attend. Some minor but useful enhancements have been made to the RSVP functionality in calendar for 4.0. RSVP Limits Often times, you may only have a limited number of spots available for an event. You may only be able to accommodate 10 users or 20 users at an event, and you typically will know this up front. Subsequently, it makes sense to limit the number of users who can RSVP for a given event in such scenarios. To this end, event submitters can now limit the number of RSVP responses allowed on a per-event basis. If you know only 10 users can be accommodated at an event, you may now specify this up front. Yes? No? Maybe? While being able to RSVP for an event is useful, many users online are familiar with other attendance systems that allow you to specify yes, no or maybe when RSVP support is available. In other words, instead of simply allowing you to say "yes I'm coming", sometimes it is just as useful to allow users to specify they are not coming, or that they might attend (in which case the organizer may plan to have extra food available, for example). The 4.0 Calendar will now support yes/no/maybe responses when RSVP is requested for an event. One caveat to mention - when an upper RSVP limit has been specified, the "Maybe" option is not available. A gray area becomes apparent when there is a limit to the number of attendees allowed for an event and users begin to RSVP as "maybe". Does that fill up a spot? If not, what if they decide to come after all? It is much clearer for all involved to simply limit responses to yes or no when there is an attendee limit specified for an event. When you have RSVP'd for an event, you will be presented with the option to leave the event in case you change your mind. Download guest list When RSVP has been enabled for an event, anyone who can see the list of attendees will be able to download a guest list in PDF format. This is especially useful for the event organizer in case they need to print out the guest list to bring with them to the event. RSVP for imported events When you configure iCalendar feed imports in the admin control panel, you will now be able to enable or disable RSVP status for events from the feed. As the administrator, you had no control over whether events imported from a feed had RSVP enabled or not in previous versions of Calendar. As of 4.0, you can specify whether to enable or disable RSVP for imported events on a per-feed basis. As with 3.x, events exported through iCalendar feeds will include the attendee list with them. When events are imported through an iCalendar feed, if an attendee is specified (through the iCalendar specification) and that attendee is also a member of your site (based on their email address), the member on your site will automatically be set as RSVP'd for the event. We believe these several minor but useful enhancements to the RSVP capabilities in Calendar will make the feature more useful in real world usage scenarios, and will allow you and your event coordinators to get more out of Calendar than ever before. Attached Thumbnails Kompletten Blogeintrag lesen
  25. IP.Calendar allows your users to schedule and share events through a centralized community calendar and supports many features that allow your community to coordinate, organize and interact with each other through the calendar. For instance, event organizers can request RSVP for events in order to note who will be attending before hand, and you can allow commenting on events submitted through IP.Calendar to allow users to share their thoughts about an event. The latest version of IP.Calendar will see some minor yet useful enhancements that will allow you and your community to make better use of IP.Calendar in a more social manner than ever before. Location support Users will be able to specify a physical location (i.e. an address) when submitting an event to the calendar in the 4.0 Community Suite calendar application. When an address is specified and Google Maps integration is enabled in the admin control panel, a map will be presented when viewing the event that allows users to see where the event will be taking place. Clicking on the map will take you to Google maps, allowing you to get directions to the event or otherwise find out more information about the location. The event location, when available, will also be included in iCalendar exports using the GEO property supported by the specification. This means when sharing your calendar events with another application that supports iCalendar imports (and supports the "GEO" property), your event location will be available in those applications as well. Downloading individual events In previous versions of the calendar, you were able to download an iCalendar export of an entire calendar on the site, but you were unable to download an individual event as an iCalendar export. The 4.0 Community Suite calendar application will now allow you to download individual events, as seen by the "Download Event" button in the previous screenshot. Users can download individual events and import them into supported calendar applications if they desire. Events are downloaded with an ".ics" extension, which is supported by Windows Calendar, Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Outlook, Mozilla Lightning and pretty much every other calendar application available. Cover photo Another small yet useful enhancement in the next version of Calendar is the ability to upload a cover photo with your events. You may now, optionally, upload a cover photo image with your events which will be displayed as a background image in the event header. Please keep in mind that these are early screenshots and the interface is very much subject to change, however you can get an idea from this screenshot how you might end up specifying a cover photo for an event to give it some unique visual differentiation to stand out. Attached Thumbnails View the full article Quelle: http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/398822-40-minor-calendar-enhancements/
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