We've already blogged about some miscellaneous changes you can expect to see coming in IP.Downloads 2.5, and hope you are excited about these enhancements and improvements to the software. We have just a few more changes we wanted to let you know about, so without further ado, and in no particular order, read on to see what else you can expect to see coming in IP.Downloads 2.5.
Ability to re-rate files
A minor enhancement to the existing rating system, you will now be able to re-rate files as of IP.Downloads 2.5, if your group permissions allow for it. This means if you rate a file you downloaded a 4, for example, and the author improves the file, you can re-rate the file a 5 when the new version is released.
Custom field searching
Many of you have requested this feature, and we are happy to announce you will now be able to search custom fields in IP.Downloads 2.5. You will be able to configure per-custom-field whether you want to allow searching in the field or not. When a custom field allows you to search it, that field will be available in the application search options on the advanced search form. Custom field searching is supported with both SQL and Sphinx searching.
Linked files domain blacklist
We have added a new setting to allow you to "blacklist" domains so that files cannot be linked to on those domains. The ACP setting is a textarea allowing one domain per line (with * serving as a wildcard to allow you to include subdomains). When a user links to an offsite file, the link is checked against your blacklist, and if the link points to a domain you have blacklisted, the submission will be rejected with an error message.
Quick access to member reports in the ACP
We have added a link on the Manage Members page to allow you to quickly look up a member report in IP.Downloads for that member. This one link can now allow you to better monitor your member activity within IP.Downloads.
Other files you may be interested in
There is a new ACP option to allow you to add a block on file view pages labeled "Other files you may be interested in". This block is essentially a search based on the filename for the file you are viewing, pulling in similar files that may be of interested to you. Behind the scenes, sphinx will be used if you are using sphinx for searching your site.
We have ideas for future expansion of this capability based on various other factors, but we felt that a search based on the filename was the most logical way to proceed for an initial implementation. Note that while the search only utilizes the file name to find similar files, when we perform that search we look at both file names and descriptions.
Wrapping up
Beyond the changes we have blogged about here, we have gone through the bug tracker and resolved all outstanding bug reports. We have also implemented some various minor changes to help improve efficiency and resource usage throughout the software, allowing it to perform better than ever! We hope you are as excited as we are about IP.Downloads 2.5, and we look forward to your feedback on the upcoming software release.