Right now the Profanity Filters are pretty basic. If you enter "stopword" you can have it change to *****. That's fine for basic profanity but sometimes you want to do other actions with a word. Perhaps someone might mention a competitor, you see common spam words, or you run a site targeted to children and want fine control over what is posted. There are a lot of reasons a simple replace word with *** might not be what you want.

Word Filters introduce an option to let you say "stopword" places a post in moderation queue.

So now you can define a list of words that are not necessarily profanity but are words you want to review if they are posted.

We have also extended this logic to the URL Filters which are now just called Links in the AdminCP configuration. You can now disallow all links and have a post go to approval if someone does post a link. This is also useful for sites where you need really tight control on content either for security or privacy reasons.

With the new Links feature you can also set allow/disallow list of allows links and if someone posts a link outside those lists (depending on your mode) the post will go into review.

We hope these features allow you to introduce a bit of automatic moderation to your community and you can come up with creative ways to capture posts that need review either for security, privacy, or just keeping things in order.

 This change will be in version 4.1.17 which is scheduled to be released in early December 2016.

Every Activity Stream you create also creates a related RSS feed. However, Activity Streams take into account recent activity and unread status per-user which you may not want if you want a simple, raw feed of content by date. The new RSS Feeds feature uses similar filter settings to Activity Streams but does a traditional by-date approach to the feed. It also only reports on the initial creation of a content item and does not update based on replies.

You can finely select various content settings including selecting just certain categories within an application. So you might create an RSS feed that includes only content from an announcements forum and your blog section which would then be a total feed of all the news on your site.

RSS feeds are useful in the traditional sense for people to subscribe to a feed on your site but they are also useful for integration. Many clients use RSS feeds to pull content into external sources to embed content on a different site, mobile app, or other systems. For those of you looking for even tighter integration with external systems, be sure to check out our REST API.

This change will be in version 4.1.17 which is scheduled to be released in early December 2016.

We have added a new default warning note for the warning actions. This allows the admin to setup these notes to pre-populate for the moderator when they select a warning reason. So you might input an admin-approved message, highlight the section of the rules your member violated, or for corporate clients you might include some notice from your legal department.

On the front end the moderator will see that content as a pre-filled area in the notes box but the moderator can still edit it to the specific situation.

We think this will streamline moderation particularly on busy communities. Admins will be able to define how to approach certain member situations to balance keeping your community running smoothly with the importance of looking professional and polite when you do have to take action on a member. Moderators will also be able to speed up their work by simply clicking a post, selecting a reason, and submitting the warning. No typing needed.

This change will be in version 4.1.17 which is scheduled to be released in early December 2016.

To make this process more user friendly we now have the ability to quickly edit tags when viewing any content item. When you view an item that has tags enabled and you have permission to edit then you will see a link to edit tags.

That brings up an input box where you can manage your item tags without leaving the page to a full edit screen.

We have been testing the feature for a few weeks internally and it has already saved us time as we tag our discussions. But beyond that, and I think more important, is the fact that we find we are using tags more often. More use means more organization and filter possibilities of your content which is a great thing for busy, data-drive communities.

So we hope that not only will controlling your tags be faster an easier but you too find you use the tagging feature more often with this small but useful change.

This change will be in version 4.1.17 which is scheduled to be released in early December 2016.

Some tracking providers do not understand that an inline AJAX page load (one that loads new content without a full page refresh) should still count as a new page. Even though your browser did not do a full reload, all your content is different so it should count in your metrics.

To solve this issue, IPS Community Suite can now automatically put in custom code to execute on pagination. We include Google Analytics and Piwik code by default and there is also an option to include your own custom pagination event code for other services.

If you already have your Google Analytics code in our existing (basic) analytics system then the Suite will detect this on upgrade and automatically enable the new pagination tracking. The screenshot above shows the "Other" option if you do not use Google Analytics or Piwik. If you have other providers you want us to consider just post a feedback topic.

Note: be sure that you embed Google Analytics into your Suite using the built-in analytics system. If you simply pasted the code into your theme templates then we cannot automatically enable the new tracking.

We hope this new feature allows for easier integration with analytics tracking providers and also gives you much better insight into your traffic by properly counting all the page views you may currently be missing out on!

This change will be in version 4.1.17 which is scheduled to be released in early December 2016.

As of today, we have the regular documentation and REST API documentation ready to use. Over the coming weeks and months, we'll be expanding what's available further, going into more detail about the tools available within the framework. We've also started work on comprehensive Getting Started guides, that will walk you through simple developer projects from start to finish - these will be available soon, once they're complete.

If there's a particular aspect of IPS4 development that you don't feel is adequately catered for right now, please let us know! This will help us direct our efforts to the most useful places.

Enjoy!

Check out what's new:

You can also read the Release Notes for the technical details. Enjoy 4.1.16!

We have also released a beta for any clients who are interested in using the latest release before it is officially available. The alpha and beta forum has more information (clients only) if you want to learn more about using beta releases.

We expect 4.1.16 to go to public beta next week. If you are interested in using a public beta please check out our beta forum (clients only) with more info. We welcome as much testing as possible and our betas are considered safe to use on a live site. We do offer support for betas so, if you are technically minded, consider giving them a try.

Commerce: New Ticket Listing

We have redesigned the ticket listing view in Commerce to be much more user friendly and better use screen space. You can also now group by department which is great for organization.

Much like Activity Streams on the front end you can create custom views for tickets based on how you work.

The new My History view allows staff to quickly see their latest replies and actions along with some basic stats.

There are many other smaller improvement in Commerce in 4.1.16 as well. We think you will enjoy all the updates.

Security Questions

To enhance the security of your member accounts we now have a new security questions feature where you can allow your members to put in their own, personal security questions. The member will then be prompted to answer those questions for account actions you define.

Account Change Emails

Members will now receive confirmation emails when they change their email address...

and their password...

Topics per Page

You can now define the number of topics per page in forum view.

Remove all Followers

Moderators can now remove all followers from any item that allows follows. This is useful if you are archiving an old item or otherwise do not want people getting notified of new activity on an item.

Automatic Following

Your members can already choose to automatically follow content they start or reply to but now you can define this as the default behavior for all members. Your members can of course override this to their own preference.

Embed Failure Message

To answer the constant question "why didn't my media embed?" we now show you why. Regular members will just see a message indicating the Suite tried to embed but was not able to. Admins will get more information on what failed.

Suspended Member Page

When you banned/suspended a member previously they simply saw a generic permission denied message. We now show a more friendly page saying they were suspended and why.

The member can click to get the full information from the Warning System as well.

Contact Us

The contact us page now has configuration options to control where messages are sent. You can do email and even Commerce support departments now.

Announcements

Global announcements can now be restricted by member group.

And some technical stuff...

In addition to the new feature additions we have also fixed dozens of issues reported by clients. There was a particular focus on Commerce, Pages, and IPS Connect. Some other items of note:

• Performance improvements in: profile view, sitemap generator, posting replies, and Activity Streams
• We now try to more reliably detect the AWS S3 endpoint for those using S3 file storage
• Tasks view will now show the last time a task ran
• More efficient license key checking to keep the keys from being checked too often which can slow your site down
• If group promotion based on date is enable the system will now auto-promote even if a member does not login
• If you move your site to a new URL you no longer have to update a constant if using the image proxy
• You can now press ctrl/cmd+enter in any editor window to submit the reply (yay!)
• In Commerce ticket view there are keyboard shortcuts to perform common actions (such as press 'r' to open reply box or 'n' for note)
• There is now logic to prevent double-posting when the initial post encounters an error on submit
• If your datastore (cache system) is not working properly the AdminCP will now show you a warning telling you that it needs attention.

Read/unread filtering

The first improvement is that you can now filter the message list by read and unread, making it a little easier to browse through just the messages you're interested in.

Search improvements

Next up, the messenger search has been improved in a couple of ways; first, you can now also search the names of both the recipients and the senders, and second, we've added a menu so you can specify which fields in particular you want to search by.

Easier moving

Finally, we've added a popular request - the ability to use the mass-move tool inside the messenger. You can now check multiple messages, and the usual mass-action toolbar will appear that will allow you either move them to another folder, or, has been the case in the past, delete them.

While these are each small improvements by themselves, we hope the incremental changes in each release add up to a more pleasant experience for users. 

Designer’s Mode HTML Editing

This update allows you to edit your HTML mode pages inside the designer's mode file system. Any edits you make, once saved in your text editor are instantly available which makes it much faster to build HTML pages with Pages.

Database Template Improvements

We listened to a lot of feedback about templating within the AdminCP for Pages and one common request was for a way to delete a group of database templates and to rename those groups. When you import databases, the template group names are created unique but you may want to change this to something more memorable. You will see here that the dialog also shows you which databases this template is used.

Page titles when using databases

Currently, when you add a database to a page, the page title is replaced with the database name. This may not always be desirable, and you may want the page title to remain in all database URLs (such as record view). There is now an option for this per database.

Relational Field Improvements

Now when you create a relational link between databases, you can opt to show which records link to the relational record. To give you an example, say you had a database for actors, and a database for movies, and you created a link on the actors record to show which movies they star in; now when viewing the movie, it will show you a list of the actors.

More Filterable Fields

We added both "Date" and "YesNo" field types to be filterable when viewing a list of records. When you use the Date type, you can select a date range for listing articles.

We also added the ability to use any custom field set as filterable to be used when creating a database feed widget.

Unique Fields

Another popular request was to allow a way to force unique entries for custom fields. This means that when enabled, only one record per database can have the same value. This is enabled when creating or editing a field.

Other improvements

You can now quickly delete an entire media folder via the AdminCP.

You can now quickly see which databases are used on which pages via the AdminCP page list.

And we added a way to programatically fetch a custom field value via the $record object. Currently, you need to use something like $record->field_12 which works well until you import that database to another installation. The fields are renumbered so this syntax no longer works. We made it possible to use the field key like so $record->field_{my_key_name_here}. Not only does this solve the issue when importing databases, it is also much more readable and easier to remember!

Version 4.1.13 now allows you to switch on post highlighting per member group. This makes sure the reply stands out from the rest of the replies.

Of course, this feature works everywhere; from calendar comments to article replies.

The feature is switched on via the Group form in the ACP.

You can edit the look of the highlighting via the theme’s settings which allows for different color schemed per-theme.

We have also ensured that theme designers can get the most out of the system by embedding a data attribute noting the group of the author. This means that you can add custom CSS to use different colours per member group.

We think post highlighting will be a simple way to bring attention to member posts in groups that you define.

Mentions

4.0 introduced mentions, and since then a frequently-requested feature is the ability to ignore notifications triggered by particular members. In 4.1.12, we enhanced the Ignore Users functionality to also allow you to block mention notifications. They will still be able to mention you in posts, but you will no longer be notified about it.

Ratings

As of 4.1.12, ratings will now display half-stars in order to be more accurate. Users will still rate whole stars out of 5 (or 10 if configured so), but the aggregated ratings displayed alongside content will be more fine-grained.

Custom date formatting

We have used built-in, automatic locale formats for dates since 4.0, but it became increasingly clear that this did not offer the flexibility that some community administrators desired. As a result, 4.1.12 re-introduces the ability to provide custom formats for dates.

Bug fixes

Amongst the handful of new features, there's over 400 other bug fixes and improvements that contribute towards the overall stability of the IPS Community Suite, as we start working towards the next major release, IPS Community Suite 4.2 which will be available later this year. Further fixes for stability in the 4.1 line will come before 4.2 is available.

Please check our release notes to read more about other smaller changes and fixes in 4.1.12.

Activity Streams

The first improvement we made is to change how the expanded/condensed toggles are displayed to improve their clarity. From studying the feedback from administrators and users, we discovered that many people did not realize the view could be changed. To improve this, the toggles now explicitly say 'Condensed' and 'Expanded', making it much clearer how the view can be toggled to your own preference.

Next, a common point of feedback about Activity Streams is that clicking a result and then hitting the Back button in the browser means you are put back at the first batch of results, losing your place in the stream. In 4.1.12 we improved this so that clicking Back will load the last batch of results you were viewing, enabling you to continue browsing from whence you left off.

Finally, in the Content Types menu we added an Apply button. We discovered that users were not always sure how to save the selection of content types they had made (which automatically happened when that menu was closed). To alleviate this, the new Apply button will save the selection and close the menu, updating the stream results in real-time as expected. You can still simply click out of the menu to apply changes as well.

Search

While overall improvements to search (specifically the algorithms to match and return the results) are a matter of ongoing research and refinement which we will improve in the 4.2 series and beyond, 4.1.12 sees one small improvement to the options available to users. While you have always been able to search within a particular forum, category etc. while browsing that area, you were not able to retroactively filter into particular areas after performing a more general search. IPS Community Suite 4.1.12 adds this ability to the interface, allowing you to get more specific results from a particular area of the community.

Version 4.1.12 is currently in beta testing and should be released in the next two weeks.

Long-time users of our software will know that a post preview function was a standard feature, but we took the decision to not include it in the initial IPS4 release. It had a couple of drawbacks:

• it only applied to certain pages, such as topic view - other WYSIWYG editors simply didn't get a preview
• the workflow wasn't very good for modern web apps, requiring a round-trip to the server and a full page refresh

When IPS4 was released, we felt that the built-in rendering of the editor was a sufficient preview of how the end result would appear. However, while analyzing ongoing customer and user feedback for IPS4 in its first year of release, we have seen that a preview still has a use. There are some circumstances when a true WYSIWYG experience is just not possible such as using more advanced formatting (like LaTeX) or when admins create certain custom editor plugins.

As a result, we rethought post preview. We wanted to ensure that all editors could be previewed, and that it didn't have a clunky workflow. In addition, since IPS4 uses a responsive theme, we wanted to give users the opportunity to preview how their post would look on different devices.

Here's the result, and what will be available in 4.1.12:

The preview is shown by clicking a new button on the toolbar (meaning it can be moved, removed, etc. just like the other default buttons). When the preview loads, the toolbar allows the user to resize it to different device sizes. If they are on desktop, they can also view it at tablet at phone sizes; on a tablet, it can also be viewed at phone size.

So now we not only show a true preview of what content will look like when posted, but we also allow you to preview how it will look on other devices. Of course that preview is just a best-guess since different devices have different window sizes but it does give you an idea.

We hope this reimagining of an old feature for a more modern web will please end-users and make posting content a more accurate process. Stay tuned for more updates on what's included in 4.1.12!

Version 4.1.12 is currently in beta testing and should be released in the next two weeks.

PHP 5.4 was released in 2012 and reached 'end of life' in September 2015, and so we will be requiring at least PHP 5.5 from IPS Community Suite 4.1.12 onwards. We do recommend PHP 5.6 or greater as 5.5 is approaching end of life as well.

If you currently use PHP 5.4, please contact your host and ask them to upgrade to a supported version as soon as possible.

If you would rather not have to worry about server-level issues like this, consider switching to one of our Community in the Cloud plans. They include all of our suite apps and we take care of all of the server management for you, leaving you to focus on running your community. If you are currently self-hosting, we can transfer your community to a cloud plan for free, in most cases. Contact our sales team for more information.

• Instant notifications are now dismissible.
• The sidebar has been added back to the stream pages.
• You can now sort by most downloaded in Downloads app.
• The ModeratorCP and AdminCP IP Address Tools now allow you to track the IP addresses used to vote in polls.
• A new setting has been added to disable the RSS feed for activity streams.
• A new setting has been added to specify the minimum display name length.
• Adds a new "can unban" moderator permission separate to the "can edit profiles" permission being used previously.
• IP addresses now show in reports.
• There is now a constant-level setting to disable the ACP IP address check in case of being locked out of the ACP.
• Several improvements to Commerce to make some features clearer: the Shipping Rates configuration pages now indicate to the admin if a potential mistake has been made, the front-end indicates to admins if no support departments have been set up, and the renewal settings wording has been clarified.

Check our Release Notes for full information and to keep up with releases in development. To be notified of updates as soon as they are available you can add an email address in your AdminCP under General Configuration.

Changes in 4.1.10 include:

• Instant notifications are now dismissible.
• The sidebar has been added back to the Activity Stream pages.
• You can now sort by most downloaded in Downloads app. 
• The ModeratorCP and AdminCP IP Address Tools now allow you to track the IP addresses used to vote in polls.
• A new setting has been added to disable the RSS feed for activity streams.
• A new setting has been added to specify the minimum display name length.
• Adds a new "can unban" moderator permission separate to the "can edit profiles" permission being used previously.
• IP addresses now show in reports.
• There is now a constant-level setting to disable the ACP IP address check in case of being locked out of the ACP.
• Several improvements to Commerce to make some features clearer: the Shipping Rates configuration pages now indicate to the admin if a potential mistake has been made, the front-end indicates to admins if no support departments have been set up, and the renewal settings wording has been clarified.

And of course countless bugs fixed and performance enhancements. View our full release notes for more details.

If you are an existing IPS client and enjoy testing pre-release software, a beta release of 4.1.10 is available. We always appreciate help testing upcoming releases.

We are already well into development on 4.1.11 which include some larger feature changes and additions.

This is also a security release so please upgrade as soon as possible. All Suites will see the red alert banner show.

To be notified of updates as soon as they are available you can add an email address in your AdminCP under General Configuration.

New or Changed Features

• When your link auto-embeds in a post such as with an image, YouTube video, Twitter link, etc. an option will now display to revert the embed back to a plain text link if you do not want the embed.
• New setting to disable embedding.
• Facebook/Twitter integration improvements
• If you are an administrator and encounter a system error, additional debug output will now display. Regular members will see the normal error message.
• Custom Fields for Support Requests in Commerce now show on the front-end.
• If an advertisement is set up with a main image, but not smaller images for tablets/mobiles, the ad would not show at all on tablets/mobiles. This has changed so the main image will display on all devices unless smaller images are provided.
• Topics scheduled to automatically lock or unlock will now reflect this in the topic listing and when viewing the topic.
• Placing a link to a Facebook status will embed when possible.
• When viewing a report, the container (for example, the forum) the content is from is displayed.
• Three character searches are now allowed in the Admin CP Live Search.
• The Account Settings page now uses vertical rather than horizontal tabs to prevent overflow.
• If Gravatar is enabled, and a user has not defined an profile photo, then their email address will be used to fetch from Gravatar unless explicitly set not to.
• Gfycat embeds now use their oEmbed endpoint rather than their JS API.
• Using Amazon CloudFront as https provider will now be recognized as valid secure connection.
• The member REST API endpoint will now return custom fields.
• The Developer Center for Plugins now shows the filename in the list of hooks, and when editing a hook, a breadcrumb includes a link back to the list.
• Inline notifications can now be dismissed
• Efficiency improvements to the search index
• You can now close a poll independently of the topic

You may want to read a bit more on our embed improvements:

And Activity Stream improvements:

We are well into development on version 4.1.10 which will follow along soon. Keep an eye on our Release Notes for updates on what will be coming in that release.

If you have any issues please open a support ticket. You can also submit reports to our bug tracker. Thank you!

As with any new feature, we received a lot of feedback and have had time to take that in and make improvements to mature the Activity Streams with key changes in 4.1.9 being interface, performance, and bug fixes in the system.

One recurring theme we heard were people saying "the new Activity Streams cannot do..." when actually they could do it but the options were not obvious. We used to have the options in a large drop down box that users could edit and then save to update their Stream. This meant that options were not clearly visible and therefore people did not even know all the powerful settings available to them. So in 4.1.9 we have moved those options into a new dynamic filter bar.

With the new filter bar you see all your options available right there. We also changed the interface so Streams instantly update when you make a change. You no longer have to click save and update, wait for interface to collapse, and so on. Now your changes instantly update your Stream.

When you do change your Stream settings a save button appears prompting you to save your new selection. You can choose to save if you like the new options or not if it is just a temporary change you made. If you edit filters on a stream you do not own then it will prompt you to save your options as a new stream.

We hope you enjoy this more dynamic approach to Activity Streams.

Streamlined access to everything we offer

Ever since IPS was founded in 2002, our community has been distinct from our website. The community is also where we kept all kinds of resources, from guides to the Marketplace. For those customers who know us well and enjoy hanging out in our community (and we have many who have been with us since that day in 2002!), this is no problem. Unfortunately, the downside is many new and potential customers didn't see everything we have to offer: all the wonderful addons our contributors offer, additional support resources, plentiful advice from other community administrators, and more.

In addition, we've always used the default theme that our software ships with, but with our self-service demo system now being the primary way new customers get to try out our software, this has become less important.

So, we took the decision to move some parts of the community to the website for more exposure and easier discovery by new visitors. We made some tweaks to our navigation so that finding these areas is easier than before. And, of course, we've brought the website header over to the community, giving it a fresher look and more consistent navigation, wherever you happen to be on our website.

Of course, all of our website is built in IPS4, as you would expect. Whereas before our website existed on a separate installation, as part of the update we merged our community and website together. This means you can sign in from anywhere, see your notifications and so on.

This is just the first step we've taken on improving what we offer and how we offer it. We have many plans in progress. You may have seen the theme tip we posted this week, which is the first in a series of regular tips we'll be sharing to help you get the most out of the IPS Community Suite. We'll also be highlighting some of the incredible work our customers do, whether it's a unique use of our software, or something in our Marketplace that adds a great feature.

Stay tuned!

When you paste in a link from common services like YouTube, Twitter, and so on the system tries to embed a nice box instead of just a link. For example, if I pasted in this link:

https://twitter.com/invisionps/status/708019275521363968

It would create this box:

New in version 4.1.9 you can now optionally choose to revert the automatic embed back to a simple text link.

So in the above example, when I pasted in my Twitter link, I saw a bar come up giving me the option to revert back to a link. This is useful when you do not want a formatted embed box but instead simply want to reference something and get the visitor to click the link. It is also useful when you want to reference something as part of a single sentence and not have a break in the flow that an embedded content box creates.

There is also a new AdminCP setting to completely disable embeds across your entire Suite. Some clients have communities where they like to keep things down to just simple, plain text. You could always disable formatting option button in the editor and now you can also disable automated embeds.

As a reminder, the following formats are supported with our embed system. Simply paste a link to any of these services and you will get a nice, rich embed experience that really encourages engagement on your community.

• College Humor
• Facebook
• Flickr
• Gfycat
• Google+
• Hulu
• Instagram
• SoundCloud
• Spotify
• Ted
• Twitter
• Vimeo
• Vine
• YouTube

You can also embed links to anything inside of the IPS Community Suite. So you could paste a link to another forum topic in the comment on a Gallery image and it will show a preview of that topic rather than a simple link.

We are always open to suggestions so feel free to post in our feedback forum. Thank you!

We are releasing a patch for IP.Board 3.4.x to address a potential cross-site scripting (XSS) issue.

It has been brought to our attention that specifically crafted posted content followed by specific user actions can cause a scenario where untrusted javascript can execute.  A patch is being released to address this potential issue.  This download also includes a patch for an email issue previously reported to us.


To apply the patch
Simply download the attached zip and upload the files to your forum server.   This single zip file includes the patch files for both IP.Board as well as IP.Gallery.

patch_2016_1_21.zip

If you are an IPS Community in the Cloud client running IP.Board 3.4 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 3.4, you should contact support to upgrade.

If you install or upgrade to IP.Board 3.4.9 after the date and time of this post, no further action is necessary as we have already updated the main download zips.

We would like to thank @newbie LAC for responsibly disclosing this issue to us.