One of the primary areas we have targeted for improvement in IP.Board 3.2 is a fresh style and usability improvements for the AdminCP. Our AdminCP has long been considered one of the best in the industry, so while we didn't want to tear up that work and start again, we did feel it was time to make substantial improvements. Overview
First, let's take a look at a general overview of the new style…
Hot on the heels of our blog entry detailing how RSVP-style events will work in Calendar as of IP.Board 3.2.0, we would like to take a moment to discuss some interface changes we have made in the next release of Calendar. Some of these changes are relatively minor, but we feel that they should improve usability and make it easier for users to understand how to use Calendar in 3.2.0. It is import…
This entry rounds up our series of blogs on the new text editor and how we've enhanced other areas of the interface that use it.
I recently introduced the new text editor and then showed you some basic integration such as fast reply and instant quote.
I want to now show you the last piece of this feature set and resolve a common issue when making a reply.
Quite often you're on a busy board s…
As part of our continuing IP.Board 3.2.0 development update blog entries, we've already told you about some great improvements you can expect to see in Calendar with the release of IP.Board 3.2. In addition to much improved SEO capabilities in Calendar, we have also made loads of changes to improve the consistency of Calendar compared to the rest of our suite lineup. While these changes alone wi…
One of our main goals for IP.Board 3.2.0 is to streamline the interface and make it easier to work with. We're also taking full advantage of modern techniques to ensure that IP.Board has more of an application feel by eliminating page reloads and using rich web technologies.
We've revamped the photo editor to make it easier and simpler to use. The first thing you'll notice is that if you've conn…
To round up our development updates on IP.Nexus 1.2, I'd just like to mention in brief some additional features not already mentioned in previous blog entries. Go back in Checkout
When going through the checkout, a progress bar at the top indicates what steps are still required.
Previously, once you had completed one step, you could not go back and change the information provided. In IP.Nex…
I recently introduced the new text editor in 3.2.0. This new text editor brings a robust rich text editor coupled with custom BBCode and an auto-save feature.
Today, I wanted show some user interface and usability improvements we've made in this area.
Firstly, where space is tight or where you don't want to be overwhelmed with the text editor, it is shown 'minimised'. The screenshot below sho…
On 13 January 2011 we posted some information on our Spam Monitoring Service that was helping to block the huge amount of spam accounts hitting communities all over the web.
There's not much new to report - spam will always exist unfortunately - but we thought everyone would be interested to know that we were recently able to block huge ranges of attacking IP addresses.
IPS has a hosting divis…
IP.Nexus has always had the ability create "custom packages" - you can specify a price and renewal terms and IP.Nexus will keep a log of the purchase and generate renewal invoices.
However, some options like member group promotion, custom modules, etc. are not available in this setup - and with the addition of advertisements and hosting packages, it is necessary to be able to generate custom pack…
Nearly ten years ago, IP.Board shipped with a pretty advanced functional editor that allowed you to quickly format your text in a rough "WYSIWYG" format. This was an exciting technology. As the main browsers started adding better support for this functionality we updated our own code to keep up.
The internet is a constantly evolving space and web browsers and technology rise and fall and keeping…
We are continuing to make improvements to Calendar to both bring it more in line with the rest of the suite of IPS products and to modernize the application and make it more functional and useful for our customers. If you haven't read our first blog entry describing improvements you can expect to see with Calendar in IP.Board 3.2.0, Part I: SEO Improvements, feel free to take a moment to read our…
Currently in IP.Nexus when a package is edited, certain factors, like the group a user is moved into when purchasing the package, only apply to new purchases.
While less of an issue for traditional products there are times, particularly with advertisement and hosting packages, where you will want to apply these changes to existing purchases.
Let's say for example, a user has purchased a product…
As the beta process for Gallery continues, I've found the time to implement the mobile theme that can be used by any mobile handset's browser or by the iPhone app we have available for free in the App Store.
The mobile theme is lightweight as expected and makes good use of the small cropped thumbs as well as the new 'small' image that is created. This saves a lot of bandwidth which will be a hug…
IP.Nexus can ask the customer for various information (like their full name, postal address and phone number) when registering purchasing an item. This information is required for shipping, some payment gateways and the anti-fraud system.
Up until now, these fields were static - only the hard-coded fields were available and you could only specify all or no fields were required at registration or …
Work is underway on IP.Board 3.2 so we wanted to start divulging some of the great changes you can expect to see in our next upcoming major release. One area of IP.Board that we wanted to spend some time improving was the calendar, and this blog entry is the first of several outlining changes and improvements you can expect to see in the calendar with IP.Board 3.2.
We intend to post several blo…
IP.Nexus aims to give you the tools you need to monetize your community, and the core of that is the actual transaction process.
We've made a number of changes in IP.Nexus 1.2 not only to make managing payments and gateways easier but to protect you against fraud, encourage renewals and generally make it easier for you to make more money. Authorize.Net Recurring Payments
IP.Nexus has since v…
As was hinted in the blog entry last week, IP.Nexus 1.2 shall bring support for selling hosting packages.
Right away I'd like to mention that this at the moment will work with any server using cPanel and WHM - we will of course gauge interest for other control panels for future versions. Hosting Packages
You set up hosting packages just like regular products and advertisement packages. There …
IP.Nexus features an advertisement system which allows administrators not only to set up circulating advertisements on their community, but sell advertising space too.
Currently in IP.Nexus, advertisements are purchased through a special location in the client area. In IP.Nexus 1.2 we will be removing this area and moving advertisements into the store.
When adding a package to the store, you wi…
We thought everyone might find a few statistics from our Spam Monitoring Service interesting. Since the rate of spam registrations has greatly increased since the first of the year we are of course seeing greater activity on the service. All stats are since 1 January 2011 to 13 January 2011. The spam service has processed 300,000 requests and the rate is accelerating as more people are activati…
IPS is currently seeking a self-motivated individual to join our general support team. Requirements: Excellent communication skills
Advanced knowledge of IP.Board and related applications
Ability to work in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment and be self-starter
Linux, cPanel/WHM experience strongly preferred, but not required
You must be 18 years or older to apply for this position. …
IP.Nexus 1.1 was released at the beginning of this month bringing a number of new features such as product options, reporting tools, advertisement system improvements and more.
Already we have started work on IP.Nexus 1.2 - while release is still a while away, we'll be posting blog entries during development to show you the upcoming new features.
The first new feature in IP.Nexus 1.2 that we w…
We are into the development process for IP.Board 3.2 and wanted to share some general expectations for this release. First of all it won't be out for several months so don't start asking about release dates now :)
In addition to the obvious enhancements to make the software work better, faster, and smarter we are focusing our development toward three key goals: Community Promotion
Front-end U…
When we released IP.SEO 1.0, we said that we were going to start small and regularly update with new features based on user feedback and SEO trends. We've been staggered by the response to the first release, and have read all of the feedback topics posted so far. So in the spirit of those regular updates, we're now releasing IP.SEO 1.1 to cover some of the most requested features.
Here's what's…
For our final entry on IP.Nexus 1.1, I'd like to sum up some of the additional general tweaks and enhancements since our last blog entry. Marking an invoice unpaid
In IP.Nexus 1.0, once an invoice has been paid, there is no way to mark it "unpaid". While for most circumstances this makes sense, in the event a check bounces or something similar, you may want to undo everything done when the inv…