• The number of items sold (grouped by package).
• The amount of income made (grouped by payment method).
• The number of new support requests created (grouped by department).
• The number of staff replies made in support requests (grouped by staff member).

• Results for a single day (On Bar and Line Charts, results will be shown for each hour of the day)
• Results for a week (On Bar and Line Charts, results will be shown for each day of the week)
• Results for a month (On Bar and Line Charts, results will be shown for each day of the month)
• Results for a year (On Bar and Line Charts, results will be shown for each month of the year)
• Results for all time (On Bar and Line Charts, results will be shown for each year)

WHERE file_name LIKE '%search term%'

we now will run a query like

WHERE MATCH(file_name) AGAINST ('+search +term', IN BOOLEAN MODE)

This is a minor backend change, but will help performance if your site has a large downloads section that is heavily searched.


Custom Field Formatting

IP.Downloads has featured custom fields support since it's initial release. This is a powerful tool that will help you collect additional meta data from your users when they submit files. Custom fields show up on the file information page when filled in, allowing you to easily customize the data collected and shown for users in IP.Downloads.

We have enhanced custom fields in IP.Downloads 2.3 to allow you to define how to format them from the ACP. Similar to the formatting options for member custom fields, you can use a {key} and {value} macro when defining the formatting options for your IP.Downloads custom fields, allowing you to display the data exactly how you intend to. One common use scenario we have run into ourselves is wanting to display a custom field that should contain a link as an actual link, instead of just the link text. This will now be possible in IP.Downloads 2.3.


Share Links & FaceBook

IP.Board 3.1 introduced the new share links strip functionality, and included a robust and easy to use FaceBook "Like" feature throughout the forums. We have implemented this into IP.Downloads 2.3, allowing your users to easily share and like the content throughout IP.Downloads just as they would throughout the forums. In doing so, we have removed the old "Email File" link that would appear on file display pages, as you can now use the Email share link option instead.

While I presently do not have FaceBook enabled on my development board, you can see the share links strip in the following screenshot. The FaceBook like hook will show up on the left side on the same line, when enabled.

(Please be aware that this is an early screenshot, and the user interface is subject to change before release)




Comments & Likes

As well as implementing the share links and FaceBook Like hook into IP.Downloads, we have gone ahead and implemented our new commenting and likes systems into IP.Downloads 2.3 as well. Matt previously discussed these new features in a Gallery blog entry (take particular note of the 'Favorites' feature, which we have renamed to 'Likes' and the new comments area), so feel free to check that out to get a better overview of how these systems work. As part of our efforts regarding consistency across our applications, these features will work identically in IP.Downloads as they do in IP.Gallery.

All content that you 'Like' throughout IP.Board is available in a new 'My Liked Content' option from your user dropdown in the top of every page. We will be further expanding this central control panel in IP.Board 3.2. When you like a file, you can choose to like anonymously (so that other users do not know you have liked it), and you can choose to receive notifications of updates. If you enable notifications, you will be notified when the file is updated and/or when someone comments on the file. This new like system replaces a couple of existing features in IP.Downloads, but in a manner that will make it more consistent with every other application: Favorites (including the UserCP "Manage Favorites" area) and Subscriptions (including the UserCP "Manage Subscriptions" area). You can now manage these from one central area of IP.Board for all applications, including IP.Downloads.

The comments area will now support AJAX replies, hovercard moderation, and more, all in an interface consistent with our other applications. Again, check out the previous blog entry with a video of Gallery for an idea of how this section works.

I would take a couple of screenshots here, however we are in the process of overhauling the user interface and as such I don't think screenshots will help you visualize the changes much at this time. When we blog about the user interface changes later on, we will be sure to point out these two specific changes to show you how the look and work.


In addition to changing these systems for our file view page to be more consistent with our other applications, we have also added the ability to "Like" a category of files, allowing you to optionally be notified when new files are submitted to a category. This is analogous to the "Watch Forum" option in the forums, allowing you to be notified if new topics are submitted. We believe this will help your members monitor areas of your site more effectively and with better control, keeping your members interested in your downloads area as new content is submitted.


Summary

We are working towards improving usability and consistency in IP.Downloads (as in all of our applications) and to that end we have implemented some new functionality that will allow your users to navigate your downloads area with ease. They can expect to be familiar with how the downloads area works based on consistency with our other applications, without having to figure this out on their own. Additionally, the inline AJAX functionality of the likes and comments systems provide for a more robust user experience, allowing them to interact with the site in useful ways, without having to jump from page to page unnecessarily. We hope you like these changes, and stay tuned for other upcoming blog entries regarding the direction of IP.Downloads 2.3!

class like_{app}_{type}_composite extends classes_like_composite

So, for Gallery, this is:

class like_gallery_images_composite extends classes_like_composite

There are only three methods that need to be defined:

The first two are very straight forward:

* Return an array of acceptable frequencies * Possible: immediate, offline, daily, weekly * * @return array */ public function allowedFrequencies() { return array( 'immediate', 'offline' ); } /** * return type of notification available for this item * * @return array (key, readable name) */ public function getNotifyType() { return array( 'comments', 'comments' ); }

/**

Note: If this "like" will notify of new comments, then the only allowed frequencies are 'immediate' and 'offline'.

The last is getMeta

* Returns the type of item * * @param mixed Relationship ID or array of * @param array Array of meta to select (title, url, type, parentTitle, parentUrl, parentType) null fetches all * @return array Meta data */ public function getMeta( $relId, $selectType=null ) { $return = array(); $isNumeric = false; if ( is_numeric( $relId ) ) { $relId = array( intval($relId) ); $isNumeric = true; } $this->DB->build( array( 'select' => 'i.*', 'from' => array( 'gallery_images' => 'i' ), 'where' => 'i.id IN (' . implode( ',', $relId ) . ')', 'add_join' => array( array( 'select' => 'a.*', 'from' => array( 'gallery_albums_main' => 'a' ), 'where' => 'i.img_album_id=a.album_id', 'type' => 'left' ) ) ) ); $this->DB->execute(); while( $row = $this->DB->fetch() ) { /* Title */ if ( $selectType === null OR ( is_array( $selectType ) AND in_array( 'title', $selectType ) ) ) { $return[ $row['id'] ]['like.title'] = $row['caption']; } /* URL */ if ( $selectType === null OR ( is_array( $selectType ) AND in_array( 'url', $selectType ) ) ) { $return[ $row['id'] ]['like.url'] = $this->registry->output->buildSEOUrl( "app=gallery&image=" . $row['id'], "public", $row['caption_seo'], "viewimage" ); } /* Type */ if ( $selectType === null OR ( is_array( $selectType ) AND in_array( 'type', $selectType ) ) ) { $return[ $row['id'] ]['like.type'] = 'Image'; } /* Parent title */ if ( $selectType === null OR ( is_array( $selectType ) AND in_array( 'parentTitle', $selectType ) ) ) { $return[ $row['id'] ]['like.parentTitle'] = $row['album_name']; } /* Parent url */ if ( $selectType === null OR ( is_array( $selectType ) AND in_array( 'parentTitle', $selectType ) ) ) { $return[ $row['id'] ]['like.parentUrl'] = $this->registry->output->buildSEOUrl( "app=gallery&album=" . $row['album_id'], "public", $row['album_name_seo'], "viewalbum" ); } /* Parent Type */ if ( $selectType === null OR ( is_array( $selectType ) AND in_array( 'parentType', $selectType ) ) ) { $return[ $row['id'] ]['like.parentType'] = 'Album'; } } return ( $isNumeric === true ) ? array_pop( $return ) : $return; }

	/**

This method returns meta data about either a single item or an array of items. This is used to generate the data in the "like center".

To add the like bar in your own applications, all you need to do is add:

require_once( IPS_ROOT_PATH . 'sources/classes/like/composite.php' ); $likeClass = classes_like::bootstrap( '{app}', '{type}' ); $like = $likeClass->render( 'summary', $itemId );

$like now contains the HTML which you can use in your templates like so:

<div>{$like}</div>

I will go into more detail on this in our documentation and please watch out for the "comments" class blog entry as it ties in with this class to auto-send comment notifications without any additional coding!

• IP.Board
  
  • topicViewQuery: allows you to add new fields for the members table in the query, and add new joins when posts are retrieved from the database. This will allow you to select additional fields in the members table if you need to, or join in other database tables to retrieve additional information for your modification. The main use for this would be to retrieve additional data to show in the userInfoPane template.
  • incrementUsersPostCount: several modifications need to execute code when the post count for a user is incremented (example: popular points modifications). This new data hook will allow you to do so.
    
    
  • Add Calendar Event
  • Edit Calendar Event
    
    
  • Add New Blog
  • Add Blog Entry: Entry
  • Add Blog Entry: Poll Data
  • Edit Blog Entry: Entry Data
  • Edit Blog Entry: Added Poll
  • Edit Blog Entry: Updated Poll
  • Add Blog Entry Comment
  • Edit Blog Entry Comment
    
    
  • Add Download
  • Edit Download
  • Update Downloads Category Info
  • Rebuild Downloads Statistics Cache
  • Add Download Comment
  • Edit Download Comment
    
    

require_once( IPSLib::getAppDir('core') . '/modules_admin/languages/manage_languages.php' );

$langLib = new admin_core_languages_manage_languages( $this->registry );

To resolve this issue, we have added a new function in IPSLib that works similarly to IPSLib::loadLibrary(). This function however accepts only 2 parameters: the first one is the path to the file itself while the second parameter is the class you are overloading. This is an example based on the code above:

$classToLoad = IPSLib::loadActionOverloader( IPSLib::getAppDir('core') . '/modules_admin/languages/manage_languages.php', 'admin_core_languages_manage_languages' );

$langLib    = new $classToLoad( $this->registry );

Support for usercpFormsExt plugin dropped Starting with IP.Board 3.1.3, we have discontinued support for the plugin usercpFormsExt.php. This is a plugin that we introduced in the 3.0 version of IP.Board to extend the user control panel tabs when library hooks didn't exist. It has now been replaced with a much more flexible library hook that allows for infinite extensions and you won't even need to upload a file as everything is done with a simple hook. If any developers were using this functionality, be sure to update your code to use the new library hook method. This below is the current code in the public_core_usercp_manualResolver class, for reference:

//-----------------------------------------

// Begin initilization routine for extension

//-----------------------------------------

$classToLoad   = IPSLib::loadLibrary( $EXT_DIR . '/usercpForms.php', 'usercpForms_' . $_TAB, $_TAB );

$usercp_module = new $classToLoad();

We appreciate the feedback of our developers, and hope that these small changes make it easier to extend IP.Board and create useful and creative addons for our products.

• IP.Blog
• IP.Chat
• IP.Content
• IP.Downloads
• IP.Gallery
• IP.Nexus

<li class='{parse striping="feed_striping"}'> <a href='{$r['url']}'>{parse expression="IPSText::truncate( $r['field_1_value'], 30 )"}</a> </li> </foreach>

        <foreach loop="$records as $r">

Here you can see that the default template uses $r['url'] and as well as $r['field_1_value']. If you were not familiar with the software, you may not know what this means. By utilizing the documentation available now, you can now gain an understanding of what is happening.

$r['url']: The URL to the database record or article
$r['field_1_value']: The formatted value for the field "Title" that should be shown to users


Now What?

While understanding what each variable in the default template is for is very helpful on it's own, you can now take your blocks even further. Now that you can access documentation on what variables are available, and what each variable does, you can modify your block templates to make them more personalized to your site, with the information you want to display. Let's walk through a quick example.

Please see the following video, and the subsequent description of what we have just done.