Invision Community Blog: Invision Community

iPhone App: Push Notifications

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:56:00 +0000

We have a big update coming soon and we wanted to tell you about all the new features you can expect. In a previous blog post we talked about the new Directory feature, which will help people using the app discover your communities. We also talked about some interface improvements, such as the new forum quick list, which gives you fast access to common areas of your forum. We have one last big feature to tell you about in this new version and that's Push Notifications!

Push Notifications

Push notifications have been integrated into the existing notification system, so any event that can generate a notification can also generate a push notification. You can have notifications sent to your phone for subscribed forums and topics, new personal conversations, reported posts, and much more.

You will find a new settings group in your ACP "iPhone App", from here you can enable or disable support for push notifications. You can also restrict which group has access to push notifications, making it possible to use the subscription service to sell this feature to your users.

Once you have enabled notifications for your forum, your users will see a new 'mobile' column in their notification settings:

These same settings can also be updated directly from the iPhone App:

The Quick List feature that we showed in the previous blog post has been expanded to show your unread notifications. When you receive a notification on your phone, the Quick List for the forum that sent it will be automatically opened so that you can see the notifications:

Tapping the notification will take you directly to that area of the forum.

This feature will be available to everyone with a active support license, hosting account, or service addon package. If you would like to find out if your license qualifies, please visit the license key section of your ACP and refresh the license data, look for this message:

iPad Support (beta)

This version also includes preliminary support for the iPad, the application will now properly resize to use the entire screen. We'll be further enhancing this functionality in the future by providing a more customized interface and using the regular skin instead of the mobile skin.

We will be submitting this new version to Apple very soon, so you won't have long to wait for all of these new features. Note that they do require IP.Board 3.1.1 to work. We hope you're excited for this update and we look forward to your comments, suggestions, and feedback!

(Yes, there is an Android app coming in the future still!)

We will post a full announcement when the iPhone app update is approved by Apple and available to download.

IP.Nexus Dev Update: Support Desk Management

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 07:30:00 +0000

One feature we're really excited about in IP.Nexus is the Support Desk. Many administrators selling products on their site will need to offer support services to members.
In this blog entry, we'll go through some of the settings available allowing you to control the Support Desk.

Please note, the design of some areas shown in the screenshots shown are not finalised and subject to change.

Departments

IP.Nexus supports any number of departments. Each department can be:

Private - members cannot submit support requests directly (for example, an "advanced support" department).
Public - any member can submit support requests (for example, a "sales" department).
Package associated - members who have purchased selected products can support requests (for example a "general support" department).

Staff

You can control which staff can access which departments. For example, you could have your customer service staff only see the sales and customer service departments, and your technicians only see the support departments.
You can define a member or an entire group's access. If a member is in a group which one access level, and they also have their own access level, their own will override the groups.

Statuses

IP.Nexus allows you to customise the statuses for support requests. A set of standard statuses are in by default, but you can customise, remove or add your own.

There are a number of settings allowing you to control the behaviour of a status, which you can see in this screenshot:

Stock Actions

One thing we really like about the Support Desk in IP.Nexus is something we call Stock Actions.
Many Support Desks feature stock replies or canned responses. We find when we do technical support, than often a stock reply comes with an action. For example, if a support request needs to be escalated to Tier 2 support, we will give a stock reply, change the department to "Tier 2", change the status to "Open", and release control.
Stock Actions in IP.Nexus allow this process to be automated. They can give a reply, and at the same time, set the status, department and assigned staff member on the support request.

Incoming Emails

IP.Nexus not only allows a member to reply through the client area, they can Email a new request or a reply to a request and IP.Nexus will process it.
We will discuss a little more about the requirements for this feature and how it works in a future blog entry.

You may have noticed in the earlier screenshot showing the department settings that each department can have an incoming Email address. For example, you could set IP.Nexus so Emails to "sales@example.com" go to your sales department, while EMails to "support@example.com" go to your support department.

IP.Nexus also allows you to define rules to filter incoming Emails. For example, if you are receiving spam from a certain address, you could instruct IP.Nexus to discard that Email.

IP.Nexus Dev Update: Credits

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 07:00:00 +0000

In several of our previous blog entry about IP.Nexus, we've mentioned "credits".

Credit, is simply money which is stored on the account. When IP.Nexus "pays" a users (commission for a referral purchase, for example) it adds credit to their account.
The administrator can of course award credit manually from the customer page in the Admin CP.

A user which has credit on their account can use it against purchases. On the checkout screen, they will see a link like this:

Clicking that will deduct the user's credit amount from the balance to pay.
If the amount of credit is greater than the balance, IP.Nexus will recognise that payment has been received and display the thank you page (or redirect the user to the download page for IP.Downloads purchases).

In addition to using credit for purchases, if the administrator allows, users can request that their credit be paid to them.

In the client area, users will see an "Account Credit" section from which they can request a payout.

The user will then be alerted on the Admin CP dashboard that there is a pending payout request. They can view all payout requests in the Admin CP.

Clicking the Pay option will allow admins to complete the payout request. For PayPal, this will take the admin straight to PayPal and the request will automatically be removed upon completion.

IP.Board 3.1.1 - What's New?

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:26:00 +0000

With the release of 3.1.1 scheduled for next week, I thought I'd take a moment and outline some of the bigger changes.

We're very pleased with how well IP.Board 3.1.0 has been received and how stable it has been. We've been working hard to iron out some common issues and we've been reading a lot of your feedback. Based on that, we've made the following changes for IP.Board 3.1.1:

Facebook
The new Facebook APIs have been very successful in allowing registered Facebook users to log into your own forums and start contributing right away. The "like" button has also been very popular and great for driving traffic to your board. There's been a lot of feedback on these features so we've improved upon this functionality.

First of all, you can now set your own 'locale' for the Facebook social widgets. We prefer to use Facebook's javascript rather than the iFrame methods directly as the javascript methods are easier to maintain.

You can now also choose how you want to handle importing the user's 'real name'

You can automatically generate a display name based on the user's Facebook real name and suggest this as the display name:

Alternatively, you can enforce the user's real name if you have a trusted community:

This provides a more seamless experience when logging in via Facebook

You can also now choose to disable new accounts from being created via Facebook and Twitter when you disable registrations globally:

This is the error screen shown when trying to create a new account via Facebook or Twitter when new accounts have been disabled:

Merge Center
The merge center has been a great starting point for updating your custom skins but many people found it confusing. We've taken that feedback on board and made the following changes.

First up, we've reworked the feature labelling, improved the work flow and added text box prompts.

The first screen you see after the processing has finished is this one. Note, all the items that do not need your attention are hidden by default which makes it very clear what you need to do to finish the process. The box at the top briefly explains the next step you should take.

We've removed the "Select all checkboxes" from the drop down menu and placed it as a global checkbox which should be very familiar as IP.Board uses this method elsewhere:

We've redesigned the view options box to allow you to filter out what you don't want to see rather than it be 'all or nothing'. This is the default filter:

We've also update the labelling in the drop down box to make it clearer what each option does:

Once you have merged and resolved your templates, you'll see this screen which again prompts you what the next step is:

Finally, when you have saved all your changes, you'll see this screen:

SEO Updates
In Dan's previous blog entry he wrote about correcting our board index "canonical" meta tag, to ensure that search engine spiders correctly recognised "http://www.myforums.com/" as your board index and not "http://www.myforums.com/index". This was an important step, but users could still view and link to that page. More importantly, it also served a "200 OK" HTTP header, meaning search engines would also still index it as a page in its own right - causing potential duplicate content issues. The same problem applied to accessing /index.php and the IPB 2.x style: /index.php?act=idx.

We've now made a change that will automatically redirect you back to just "/" if you (or a search engine) try to access any of those URLs. The search engines should quickly drop any duplicate pages they have in their index and your "real" board index page will begin to carry the weight it should.

We've also gone through IP.Board and all of the applications and standardized the page title format. All page titles now use the format "{Content Title} - {Board Name}", meaning that your most relevant keywords are at the beginning of your title tag, whilst still carrying your board name for easy user recognition in the search results.

These updates are an example of just how much we value your feedback. Please keep it coming!

IP.Nexus Dev Update: Referrals

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

IP.Nexus is designed to give administrators the tools to monetize their community. Not only is this about selling products and services (or accepting donations) but promoting your site as well.
Many customers have asked us about a referral system. Until IP.Nexus, there would have been little incentive for members to use such a system. With IP.Nexus, not only can members refer their friends using banners you create, but they can receive commission on products and services that members they refer purchase through IP.Nexus.

You can enable referrals and configure the commission percentage in the Admin CP.

You can also set up the banners that members can use.

If you don't set any up (or in addition to any that you do), a simple text link will be available.
Banners can be uploaded images, or you can supply an image URL.

In the Client Area, members can view all the banners you've set up and the HTML and BBCode to display them.

If somebody then clicks a banner posted on a website by one of your members and registers on your community, IP.Nexus will create a link between the two members.
If that member then proceeds to make any purchases, and you have defined a commission percentage, IP.Nexus will award commission to the referring member in the form of account credit (we will discuss account credit in a future blog entry).

The customer page in IP.Nexus indicates who a members was referred by and any members they have referred. In addition, you can see how much commission a members has earned through referrals:

IP.Board Community Directory

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

The new IP.Board Community Directory is a great place to list your community to get more traffic and members on your site.

It's free for all license holders and IPS Hosting customers to submit their community in the directory. As this is brand new it is still growing and we are taking suggestions for new categories and enhancements so please let us know how we can improve it.

The directory has been online for a few weeks in a preview testing form and 206 listing have been made. These 206 listings have received over 4100 clicks: that's nearly an average of 20 clicks per listing! This is a great way to drive traffic to your community.

Be sure to list your community in the directory...

In addition to being listed on the official IPS Community, the community directory will be available in the next version of our iPhone App for IP.Board. This means members can browse the directory, find your community, and register on your community all while on their iPhone!

The directory is powered by IP.Links: one of our great, free Community Projects for IP.Board. The IP.Links software is written by Brandon D here on our community.

IP.Nexus Dev Update: Donations

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Not only can IP.Nexus be used to sell specific items on your community. IP.Nexus can accept open donations targetted to any number of goals.

Please note that the interface shown in the screenshots is not finalised and subject to change.

A donation goal can be open-ended, that is, it has no target. For example, a personal community could accept donations towards the cost of maintaining the site. A donation can also have a specific target amount if you are asking donations towards a specific total.

Donation goals can be managed in the Admin CP.

When creating a goal you specify a name, description and if desired, a target.
You can create as many goals as you like.

Users can then donate towards goals in the User CP.

As you can see, all goals are listed and a progress bar is shown for goals that have specified targets.
To donate, a user simply enters in the amount they wish to donate and they are taken straight to the payment screen.

After payment, the user is shown a thanks page where they will see the progress meter again:

IP.Board 3.1.1 Dev Update: Search Engine Optimisation Enhancements

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

As many of you will know, search engine optimisation is a process of ongoing improvement. We made some big steps towards making IP.Board more search-friendly when we released 3.0 and we

IP.Nexus Dev Update: Client Area

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

There are many areas of IP.Nexus which the user needs to be able to manage: past orders, active purchase, support requests, etc.

We decided, rather than trying to shoe-horn these features into the User CP, which was not really designed for such functions, to create a new "Client Area", specific to IP.Nexus.
This is what it looks like:

In this blog entry we'll be talking about the "Purchases" and "Invoices" sections of this Client Area.

Purchases

The "Purchases" section (shown above) will list all active purchases on your account.

Clicking the "View Info" button takes you to an overview page for the purchase:

Here you can update any custom package fields if the field allows you to do so (fields can be set to not be editable after purchase if you desire).

If the item has renewal terms and you are within the time you are allowed to renew the package, you can click "Renew Now" to renew. Doing this will take you straight to the payment screen, and once paid, the expiry date will be updated.

If the package is part of a group which allows upgrading and downgrading, you can click the "Change Package" button to do so:

Depending on your settings, upgrading may be free or they may be charged the difference, and if downgrading, they may be refunded the difference - exactly what will happen, along with the new renewal terms is shown for each selection.
If the user must pay the difference to upgrade, they will be taken to the payment screen and once payment clears, the package will be changed.
If the user is to be refunded the difference when downgrading, it will be applied as credit on their account (we will discuss account credit in a future update).

Invoices

This is what the Invoices screen looks like:

As you can see, invoices are separated into tabs:
Pending invoices are orders which the user has started but not finished or cancelled, or have been generated by the system (for example, when a package is due for renewal) or have been generated by an administrator.
Paid invoices are past orders which the user finished successfully.
Expired invoices are previously pending invoices which have now expired. The user can still pay expired invoices, but the service they relate to (for example if it is a renewal invoice) would have deactivated.
Cancelled invoices have been cancelled by the user or an administrator.

You can click on an invoice to view details:

If the user can pay an invoice, they will see the "Pay Now" button which will take them to the checkout page (which we discussed previously in this blog entry).
If the user has credit on their account, they will also see an "Apply Credit" button which will allow them to use their account credit against the invoice total.

This concludes the Invoices and Purchases area of the Client Area. We will be discussing other areas of the client area in future blog entries.

IP.Nexus Dev Update: Managing and Generating Invoices

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

In a previous blog entry we covered the ordering process for both the end user and administrator, but of course administrators can generate invoices manually. In this blog entry we're going to be demonstrating the how administrators can manage and generate invoices for users.

Please note that the interface shown in the screenshots is not finalised subject to change.

Managing Invoices

There are two ways you can view invoices, and we imagine most administrators will either use one or the other depending on the size of community.

Firstly, you can view all invoices in a list with the most recent invoices first. We imagine this will be useful to smaller communities.

You can also view the invoices for a particular customer from the customer page. We imagine this will be more practical for larger communities.

The customer page can be accessed either from a link in the normal "Edit member" Admin CP page or the Customer search page in the IP.Nexus section of the Admin CP.
We'll be discussing all of the features of the customer page in a future blog entry.

This is what the invoice details screen looks like:

As you can see, it lists each item in the invoice and any transactions related to the invoice.

It also shows information on the status, and if the invoice has been paid it will indicate the date that it was paid, and any additional information that may be necessary:

Generating an Invoice

You can of course generate an invoice manually for a customer. You do this from the customer page by clicking the "Add Invoice" button that is there.

You will see a screen like this:

You can add an item by clicking the "Add Item" button. This will bring up a dropdown menu with the different types of item you can add:

You can add a normal package by selecting the package from the packages you have created:

You can create a custom package:

You can add a miscellaneous charge (for example, a shipping cost or discount):

And if you have IP.Downloads integration enabled, you can add a paid IP.Downloads file:

(Note that if you have lots of files you will see a search box to enter a filename rather than a dropdown of all paid files).

You can also add a renewal for any of the user's existing purchases by clicking the "Add Renewal" button:

After adding each item, you'll be taken back to the first screen:

From here you can edit the quantity of any item (the price will be updated automatically by AJAX and taking into account any bulk discounts you have set up) or remove an item.

Once you're done, clicking the "Save" button at the top will generate the invoice. If you selected the invoice to be pending, the user will receive an Email notifying them an invoice has been generated, and if you selected the invoice to be paid, the packages will be added to the user's account straight away.

IP.Board Communities iPhone App Updates

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

A week ago we launched the first version of our IP.Board Communities iPhone App and the response has been great so far with thousands of downloads! It's been really exciting for us to see the great feedback and start incorporating it into the newer versions of the app. We have a new version of the app awaiting approval that addresses many of the issues from the first release, we expect that it will be live on the app store within the next 48 hours. In addition to bug fixes, this version includes a few interface tweaks that improve the user experience.

In addition to the version that is awaiting approval, we have an even newer version that we will be submitting to the app store soon. Apple's approval can take up to a week so expect it to be available for download around June 8. Here's a quick preview of what you can expect from this upcoming version:

New Feature: Directory

The directory feature takes the link directory from our site and incorporates it into the app, allowing users of the app to easily discover new communities. We think this will be a great way to drive traffic to your sites, so make sure that you have added your site to the directory!

Clicking the "Add to My Communities" button will take you straight to the add forum page, with the title and url fields pre filled out for you. If you do not already have a username and password, you can leave those fields blank and you will be redirected to the register page the first time you visit the community. This is a great way to drive traffic to your community and for new members to join using their mobile device!

Quick List

This feature will allow you to quickly jump to several sections of a forum, instead of starting at the home page. You can access the quick list menu by tapping the blue arrow on the main forum listing:

After tapping that button, you will see this screen:

We have a lot of future plans for this area, such as including stats from the community.

Settings

The settings area is where you can edit forum details, such as your login and password. In the future there will be a wider variety of settings included for each forum.

Future Versions

All of those features will be included in the next version we submit to the app store, but we have a lot more planned for later versions. We will be adding push support in the near future, so that any notifications that IP.Board generates will have the option of being sent to your phone. We also have numerous enhancements to the interface and user experience planned.

We hope you're excited about these new features, we can't wait for you to try them out! As always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions, so let us know what you think!

And, yes, we are still planning an Android platform app.

IP.Nexus Dev Update: Processing Orders

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

In our last IP.Nexus Dev Update, we demonstrated the storefront and checkout process for the end user. In this blog entry, we're going to show you some of the Admin features for processing orders.

Please note that the interface shown in the screenshots is not finalised and subject to change.

There are two stages to processing an order:

Approving the transaction
IP.Nexus can automatically process transactions that the payment gateway reports as successful. Some users may wish to set all transactions to be manually approved for extra security, and in some cases, transactions may also need to be manually approved if the payment gateway reports a problem.
Shipping the items
If a user has purchased physical items which needs to be shipped, a shipping order will be generated to let you know what items need to be shipped and who to ship them to. If a user makes an order with multiple items using different shipping methods, multiple shipping orders may be generated.

Some orders of course may require both of these steps and some will require neither, depending on your configuration and what the user purchases.

On the Admin CP Dashboard you will see a notification if there are any pending transactions or shipping orders:

This uses the IP.Board Admin CP Dashboard Notification Center which was added in 3.1.

Approving Transactions

You can view all transactions that are awaiting your approval on a page in the Admin CP:

From here you can approve a transaction by "View" link or mark it as paid or failed by clicking the appropriate icon.

The transaction details screen looks like this:

You can see details about the transaction, the invoice it corresponds to and the reason it is pending approval.

After a transaction has been marked complete, the details pane will show a message indicating who did so:

Once a transaction has been approved, the invoice it is associated with will be marked paid and any purchases the user has paid for will be activated.
If the order includes any physical items, a shipping order will be generated at this time.

Shipping Orders

You can view all shipping orders that are awaiting your approval on a page in the Admin CP:

You can view a shipping order by clicking on the link. The details screen looks like this:

As you can see, the shipping address and items to be shipped are listed.

Once you have shipped the items, you can click the button in the top right to mark the order as shipped. This will send a notification to the user that the items have been shipped and archive the shipping order.

IP.Board 3.1 Update: Mobile Skin Improvements

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

With the release of IP.Board 3.1 and our new iPhone application, we decided to make some further improvements to our mobile skin to expand on the great start introduced earlier this year. We wanted to give the skin a more modern, touch-friendly feel, and improve usability for those devices to suit.

So here's some of what we've done:

As you'll see straight away, the board header is now significantly smaller. We wanted to make the content the focus of the new design, so we've cut out all of the space-hogging links and replaced them with a clean button-activated menu. Which looks like this:

We've also made important buttons bigger and easier to press when you're on the move, on your phone. Where there's too much to display, such as each post in a topic view, we've hidden the buttons behind touch-activation. This functionality is, of course, all backwards compatible with devices that don't support or block JavaScript.

Another area we were keen to add, to compliment the new iPhone application, is status updates. You can now view status updates by your friends, or all members of your communities, directly from your mobile. We've started small, with just the status updates themselves, but we plan to expand this in future revisions to include status replies and the ability to reply to them.

Some other enhancements:

Touchable rows - Anywhere there is a list, such as the forum list on the board index, or the topic list in forum view, entire rows are now touchable. You can press anywhere on the row to go to that item, rather than having to aim carefully for the link within.
View new content - In IP.Board 3.0, this list was set by default to "show me all new content since my last visit", even on your mobile device. This meant that if you closed the iPhone application, when you went back in, this list would be empty. We've changed this to default to "show me all content that I have not read", preserving the list across sessions.
CSS-based styles - As most modern mobile devices use new, CSS3-compliant rendering engines, we've been able to use CSS-based gradients and border-radius settings to lower the number of images the skin loads, saving and your wallet from hefty data-plan fees.
Everything's bigger - This might sound simple, but the biggest change we've made is to make the font size bigger throughout. Hopefully this will mean less squinting when you're trying to use it on your phone!

We'd love to hear what you think about the improvements we've made to the mobile skin. It will be included as standard, for free, in IP.Board 3.1 when it is released. It will install right along with the upgrade and be available for your members to enjoy.

If you find any issues, please report them to the bug tracker.

IP.Nexus Dev Update: Storefront

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

In our previous blog entry, we covered how to create packages in IP.Nexus. This blog entry will cover the storefront and ordering process for the products that you sell.

The Store

The front page of the store looks like this:

The front page allows users to view products items (you can configure which products are featured in the Admin CP) or the most popular (i.e. most sold) products.

Users can navigate the store using the category menu on the left. When you navigate into a category, it opens a tree with subcategories.

The bar on the left shows the products currently in your shopping cart, including any tax and discount costs.

As discussed in a previous blog entry, you can configure products to have custom fields or associations with other products. When adding these products, you will see a screen like this:

Viewing Your Cart

After adding an item, or by clicking the "Edit Cart" link the sidebar, you'll see a page like this:

As you can see, you can edit quantities for products which do not require custom fields by entering a new number in the box (or remove all of that product by clicking the remove link). For products which have custom fields, each item is listed individually, so you can remove the one you want.

Checkout Process

The checkout process is only available to registered members. If a guest clicks "Checkout" on the store, IP.Nexus will remember their cart and direct them to the registration screen. After registration is complete, when the user logs in, IP.Nexus will redirect them to the checkout page.

All steps of the checkout process have a cancel button that the user can use to cancel the purchase.

Clicking checkout from the cart screen, the user will be asked to enter their shipping address:

Of course, if the items the user is purchasing are not physical, or the user has already provided this information in a previous order, this step will be skipped.

Next, the user will be asked to select their shipping method:

The available shipping methods and shipping costs are calculated automatically based on what the user is purchasing. If the user purchases several items which have different available shipping options, more than one dropdown may be available.

In this case, IP.Nexus will automatically work out the minimum number of shipping orders to create based on the selections.
Again, if the items the user is purchasing are not physical, this step will be skipped.

The next page will show the user the total cost with shipping included and allow them to enter any coupon codes they have or apply account credit.

After selecting a payment method, the appropriate fields will automatically be shown:

After submitting, the user will either be taken back to the payment page if payment failed, or be shown a success page.

If you have configured IP.Nexus to hold all payments until you manually approve them, the success page will indicate this:

And of course if the user chooses to pay by a manual method (such as a check) they will be shown information how to pay:

IP.Nexus Dev Update: Packages

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

IP.Nexus allows to you to create packages with a variety of options and even create custom packages for your users.
In this blog entry we wanted to go through some of the options available to you.

Please note that the interface shown in the screenshots is not finalised subject to change.

Package Groups

IP.Nexus allows you to split your packages into package groups. You can have as many groups as you like, and groups can be children of other groups going as deep as you like.
This is the main "Manage Package" screen in the Admin CP:

You can click on a group to view the packages within that group:

And click on a package to edit it:

Physical Items

You can set an item as physical or not. If an item is physical you can also specify the shipping methods available. Shipping options can be flat rate or based on the weight of items being shipped.
When a user orders a physical item, a shipping order will be created which the Administrator can marked as filled. Shipping orders will be discussed in a future blog entry.

If a user makes an order with multiple items, IP.Nexus will work out which items have the same shipping methods available and group them into as few shipping orders as possible.

Associated Items

You can specify that one package can (or must) be associated with another package. For example, if you are selling software and also have an addon product, you could specify that the addon must be associated with the main product.
If a user purchases both the main product and the addon product at the same time, IP.Nexus will automatically work out that they are to be associated, and if the association is required, the user won't get an error message telling them they need to purchase the main product first.

When a purchase is associated with another purchase, this will be indicated both on the customer page, and in any support requests the user creates.

Discounts

IP.Nexus includes two discount options for packages. We call these "bundle discounts" and "loyalty discounts".

"Bundle discounts" allow you to specify a discount if the item is purchased with a different item. For example, here at IPS, if you purchase an IP.Blog license with an IP.Board license, you get a 5% discount on the total order - that would be possible within IP.Nexus.
You can specify whether the discount can only be used alone or if it can be combined with other bundle discounts. If it can only be used alone, IP.Nexus will automatically calculate the best discount applicable according to what is in the user's cart.

"Loyalty discounts" allow you to specify a discount if the user already owns a certain number of a certain item.
For example, you could make it so that if the user already owns 2 of an item, they get the third cheaper - or if the user has purchased a special item (for example some kind of premium membership) they get a discount on all products.
You can build up tiers so that if the user owns x items, they get y price, but if the user owns even more of the item, they get an even cheaper price - IP.Nexus will automatically work out the best discount.
If you have a loyalty discount set up so, if for example, the user gets a cheaper price if they already own 2 items, and the user tries to purchase 3 of that item at the same time - IP.Nexus will still take the loyalty discount into account, and provide the discounted price for the third item.

Upgrading Member Groups

You can specify that a user be moved into a different user group (primary or secondary) or have an additional permission mask assigned to them when they purchase an item.

You can also specify a renewal term for your license (the renewal price does not have to be the same as the base price) and have the user automatically demoted if they do not renew their item.

Upgrades & Downgrades

If in a product group you have different levels of a package, you can allow members to upgrade or downgrade between packages, which they can do themselves through their User CP.

You can specify whether to allow upgrades or downgrades (you can allow both, neither or either of the two) but also, you can specify whether or not the user needs to pay the difference between the prices when upgrading.
If this is set, when the user attempts to upgrade, they will need to pay the difference, and then be automatically upgraded. If this is not set, the user will be upgraded with no intervention.

On the other side, you can also set it to issue users with a refund of the difference when they downgrade their product, this is given in the form of account credits.

Custom Page

You can provide custom content that the user will see when they select their purchased item in the User CP. This could be used to display download instructions, hidden content or anything else you like.

In addition, you can also choose to display a "Submit Support Request" form on this page, and specify the support department it should be routed to.
We'll discuss support requests in more detail in a future blog entry.

Custom Package Fields

You can specify "custom fields" that the user can (or must) fill out when purchasing an item. An example of how this might be used is if you're selling clothing and you need the user to select their size; or you're selling software and you want to force the user to provide the URL they will be installing the software on.

Textbox and dropdown field types are supported, there are also two special field types: "username/password" and "ftp information" which allow you to ask for what we expect will be frequently requested information but without using 2 or 3 custom fields.

If several of your items are going to have the same custom profile field (for example, if you're selling several different T-Shirts and they all need a custom profile field for "Size" - you only need to create it once and assign it to all fields.

Removing Packages

When you remove a package, you may also want to cancel the service for any members who have purchased that item, or even switch them to a different package.

IP.Nexus allows you to remove a package from all members in the way you choose.

Managing Purchases

Once a user has purchased an item, you can edit the purchase to change the renewal terms for that member - this allows you to for example, create custom variations of a package for different users.

You can also of course manually edit the custom fields, cancel a purchase (this will revert them to their original usergroup if applicable) and even transfer a purchased item to another member.

Custom Packages

Not only can you customise purchased items but you can create a custom package for an individual user through the Admin CP, specifying a package name, cost and renewal terms.

IP.Commerce name changed to IP.Nexus

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

IPS is changing the name of our new IP.Commerce (as yet unreleased) application to IP.Nexus.

We have received an exceptional amount of interest in this product to date and many have been a bit confused with the name. The major confusion lies in the fact that this application is not just an ecommerce application but also used for advertising, metrics, customer interaction, and more. So, we thought that a more generic name suited well and hope this will remove the "commerce-only" connection that the old name created. Also, there are many similarly named products out there that we wish to avoid confusion with.

As the product has not yet been released this is the best time for such things. Note that all previous blog entries have been updated.

Long-time IPS customers may be familiar with the IP.Nexus name as it was the name of a previous product (fairly similar to this one) that we decided not to release. We thought the nostalgia factor would be a great benefit to this new product. Thanks for your interest!

IP.Board 3.1.0 Beta 3 And Apps Available

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

We're very pleased to announce that beta 3 of IP.Board 3.1.0 and its applications are now available!
Please read through this announcement for information on where to download and what is available.

What's Available?
The following releases are available:

IP.Board 3.1.0 Beta 3
IP.Gallery 3.2.0 Beta 3
IP.Blog 2.2.0 Beta 3
IP.Downloads 2.2.0 Beta 3
IP.Content 2.0.0 Beta 3
IP.Chat 1.1.0 Beta 3

Where can I download these?
Please log in to your client center. Click on 'Downloads'. The beta releases will be in the 'Development Releases' category.
Please note that you must have an active license for IP.Board before you can download. Likewise, you must have an active license for the application (Blog, Gallery, etc) you wish to test.

What is a beta?
A "beta" release is a version that is considered ready for extended testing. This is a feature complete release that needs as much testing as possible so that we find and fix any bugs that are found. It is possible that we will further refine some features based on feedback. We do not expect to add any features to these releases.

Can I upgrade from a previous 3.1.0 beta?
Yes, simply upload the files as normal and run /admin/upgrade/

Can I use it on my live site?
We strongly recommend that you do NOT use this version on your live site. Although it has been internally tested and used on this forum, we cannot recommend that you use it on a live site as there may be undiscovered bugs which may impact stability.

Furthermore, while we will assist on the forums where possible, beta releases are not supported officially. This means that you cannot receive technical support on these releases and we will not offer any installation or upgrades on these beta releases.

Can I install it as a test board?
You may install a test version of 3.1.0 beta. You do not need to purchase another license to do this. Please ensure that you take every effort to keep your test board private. It is acceptable to allow select members register to help in testing, but you may not use it as a second community.

I've found a bug!
Please report all bugs to the relevant section in our bug tracker. We will investigate all reports made. Please try and give as much detail as possible when making a report. Browser versions and operating system versions are especially relevant when reporting skin/interface bugs.

What's new in 3.1.0?
For a complete list of what's new for IP.Board and its applications, please see this topic. We've also been maintaining a regular blog of all new features. Please see this category for a list of recent blogs detailing recent feature additions.

I have feedback
Great! We always love to hear from you. Please use the special beta releases forum for feedback and other discussion on the beta releases.

IP.Nexus Dev Update: Integration with IP.Downloads

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I had previously blogged about the API in IP.Nexus allowing other applications to process payments using IP.Nexus. We have implemented this in IP.Downloads to bring paid file support.

You can specify which groups can add paid files, and which groups (for example the admin group) can download paid files without paying.

You can also specify how much commission to take from sales and what to give to the user who submitted the file when it is purchased.

A member who has permission will be able to specify how much to charge for a file when submitting it.

When viewing a paid file, instead of the "Download File" button, users will see a purchase button.

When clicking this button, the user will be taken to the payment screen and payment will be taken. If payment is successful, the user will be taken straight back to the download page where they will now see the normal "Download File" button.

The commission to be given to the member who submitted the file will be applied in the form of account credit, which, if allowed, he can request be paid out. This will be discussed in a future blog entry.

As you can see, the IP.Nexus & IP.Downloads integration is very simple to set up and use but allows IP.Downloads to be used by those selling digital files without the need for a complete billing system.

IP.Board 3.1.0 Beta 2 And Apps Available

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

We're very pleased to announce that beta 2 of IP.Board 3.1.0 and its applications are now available ! Please read through this announcement for information on where to download and what is available.

What's Available?
The following releases are available:

IP.Board 3.1.0 Beta 2
IP.Gallery 3.2.0 Beta 2
IP.Blog 2.2.0 Beta 2
IP.Downloads 2.2.0 Beta 2
IP.Content 2.0.0 Beta 2
IP.Chat 1.1.0 Beta 2

The CleanCut skin will be updated early next week for beta 2. (You're welcome, Ian).

Where can I download these?
Please log in to your client center. Click on 'Downloads'. The beta releases will be in the 'Development Releases' category.
Please note that you must have an active license for IP.Board before you can download. Likewise, you must have an active license for the application (Blog, Gallery, etc) you wish to test.

What is a beta?
A "beta" release is a version that is considered ready for extended testing. This is a feature complete release that needs as much testing as possible so that we find and fix any bugs that are found. It is possible that we will further refine some features based on feedback. We do not expect to add any features to these releases.

Can I upgrade from a previous 3.1.0 beta?
Yes, simply upload the files as normal and run /admin/upgrade/

Can I use it on my live site?
We strongly recommend that you do NOT use this version on your live site. Although it has been internally tested and used on this forum, we cannot recommend that you use it on a live site as there may be undiscovered bugs which may impact stability.

IP.Nexus Dev Update: Extensibility

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

One of the first things I wanted to talk about with IP.Nexus is how easy it is for third-party developers to integrate with IP.Nexus.
You could for example, have an area of your application that you only want available to users who pay a fee. IP.Nexus makes this possible.

There is a special class in IP.Nexus called commerceApi that allows you to generate an invoice, and check if an item has been purchased.
In addition, you can make use of special extension files to automatically run when an item from your application is purchased, expires or is renewed - and your items can appear in the Admin CP "Generate Invoice" page.

For example, we have written integration for IP.Nexus with IP.Downloads using this functionality, which we will demonstrate in a future blog entry.

For developers, to generate an invoice, you simply call the commerceApi::generateInvoice() method. This is the code we use within the donation module of IP.Nexus:

try { $title = "Donation: {$goal['d_name']}"; $invoiceID = commerceApi::generateInvoice( $title, $this->memberData['member_id'], array( array( 'act' => 'charge', 'app' => 'commerce', 'type' => 'donation', 'cost' => $amount, 'itemName' => $title, 'itemID' => $goal['d_id'] ) ) ); } catch( Exception $e ) { $this->registry->output->showError( "An error occurred while trying to generate your invoice. Please try again or contact an administrator. ({$e->getMessage()})", 12345 ); } $this->registry->getClass('output')->silentRedirect( $this->settings['base_url'] . 'app=commerce&module=payments&section=pay&id=' . $invoiceID );

As you can see, the code passes some information about the item(s) being purchased. At this point, commerceApi generates an invoice, and then the user is sent to the payment screen.
Once payment has been processed, the user will be sent right back to the file.

Using this functionality you can:

Specify a base cost for your item
Specify renewal terms
Provide a URL to the item which will be linked to on the invoice screen
Specify a member who should get commission for the purchase and how much commission to give them (for example, if the item was added by another member)
Specify a URL to return the user to once payment has been received

Later in your code, to check if a user has purchased an item (for example, when they try to access a restricted area) you just call commerceApi::itemIsPurchased() to check if they have paid for the item.

if ( commerceApi::itemIsPurchased( $this->memberData['member_id'], 'myapp', 'item_type', $data['id'] ) != 'ACTIVE' ) { // Item not purchased... }

commerceApi::itemIsPurchased() will return a value indicating whether the item was purchased, and if the renewals are active.

As you can see, the API is very simple to use and means mod authors do not have to worry about implementing payment systems in their own applications. We're really excited to see how mod authors will use this functionality and as always, if you have any questions, please post them in our feedback forum.
Our next blog entry will demonstrate how we used this functionality to implement paid files within IP.Downloads.

IP.Board 3.1 Dev Update: Auto parsing of URLs strengthened

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Our IP.Board 3.1 beta testing stage is well underway, and so far things are looking pretty good. We want to take a moment to thank everyone for their time and effort helping us to test IP.Board 3.1. Your contributions are appreciated and only help to ensure the quality of the software is nothing less than you would expect from us upon final release.

While IP.Board 3.1 is feature locked, we recently took some time to work on the URL parsing routines to deal with a couple of issues, and thought you might like to hear about these updates.

Auto parsing of media tags

IP.Board 3.0 introduced the new [ media ] tag, which is used to embed multimedia, like YouTube videos and more, into posts and other areas. This tag works just great, but we've heard from many of you that you think it would be better if media that works within the special tag was parsed and displayed automatically, even if the media tag was omitted.

As of IP.Board 3.1, this is now the case. If you copy and paste a link that would correctly parse inside the media tag into your post without media tags, IP.Board's bbcode parsing routine will recognize this and automatically embed your YouTube video or other media right in the post without any other user intervention!

Parsing of URLs with commas

We've had some passionate discussions spring up across the forums over the past couple of months discussing whether a comma character that would seemingly be part of a URL should be parsed as part of the URL. IP.Board 3.0 originally did so, however this was changed during an early 3.0 release due to a posted bug report. Regardless of the history, many of our customers felt that if a URL has a comma contained within it, that comma should be treated as part of the URL. If it contains a comma at the end of the URL, it should not.

You'll be happy to know that IP.Board 3.1 will now present commas as part of the URL appropriately. Here are some example scenarios (the URL bbcode tag was not used to post these) so you can see how it will work:

http://community.invisionpower.com/index.php?test=1
http://community.invisionpower.com/index.php?test=1,2
http://community.invisionpower.com/index.php?test=1,2&something=3
I like http://community.invisionpower.com/index.php?test=1, and that's all!

This is a relatively minor change, but one which we feel many of our customers will be happy to hear will be included in 3.1. Just a note: if you don't know, don't care, or don't know why commas in a URL should matter to you then you can ignore this small change :)

International Domain Names

ICANN (the body that regulates domain names) has recently begun approving (and examples are popping up in the wild) domain names that contain non-latin characters in them (known as IDNs). While this won't affect many of our customers, we decided to take this opportunity, before 3.1 is released, to ensure that IP.Board will correctly parse such URLs.

Some examples:

http://παράδειγμα.δοκιμή/
http://وزارة-الأتصالات.مصر

If you expect such domain names to be used on your board, you should expect that IP.Board 3.1 will be able to correctly parse such URLs. We always want to try to stay "ahead of the curve", and this is just one example where we'd rather implement expected functionality now, before our members are affected by any legacy limitations.

These changes have been applied to our board here as of the time of this posting, so feel free to try out the new changes in the test posting forum. As always, we look forward to your feedback, and if you happen to find any bugs, please report them to our bug tracker.

Introducing IP.Nexus

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

IPS has a fully featured community suite of products including forums, blogs, image galleries, file management, live chat, and content management. We felt the clear missing piece to this product line was an application that allowed you to monetize and promote your community.

We are happy to introduce IP.Nexus to fill that space!

The new IP.Nexus application is designed to help you earn money from your community both directly and indirectly. Direct options include features such as payment processing and shopping carts whereas indirect methods may be banner tracking and donations. Everyone here at IPS is very excited to introduce this new application and hope our customers will be able to take advantage of the variety of features in the product such as:

Shopping cart functionality.
Pre-defined packages and custom packages for purchase.
Custom fields for package definition for great flexibility when creating packages to purchase.
Purchase standalone items.
Purchase packages to upgrade to a "higher" member group and automatic downgrades on expiration.
Support ticket system including incoming email parsing.
Community donation system with goal support.
Ability to give members "credits" for commissions, awards, or other purposes.
Credits can be used for future purchases or member can request a payout. Payout support included.
Members can give out a referral link and can earn commission on sales that members they refer make.
Multiple payment gateways including PayPal, Authorize.net, and offline payments. More gateways will be added based on feedback.
Global search box on every page of IP.Nexus admin area to easily lookup customers, invoices, or support tickets.
Stock actions/replies for support ticket system on admin side.
Multiple status types for tickets.
Ability to track tickets for future follow-ups.
Upload banner images for display and tracking using IP.Board's ad management system.
Customer overview page showing complete customer history, current orders, and options.
Audit new transactions and purchase to catch fraud.
Integration with IP.Downloads to handle purchasing of files.
Support for sales commission in the IP.Downloads integration.
Functions available for third-party developers to initiate payment processes in other applications. Payments are handled by IP.Nexus creating a central payment system.

We are quite sure you will want to see it to believe it and, over the next few weeks, we will be posting individual blog entries going over the features listed above (and others) with screenshots and videos. Subscribe to the IPS Company Blog to get email updates when an entry is posted or subscribe to the Blog RSS feed.

When will it be available?

As always that's very hard to say. The good news is that every single feature listed here is already completed! We are not announcing a future product being worked on: we are announcing a product nearly done. In fact, IP.Nexus will be given to our internal beta testing team very soon. From there we will collect the feedback from you and integrate any features we missed. We expect a final release before the end of summer 2010 and beta releases within the next month.

How much will it cost?

No price has been set as yet but you can expect it to be priced similarly with our other applications. As is our tradition, we will offer a very good early-adopter discount price.

What about Subscriptions Manager?

We have a product, Subscriptions Manager, available for free for IP.Board that handles upgrading/downgrading member group permissions with paid packages. Nothing will change with this product and it will be available just as it is today. We will continue to make maintenance and compatibility releases. Those of you who are currently using Subscriptions Manager and may want to upgrade to IP.Nexus will be able to do so without data loss.

I have a question, comment, cheer, or suggestion...

Great! One reason we are announcing IP.Nexus now is to get feedback on how our customers may see themselves using a product such as this. We want to create a system you will want to use that suits your needs. Obviously handling the profit and promotion aspects of your community is something we are taking very seriously and we will be actively seeking your feedback on the best way to do this. You will notice comments are disabled on this blog entry as we do expect a lot of feedback so please use the newly created IP.Nexus feedback forum. Looking forward to hearing from everyone!

IP.Board 3.1.0 Beta 1 And Apps Available

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

We're very pleased to announce that IP.Board 3.1.0 and its applications are now available for beta testing! Please read through this announcement for information on where to download and what is available.

What's Available?
The following releases are available:

IP.Board 3.1.0 Beta 1
IP.Gallery 3.2.0 Beta 1
IP.Blog 2.2.0 Beta 1
IP.Downloads 2.2.0 Beta 1
IP.Content 2.0.0 Beta 1
IP.Chat 1.1.0 Beta 1

MySQL: New installation and upgrades from previous versions (1.3+) are available for testing
MSSQL: New installations are available for testing. The upgrade system will be available in beta 2.

Where can I download these?
Please log in to your client center. Click on 'Downloads'. The beta releases will be in the 'Development Releases' category.
Please note that you must have an active license for IP.Board before you can download. Likewise, you must have an active license for the application (Blog, Gallery, etc) you wish to test.

What is a beta?
A "beta" release is a version that is considered ready for extended testing. This is a feature complete release that needs as much testing as possible so that we find and fix any bugs that are found. It is possible that we will further refine some features based on feedback. We do not expect to add any features to these releases.

Can I use it on my live site?
We strongly recommend that you do NOT use this version on your live site. Although it has been internally tested and used on this forum, we cannot recommend that you use it on a live site as there may be undiscovered bugs which may impact stability.

Support Vacancy

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Invision Power Services is seeking a knowledgeable and industrious individual to join its support team as a part time support technician.

Successful applicants will be responsible for answering general support tickets, including providing customers with information, troubleshooting problems and performing maintenance. You would be expected where appropriate to interact with other technicians and developers to resolve issues.

Requirements:

Must be familiar with IPS applications.
Must have a basic knowledge of PHP and SQL.
Must be able to work remotely.
Must speak fluent English and possess strong verbal and written communication skills.

Preferable, but not required:

Knowledge of server administration and experience working for a web hosting company.
Knowledge of additional web technologies such as JavaScript, CSS, XML, etc.
Experience of working in customer support.

Working hours are flexible and salary will be based on knowledge and experience.

Thank you to all who applied. Applications are now closed.