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Josh

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Josh last won the day on June 23 2010

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  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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. View full blog entry
  4. We've already added an 'onLogout' memberSync function to 3.1 :)
  5. 3.1 Allows you to move plugins via the ACP, so you'll be able to do that soon :)
  6. There is currently no option to exclude members from the Top Posters list. However, if you are importing these RSS feeds into a forum just for those feeds, then you can turn off post counting for that forum and they will not be counted when figuring out the top posters list.
  7. It's still coming, hopefully we'll have more screenshots in the near future :)
  8. Not yet, we'll have a blog post when there is more information, but that will be after 3.1 at least.
  9. Over the past year we have introduced new services that are available to our IP.Board Standard Licenses holders, such as the spam service and the chat service. We also have plans for more services that will be tied to your license. While this provides a lot of value to your license, managing these services is a cumbersome process, you need to create keys for each of these services and enter them in different areas of the ACP. We're always looking for ways to streamline and improve your experience, toward that end we will be introduce a new centralized license key that will work for all services. Starting with IP.Board 3.1, all licenses will be given a single key that will grant access to all services available to that license. When we introduce new services, you will automatically have access to that service without having to log in to your client area account to generate a new key and activate it. IP.Board 3.1 will include a new license manager in the ACP. When you first access the manager, you will see a screen that lets you enter your license key and your forum URL: After you activate your license, you will be able to see the status of your license and all the services that are attached to that license: Like all previous versions of IP.Board, your forum will function if you do not enter your license key, however you will not have access to any of the special extra services your license provides until you activate your license key. There will be a grace period where old spam and chat keys will continue to function, however we recommend that you activate your new license keys as soon as possible. We hope that this simplification of our license key system will be beneficial to everyone and that you enjoy all the services it provides! As always feedback and suggestions are welcome.
  10. Over the past year we have introduced new services that are available to our IP.Board Standard Licenses holders, such as the spam service and the chat service. We also have plans for more services that will be tied to your license. While this provides a lot of value to your license, managing these services is a cumbersome process, you need to create keys for each of these services and enter them in different areas of the ACP. We're always looking for ways to streamline and improve your experience, toward that end we will be introduce a new centralized license key that will work for all services. Starting with IP.Board 3.1, all licenses will be given a single key that will grant access to all services available to that license. When we introduce new services, you will automatically have access to that service without having to log in to your client area account to generate a new key and activate it. IP.Board 3.1 will include a new license manager in the ACP. When you first access the manager, you will see a screen that lets you enter your license key and your forum URL: After you activate your license, you will be able to see the status of your license and all the services that are attached to that license: Like all previous versions of IP.Board, your forum will function if you do not enter your license key, however you will not have access to any of the special extra services your license provides until you activate your license key. There will be a grace period where old spam and chat keys will continue to function, however we recommend that you activate your new license keys as soon as possible. We hope that this simplification of our license key system will be beneficial to everyone and that you enjoy all the services it provides! As always feedback and suggestions are welcome. View full blog entry
  11. Last year we introduced a Spam Monitoring service to combat the increasing problem of registrations on communities from spam accounts and the response to this service has been great! The spam service has been a great success so far and we would like to take the time to share some stats about how effective the service has been. The service is only as effective as the number of communities that sign up and report data back to our system, so we are happy to report that thousands of communities have joined the service and are helping each other to reduce the amount of spam each receives. If you have not yet signed up, we would encourage you to take this opportunity to do so: the Spam Monitoring service is free to all active IP.Board license holders!* It is a great way to improve and protect your community while saving you time. Thanks to the network of communities that have joined this service, we have been able to block tens of thousands of spammers from registering on communities that participate in this service! The spam service itself receives thousands of requests per hour and continues to build its database from that data. As always, your registration data is kept safe and is not permanently stored as transmitted data is only used to detect spammers. We are continuing to monitor everything that is reported and look for trends to help the system better identify spammers that are registering on your communities. If you are signed up for the service and a spammer does register, please remember to use the Mark as Spam feature (both in the IP.Board AdminCP and the front-end for moderator use) so that we can receive that data and use it to improve the service for everyone. If you are signed up for the spam service, please take a moment to check your logs (in the IP.Board AdminCP) and make sure that the service is working for you. We have noticed that some sites do not have the correct URL for their site so their requests to the service are not working as a result. If you are having any issues, please open a ticket and let us know. New in IP.Board 3.1 Most of the processing for the service is handled by IPS servers but we are adding two enhancements in IP.Board 3.1: reporting false-positives and statistics. Reporting False-Positives Just as your email client sometimes flags a legitimate email as a spam message, our service sometimes tries to be a bit over-protective and will flag a legitimate account as belonging to a known spammer. You can currently "un-flag" that account and restore it to normal but that information is not passed back to IPS so the service could learn that a particular account was actually legitimate. In IP.Board 3.1, removing a spam status on an account will be reported back to IPS to improve the service. Statistics IP.Board 3.1 will include reports and graphs on how the service is protecting your individual community. We hope you continue to enjoy the protection the service offers and if you have any suggestions, please post in our feedback forums. Thanks! *The following packages include the services option, which the spam service falls under, and qualify to use the service at no cost: IPS Hosting clients IP.Board Standard License IP.Board Business license IP.Board Community Suite license
  12. Last year we introduced a Spam Monitoring service to combat the increasing problem of registrations on communities from spam accounts and the response to this service has been great! The spam service has been a great success so far and we would like to take the time to share some stats about how effective the service has been. The service is only as effective as the number of communities that sign up and report data back to our system, so we are happy to report that thousands of communities have joined the service and are helping each other to reduce the amount of spam each receives. If you have not yet signed up, we would encourage you to take this opportunity to do so: the Spam Monitoring service is free to all active IP.Board license holders!* It is a great way to improve and protect your community while saving you time. Thanks to the network of communities that have joined this service, we have been able to block tens of thousands of spammers from registering on communities that participate in this service! The spam service itself receives thousands of requests per hour and continues to build its database from that data. As always, your registration data is kept safe and is not permanently stored as transmitted data is only used to detect spammers. We are continuing to monitor everything that is reported and look for trends to help the system better identify spammers that are registering on your communities. If you are signed up for the service and a spammer does register, please remember to use the Mark as Spam feature (both in the IP.Board AdminCP and the front-end for moderator use) so that we can receive that data and use it to improve the service for everyone. If you are signed up for the spam service, please take a moment to check your logs (in the IP.Board AdminCP) and make sure that the service is working for you. We have noticed that some sites do not have the correct URL for their site so their requests to the service are not working as a result. If you are having any issues, please open a ticket and let us know. New in IP.Board 3.1 Most of the processing for the service is handled by IPS servers but we are adding two enhancements in IP.Board 3.1: reporting false-positives and statistics. Reporting False-Positives Just as your email client sometimes flags a legitimate email as a spam message, our service sometimes tries to be a bit over-protective and will flag a legitimate account as belonging to a known spammer. You can currently "un-flag" that account and restore it to normal but that information is not passed back to IPS so the service could learn that a particular account was actually legitimate. In IP.Board 3.1, removing a spam status on an account will be reported back to IPS to improve the service. Statistics IP.Board 3.1 will include reports and graphs on how the service is protecting your individual community. We hope you continue to enjoy the protection the service offers and if you have any suggestions, please post in our feedback forums. Thanks! *The following packages include the services option, which the spam service falls under, and qualify to use the service at no cost: IPS Hosting clients IP.Board Standard License IP.Board Business license IP.Board Community Suite license View full blog entry
  13. Yesterday we showed IP.Board 3.1's ad code integration for the first time, today we'd like to give a quick update on the status of this new feature. First of all, we were excited to read all of the positive feedback and great suggestions. We like to write these blog entries before features are 'set in stone', so that we can more easily and quickly include suggestions from our customers. Group Setting In response to your feedback, we've included a new setting that will allow you to hide ads for specified groups. Ad Placement Another common concern was the placement of ads within topic view. While we are not going to add an additional setting that gives you the option of showing the ad inside the first post, we do want to show you how easy it is to accomplish this. The ad code is passed into the template bit along with the first post, so you can move it any place you like within in that first post. Here is the code to display the ad: <if test="adCodeCheck:|:$post['post']['_adCode']"> {$post['post']['_adCode']} </if> By default, we have this setup so that the ad is placed after the first post is completely printed. However, if you would like the ad displayed inside the first post, all you need to do is move that display code and place it after this code: <if test="postSignature:|:$post['post']['signature']"> {$post['post']['signature']} </if> The same is true of the other ad codes, it's very easy to move them to any place in the template that you would like. Modification Developers There are also a few functions that may be of interest to modification developers. If you want to give users the ability to show ads in your mods, you can easily check permissions before displaying the ad using this new function: IPSAdCode::userCanViewAds(). This will return true/false depending on if the user can view ads or not. Much like the board index, forum view, and topic view, you can have your modification set it it's own global header/footer ads by using a simple function: IPSAdCode::setGlobalCode( 'header', $yourHeaderAd ); IPSAdCode::setGlobalCode( 'footer', $yourFooterAd ); Once again, thank you for the great feedback!
  14. Yesterday we showed IP.Board 3.1's ad code integration for the first time, today we'd like to give a quick update on the status of this new feature. First of all, we were excited to read all of the positive feedback and great suggestions. We like to write these blog entries before features are 'set in stone', so that we can more easily and quickly include suggestions from our customers. Group Setting In response to your feedback, we've included a new setting that will allow you to hide ads for specified groups. Ad Placement Another common concern was the placement of ads within topic view. While we are not going to add an additional setting that gives you the option of showing the ad inside the first post, we do want to show you how easy it is to accomplish this. The ad code is passed into the template bit along with the first post, so you can move it any place you like within in that first post. Here is the code to display the ad: <if test="adCodeCheck:|:$post['post']['_adCode']"> {$post['post']['_adCode']} </if> By default, we have this setup so that the ad is placed after the first post is completely printed. However, if you would like the ad displayed inside the first post, all you need to do is move that display code and place it after this code: <if test="postSignature:|:$post['post']['signature']"> {$post['post']['signature']} </if> The same is true of the other ad codes, it's very easy to move them to any place in the template that you would like. Modification Developers There are also a few functions that may be of interest to modification developers. If you want to give users the ability to show ads in your mods, you can easily check permissions before displaying the ad using this new function: IPSAdCode::userCanViewAds(). This will return true/false depending on if the user can view ads or not. Much like the board index, forum view, and topic view, you can have your modification set it it's own global header/footer ads by using a simple function: IPSAdCode::setGlobalCode( 'header', $yourHeaderAd ); IPSAdCode::setGlobalCode( 'footer', $yourFooterAd ); Once again, thank you for the great feedback! View full blog entry
  15. Advertising integration has been an often requested feature for a long time, so we're pleased to announce that IP.Board 3.1 will include this feature! We've create a simple system that will allow you to insert ad code at various locations throughout the forum. The integration is not specific to any ad platform, so you can use this for Google AdSense, or any other platform that you may use for your site. We did not want to choose any specific advertising platform to keep the system flexible plus IPS would never get between you and your advertising revenue. There are several predefined ad spots, all you need to do is paste the code for your ads into any of these locations. Header and Footer Ads The first two locations you can place ads are in the global header and footer, these ads will show on every page in the forum, except for redirect screens. As you can see in the screen shot, this system uses a simple settings page for adding ad code, you can paste anything you want into these boxes. In addition, there are several areas that can override the global header and footer code with page specific header and footer code. The Board Index, Forum View, and Topic View are able to use this override feature, so that you can either not show ads on one of those areas, or show different ads. Aside from the headers and footers, there are three other locations that you can place ads: Board Index Side Bar A simple hook will allow you to place ads in the sidebar of the forum index, you can use the existing hook ordering system to determine where on the sidebar the ad will be displayed. Forum View & Topic View You can also specify ad code that will be displayed inline with topics in forum view and posts in topic view, these ads will be displayed after the first topic or post. Here's a screenshot of each: As you can see, this is a basic and easy to use system for placing ads in IP.Board. We have ideas for future enhancements to this system and will be improving things as we go but, even with this basic implemenation, you can now easily disperse advertisements throughout your community. We hope that you find this helpful, and as always, we look forward to your feedback and suggestions! View full blog entry
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