GazzaGarratt

I am really hoping that Invision will see fit to include a save draft feature, at least for Pages, in IC5.  I have lost so much work over the years due to the lack of this simple feature.
I just lost 3/4 of an article I wrote because I was going to click another button, and some menu popup jumped in front of me.  But also, I have been attempting to work around this for years by setting the post date several days in the future, saving repeatedly, and then backdating it to the current time once I'm ready to publish. This workflow, frankly, is absurd in the year of our lord 2024.  Furthermore, it messes with block and new activity sorting by showing those articles that originally had future publish dates at the top of the list, even if they've been read or their backdated date has passed.

As showcased in our past blogs, Invision Community 5 introduces a brand new, modern interface which brings improvements to performance, aesthetics and mobile usability.
An optional side navigation panel, new view modes, light/dark modes, customizable header layouts, a search modal and a mobile navigation bar are some of the things we've showcased previously. Today, lets take a closer look at some other miscellaneous changes that we've been working on while developing Version 5, including some of the code reductions and performance improvements that we've been able to achieve in the process.
For those of you who are developers, we'll also give some simple explanations of how (and why) we've implemented these changes.
 
Widgets
Sidebar widgets are perfect for displaying content feeds, featured members, announcements, advertisements and more on your page. In version 4 however, the widget column would often become an empty space once the widgets had been scrolled past:
  widgets-v4.mp4  
In version 5, widgets now stick to the screen once the last widget has been reached, ensuring your readers have more convenient  access to your widgets rather than a void space:
  sticky-widgets-v5.mp4  
 
Messenger
The Messenger is a great way to reach out to members when a private chat is more appropriate than a topic. Inspired by modern email clients, the messenger in Version 5 has been revamped with a full-height, sticky inbox, a longer message snippet, mini profiles and a more polished UI - all with a 25% reduction in CSS and a 100% reduction in Javascript.
messenger-v5.mp4
 
Sticky elements
We've mentioned sticky elements a couple of times now, so lets take a look behind the scenes at how they're created, and some of the performance improvements with Version 5. Traditionally, sticky elements were created using Javascript which would calculate the position of the element on the page and adjust it's stickiness every time the page was scrolled. Scroll events can be quite taxing for browsers, and when it comes to Javascript, the less, the better (especially when aiming for great page speed scores)!
With that in mind, all sticky elements are now handled using sticky positioning via CSS, which is a native and much more performant way of controlling these elements. We've been able to replace an entire 400 line Javascript component with just 3 lines of CSS.
 
Grids and Masonry
Grids have previously been handled in a similar fashion. Javascript would scan all elements within a grid to determine how many could fit on a single line, and would then shuffle these elements into position after the page was loaded or resized. CSS has since introduced its own grid properties, which has allowed us to replace more than 350 lines of Javascript with just a few lines of CSS, resulting in more performant page rendering and nicer looking grids (especially on small-medium displays such as mobiles and tablets).
 

 
Fun fact: We first introduced a similar performance improvement to "masonry grids" in our Gallery update from January this year, by replacing more than 400 lines of Javascript with, you guessed it, just a few lines of CSS.
 

 
 
 
Click targets
We wanted to make Version 5 as simple as possible to navigate, and one way of doing that has been by implementing larger click targets. Clicking anywhere inside an entry in a table or grid will now take you to that entry (you can still click on other links like normal within the click target, such as subforums or profile links). Click targets are optional and can be disabled via your theme settings if necessary.
 
click-targets.mp4
 
Data Lists (tables)
Speaking of tables, they too have been revamped. Tables automatically adapt to the space they've been assigned to (for those curious, this is done using CSS container-queries), so they're always neat regardless of the screen size, with no overflow or squashed layouts. Behind the scenes, the two columns below are created with identical code, yet they're quite different visually due to the size which they've been allocated. Even with these improvements, tables have received a 25% reduction in CSS.
 

 
Profiles
Profiles have been polished for Version 5 and include some nice improvements such as sticky widgets and tabs. 
profile-desktop.mp4
 
On mobiles, the side column collapses into a carousel, and the sticky tabs allow you to easily flick between content types without scrolling to the top of the page.
profile-mobile.mp4
 

Tabs
You may have noticed in the above clip that tabs on mobiles are now scrollable, compared to a dropdown menu from version 4. We made this change to ensure that tabs are given more equal exposure on small devices, and have managed to reduce the CSS by a whopping 80%.
 
Carousels
Last and certainly not least, are carousels. Carousels are great for displaying large amounts of data in a confined space and they've been rewritten from scratch for version 5. Previously, a Javascript library was used to create the "scroll effect", however this has never been the smoothest experience on laptop trackpads and touch devices.
In version 5, carousels are powered by native smooth-scrolling and scroll-snapping, which results in a much nicer user experience, especially on touchscreens. We've been able to remove a staggering 95% of the Javascript, substituting it with just a few lines of CSS.
 
carousel.mp4
 
To be honest, we've only just scratched the surface here! In addition to these changes, we've modernized (and reduced code) in almost every component throughout the suite including avatars, cover photos, dropdown menus, forms, inputs, buttons, lists, off-canvas menus, side menus, columns and more!
Combined, these changes result in not only a significant reduction in code, but also a polished UI that performs smoothly on desktop and touch devices. We're excited to continue modernizing Invision Community well into the future as new technologies and techniques become available to us, and are looking forward to getting it in your hands in 2024.

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That's some seriously good work on how you've made it far easier to customise all different types of icons. These bits usually are the visual bits that massively matter to people popping into your community and hoping they stick. Love it ❤️
As some of my past messages here have revolved around Achievements and knowing that it is a very powerful tool if you find a way to use it with your members, are we expecting to see updates to the Rules as well to allow us to create more unique ways to then use these said badges? I'm super hopeful that given its been out for a few years, with this seriously cool update above, that Achievements deserves to get a 2.0 update as the foundation layer that is live today has so much potential.

It will be available on https://ic-essentials.com within the next 2 weeks. Just need to test it myself, fix any open bugs and import the purchases.

Do we have a list of people who have jumped ship? Thankfully @Adriano Faria has taken over a lot of apps over the years, which is great to see.

We will miss you, marketplace 😢

Getting some great quotes for the marketing material, thanks!

Brilliant work ! Loving the progress.
 
Can we also round up an applause for the frequently in depth updates Invision is bringing? Something that doesn’t need to go unnoticed. It’s one thing to keep working on v5, but keeping us informed with a top notch video, is equally as important!
 
Well done team!

Welcome to the second video of our sneak peak series! Today we'll be taking a closer look at the new Invision Community interface, including dark mode, accessibility improvements, performance improvements and the mobile layout! Before we begin, I should mention that this is a pre-alpha version of Invision Community 5, so some areas of the design may change before the official release.
 
New traditional header design
In our previous video, we showcased our new, optional side panel which formats your navigation into a vertical list. For those who prefer a traditional, horizontal header, here it is!

A much more compact header compared to version 4, the new design condenses the navigation bar into a single row, moving all sub-navigation items into dropdown menus. A new, optional area below the text logo allows you to add your website slogan or announce events such as anniversaries or holidays, and our new search modal provides convenient access to the advanced search filters from any page on your community.

 
Accessible interface
The main content area has been designed with accessibility as a priority. High contrast text colours and larger font-sizes help to make reading more comfortable and clickable table rows (which can be enabled or disabled via the Theme Editor) allow you to navigate between pages more easily. A visible focus ring significantly improves navigation for visitors who find it more comfortable to browse with their keyboard TAB key, instead of using their mouse (ie. visitors with conditions such as Parkinson's disease, or those who have temporarily lost function due to a broken arm).
 
Focus.mp4
Elements are highlighted while navigating with the keyboard
 
Dark mode
Dark mode has become increasingly popular over the past few years - so it's no surprise that Version 5 has been designed from scratch with both light and dark mode in mind. With version 4, it was necessary to manage two themes in order to provide a light and dark colour scheme. In version 5 though, all of that is handled by a single theme.
By default, your members will be able to choose their own color scheme preference: either light, dark, or system. System assigns a color scheme based on your system preferences - so if your device automatically switches to dark mode at night, your community will too! With that said, as an administrator, you also have the option to restrict your site to a single color scheme - so if you ONLY want to offer a dark theme, that's easily achieved.

 
 
Performance
Despite all of these new inclusions, the version 5 UI has been coded with significant reductions in both CSS and Javascript. We'll dive deeper into code reductions in a future blog entry, however two great examples are:
- Grids: which have had a 100% removal of Javascript and are powered by only a few lines of CSS, resulting in a faster rendering time, especially for users on slow connections.
- And carousels: which have had a 95% reduction in Javascript and now rely on native browser scrolling, for a much smoother experience on both desktop and mobile!
Additionally we've removed a number of helper libraries that are no longer needed with modern browsers saving even more.
 
Mobile UI
With an incredible amount of mobile visitors accessing the web, we’ve placed a huge priority on redesigning the interface to ensure it lives up to todays standards.
A new navigation bar at the bottom of the page provides convenient access to your activity feed, notifications, messages, a search panel, and navigation links. A conscious effort was made to ensure that this information was available within a single tap, and we found that a bottom bar like this was easier to interact with compared to icons in the header.

The mobile navigation bar from Invision Community 5
 
A goal of the mobile UI was to display elements that were previously only available on larger devices, while still maintaining a clean interface. For example, to improve navigation, we've added a scrollable breadcrumb list to the top and bottom of the page. To improve guest participation, we added Sign In and Sign Up links to the bottom navigation bar. These links were previously hidden within the hamburger menu, so we feel like this will really benefit those looking to improve registrations. And as demonstrated in last weeks video, profile information is now available within posts, comments and reviews on small devices.
We’re really excited for you to literally have a hands on experience with the new mobile interface of Invision Community 5, and we're interested to hear your feedback in the comments!

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🍂🍁 Welcome to this week's Invision Community Insight! 🍁🍂
Thank you for checking out our weekly, round up post. I hope you have had a wonderful week. 
This week's updates from the Invision Community team are below. 🙂 
 
Current Happenings
Version Five! 🎉
Our first detailed view of version 5 is out! 
Ehren has shared the first of many blogs unpacking the exciting improvements in this new version. These visuals walk us through the new sidebar layout and new view modes for the forum index and topic pages.  🤩 
Join in the excitement! We would love to hear your thoughts too!
 

Changelog
For those that like to see what we are up to line by line, here is the changelog for the last two weeks for version 4. 
 
 

I'd like to extend a public invitation to all IPS clients and the third-party community to celebrate the opening of the free listing of files on the Marketplace Directory of Invisioneer.org.  
https://www.invisioneer.org/marketplace/
What is the Marketplace Directory on Invisioneer.org?  
The Marketplace Directory is a free list of files by authors. Its goal is simple: a free, centralized list for you to browse third-party files.  
No files are sold or supported on the site itself. You will be redirected to the author's site for payment and support. 
You will find the Marketplace Directory to be immediately familiar:
Same categories and structure as the IPS Marketplace Same IP.Downloads app as the IPS Marketplace  Over 300+ files have already been listed in the Marketplace Directory, and we hope more will be listed as developers and themers update their files.  
Why visit Marketplace Directory?  
The Marketplace Directory will never be a perfect substitute for the IPS Marketplace, which had deep integration with the ACP and directly processed payments on behalf of clients.  
However, as soon as it became known that IPS was shutting down its Marketplace, it became clear that clients would confusingly need to go to multiple websites. Purchased 5 plugins from 5 different developers? You need to visit 5 different sites for support and payment.   
The Marketplace Directory doesn't totally solve the problem, but it's a step in the right direction.  It consolidates files by authors who wish to list together, and makes file discovery and author tracking so much easier.  There is power in collaboration, and the Marketplace Directory is a great example of the most trusted third-party developers coming together in the spirit of community.  
What is Invisioneer.org?  
Invisioneer.org is a broader project of mine to offer a suite of resources to help IPS owners and admins launch better communities - and to hopefully learn alongside you.  It's my goal to build an "ecosystem of success" around IPS owners and admins as we compete and thrive together on the modern web:
IPS helps you compete with community software Third-party developers help you compete with themes and extensions Invisioneer.org helps you compete with community strategy My goal behind Invisioneer.org is to help you compete - and win - with the "soft skills" of community management that are just as important as the technology: crafting a community strategy, leading with emotional intelligence, and leveraging best practices from disciplines like behavioral economics, psychology, sociology, and leading community consultancies. 
The Marketplace Directory is an important part of Invisioneer.org, and one component of the ecosystem of success for IPS clients to leverage.  
What do I do with my files?  
Purchases and renewals have stopped on the IPS Marketplace, and the Marketplace itself will shut down on October 30 2023 according to IPS.  
To continue receiving support and updates to your active Marketplace files, you will need to transfer your purchases' license keys directly to the author. To find the license keys for all purchases, go to My Purchases.  
Active authors have posted information on their file descriptions or in the support topic about their own support sites.  If you purchased a file from a developer who doesn't have information yet, you will need to reach out to that author.    
Official IPS Blog: https://invisioncommunity.com/news/invision-community/marketplace-the-next-steps-r1286/

The Marketplace is closing on October 30th 2023. If you haven't already read the announcement, please read it first.
As our Marketplace prepares to close its doors, we want to ensure a seamless transition for our customers. To facilitate this process, we're introducing a new 'license key' system to allow you to transfer your purchases to the third-party developer website in a privacy-conscious way.
On the 'My Purchases' page, you'll find an improved layout displaying each resource you've purchased from the Marketplace. This includes the original purchase date, the expiry date (if applicable) and the current renewal term (if applicable).
Additionally, we've added two new enhancements. First, you'll notice the purchase-specific license key (depicted as XXXX in the screenshot). This license key is accessible to the third party author and can be provided to them through their website or other means. It enables them to confirm your payment for the resource and check its activation status. Secondly, we've added a link to their profile in the Providers Directory (if applicable).

You can find contact details and a link to the provider's website on their profile. We hope that these additions will help make the transition as smooth as possible.
 
Third Party Developers
Developers can now access the new 'My Sales' area, where you'll find a searchable list of resources that have had sales on the Marketplace. This list may include resources that were previously hidden.

Clicking on any of these resources will display a list similar to the old 'my paid files.' Here, you'll find detailed information for each purchase, including purchase and expiry dates. Additionally, the list now includes the customer's current renewal term, which may differ from the initial purchase due to pricing changes.
Furthermore, you'll notice the new license key, conveniently searchable in the top right corner. We've also made the list of purchases available in CSV format, allowing for easy integration into your own website or marketplace.

Please let us know if you have any questions and we hope these new tools will ease the transition from the Marketplace.

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In addition to Matt’s post, each of your members (where a new group permission allows) can also choose their own preference out of the views. So if you’d prefer to use the traditional table view for the forum index and the traditional column view for topics (even if the admin has assigned other layouts), that’s of course possible. We’re absolutely not forcing change, just offering more options than before 🙂 

Welcome to Invision Community 5!
Over the coming weeks, we'll be exploring a bunch of new features and improvements coming to our user interface including our brand new theme editor, a new mobile UI, dark mode and performance improvements thanks to a reduction in both JavaScript and CSS. To kick off this series, let’s take a closer look at the new sidebar layout and new view modes for the forum index and topic pages.
Sidebar Layout
Traditionally, Invision Community has shipped with a horizontal header and navigation bar at the top of the page, which is still available in version 5. We're introducing a brand new (and optional) sidebar layout, which can be enabled or disabled easily from within your theme settings. The sidebar not only provides convenient access to your applications, activity streams and search bar, but you can now add links to nodes for even easier access to popular or commonly used areas of your community. For example - a category from your forum, an album from the Gallery, or a product group from Commerce.
Sidebar-zoom.mp4
Forum Index: Feed view
One of our goals for version 5 was to re-imagine new ways for your visitors to consume content, and the sidebar layout is just one of our solutions. Table view has been the typical way of displaying forums, providing visitors with a simple summary of the most recently active topic. Grid mode introduced cover photos to forums and is a great way to make your page more visually engaging, while fluid view allows visitors to filter through a list of topics to easily focus on multiple areas of the community.
Joining these view modes in version 5 is our new Feed view. Optional cover photos and featured forum colours allow you to personalise each forum, and a list of recently active topics with snippets of the most recent reply allow you to easily see what each forum is focusing on at a glance. The topic list drops below the cover photo and converts to a scrollable list on small devices. It's our fresh take on content display, and we can’t wait to hear your feedback!

 
Topic pages: Compact view
In addition, Invision Community 5 also introduces a new, compact layout option for topics. We wanted to create a layout which placed focus on your content while still keeping all of the authors profile information easily accessible within a mini profile. Stats, rank, badges, reputation points and more can be found by tapping the icon at the top of every post. The mini profile strip has also been added to other areas of the software too, such as comments and reviews in applications like Gallery and Blogs, and will appear on the mobile layout when the traditional "table view" is used in topics.
Switching between the new compact view and the author sidebar view takes just seconds giving you complete control over your community.
Mini profile.mp4
 
As part of this view, you also have the choice to feature/pin the original post to the top of every page, making it a breeze for your visitors to easily understand the context of replies without navigating back to page 1. Pinned posts have a slightly larger font-size to distinguish them from replies, and we've thoughtfully truncated them on pages beyond the first to keep scrolling to a minimum.

 
The new sidebar layout and view modes offer a fresh and innovative approach to navigating and interacting with your community. We’re really keen to hear your thoughts on these new views and whether you’ll be unleashing them on your own sites! We appreciate that no two sites are the same, and those who are a fan of the classic header look will benefit from quick styling tools and a visual way to re-arrange the header elements which we’ll cover in a later blog.
We’re looking forward to showcasing a whole bunch of new features over the coming weeks - so stay tuned, and we’ll see you then!
 

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One thing that jumps out is that your choice of music hasn't improved with the new version. 

As you may know, Invision Community 5 is currently in development, and progress has been great, with many areas starting to come together.
Almost all of the significant code restructuring has been completed, with much progress on the UI and the new theme bearing fruit. A fair few new features are complete, but some aren't quite ready to show, as they need a little love from Ehren.
I wanted to share a little teaser of Invision Community 5; how many new things or changes can you spot?
The small print
Please remember that the features, functionality and UI shown in this little teaser are pre-beta, so they are subject to change. The features and functionality shown here aren't all that has been completed; many new features are 'code-complete' but waiting for some UI polish before we're ready to share more. Essentially, what you're seeing is a work in progress.
We don't have a release timeframe in mind yet, but we'll let you know when we do!

Do you have FTP access to your server? If so, upload the file I sent via private message and you’re good.

Hello @beats23, thanks for the suggestion, do you know where I can find the proper installation steps for this prompt? It is just uploading the clevr.PWAInstallPromptIOS.mpk file to the form root?
Thanks!

yeah, I am almost positive that I ran into issues is why it simply has those columns titled home team and away team. Maybe because of it being a number type of input. So I'll just have to see what I can figure out. I always wished I could have gotten that picking form to be much better, but I was working within some premade ip.suite elements. Same thing with brackets. I spent a ton of time getting picking teams in the bracket to work, then realized the issue where the ip.suite wizard I was using would not give an error if they left a pick blank. Honestly, for brackets, it may come down to me HAVVING to have a default pick on each game where they can't even possibly leave it unpicked. But just would suck because it's not good having either team as defaults where a member could complain that they didn't mean to pick that one, but didn't notice it.
One thing I need to add to this app at some point is member stats pages or top lifetime members as far as best at picking winners, etc... I have tons of stats being stored, just haven't made pages showing them.

btw I think the other guy didn't like it even on the submit results form how theyw ere ordered. Not sure if many would care on that one. You sure it would be good to do it per pool, though? I guess that would be good in case some American sports are used, although it may still confuse people if they are used to it being flipped.

yeah, someone else had me change the order of them and I thought then I wish I had just added a feature to reverse them. I will add that in when I have time and look into the other.

I'll think about it when I have to update to IPS 5. 👍

Still love this app @Adriano Faria, appreciate all the updates you can keep giving.
I have one question about a potential upgrade but you may see it as a completely different app:
Is there any way to create 'Sporcle' type quizzes into this app? This would be incredibly insane to have, especially with the leaderboard working on your own website.
If people don't know what Quizzes usually Sporcle has, it allows a user to press start on a timer and type in answers. Once a correct spelling answer is found, it automatically updates the list so the user can see what has been answered. These are used all over the world and a great alternative to Q&A rounds.
It would be great to get your thoughts Adriano! Thanks in advance

ok they approved 1.1.4 now, for those who didn't notice. When I was testing I kept manually running the sitemapgenerator task and the  sitemap kept still not having the correct links, but it eventually did, so I guess it did it with a queue. Like I said, you have to have your guest group with permission to view the category and pool for it to get into the sitemap.

This should be resolved now. If you are still seeing an error, please go to your Admin CP > License Key and click Resync License Data.