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Welcome to Invision Community 4.3.0! This release brings numerous improvements and several new features, so be sure to read our announcement for everything new! **IMPORTANT UPGRADE NOTICE** Please note that not all third party applications and themes are yet compatible with Invision Community 4.3. If you utilize third party resources, including custom themes, please ensure they have been declared compatible by their respective authors or your site may be non-functional after upgrade. There is a new compatibility field on all marketplace resource listings. If this field is missing or does not specifically list 4.3, it is likely not yet compatible.

This is a maintenance release to fix reported bugs. Other changes include: RSS feeds now use guest page caching system Analytic tracking code has been moved to inside head tag Ad code placement has a new setting to clarify how sidebar display should be handled Various enhancements to Redis engine including data stored encrypted at rest Search result improvements

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ensures your community is as friendly as it can be for search engines to both index and rank properly when people search for things that match your Community focus. It is not an exact science. Opinions vary on best practices and the "rules" that search engines use change all the time. Invision Community does all the best supported and universally recognized approaches. We are always updating SEO with new releases to ensure things stay on track. Automatic Features There are quite a few things that happen behind the scenes in regard to SEO that you do not have to do anything about. Converter Redirects If you converted to Invision Community from another product, in most cases the system will automatically redirect links from your old software to the new locations. This uses an HTTP 301 redirect to ensure that the search engine knows to update to the new location. You can install our converters if you have not already converted, by using the instructions in the following guide JSON-LD Markup This markup is automatically generated and creates "micro data" that search engines and other systems use to get more information about what they are seeing. Things like dates, titles, images, snippets, etc. can be included so other systems know what they are seeing when they come across a link to your content. Proper HTTP Codes When you visit a page that is not found or not allowed you get a 404, those areas restricted get a 403, upgrade in progress returns a 503, and so on. These response codes properly inform search engine spiders what is going on with your site so they can act accordingly. Site Map Your site map is an XML-formatted document that search engines use to get a full index of pages on your Community. Normally you would not need to change these settings as the recommended settings work fine for nearly all sites. There are more advanced settings if you are interested in changing weighting, limiting results, and other options for the site map. Visit Search Engine Optimization to see advanced options. Friendly URLs Friendly URLs (FURLs) convert links on your site from something like this: http://example.com/?app=forums&module=forums&controller=topic&id=1 to something more like: http://example.com/topic/1-my-latest-hobbies/ This is important as search engines will index your community based on items such as the URL, and so the example above would be more likely to be ranked under key words such as "hobbies" and phrases such as "latest hobbies". FURLs are already setup automatically on our Cloud services. Applies to self-hosted customers only To setup FURLs on your own service, we assume you are running Apache web server. You can setup on other servers but these instructions assume Apache. You will need mod_rewrite an ability to upload .htaccess to rewrite URLs. Please contact your host to ensure you can do this. Go to Search Engine Optimization, enable FURLs, and download the generated .htaccess file. Upload to the root directory where Invision Community is installed and then click continue. Your Community will check to see if FURLs are working. Meta Tags Meta tags are an item of text which describes the content on a page. We provide you with the ability to add meta tags to any area of the site, either on an individual basis, a type basis, or site wide. Meta tags are used by all major search engines to index your site in a more correct manner. Keywords, descriptions etc will be used to ensure that your site is shown in the results that are relevant for your site. For example, here on the community we may want our downloads area to be indexed by search engines under the description 'Marketplace' with tags such as plugin, and application. Consider this more of an advanced, optional feature as the JSON-LD system does take care of quite a bit of meta data exposure to search engines. You can add meta tags by visiting Search Engine Optimization then clicking on the "Meta Tags" tab. You can add a new tag by selecting the "Add Meta Tags" option and filling in the details as appropriate. You can currently add the following meta tag types to any page, by adding the page address, page title, then adding as many meta tags as you need. Keywords = words which describe the topic of your page Description = A description of the page (you often see these shown in search engine results) Robots = Allows you to specify robot related tags for search engines such as NOINDEX and NOFOLLOW Other = There are many other types of tag you can add such as author, copyright, language and more You can use * as a wildcard to include multiple pages for your meta tags. You can see this in the example image below. Meta tag editor In addition to the manual tag editor, we also have available a live meta tag editor available where you can edit meta tags directly from the page. The use of this is shown below, and can be accessed via the "launch Live Media Editor" link. Live Editor Things to Check Be sure to check a few other areas to ensure your Community is setup how you want it: Browse your community as a Guest (not logged in) so you can see what a search engine spider would see. If you cannot view an area then it cannot be indexed. Similarly, if you can view an area you want private then check your permissions. Several apps allow you to customize error messages. Rather than seeing a generic "Permission Denied" message when visiting an area they cannot view, you can put in more friendly text prompting the user to join your Community. Enabling HTTPS can help with some search engine rankings and show fewer security warnings to visitors. Advanced FURL Configuration A feature that is both powerful and potentially harmful, advanced FURL configuration should only be used if you are comfortable changing the URL structure of your Community. For nearly all sites it is not necessary. Here we show an example use case of advanced FURL customization. Say you have a previous system that used the url /oldLogin for your login page. By adding a FURL configuration here this would automatically load the actual Invision Community login page when visiting that URL. Other uses cases might be renaming certain URLs if you use your Community in a unique way, adding aliases, or capturing older links that might need redirection.

4.2.2 is a maintenance release that fixes issues identified in 4.2.1 and: A new extraction process to make auto-upgrades more robust The upgrade system will do a check of all files to ensure they are up to date before proceeding Security Notice This release also contains security enhancements to prevent possible XSS and increase protections on account management functions. It is recommended you upgrade to ensure the security on your Community. Thanks to @newbie LAC and Raja uzair Abdullah for reporting security issues. Version 4.2 is the next large release for Invision Community! We are very excited to introduce all the new features and improvements. Full information on 4.2.0 ...

We are working hard to get Invision Community 4.2 ready to go! If you have not been following this upcoming version, check out the details: Over the last month we have released several beta versions and feedback from those that have chosen to jump in on the beta has been great. We really could not be happier. Feedback has included amazement over how stable the beta is to reactions from community members enjoying all the new features. Everyone here at IPS is very excited to get the full release out so everyone can enjoy it. Not everyone is comfortable using beta releases . Back in March when we first announced 4.2 was coming soon we said that it would be out in mid-2017 and we are still on track for that. Be sure to keep an eye on announcements for the full release expected in the next 3 - 4 weeks. We really hope everyone is as excited as we are about 4.2's full release. Based on the feedback from those already using 4.2 beta on their live sites we really think this will be a huge hit with your community.

We provide self-help, private ticket, and community-based support to ensure your Community runs as well as it can. If you ever have any issues that you cannot solve with the methods below, please ask. We are here to help! Health Dashboard The first step to obtaining support should always be from your AdminCP. If you log into your AdminCP and visit the Support location, this will take you to Health Dashboard Health Dashboard Within this area, there are many tools in which may assist you in resolving issues on your site. Applies to self-hosted customers only Some items on this page may apply to self hosted customers only. Cloud customers may not see server related information, as this is all taken care of for you. The system will automatically check for any issues on your site when this area is visited. If there are any issues that are found, it will report them to you. Critical issues - If there are critical issues that are showing in these area, you should address those immediately. These may be items such as incompatible items on the server, security patches, or upgrades which need to be run. Important issues - There are items which, while should be looked at, do not dall into the category of being critical. Things such as 3rd party item upgrades being available, or recommending of a higher server component (PHP version for example). In addition to issues being reported, errors are also reported on this page. YOu can see these at the bottom of the page by way of a graph. Any increases in these may be an indication of an issue on the site that needs to be addressed. The 3 types shown are Error logs - These are items which are expected, but still shown to the user. An example of this may be a permission error, or notice that an item is unavailable. You will find extra settings in this area also, to choose how robustly you would like to log these types of errors. System logs - These are those in which would not happen in normal use. So for example if you had a database connection issue, an unexpected coding issue, or anything else which is outside the normal parameters of the softwares intentions. Email logs - Any issues with sending of email. Other Support Tools Before submitting a ticket, and after checking the above, there are some tools you can use which may resolve issues. First of all you can clear any system caches. You can find this button at the top of the "Tools and Diagnostics" section Selecting "Something isn't working correctly." Disable Customizations An important part of the diagnostic process is disabling any 3rd party items you may have installed on your sysyem. The majority of issues you will see in Invision Community are caused by customizations (themes, plugins, apps) that are not part of our default set. You can disable these by selecting the "x third party customisations" link Disabling 3rd party You should disable all customizations using the button provided and check on a new tab in your browser to see if this issue is resolved. If it has, then you know it is a 3rd party issue, and you should enable items one at a time until you find the cause. Once the cause is found, this should be reported to the developer of that 3rd party item. Disable Customizations Submitting a ticket If you cannot find the issue using the built in tools, there is then an option to submit a ticket to our support team who will be happy to assist you in getting to the bottom of your problem. Provide a much information about the issue as possible. Including how to replicate the problem, and examples if possible. Applies to self-hosted customers only Often we will need access to your system to diagnose the cause of an issue. In this case, we will need some login details, and may at times require file system access. You can provide these securely from within your client area. To do this, log into your client area, select your license, then select "Review my details" (See further info below). Ensuring these are up to date, can often speed up the time taken to resolve your issue. Anything you have already attempted to resolve the issue yourself is worth noting within the ticket. Getting Support If you are not able to access your AdminCP or have a non-technical question, you can always submit a ticket directly in the client area as well. Providing Access (Self hosted) If access details are needed in order to diagnose and resolve an issue with your site, these would be added within your client area. First of all log into your client area in the following location https://invisioncommunity.com/clientarea/ Once you have logged in, select "Manage this purchase" next to the license you are reporting an issue for. Manage this purchase On the next page, select "Review/Update Access information" Update access You will then be presented with a form where you can securely add access information for your site. It is worth mentioning here that all IPS employees and contractors have executed elaborate non-disclosure agreements that protects the integrity of your data. Adding your information in this areas, ensures that it is stored in a secure location. Entering details FTP Access - If you are unsure on what FTP access is, you would need to obtain this from your hosting company. Admin CP URL - Your admin area by default would be at (for example) www.yoursite.com/admin/ . If you have not moved from this location, then you can leave this section blank. If however you have moved your admin location, then please populate the new URL here. Admin CP .htaccess - If you have an additional username and password you enter prior to getting to the admin CP login page, then these details would be added here. If you do not, then its likely you do not have these, and you can leave the section blank. Admin CP Access - This is your admin username and password (or one that you create for our use). This must have full admin access in most cases, in order for us to assist. Hosting provider - The name of the company in which provides the hosting for your site. Notes - If there is any further information we need in order to be able to access your site, please ensure you add this information here. Manually Checking Logs If you cannot get to the AdminCP at all, you can access the system logs from within uploads/logs on your file system. It is always worth checking these. It may be for example that your MySQL instance has crashed or some other item in which you know how to resolve. Recovery Mode (Self hosted only) If you get to the point in which you cannot get to the admin CP, nor the front end, you can try using our new recovery mode function. In order to use this, you would add the following line to a constants.php file within your installations main directory <?php define('RECOVERY_MODE',True); Once this is set, you can visit your ACP location and log in. On login you will see something similar to the below, which will be disabling 3rd party items, resetting default themes, and attempting to get you to a stock position so you can log in (it will not be deleting anything, don't worry) On login after enabling recovery After this is complete, you will be shown a list of all items which have been disabled, and you will be informed to remove the line from your constants file. It is important that you do this, as you will not be able to navigate to any area of the admin CP until you have done so. Recovery Complete You will then be able to enable items one at a time until the system breaks, in order to determine which of these items is causing your system not to function.

Version 4.2.0 is the next large release for Invision Community! We are very excited to introduce all the new features and improvements. Full information on 4.2.0 ...

We know security updates can be distracting but we take security very seriously and do not want to delay getting you the latest enhancements. As we continue to audit security hardening, we will do these focused update releases. This release addresses two possible XSS scenarios.

This entry is about our IPS Community Suite 4.2 release I made a quick video to demo things we have already announced for 4.2 so far. Enjoy

This entry is about our IPS Community Suite 4.2 release. Improving your SEO can be a complex undertaking with many different approaches but there are things that everyone knows are good practice and also more modern approaches to SEO that have changed since we first started developing IPS Community Suite. So it was time for a review and update. Unfortunately no pretty screenshots on this one as this is all behind the scenes stuff but still quite useful to know . Also, some of this may sound a bit technical and dry but feel free to search some of these technologies if you are curious. Move from HTML structured data to JSON-LD and enhance our existing markup with sensible additions. Calendar, blog, forum and pages (articles) data marked up for rich snippets. General review of our schema.org markup and enhance where appropriate. Use sitelinks search and other sensible markup such as the website and logo markup. Allow administrators to specify social profile links in the AdminCP which we then show links to in the footer and also make available in schema.org markup. Fix many duplicate page title issues. Review and ensure nofollow/noindex tags are used in appropriate areas. Add item tags as HTML meta tags Adding <link rel="next" value="next page url"> helps search engines know next/previous page. Nothing like a bulleted list of items to get you excited! But really these should be welcome improvements to all.

This entry is about our IPS Community Suite 4.2 release. I am sure we have all accidentally clicked delete on a post in your community and then realized you needed it. Luckily we now have Delayed Deletes to easily restore deleted content. Settings in AdminCP You can delete just as you normally do as you moderate and your posts will be removed just like now. The main difference is that you can now view recently deleted content and restore as needed in the Moderator Control Panel. Easily view what is pending delete All you have to do is click the deleted item and you will be taken to that item in context of where it used to be. This makes is much easier to understand why it was deleted and decide if you should restore. Restore and view deleted content in context Delayed Deletes is a feature that could be a life saver for your community and we cannot wait to get it out to you.

This entry is about our IPS Community Suite 4.2 release. Following on from our previous entry about the new Recommended Replies feature, we also have one more small feature change that will be very useful. Content Message is a small feature available in all IPS Community Suite content areas (forums, blogs, gallery, etc.) and allows a moderator to put a message at the top of any item. Topic with a moderator message This is useful if you have a special use for the area people are posting in, need to encourage conversation to stay on topic, or perhaps the conversation is becoming heated and you need to remind people to behave. Sometimes the smallest features can prove the most useful and already I have found myself reaching for this feature out of habit from using it on our test 4.2 installs and missing it on our production site. I cannot wait to have it available and I am sure you will enjoy the ability to add custom notes to any area of the Suite. Development Note For our power users: this feature and the Recommended Replies feature use a new content meta data capability. This allows you to store miscellaneous data that is attached to a content item which does not need to be otherwise searched or exposed unless you are viewing that item. We will provide technical details on this later but it is a really easy way to store data about content without having to create additional tables or methods.

This entry is about our IPS Community Suite 4.2 release. Sometimes you may find situations where you want to highlight one or more replies to a content item to bring attention to a really great response. This is especially true on busy communities where you might have dozens or even hundreds of replies in a single discussion. There is now an ability for a moderator to Recommend a reply (or multiple replies) and even leave an optional note explaining why they think you should view that post. Moderator Permission Optional note for recommended reply When a reply is Recommended you will see a snippet at the top of the content item along with the optional moderator note and a link to jump right to that reply. A topic with a recommended reply. You can Recommend more than one reply and this feature works through IPS Community Suite in forum topic, blog entries, gallery images, and so on. You can set this permission along with other moderator permissions in the AdminCP. We really think this will allow moderators to bring attention to some of the best replies and guide users to the best content your community has to offer.

We are well into development on IPS Community Suite 4.2 and are excited to start announcing all the new features and improvements. Our next big release is focused on engagement with your members. You will see enhancements to our Reputation system, new ways to encourage people to register on your community, and enhancements to existing features to make them more interactive. There are also entirely new capabilities we cannot wait to show you ranging from new ways to organize content to tools to help promote your community. Version 4.2 also features a refreshed AdminCP and default front-end design. Theme changes in 4.2 are mostly in the CSS framework so your existing themes will either work without issue or require minor changes to work in the new version. Over the next several weeks we will be posting news entries with previews of upcoming features fairly often. Be sure to follow our News section, our Facebook, or Twitter to stay up to date. We expect IPS Community Suite 4.2 to be out in mid-2017 with a public preview available sooner. Everyone at IPS has worked very hard on this update and we think you will love it!

Version 4.1.18 is now available in the client area! Two large changes include Two Factor Authentication: And changes to make Google less jumpy about password inputs: Some smaller changes include: Pinterest share link has been added Images embedded in the editor can now have an alternative title set for accessibility The Approval Queue page now has a "Hide" button to hide content (rather than only being able to approve / delete) Disabling Profile Photo uploads will now also disable importing from a URL The Admin CP will now indicate whether or not a member is connected to a social network The Admin CP will now display more information for a user who has been banned imgur embedded is now supported Check out the Release Notes for a full list of changes.

Google has recently been stressing that sites should use secure connections (served via HTTPS) whenever possible. They have recently also started warning sites that collect password on non-secure pages and will also be updating Google Chrome to warn users when a password is being entered on a non-secure page. You can read more information at Google and a good article on Ars Technica. There are two ways on IPS Community Suite to avoid these alerts. Keep in mind that doing nothing will not cause you any problems, your site will still work, but users will get warnings and this may impact how people perceive joining your community. Make your Community 100% Secure The easiest option is to make every page on your IPS Community Suite use a secure connection. To do this you would need to ensure your web host has HTTPS support enabled on your site and then simply edit conf_global.php and change the URL field to https:// and that's it. One thing to keep in mind is that your users, if you allow it, can still paste in links to externally hosted images which might not be secure. This does not impact the security of your site but it may generate a browser warning indicating your site has "mixed content" meaning some is secure and some is not. You can optionally enable the Image Proxy feature to make externally linked images route through a proxy on your local server to maintain 100% secure content. Image Proxy Options Only Login/Registration Forms and AdminCP Secure If you prefer not to use HTTPS for your entire site, we do have a setting to only use secure connections for login, registration, and AdminCP. Use HTTPS for Logins and AdminCP When the login-only secure option is enabled the quick login drop down is also disabled and instead users are sent to a full page to login. This is a small change required to avoid browser warnings. Although the quick login menu submits to a secure connection, the form field itself may show on a non-secure page which would generate a warning. Quick Login not Available when Login-Only HTTPS Setting Enabled IPS Community in the Cloud Those using IPS CiC can get secure connections for a $15 setup fee plus $5 month on our 40, 65 and 100 user Cloud plans. You can either bring your own certificate or we can provide one for you. On the 200, 450 and 750 plans, SSL is completely free - again, either your own or we can provide one.

In addition to bug fixes and performance improvements, this release also includes: Pinterest share link has been added Converters are now included as a Suite-level application you can download with your package in the Client Area Running a conversion will now skip steps that do not have anything to convert Two Factor Authentication Images embedded in the editor can now have an alternative title set for accessibility Users signing in through social services, such as Facebook, will no longer be required to validate their email address When a location is specified for a Calendar Event, the address will be shown underneath the map. The map itself should also be more accurate now. The Approval Queue page now has a "Hide" button to hide content (rather than only being able to approve / delete) Disabling Profile Photo uploads will now also disable importing from a URL An issue has been fixed where adding tags using other languages may not work properly Cropping Animated GIF's for photos is now supported when ImageMagick is in use Files purchased in Downloads will now have a link back to the file from their purchase page in the Manage Purchases section The Admin CP will now display more information for a user who has been banned imgur embedded is now supported Errors caused by third party applications / plugins will now be clearer Option to report fatal errors automatically to IPS so we can fix common issues