QUOTE
We've been blogging for a while about some of the bigger changes you will see when IP.Board 3 is released. Things like enhanced bbcode management, hooks and plugins, and personal conversations, for example, tend to be a bit more interesting to read than smaller features. However, we wanted to take a moment to discuss some of the other smaller features being added to IP.Board that we haven't talked about yet.
Minimum posts to view forum
You can now configure forums to only allow access if you have reached a minimum post count.
Minimum posts to post in forum
Similar to the previous setting, you can require members to have a certain post count before they can post in individual forums.
Only allow posters to see their own topics
A very commonly requested feature, you can now configure forums so that posters can only see their own topics. Of course moderators and admins can view all topics in the forum. This allows you to create "help-desk" style forums without the need for additional software.
HTTPS login form
You can now force your login page urls to utilize https via a simple ACP setting. You are still responsible for obtaining an SSL certificate and installing it to your server properly.
"Performance Mode"
We have several larger customers who have a relatively stationary amount of traffic, but have huge spikes at times (e.g. sports teams have huge spikes in traffic on game nights, typically). During these spikes it is often desirable to disable unnecessary features to maintain site stability, rather than purchase hardware to handle temporary spikes in traffic. The performance mode setting allows you to easily disable many features that can save resources with the click of a button. The system remembers the previous setting values so that when the spike dies down you can disable performance mode and return your site to it's previous configuration.
Registration "question and answer"
In IP.Board 3 you will be able to configure questions and associated answers which will be randomly added to the registration form to help combat automated registrations (spam bots).
Loading javascript files from Google
Google offers a service that allows you to load the prototype and scriptaculous files from their servers rather than your own. This offloads 2 http requests to Google's servers from your own, while allowing them to manage the proper cache and expiration headers for the files.
Guest selectable skins and languages
Guests can now change their skin and language selections if you offer multiple skins or languages. Note that skins can be configured to only be available to certain groups, so you can fine-tune which skins guests can select from.
Better topic/forum subscription controls
You can now unsubscribe individual members from all forums and topics from the edit member page of the ACP, and you can unsubscribe all members from individual forums from the forum management page.
More control over "friends"
You can now disable the friends feature globally via a setting, and individually on a per-group basis (e.g. to prevent validating members from using the friends feature).
Hide last post info for a forum
If you have a forum where different users have different configurations as to which topics they can view, you can hide the forum's last post info on the board index via a setting. This information is cached to improve performance, so it does not utilize permission-based lookups, thus the ability to hide it helps prevent topic information from being leaked.
Contact fields as custom profile fields
All of the contact fields (yahoo, aim, msn, etc.) are now custom profile fields, allowing you to more easily configure them to your liking (or remove them alltogether). Additionally, by default Jabber and Skype will be available for configuration.
Force an entire group to be anonymous
If you would like to force an entire group (administrators or banned members, for instance) to be anonymous upon login, you can do so easily now.
Moderate posts of an entire group globally
You can now configure a group to be moderated across the entire site via a group setting. This will force all of the group's posts and topics to be placed into a moderation queue before they are visible, regardless of individual forum settings.
Per-group signature restrictions
You can now control the maximum number of images, lines of text, and image dimensions for signatures on a per-group basis.
Here's a taste of some of the new features we haven't previously discussed (at least in any detail) which we hope you'll like. Let us know what you think!
Minimum posts to view forum
You can now configure forums to only allow access if you have reached a minimum post count.
Minimum posts to post in forum
Similar to the previous setting, you can require members to have a certain post count before they can post in individual forums.
Only allow posters to see their own topics
A very commonly requested feature, you can now configure forums so that posters can only see their own topics. Of course moderators and admins can view all topics in the forum. This allows you to create "help-desk" style forums without the need for additional software.
HTTPS login form
You can now force your login page urls to utilize https via a simple ACP setting. You are still responsible for obtaining an SSL certificate and installing it to your server properly.
"Performance Mode"
We have several larger customers who have a relatively stationary amount of traffic, but have huge spikes at times (e.g. sports teams have huge spikes in traffic on game nights, typically). During these spikes it is often desirable to disable unnecessary features to maintain site stability, rather than purchase hardware to handle temporary spikes in traffic. The performance mode setting allows you to easily disable many features that can save resources with the click of a button. The system remembers the previous setting values so that when the spike dies down you can disable performance mode and return your site to it's previous configuration.
Registration "question and answer"
In IP.Board 3 you will be able to configure questions and associated answers which will be randomly added to the registration form to help combat automated registrations (spam bots).
Loading javascript files from Google
Google offers a service that allows you to load the prototype and scriptaculous files from their servers rather than your own. This offloads 2 http requests to Google's servers from your own, while allowing them to manage the proper cache and expiration headers for the files.
Guest selectable skins and languages
Guests can now change their skin and language selections if you offer multiple skins or languages. Note that skins can be configured to only be available to certain groups, so you can fine-tune which skins guests can select from.
Better topic/forum subscription controls
You can now unsubscribe individual members from all forums and topics from the edit member page of the ACP, and you can unsubscribe all members from individual forums from the forum management page.
More control over "friends"
You can now disable the friends feature globally via a setting, and individually on a per-group basis (e.g. to prevent validating members from using the friends feature).
Hide last post info for a forum
If you have a forum where different users have different configurations as to which topics they can view, you can hide the forum's last post info on the board index via a setting. This information is cached to improve performance, so it does not utilize permission-based lookups, thus the ability to hide it helps prevent topic information from being leaked.
Contact fields as custom profile fields
All of the contact fields (yahoo, aim, msn, etc.) are now custom profile fields, allowing you to more easily configure them to your liking (or remove them alltogether). Additionally, by default Jabber and Skype will be available for configuration.
Force an entire group to be anonymous
If you would like to force an entire group (administrators or banned members, for instance) to be anonymous upon login, you can do so easily now.
Moderate posts of an entire group globally
You can now configure a group to be moderated across the entire site via a group setting. This will force all of the group's posts and topics to be placed into a moderation queue before they are visible, regardless of individual forum settings.
Per-group signature restrictions
You can now control the maximum number of images, lines of text, and image dimensions for signatures on a per-group basis.
Here's a taste of some of the new features we haven't previously discussed (at least in any detail) which we hope you'll like. Let us know what you think!
QUOTE
Introduction
Administration is an important part of running your site. You need to be able to control your site the way you want to, and you need to be able to do it as quickly as possible. Not everyone has an hour or two to hunt down a setting, after all. Once you start to factor in the fact that other applications (such as IP.Blog, IP.Gallery and IP.Downloads) can integrate into this same administration control panel there are new challenges to take into account as well.
With IP.Board 3 we've made improvements to the ACP in an attempt to help streamline common administrator actions and make the overall work flow clearer and easier.
Navigation
Navigation is a tricky thing to manage once a project becomes as large as IP.Board has. We've broken navigation down into multiple areas to help you drill down and find what you are looking for. Firstly, each application is listed at the top of the page - that way you can jump to whatever application you need to edit right away (no more navigating to the "Components" tab to edit IP.Gallery categories, for example). Then, along the left hand column you will find an expandable menu which provides access to the main pages of the application, similar to IP.Board 2. For applications requiring it, context links and tabbing are then utilized within the main area of the page to facilitate your work flow. We realize without screenshots it may be hard to visualize the new ACP, but a primary goal throughout the whole process was to retain a level of familiarity so that existing admins will find navigating very natural, while improving the process where-ever possible.
Searching
One complaint we've heard over the years is that new administrators frequently have trouble finding where they need to go in the ACP. Searching is a natural inclusion to help people find what they need, and can even be helpful for seasoned administrators as a shortcut to get where you need to go quicker. We have added a live-search facility to the admin control panel to help you find what you need much much easier (and before anyone asks - yes, "live search" is like the search on apple.com rolleyes.gif ). The settings page already had search functionality in IP.Board 2, but we felt that wasn't good enough. Many times the "setting" you are looking for is found when editing a group, not actually in the main site settings area.
To that end, the live search searches "settings", "pages" and "acp help" files. We have also included a method of adding keywords to these sections so that if we find many users are looking for an area through a specific keyword, we can easily add that keyword into the system so that searching for it will return the results people are looking for.
We will need your help once IP.Board 3 goes into beta testing with identifying areas that need keywords added for new administrators. What a wonderful way for all of you who are so eager to help out to give back to the community! And you don't even need to know PHP or HTML for this. biggrin.gif
Better Integration
While we have mostly already gone into detail on this front in other blog entries, just to recap on the subject within the context of this blog entry, improvements have been made to areas of the ACP that people frequently need to plugin to in order to help improve usability overall. For instance, an application can now show per-group settings on the actual group edit form, instead of having to provide a separate disconnected page in the application itself (for instance, the "Group Settings" page of IP.Gallery - these settings are now directly include on the edit group form instead). Similarly, applications can plugin to the edit member pages of the ACP, all with no file editing required. Settings for an application can, as they could in IP.Board 2, still be included within the settings area of the ACP. This means you can edit a group and control all of it's settings, without having to go to each application separately to update settings for the group.
Permission Editing
Many applications have a permission matrix - a grid of checkboxes that control what each permission mask can do within that application. This system works so well that we centralized the functionality in IP.Board 3 to make it easier to reuse and control. In doing so, we've also created an easy method of updating settings for every application on a per-permission set level. That is to say, if you want to update the permissions for users in the "Validating" group, you can do so globally from one page - for all applications at once. Remove calendar permissions, forum permissions, and gallery access all at once, without having to visit each application individually.
Going along with this, many users have been confused with how permission sets and groups relate to each other. We hear often from administrators that they created a new group - now how do they set the permissions for that group? To make this easier to understand and manage, when adding a new group there is a field that will allow you to fill in a new permission mask name (if you want to set permissions for the new group differently from other groups). After you save the new group, you will be redirected to the page that allows you to edit that group's permissions globally. You no longer have to create the mask first, set all the permissions (in each application separately, as well) and then add the group afterwards, selecting the new mask. Now it can all be done in one simple, easy to understand work flow.
Template Editing
I can't give out too many details on the template editor interface *just* yet I'm afraid, but let's just say that template editing has been entirely overhauled. We have put a lot of thought into ways of making it easier to edit templates, CSS and macros to hopefully help administrators work through their skins in a much much easier fashion. Some improvements that you may find interesting:
* HTML Syntax highlighting of skins when editing the templates in the ACP
* Condensed HTML templates make it much easier to edit an entire "page" without having to edit 8 separate templates that will be compiled into one page
* No more separate "Global board header and footer wrapper" area. We have, instead, made a wrapper template which includes the content of this area as well as the global_board_header, global_board_footer, member_bar, navigation, and a few other common areas shown on every page
* AJAX CSS editing. This was actually a specific request from Rikki - apparently it's rather inconvenient to scroll 3 pages down in the CSS file, edit a color, save it, and end up at the top of the file/textarea and have to find where you were at again. Go figure. Anyways - when you save a CSS file now, it uses AJAX to save the contents, and the page remains stationary so you don't lose your place.
Reordering content
Remember all those lovely reordering dropdown menus (e.g. in the forum management screen)? Or those wonderful up/down arrow combinations (e.g. in the component management screen)? While they certainly served their purpose, they were identified for IP.Board 3 as being both inconsistent and, well, old.
All areas utilizing reordering functionality for all of our applications will use drag-n-drop + AJAX javascript functionality in IP.Board 3. Want to move a forum up one spot, just drag it up there and you're done.
In Closing
We think you will find that all in all the ACP area will be much easier to navigate and utilize in IP.Board 3. Once we get into the public beta testing stages and you get a chance to review our changes we'll be eager to hear your opinions and suggestions on the new and improved administration area.
Administration is an important part of running your site. You need to be able to control your site the way you want to, and you need to be able to do it as quickly as possible. Not everyone has an hour or two to hunt down a setting, after all. Once you start to factor in the fact that other applications (such as IP.Blog, IP.Gallery and IP.Downloads) can integrate into this same administration control panel there are new challenges to take into account as well.
With IP.Board 3 we've made improvements to the ACP in an attempt to help streamline common administrator actions and make the overall work flow clearer and easier.
Navigation
Navigation is a tricky thing to manage once a project becomes as large as IP.Board has. We've broken navigation down into multiple areas to help you drill down and find what you are looking for. Firstly, each application is listed at the top of the page - that way you can jump to whatever application you need to edit right away (no more navigating to the "Components" tab to edit IP.Gallery categories, for example). Then, along the left hand column you will find an expandable menu which provides access to the main pages of the application, similar to IP.Board 2. For applications requiring it, context links and tabbing are then utilized within the main area of the page to facilitate your work flow. We realize without screenshots it may be hard to visualize the new ACP, but a primary goal throughout the whole process was to retain a level of familiarity so that existing admins will find navigating very natural, while improving the process where-ever possible.
Searching
One complaint we've heard over the years is that new administrators frequently have trouble finding where they need to go in the ACP. Searching is a natural inclusion to help people find what they need, and can even be helpful for seasoned administrators as a shortcut to get where you need to go quicker. We have added a live-search facility to the admin control panel to help you find what you need much much easier (and before anyone asks - yes, "live search" is like the search on apple.com rolleyes.gif ). The settings page already had search functionality in IP.Board 2, but we felt that wasn't good enough. Many times the "setting" you are looking for is found when editing a group, not actually in the main site settings area.
To that end, the live search searches "settings", "pages" and "acp help" files. We have also included a method of adding keywords to these sections so that if we find many users are looking for an area through a specific keyword, we can easily add that keyword into the system so that searching for it will return the results people are looking for.
We will need your help once IP.Board 3 goes into beta testing with identifying areas that need keywords added for new administrators. What a wonderful way for all of you who are so eager to help out to give back to the community! And you don't even need to know PHP or HTML for this. biggrin.gif
Better Integration
While we have mostly already gone into detail on this front in other blog entries, just to recap on the subject within the context of this blog entry, improvements have been made to areas of the ACP that people frequently need to plugin to in order to help improve usability overall. For instance, an application can now show per-group settings on the actual group edit form, instead of having to provide a separate disconnected page in the application itself (for instance, the "Group Settings" page of IP.Gallery - these settings are now directly include on the edit group form instead). Similarly, applications can plugin to the edit member pages of the ACP, all with no file editing required. Settings for an application can, as they could in IP.Board 2, still be included within the settings area of the ACP. This means you can edit a group and control all of it's settings, without having to go to each application separately to update settings for the group.
Permission Editing
Many applications have a permission matrix - a grid of checkboxes that control what each permission mask can do within that application. This system works so well that we centralized the functionality in IP.Board 3 to make it easier to reuse and control. In doing so, we've also created an easy method of updating settings for every application on a per-permission set level. That is to say, if you want to update the permissions for users in the "Validating" group, you can do so globally from one page - for all applications at once. Remove calendar permissions, forum permissions, and gallery access all at once, without having to visit each application individually.
Going along with this, many users have been confused with how permission sets and groups relate to each other. We hear often from administrators that they created a new group - now how do they set the permissions for that group? To make this easier to understand and manage, when adding a new group there is a field that will allow you to fill in a new permission mask name (if you want to set permissions for the new group differently from other groups). After you save the new group, you will be redirected to the page that allows you to edit that group's permissions globally. You no longer have to create the mask first, set all the permissions (in each application separately, as well) and then add the group afterwards, selecting the new mask. Now it can all be done in one simple, easy to understand work flow.
Template Editing
I can't give out too many details on the template editor interface *just* yet I'm afraid, but let's just say that template editing has been entirely overhauled. We have put a lot of thought into ways of making it easier to edit templates, CSS and macros to hopefully help administrators work through their skins in a much much easier fashion. Some improvements that you may find interesting:
* HTML Syntax highlighting of skins when editing the templates in the ACP
* Condensed HTML templates make it much easier to edit an entire "page" without having to edit 8 separate templates that will be compiled into one page
* No more separate "Global board header and footer wrapper" area. We have, instead, made a wrapper template which includes the content of this area as well as the global_board_header, global_board_footer, member_bar, navigation, and a few other common areas shown on every page
* AJAX CSS editing. This was actually a specific request from Rikki - apparently it's rather inconvenient to scroll 3 pages down in the CSS file, edit a color, save it, and end up at the top of the file/textarea and have to find where you were at again. Go figure. Anyways - when you save a CSS file now, it uses AJAX to save the contents, and the page remains stationary so you don't lose your place.
Reordering content
Remember all those lovely reordering dropdown menus (e.g. in the forum management screen)? Or those wonderful up/down arrow combinations (e.g. in the component management screen)? While they certainly served their purpose, they were identified for IP.Board 3 as being both inconsistent and, well, old.
All areas utilizing reordering functionality for all of our applications will use drag-n-drop + AJAX javascript functionality in IP.Board 3. Want to move a forum up one spot, just drag it up there and you're done.
In Closing
We think you will find that all in all the ACP area will be much easier to navigate and utilize in IP.Board 3. Once we get into the public beta testing stages and you get a chance to review our changes we'll be eager to hear your opinions and suggestions on the new and improved administration area.
It's ment to have Signature Limitations built in so my suggestion about that will not need to be done.
Also according to rumors, a build in Reputation system is coming with 3.0 plus all the features above!I know I'm excited.
-gazisere
