Guild Launch News
RELEASE: Guild Launch Version 4.6 - A Ton of Good Stuff!
We've released Guild Launch Version 4.6 (Split Infinity) today. This release has alot of awesome upgrades to existing functionality, and some new functionality that we think you all will like alot.
New Features:
Advertising Holiday
With this release we are releasing a "Advertising Holidy" feature for all new ad-supported guilds. All Ad-Supported sites will be ad-free for 36 hours. There will be a large widget with a countdown for the 36 hours. We've done this so that new users can see what the sites are like without ads during a trial period.
In conjunction with this we will have a special Announcement on July 4th.
PvP Kill On Sight
The PvP area has received some upgrades. The index page has been reworked to be a little more informative and we have developed an entirely new area called "Kill On Sight".
The Kill on Sight area allows you to track Kill on Sight information for guilds and players. You can enter rewards for kills, enter the reason they are on the KOS list and when you log a kill you can enter the URL for a screenshot so no one says "Pics or it didn't happen".
This section also includes new widgets that display recently added KOSs as well as recent Kills.
This area is good fun for the PvP oriented players and guilds out there.
Rapid Raid Member Comparison
The Rapid Raid members page has been enhanced with a checkbox that allows you to select multiple members and then limit the members list down to those characters so you can compare them. This functionality includes the ability to view the last 5 items each members has received.
Rapid Raid Attendance Requirement for Adjustments
The attendance requirements for display on the member list and adjustment page has been removed. This will greatly reduce the management for some guilds and will certainly make the system easier to use out of the box.
Forum Merge Topics/Posts and Forum Pruning
The forums have been upgraded to included the ability to merge posts and topics into other topics. This functionality uses the familiar split topic page and essentially lets you "split" a topic into another topic instead of creating a new topic as the current functionality does.
We've also added forum pruning. This allows you to remove all posts which have not been replied to in a given number of days. Forum pruning is a heavy handed option since it deletes posts without consideration for the quality of the initial post, but is very useful for forums like trade forums or general discussion forums that have limited value a long time after the initial post. Forum Pruning does not remove announcements but it will remove stickies. We recommend that user be careful with pruning. It's very easy to lose alot of posts you didn't intend to, so use it with care, the posts cannot be restored.
Wiki Enhancements
The wiki can now be marked as "Member Only" content. The Wiki is now searchable with a basic search.
Raid Details Page Usage Flow Enhancement (Stage 1)
This is part of a multi stage enhancement to the workflow on the raid details page. When you add an item or delete an item the page will now return the browser to the event it was deleted from or added to. This will reduce alot of scrolling for large raids.
Stage 2 will enhance this even further using Ajax.
Permission Summary
The permissions page now contains a summary of the forum permission, content rights, admin rights, and user membership for each permission group. This will allow an admin to quickly audit the groups and figure out if any changes need to be made without clicking around in the groups.
Member Permissions Made More Granular
The Member Admin rights have been made more granular. You can now give a permission group View, Recruiting Management, Adjust (change characters, ranks, etc.) and Kick (kick characters and members) rights in addition to the current full rights.
In addition, certain links on the Members page that require Permissions or DKP admin rights will not be displayed to users. The users couldn't use the functions before but they could link to them and would get a "You can't do this message."
Rapid Raid Signups
The players rank is now shown on the signups. In addition the signup pages now sorts the signups into defined class groupings. The signup page now also uses the class color coding and class icons for games those are available in.
Guild Deletions and Owner Leaving
The owner/creator of a guild can now leave the guild without first transferring the site, though a transfer is preferred. When the owner/creator leaves the guild site, the site will be transferred to the most recently active site admin or the most recently active user if an admin is not designated. This should reduce the instances where a owner/creator chooses to delete the guild so they can leave it.
We feel that guild deletions have been abused too much by users who have deleted the guild site in order to punish the other users and we do not feel this should be allowed any longer. Guild deletions have been disabled going forward. All situations in which a guild might be deleted for a valid reason (changing name, game, server, subdomain, etc.) are now accounted for in other functionality and a guild deletion is not necessary for those cases.
Image Gallery Enhancements
We've reworked the automatic resizing here a bit. The first major change is that the thumbnails are no longer a fix width and height. Instead the image is resized to 145 pixels wide with whatever height is appropriate. This makes the thumbnails look a bit more natural.
Secondly, the existing midsize has been changed from 600 pixels to 575 pixels. This change was made because 575 pixels wide will fill up a news forum post without causing a horizontal scrollbar on all of our templates, if the browse is at least 1024 pixels wide which is our minimum fully supported resolution.
Thirdly, we've introduced another midsize that is 1024 pixels wide. This size is used for the lightbox popups.
Fourth, we've modified the gallery so that the average user who wants to browse images only need to use the gallery index page and the lightbox popups to view your uploaded images. A "details" link is provided to get to the midsize and other options. This should lead to a more enjoyable user experience.
New Image Handling BBCode
In this release we have integrated Lightbox http://www.lokeshdhakar.com/projects/lightbox2/ into various areas of the site. These include the new Kill on Sight area, the image gallery, and some new BBCode.
I've added the instructions for the upcoming BBCode additions in Version 4.6 to the BBCode FAQ. They include resizable images and an awesome lightbox popup image.
Resizable Image
The width and height must be provided. Alignment must be provided also.
Image With Lightbox Popup
When a user clicks on this image they will get an image popup right on the screen without going anywhere. This is perfect for posting large kill shots on your homepage.
The width and height must be provided. Alignment must be provided also.
User Incorrect Login & Password Resets
The pages related to incorrect logins and password resets are now fully contained within the guild site. So if a user enters a bad password into the top right login bar, they are presented with a page on your site telling them "You've used a bad login" instead of being directed to a page on the Guild Launch site. This should increase user continuity and make some of the page transitions less shocking for a user.
Certain forum login reminders and admin login reminders will still go to the primary guild launch site. These will be addressed in the next release.
Additional PMs for Guild Events
Users will now receive a PM when they are kicked from a guild, one of their characters is kicked from a guild or a guild is transfered to them. This should make users more informed of what is happening to their account, reducing the shock of certain things like no longer being in a guild. It should also reduce our support tickets for "OMGZ! I'm no longer in Xyz guild!" by making it more clear that it was an intentional admin action.
Character Class/Race Editing & Character Game/Server Editing
The character's full class and race info can now be edited for all games. To edit this info go to the Character Detail page and click the Update link next to the class and race info in the edit below for the character.
The character's game and server can now be changed also. To edit this info go to the Character Detail page and click the Update link next to the game and server info in the edit area below the character.
Custom Favorite Icons (favicon.ico)
Custom favorite icons can now be uploaded and used on your site. More info on how to do this is here: http://support.guildlaunch.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1112808
General Game Additions
* The White Lion icon is now available for Warhammer guilds.
* The Death Knight icon and class choice is now avaialable for WoW guilds.
* Barad GĂșlaran, Urugarth, Glingant, Ost Elendil, Naudh Valandil, Fornost, Great Barrow and Garth Agarwen have been added to the LOTRO raid progression widget.
General Enhancements
* Non DKP Admins can no longer see links in the menus for the items they can't use anyway
* The menu for Rapid Raid has been streamlined a bit. The functions have been grouped more logically and the menu items not available for non-admins will not be shown to non-admins.
* The Wiki edit button has been moved above the content. This will allow you to still edit the page if an error is made in the HTML that causes the page to render incorrectly.
Bug Fixes
* The leadrboard now properly accounts for Base GP.
* The progression widget has had some padding removed in certain templates making it look better.
New Features:
Advertising Holiday
With this release we are releasing a "Advertising Holidy" feature for all new ad-supported guilds. All Ad-Supported sites will be ad-free for 36 hours. There will be a large widget with a countdown for the 36 hours. We've done this so that new users can see what the sites are like without ads during a trial period.
In conjunction with this we will have a special Announcement on July 4th.
PvP Kill On Sight
The PvP area has received some upgrades. The index page has been reworked to be a little more informative and we have developed an entirely new area called "Kill On Sight".
The Kill on Sight area allows you to track Kill on Sight information for guilds and players. You can enter rewards for kills, enter the reason they are on the KOS list and when you log a kill you can enter the URL for a screenshot so no one says "Pics or it didn't happen".
This section also includes new widgets that display recently added KOSs as well as recent Kills.
This area is good fun for the PvP oriented players and guilds out there.
Rapid Raid Member Comparison
The Rapid Raid members page has been enhanced with a checkbox that allows you to select multiple members and then limit the members list down to those characters so you can compare them. This functionality includes the ability to view the last 5 items each members has received.
Rapid Raid Attendance Requirement for Adjustments
The attendance requirements for display on the member list and adjustment page has been removed. This will greatly reduce the management for some guilds and will certainly make the system easier to use out of the box.
Forum Merge Topics/Posts and Forum Pruning
The forums have been upgraded to included the ability to merge posts and topics into other topics. This functionality uses the familiar split topic page and essentially lets you "split" a topic into another topic instead of creating a new topic as the current functionality does.
We've also added forum pruning. This allows you to remove all posts which have not been replied to in a given number of days. Forum pruning is a heavy handed option since it deletes posts without consideration for the quality of the initial post, but is very useful for forums like trade forums or general discussion forums that have limited value a long time after the initial post. Forum Pruning does not remove announcements but it will remove stickies. We recommend that user be careful with pruning. It's very easy to lose alot of posts you didn't intend to, so use it with care, the posts cannot be restored.
Wiki Enhancements
The wiki can now be marked as "Member Only" content. The Wiki is now searchable with a basic search.
Raid Details Page Usage Flow Enhancement (Stage 1)
This is part of a multi stage enhancement to the workflow on the raid details page. When you add an item or delete an item the page will now return the browser to the event it was deleted from or added to. This will reduce alot of scrolling for large raids.
Stage 2 will enhance this even further using Ajax.
Permission Summary
The permissions page now contains a summary of the forum permission, content rights, admin rights, and user membership for each permission group. This will allow an admin to quickly audit the groups and figure out if any changes need to be made without clicking around in the groups.
Member Permissions Made More Granular
The Member Admin rights have been made more granular. You can now give a permission group View, Recruiting Management, Adjust (change characters, ranks, etc.) and Kick (kick characters and members) rights in addition to the current full rights.
In addition, certain links on the Members page that require Permissions or DKP admin rights will not be displayed to users. The users couldn't use the functions before but they could link to them and would get a "You can't do this message."
Rapid Raid Signups
The players rank is now shown on the signups. In addition the signup pages now sorts the signups into defined class groupings. The signup page now also uses the class color coding and class icons for games those are available in.
Guild Deletions and Owner Leaving
The owner/creator of a guild can now leave the guild without first transferring the site, though a transfer is preferred. When the owner/creator leaves the guild site, the site will be transferred to the most recently active site admin or the most recently active user if an admin is not designated. This should reduce the instances where a owner/creator chooses to delete the guild so they can leave it.
We feel that guild deletions have been abused too much by users who have deleted the guild site in order to punish the other users and we do not feel this should be allowed any longer. Guild deletions have been disabled going forward. All situations in which a guild might be deleted for a valid reason (changing name, game, server, subdomain, etc.) are now accounted for in other functionality and a guild deletion is not necessary for those cases.
Image Gallery Enhancements
We've reworked the automatic resizing here a bit. The first major change is that the thumbnails are no longer a fix width and height. Instead the image is resized to 145 pixels wide with whatever height is appropriate. This makes the thumbnails look a bit more natural.
Secondly, the existing midsize has been changed from 600 pixels to 575 pixels. This change was made because 575 pixels wide will fill up a news forum post without causing a horizontal scrollbar on all of our templates, if the browse is at least 1024 pixels wide which is our minimum fully supported resolution.
Thirdly, we've introduced another midsize that is 1024 pixels wide. This size is used for the lightbox popups.
Fourth, we've modified the gallery so that the average user who wants to browse images only need to use the gallery index page and the lightbox popups to view your uploaded images. A "details" link is provided to get to the midsize and other options. This should lead to a more enjoyable user experience.
New Image Handling BBCode
In this release we have integrated Lightbox http://www.lokeshdhakar.com/projects/lightbox2/ into various areas of the site. These include the new Kill on Sight area, the image gallery, and some new BBCode.
I've added the instructions for the upcoming BBCode additions in Version 4.6 to the BBCode FAQ. They include resizable images and an awesome lightbox popup image.
Resizable Image
- Code: Select all
[img align=left width=12 height=20]http://itcouldbenothing.com/fruitfly/images/afos.jpg[/img]
The width and height must be provided. Alignment must be provided also.
Image With Lightbox Popup
When a user clicks on this image they will get an image popup right on the screen without going anywhere. This is perfect for posting large kill shots on your homepage.
- Code: Select all
[imglb align=left width=12 height=20]http://itcouldbenothing.com/fruitfly/images/afos.jpg[/imglb]
The width and height must be provided. Alignment must be provided also.
User Incorrect Login & Password Resets
The pages related to incorrect logins and password resets are now fully contained within the guild site. So if a user enters a bad password into the top right login bar, they are presented with a page on your site telling them "You've used a bad login" instead of being directed to a page on the Guild Launch site. This should increase user continuity and make some of the page transitions less shocking for a user.
Certain forum login reminders and admin login reminders will still go to the primary guild launch site. These will be addressed in the next release.
Additional PMs for Guild Events
Users will now receive a PM when they are kicked from a guild, one of their characters is kicked from a guild or a guild is transfered to them. This should make users more informed of what is happening to their account, reducing the shock of certain things like no longer being in a guild. It should also reduce our support tickets for "OMGZ! I'm no longer in Xyz guild!" by making it more clear that it was an intentional admin action.
Character Class/Race Editing & Character Game/Server Editing
The character's full class and race info can now be edited for all games. To edit this info go to the Character Detail page and click the Update link next to the class and race info in the edit below for the character.
The character's game and server can now be changed also. To edit this info go to the Character Detail page and click the Update link next to the game and server info in the edit area below the character.
Custom Favorite Icons (favicon.ico)
Custom favorite icons can now be uploaded and used on your site. More info on how to do this is here: http://support.guildlaunch.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1112808
General Game Additions
* The White Lion icon is now available for Warhammer guilds.
* The Death Knight icon and class choice is now avaialable for WoW guilds.
* Barad GĂșlaran, Urugarth, Glingant, Ost Elendil, Naudh Valandil, Fornost, Great Barrow and Garth Agarwen have been added to the LOTRO raid progression widget.
General Enhancements
* Non DKP Admins can no longer see links in the menus for the items they can't use anyway
* The menu for Rapid Raid has been streamlined a bit. The functions have been grouped more logically and the menu items not available for non-admins will not be shown to non-admins.
* The Wiki edit button has been moved above the content. This will allow you to still edit the page if an error is made in the HTML that causes the page to render incorrectly.
Bug Fixes
* The leadrboard now properly accounts for Base GP.
* The progression widget has had some padding removed in certain templates making it look better.
Last edited by GL_Support on Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:02 pm; edited 2 times in total
ANNOUNCEMENT
We've had a few user reports of browser errors since this release:
Last edited by GL_Support on Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:10 pm; edited 2 times in total
We've had a few user reports of browser errors since this release:
Maraeni wrote:
We've confirmed this is an IE bug:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/927917
It's rather odd that we didn't find this in development. However, the bug seems to be caused sometimes by an interplay of multiple JavaScripts, so if a user has YouTube videos embedded or some HTML widget with something in it we didn't specifically test, then it might happen.
We're working on locating a solution.
Until then we've disable the lightbox functionality in IE. Which is a major bummer because it's very cool.
-Stephen
UPDATE: 10:00pm EST
I believe I have found a workaroundn for this IE issue and I will be testing it tomorrow and hopefully will release the workaround tomrrow.
it gives me an internet explorer error and the page wont open at all. Does that have anything to do with the new release?
We've confirmed this is an IE bug:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/927917
It's rather odd that we didn't find this in development. However, the bug seems to be caused sometimes by an interplay of multiple JavaScripts, so if a user has YouTube videos embedded or some HTML widget with something in it we didn't specifically test, then it might happen.
We're working on locating a solution.
Until then we've disable the lightbox functionality in IE. Which is a major bummer because it's very cool.
-Stephen
UPDATE: 10:00pm EST
I believe I have found a workaroundn for this IE issue and I will be testing it tomorrow and hopefully will release the workaround tomrrow.
Last edited by GL_Support on Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:10 pm; edited 2 times in total
The lightbox stuff appears to be working for me, but the PvP page gives me a "404 page cannot be found" error.
http://darkbreed.guildlaunch.com/pvp/teams/?gid=11543
We haven't used the PvP section at all, so is this a possible configuration problem?
Also, I can see the KOS widget here at the support site, but it's not showing on our site and I have both widgets enabled.
http://darkbreed.guildlaunch.com/pvp/teams/?gid=11543
We haven't used the PvP section at all, so is this a possible configuration problem?
Also, I can see the KOS widget here at the support site, but it's not showing on our site and I have both widgets enabled.
-Deja- wrote:
I've enabled the Lightbox functionality for non-IE browsers where it will work properly.
I fat fingered the URL and added an 's' to teams. When it is actually "team". That link should work now.
The KOS widgets won't display until you enter some KOS info on the KOS pages.
-Stephen
The lightbox stuff appears to be working for me, but the PvP page gives me a "404 page cannot be found" error.
http://darkbreed.guildlaunch.com/pvp/teams/?gid=11543
We haven't used the PvP section at all, so is this a possible configuration problem?
Also, I can see the KOS widget here at the support site, but it's not showing on our site and I have both widgets enabled.
http://darkbreed.guildlaunch.com/pvp/teams/?gid=11543
We haven't used the PvP section at all, so is this a possible configuration problem?
Also, I can see the KOS widget here at the support site, but it's not showing on our site and I have both widgets enabled.
I've enabled the Lightbox functionality for non-IE browsers where it will work properly.
I fat fingered the URL and added an 's' to teams. When it is actually "team". That link should work now.
The KOS widgets won't display until you enter some KOS info on the KOS pages.
-Stephen
Ah some more info for you. It appears you have to have the PvP section links enabled. The site navigation link at the top doesn't provide the links to PvP Teams or Kill on Sight which do exist in the section link in the top left.
Actually, Teams link now works from both places, so only the KOS one is only available via the section link now.
Actually, Teams link now works from both places, so only the KOS one is only available via the section link now.
-Deja- wrote:
I think that is as intended. The KOS area is a subsection of the PvP area. If you want to only use the KOS functionality you can deep link by getting the KOS start page URL and setting up a custom menu option.
Does that make sense?
-Stephen
Ah some more info for you. It appears you have to have the PvP section links enabled. The site navigation link at the top doesn't provide the links to PvP Teams or Kill on Sight which do exist in the section link in the top left.
Actually, Teams link now works from both places, so only the KOS one is only available via the section link now.
Actually, Teams link now works from both places, so only the KOS one is only available via the section link now.
I think that is as intended. The KOS area is a subsection of the PvP area. If you want to only use the KOS functionality you can deep link by getting the KOS start page URL and setting up a custom menu option.
Does that make sense?
-Stephen
GL_Support wrote:
Yes, and I think that's fine too. Thanks as always for the response!
-Deja- wrote:
I think that is as intended. The KOS area is a subsection of the PvP area. If you want to only use the KOS functionality you can deep link by getting the KOS start page URL and setting up a custom menu option.
Does that make sense?
-Stephen
Ah some more info for you. It appears you have to have the PvP section links enabled. The site navigation link at the top doesn't provide the links to PvP Teams or Kill on Sight which do exist in the section link in the top left.
Actually, Teams link now works from both places, so only the KOS one is only available via the section link now.
Actually, Teams link now works from both places, so only the KOS one is only available via the section link now.
I think that is as intended. The KOS area is a subsection of the PvP area. If you want to only use the KOS functionality you can deep link by getting the KOS start page URL and setting up a custom menu option.
Does that make sense?
-Stephen
Yes, and I think that's fine too. Thanks as always for the response!
scumgrief wrote:
That is fixed now.
-Stephen
When trying to set our wiki to member only content i received the following error 1214865604GLWEB101
thx
scum
thx
scum
That is fixed now.
-Stephen
Quote:
Just curious why 'stickies' are pruned. It would seem to me that a stickie would be passed over the auto prune. I'd like to use this feature, but I don't want to make everything an annoucement if I want it spared the axe.
Also, I get an error when I delete forum topics. The topic deletes sucessfully, but I always see this. I created a topic so I could pasted this error for you, so it is recreatable.
We've also added forum pruning. This allows you to remove all posts which have not been replied to in a given number of days. Forum pruning is a heavy handed option since it deletes posts without consideration for the quality of the initial post, but is very useful for forums like trade forums or general discussion forums that have limited value a long time after the initial post. Forum Pruning does not remove announcements but it will remove stickies. We recommend that user be careful with pruning. It's very easy to lose alot of posts you didn't intend to, so use it with care, the posts cannot be restored.
Just curious why 'stickies' are pruned. It would seem to me that a stickie would be passed over the auto prune. I'd like to use this feature, but I don't want to make everything an annoucement if I want it spared the axe.
Also, I get an error when I delete forum topics. The topic deletes sucessfully, but I always see this. I created a topic so I could pasted this error for you, so it is recreatable.
Quote:
Removed by Admin - Thanks for the Error Though
The auto prune of stickies will probably be removed in a 4.6.1 release tomorrow. We've had a few people say the same thing and it does make sense. That is just the default functionality of the phpBB mod we incorporated for this functionality.
That delete error is fixed. We overhauled the modcp page quite a bit and there was a typo.
-Stephen
That delete error is fixed. We overhauled the modcp page quite a bit and there was a typo.
-Stephen
Ristat wrote:
I think the widget caching isn't releasing when you add a new raid. I'll take a look and see if we can get a fix in tomorrow.
-Stephen
I am impressed with the changes - especially with the rapid raid grouping by classes. However, I just imported some new raid info, and I have noticed that the Rapid Raid widget has not updated the recently added items.
I think the widget caching isn't releasing when you add a new raid. I'll take a look and see if we can get a fix in tomorrow.
-Stephen