Guild Launch News
RELEASE: Version 4.9 - PM & Gallery Updates & More
Version 4.9
Major Feature Changes
Private Messaging
The PM system has had a major overhaul:
1. We've improved the speed of the load times of the PM area significantly. The difference is night and day. We've been working on this over time in the course of a few releases making small changes to the PM system to support the database structure we need to make it more performant. This change was so important we've actually already released it to the live servers. The inbox and outbox now load as quickly as every other page.
2. You now have the ability to "Star" a message. This is so you can mark messages that you know you will want to reference at a later date. The starring is done with Ajax and requires no additional page loads.
3. You can now filter your messages by Read, UnRead, Starred and UnStarred.
4. You can now search for messages sent by a user. To maintain performance this search requires you use the first characters of their name, but it's still very useful.
5. Unread PMs are now highlighted with a dark blue color. This color is designed to stand out with any template. Once the message is read the background goes to a template specific color.
6. The PM editor now uses the WYSIWYG editor. The allowed HTML is restricted only to common formatting because we don't want people sending around JavaScript and embedding files for security reasons. However, you have full access to all of the common formatting, color, text size options that you need to format your PMs nicely and to make them stand out!
7. The "re:" line will now no longer go beyond 3 "re:"s. This means the message will go to "re: re: re: Subject" and only that far. All subsequent responses will just show the 3 "re:"s. This way you know it's a topic that has been bounced around a lot but the subject is still fully visible.
8. A message now appears when a PM is sent saying "Your PM has been sent". After about 3 seconds the message fades away.
9. The "New Mail" icon at the top right of the site has had some changes. The new mail icon is now animated so that it is more eye catching. In addition, the "0" has been removed when you have no messages. This makes it more obvious when messages do appear since extra visual information appears in the Header Bar. I know people have asked for more "aggressive" PM notification, but we feel a more conservative apprach should be tried before making any radical changes.
10. The block and report links have been moved closer to the sender's name and made into icons. This deemphasizes them, but still makes them readily available for use. This should keep people from mistaking them for the reply button or otherwise hitting them accidentally.
Image Gallery
The image gallery has been streamlined and organized better. The image gallery now uses a more traditional gallery navigation where the galleries are displayed on the inital page and you can drill down. Clicking on an image in the Gallery will bring it up in a Lightbox popup, you can then click the 'Previous' and 'Next' links to quickly navigate the gallery.
Enhancements
Game Override Options on Guild Roster
This feature is currently only usable by advanced users, but it's something we wanted to make available.
You can now filter your roster by game type by adding "&specific_game=41" to the roster URL. We will be publishing a list of game IDs later today.
Warhammer Template
A New Warhammer Template is availble: Warhammer Skull
This template is a rich red with a dark background and some recognizable Warhammer iconography.
Splotlight Guild
We have some new Featured and Spotlight guilds as well!
Dynasty is our October spotlight guild.
You can see the top guild info here: http://launchpad.guildlaunch.com/tools/top_guilds.php
Warcraft Server Status
EU Servers are Now Supported
Performance Enhancements
Though they are not directly shown in the release notes above we have made noticeable improvements to site performance over the last few weeks. These changes may not make every page load faster, but they make page loads much more consistent and are critically important for user experience.
Coming Up Next...
Later in the week we will release Guild Roster imports for Warhammer. Also, we will be upgrading some database hardware in the next couple of weeks.
Enjoy!
Stephen
Major Feature Changes
Private Messaging
The PM system has had a major overhaul:
1. We've improved the speed of the load times of the PM area significantly. The difference is night and day. We've been working on this over time in the course of a few releases making small changes to the PM system to support the database structure we need to make it more performant. This change was so important we've actually already released it to the live servers. The inbox and outbox now load as quickly as every other page.
2. You now have the ability to "Star" a message. This is so you can mark messages that you know you will want to reference at a later date. The starring is done with Ajax and requires no additional page loads.
3. You can now filter your messages by Read, UnRead, Starred and UnStarred.
4. You can now search for messages sent by a user. To maintain performance this search requires you use the first characters of their name, but it's still very useful.
5. Unread PMs are now highlighted with a dark blue color. This color is designed to stand out with any template. Once the message is read the background goes to a template specific color.
6. The PM editor now uses the WYSIWYG editor. The allowed HTML is restricted only to common formatting because we don't want people sending around JavaScript and embedding files for security reasons. However, you have full access to all of the common formatting, color, text size options that you need to format your PMs nicely and to make them stand out!
7. The "re:" line will now no longer go beyond 3 "re:"s. This means the message will go to "re: re: re: Subject" and only that far. All subsequent responses will just show the 3 "re:"s. This way you know it's a topic that has been bounced around a lot but the subject is still fully visible.
8. A message now appears when a PM is sent saying "Your PM has been sent". After about 3 seconds the message fades away.
9. The "New Mail" icon at the top right of the site has had some changes. The new mail icon is now animated so that it is more eye catching. In addition, the "0" has been removed when you have no messages. This makes it more obvious when messages do appear since extra visual information appears in the Header Bar. I know people have asked for more "aggressive" PM notification, but we feel a more conservative apprach should be tried before making any radical changes.
10. The block and report links have been moved closer to the sender's name and made into icons. This deemphasizes them, but still makes them readily available for use. This should keep people from mistaking them for the reply button or otherwise hitting them accidentally.
Image Gallery
The image gallery has been streamlined and organized better. The image gallery now uses a more traditional gallery navigation where the galleries are displayed on the inital page and you can drill down. Clicking on an image in the Gallery will bring it up in a Lightbox popup, you can then click the 'Previous' and 'Next' links to quickly navigate the gallery.
Enhancements
Game Override Options on Guild Roster
This feature is currently only usable by advanced users, but it's something we wanted to make available.
You can now filter your roster by game type by adding "&specific_game=41" to the roster URL. We will be publishing a list of game IDs later today.
Warhammer Template
A New Warhammer Template is availble: Warhammer Skull
This template is a rich red with a dark background and some recognizable Warhammer iconography.
Splotlight Guild
We have some new Featured and Spotlight guilds as well!
Dynasty is our October spotlight guild.
You can see the top guild info here: http://launchpad.guildlaunch.com/tools/top_guilds.php
Warcraft Server Status
EU Servers are Now Supported
Performance Enhancements
Though they are not directly shown in the release notes above we have made noticeable improvements to site performance over the last few weeks. These changes may not make every page load faster, but they make page loads much more consistent and are critically important for user experience.
Coming Up Next...
Later in the week we will release Guild Roster imports for Warhammer. Also, we will be upgrading some database hardware in the next couple of weeks.
Enjoy!
Stephen
Last edited by GL_Support on Wed Oct 08, 2008 10:47 am; edited 1 time in total