Guild Launch News
Guild Launch - Version 6.0 Release Plan
Greetings Everyone,
Due to the scale of changes in the next release we have decided the release is worthy of a full point release. The next version of Guild Launch will be Version 6.0 instead of the previously announced 5.4. We are scheduling the Version 6.0 release of Guild Launch for Wednesday February 18th starting at 7:00am and running until 11:00am. This is an extra long downtime window. The reasons for it are explained below.
In addition to many of the changes outlined on our development blog we are also making significant changes to the method of storing guild uploaded files.
The file storage changes will require additional downtime on Release day. Due to this we will be scheduling a 4 hour downtime next Wednesday February 18th from 7:00am Eastern to 11:00am Eastern. We are confident that the updates will complete in this downtime window, but it is possible more time will be required.
This update is a significant update from a code perspective and while the file storage changes are being done in a way that will ultimately be transparent to users the changes are an important part of ensuring smooth growth and scalability of the Guild Launch Guild Management System for all of you as we move forward. We appreciate your understanding ahead of time about the extra downtime, but I'm confident that you all will agree this release is worth it.
Thanks,
Stephen
Version 6.0 TENTATIVE Release Notes
The following release notes are for features confirmed to be in this release. We have a few more things to add.
New Main Site Redesign
We have update the main Guild Launch site at http://www.guildlaunch.com/. The previouis design and layout met most of our needs and has provided a very good search engine ranking. We approached the new design as an opportunity to refresh the look of the site to a more modern and current look without making radical changes to the content. We've placed more emphasis on user testimonials and the new layout is more eye catching and modern. We're very proud of the end result.
Feature Additions
Forum & Login Bar Translations
All guilds and users can now set their preferred language. The preferred language for the guild will be used when a user is not logged in. If the user has set their own language that language will be used instead.
Currently we have translated the Forums and Login Bar into the following languages:
French
German
Russian
Spanish
English
We are planning to translate a new area of the site with each future release. The next section to be translated will be the guild application process.
If you find any translations that are incorrect please email them to us, preferably with the correct translation, to support@guildlaunch.com if you can include the incorrect translation it will help us track down what to replace.
New Guild Launch Profiler
A new version of the Guild Launch profiler is available. This is a required update as some of the export format has changed. This new mod collects achievement data and many more character stats and we've updated the character profile page to go along with it.
Last time we did a required update there was some update pain due to an old version being linked in a couple of places. We've removed those old links and we've removed the old file completely. This upgrade should be much smoother.
WoW Achievement Tracker
All WoW guilds now have an achievement tracker tab on their Roster Page. This page uses data gathered by the new Guild Launch profiler to track guild achievements. It lets you choose achievements to track guild wide also. You can then add the achievement tracker widget and any achievements you have set to track on the Achievement page will show there.
Admin Reorganization, Usability Upgrades, and Beautification Pass 2
Two releases ago we did a regorganization pass in the Admin area. The goal was to make certain tasks available right on the starting page and to present them using active verbiage rather than just listing them.
In Reorganization pass 2 we've removed some of the confusion between the content and the communication tab. We've done the following:
1. The starting page of the content tab is now a "Tasks" page that breaks down tasks available on the Content tab.
2. We've removed the "Communication" tab because we felt that the term "Communication" wasn't specific enough and that the options under there could be better addressed elsewhere.
3. The Admin options available on the Communications tab are now on the Content tab.
4. The Content tab is now the focus of anything Content related on the site that doesn't have it's own tab.
5. We've also removed the configuration options from the bottom of the content tab and moved them into more appropriate areas:
--- Permissions for uploading images to the library are now on the permissions tab
--- Permissions for uploading images to the library are now on the permissions tab
--- Options for whether users can add characters to the site are now on the permissions tab
--- General content options that were on the initial content tab are now on the Extended Site Configuration link under the "Content Settings" heading on the content tab.
6. The special section links (Who's Online & Guild Bank) are no longer configured on the Content tab. They are now configured directly on the section link configuration page. This will probably get some refinement again in the future, but the way that it is in this release already makes more sense.
We've also improved some of the instructions on various pages of the admin site.
There is now a "New Feature" section on the right of the starting page of the Admin area. This section will link to release announcements and other relevant announcements of new features or things we feel that guild admins need to know about.
Primary Navigation Links
The Primary Navigation links can now be edited. You can also point any link at an iFrame embed, the same window, or a new window. New iFrame embed links are now more easily editable because the Embed code will not be shown.
General Admin Styling
We've added styling to the buttons in admin to make the site more visually pleasing.
Forum Additions
You can now upload smilies to your File Library and then choose to add them to your simily set from the Smilies page on the forums tab in the admin area.
Users can now be set individually as moderators for a forum. At this time they will not show on the list of moderators, but they will have full moderation rights in all forums without being in a specific permissions group granted specific rights. This option is next to the Site Admin option. Site Admin is not required to be a Forum Moderator.
Ventrilo Order Options
You can now choose where you would like your server to be when you order it.
We expanded the options for reestablishing service after a cancellation (but before the service actually ends).
The Subscription page has been reworked a bit to detter display subscription status and options available on the page.
Site Customization Options
There is now a Forum Customization page under the General Customization option. This page provides quick access to the primary CSS tags that are used in the forum area. This will allow you to quickly modify the styling of your forum.
You can now set the width of any site to 4 predefined sizes. Auto Sizing (Fill the browser), 990 pixels, 1024 pixels, and 1280 pixels. We chose these predefined sizes because they work best with general web browser population screen sizes and they fit within Guild Launch standards for the minimum width of the site.
We've de-emphasized the old CSS Editor. This functionality never worked quite like we wanted. The link is still available for those of you using the functionality, but it is surrounded by warnings that the functionality is no longer in use so that new users will be less likely to use it. At this time we don't plan to fully remove the functionality, we're just de-emphasising it.
Rapid Raid Changes
Hourly DKP Events when "Enter As Seperate Events" is checked will now import with their time as the time the event occurred.
Raid Events can now have a Note attached to them. This feature is used to show "Hour 1", "Hour 2" on the Hourly DKP events. It can also be used by anyone who would like the event to show the standard event but to be able to add notes such as "Attempt 2" or "First Kill" or "Got Him to 1%" on the event.
The layout of the raid details page has been changed to deemphasize the item addition lines a bit more so that admins can focus on the content while still having the item addition features readily available.
The Raid Details page has had total DKP awarded and total DKP spent values added to the display.
The Raid Details has had it's display cleaned up a bit.
The minimum value config for Rapid Raid pools has been fixed to be more intuitive. Leaving the value blank will now enforce no minimums. Setting any non blank value will enforce the minimum entered. This is a fix for the prior treatment of 0 as no minimum. This behavior made no sense in Zero Sum systems where users are allowed to go negative and still bid on items. The new behavior just makes sense and most importantly is the correct behavior, but may require adjustment of your currently configured minimums.
The date ranges for "Last 30" and "Last 60" day attendance are now configurable. You can choose any number of days from 1 - 120 days.
Rapid Raid Attendance Report
There is a new advanced attendance report which has configurable and saveable columns for any criteria you enter. The columns can show event attendance data for a period of days, system lifetime, and character lifetime. This report is pretty slick and we think it is a fantastic addition.
Widget Changes
The site news can now be configured to only show the post titles and not the full contents of the post.
The raid progression widget can now have 10 or 25 man instances set to not display on the widget.
User Registration and Guild Creation
The User Registration and Guild Creation process have had Ajax form validation added to them so that users can get general notification of Guild Subdomain availability and Forum Name availability without submitting the page. This should reduce frustration with entering this info and finding them not available.
Primary Navigation Links
The usability of the primary navigation links editor has been improved significantly. We've reduced the link addition down to a single form with optional elements for embeds and images instead of different forms for each option. The new form will allow you to point a link at the same window (default), a new window, or to an embedded iFrame (same window only). We've added the ability to edit the link title, url, image URL, and target as well.
Section Links
The section link page has added functionality for the addition and removal of the Special Section Links (Who's Online & Guild Bank).
The section link page has been cleaned up a bit.
Itemstats
The ugly, "in your face" itemstats refresh icon has been replaced with a more pleasing, subtle icon.
Image Uploads
The quality of image upload resizing has been improved. This change was hotfixed a few weeks ago.
Warhammer Roster Imports
The correct permissions are now applied for Warhammer roster imports so that any guild member with All Member rights, Site Admin rights, or who is the Site Creator can import data from the in-game mod.
WoW Character Profiles
The profiler and the profile page have seen major enhancements. The new profiler tracks achievements and much more character specific stat information.
The new profile page now displays a full array of character stats.
Character Additions
The WoW profile upload form is now available at the bottom of the "Add New Character" screen.
* This was removed due to some quirkiness. We'll fix it and make changes in this area in a later release.
Raid Progression
Raid progression data has been added for:
Lotro
EQ2
Warhammer
Other Game Specific Updates
Lotro
We have added widgets for US and EU server status. The EU server status widget shows the server status page from Codemasters which shows all of the EU servers. The US widget uses another method that gets the server status for only the server your guild site is set to.
The Lotro server status widgets are slightly wider than our typical widgets. They are also 'borderless'. They have no title bar or frame. We've tested the look and usage in many different situations, but please let us know if this new widget style looks incorrect with any of the template and we'll look into it.
General Enhancements
* The Profile Updated column on the character roster now says "Updated" this is to allow for slightly more columns on the page without wrapping.
* Dropdown Fields in the Guild Application are now properly editable
* Navigation items on the primary nav are now editable. You have the full range of choices to edit. When the link is edited it becomes the equivalent of a user entered link. It's still recommended to use the default link form for default content.
* The number of Accepted and Rejected Applications is now shown on the Members tab recruiting navigation.
* Rapid Raid WoW imports will now add the items to an event even if there are no attendees. This may be confusing to some who are used to the old process, but it should make things a bit smoother in cases where there is an error in tracking attendees for a boss, but items were assigned.
Bug Fixes
* The file upload now warns you if you upload a file with a name longer than 200 characters.
* The forum signatures no longer incorrectly encode single quotes.
* Your login destination will now be remembered properly when you attempt to login using the header bar and are then taken to the site login screen due to an error.
* A bug causing attendance data to not display on the Character DKP page has been fixed
* A bug causing a character to link to it's ALT instead of it's main on the Leaderboard has been fixed.
* We've fixed an issue where the wrong language item hover would be shown for WoW items in cases where the Item ID was used.
Due to the scale of changes in the next release we have decided the release is worthy of a full point release. The next version of Guild Launch will be Version 6.0 instead of the previously announced 5.4. We are scheduling the Version 6.0 release of Guild Launch for Wednesday February 18th starting at 7:00am and running until 11:00am. This is an extra long downtime window. The reasons for it are explained below.
In addition to many of the changes outlined on our development blog we are also making significant changes to the method of storing guild uploaded files.
The file storage changes will require additional downtime on Release day. Due to this we will be scheduling a 4 hour downtime next Wednesday February 18th from 7:00am Eastern to 11:00am Eastern. We are confident that the updates will complete in this downtime window, but it is possible more time will be required.
This update is a significant update from a code perspective and while the file storage changes are being done in a way that will ultimately be transparent to users the changes are an important part of ensuring smooth growth and scalability of the Guild Launch Guild Management System for all of you as we move forward. We appreciate your understanding ahead of time about the extra downtime, but I'm confident that you all will agree this release is worth it.
Thanks,
Stephen
Version 6.0 TENTATIVE Release Notes
The following release notes are for features confirmed to be in this release. We have a few more things to add.
New Main Site Redesign
We have update the main Guild Launch site at http://www.guildlaunch.com/. The previouis design and layout met most of our needs and has provided a very good search engine ranking. We approached the new design as an opportunity to refresh the look of the site to a more modern and current look without making radical changes to the content. We've placed more emphasis on user testimonials and the new layout is more eye catching and modern. We're very proud of the end result.
Feature Additions
Forum & Login Bar Translations
All guilds and users can now set their preferred language. The preferred language for the guild will be used when a user is not logged in. If the user has set their own language that language will be used instead.
Currently we have translated the Forums and Login Bar into the following languages:
French
German
Russian
Spanish
English
We are planning to translate a new area of the site with each future release. The next section to be translated will be the guild application process.
If you find any translations that are incorrect please email them to us, preferably with the correct translation, to support@guildlaunch.com if you can include the incorrect translation it will help us track down what to replace.
New Guild Launch Profiler
A new version of the Guild Launch profiler is available. This is a required update as some of the export format has changed. This new mod collects achievement data and many more character stats and we've updated the character profile page to go along with it.
Last time we did a required update there was some update pain due to an old version being linked in a couple of places. We've removed those old links and we've removed the old file completely. This upgrade should be much smoother.
WoW Achievement Tracker
All WoW guilds now have an achievement tracker tab on their Roster Page. This page uses data gathered by the new Guild Launch profiler to track guild achievements. It lets you choose achievements to track guild wide also. You can then add the achievement tracker widget and any achievements you have set to track on the Achievement page will show there.
Admin Reorganization, Usability Upgrades, and Beautification Pass 2
Two releases ago we did a regorganization pass in the Admin area. The goal was to make certain tasks available right on the starting page and to present them using active verbiage rather than just listing them.
In Reorganization pass 2 we've removed some of the confusion between the content and the communication tab. We've done the following:
1. The starting page of the content tab is now a "Tasks" page that breaks down tasks available on the Content tab.
2. We've removed the "Communication" tab because we felt that the term "Communication" wasn't specific enough and that the options under there could be better addressed elsewhere.
3. The Admin options available on the Communications tab are now on the Content tab.
4. The Content tab is now the focus of anything Content related on the site that doesn't have it's own tab.
5. We've also removed the configuration options from the bottom of the content tab and moved them into more appropriate areas:
--- Permissions for uploading images to the library are now on the permissions tab
--- Permissions for uploading images to the library are now on the permissions tab
--- Options for whether users can add characters to the site are now on the permissions tab
--- General content options that were on the initial content tab are now on the Extended Site Configuration link under the "Content Settings" heading on the content tab.
6. The special section links (Who's Online & Guild Bank) are no longer configured on the Content tab. They are now configured directly on the section link configuration page. This will probably get some refinement again in the future, but the way that it is in this release already makes more sense.
We've also improved some of the instructions on various pages of the admin site.
There is now a "New Feature" section on the right of the starting page of the Admin area. This section will link to release announcements and other relevant announcements of new features or things we feel that guild admins need to know about.
Primary Navigation Links
The Primary Navigation links can now be edited. You can also point any link at an iFrame embed, the same window, or a new window. New iFrame embed links are now more easily editable because the Embed code will not be shown.
General Admin Styling
We've added styling to the buttons in admin to make the site more visually pleasing.
Forum Additions
You can now upload smilies to your File Library and then choose to add them to your simily set from the Smilies page on the forums tab in the admin area.
Users can now be set individually as moderators for a forum. At this time they will not show on the list of moderators, but they will have full moderation rights in all forums without being in a specific permissions group granted specific rights. This option is next to the Site Admin option. Site Admin is not required to be a Forum Moderator.
Ventrilo Order Options
You can now choose where you would like your server to be when you order it.
We expanded the options for reestablishing service after a cancellation (but before the service actually ends).
The Subscription page has been reworked a bit to detter display subscription status and options available on the page.
Site Customization Options
There is now a Forum Customization page under the General Customization option. This page provides quick access to the primary CSS tags that are used in the forum area. This will allow you to quickly modify the styling of your forum.
You can now set the width of any site to 4 predefined sizes. Auto Sizing (Fill the browser), 990 pixels, 1024 pixels, and 1280 pixels. We chose these predefined sizes because they work best with general web browser population screen sizes and they fit within Guild Launch standards for the minimum width of the site.
We've de-emphasized the old CSS Editor. This functionality never worked quite like we wanted. The link is still available for those of you using the functionality, but it is surrounded by warnings that the functionality is no longer in use so that new users will be less likely to use it. At this time we don't plan to fully remove the functionality, we're just de-emphasising it.
Rapid Raid Changes
Hourly DKP Events when "Enter As Seperate Events" is checked will now import with their time as the time the event occurred.
Raid Events can now have a Note attached to them. This feature is used to show "Hour 1", "Hour 2" on the Hourly DKP events. It can also be used by anyone who would like the event to show the standard event but to be able to add notes such as "Attempt 2" or "First Kill" or "Got Him to 1%" on the event.
The layout of the raid details page has been changed to deemphasize the item addition lines a bit more so that admins can focus on the content while still having the item addition features readily available.
The Raid Details page has had total DKP awarded and total DKP spent values added to the display.
The Raid Details has had it's display cleaned up a bit.
The minimum value config for Rapid Raid pools has been fixed to be more intuitive. Leaving the value blank will now enforce no minimums. Setting any non blank value will enforce the minimum entered. This is a fix for the prior treatment of 0 as no minimum. This behavior made no sense in Zero Sum systems where users are allowed to go negative and still bid on items. The new behavior just makes sense and most importantly is the correct behavior, but may require adjustment of your currently configured minimums.
The date ranges for "Last 30" and "Last 60" day attendance are now configurable. You can choose any number of days from 1 - 120 days.
Rapid Raid Attendance Report
There is a new advanced attendance report which has configurable and saveable columns for any criteria you enter. The columns can show event attendance data for a period of days, system lifetime, and character lifetime. This report is pretty slick and we think it is a fantastic addition.
Widget Changes
The site news can now be configured to only show the post titles and not the full contents of the post.
The raid progression widget can now have 10 or 25 man instances set to not display on the widget.
User Registration and Guild Creation
The User Registration and Guild Creation process have had Ajax form validation added to them so that users can get general notification of Guild Subdomain availability and Forum Name availability without submitting the page. This should reduce frustration with entering this info and finding them not available.
Primary Navigation Links
The usability of the primary navigation links editor has been improved significantly. We've reduced the link addition down to a single form with optional elements for embeds and images instead of different forms for each option. The new form will allow you to point a link at the same window (default), a new window, or to an embedded iFrame (same window only). We've added the ability to edit the link title, url, image URL, and target as well.
Section Links
The section link page has added functionality for the addition and removal of the Special Section Links (Who's Online & Guild Bank).
The section link page has been cleaned up a bit.
Itemstats
The ugly, "in your face" itemstats refresh icon has been replaced with a more pleasing, subtle icon.
Image Uploads
The quality of image upload resizing has been improved. This change was hotfixed a few weeks ago.
Warhammer Roster Imports
The correct permissions are now applied for Warhammer roster imports so that any guild member with All Member rights, Site Admin rights, or who is the Site Creator can import data from the in-game mod.
WoW Character Profiles
The profiler and the profile page have seen major enhancements. The new profiler tracks achievements and much more character specific stat information.
The new profile page now displays a full array of character stats.
Character Additions
* This was removed due to some quirkiness. We'll fix it and make changes in this area in a later release.
Raid Progression
Raid progression data has been added for:
Lotro
EQ2
Warhammer
Other Game Specific Updates
Lotro
We have added widgets for US and EU server status. The EU server status widget shows the server status page from Codemasters which shows all of the EU servers. The US widget uses another method that gets the server status for only the server your guild site is set to.
The Lotro server status widgets are slightly wider than our typical widgets. They are also 'borderless'. They have no title bar or frame. We've tested the look and usage in many different situations, but please let us know if this new widget style looks incorrect with any of the template and we'll look into it.
General Enhancements
* The Profile Updated column on the character roster now says "Updated" this is to allow for slightly more columns on the page without wrapping.
* Dropdown Fields in the Guild Application are now properly editable
* Navigation items on the primary nav are now editable. You have the full range of choices to edit. When the link is edited it becomes the equivalent of a user entered link. It's still recommended to use the default link form for default content.
* The number of Accepted and Rejected Applications is now shown on the Members tab recruiting navigation.
* Rapid Raid WoW imports will now add the items to an event even if there are no attendees. This may be confusing to some who are used to the old process, but it should make things a bit smoother in cases where there is an error in tracking attendees for a boss, but items were assigned.
Bug Fixes
* The file upload now warns you if you upload a file with a name longer than 200 characters.
* The forum signatures no longer incorrectly encode single quotes.
* Your login destination will now be remembered properly when you attempt to login using the header bar and are then taken to the site login screen due to an error.
* A bug causing attendance data to not display on the Character DKP page has been fixed
* A bug causing a character to link to it's ALT instead of it's main on the Leaderboard has been fixed.
* We've fixed an issue where the wrong language item hover would be shown for WoW items in cases where the Item ID was used.
Last edited by GL_Support on Tue Feb 17, 2009 10:40 am; edited 7 times in total
Vicki has just informed me that she is working AoC progression for this release. So it should be there tomorrow.
-Stephen
-Stephen
I am the leader of an alliance that uses Guild Launch. I was wondering if there was a way to set up an alliance-based website. Currently, we have our alliance set up as a guild, since there is no option for setting up an
alliance, with sub-areas for each guild... at least not that I'm aware of.
Do you have any suggestions for me? I'd appreciate your response.
Thanks.
Rick
alliance, with sub-areas for each guild... at least not that I'm aware of.
Do you have any suggestions for me? I'd appreciate your response.
Thanks.
Rick
MR.OLEN wrote:
Some more information would be helpful. Do you receive an error message? Are you clicking into the gallery and using the upload form?
also, it's helpful to post this sort of thing in the help forum instead of attached to a release announcement.
-Stephen
i cant post any pics on the gallery
Some more information would be helpful. Do you receive an error message? Are you clicking into the gallery and using the upload form?
also, it's helpful to post this sort of thing in the help forum instead of attached to a release announcement.
-Stephen
Ricard Ricardo wrote:
Alliance functionality is the next major feature set queued up after the release tomorrow.
-Stephen
I am the leader of an alliance that uses Guild Launch. I was wondering if there was a way to set up an alliance-based website. Currently, we have our alliance set up as a guild, since there is no option for setting up an
alliance, with sub-areas for each guild... at least not that I'm aware of.
Do you have any suggestions for me? I'd appreciate your response.
Thanks.
Rick
alliance, with sub-areas for each guild... at least not that I'm aware of.
Do you have any suggestions for me? I'd appreciate your response.
Thanks.
Rick
Alliance functionality is the next major feature set queued up after the release tomorrow.
-Stephen