Guild Launch News
Version 6.1 - Sneak Peak Release Notes
Greetings Everyone,
We're now putting the finishing touches on Version 6.1. This release is planned for this or next Wednesday depending on how it clears final testing. I wanted to post the release notes ahead of time since it's a big release with alot of good functionality, and since it will require a touch of extra downtime.
This release will require a bit of extra downtime due to some database indexes that need to be changed on the day it is released, so we are announcing a 2 hour downtime for Wednesday, March 25th. The downtime will being an hour earlier at 7:00am Eastern and go until 9:00am Eastern. I do not epxect to need the full two hours, but I'm giving some extra padding to what we announce to be safe.
The 7:00am start time will also be our weekly hourly downtime window going forward.
Enjoy!
Stephen
Version 6.1 - Release Notes
This release is planned for Wednesday, March 25th
Major Features
Public Posting
Public forums now present a CAPTCHA to users who are not logged in. This is to prevent bots from posting in Public forums, while allowing users to post on your forums without a Guild Launch account.
Admins have the ability to not allow users without an account to post at all. This setting is per forum and is on the Guest Posting settings page on the Forum admin tab.
Guild Site Alliances
Guilds can create a shared member base 'Alliance Site' as well as use a special link list widget to add alliance members that are not on Guild Launch. More info can be found here:
http://support.guildlaunch.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2413110
In essence the new functionality allows you to create a site for the Alliance and to then have other guild site's become "Member Sites" of that Alliance site. Any site which is a member of an alliance will have it's users automatically added to the Alliance site. When a user is kicked from a Member Site, they will be removed from the Alliance site.
We have additional Alliance functionality (Alliance Most Recent Post Widget and more) planned for the next few releases.
Characters in Multiple Guilds
Characters now have a 'Change Character Guild Site Membership' link to the right of the character on the Character tab of your user profile.
A character can now be added to multiple guild site's rosters. This way you can use the same character on your guild's site and on an Alliance site or for any other reason you may want to do this. A character must have a 'primary' guild site selected as the Guild that shows on the character's profile.
Rapid Raid
Raid Details
The Raid Details page has been completely overhauled. You can see a video of it in action below. The video is a little out of date, we've made some additional changes, but it shows the core functionality that we've added.
In addition we've moved the Signup, Add Event, and other options to the right of the page to make them more readily available.
Also, when a raid is initially created invalid options are no longer shown and if the raid is empty the user is directed to Add an Event so they can track boss kills and add items.
Event Types Pages
The event types page has also had some fundamental reworking. We've removed the confusing multiple checkboxes for which pool the event is active in. We've replaced that functionality with two settings per event:
1. Is it "Globally Active". The globally active setting is now a quick way to retire an event from all pools.
2. There is now an 'Active in this Pool' option. This option determines whether the event is shown on this pool's dropdowns for raid events and whether it shows by default on the Event list.
By default, the page will show only events that are active in the current pool. An Admin can click the link to show inactive events and choose whether to make the event active in the pool and/or globally active.
Making an event active in a pool will make it globally active if it is not already, but only events which are active in a pool will show on that pool's dropdowns.
These changes should make this page much more clearly show what it's intended purpose is.
General Enhancements
Guild Banks
Guild Banks for all games have been updated and made to work a bit better. An option to remove a single item from a stack has been added.
Wow Guild Banks now display the list of bags available and allow you to navigate between them.
We have more upgrades for Guild Banks coming in the next few releases.
Forum Enhancements
Users will now be sent to your site's login page if a login is required in the forums instead of the primary guild launch login page. This will keep users on your site more and be less of a "shock" when they get sent somewhere else to login.
Your last login is now tracked more granularly. This means that if you go from one site to another the View Recent Posts list should not clear out when you switch sites.
Widget Enhancements
Widgets can now be set to show for Non-Members only in addition to the current "Anyone" and "Member Only" settings.
The default "Apply to Guild" location can now be disabled. In it's place you can add a customizable widget from the Widget's page.
The RSS widget is now better formatted and more consistently formatted amongst the various RSS widgets. The resulting widget is a touch longer since it has more spacing, but the result is a much more readable and usable widget.
Itemstats Enhancements
AOC Itemstats
When new items are added or the items are refreshed we will be pulling AOC itemstats from http://aoc.yg.com.
LoTRO Itemstats
When new items are added or the items are refreshed we will be pulling LoTRO itemstats info from http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Lorebook_home.
In both of these cases the new item info sources include icons, so the Raid Widget and other places that use the icon will look better.
WYSIWYG Enhancements
We have upgraded the WYSIWYG to the most recent version available.
In addition, the WYSIWYG will now show the default template background in the WYSIYWG instead of a white background. This should work better for 95% of you. If you've edited your site heavily the colors may not work for you. We're working on a solution for this.
Character List Changes
In general, the character tab on your user profile has been reworked a bit. Unguilded characters are displayed in the same way as guilded characters, just in a seperate section. If you are a guild site admin and have unclaimed characters on your account from an import they are now displayed only when you click the 'Unclaimed Character' link. The character import page is now more readily visible and easier to find.
Rapid Raid
The Rapid Raid "Add Raid" screen no longer shows invalid options when editing a raid.
The Adjustments page now shows "N/A" for adjustments that had no effect (e.g. -10% of 0) instead of 'Unknown'.
The 'Add Raid' page will no longer list deactivated pools.
The Rapid Raid menus have been cleaned up a bit.
Imports will now use the price list for any item without a price.
The Upcoming and Past raid list now show the users local time for the raid on the Hover for the guild time date.
The event types page now has repeating headings so it is easier to tell what you are editing.
WoW Roster Imports
Imports from the mod that contain two similar named character where the only difference is an accented character will no longer update the level incorrectly.
Warhammer
EU Warhammer server status is now available.
Site Upgrade Options
Ad-Supported sites now have an upgrade link to the top left of the page. This is to make the upgrade path more clear.
Also, anyone can now upgrade a site. If they are not the Admin they are notified very clearly that they will be *donating* service to the guild site and not taking over the site.
Performance Improvements
External Script Loads
* We've changed the WoWHead and WarDB scripts to be loaded immediatley after the page has loaded. This will not change the total time a page needs to render but will definitely change the perception of the total time since the main page content will load prior to thos external scripts. This will mean that you all will perceive the page as loading a quarter second earlier or so.
* This also means that if WarDB is down the page loads will not suffer nearly as much.
Secondary Domains for Static Files
* We've moved almost all of our Javascript files to our secondary js1.guildlaunch.net domain.
* We've moved almost all of our Image and CSS files to our secondary image1.guildlaunch.net domain.
* The net effect of this change is that your browsers will perform more parallel downloads. Also, cookies for the guildlaunch.com domain will not be sent to this domain. This should speed up page loads all around. If you are oversees this may speed up page loads drastically.
Bug Fixes
Version 6.1 will also include a new version of the Guild Launch Profiler. This version is to support the changes to ensure that all achievements are tracked properly.
* Warhammer guild ranks that are imported can now be deleted.
* WoW guilds that have a 10th in-game rank that was undeletable and not used because WoW's ranks start at 0 can now delete that rank if they aren't using it.
* Polls will now display all of their options when you reload them.
* Missing achievements will now import properly.
* Guild Application rejections are now cleared from your Guilds tab on your profile automatically. The PM will serve as the notification.
* Users with 'Content' admin permissions can now edit any widget that they can add to the site.
* A bug related to navigation from one pool to another on the event types page is now fixed. Navigation won't jump from one pool to another now
We're now putting the finishing touches on Version 6.1. This release is planned for this or next Wednesday depending on how it clears final testing. I wanted to post the release notes ahead of time since it's a big release with alot of good functionality, and since it will require a touch of extra downtime.
This release will require a bit of extra downtime due to some database indexes that need to be changed on the day it is released, so we are announcing a 2 hour downtime for Wednesday, March 25th. The downtime will being an hour earlier at 7:00am Eastern and go until 9:00am Eastern. I do not epxect to need the full two hours, but I'm giving some extra padding to what we announce to be safe.
The 7:00am start time will also be our weekly hourly downtime window going forward.
Enjoy!
Stephen
Version 6.1 - Release Notes
This release is planned for Wednesday, March 25th
Major Features
Public Posting
Public forums now present a CAPTCHA to users who are not logged in. This is to prevent bots from posting in Public forums, while allowing users to post on your forums without a Guild Launch account.
Admins have the ability to not allow users without an account to post at all. This setting is per forum and is on the Guest Posting settings page on the Forum admin tab.
Guild Site Alliances
Guilds can create a shared member base 'Alliance Site' as well as use a special link list widget to add alliance members that are not on Guild Launch. More info can be found here:
http://support.guildlaunch.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2413110
In essence the new functionality allows you to create a site for the Alliance and to then have other guild site's become "Member Sites" of that Alliance site. Any site which is a member of an alliance will have it's users automatically added to the Alliance site. When a user is kicked from a Member Site, they will be removed from the Alliance site.
We have additional Alliance functionality (Alliance Most Recent Post Widget and more) planned for the next few releases.
Characters in Multiple Guilds
Characters now have a 'Change Character Guild Site Membership' link to the right of the character on the Character tab of your user profile.
A character can now be added to multiple guild site's rosters. This way you can use the same character on your guild's site and on an Alliance site or for any other reason you may want to do this. A character must have a 'primary' guild site selected as the Guild that shows on the character's profile.
Rapid Raid
Raid Details
The Raid Details page has been completely overhauled. You can see a video of it in action below. The video is a little out of date, we've made some additional changes, but it shows the core functionality that we've added.
Watch more video games and play free games at WeGame.
In addition we've moved the Signup, Add Event, and other options to the right of the page to make them more readily available.
Also, when a raid is initially created invalid options are no longer shown and if the raid is empty the user is directed to Add an Event so they can track boss kills and add items.
Event Types Pages
The event types page has also had some fundamental reworking. We've removed the confusing multiple checkboxes for which pool the event is active in. We've replaced that functionality with two settings per event:
1. Is it "Globally Active". The globally active setting is now a quick way to retire an event from all pools.
2. There is now an 'Active in this Pool' option. This option determines whether the event is shown on this pool's dropdowns for raid events and whether it shows by default on the Event list.
By default, the page will show only events that are active in the current pool. An Admin can click the link to show inactive events and choose whether to make the event active in the pool and/or globally active.
Making an event active in a pool will make it globally active if it is not already, but only events which are active in a pool will show on that pool's dropdowns.
These changes should make this page much more clearly show what it's intended purpose is.
General Enhancements
Guild Banks
Guild Banks for all games have been updated and made to work a bit better. An option to remove a single item from a stack has been added.
Wow Guild Banks now display the list of bags available and allow you to navigate between them.
We have more upgrades for Guild Banks coming in the next few releases.
Forum Enhancements
Users will now be sent to your site's login page if a login is required in the forums instead of the primary guild launch login page. This will keep users on your site more and be less of a "shock" when they get sent somewhere else to login.
Your last login is now tracked more granularly. This means that if you go from one site to another the View Recent Posts list should not clear out when you switch sites.
Widget Enhancements
Widgets can now be set to show for Non-Members only in addition to the current "Anyone" and "Member Only" settings.
The default "Apply to Guild" location can now be disabled. In it's place you can add a customizable widget from the Widget's page.
The RSS widget is now better formatted and more consistently formatted amongst the various RSS widgets. The resulting widget is a touch longer since it has more spacing, but the result is a much more readable and usable widget.
Itemstats Enhancements
AOC Itemstats
When new items are added or the items are refreshed we will be pulling AOC itemstats from http://aoc.yg.com.
LoTRO Itemstats
When new items are added or the items are refreshed we will be pulling LoTRO itemstats info from http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Lorebook_home.
In both of these cases the new item info sources include icons, so the Raid Widget and other places that use the icon will look better.
WYSIWYG Enhancements
We have upgraded the WYSIWYG to the most recent version available.
In addition, the WYSIWYG will now show the default template background in the WYSIYWG instead of a white background. This should work better for 95% of you. If you've edited your site heavily the colors may not work for you. We're working on a solution for this.
Character List Changes
In general, the character tab on your user profile has been reworked a bit. Unguilded characters are displayed in the same way as guilded characters, just in a seperate section. If you are a guild site admin and have unclaimed characters on your account from an import they are now displayed only when you click the 'Unclaimed Character' link. The character import page is now more readily visible and easier to find.
Rapid Raid
The Rapid Raid "Add Raid" screen no longer shows invalid options when editing a raid.
The Adjustments page now shows "N/A" for adjustments that had no effect (e.g. -10% of 0) instead of 'Unknown'.
The 'Add Raid' page will no longer list deactivated pools.
The Rapid Raid menus have been cleaned up a bit.
Imports will now use the price list for any item without a price.
The Upcoming and Past raid list now show the users local time for the raid on the Hover for the guild time date.
The event types page now has repeating headings so it is easier to tell what you are editing.
WoW Roster Imports
Imports from the mod that contain two similar named character where the only difference is an accented character will no longer update the level incorrectly.
Warhammer
EU Warhammer server status is now available.
Site Upgrade Options
Ad-Supported sites now have an upgrade link to the top left of the page. This is to make the upgrade path more clear.
Also, anyone can now upgrade a site. If they are not the Admin they are notified very clearly that they will be *donating* service to the guild site and not taking over the site.
Performance Improvements
External Script Loads
* We've changed the WoWHead and WarDB scripts to be loaded immediatley after the page has loaded. This will not change the total time a page needs to render but will definitely change the perception of the total time since the main page content will load prior to thos external scripts. This will mean that you all will perceive the page as loading a quarter second earlier or so.
* This also means that if WarDB is down the page loads will not suffer nearly as much.
Secondary Domains for Static Files
* We've moved almost all of our Javascript files to our secondary js1.guildlaunch.net domain.
* We've moved almost all of our Image and CSS files to our secondary image1.guildlaunch.net domain.
* The net effect of this change is that your browsers will perform more parallel downloads. Also, cookies for the guildlaunch.com domain will not be sent to this domain. This should speed up page loads all around. If you are oversees this may speed up page loads drastically.
Bug Fixes
Version 6.1 will also include a new version of the Guild Launch Profiler. This version is to support the changes to ensure that all achievements are tracked properly.
* Warhammer guild ranks that are imported can now be deleted.
* WoW guilds that have a 10th in-game rank that was undeletable and not used because WoW's ranks start at 0 can now delete that rank if they aren't using it.
* Polls will now display all of their options when you reload them.
* Missing achievements will now import properly.
* Guild Application rejections are now cleared from your Guilds tab on your profile automatically. The PM will serve as the notification.
* Users with 'Content' admin permissions can now edit any widget that they can add to the site.
* A bug related to navigation from one pool to another on the event types page is now fixed. Navigation won't jump from one pool to another now
Last edited by GL_Support on Tue Mar 24, 2009 1:16 pm; edited 6 times in total
The Alliance functionality is definitely the core of this release. We've put a ton of brain power into our strategy for Alliances and Multi-Game guilds. Mike and I have spent alot of time running through uses and scenarios to make sure we release a very usable, functional and powerful Alliance feature set.
This release contains the core functionality of creating and managing the member guilds. We'll be releasing the functionality over the next few releases specifically for Alliances as well as multi-game guilds. There will be a rapid evolution of this functionality in a lot of interesting ways.
-Stephen
This release contains the core functionality of creating and managing the member guilds. We'll be releasing the functionality over the next few releases specifically for Alliances as well as multi-game guilds. There will be a rapid evolution of this functionality in a lot of interesting ways.
-Stephen
Ohnoto wrote:
The Alliance site is a distinct site. So it's subscription is seperate. You have the ability to convert a current site into an Alliance site. you don't get a totally seperate and distinct site and you don't need a seperate and distinct subscription.
So, you have the option of not having a second subscription if you don't create a seperate site. We're looking into a reduced feature subscription option for Alliance sites, but haven't settled on anything at this time.
-Stephen
If one or all of the "Member Sites" is ad-free, will the "Alliance Site" be ad-free also or do you have to pay for that one also?
Also, when an alliance site is created, does it look just like a brand new guild site?
Also, when an alliance site is created, does it look just like a brand new guild site?
The Alliance site is a distinct site. So it's subscription is seperate. You have the ability to convert a current site into an Alliance site. you don't get a totally seperate and distinct site and you don't need a seperate and distinct subscription.
So, you have the option of not having a second subscription if you don't create a seperate site. We're looking into a reduced feature subscription option for Alliance sites, but haven't settled on anything at this time.
-Stephen
Crowbar wrote:
I'm hoping to include this in the next release.
-Stephen
I apoligize if I missed it but I did not see anything for multiple guild
applications or the application question drop downs that were mentioned
a weeks back.
applications or the application question drop downs that were mentioned
a weeks back.
I'm hoping to include this in the next release.
-Stephen
I am looking forward to the upcoming release.
Something I have always disliked about out of game raid signups is that you are still required to tab back and forth between the list and in game to see who is on and who isn't. Is there anyway around this to see who is online and who isn't at the start time of a raid from the guild website?
Something I have always disliked about out of game raid signups is that you are still required to tab back and forth between the list and in game to see who is on and who isn't. Is there anyway around this to see who is online and who isn't at the start time of a raid from the guild website?
mojophone wrote:
Not that I know of. We've gotten some other feedback related to this though and we have some ideas on how to make it easier.
-Stephen
Something I have always disliked about out of game raid signups is that you are still required to tab back and forth between the list and in game to see who is on and who isn't. Is there anyway around this to see who is online and who isn't at the start time of a raid from the guild website?
Not that I know of. We've gotten some other feedback related to this though and we have some ideas on how to make it easier.
-Stephen
Dantec wrote:
Testing is looking good, so barring any suprises it's tomorrow March 25th.
-Stephen
Any word yet if it will hit tomorrow or the 1st?
Testing is looking good, so barring any suprises it's tomorrow March 25th.
-Stephen
DazzKK wrote:
EPGP is already quite easy to upload in some respects. Do you mean uploads from the EPGP mod? We're looking into allowing some forms of "raw" DKP uploads, but it's not in this release.
-Stephen
I was just curious if this update will allow easier uploading of EPGP? Or have I missed something on the forums - sorry if this reply turns out to be stupid
EPGP is already quite easy to upload in some respects. Do you mean uploads from the EPGP mod? We're looking into allowing some forms of "raw" DKP uploads, but it's not in this release.
-Stephen
Last edited by GL_Support on Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:29 am; edited 1 time in total