Guild Launch News
RELEASE: Version 4.4 - Stabilization and Bug Fixes and More
Good Morning Everyone,
I'm happy to announce the release of Guild Launch Version 4.4. This release is a refinement and stabilization release for the 4.X series. We've been working hard to increase overall quality and usability and this release does that and more. There are quite a large number of smaller fixes in here to address common questions we get in our support forums and via email and to streamline user interaction.
The next release will be 4.5 and we plan for it to contain more substantial feature additions. It is important for us to constantly improve existing functionality because refining and streamlining these features improves the product in ways that are less identifiable than a major feature, but no less important. With this release under our belt we're ready to move onto some new more substantial features in future releases.
Enjoy!
Stephen
Guild Launch Version 4.4
Major Feature Changes
Homepage Music
The homepage music page in the Admin area now includes an option to choose any MP3 that you have loaded in your file library. This means you only need to upload the MP3 and you can then select it on the homepage music page without needing to know the URL. In addition we have added Auto Play and Loop checkboxes to this page so that you can decide whether to Auto play the file and whether to have it loop. We have also added a "Remove Homepage Music" button instead of relying on the user to empty out the link. This makes the process for removing the music more clear.
Widget Organization
Widgets on the Sidebar widgets page are now grouped into categories. The categories are Guild Info, External Info, Voice, Raiding (DKP) and Miscellaneous. This should help people find a widget they want more easily and show the basic breakdown of widgets.
In addition, the widgets have been broken down by whether they are game specific or not. By default, widgets that are not for all games or for the game of the guild viewing the page are not shown. A link is available to show all widgets regardless of game. This change was made to allow people to focus on the large number of widgets that are available to them instead of getting hung up on the few widgets that may be for another game. Also, we've had people thinking that things like the Vana'Diel clock for FFXI was an actual clock, when in fact it is an in-game clock, and then reporting that the time is wrong.
Template Width
The original fixed width templates (gameWOW2, Zul'Aman and Green Hell) have been reduced in width by about 20 pixels. This is to make sure that the template displays properly at 1024 when the scrollbars are active. The previous width didn't take this into account. Newer fixed width templates, such as the Age of Conan ones, have been using this slightly smaller width since they were released, so no change was needed.
Next Gen Browser Fix (IE8, FF 3.0 RC1, etc.)
We've made a change to the CSS that should fix the site layouts in the next generation of browsers so that the content doesn't overlap the right side of the page and "break out" of the center column. There are still some very minor fixes that need to be made in other places, but they are far less sever and less impactful on usability.
Calendar Instance Icons & Event Layout
The calendar display has been reworked to have a more clean layout and to be more adaptable between events that have an icon and those that don't. NOTE: The time is now ABOVE the event, and the event name is indented instead of the other way around. We've introduced a seperator line between events to make the grouping of time->event more clear.
Those of you who weren't seeing an issue with the previous layout may scratch your heads a bit as to why we did this. The reason is that the previous layout worked really poorly in certain situations, whereas this layout is more consistent.
Enhancements
Template Tab In Admin
The organization of the menus on the left side of the Template tab in the admin area have been reorganized. They are now broken down more clearly into related activites. In addition, the template customization tasks as they get more involved or become more advanced are further down the menu. We hope this will allow users to more quickly find the task they are interested in and to give them a more natural progression into more advanced customization methods.
Header/Logo/Background/Flash Previews on Template Tab
These previews have been moved to the top of the page. This introduces a touch more vertical scrolling, but less horizontal scrolling, to the page but should make the page much more usable for people.
"Return To Template" Default Button
We've made the Return To Template Default buttons on the customization pages more noticeable by putting a button at the end of the forms on the page.
Profile Imports w/ Multiple Same Name Characters
The Warcraft profile import has been changed so that if multiple characters with the same name, on the same server are found then the importer will update all of them. Note that when this happens the update will take roughly twice as long because most of the work is done twice. Imports are fairly fast as it is, so the extra time probably won't be noticed.
Edit Members/Edit Characters Pages in Admin
These pages have had their titles and headers improved a bit to make the distinction between "Member" and "Character" more clear.
WoW Profile Upload Forms Made Context Sensitive
The WoW Character profile uploads forms have been made to display with a "Click here to display" link on non-wow sites and to display fully by default on WoW sites. Essentially, this is done to de-emphasize the WoW profiler upload forms on non-wow sites but to still make it available for multi-game guilds.
Remove All Unguilded Characters Option
There is now a button on the Character tab in admin that allows you to remove all of your unguilded characters. This should allow people to remove unclaimed characters more easily because you can now kick multiple unclaimed characters on the Admin character list, then use this new button to remove them from your account in one shot.
An addition to this change we've reorganized this page to show the user characters always above all unclaimed guild characters. This will make it easier to manage your own characters and to ignore the guild's unclaimed characters that are on the admin accounts for management purposes.
WoW Character Class Color Coding
The WoW Character class color coding was conflicting with certain templates. This color coding is now disabled in the templates where it was conflicting, which as of now is only the Pirates template. We explored using slightly different colors, but determined the color change would be too far from the in-game colors and would thus lose their meaning so it was better to just remove the coloring in those templates.
Quick Character List on User Profile Character Pages
The Quick Select list on the character profile pages has been modified to only show your claimed characters in the guild you are currently viewing. This change won't effect the vast majority of users, but will make the Quick Select list more usable for admins and people with unclaimed characters on their account for any reason.
Bug Fixes
* If a user does not pick a character on the recover character screen a nice message will now be shown instead of an error.
* The "Return to Template Default" link on the Header page wasn't returning all options to the default, this has been fixed.
* The linkbox cache wasn't being properly cleared when items were modified. This has been fixed.
* The tabs, on pages that have them, have been moved to be inside the content area. This will resolve issues where the background was showing through incorrectly. This makes the tabs look a bit different but we definitely feel the overall improvement is worth it.
* An extraneous table row that was accidentally introduced in the 4.0 release has been removed. This will make certain custom css modifications behave properly. In addition, though the effect wasn't really noticeable the table layout is now "just plain correct."
* The Avatar upload screen on the My User Page now correctly displays error messages if the file type is incorrect or an error is encountered during the upload or image resizing.
* The Claim column on the Character Roster is now sortable again.
* The minimum character level filter can now be turned on and off with the link at the bottom of the page.
* A fix has been made that will remove slashes "/" that appear in certain dropdowns and pages in rare cases.
I'm happy to announce the release of Guild Launch Version 4.4. This release is a refinement and stabilization release for the 4.X series. We've been working hard to increase overall quality and usability and this release does that and more. There are quite a large number of smaller fixes in here to address common questions we get in our support forums and via email and to streamline user interaction.
The next release will be 4.5 and we plan for it to contain more substantial feature additions. It is important for us to constantly improve existing functionality because refining and streamlining these features improves the product in ways that are less identifiable than a major feature, but no less important. With this release under our belt we're ready to move onto some new more substantial features in future releases.
Enjoy!
Stephen
Guild Launch Version 4.4
Major Feature Changes
Homepage Music
The homepage music page in the Admin area now includes an option to choose any MP3 that you have loaded in your file library. This means you only need to upload the MP3 and you can then select it on the homepage music page without needing to know the URL. In addition we have added Auto Play and Loop checkboxes to this page so that you can decide whether to Auto play the file and whether to have it loop. We have also added a "Remove Homepage Music" button instead of relying on the user to empty out the link. This makes the process for removing the music more clear.
Widget Organization
Widgets on the Sidebar widgets page are now grouped into categories. The categories are Guild Info, External Info, Voice, Raiding (DKP) and Miscellaneous. This should help people find a widget they want more easily and show the basic breakdown of widgets.
In addition, the widgets have been broken down by whether they are game specific or not. By default, widgets that are not for all games or for the game of the guild viewing the page are not shown. A link is available to show all widgets regardless of game. This change was made to allow people to focus on the large number of widgets that are available to them instead of getting hung up on the few widgets that may be for another game. Also, we've had people thinking that things like the Vana'Diel clock for FFXI was an actual clock, when in fact it is an in-game clock, and then reporting that the time is wrong.
Template Width
The original fixed width templates (gameWOW2, Zul'Aman and Green Hell) have been reduced in width by about 20 pixels. This is to make sure that the template displays properly at 1024 when the scrollbars are active. The previous width didn't take this into account. Newer fixed width templates, such as the Age of Conan ones, have been using this slightly smaller width since they were released, so no change was needed.
Next Gen Browser Fix (IE8, FF 3.0 RC1, etc.)
We've made a change to the CSS that should fix the site layouts in the next generation of browsers so that the content doesn't overlap the right side of the page and "break out" of the center column. There are still some very minor fixes that need to be made in other places, but they are far less sever and less impactful on usability.
Calendar Instance Icons & Event Layout
The calendar display has been reworked to have a more clean layout and to be more adaptable between events that have an icon and those that don't. NOTE: The time is now ABOVE the event, and the event name is indented instead of the other way around. We've introduced a seperator line between events to make the grouping of time->event more clear.
Those of you who weren't seeing an issue with the previous layout may scratch your heads a bit as to why we did this. The reason is that the previous layout worked really poorly in certain situations, whereas this layout is more consistent.
Enhancements
Template Tab In Admin
The organization of the menus on the left side of the Template tab in the admin area have been reorganized. They are now broken down more clearly into related activites. In addition, the template customization tasks as they get more involved or become more advanced are further down the menu. We hope this will allow users to more quickly find the task they are interested in and to give them a more natural progression into more advanced customization methods.
Header/Logo/Background/Flash Previews on Template Tab
These previews have been moved to the top of the page. This introduces a touch more vertical scrolling, but less horizontal scrolling, to the page but should make the page much more usable for people.
"Return To Template" Default Button
We've made the Return To Template Default buttons on the customization pages more noticeable by putting a button at the end of the forms on the page.
Profile Imports w/ Multiple Same Name Characters
The Warcraft profile import has been changed so that if multiple characters with the same name, on the same server are found then the importer will update all of them. Note that when this happens the update will take roughly twice as long because most of the work is done twice. Imports are fairly fast as it is, so the extra time probably won't be noticed.
Edit Members/Edit Characters Pages in Admin
These pages have had their titles and headers improved a bit to make the distinction between "Member" and "Character" more clear.
WoW Profile Upload Forms Made Context Sensitive
The WoW Character profile uploads forms have been made to display with a "Click here to display" link on non-wow sites and to display fully by default on WoW sites. Essentially, this is done to de-emphasize the WoW profiler upload forms on non-wow sites but to still make it available for multi-game guilds.
Remove All Unguilded Characters Option
There is now a button on the Character tab in admin that allows you to remove all of your unguilded characters. This should allow people to remove unclaimed characters more easily because you can now kick multiple unclaimed characters on the Admin character list, then use this new button to remove them from your account in one shot.
An addition to this change we've reorganized this page to show the user characters always above all unclaimed guild characters. This will make it easier to manage your own characters and to ignore the guild's unclaimed characters that are on the admin accounts for management purposes.
WoW Character Class Color Coding
The WoW Character class color coding was conflicting with certain templates. This color coding is now disabled in the templates where it was conflicting, which as of now is only the Pirates template. We explored using slightly different colors, but determined the color change would be too far from the in-game colors and would thus lose their meaning so it was better to just remove the coloring in those templates.
Quick Character List on User Profile Character Pages
The Quick Select list on the character profile pages has been modified to only show your claimed characters in the guild you are currently viewing. This change won't effect the vast majority of users, but will make the Quick Select list more usable for admins and people with unclaimed characters on their account for any reason.
Bug Fixes
* If a user does not pick a character on the recover character screen a nice message will now be shown instead of an error.
* The "Return to Template Default" link on the Header page wasn't returning all options to the default, this has been fixed.
* The linkbox cache wasn't being properly cleared when items were modified. This has been fixed.
* The tabs, on pages that have them, have been moved to be inside the content area. This will resolve issues where the background was showing through incorrectly. This makes the tabs look a bit different but we definitely feel the overall improvement is worth it.
* An extraneous table row that was accidentally introduced in the 4.0 release has been removed. This will make certain custom css modifications behave properly. In addition, though the effect wasn't really noticeable the table layout is now "just plain correct."
* The Avatar upload screen on the My User Page now correctly displays error messages if the file type is incorrect or an error is encountered during the upload or image resizing.
* The Claim column on the Character Roster is now sortable again.
* The minimum character level filter can now be turned on and off with the link at the bottom of the page.
* A fix has been made that will remove slashes "/" that appear in certain dropdowns and pages in rare cases.
Okay, I see that the fixed width is working, but in doing so I need to reduce the size of my image header.
When I upload a smaller version down to 990 pixels, it isn't showing up.
Is this a caching error on my end or is there some kind of problem w/ the upload that I'm butting my head up against?
When I upload a smaller version down to 990 pixels, it isn't showing up.
Is this a caching error on my end or is there some kind of problem w/ the upload that I'm butting my head up against?
Footsteps wrote:
It looks to me like your current header is an image header, and you have the "Show Logo" setting turned off. Are you sure you aren't uploading the new one as a logo?
Do you see the new 990 pixel image when you do the initial upload? The template page where you upload the header isn't cached.
-Stephen
Okay, I see that the fixed width is working, but in doing so I need to reduce the size of my image header.
When I upload a smaller version down to 990 pixels, it isn't showing up.
Is this a caching error on my end or is there some kind of problem w/ the upload that I'm butting my head up against?
When I upload a smaller version down to 990 pixels, it isn't showing up.
Is this a caching error on my end or is there some kind of problem w/ the upload that I'm butting my head up against?
It looks to me like your current header is an image header, and you have the "Show Logo" setting turned off. Are you sure you aren't uploading the new one as a logo?
Do you see the new 990 pixel image when you do the initial upload? The template page where you upload the header isn't cached.
-Stephen
Quote:
Is there anyway to turn this back?
Since the option to set the width when I created my site wasn't in place, I settled on one of the templates above to do this. I've gone out and customized my graphic header and menu bar based upon that 1024. Now, it looks terrible. Obviously I don't want to go back and re-do the art and code if there is an easy work around to re-set the width.
So the question... is there a way to re-set the width manually to 1024?
Template Width
The original fixed width templates (gameWOW2, Zul'Aman and Green Hell) have been reduced in width by about 20 pixels. This is to make sure that the template displays properly at 1024 when the scrollbars are active. The previous width didn't take this into account. Newer fixed width templates, such as the Age of Conan ones, have been using this slightly smaller width since they were released, so no change was needed.
The original fixed width templates (gameWOW2, Zul'Aman and Green Hell) have been reduced in width by about 20 pixels. This is to make sure that the template displays properly at 1024 when the scrollbars are active. The previous width didn't take this into account. Newer fixed width templates, such as the Age of Conan ones, have been using this slightly smaller width since they were released, so no change was needed.
Is there anyway to turn this back?
Since the option to set the width when I created my site wasn't in place, I settled on one of the templates above to do this. I've gone out and customized my graphic header and menu bar based upon that 1024. Now, it looks terrible. Obviously I don't want to go back and re-do the art and code if there is an easy work around to re-set the width.
So the question... is there a way to re-set the width manually to 1024?
GL_Support wrote:
I'm uploading the art to Header Customization: Image Header
I use an image header and no logo for the site currently.
When I upload the file, whether it be one of smaller size or even a new file that is visually different (have been using a version w/ the letters TEST written across it in red) the banner does not change in the Current Header window or in the Preview Site linked page.
Footsteps wrote:
It looks to me like your current header is an image header, and you have the "Show Logo" setting turned off. Are you sure you aren't uploading the new one as a logo?
Do you see the new 990 pixel image when you do the initial upload? The template page where you upload the header isn't cached.
-Stephen
Okay, I see that the fixed width is working, but in doing so I need to reduce the size of my image header.
When I upload a smaller version down to 990 pixels, it isn't showing up.
Is this a caching error on my end or is there some kind of problem w/ the upload that I'm butting my head up against?
When I upload a smaller version down to 990 pixels, it isn't showing up.
Is this a caching error on my end or is there some kind of problem w/ the upload that I'm butting my head up against?
It looks to me like your current header is an image header, and you have the "Show Logo" setting turned off. Are you sure you aren't uploading the new one as a logo?
Do you see the new 990 pixel image when you do the initial upload? The template page where you upload the header isn't cached.
-Stephen
I'm uploading the art to Header Customization: Image Header
I use an image header and no logo for the site currently.
When I upload the file, whether it be one of smaller size or even a new file that is visually different (have been using a version w/ the letters TEST written across it in red) the banner does not change in the Current Header window or in the Preview Site linked page.
Xaxius wrote:
Is there anyway to turn this back?
Since the option to set the width when I created my site wasn't in place, I settled on one of the templates above to do this. I've gone out and customized my graphic header and menu bar based upon that 1024. Now, it looks terrible. Obviously I don't want to go back and re-do the art and code if there is an easy work around to re-set the width.
So the question... is there a way to re-set the width manually to 1024?
The way we have it now is the way it should be going forward. The intent was to have fixed width templates that would sit in a 1024 browser, which they didn't.
Let me look into it though and see what we can do. I might be able to duplicate the two templates and make a "wide" version. If you can hang tight overnight I can come up with something that will work out for everybody by tomorrow.
btw, I don't think the header looks terrible at all. I understand it's not what you want, but it still looks good.
-Stephen
Is there anyway to turn this back?
Since the option to set the width when I created my site wasn't in place, I settled on one of the templates above to do this. I've gone out and customized my graphic header and menu bar based upon that 1024. Now, it looks terrible. Obviously I don't want to go back and re-do the art and code if there is an easy work around to re-set the width.
So the question... is there a way to re-set the width manually to 1024?
The way we have it now is the way it should be going forward. The intent was to have fixed width templates that would sit in a 1024 browser, which they didn't.
Let me look into it though and see what we can do. I might be able to duplicate the two templates and make a "wide" version. If you can hang tight overnight I can come up with something that will work out for everybody by tomorrow.
btw, I don't think the header looks terrible at all. I understand it's not what you want, but it still looks good.
-Stephen
Ignorant wrote:
Can you post this in the feature requests? This was just a miss when we launched that functionality.
-Stephen
I was wondering if there would be a way to add some info about a character on the screen besides just total health, total mana, and attack power. My priest doesn't really care about attack power but it would be nice to show +healing or something.
Can you post this in the feature requests? This was just a miss when we launched that functionality.
-Stephen
Woothdye wrote:
We killed the gopher you brought up and may have got him for good.
-Stephen
Did you manage to finally kill that poor gopher Stephen? or is it just hiding somewhere waiting to steal the flag on 18?
We killed the gopher you brought up and may have got him for good.
-Stephen
GL_Support wrote:
The way we have it now is the way it should be going forward. The intent was to have fixed width templates that would sit in a 1024 browser, which they didn't.
Let me look into it though and see what we can do. I might be able to duplicate the two templates and make a "wide" version. If you can hang tight overnight I can come up with something that will work out for everybody by tomorrow.
btw, I don't think the header looks terrible at all. I understand it's not what you want, but it still looks good.
-Stephen
I would be eternally grateful. Thank-you!
The way we have it now is the way it should be going forward. The intent was to have fixed width templates that would sit in a 1024 browser, which they didn't.
Let me look into it though and see what we can do. I might be able to duplicate the two templates and make a "wide" version. If you can hang tight overnight I can come up with something that will work out for everybody by tomorrow.
btw, I don't think the header looks terrible at all. I understand it's not what you want, but it still looks good.
-Stephen
I would be eternally grateful. Thank-you!
UPDATE on The Fixed Width Change:
I'm going to be reverting gameWoW3 and gameWoW4 (Green Hell) back to being 1024 pixels wide so it doesn't mess with existing templates and people's uploaded headers.
What I'm going to do to get the correct size templates is make a narrow version of both of those at the correct 990 pixels. This is a compromise because the template should be 990 pixels wide to begin with, but it will rock the boat less and isn't terribly difficult for us to implement.
Footsteps, I will manually update your site to the narrow version for you. So if you see it pop back to being a touch too wide rest assured it's just temporary while I make the update in the database and the cache clears.
-Stephen
UPDATE 5:13pm EST: This change is now complete. Enjoy!
I'm going to be reverting gameWoW3 and gameWoW4 (Green Hell) back to being 1024 pixels wide so it doesn't mess with existing templates and people's uploaded headers.
What I'm going to do to get the correct size templates is make a narrow version of both of those at the correct 990 pixels. This is a compromise because the template should be 990 pixels wide to begin with, but it will rock the boat less and isn't terribly difficult for us to implement.
Footsteps, I will manually update your site to the narrow version for you. So if you see it pop back to being a touch too wide rest assured it's just temporary while I make the update in the database and the cache clears.
-Stephen
UPDATE 5:13pm EST: This change is now complete. Enjoy!