Saxperience Community Update - v3.8

[Simop]

In preparation for the Saxperience Server Upgrade, which is scheduled for early this coming week, the Saxperience forum and blog code has been upgraded, along with a few additional tweeks.

The intention is to ensure all is stable before switching everything over to the new server in a couple of days time. If you've not already spotted the new features yet, here's a taster of 'some' of the changes: -


Social Group Discussion Threads

* Messages in Social Groups are now threaded into 'Social Group Discussions'.
* Discussion are sortable by creator, replies and last post.
* Discussions can be filtered with a simple full text search on titles.
* Discussions can be managed with Inline Moderation to soft delete, physically remove, approve and unnapprove them.
* Discussions are Read Marked using both database and cookie methods, with a jump to go to first new post.
* Users can subscribe to discussions and receive email notifications on new messages.
* Subscribed discussions with new posts are aggregated in the User CP.
* Individual Discussions have social bookmarking links (user defined, such as Digg, StumbleUpon etc).
* New 'Can Always' permissions to create and view both discussions and messages, simplifying access.
* Fallbacks implemented for non javascript users.
* Moderators can Quick Edit social group messages using AJAX.
* Posts are now ascending, which is more intuitive in threaded discussions.
* Users can configure their groups so that only the group owner can create new discussion threads.
* Moderated and Deleted discussions are aggregated in the User CP where the user has moderator permissions.
* Moderation permissions are seperated for discussions and threads, including deletion.
* Some extra database cleanup is performed with discussion related data when a user is merged or deleted.
* Social Group info is hidden when entering a discussion or viewing pages of results to move focus to discussions.


Social Group Changes

* Social Groups are Read Marked using both database and cookie methods, based on new messages or discussions.
* Mark All will read mark all discussions in a group via AJAX.
* Social Groups can be subscribed to, adding group aggregation to the User CP.
* Social Groups now belong to a category.
* A group's category is displayed in the navigation breadcrumb, group lists and group info.
* A new overview page displays a random group, your groups, new groups and groups that you created.
* Groups that you created are navigatable via AJAX and display further information about the group, including pending members and moderated items.
* A category cloud is displayed in the group overview with popularity weighting based on the number of groups.
* Categories can be created and deleted and merged in the Admin CP.
* Groups can be filtered by category, via the category cloud or advanced search.
* Social Groups can now have a group icon. The icon is displayed in the group info, and a thumbnail version is used in group listings.
* Icons are displayed on the User Profile page for groups that the user is a member of.
* Permissions control user abilities to upload icons for their groups, including file size and the ability to upload animated icons.
* A new permission can limit the amount of Social Groups an individual user can create.
* Social Groups can now be transferred between users. The group will only be transferred if the recipient accepts the transfer.
* Moderators with the appropriate permission can transfer any group. This is useful when a group owner becomes inactive.


Private Message Changes

* Read receipts are automatically accepted when a PM is replied to.
* A new Quick Reply can be used to reply to PM's.
* A new user option is available to set the default value for 'Save Copy' which is also used with Quick Reply.
* PM's can be ordered by Title, Date and Sender.
* When ordered, PM's are grouped by:

* Title - Alphabetical ranges (A-H, I-P, Q-Z, 0-9 and other) - Non ASCII chars are grouped based on transliteration where possible
* Date - Today, Yesterday, individual day names, Last Week, 2 Weeks, Last Month, Older, etc.
* Sender - Grouped by Sender

* Private Messages can be filtered by Sender, Title, a given date period, and whether the message has been read or not.
* Message Throttling. Admins can define a time period and the maximum amount of message each usergroup can send within that period.
* Message selections are remembered over multiple pages for bulk actions (Move, delete, mark as read etc).


Profile Privacy

* With the appropriate permission, users can now configure which parts of their profile is visible, and to who. The configurable components are:

* Profile Picture
* Visitor Messages
* Contact Info
* Albums
* About Me
* Friends
* Recent Visitors
* Group Memberships
* Custom Field Blocks where the admin has allowed it

* The components can be configured to be visible to:

* Everyone
* Registered Members
* Contacts
* Friends

* Generally information is only hidden/displayed within the user profile page with the exception of Albums which also affects the ability to view the albums.


Albums

* Pictures can now be moved from one album to another.
* Album covers are regenerated when moving images if the cover is moved, or the destination album has no cover.
* The default albums view now displays recently updated public albums.


Lightbox

* Lightboxes can now be used to view all images in a post.
* Next and Previous buttons can be used to navigate the attachments, and wrap when the first/last image has been reached


Other Changes and Additions

* Options and permissions for Human Verification checks have been streamlined. There is now a single bitfield option to select which HV checks are used, and a single permission to select who must pass the HV checks.
* Thread tags can now be merged and renamed, and threads are updated to reflect the changes.
* Tag selection in the Admin CP is remembered over multiple pages for bulk actions (Delete or Merge).
* A new Terms and Conditions link is configurable and displayed in the footer by default.
* A new Community link replaces the Members List link with a submenu for Social Groups; Pictures & Albums; Contacts & Friends; and the Members List.
* Deleted and Moderated items in the User CP menu have been collapsed into submenus to reduce clutter.
* A New Items submenu is also available with the newest Visitor Messages; Group Messages; Group Discussions; Picture Comments and Album Pictures.
* Some cleanup has been done on the User CP menu to ensure only links that the user has permission to are displayed.
* A new permission to view thumbnails in posts has been added. This allows users to see thumbnails even when they do not have access to view the full image.
* Improved RSS filtering for RSS Feed Forums. Terms can now be quoted into phrases, and a new 'match all' option is available.
* Thread Prefix Permissions - Thread prefixes can now be configured so that only certain usergroups may use them.
* Support for TypePad Anti-Spam
* Username availability now checked via AJAX during registration
* Notices can now be configured to be dismissible, allowing users to close notices that they have read.
* Post edit histories can be pruned in Admin CP.
* Forum rules can be viewed outside of the registration process, which is useful for logged in users when multiple registrations are disabled.
* PM Reporting.
* Subscription folders can be emptied with one click.
* Quick Edit is available for Visitor Messages and Picture Comments, as well as Social Group Messages.
* New UTC and user date and time criteria for Notices.
* Improvements to Contact List editing. Show Avatars option is now preserved.


Some of the new features in the Blog include:

* Blog Customisation - users may customise their blogs in the same manner that they can customise their user profiles (if given permission).
* Group Blogs - users may allow other users to post to their blog.
* Sidebar Blocks - users may create custom blocks to display in their sidebar. These blocks can be rearranged by drag and drop.
* Custom Pages - users may create custom pages to be displayed in their blog.
* Tags - tag support has been included.
* Featured Entry Manager - multiple entries can be featured on the blog home page now.
* Private Entries - users may set specific entries to be private while leaving their blog open.
* Admin Categories - admins may define categories now.

ARTICLES SECTION

A revised articles section will soon be released, which will make best use of the new content contributor usergroup. More details soon