Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know that there’s a new update for openvoter available. Nothing too major, but a few small fixes.
Also, I’ve added a contact form on the documentation page, so feel free to get in touch if you are having problems.
So I’ve been hard at work on the next version of openvoter, version 3.3. This new version is going to feature some user interface improvements as well as several new features. The first of which I’m going to share with you right now as a matter of fact.
This feature is lists. Lists are being introduced to openvoter and will function very similar to how Twitter handles them. Users will be able to group users together and view their posts from a single page. It’s much like the friends activity page, only now users can group friends together. So if several of the user’s friends are into something like space exploration, he can create a list called “space” or something like that and add said users to the list. Then when he or she goes to the “space” page, it will display all the posts from only those users.
I’m also happy to announce that a lot of the work for lists is complete. Just a few tweaks and I’ll be able to move to one of the other new features.
There are several other big features planned so stay tuned!
Hey everyone, just wanted you to know that openvoter 3.2.3 has just been released. All it adds is one feature but I figure it should be an important one.
As an admin, you can now ban IP addresses independently of users. Prior to this, you couldn’t ban an IP on its own, you’d just ban any IP addresses the user you banned logged in with. This has been separated in the admin panel into the 2 ban lists.
IPs associated with users are now called User IP Addresses, and independent IPs are now just IP Addresses
Let me know if you see something wrong.
Hey everyone, nothing too big here, but openvoter 3.2.2 has been released. It’s mostly just a bugfix release but it does have 2 new features you might be interested in.
The first, if you remember from openvoter 3.2.1, youtube links now auto-embed on the submission page, now vimeo links do the same thing.
The second relates to comments. There is now a user setting to allow users to pre-populate reply textboxes with @user when replying to comments.
As always, let us know if you see anything wrong.
- Keith
Following the release of 3.2, a few small bugs were found, so openvoter 3.2.1 is now available for download. Follow the update instructions found on the documentation page to get your system up to date.
Here’s a summary of what was fixed (and as a bonus, an addition):
Enjoy and let me know what you think.
We are proud to announce that the latest version of the openvoter CMS is now available. The new version also brings about a brand new look for the openvoter.org homepage as well so enjoy.
The biggest features of openvoter 3.2 include:
Hey everyone, I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted any status updates for OpenVoter 3.2 so I guess now is as good a time as any. OpenVoter is still in development and 3.2 is pretty far along. The primary reason why it’s taking so long for this update is that I’ve been re-working the theme engine. OpenVoter 3.0 and 3.1 currently use the database to store the filenames of the theme files needed for the site. While this works well enough, it was decided that it wasn’t good enough and that theme development would be more difficult than it should be under this engine.
So enter OpenVoter 3.2. OpenVoter 3.2 is being built with a brand new way of doing things. Instead of using the database to store everything, the theme will be stored within a folder on the server and all the database stores is which folder to use. When 3.2 is released, more documentation will be provided to ensure that developers know what files are needed and what each file is for. I also plan on releasing not only the default theme, but also a blank theme with all the basics needed to create your own. Also to go along with the theme engine is a new AJAX library to hopefully make it easier to make the calls to the database through javascript for reporting, sharing, etc. This is the primary reason that there have been no pre-releases of OpenVoter 3.2 like there were for 3.1. Because I’m changing the theme engine, its really not possible to create a pre-release with enough of the site working for general use. Hopefully I’ll find a good place in a bit to release a beta build.
Now here comes the one downside to 3.2′s new theme engine. 3.2 is being built with the help of the mod_rewrite engine in Apache. So without mod_rewrite, the site will not work. I decided that since the majority of hosting providers enable mod_rewrite by default, the tradeoff would be minimal and the benefits were worth the sacrifice of compatibility.
Before I go, I figure I’ll just create a quick list of some of the things you can look forward to in the 3.2 release:
After much hard work and some distractions here and there, I am proud to announce that OpenVoter 3.1 is now out.
Among its most notable new features, here’s a good list:
So go ahead and read the documentation and download the latest and greatest version of OpenVoter!
I know it was only a little bit ago when OpenVoter 3.1 Alpha 1 was released, but the second alpha is fast approaching.
This release is set to introduce the self post where you can share a joke, ask a question, discuss an opinion without needing an external URL. It essentially introduces part of the forums into a submission. This release will also introduce a new section for podcasts. So now when you make a submission, you’ll have the option between Story, Photo, Video, Podcast, and Self…not too shabby if you ask me.
The third major introduction is the way submission thumbnails are handled. Currently, it just takes the center 150×150 pixel square as the thumbnail. 3.1 Alpha 2 will adjust this to hopefully grab a better thumbnail that makes a little bit more sense. Also, ever want to add a thumbnail to a story? Guess what…you will be able to!
A fourth update is more geared towards developers. Originally, the submission lists were broken into two files. One for popular posts, the other for upcoming. With Alpha 2, this will just be combined into one. From the front end, nothing will change except for the URL, but just thought I’d make you aware.
Stay Tuned…
OpenVoter 3.1 Alpha 1, the first build of OpenVoter 3.1 is now up for you to try out.
This first build incorporates the comment changes as well as some changes to the theme engine. Comments have a slightly new look and are now editable and deletable. The changes to the theme engine removed two theme objects and added 3 more. You can read more about it from the 3.1 Alpha 1 Documentation Page.