GuildPortal Change Log Entry
3/4/2010 4:39 PM

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Custom Event Roles top the list of items included with tonight's code push.  Click the Edit button under your calendar and then click the "Custom Roles" link at the top of the editor window.  This allows you to add to the list of default event roles like DPS, tank, healer, etc.  In addition, you also have the option to completely replace the default roles and use only your custom-provided ones.  The check box for doing so is located in the same place.

Some bug fixes included in the update:

• Clicking on Manage Guild Associations for a character will no longer result in a redirect to the GP home page.
• A blank page will no longer show up when sending new mail from the inbox.
• Adding a new custom event category, and then immediately adding a new event, will now show the newly-added category (previously, you had to close the window and re-open it).
• There is now an option in the Control Panel, under Style Settings : Text, that makes it possible to specify the spacing between lines in posts, news, and other areas.
• More font options have been added to the Control Panel, under Style Settings : Text.
• Various widgets have had their output modified slightly to make them more uniform with the rest of your site.

GuildPortal Change Log Entry
3/3/2010 12:06 PM

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Most of you know that since December of 2003, GuildPortal has been donating $1 from every guild web site subscription and subscription renewal to Food for the Hungry, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing relief services to the poor, including emergency assistance and educational programs that provide impoverished communities the knowledge they need to better sustain themselves.

Right now, the 40th Annual Hunger Fund is multiplying donations 53 times.  That means for every dollar, $53 in actual aid is shipped for suffering children and their families in Haiti and 13 other countries facing widespread disease and hunger. 

We wanted to bring this to your attention so that you can participate in helping the Hunger Fund save lives even more dramatically, $1 at a time, via your direct donations, if you so choose.  For more information, please visit The Hunger Fund.

A bit of legalese: GuildPortal is in no way being compensated for linking to The Hunger Fund or Food for the Hungry.

GuildPortal Change Log Entry
3/2/2010 7:04 PM

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First, thanks to everyone for your patience during the recent updates.  They were by far, the most extensive and complicated set of changes to the infrastructure during all of GuildPortal's time online.  We apologize for the constant revisions we needed to make to the estimates.

Now, back to normal!  Tonight's code push includes a fix for the news item viewer's commenting functionality (when opened from the small news widget).

GuildPortal Change Log Entry
2/26/2010 2:31 PM

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Links to blogs from the most recent blog entries widget, as well as links to your own blog in both the top and side nav areas have been fixed.

Also, upon entering guild chat rooms, you are shown the help command.  When you type it in, you can see the available slash commands for chatting.  Included are sending a sound to the room, listing available sounds, and sending an emote.

GuildPortal Change Log Entry
2/24/2010 2:08 PM

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From Saturday at midnight until completion (some hours later), GuildPortal will be down for maintenance.  This is the final phase in a series of infrastructure updates we've been making.  It will also address the problem with adding images to your galleries.

GuildPortal Change Log Entry
2/9/2010 2:34 PM

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Due to rampant zombie infestation of the current data center, there will be an 8 hour service window beginning February 15th at 11:00 PM EST, during which there will be a data center migration of servers, switchgear, and associated IT equipment from the current facility to a new data center.

All attempts were made to fight off the zombies, including liberal use of fire, shotguns, Ving Rhames, and just about everything you can find inside a sporting goods store.

Downtime will likely not take the full 8 hours.  Estimated downtime is calculated as follows:

10 minutes - fit armored vehicle with weaponry
30 minutes - shutdown of servers and un-rack
15 minutes - load time
30 minutes - transport
15 minutes - unload time
60 minutes - re-rack of servers
15 minutes - buffer time for overruns
4.9 minutes - check for zombie bites
.1 minutes - whack any zombie bite victims

The migration has been planned extensively over the past 6 months and we anticipate a limited amount of downtime.  This procedure has been rehearsed with test equipment and live ammunition in a wide array of scenarios, such as:

Zombie attacks on the armored convoy while en-route.
Zombie ambush at new facility.
Zombie development of the ability to run (usually only the UK versions do this, but one can never be too careful).
Zombie conversion (via bite) of IT personnel while servers are being handled (IT personnel are expendable and will be sacrificed).

In order to avoid encountering yet more zombies, we have planned our route to steer clear of the following types of areas: malls, farm houses, high schools, colleges, places of work, places with people, military installations, amusement parks, golf courses, highways, and London.

GuildPortal Change Log Entry
2/2/2010 4:26 PM

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Prior to today's push, you had two options: 1) go with the stylesheet output that was based upon the settings in the control panel, or 2) supply a complete CSS replacement of your own.

Now, you have a third option; you can specify CSS Additions.  These take the standard output from option 1 above, and add new rules you supply.  They can be entirely new, perhaps for custom elements you use in something like a free-form HTML widget, or they can be used to override only specific elements from the default output.

The interface for working with CSS Additions is in your Control Panel, under Custom HTML and Script.  Click Custom CSS, and then select the "CSS Additions to Standard" tab.  Further information is provided there.

Last week, we ninja-patched in a new feature that can be accessed from the Custom HTML and Custom CSS sections of the Control Panel.  A link is available that lists the current, standard GuildPortal CSS classes.  It provides a pop-up window that you can keep open while you're working with your custom CSS or HTML, and clicking on most of the listed CSS classes provides a brief explanation of what they are used for.  It's there to make custom CSS authoring a little easier.

Some may have noticed that the editor has also had an update.  Many issues with the previous version are ironed out with the new one.

Finally, aside from bug fixes (in response to support tickets) in this update, the Control Panel's left pane is now collapsible -- using the slider bar's arrow -- so that whatever section of the Control Panel you're working in can be expanded further, giving you more room.

GuildPortal Change Log Entry
1/27/2010 5:52 PM

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There's a new Silverlight-based gallery for your guild images available.  You can get to it from any gallery widget on your sites by clicking Open Gallery.  This opens the existing gallery, but in the top, right-hand corner is a new link to open the Silverlight version.  If you don't have the Silverlight plug-in, you'll be prompted to install it.

It's in "beta" for the moment.  One notable feature is missing -- the ability to comment on images.  We wanted to get it out there in order to get some feedback on how people feel about taking a more RIA approach when it comes to future features and enhancements. While RIA (rich internet applications) can be, at the lowest level, simply Ajax-based (as GuildPortal is now), the frontier "Web 3.0" world looks to be populated with technologies like Silverlight and Adobe AIR/Flex.

If this is received well, we can put more emphasis on developing these kinds of richer (even occasionally disconnected!) features for your guild sites, moving from web sites to richer, more fully-featured guild management applications with more responsive and attractive interfaces.  Of course, our stamp on the world of guild hosting has always been customizability, and that would move to the new platform, too!

It's important to emphasize that we've no plans to abandon the web-page side of things.  All of this would be complimentary and fully integrated.  Nor is building bigger and better always the way to go.  For example, we also have plans for a fully-featured mobile client (based on standards, not for any specific device).

So if  you've got a moment, pay a visit to the GuildPortal Admin Community and let us know what you think.