Aaron Lewis

GuildPortal Dev Blog

Updates from Aaron Lewis, GuildPortal Code Monkey

Entries From Aaron Lewis' Blog

GP Update: Who Mumbled?

Posted 7/27/2010 1:55 PM by Aaron Lewis. 26023 reads. Share:

We're happy to announce that GuildPortal now provides Mumble voice server hosting, at the same rate we provide Ventrilo hosting for (which is pretty darn low, seriously)! The only difference is the lack of a 5-slot option, which is due to licensing.

One thing to keep in mind: while the voice servers themselves are solid, the APIs aren't all that ironed out for querying server status and the like, so for the time being, the voice server status widget will display only connection-related information to your members, along with a link to download the client software.

Getting started is as easy as going into your Control Panel, clicking Ventrilo/Mumble Server, and selecting your options. The admin password you enter during creation of the server can then be used by you when logging into the server to manage user and access lists, but one thing that's different here is you must login to the Mumble server as "SuperUser" (without the quotes) with the Mumble client.

More information on Mumble is available at mumble.sourceforge.net.

GP Update: Long List of Updates!

Posted 7/22/2010 2:29 PM by Aaron Lewis. 10043 reads. Share:

We've been pretty busy over the past week! Here's a list of some of the things that have either already gone live or are going live with today's code push:
  • 28 new themes have been added!
  • A problem with the signature generator import galleries redirecting to the guild home page has been fixed, and the signature generator has had some neat new features added to it.
  • Importing a theme was automatically centering the banner, even if that was not how the theme was configured. This has been fixed.
  • Auto-forum posting of applications, where an admin had previously (at any point) checked the box to disable it, remained disabled and the box wouldn't show as checked when they went back, so they were unable to re-enable it. Those who were affected will need to go back into the Application Questions area of the control panel and re-enable it by un-checking the box.
  • Integrated rosters for DAOC have been updated to work with the new XML structure that Mythic is returning, and they have been updated to have all the features of the integrated rosters of newer games (client-side filtering, sorting, and an updated appearance).
  • When applying a theme, users have the option to send a quick "thank you" note to the author of the theme. If you like their work, let them know!
  • When sharing a theme, custom HTML for the left, right and center widgets will now also be exported as part of the theme, and applied to any site that imports the theme. Previously these elements were not applied, so only simpler themes could be shared to their full effect.
  • Custom CSS additions are also now copied when sharing a theme. Keep in mind these are just for the "CSS Additions" part of your total custom CSS configuration. Total CSS replacements are not copied. CSS Additions only add on to the existing output, they do not completely replace it.
  • If you have supplied custom images for your tabs, you now have the option to have them display even when using the "Side Nav" type of navigation. Click the "Display Tab Images Inside Side Nav" checkbox in the Control Panel, under Style Tools > Navigation Style (make sure you have Side Nav selected from the drop-down list at the top). This will display the images vertically (top to bottom). Full default/current/hover functionality is supported.
  • Many, many new sets of forum icons are available. You can get to them via Control Panel > Style Tools > Forum Icons. Select from the "Available Sets" drop-down box and click Preview to check them out!
As always, thanks for choosing GuildPortal!

GP Update: 8 New Videos this Week!

Posted 7/9/2010 2:57 PM by Aaron Lewis. 7223 reads. Share:

That's right, someone handed us a headset and lots of coffee... Nobody is safe!

GP Update: Custom Default Rights

Posted 7/8/2010 1:22 PM by Aaron Lewis. 12216 reads. Share:

Guild admins now have the ability to specify custom administrative rights to be assigned whenever someone's access level is changed either via the Control Panel, directly clicking the Member Admin link on any guild page, or via the App Admin widget that loads for those with that right assigned to them.

The ability to do this is useful in cases where you want to assign rights to groups of people based upon their access, for example, you could say that you want all people with Council-level access to be able to fully administer images and polls, and officers to have admin rights over polls, images and events.

After you've changed the default rights that are assigned to a given access level, whenever a person is assigned that level, they will automatically be granted those rights. Also, you will be asked whether you want to apply your settings to everyone already in the guild.

Note that un-checking admin rights when editing a member is still possible -- just keep in mind how granular you're getting if you decide to change rights for the access level later on and decide to overwrite individual rights you've already selected.

You can get started with the new feature by opening the Control Panel, expanding Member Management (on the left), and clicking Default Rights.  The UI is all wizard-y, and does a lot of explaining as you go along.

GP Update: Guild Newsletters

Posted 7/6/2010 1:54 PM by Aaron Lewis. 5955 reads. Share:

Guild newsletters are now available! As a site admin, to enable and configure your newsletter, open the Control Panel and select Newsletter from the left menu. Users who wish to receive your newsletter will need to enable Guild Newsletters in their Characters/Settings page and be associate-level or higher in your guild. Moving forward, we might change this to being enabled by default, but for the moment we're making it opt-in to avoid "spamming" a whole lot of people at the beginning.

Some might have noticed a lot of ninja-enhancements going live over the past weeks:
  • When editing a page's properties (Control Panel > Pages & Content > select a page and then click the Page Properties tab), you now have the option to specify a hover image, in addition to the previously available default and selected images.
  • The Banner Builder (Control Panel > Style Tools) has an additional effect that you can apply to the text called "perspective." It renders the text at an angle (which you can also specify using the slider).
  • "Nav Bar Builder" and "Navigation Type" have been combined into "Navigation Style" (Control Panel > Style Tools). You can now select the type of navigation you want your site to use (Nav Bar, Side Nav or Standard Tabs) and the interface will show the appropriate options.
  • The Content Boxes (Widgets) styling options now allow for an icon to be shown in the header, without the need to provide custom HTML.
  • The Forum Specific style tools now use the updated gradient generator/guild storage image picker, so if you're using images you've uploaded through the file manager, you won't need to go back and forth, copying and pasting URLs. Many image fields throughout the Control Panel have been updated to use this tool.
  • You can now provide hover state images for the following forum icons: reply, quote, edit, and delete. In addition, pre-set forum icon themes are now importing all of the images they should. Check it out in the Control Panel, under Style Tools > Forum Icons.
  • The signature generator, available in Characters/Settings, has been cleaned up, had some effects and options added, and has been given some more images that you can import from the gallery. If you have any packs of thumbnail images or backgrounds that you'd like seen added for your game, please let us know!
  • The GPHelper add-on for World of Warcraft now imports bank items into more appropriate categories.