Aaron Lewis

GuildPortal Dev Blog

Updates from Aaron Lewis, GuildPortal Code Monkey

Entries From Aaron Lewis' Blog

GP Update: WoW Add-On and Icon Overload

Posted 1/7/2010 3:48 PM by Aaron Lewis. 23602 reads. Share:

The World of Warcraft Add-On (GPHelper) has had a couple of changes made: 1) the add-on itself has been marked for the latest version of WoW, and 2) guild bank item imports now work. 

To get the latest version, open your Control Panel, click WoW Integration, and then click the download link.  Instructions for installation are also on that page, in case you haven't done it before.  Instructions are also given on how to use the add-on in-game, and finally, on how to upload the data the add-on collects to your site.

Now, as functionality such as blogging, walls, mail and one-on-one chat have been added to GuildPortal, you've probably noticed the icons stacking up next to user names on your sites.  Though they can be disabled, once you do, the functionality that goes along with them is lost to you.

We're almost ready to push a change in how that works.  Basically, user names will appear on the site as simple links, with no icons next to them (except in the forums).  When clicked, a window will open up where you will be able to view the person's most recent blog entries, memberships and titles, and characters.  It's there where you will have the ability to send them web-based mail, visit their blog/wall, or open up a one-on-one chat.

This will significantly de-clutter you guild pages, without sacrificing features.  Expect that sometime next week, and as always, thank you for choosing GuildPortal!

GP Update: A calendar fix, admin search option, and bug fixes go live.

Posted 1/4/2010 1:18 PM by Aaron Lewis. 9940 reads. Share:

Members viewing the calendar using IE8 would sometimes need to hit the next/previous arrows in order for the list to show up.  This has been fixed.

In addition, admins can now find previous events more easily in the control panel by using the new search box.

Aside from these items, other bug fixes addressing support tickets have been pushed.

GP Update: More Calendar Options and Blog Commenting

Posted 12/21/2009 11:24 AM by Aaron Lewis. 7455 reads. Share:

Today's code push includes more options for further customizing the new calendar.  To get to the new options, click Edit under the calendar and then go to Display Options, and select the Day Styles tab.  You'll need to enable the styles to change them by clicking the check box at the top.  For each of the available styles (a day in the current month, today's day, and a day in a different month), you can set the backround color, day number color, background image URL, and background image tiling option.

Blog Commenting has been reworked a bit, so that comments may be left directly from the blog home page.  Approval and deletion of comments, by the owner of the blog, is also handled from the blog home page.

Finally, we've included a fix in the push that addresses a problem with editing events that belonged to an event category that was deleted.

GP Update: New Events Calendar and Custom Event Categories Released!

Posted 12/16/2009 4:02 PM by Aaron Lewis. 11767 reads. Share:

We're pleased to present you with a new calendar front-end and new custom event categories! Here's what the new calendar offers:
  • Ability to switch between Month, weekly agenda, and daily agenda views.
  • In month view, ability for events admins to drag and drop events to a different day.
  • In weekly and daily agenda views, the ability for events admins to move events to a different day, as well as change the start and end times by dragging to an earlier time slow (to affect the start time) or resizing by using the drag handle under the event to modify the duration of the event.
  • Lots of options!  Highly customizable for non-technical admins via the new Display Options link (click the Edit button under your calendar, it'll appear along the top).
  • Many new CSS classes that give even more control over the appearance of the calendar to the more design-oriented, technical types.
In addition to the new front-end, you now have the ability to define custom event categories.  Click on the Edit button under your calendar and then click the Event Categories link along the top.  Once you have one or more categories set up, you can assign them to events when you're adding/editing them. For each category, you can define the following: 
  • The name of the category (appears in the drop-down list when assigning it to events). 
  • The background color of the event when rendered in the calendar. 
  • The foreground (text) color of the event when rendered in the calendar. 
  • The border color of the event when rendered in the calendar.
  • An optional URL to an icon that will be displayed after the time of the event and before the title of the event (keep in mind this icon will be squeezed down a bit, if necessary, for the calendar to appear correctly).

GP Update: Network Maintenance, December 12th

Posted 12/9/2009 8:05 AM by Aaron Lewis. 5993 reads. Share:

During a maintenance window beginning December 12th, 2009 at 2:00 AM EST, GuildPortal web, database, and file servers will be brought offline for IPv6-related maintenance on the network adapters. We do not anticipate extended downtime.