Oxwall Store Digest:
Top of the Line

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Dear friends,

With great pleasure we want to present a new section of this blog. After seeing the steadily climbing popularity of the Oxwall Store, as well as general improvement in quality of the items that end up there, we decided to shine some light on the best plugins and themes on display. And today we have not one, but two of them!

Mochi Games for Oxwall

Oxwall Store Digest: Top of the Line

Games are often one of the most thought-after features in social networking and Mochimedia.com presents a wide variety of options in this area. Mochi Games for Oxwall plugin integrates Mochimedia services into any Oxwall website almost entirely hassle-free.

Oxwall Store Digest: Top of the Line

You’ve got everything from Action to Strategy to Racing, to even Classic Nintendo Spoofs, all as part of a huge collection that can make any casual gamer happy.

Among other things, the plugin eliminates all steps requiring the insertion of custom Javascript codes, and allows most games to set up Leaderbords integrated into Oxwall Newsfeed, to keep members posted of new highscores. On top of that, Mochi Games for Oxwall works perfectly with User Credits plugin, allowing admins to charge or award members with credits for using games on the site.

Mochi Games for Oxwall is sold for a one-time fee of $20, and its creator promises frequent updates and support.

Download Plugin.

Try Demo.

Questions

Another top-rated plugin that is quickly gaining popularity is Questions, which allows users to submit polls for others to answer, Facebook-style.

Oxwall Store Digest: Top of the Line

Incredibly easy to setup and manage, Questions are very useful for adding interactivity to any site, and getting the community even more involved in joint activities.

Oxwall Store Digest: Top of the Line

Needless to say, after publishing the created poll will appear in the Newsfeed, and depending on chosen options, members can select a ready answer or add one of their own.

The plugin is absolutely free and has already seen over 1000 downloads since appearing in the Store.

Download Plugin.

Try Demo.

Oxwall 1.3.2: User and Admin Improvements, Minor Bug Fixes

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OXWALL 1.3.2

Following the completion of quality and beta testing we are ready to present you Oxwall 1.3.2. The new release fixes several minor bugs, and also introduces User and Admin improvements among other things.

IMPORTANT NOTE: ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR SITE BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO UPDATE THE SOFTWARE

Just follow these simple steps while bringing your software up to date, to avoid possible future issues:

  1. Back up your site;
  2. Update the platform (Instructions);
  3. Update all of the installed plugins;
  4. Update your themes;
  5. Enjoy the new version;
AUTO UPDATE BUTTON

The Auto Update button will appear in your website’s admin area within 24 hours after the release of the update.

WHAT’S NEW IN OXWALL 1.3.2

Platform

  • Cron setup changed (now uses HTTP);
  • Default user role is now impossible to remove;
  • Fixed the bug with the number of pics for WYSIWYG gallery;
  • Notifications “Someone posts a wall comment in a group I participate in”, “Someone invites me to a group”, etc., enabled by default;
  • Additional admin now cannot delete the super admin profile;
  • XSS vulnerability in the update script fixed;
  • Added file_get_contents check on server;
  • While editing a custom page it’s no longer possible to enter existing pages’ URLs.
  • Added rel=”nofollow” for auto-linking and WYSIWYG;
  • Changed buttons for group actions on profile lists in admin area;
  • Removed Exception message that happened while approving an already approved member;
  • Changed the order of displaying CSS graphics in the admin area;
  • Multiple language entries corrected;

Blogs

  • Post tags are now added to meta keywords;
  • Added messages about successful post creation and editing;

Friends

  • Fixed friend request template;
  • With friend request a user automatically follows another user;

Instant Chat

  • Fixed ‘OW Debug’ error message when admins deactivated ‘Friends’ plugin;
  • Fixed ‘last activity 42 years ago’ bug;
  • Removed switching ‘for all’ and ‘friends only’ modes, making it dependent on the ‘Friends’ plugin;

Links

  • ‘More’ button does not stick to the last letter any more;
  • Links now open in the new window;

Forum

  • ‘Ghost’ topics now removed in five days after the original topic move;
  • User no longer redirected to a new forum section after moving a topic;
  • Fixed ‘Latest Reply’ field when author profile deleted;

Video

  • Fixed Flash object overlap;

Advertisement

  • Now more than 14 banners can be added to one ad place;
  • Added the ‘Hide Ads’ authorization action for user roles;

Events

  • New events are now at the top of the list;
  • Long event locations now stay within widget;
  • If ‘Friends’ plugin deactivated you can invite all site users (who were not invited yet and are not registered for event);
  • Invite interface now shows all site users (up to 100) if ‘Friends’ plugin is inactive;
  • Added ‘Accept/Decline’ buttons to event invitations;
  • Event notification now disappears after visiting event page;

Mailbox

  • Fixed avatar while sending private messages from profile;

Privacy

  • If ‘Friends’ plugin deactivated all ‘Friends Only’ settings change to ‘Only Me’;

Groups

  • If ‘Friends’ plugin deactivated you can now invite all site users (up to 100);
  • Group listings changed;
  • Invite notifications now disappear after visiting invitation list or group pages;

Newsfeed

  • Redesigned group activity display;
  • Individual pages for every newsfeed item;
  • New option to choose preview picture for attached URLs;

Birthdays

  • E-mail notifications about new comments or likes for birthday items;

Enjoy the new release and feel free to drop us a line if you encounter any problems with it. Thank you for being such a great community!

Coming Up: Oxwall 1.3.2

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Dear members of Oxwall community,

We are happy to inform you about the upcoming update of the Oxwall software. The release will be presented to you after we finish the current round of beta and quality testing, in about a couple of weeks or so.

Oxwall 1.3.2 is mostly a maintenance release, where we’ll fix several annoying bugs and improve numerous features. Among other things you can expect to see Newsfeed, Groups, Events and Data Importer  enhancements. The full list of changes will be released along with the update.

Oxwall: The Progress

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Oxwall: The ProgressLadies and gentlemen,

Today we would like to share some great news with you. Oxwall Foundation has reached several important milestones, which prove that we are moving in the right direction, steadily giving the community tools necessary for our common success.

First of all, Oxwall Software now boasts over 71000 source lines of code. Compare that with 64000 of the very first Oxwall iteration released in August 2010. Not bad, considering that this metric is a very important indicator of a project’s size, and shows the effort the development team puts behind it.

Now, that was the platform itself. Even more impressive is the rapid increase in the number of source lines of code for plugins developed by the Oxwall Foundation. Altogether they now take over 64000 LOC (30% growth from the times of Oxwall 1.0.1), which is really impressive, when you take into account the time-frame and the relatively small team size.

All of that, coupled with the success of the recently released Oxwall 1.3 helped to boost the platform downloads from the 250 per day average in 2011, all the way up to 350 at the start of 2012.

Finally, Oxwall Store also witnesses some stable evolution since its full-scale launch a mere year ago. By now, the gradually growing number of published items have passed 100, adding even more to the progress of the entire project.

With our joint efforts and great input from the international Oxwall community, these achievements have been reached in just under two years. This is the programming productivity and expansion rates we are quite content with, although we’ll be obviously looking to build on this success even further in the near future.

UPDATE

An unfortunate slip made its way into the above text. Of course we meant the DAILY download average (not monthly) in the fourth paragraph. So, the daily platform download average in 2011 was 250, boosted up to 350 since the release of Oxwall 1.3.

 

 

Oxwall 1.3: Private Groups, User Block, Invite Friends, etc.

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The long awaited Oxwall 1.3.0 is finally here after extensive quality and beta testing. A huge thank you goes to all the testers for their participation.

Don’t forget to BACK UP YOUR SITE before starting the update. This essential step could save you serious headache in case anything goes wrong. Once again, these are the steps required for a proper update:

  1. Back up your site;
  2. Update the platform (Instructions);
  3. Update all of the installed plugins;
  4. Update your themes;
  5. Enjoy the new version;

New Features

Private Groups (as suggested by users)
This new plugin allows users to create Private Groups, invisible to others. New members can be invited either by admins or by other group members.


Private Forum
Admins and Moderators can now create Private Forums for specific User Roles.

Block Users (as suggested by users)
Users can now block each other. Once blocked, a user will no longer be able to send IM/PM, become friends, follow and add comments to content of the block initiator. Blocking a user will immediately sever all Friendship and Follow links.

Major Improvements

Invite Friends
We’ve completely revamped Invite Friends feature, which is now compatible with new Facebook and Google APIs.

Mass Mailing
User roles can now be selected for mass mailing.

WYSISYG Editor
WYSISYG editor was replaced by simple text area for mobile devices.

Enhancements and Bugfixes

Unsubscribe
We’ve added an additional step to confirm unsubscription.

Maintenance Page
Maintenance Page login link was added for easier Admin access in case the page needs disabling.

Verification Mail
The system no longer sends two emails at once – instead it sends a Verification Letter first, and then a Welcome Letter after the verification.

Google Chrome Attachments
Issue with incorrectly displaying full-size attached pictures in Google Chrome fixed.

Events Improved
Events End Date completely reworked to appear after check-box is ticked.

Mass Mailing Variables
Variables can be added to the Subject now.

User Profile and Dashboard Pages
Minor improvements for these pages management through the Admin Area.

Privacy Improvements
Private album bug fixed.

To prevent any questions regarding the Auto Update – it will appear in your Admin Area within 24 hours after the launch of the update. We hope you like the new release. Do tell us what you think in the forum or in the comments bellow.

Oxwall Store Update

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We have a new batch of fixes and improvements for the Oxwall Store, check them out:

Improvements

  •  You can now view all of your Store Items on a separate ‘My Items’ tab;

  • You can now see who and when bought licenses for each of your items;
  • You can now revoke licenses for any sold item or theme (useful for when a license is abused);

  • You can now reset the License IP for any bought item (necessary when the IP of a site with the installed item has changed);

Fixes

  • The last file on the list under Item’s Downloads can no longer be unchecked as Main;
  • Main Download option completely revamped under Item’s Download;
  • PayPal account details area is clearer defined while selecting payment method;

 

Stop SOPA

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Let’s cut to the chase. If you are reading this, you likely already know what SOPA and PIPA are, you’ve seen the darkened Wikipedia, you’ve noticed Google’s laconic petition, and you’ve heard millions of protesting voices all over the net screaming in rage against a couple of bills currently moving through the US Congress.

If you haven’t notice anything at all, congratulations. You just might be one of the few people, who, along with SOPA and PIPA proponents, talk about “online community” as if it was some sort of outcast group. This failure to realise that the world has really changed, and absolutely everyone is now part of this online community; that absolutely everyone will be harmed in one way or another if the bills will make it, is simply overwhelming.

Here at Oxwall and Wall.fm we support websites, companies, and individuals who are protesting SOPA and PIPA. We believe that installing censorship in any form, blocking websites, killing the notion of “fair use”, disrespecting user submitted content, reducing privacy, etc., is not only a huge blow to the progressive development of the Internet, but also a general assault on democracy and freedom of expression – something we give people collective tools for.

Most importantly, we do not want anyone to have the ability to puppeteer the Internet and then face the grim future where the law could suddenly place too much power into wrong hands, inevitably leading to the abuse of said power. Stop SOPA.

Oxwall Launches Beta Testing

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Great news, everyone!

We are launching beta testing for the new build of Oxwall Software. While we continue to improve the quality of the new release, some of you will be able to get your hands on Oxwall 1.3.0 ahead of everyone else.

Now, since we have limited resources to process all bug reports, and also to raise the testing efficiency, we are going to limit the Beta Testing Team this time over. Only Community Leaders, Oxwall Club members, and users with items in Oxwall Store can apply for the access to Beta Testing this time. To do so, simply drop us a line at support@oxwall.org, with Claim Beta in the subject line.

Good luck!

 

 

Oxwall 1.3.0 Is On The Way

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Recently we’ve been asked in the comments about the launch of the new Oxwall version. Good news – it’s coming up pretty soon. We’ve been extensively testing the new build in-house, and the quality testing will go on for about one more week.

This time over we’ve prepared some exiting new features for you (including the much anticipated Private Groups and Friends Invite), enhanced many of the existing ones, and also fixed most of the reported bugs. The full list of new features and improvements will be released along with the update, but I think you can get a head-start by attending Oxwall Google+ Hangout on Thursday, January 19, and get the word directly from Oxwall co-founder Emil.