Oxwall Available through Simple Scripts

Oxwall on Simple ScriptsWonderful news everyone! Oxwall Software is now available through Simple Scripts.

Simple Scripts is a hosted service, which allows instant one-click installation of over 70 top web applications. We are now in the great company of WordPress, Joomla, Roundcube, Drupal, and many others.

In a nutshell, Simple Scripts works though a choice number of popular control panels (including cPanel), and takes care of any issues with support, maintenance, updates, etc. The current version available is our latest release Oxwal 1.2.4.

In addition to Simple Scripts, Oxwall is also available through Softaculous, a similar web service that allows instant software installation. We believe this brings our free and open source platform even closer to the community.

Oxwall 1.2.4: Improved Newsfeed, Photo and Video Attachments, oEmbed Compatibility

Following up on the most recent post about the New Release Scheduling System, I’m bringing you the news about the new Oxwall Update.

According to the new schedule, we have completed the Quality Group Testing last week and are now ready for the public release. This time it is a combination of a major bug sweep operation, as well as the introduction of several key improvements and new features.

As always, don’t forget to follow three easy but crucial steps during the update:

  1. Back up your site
  2. Install the update
  3. Upgrade themes

Here is what’s in store:

New Features

  • Introduction of oEmbed compatibility for the Newsfeed (pasting a link into the Newsfeed will now generate a summary with title, picture or video, like in Facebook or Google+):

  • Introduction of Photo and Video Attachments for Status Updates and Comments:

Improved Features

  • Major improvement in Newsfeed response time and server load;
  • Elimination of WYSIWYG input in Status Updates and Comments (since it didn’t work with iPhones and iPads);
  • Birthday Lists are functioning properly now;
  • Addition of Military Time in Events;
  • Numerous minor improvements system-wide;
  • Numerous minor bug fixes;

Enjoy the Update and lets us know what you think in the comments or in the forum.

The New Release Schedule System

As promised in the comments section, I bring you some wonderful news. To benefit both end-users and our development team, we are switching to a new Release Scheduling System. Allow me to demonstrate it with a few helpful pictures first.

Up until recently our releases were a combination of scheduled fresh features with all the bug fixes picked up along the way. This system looks nice on paper, but in reality it often led to unexpected delays.

Imagine that we have set out to introduce a New Cool Tool for network Admins. In the past our development team would start working on it, all the while fixing up all the reported issues. But then, instead of releasing quick patches in demand, we had to wait until said New Cool Tool is absolutely ready and can be bundled together with the fixes. Sometimes it would take weeks or even months to be sure the New Cool Tool is actually cool enough for prime-time. Needless to say, the extended waiting period can be grueling, thus we decided to change the situation dramatically.

As mentioned in one of the prior posts, the switch to Mercurial DVCS gives us more flexibility. Namely we now have two development branches in place – Dev and Stable. Dev is reserved for big features, like the aforementioned New Cool Tool, while Stable will cover all the bug fixes and minor improvements.

Let me explain how the new system will work. The end-users will no longer have to wait for the new release in the dark. They will know for sure that the new release will be here every month, bringing along all the Stable fixes that are ready by the deadline. In the meantime the Oxwall team will be busy with two weeks of active development work, and a week of testing and compiling documentation. If, during this time, the New Cool Tool will appear to be ready in Dev, it will also end up in the release, along with the fixes.

Here at Oxwall we believe the new system will further improve the software development dynamics, and reinforce our commitment to producing the best professional user-oriented social network builder out there.

Oxwall 1.2.3

Well, it looks like three’s the charm, so get ready for another quick update.

This time we have fixed several critical errors:

  • WYSIWYG Java script glitches in Floatboxes
  • Bugs in RSS feed
  • Navigation problems (linked to hidden components)
  • Several general Mailbox issues

As always, be sure to follow instructions during the update!

More Languages in Oxwall Forum

As all of us witness the growing popularity of our favorite social networking software, the Foundation team can’t help but notice the emergence of Oxwall-centric communities in languages other than old boring English.

To make our international friends feel more at home, and give them a place to communicate naturally, we have set up several neighborhoods in our forums.

Please welcome the soon to be busy Spanish, German, Russian and Farsi HQs!

We hope this will expand the possibilities for community interactions and greatly improve the experience for non-English speakers.

Oxwall 1.2.2

Dear Oxwall users,

We are releasing the 1.2.2 version of our software to address several reported issues.

Here’s what have been fixed:

  • Event Invitation Button sometimes missing
  • Event Invitations not disappearing after an Event has begun
  • Big images messing up Mailbox Layout after upload
  • Forum Customization not being available
  • Several general layout problems
  • View Permission issues during the creation of custom pages
  • Incorrect Video Codes cut-offs
  • Improper spacing between avatars and ‘View More’ in Newsfeed
  • Missing Values disappearing in feeds
  • Unnecessary Line Wrappings in Blogs
  • Improper calculation of ready Values for Language Keys

Important Note:

Please don’t forget to update your themes for the fix to work properly.

Sneak Peek at Upcoming Oxwall Features

The last day of spring brings us two polarizing news items. The bad news is that there is no new Oprah this Thursday. Or ever. She’s done. The good news is that we are not done. On the contrary, we are just starting. And to prove that, I’ll give you a sneak peek at the next week’s release of a batch of new features. Are you exited? I know I am!

First things first – you will finally see the much anticipated customization in the User Privacy area. Now website visitors will have more flexibility tweaking their multi-level access options for different content.

Another step towards the frequently requested Facebook familiarity is the retooled Rich Text Formatter. Users will surely appreciate the additional freedom they will have with the feature.

A sweet new instrument we are happy to present to you is the Advanced Photo Uploader. Once again, it simplifies the process of dealing with photographs on your site, and also adds several key extra formatting functions.

Finally, we know that spam is no longer a delicacy (can you believe it was considered as such once), so we forked out some defenses to deal with the matter. Our new feature – Mailbot Spam Control, helps along in eliminating the mass emailing by those pesky bots.

Seeing as how our users in the comments section ask for more steady updates, I hope this news will brighten their day even further. Sometime next week we’ll talk in more detail about each new feature, so stay tuned. But why we bundle these four together and not spread them evenly across the release schedule, you ask? Well, we are working hard on developing and introducing new functionality, so the upcoming modification is just a tip of the iceberg. Yes, I said it, more exciting stuff is on the way. Happy summer, everyone!

SVN to Mercurial Transition

Time for some quick development news, guys!

While the release of the 1.2 version of our software (featuring useful stuff like user privacy and the retooled user input panel) nears ever closer, Oxwall team is happy to inform you that we are switching from SVN to Mercurial DVCS (Distributed Version Control System). We see this as a natural evolution step in maturing our software, so there is really no downside to this information.

The new system will give everyone more flexibility. For starters, we’ll be able to keep up two development branches (dev and stable) more effectively. On the other hand, the change will allow developers to merge their plug-ins with our updates more effortlessly, due to the simpler process of getting snapshots of nightly builds. Basically, you will not have to wait for the old version of the software to break down on all upgraded websites. Instead, you’ll be able to update your plug-ins almost simultaneously with each new release.

We are bringing you this news early to let plug-in developers know that with the new system their lives are about to become much more easier. Also, if you are still using some other instrumentation, may we suggest switching to a distributed revision control like Mercurial or Git. We chose the former for its simplicity and we hope you do the same.

Oxwall on Wikipedia

Oxwall Wikipedia EntryRemember the good ol’ days when you saw your company on TV and that meant you are now famous and everyone knows and loves you and gives you presents? Sadly (or luckily), this is now a thing of the past. In the age of the Web 2.0 something truly exists only if it’s on the Wikipedia. Guess what? We made the cut.

On this wonderful spring day we are happy to inform you that Oxwall Open Source Community Software has just reached another very important milestone in its history – we are now represented on the largest and most popular fact book on the planet.

Now, before someone begins dismissing this achievement as insignificant (Wikipedia is still an anyone-can-edit project after all), consider that nowadays it is actually easier to book those 15 minutes of TV fame, than get page up about a non-profit organization.

It is true that once you are the Coca-Cola of social networking, the doors in front of you open pretty much by themselves. The situation changes once the doors are faced by an open-source initiative like Oxwall. You can bring joy and happiness all around you all the time, but unless Wikipedia editors recognize the entry as notable, credible and appropriate, it will be deleted every single time, labeled as ‘blatant advertising’.

Leaving all that behind, the important thing is that information about an open source project like Oxwall Community Software is now also a part of the general encyclopedic knowledge. And that’s something. Continuing with our initial TV theme, Oxwall is now ready for primetime. Congratulations everyone, we are doing something right.

Oxwall Foundation

With Oxwall 1.1 release there’s one more piece of news today and hardly less important.

Starting with this release Oxwall project is operated by Oxwall Foundation – a non-profit organization that takes duties from Skalfa LLC. We have put our profile and the underlying story here: www.oxwall.org/foundation

We are the team that have been working on this project for 3 years already as a part of Skalfa LLC and now we continue the journey as the decision-makers with Skalfa’s backing. I can’t imagine any better climate for the project.

I, as the Chairman of Oxwall Foundation, want to thank Skalfa LLC stakeholders for the wise decision to grant intellectual rights and Oxwall trademark to the independent non-profit entity. Our team proudly and thankfully accepts the honorable duties of operating Oxwall software project.

Empowered with the goodwill of the original Oxwall parent we are taking the reign with the biggest enthusiasm ever and hope to make Oxwall the best open source social software in the world. No small task, I say!

Thanks,
Emil Sarnogoev
Chairman
Oxwall Foundation