Widget Studio enhancements

Custom List Designer
Update 7/2:  We want to give this feature a little extra love, so we're going to move it to the release following the 7/7 release. Stay tuned!
The new Custom List component enables you to design completely customized lists using text, image, and any other components.  You'll have complete control to add whatever components you want in a list cell, as well as layout, styles, and formatting, and the design you create will be replicated in every cell of your Custom List.  Used in conjunction with the new Feed Parser, you can populate the components in your list with the contents of any node in any RSS or ATOM feed, and soon any XML feed.

Feed Parser
Update 7/2:  We want to give this feature a little extra love, so we're going to move it to the release following the 7/7 release. Stay tuned!
The Feed Parser lets you drill into any XML document and assign the contents of any node within it to populate text and image components.  

Widget Assets
Now you can upload images and .swf files directly into the App Studio.  These files won't go on your KickApps play pages; instead you can use them within the App Studio for things like backgrounds, logos, and custom animations.  You can access these files via the Widget Assets window.  To add them to your widget, simply drag and drop them onto the stage, or into the background image field in the properties panel of any component.

KickApps Media Window
Much like the Widget Assets window, the KickApps Media window lets you run simple searches on your KickApps community media and drag and drop results onto the stage, or for use in playlists.

Playlists
You no longer have to rely on dynamic feeds to populate your video players!  With playlists now available for all players, you can create playlists of media in any order that you please.  To create a playlist, simply select the Playlist option in the Content panel of one of these components, open up the KickApps Media window, and drag and drop items from it into the Playlist panel.

Action Panel UI Improvements
We've streamlined the workflow in the Actions panel to make the process of adding Actions to your components easier and much faster.  Instead of adding an Action in a modal pop-up window, you now create Actions in a panel that extends directly from the main Actions window.  All dropdown menus have been replaced with autocompleting dropdowns, you can tab between fields, and to save an action you just have to press return.

Copy & Paste
We've all been waiting for this one.  You can now copy via CTRL-C and paste via CTRL-V, as well as from a right-click context menu.

Pixlr Integration for image editing
You can now edit Widget Assets images via Pixlr, a powerful image editor available as a free web app (pixlr.com).  Just select the image you want to edit in the Widget Assets window and click the Edit button.  You'll be whisked off to Pixlr.com, where you can edit the image to your satisfaction, and then save it back to the App Studio.  Pixlr, we salute you!

SSO enhancements

We updated the registerNewUser SSO call so that you can now set the extended profile questions, about me and postal code using this call. After the release is complete, you can view the updates on the Member Register page in KickDeveloper.

Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think on the KickDeveloper Message Board.

LATEST UPDATE:  The hot fix was completed, and the system is running smoothly.

We’re performing an emergency hot fix release across the KickApps platform the afternoon of Monday June 29, 2009 at approximately 4:30pm ET (8:30pm GMT).  The process should last an hour or two during which your KickApps website will operate normally.

This hot fix will resolve an issue where the updateProfile SSO call was affecting incorrect data fields.  Please check this section of KickDeveloper.com for any updates.

LATEST UPDATE:  The release was completed this morning (Thursday June 18, 2009), and the system is running smoothly.

UPDATE:  The release scheduled for the morning of Tuesday, June 16th has been rescheduled for the morning of Thursday, June 18th, 2009 starting at 12:01AM ET (4AM GMT).  The process will last a few hours during which your KickApps website will operate normally.  You community will not be in read-only mode.

We’ll be performing a release with several enhancements and new features on the morning of Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 3AM ET (7AM GMT).  The release will last approximately three hours during which your community will be in read-only mode.  The new features and platform enhancements include a new set of API calls, privacy controls for member profiles, a couple of DOM changes, and new features in the Widget Studio.

Automatically set new member profile pages to private

New privacy control!  Under Configure > Settings, if you enable profile privacy, you will see an option called "Default all profiles to be private."  Selecting that option will default all newly created profiles within the community to private.

Blank Page Template

We now provide a blank page template that contains only the header and footer of your KickApps hosted community.  Combined with the JavaScript Events API, you can use this template to create a fully customized experience for your visitors by injecting any HTML content you would like.

Learn more about this feature at KickDeveloper.

Update, 6/17: Introducing Widget Gallery Beta

We've added a new "Gallery" tab to the top panel in the App Studio.  This new tab is loaded with a number of pre-built widgets that you can drag to the stage to use in your own project.  We look forward to adding more widgets and skins to the Gallery going forward.  In the near term we'll also be working to expand this functionality and open it up so you can share your widgets with the community as well!

Widget Studio enhancements

We also made a number of tweaks and changes to the Widget Studio.  Here's the ones you'll probably notice:

• Update, 6/17: You can now run JavaScript functions using the Open Custom URL Action.  Very handy for triggering JS functions on the page that the widget is on when the widget throws a certain Event (like when a video starts playing).
  
  
• You can now display members' levels and how many points they've earned by ticking off the Points and/or Levels checkboxes in the Custom Meta section of the List Item Properties panel.
  
• .swf files loaded into the Image/.SWF component can now be resized and masked
• We've replaced the Feed dropdown in the Content panel with an auto-completing dropdown that searches your feeds as you type
  
• You can now apply Actions to the List component, which means you can finally have a hidden video player appear when you click a video in the list!
• Added text truncation ellpises (...) to long component names in layers panel
• Refactored the image component and its properties panel. The updated panel layout clearly distinguishes between whether resizing the image component's bounding box should scale the image with it and lets you center the image vertically and horizontally-- especially helpful when the image component will dynamically load images of different sizes.
  
• Updated behavior to size to the dimensions of the first image/swf loaded into it when dragged/double clicked to stage
• Proxying and bitmap smoothing gif and png when needed as proxy supports
• Added check on actions panel drag operation to fix issue that occurs when a component is dropped on or through it
• Changed feed builder save message

We also addressed the following issues:

• Meebo widget not updating when properties are changed in design mode
• YouTube audio still playing when switching between youtube and regular video
• Audio player not playing on blogs
• "Center content vertical/horizontal" not factored in when "Scale to Fit" wasn't enabled
• Bypassing corrupt null actions
• List component showPreloader=false being ignored in some situations

New API Calls

• Approve media
  
• Reject media
  
• Approve member
• Reject member
• Retrieve Pending Media
• Extend get tag count call to accept multiple media ID's
  
• Extend get article with tag call to accept mutiple media Id's
  
• Block API calls based on IP's

DOM Changes

• A separate body class has been added to the My Friends (.ka_mkp_myFriends) , My Fans (.ka_mkp_MyFans) , and I'm a Fan of (.ka_mkp_FanOf) pages.
• A body ID of #ka_requestGroup has been added to the group request page.
• On the Getting Started page, #ka_manageSubNav has been moved out of #ka_manageContent to conform with all other KA management pages.
• On private profile pages, there was a missing closing div tag on #ka_profilePrivacy that was causing private profile pages to break.  This has been added in.
• On the profile page, the li.ka_profileRSSLink is now identical to the other li's in the list where the icon and the anchor text are both linkable.
• The body class .ka_myhome_pages has been added to the My Fans and I'm a Fan of pages to be consistent with all other KA management pages.
• On the profile page, under .ka_stats, the comments and views areas are now in separate divs, to give users the ability to hide one or the other.
• On the My Groups page, a div #ka_allGroups has been wrapped around the All Groups section, to enable css hiding.
• List pages:  Media list pages now have the body class .ka_listResults while a search results list page has the body class of .ka_searchResults to help distinguish between the two.

Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think on the KickDeveloper Message Board.

UPDATE:  The hot fix was successfully released this morning (Tuesday June 2, 2009), and the system is running smoothly.

We're performing a hot fix release across the KickApps platform tomorrow morning (Tuesday June 2, 2009) at 3AM ET (7AM GMT).  The process should last a few hours during which your KickApps website will operate normally.

The release will address some minor issues and enhancements to improve your members’ experience on your KickApps powered website. Please check this section of KickDeveloper.com for updates.

Key issues this hot fix will address:

1. Links to the most recent message board replies from the Home, My Home, and Profile pages will now take users to the last page of the discussion

2. After posting a message board reply, users will land on the last page of the discussion

3. Fixed an edge case experienced by a few users where message board replies were not appearing

UPDATE:  The hot fix was successfully released this morning (Thursday May 21, 2009), and the system is running smoothly.

We’ll be performing a hot fix release across the KickApps platform tomorrow morning (Thursday May 21, 2009) at 3AM ET (7AM GMT).  The process should last a few hours during which your KickApps website will operate normally.

The release will address some minor issues and enhancements to improve your members’ experience on your KickApps powered website. Please check this section of KickDeveloper.com for updates.

Key issues that the hot fix will address:
1.  Fix problem where some members could not edit their profiles
2.  Add the “Share this” button on Play pages
3.  Performance enhancement to member-to-member emails

Update, 5/14: jQuery upgraded to version 1.3.2

KickApps 4.1 includes updates to your member join and login pages. You can see what these pages will look like by visiting our staging environment at http://staging.kickapps.com/user/displayAffiliateLoginPage.kickAction.

If you're using custom CSS or JavaScript, we recommend going through both of these pages to ensure that your site looks and functions as intended. If you need to make any adjustments to your CSS or JavaScript, you can do so in your Global Page Template on staging, and then copy your changes over to the Global Page Template on your live site. As you'll see below, the new sections on the member join and login pages all use new CSS hooks, so you can target these hooks in the CSS on your live site today without affecting your pages-- the new styles will just lie dormant until the new release. Then, when the new release launches, your new and updated pages will seamlessly assume the new styles.

Please note: The staging environment is loaded with a pre-release version of KickApps 4.1, which means that we're not done testing it yet. You may see a bug or two, and some functionality will be limited (notably, you won't be able to upload videos or send e-mails out from staging).

Diagnosing any style or JS conflicts is best done with Firebug, but we've also put these annotated screenshots together to give you the lay of the land.

On the member join page, you'll find a new section that lets people join using their Facebook, Google, Yahoo, AOL, or OpenID accounts.

We've also added icons for Facebook, Google, Yahoo, AOL, and OpenID to your member login page.

The same icons also appear on your member login pop-up.

Update, 5/14: In addition to these CSS and mark-up changes, we've also upgraded our version of jQuery from 1.2.6 to 1.3.2. This upgrade contains some very minor changes that could affect any jQuery code that you've written. If you find any conflicts with custom jQuery code on your site, we recommend reading the jQuery 1.3.2 release notes and this article on upgrading to jQuery 1.3.

We hope you enjoy checking out these new features on staging. If you have any questions or feedback, please post to the KickDeveloper Message Board. For support issues, e-mail support@kickapps.com.

Early morning EST on Friday, May 15th, we'll be launching a small release including several enhancements to your login and join functionality, a couple new point-earning actions, the ability to set limits on how frequently members can earn points for a given action, and a new set of APIs for the Points & Levels app. Your site will be in read-only mode during the release, from from 3AM - 6AM EST/7AM-10AM GMT.

Please note: this release includes updates to your member join and login pages. If you're using custom CSS or JavaScript, we recommend visiting the KickApps 4.1 staging environment to ensure that your site looks and functions as intended with the new functionality. For more information, check out the KickApps 4.1 page code updates doc.

These threads can also be used to explain how you have accomplished a specific task and to ask for some expert advise on how to tackle a concept you have derived.

Well what are you waiting for? Go show off your community!

REST API Updates

1. The create token call now allows tokens to be created for email addresses as well as usernames. This allows API-based logins on email addresses in addition to existing username-based logins.
2. We've updated the user profile payload to include address1, address2, and address3 fields, for street addresses in addition to the already-existant city, state/province, country, and ZIP/postal code information.
3. We've improved the speed on many of the REST calls for external media content.

SOAP SSO API Updates

1. The change password call no longer requires the user's old password, so it's easier for you to construct this call and reset lost passwords.
2. The updateUserProfile call now affects the stateOrProvince field.
3. We've stopped allowing parentheses in profile photo image paths. If your site uses parentheses in image paths you'll have to URL encode those characters.

RSS API Updates

1. We've added a logical AND option for admin tag queries on RSS feeds (meaning the feed will only include results that match all of the values). Typically, RSS feed parameters that accept multiple comma-separated values treat those values as a logical OR (meaning the feed will include results that match any of the values). To use the logical AND argument, simply add "AND:" to before the list of admin tags, for example: adminTags=AND:dog,cat. This would filter the RSS feed to only include results that were admin tagged both dog and cat. Pay attention - this argument is case-sensitive!
2. We've also added a sortType=relevant argument for RSS feeds. This is a new feature we're experimenting with, so it doesn't appear in the feed builder yet). Give it a spin and let us know what you think.
3. Finally, we've added a groupIds parameter. This filter accepts a comma-separated list of group IDs and filters member results to only include members who have joined the groups listed.
4. Media listings now include contributors' user IDs in the new ka:creatorId node.

General improvements

We've also improved overall site performance for faster searches and browsing, and updated our video blog post functionality to support a wider variety of video recorders.

One change

We've removed the "new friends" count in the "Since you last logged in" section of the My Home page. Members will still receive emails when they make new friends.

That wraps up this release. We're already hard at work on the next one, which includes some slick new features that your community members will love. In the meantime, tell us what you think on the KickDeveloper Message Board.