Fluxiom blog

Two small improvements to notifications

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 01:00:00 +0100

In the spirit of continuous, steady improvement, we are happy to announce two tweaks to how Fluxiom notifies you of important events. These will not fundamentally change how you interact with the application but should, hopefully, further lubricate your workflow at critical junctures.

Stage invitations are now sent to the host

Whenever you invite someone to join a Stage, Fluxiom emails that person with instructions and credentials to log onto the application.

Once in a blue moon, this email got stuck in SPAM filters, causing a small but unnecessary amount of confusion.

To side-step the problem, you will now receive a copy of the credentials that are sent to your guest. This effectively enables you to transmit these credentials easily from your own email address (which the guest already trusts) or through whatever alternate means you see fit.

Unconfirmed files now appear in the Inbox

Whenever a third-party uploads files to your Fluxiom Inbox, they are sent an email asking them to confirm their upload.

It could happen, however, that senders forgot to confirm their files, resulting in delays and frustration while Fluxiom waited for their green light.

To alleviate the issue, the application will now display the files in your Inbox tab, and allow you to confirm them directly, without waiting for the sender to do so. As before, unconfirmed files will be automatically deleted after 24 hours, to prevent clogging.

Flux' from your iPad more efficiently than ever

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 10:00:00 +0200

iPad users, rejoice! We are thrilled to announce that the Fluxiom Uploader works nicely on iOS 6.

On the uploader page, tap the +Add Files button to bring up a native pop-over with direct access to your albums and camera roll. From there, you can select as many images or videos as you want and upload them straight to Fluxiom in a single go.

Once uploaded, you can use your files as you normally would with Fluxiom: share them, add them to Stages, etc. The full Fluxiom web application works beautifully on the iPad.

We cannot wait to hear about the great things you share on the go with Fluxiom on iOS 6. Drop us a line and let us know!

Improvements to the data export feature

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 12:00:00 +0200

Fluxiom never locks you in: our data export feature enables you to download the last version of all your stored assets at the click of a button. Whatever you sent us we send you back, in a ZIP archive. There are no proprietary formats and no sneaky exceptions.

Now that Fluxiom allows you to store tremendous amounts of data in the cloud, these archives sometimes grow extremely large. Once in a while, they get so large that browsers and routers can choke on them mid-way, forcing you to re-start the complete lengthy download a few times, until it goes through.

Obviously, this goes against our « easy out » policy. This is why today we have pushed an updated, improved export feature. There is only one change: instead of sending you one potentially huge ZIP archive, we break your data down into chunks of 5 GB (about one DVD) or 1000 files. Each chunk gets its own archive, which you can download separately from the rest.

There are no other changes, and the export feature is still as complete, as fast and as freely available as it has always been. We hope this tweak makes your life simpler, and look forward to hearing your feedback.

Improved email delivery for all users

Mon, 14 May 2012 10:00:00 +0200

Fluxiom is a wonderful way to avoid email overload, especially when collaborating with others. Email is still part of the experience, though, when it makes the most sense: we mail links and updates to your contacts on your behalf to make sure they see them, and we sometimes need to get rapidly in touch with you about invoices, service updates and account configuration changes.

You might have noticed that, once in a blue moon, Fluxiom emails can get caught in SPAM filters. As SPAM levels rise on the Internet, email administrators require increasingly complex authentication measures: the burden is on us to prove we are good guys.

To that effect, we have now switched to a vastly improved email delivery system, that turns all the authentication knobs to eleven. Rest assured no action is required on your part.

Our emails should now reach you faster, and even fewer will be erroneously marked as SPAM. Going forward, our administrators will also be able to collect global filtering data, and will tweak content or formatting to further improve delivery.

As always, please let us know if you, or anybody you share files with, experience any issues with Fluxiom emails. We are committed to continuously improving and streamlining your experience with the application, and that extends to every single message we send.

Fluxiom becomes more iPad friendly

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:00:00 +0100

With the latest update we made Fluxiom more Finger friendly. Many customers use the iPad on a daily basis so we wanted to improve the experience. Share large files like videos or images on the go or download a PDF right to iBooks, no problem!

Improvements

Smooth scrolling: Thanks to iOS5 we improved the asset view and made browsing files fast and super-smooth. Give it a try!
Toggle select: If you’re on a PC/Mac we’re sure you love the rubberband select and all the desktop like features Fluxiom offers to select files. For the iPad we added a toggle select so you can select multiple individual files. Tap a file to select it, just tab again to deselect.

Two tips to launch Fluxiom even quicker on your iPad

1. Add Fluxiom to your Home Screen

For quick access add Fluxiom to your Home Screen. Open Fluxiom in Safari and tap the Go To icon next to the URL. Tap Add to Home Screen.

2. Setup “Remember me”

When signing in to Fluxiom, you are given the option to check Remember me on this computer, so the next time you open Fluxiom on this device, you are not required to sign in again. As long as you don’t explicitly sign out, Fluxiom will remember you.

We hope you find the new updates helpful. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Fluxiom remembers you (again)

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:00:00 +0200

We have rolled out an update that fixes an issue with the Remember Me functionality.

The old “Remember me” function was not working properly and caused troubles for some of you, and we really regret that. So we put some time aside to not just quickly fix this issue but overhaul the whole process.

When signing in to Fluxiom, you are given the option to click Remember me on this computer, so the next time you open your browser and visit Fluxiom, you are not required to sign in again. As long as you don’t explicitly sign out, Fluxiom will remember your browser.

Fluxiom can also keep you logged in on different machines at the same time. Logging out on one machine will not log you out on any other computer or mobile device where you previously logged in with “Remember me” checked.

The “Remember me” functionality is a great option for your personal computers or your mobile devices. However if you are using a publicly-accessible computer we recommend to not use the “Rembember me” functionality or at least make sure that you click “Sign out” before you leave the computer.

We also added additional security updates and included SSL encryption for the Login page for all accounts. While full SSL encryption is included in all Pro-and-higher plans we have added SSL secure encryption for the Login page for all Fluxiom accounts, including the Free accounts.

We hope this improvements make it more convenient for you to access Fluxiom from your different devices be it your laptop, iPad or your office machine.

Happy fluxin’
The Fluxiom Team

PS: We also made a bunch of other changes, we will cover in a separate post…

More API improvements

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 05:05:00 +0200

We just launched an update to the Fluxiom API that brings some big performance improvements, making response times significantly faster.

As part of these improvements, we introduced pagination for assets. Now assets are returned in batches (‘pages’) instead of all at once, and the number of items per page is configurable so you get back only what you need.

There are numerous other goodies, including JSONP support and asset counts for tags.
For full details please refer to the API docs to see what’s new, and if the changes affect your app.

As always, if you have any issues with the API please let us know.

Call it The Uploadinator

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 08:00:00 +0200

Ok, we are, admittedly, just kidding. Still, we have been hard at work to renew the entire file upload interface in Fluxiom. Built from scratch we included features previously reserved for the native Fluxiom Uploader App.

The new interface provides a seamless upload experience from the desktop to your Fluxiom account, including multiple uploads, drag and drop support, live previews, one-click sharing and editing.

With the new interface it is a snap to upload multiple files in a single go or add files to the queue once your upload is already in progress. And yes, it also supports drag and drop. Common actions like preview, share or edit are available for each file so you can immediately take action.

Drag-and-drop support

Drag-and-drop support makes uploading files as convenient as moving them around on your computer. The whole upload window acts as a large drop target for immediate and fluid action: small menus and upload forms are a thing of the past.

Better recovery from errors

Slicing the files allows the uploader to recover from errors by picking up an upload where it left off, thereby using dramatically less time and bandwidth. This feature is currently supported in Firefox 4+ and Chrome.

One-click actions

We also added smart shortcuts right to the uploads list so that you can immediately take action on your uploaded files:

Preview, edit and sharing is just one click away.

The new uploader has already gone live and is available in your account by the time you read these lines. We encourage you to give it a try without delay and look forward to hearing your thoughts. And remember, we are always here for you should you encounter any difficulties whatsoever.

Fluxiom Uploader hits the Mac App Store

Tue, 10 May 2011 10:00:00 +0200

It was long in the coming, but so worth the wait! We are delighted to announce that Apple just approved our brand-new Fluxiom Uploader for inclusion in the Mac App Store. In addition to featuring a crisp new look, the uploader packs all your most requested features:

Mac App Store distribution means secure
deployment and automatic updates across all your machines.
Full 64-bit compatibility ensures faster, smoother
uploads with unshakable stability when dealing with voluminous files.
Multiple account support, with quick-account switching,
of course, makes it a snap to use the uploader at work or play.
Discreet Dock badges keep you abreast of the status of your files,
so that you can focus on your main work, not the uploads.

If you are holding out for Lion and are not yet rocking Mac OS X v. 10.6.6+, please know we are still supporting our original fluxUp! application and will continue to do so for the weeks to come.

Interface gallery

The main window has been redesigned with crisp progress indicators and one-click access to the most-frequently used file-related actions: add, remove, preview, pause and resume. And if you count design as a feature, like we do, notice we are rocking a new logo to celebrate Fluxiom’s 5th anniversary.

Upload files and folders with drag-and-drop ease right from your desktop

Dock badges keep you abreast of the status of your files

Switching accounts is always a literal two clicks away, allowing you to deal with personal or professional files right from the same location. It also works great if your company prefers to keep things solidly partitioned and maintains smaller, separate fluxiom accounts for its various departments…

Manage multiple Fluxiom accounts

Get Fluxiom Uploader from the Mac App Store with your usual Apple ID credentials. It’s free, as always. We hope you like it as much as we do, and encourage you to contact us with any questions.

Happy Fluxday!

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 11:00:00 +0200

Five years ago, to the day, Fluxiom was born out of a desire to share photos and mock-ups with our clients. It was an experiment in Web 2.0 before it became a buzzword, and it pushed the boundaries of what a site could do by bringing a desktop-like interface to the browser.

Thanks to your loyal and enthusiastic support, Fluxiom has grown beyond all our expectations. You have shown us the way to more and better features, demonstrated über-cool uses of your very own, from business to the arts, and kept us on the edge of our seats by expecting nothing but the best, which we strive to deliver and hope we have.

We will soon have announcements for you as the next generation of Fluxiom is banging on the door, asking to be released from the lab. But today is about celebrating the community that made it possible and turned an experiment into a solid and successful service.

Please join us in some Fluxiom cakes and the green drink of your choice. And here is to the next five years at the side of our terrific users!