Commons 2.4.0

I’ve just released version 2.4.0 of the CUNY Academic Commons. This is a feature release for the Commons, one of our twice-yearly versions that includes major improvements on top of our typical bug fixes and maintenance.

Our attention during the 2.4.0 release cycle has been focused on our ongoing site redesign. Since version 2.0.0, we have done a visual and structural overhaul of the home page, our about/informational pages, our help documentation, and member pages/CVs.

In version 2.4.0, we’ve given the same treatment to individual groups. Groups are a locus of collaboration on the site, and we’ve worked hard to extend our new visual aesthetic to all parts the Group toolbox.

In addition to a reskin of Groups, we’ve also redesigned the invitation modal that can be accessed throughout the site.

For complete details on the release, visit the 2.4.0 milestone.

Commons 2.2.2

I’ve just released version 2.2.2 of the CUNY Academic Commons. This maintenance release includes the following fixes:

  • Fixed a bug that prevented group creation
  • Fixed bug that prevented menus from being saved in the Customizer in certain cases
  • Fixed bug that prevented the Author dropdown from appearing when editing blog posts
  • Changed behavior of group settings, so that changing a group’s privacy level from public to non-public results in existing activity items being marked as non-public as well
  • Fixed bug that caused 404 errors on the primary site not to be displayed correctly
  • Hid Jetpack’s new AI helper feature
  • Fixed the way that the Google Scholar profile link is built

For complete details, visit the 2.2.2 milestone.

Commons 1.14.2

I’ve just released version 1.14.2 of the CUNY Academic Commons. This is a maintenance release, which addresses the following bugs:

  • Fix escaped quotes on Public Portfolio widgets
  • Increase performance when deleting bbPress topics and replies
  • Increase performance of activity queries with respect to Social Paper filtering
  • Fix bug in BuddyPress that could cause incorrect metadata to be stored for post items in some cases
  • Remove Simple CSS metabox from front-end interface, especially in Events
  • Fix bug preventing the creation of groups in some cases
  • Fix bug that caused Submit button to be inaccessible in some cases when previewing forum post
  • Fix bug in Site Layout tool that prevented site privacy settings from being saved properly
  • Add notice when leaving site creation process (as to visit a demo site) without saving changes

For complete details, visit the 1.14.2 milestone.

Commons 1.8

I’ve just released version 1.8 of the CUNY Academic Commons. Version 1.8 is a major feature release for the Commons. Features of note:

  • An events calendar for Commons groups and users. The calendar allows users to create events and link these events to one or more groups. Users can then view events on individual or group calendars. Group-linked events are also hooked into our group email notification system. On the technical side, this feature is powered by a plugin called BP Event Organiser, written by Commons team members Raymond Hoh, Christian Wach, and Boone Gorges. BP Event Organiser is, in turn, an add-on for the popular Event Organiser, by Stephen Harris. Event Organiser is freely available in the wordpress.org repo. BP Event Organiser is available via Github, though please note that it’s still in beta form; a cleaned-up version for general use is planned fo the future.
  • When creating a new forum topic in a bbPress-powered group forum, users can optionally cross-post the new topic to other groups that they’re a member of. This custom functionality was developed by Daniel Jones of the Commons development team.
  • Users can now search through the contents of a single bbPress-powered group forum. This is powered by a custom plugin, bbp-single-forum-search, written by Ray Hoh of the Commons dev team.

The Commons 1.8 news post has a more complete round-up of new user-facing features in this release.

Commons 1.8 is also a major plugin/theme update release, including an upgrade to the WordPress 4.2.x series.

For complete details on the release, visit the 1.8 milestone.

Commons 1.7.7

I’ve just released version 1.7.7 of the CUNY Academic Commons. This maintenance release, which is also a major-update release, contains a number of plugin updates, as well as:

  • Improved stability for reply by email functionality
  • Fixed a bug that incorrectly showed an error message when inviting members to a group during group creation

For complete details, visit the 1.7.7 milestone.

Commons 1.6.4

I’ve just released version 1.6.4 of the CUNY Academic Commons. This is a maintenance release. Major items:

– Major plugin updates, as announced in https://dev.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2014/05/06/major-commons-plugin-updates-scheduled-for-may-21-2014/. Notably, this includes BuddyPress 2.0.1, which is a major update for the platform and should result in notable performance improvements throughout the social parts of the site.
– Update WordPress to 3.9.1
– A number of minor plugin updates
– New theme: Spun
– New plugin: Social Stickers
– Fixed bug that caused fatal errors when creating groups in some cases
– Fixed bug that caused improper error feedback when adding a link to your profile

For complete details on the release, visit the 1.6.4 milestone.