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We are currently working on several exciting updates. The first "Publish-IT" will be released Monday 2/11 to all of our clients. Publish-IT will give our users desktop speed, easy graphics
We have been anticipating an upgrade for IcthusConnect to Zimbra 5.0 for the past month. The 5.0 version was released on 12/31 but it still has about 70 Bugs , some of them, like "all day calendar
We are currently evaluating the use of Live Writer as a tool for adding and editing information through the hosting framework. There will be several advantages to this method for some users,
We are about to update all installations with a new version of the Content Publisher (News Articles) module. The new version allows for those with module edit permissions to not only add new entries but also change the author of the entry.
This feature should be especially helpful for those who need to add content for others. It should also work very well when using the module for podcasting sermon audio. The Pastor will now be able to be set as the author.
We are doing some internal testing and should have the module updated on all installations by the end of the week. An email will go out to all administrators.
This is the first update in a series of updates for this module that will be adding several new features.
We are currently testing a new module that will allow site visitors to subscribe to any RSS feed from any website. The module will go out periodically and check the feeds for new content, then send an email to the subscriber.
This will work especially good with the content publisher module. As a matter of fact it is designed to harvest the available feeds for that module.
I'm sure there will be some clean up required, but it won't be long before it is available on all installations.
We are pleased to offer IcthusConnect powered by Zimbra™, a full featured collaboration suite. It is now eaisier than every to keep your organization organized.
IcthusConnect is currently only available to our exisiting client base. Learn more about the offering here.
Watch a breif video presentation here.
4.5 is released today! We have upgraded several non-critical installations and are testing performance a module compatibility on this site. We will also be upgrading and moving TheChurchDoor.com early next week.
If all goes well installation upgrades will begin in the next few weeks!
Google Anayltics provides detailed reporting for your website. Setting up the reporting process requires that you have a Google Account and that every page on your website contains the script required to capture your data. We must insert the script directly into the code of your page for the Analytics reporting to be effective.
To get started, if you do not already have a Google account create one here
Once your account is created complete the form here
The upgrade to 4.3.6 was short. A new release was issued within days adressing some minor bugs and 4.3.7 has been released. We will be upgrading nearly all installations over the next few weeks to 4.3.7. Site administrators will be notified via email prior to the updates.
As noted earlier, this is a stablization release with very minor enhancements. No new documentation or tutorials will be required.
This site has been upgraded to 4.3.6 for testing. We will be upgrading all other installations over the next several weeks when we are confident this version is stable.
Wow, I did not realize it had been so long since I made an entry here. We have plowed through several updates over the past few months. Most sites have been updated to 4.3.4 with the new editor. 4.3.5 is right around the corner and after a few weeks of testing and "Dog Fooding" that update will be applied as well.
All servers have also just been updated with the latest security patches.
We have deployed an additional server this week sporting a 40% increase in processor speed and twice as much RAM as the original hosting server. A few installations have been moved over to run under the new server for testing with some new installations to be added. This server is also running ASP.NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005.
There are also some additional upgrades in the works. DotNetNuke® 3.2 and 4.0 have been released. I think I'll stick with 3.1.1 for a bit as there are some minor issues with the latest releases. I'm sure a stabilization release will be out shortly. At the same time we make the upgrade there will also be some enhancements.
Some of you may have also noticed a slight change in the News module. The new interface makes it far more intuitive to create an article, especially one with multiple pages. All sites should be upgraded with this module before the end of November.
Next on the list is a migration of the current mail server.
According to some of the core team members for DotNetNuke™ the release of 3.1.1 is only days away. This is only a stabilization release but we will be upgrading all installations after the release is proven stable and we are sure there are no significant bugs.
At the same time as the upgrade we will be making some significant hardware changes here to accommodate our recent growth. A new dual processor server will be added to provide for future expansion and our mail server will be moving to a new more powerful machine to prepare for increased webmail usage.
The transition will follow the path below.
- September 1st
- Prepare the new mail server for use.
- September 2nd
- Inform all mail administrators of server migration
- September 6th
- Migrate all mail accounts to the new server
- September 12th
- Prepare new hosting server
- September 13th
- Begin installation migration and upgrade to new hosting environment
This hosting migration will most likely take several days to complete. All site administrators will be given 48 hours advance notice for a "content freeze" while content and databases are moved. We anticipate each content freeze will last less than 1 hour. All moves will be done during the late night - early morning hours to reduce the impact on administrators and users.
The next release of DNN is in testing. I would expect a release within the next few weeks. There are no real visible enhancements, most of the changes revolve around stabilization. One major change will increase performance on page updates which has been an issue for some users.
The upgrade process will be the same as always.
- Wait 1 to 2 weeks after initial release for stabilization and to make sure there are no nasty bugs.
- Upgrade IcthusTech.com and run for 1 week of "Dog Fooding"
- Begin the upgrade of each installation. Administrators will be notified when their "Content Freeze" will take place.
There should be NO downtime as we upgrade installations.
A single installation has been updated to the latest release of the "Simple Gallery" module. After the next stabilization release all installations will be upgraded.
You can get a sneak peek at some nice galleries here and here.
I have a feeling this may quickly become one of the most popular modules.
There are several updates that need to be performed on the forum module. There are a few bugs that need to be fixed, but there is also a very valuable add-on right around the corner.
The upgrade process will be done over the next few days, and the add-on, a module to use your forums like a list-server will be available sometime next week.
The uses for this add on will be wide spread. It will allow individuals to subscribe to a forum thread and receive updates via email. They can then reply to those emails to respond to everyone else who has a subscription to the forum. The powerful aspect of the module is it's ability to update the forum as well for historical purposes.
Another use will need to be tested, but imagine updating your site by sending it an email!
Great things to come......
Nearly all installations have been updated to 3.1. There are a few
that have not been updated, I will be contacting the administrators for
those sites individually to talk about what's required. In addition to
upgrading all of the 3.0.13 installations I have also be able to
upgrade a 2.1.2 installation. Several of the 3rd party modules were not
upgradable, and some of those that were did not upgrade gracefully. It
will take several weeks before everything runs smoothly there.
One
of the features of the new release is the ability to rename custom
modules with easier to understand "Friendly" names. News Articles can
now be "News Articles" instead of DNNForge-News Articles. Many of the
modules will be renamed in the next week, I'll publish a "Cross
Reference" so everyone knows what has changed to what. I doubt it will
be required, as now the module names will actually denote what the
module does!
Scott McCulloch has also been very busy with
several of his modules. There is a new release of the News Articles
module as well as the Private Messenger. One of the major enhancements
to the news article module is the fact that an article will not say
"Read More" if there is no more to read!
As many of you are painfully aware, there was a significant power outage at the data center we use in Virginia. If you would like to see exactly what happened and how things progressed you can read about it here.
Icthus has been using Server Beach to host our dedicated servers for over a year and we have never experienced an outage of more than a few minutes, so overall their performance is very good. You can also see by their response, and the frequency of information that they are concerned about customer satisfaction, and just as importantly data and hardware protection. I would much rather be without service for a period of time than in a position requiring the rebuilding and restoring of all the required data.
Again, we apologize for any inconvenience during the outage. I'll keep you up to date here to detail the steps our provider is taking to see this does not happen again.
The latest version of the core has been released. The upgrade process will be as follows:
- Install a test environment to run over the weekend and monitor project forums to watch for any issues.
- Upgrade this site, icthustech.com and dogfood the latest release along with several module enhancements.
- Begin upgrading all hosted installations.
All site administrators will receive an email notifying them of the upgrade date and time. There will also be a content freeze during the upgrade process.
The next release of DNN has been imminent for about 2 weeks now. The reason for the hold up is a issue with the web.config file during upgrade. The web.config file hold all of the information required to make the installation run, database info etc. One of the major things held here is the MachineKeys. These keys are created during the installation. If they are lost or changed the site will be useless as nobody will be able to log in. This would not be an issue if those doing the upgrade would back everything up 1st, but as we all know that will not always happen.
Waiting for the new release has slowed things down a bit. There is a new release for the forums I would like to install as well as some fixes for the editor, but my guess is after the 3.1 release of the core all of these will need to be looked at again, as well as half the other modules. So I'm going to hang on a bit longer and see if the new release comes out in the next few days. Once it's out I'll upgrade this installation. Then, after it runs stable for a few days I'll upgrade the rest of the installs.
I thought some of you might enjoy reading about some of the more technical aspects of how the portal operates. I'll be adding entries here discussing some of the more technical aspects of the portal system your all using and what's happening with it and some of the 3rd party modules.
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