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What’s Coming In JomSocial 4.0?

You already know about the new Theme Designer feature, right? Pro license holders can now create their own moods and badges, add profile information on the cover, control colors, and more. I also told you about supporting hashtags and an optimized CSS. Pretty cool.

Today I want to tell you about other new features and improvements that are coming to version 4.0.

Photos Open In A Modal Window

We’d been getting requests for this. People wanted photos on the stream and on photo albums to open in a modal window with comments on the right (just like Facebook).

You got it.



But we went further. All the actions you can take on the viewed photo are right there at the bottom. Tagging is there too, easy and fun to use!

The same is true of videos. They can also be opened in a modal window when accessed from the videos page.

You’re going to love it. And if you still prefer it the old way, you can just change the settings to open in “Same Window.”

Videos Open Inside The Stream

Another popular request was to make videos open right inside the stream instead of in a pop up. You got that too. Check it out.

Events Page Re-Designed

We thought that the Events page was looking a bit old so we figured we’d just spruce it up a touch.

We totally redesigned it!

The new design is stunning, simple and easy to use. Take a look below.


Single event view can be admired below. 

Groups Page Re-Designed

And once we’d done the events page, we thought the Groups page needed a bit of work too. It’s now looking much cleaner and contains a lot more information about the groups.

Single group view can be admired below.

Members’ Pages

Even before I took over JomSocial, it had always bothered me that there was no page called “Members.” It just didn’t make sense. I wanted to see all the members of a community in one place!

Sure, you could add a menu item to a page and there were other ways of seeing the members, but there was no Members page by default and that was just wrong.

Now we have a new menu item on the toolbar called “Members.” It takes you to a beautifully designed page that shows all the members in the community. We also moved “Search” and “Advanced Search” under that menu item. It’s a much more logical place to put it. If you plan to upgrade, you’ll have to make those changes manually. New installations will contain them automatically.

A number of pages contain lists of members, such as search results, friends lists and pending friends. They all now have the new design. Take a look below. It’s much simpler and easier on the eyes.

Tabbed Apps And Modules

When we separated all the modules on the front page and created standalone modules, that was an important move. Now we’ve gone one step further. You can now put each of the modules in the same position. They’ll appear as tabs.

You’ll be able to show a lot more information in a more compact and optimised space.

About Me Moves Home

We’ve moved the profile information in 4.0. It had been displayed only by a link under the cover. Now it’s located in a tab right next to the stream tab. It’s much more visible and easier to find.

Sub-Menus Redesigned

I spent a significant amount of time going over all the JomSocial pages and their sub-menus. It was often confusing and inconsistent, and there was some overkill on some pages. Version 4.0’s sub-menus are much simpler and easier to navigate. They make a lot more sense.

Calls to Action Are Clearer

When you look at a page, you should know what to do. For example, if a community owner is looking at a list of groups, they should be able to see clearly how to create a group.

Obvious, right?

And yet, creating that group wasn’t obvious. The community owner needed to press a simple link that was hard to see.

In version 4.0 it’s a big, obvious button at the top right.

You’ll see a button like this on Events, Messages, Friends and more. Super user-friendly!

Really Private Events And Groups

Another popular request was for the ability to create truly private groups and events.

You got that too.

Simply mark the second check box, as you see below, and the event or group will be completely private. It won’t show on the list of events or groups and it won’t be accessible directly either.

There’s More!

The list of changes and improvements goes on and on. There’s plenty more for you to discover and enjoy when you get your hands on version 4.0. That will happen early next year so watch out for it. It will be worth waiting for!

 

Visit our community to see JomSocial 4 Alpha in action!

 

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