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Friday, January 09, 2009

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Smart-Thinker UserProfile 4.3.15 Released - Location Search

This version introduces a new beta feature called Location Search which you can see in action on PokerDIY. Users can drill down by Country, Region and finally City (user data-driven) and search for users at each level. The Smart-Thinker Groups module, Event module and any other location-based module will be able to take advantage of this. For example, you might drill down to a particular city and the results page will show all users, groups, events etc for that location.

Smart-Thinker UserGroups 4.3.8 Released - Ifinity SiteMap Integration + SEO

This version integrates with the Ifinity Sitemap provider and has some SEO benefits. You can read the Full Release notes here.

Crowdsourcing Development Model = Free Social Networking Product Suite + Increased Productivity?

There is a very interesting proposal/debate going on on the Smart-Thinker Forums regarding the leveraging of multiple customer's buying power to pay for Sponsored Enhancements (Crowdsourcing) to increase the Smart-Thinker productivity output.

The basic idea is that a list of estimates is done for all major feature requests. Customers can then "bid" to sponsor a feature and have a say in the specification and requirements for the feature. When the full amount for the project is reached and the majority of project sponsors agree on the spec and deliverables then the enhancement is developed. The majority once again must sign it off for it to be accepted. The full detail of the proposal can be found

Publish Ventrian News Article events to your profile feed and output your profile URLs to Google Sitemaps with Ifinity

The Smart-Thinker Social Networking Product Suite allows you to integrate any 3rd party module with the profile feed. As of UserProfile version 4.3.14, the popular Ventrian News Article module (version 0.7.17+) now publishes events to the profile feed. It also integrates with the Ifinity Google Sitemap Provider so you can output a list of all your profiles to your Google Sitemap (more on that later).

Here is an example of a poker blog that was commented on by this

Integrate your module with the Smart-Thinker UserProfile StoryFeed API and publish events to the feed

As of UserProfile 4.3.12, any module can now publish event actions to the StoryFeed view (have a look at this profile on PokerDIY (bottom right) if you have not seen the feed). For example, if you had a Gallery module you could publish an event whenever someone uploads a new picture, or if you had a News article you could send an event whenever an article was published or approved. Hopefully by the time this blog is posted the Ventrian News Article module will be published events to the Smart-Thinker UserProfile feed.

DotNetNuke CodeSmith Templates with IHydratable

Do you use CodeSmith and the original DNNJungle C# templates to generate your DAL for your DotNetNuke Modules?

We've made some small changes to keep them up to date with the core changes, the main enhancment being the addition of the IHydratable Interface in the Info object. You can download our C# template set from our Free DotNetNuke Downloads page.

Smart-Thinker UserGroups 4.3.6 Released - SEO and bugfixes

This module allows users to create private or public groups of users. Groups can be public and joinable or closed to new membership, and the group owner can decide if new members require approval or not. Users can search groups by Category, Country or freetext tags. If the group allows new members then they can join the group. The group owner can send Private Messages to the group or invite groups to Events. This module was based loosely on the MySpace and Facebook Groups implementation.

See the Poker Groups on PokerDIY for an example of an implementation (here is an example of a Alabama poker group).

Smart-Thinker UserProfile 4.3.11 Released

The new version of the UserProfile module mainly has SEO enhancements and bugfixes. Before upgrading, please read this post about the CSS changes and what you need to do. This version is neccessary if you are using the Wall module 4.3.2

You can see it in action on PokerDIY (feel free to set up an account to test) or you can download a trial version here.

Customizing the FCK Editor in DotNetNuke - Adding smileys and stripping down icons in toolbars

Objective: I wanted to customize the look of the FCK Editor on PokerDIY and allow users to select poker card icons as custom smileys in all modules that use the Rich HTML Editor, for example, Private Messages, the Poker Forums (in particular) and on all Wall posts (for example on Poker Player Profiles and Event Walls).
After reading my web usability book ("

Free and nasty Localization using Google Translate

I have recently implemented Google Translate tools on PokerDIY so that you can browse the site in a few different languages (apparently everyone plays poker these days!) and I thought I would mention it as not everyone knows about this great translation service. Go to PokerDIY and click on the flags in the top right corner to view the site in another language.

I do plan on doing a full-blown multi-lingual site one day when I can afford the cost of a translation service and have the time to implement it, but there are a LOT of poker FAQs and help text that would be expensive to translate and maintain (every upgrade and site change would require a new translation and documenting the change - it's a management nightmare). I therefore decided t

Module Update - Smart-Thinker Wall 4.3.2 Released

The Smart-Thinker Wall module allows you to attach a Facebook-style Wall to a Group, Event, UserProfile or other entity. This allows users to collaborate, discuss or simply leave comments (It is not designed to replace the Forums module).This was a sponsored enhancement/project and is based loosely on the Facebook Wall design and is fully templatable/localisable so you can change the look and feel to match your site.

To see this module in action, have a look at my PokerDIY profile, this

Example of Gallery Integration with Smart-Thinker UserProfile Module

I often get asked how best to integrate the Smart-Thinker Product Suite with a Gallery module. I also get a lot of requests to write a gallery module as part of the UserProfile module, but I dislike reinventing the wheel and prefer to concentrate on integration with a dedicated gallery solution.

I recently had this very requirement myself on PokerDIY and have implemented the UltraMediaGallery 5 module with the Smart-Thinker UserProfile module (as mentioned in the UMG UserGuide) and it really is a great looking match.

Smart-Thinker Events 4.3.7 Released (Requires DNN 4.6.0+)

Smart-Thinker Events is a DotNetNuke Event Management System with email notifications.

This module can be seen in action on PokerDIY.com (Find live poker games and leagues). The email templates on PokerDIY have been customized so that the "From" person punches in to their profile, and the event punches directly in to the event detail page.

Smart-Thinker server upgrade complete!

Hopefully you will have noticed that the Smart-Thinker website and The DotNetNuke Directory (and of course PokerDIY, our DotNetNuke poker social networking site) is a lot more responsive and quicker.

New Module - Smart-Thinker Wall 4.3.1 Released

The new Smart-Thinker Wall module allows you to attach a Facebook-style Wall to a Group, Event, UserProfile or other entity. This allows users to collaborate, discuss or simply leave comments.This was a sponsored enhancement/project and is based loosely on the Facebook Wall design and is fully templatable/localisable so you can change the look and feel to match your site.

Smart-Thinker UserProfile 4.3.10 Released

The new version of the UserProfile module has a single token improvement (ISINROLE) to display data based on a user's role. and a few small bug fixes. You can see it in action on PokerDIY (feel free to set up an account to test) or you can download a trial version here.

Smart-Thinker UserProfile 4.3.9 Released

The new version of the UserProfile module has optimisation and integration improvements.

UserProfile Templating and Forum Integration

The core DNN forums has it's own limited user profile system built into it. We already use the Smart-Thinker UserProfile to display templated views of the core profile data, so we want to remove the Forums UserProfiles and redirect all views to the Smart-Thinker UserProfile module, thus providing the user with a single user interface and more pleasing browsing experience.

Smart-Thinker UserGroups 4.3.5 Released - Member Approval & MyFriends

Major Update: Group Member Approval (this was a sponsored enhancement) - group owners can decide if new member requests require approval or not. Users can now accept or decline group invitations (before they were instanly added). Now offers better integration with the Smart-Thinker UserProfile module, so that when inviting new members to your group you can select from All site users, MyFriends or both (this is a module-level setting). This follows the Facebook concept of only allowing users to interact with their Friend Lists. Email templates are used which can be localised to improve usability. Caching and SQL optimisations improvements have been ported in this version.

Smart-Thinker Events 4.3.6 Released - Role Filter/Location/Caching

The new version of the Smart-Thinker Events DNN Module is now available for download.

What's ahead for the Smart-Thinker Product Suite

A quick summary of what you can expect from your fav DNN modules

Smart-Thinker UserGroups 4.3.4 Released - "Add to Groups"

The latest version of the social-networking component - Smart-Thinker UserGroups - has now been released

Sorry for the recent downtime...

We've recently had to migrate to better, faster servers to handle all the traffic PokerDIY.com is getting these days (almost 2000 visitors per day), and we hit a few snags along the way that meant Smart-Thinker and PokerDIY were down for a few hours or a bit sluggish.

Smart-Thinker UserProfile 4.3.8 Released

The latest version of the popular UserProfile module introduces some new tokens like "Add to Group". It is highly recommended that you upgrade to this version.

Smart-Thinker UserProfile 4.3.7 Released

The latest version of the popular UserProfile module has massive performance improvements and introduces profile caching to reduce DB traffic. It is highly recommended that you upgrade to this version.

Smart-Thinker Events 4.3.5 Released

Smart-Thinker Events is a DotNetNuke Event Management System with email notifications - This version is essential if you are using DNN 4.5+ This module can be seen in action on PokerDIY.com (A free service to manage your home poker leagues).

Smart-Thinker forum problems and downtime

Recently Smart-Thinker was moved onto a new VPS server. Since then we've had a range of problems. We are aware of this and ask for your patience please.

Smart-Thinker Events 4.3.3 Released

Major new features are improvements to the Guest templating system, and the ability to publish text in the event detail based on the RSVP. There are a lot of bug fixes in this version.

Recurring Events - Architecture and Suggestions

I want to implement Recurring Events in the ST Events module, but there are a number of architectural design decisions to make.

Smart-Thinker UserProfile 4.3.5 Released

The latest version comes with MySpace-like MyFriends capabilities - see PokerDIY for an example (feel free to set up an account to test) or you can download a trial version.

The HomePage module is being retired from the Smart-Thinker Product Suite

It is with much regret that I've decided to retire this module from the suite due to a number of reasons...

Future of the Smart-Thinker UserProfile module

If you use this module please take a moment to read and understand the direction this module will be moving in...

Event module update and upcoming features

I was recently asked about what was in the next version of the events module so I thought I would blog about it. We looking at a release in the next 3-4 weeks, depending on other requirements and projects I am working on. I am giving a broad range as dev is progressing well but I have lots of ideas I want to get in and it’s a question of freezing dev and moving it into testing and QA and then packaging it (something always comes up!). The hardest thing for me is to stop working on it (and believe me I have a years worth of good ideas for EACH of the Smart-Thinker modules alone!) and actually release it.

PokerDIY - Free tools, leagues and resources for home poker players

A little while ago we decided to start a real website powered by Smart-Thinker modules in order to dogfood and demonstrate our products on a real, live community-based website.

Increase productivity on Smart-Thinker Products and brand

On a personal level, you may be aware that I have a full-time job as an Analyst Programmer in a London software company and work on Smart-Thinker in my spare time. What exists today has been built over the last year and a half on weekends and a few hours during the week when time permitted.

Portal Licensing and Price model change

In most other industries, software and components are sold with volume licenses, or per seat, developer or server. This concept has not really taken off in the commercial DotNetNuke module world, although curiously I have seen many skins that come with a “Single Portal” restriction. Most modules are sold with very laid-back licenses and few restrictions, although recently I have seen “Single Server” licenses (i.e. one DNN Installation) and a few other variants. I do, however, think that the Portal License is the best way forward and the most fair…

Smart-Thinker Redesign and Focus

You may have noticed some changes recently – we’ve tried to make things less cluttered and simpler on Smart-Thinker!

DotNetNuke 4.3.3 “Final Release” available for download

It’s the moment we have all been waiting for – the “Final Release” of DotNetNuke 4.3 (It seems as though it will be versioned 4.3.3) has been released. This version is a minor update from 4.3.2, and I would imagine the DNN core team were focusing on stability and scalability issues raised during the recent DogFooding session.

The DotNetNuke Directory + FAQ, Simple SQL and Module Search

As a regular Forum user (I answer a lot of questions and ask quite a few myself!) I often see the same questions over and over again. What also struck me was the amount of information available to the DNN community that was hidden on websites all over the web. Just today I found a DNN website with some great free modules that I had never seen before, and I thought I had quite a good handle on what was out there!

DNN Module Trial Licenses – Try before you buy!

I get a lot of requests from users who want to test the Smart-Thinker modules before buying them. I always point them to the online demos, but these users have a very valid point. Why would you want to buy something before seeing if it actually meets your requirements? How do you guage quality without a hands-on test? You can look at shoes in a window to get an idea of the product, but it’s fairly common to try the shoes on before buying them.

Testimonials

For anyone who is new to DNN, or looking to extend their DNN site with well thought out and well supported social networking modules, look no further! I searched for months and experimented with several so-called social networking modules, only to find their interoperability, upgrade frequency, reliability - and most importantly their support severely lacking. The thought and effort behind smart-thinker is unequalled in my opinion, and the social networking modules are the best the DNN community has to offer. In addition to the membership, I signed up for premium support with Rodney, and it was worth every penny and more. He is very efficient, straightforward and professional, and I would highly recommend premium support to anyone learning the ropes. Thanks Again Rodney!!! 365mammoth.com - Brian Murphy	November, 2008

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