webNetwork

We’re introducing a new video player to webNetwork 3.1. It looks more modern and sleek, but more importantly has a lot more functionality which we plan to take advantage of in the future. Everything will look the same as before, only with the new player. You can also switch back to the old player if you prefer it.

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The next release of webNetwork will have a great new search feature. Similar to Facebook, your members will have the ability to easily search for their friends. When signed in, webNetwork will automatically auto-complete a users search form and show potential matches as they type. This search form will only work when you’re logged in, and will only show friends in the results, but you can still search normally when not logged in, or when there are no matches.

In the screenshot below, you’ll see that I started typing “al”, and two potential results came back. I can then click on either result to load their profiles.

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I thought I’d go into more detail on our Facebook Connect feature now that it’s mostly finalized. Our Facebook Connect integration allows members to register for your site with the click of a button. Instead of filling out the rather lengthy registration form and profile setup, all members have to do is authorize your site to grab their Facebook information, and it’s automatically imported for you. Best of all, they do this without ever having to give you their Facebook username/password, so members won’t have any security concerns about giving our their login info.

Let’s outline the entire process with some screen grabs. First, you’ll notice that the login form now has a Facebook Connect button:

Clicking the button will bring up a notification from Facebook to authorize your site to access their Facebook account:

That’s it! Users are then automatically logged into your site with a profile of their own:

We import as much data as we can. If members have a picture (almost everyone does), it’s imported. If members have interests, hobbies, or any of the other fields that webNetwork and Facebook have in common, we import those as well. The entire process takes 10 seconds! It’s so easy, your visitors will have no hesitation in registering for your site.

In addition to the frontend features, I’d like to highlight a couple features you’ll have access to as an administrator. Facebook requires you to generate a Developer Key for the site to plug in with Facebook. Adding that information is a breeze in the admin area:

What’s great about being part of Facebook Connect’s program is that it will also allow you to promote your site right through Facebook. You can submit it to the Facebook Directory, which advertises all apps on Facebook, pay for advertising, and get your friends to join the app (which is a great opportunity to make use of viral marketing, since their friends will also see that they joined).

Let us know what you think!

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We’re excited to announce another great feature for webNetwork: Facebook connect support! Facebook’s advanced API allows other social networks to use their platform. What does this mean for your site? Members no longer have to create a new username/password, they can simply log in with their Facebook ID. We also import all of the Facebook profile data that we can, their profile picture, and send status updates to their Facebook accounts!

This feature will be added in the upcoming release (within 1-2 weeks).

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We’ll be adding adding Twitter support in webNetwork in an upcoming minor release (within the next two weeks). When members update their profile status, our software will automatically tweet their status to their Twitter account. We may add your site URL to the end of the tweet as well.

Let us know what you think, and if there’s anything we missed! We’re open to any suggestions for making our Twitter integration even better.

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We’re excited to announce the release of webNetwork 3.0! Below are some of the features we’ve included in the new release:

• Activity feeds
  See what your friends are doing on the site. Similar to Facebook’s feeds where members see when their friend post new pictures, wall posts, etc.
• Status feature
  Lets members post what they are currently doing, and show it in their profile
• Integration with Joomla CMS
  Allows webNetwork to run as a component inside Joomla
• Multiple file uploader
  Members now have the ability to upload more than one photo at a time
• New theme system
  Allows you to easily create and share themes with other customers, and select from themes provided by us
• New theme
  New theme called Clean Blue added in addition to the orange one that comes standard
• New WYSIWYG editor
  Better HTML support so there are less problems while editing
• Birthday WebBox
  Allows users to see which of their friends have an upcoming birthday
• RSS feeds
  Added for individual blogs and events
• Significant code optimizations
  Critical pages now run much faster (some as much as 30 times)!
• Software updates
  Can now be done seamlessly right through the admin area! You will automatically be notified when there’s a new version or patch, and download it right through the software
• vBulletin
  Integration with vBulletin released for the Forum plugin
• phpBB3
  Integration with phpBB3 released for the Forum plugin

If you’re an existing customer, you can download your free update by logging into the members area. If you’ve been waiting to purchase the new release, buy it today!

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We’re excited to announce that webNetwork 3.0 is close to completion. In the final stages prior to release, we will be doing thorough bug testing to make sure everything runs smoothly when you install it. If you’re curious about all of the new features, or would like to help, please browse over to the demo. If you notice any problems, please submit a comment in this blog post. Otherwise, tell us what you think!

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The upcoming release will have a news/activity feed, similar to the one in Facebook or MySpace. Once logged in, members can quickly see what their friends are doing on the site. News feed entries include notifications for when a friend uploads photos, music, videos or performs actions such as blog posts, and much more. A screenshot is included below:

webNetwork 3.0 is slated for release is Q2 2009.

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We’re excited to introduce our new theme system in webNetwork 3.0. This system will allow you to easily choose from the themes that come with our software, build a new one, or share different themes with other webNetwork customers.

To kick things off, we’ve included an all new theme with webNetwork 3.0 in addition to the orange one that normally comes with the software now. Below is a screenshot of what it will look like. Tell us what you think!

webNetwork 3.0 is slated for release is Q2 2009.

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