Winter Blues and 5.4.1

It’s hard to believe it has been so long since we posted here. Since those balmy summer days, friends in the USA have been gripped by some severely cold and white days, those in Australia and New Zealand have been roasting and here in the UK we have had the wettest January on record and some of the most violent storms I have ever witnessed. The image shows the waves at Brighton Marina just after Christmas. Yes – that is not a cloud! That is the sea water pummelling the marina wall.

But all this, of course, has just meant I have not wanted to be outside so have spent more time than usual on Simple:Press and finally we are pleased to be releasing our latest update – 5.4.1.

Version 5.4.1 is mainly about bug fixes and minor enhancements and the full change log can be viewed – as always – from your Simple:Press admin Toolbox. If you were hoping for something to be fixed or changed then this is the place to look.

But this time around there are a small number of changes that perhaps need a little more of an introduction and an explanation so let’s start with…

A new UI for ordering of groups, forums and sub-forums

We have long been aware that the Simple:Press UI for ordering the display of Groups, Forums and Sub-Forums can be, shall we say, a little idiosyncratic. V5.4.1 introduces a new admin panel that allows for the drag and drop of these items which, we hope, will make the process more intuitive and rugged. Please do let us know what you think of it.

Setting up a Google+ identity

Sadly Google just don’t seem to be able to make up their mind exactly what the correct URL is for an individual’s Google+ page. The current Simple:Press code caters for the default but this doesn’t work for everyone. To deal with this we have allowed for a user to supply a full URL to any identity in their profile as opposed to just the account part which has been the case until now. If a full and genuine URL is entered then that is what will be used.

Tooltips and popup dialogs

Because of problems with, largely, Internet Explorer and the latest version of Windows, we have had to remove the customised tooltips from popup dialogs such as the recent post listing. If we ever find that things have been resolved we will endeavour to put them back.

The ‘Jumping’ Popup problem

If you have noticed your popup windows jumping down screen when you try to drag them then we have instituted a fix for this in 5.4.1 – but – be aware that it means popup windows are now fixed on the screen so that they do not scroll with the rest of the page. We actually think this is an improvement and a fortunate consequence of the bug.

For all other changes – please see the change log.

There are also a small number of theme changes and for those with custom themes you can find details, as always – over in the Codex.

And apologies if your fix, change or feature didn’t make 5.4.1 – hopefully it might turn up next time around. And I hope – like a badly needed spell of warm, dry weather, that it does!