So, today has seen a fairly big release of new code. Here's what's new - though there may be things I've forgotten - and some that maybe came earlier but I forgot to mention.
- Notify Followers tickbox. It defaults to ticked for new entries and unticked for updates. It's disabled if your diary is private (and by extension if you're not a Plus user). People can follow your diary by clicking the bell icon on any page of yours that has one.
- Buttons have changed to icons for Creating, Editing, Deleting and Sharing Entries
- What did you say? Sharing Entries? Yes - there is now a button which will create a unique URL to your entry for easy sharing on Social media or via WhatsApp or however you want to share it. Plus users can create as many as they like. Non-Plus users are limited to three shares per calendar month - but this enables non-Plus users to have some public entries per month. For non-Plus users the rest of their diary remains private, except those shared entries.
- Calendar Overhaul. The calendar now better highlights todays date (using an outline), as well as the selected entry - using a highlighted text colour, and if an entry is present AND it's today, then it becomes a filled in day, with a light border and light text (subject to upcoming theme implementation).
- Calendar Overhaul. Empty days on the calendar will now allow you to click and will go to the 'Create Entry' page for that day. To avoid confusion this only happens when you're viewing your one of your own diaries.
- Calendar Overhaul. There is finally a month and year picker so you can more easily visit those older entries!! If you get lost in the past, underneath there is a 'today' button which will bring you back to reality 😀
- Users that aren't logged in will see a button in the header calling them to get their own free diary - let's grow this place again!
- Fixed a bug in leaving comments that could easily see someone leave double, triple or indeed multiple comments all the same.
- Updated the homepage 'DearDiary Resurrection' card to let people know that their old diaries are still here and can be accessed immediately, unless they signed up using the WordPress or Patron version. In the latter 2 cases, I can backport entries into this system.
- Fixed some odd weirdness (I hope) with the Login screen not redirecting to the Diaries page after a successful login
- Added a small blurb reminding diarists to check the Terms of Service before uploading images. This is to specifically enable us to moderate the uploading of objectionable / illegal images on to the site. Thanks for the suggestion on this one MissTick.
Somewhat Older But Notable Mentions
- Fixed an error whereby notifications wouldn't go out for new entry posts
- Allow logged in users to raise issues. If you spot something not right, or want to suggest a new feature, please use the 'Issue' link at the bottom of the screen. Please don't spam this with nonsense though, it relies on a 3rd party (Github) and they will rate-limit us if we abuse it. And then I'll find out who's abused it and prevent further use of the Issues screen by that user 🙃
Next Up...
Theming. I'm starting work on a theming system. Initially themes will be fixed (i.e. there will be multiple themes of different colours, but you will not be able to individualise them yet. That'll come later). If anyone's wondering, yes, ultimately the background images will be changeable too 😀
Also, D'Vorah - I'm happy to consider ourselves 'out of beta' now - there's still lots to be done but I think we have a functioning system that we can invite whoever we want to! We will do an official re-launch in September to celebrate the birthday, but if people want to be 'early adopters' they're more than welcome. The 'betatester' password hasn't been required for a week or so now anyway 😀
Whew, I think that's covered it. Probably not. But if not, you'll find the feature anyway 😉
As always, any problems or suggestions, drop me a line if it's urgent or submit an issue. Catch you all in the next one!