November 10th Release Notes

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 | Behind the Scenes

This week we worked on some new features at gamerDNA, most of which we will deploy NEXT week. We want to run them on the live site for a week to tweak them before we unleash them on everyone… so everything else is more of a bug fix.

I will say that the new features next week are about breaking down why you like the games you like. Just because you and I play the same game, does not mean that we like it for the same reason. As you build your gamerDNA, this nuance is important so you can accurately convey your gaming identity. We also hope it adds a fun dimension to your game list and provides all new ways to explore games played and enjoyed by people like you.

So look for that next week… this week, here is the full list:

Group Hosting Enhancements/Changes

Added a new "HELP" link on the group management tab to help members with functionality. The docs are hosted on the company blog.
New AION theme for group hosting!
Added new documentation for lots of various parts of group hosting. Go check it out.
Images in the group forum have a max width supplied so they do not break the layout.
Made some tweaks to the filmstrip gadget for groups to be clearer when images are approved or not.
In the Home page configuration of group hosting, when you configure an order for the homepage gadgets, they will now display in the correct order.
Fixed an issue where guild applications were still pending, even when the user has applied.
Fixed some IE7 cross-browser issues with the group recruitment configuration page.
Trying to create a group event will now prompt you to enter a game, if you attempted to create a game event without one.
When you remove yourself from a group, you are now redirected to the homepage after confirming, instead of refreshing the same page.
When we display the games that your group plays, we now show the platform.
Renamed the tabs on the group management interface so we could fit more of them.

Profile Enhancements/Changes

All quiz behavior trait widgets are now shareable to various social networks sites. Click the "get & share" link in the widget for a list of networks.
[next week] Built out a new homepage for gamerDNA that focuses on discovery.
[next week] Built a new page for adding games to the system.
[next week] Built a new page for helping you explain WHY you like the games that you do.
[next week] Created a discovery page that runs off why you like the games you do.

General Enhancements/Changes

Build a query that inserts traits and pre-populates the system.
Tweak some settings that will allow caching of javascript and css to work properly.
The most anticipated section on the games landing page shows the games by individual game/platform combinations.
Adding some new caching configurations to make things go faster.
The quiz results all use caching now, which is a big performance boost.
Added new content to the results of the RTS quiz that better explains the buckets.
Full caching put in on the Message of the Day component.
Visual tweaks to the DNA panel pages with the new game type-ahead.
Converted the games landing page to use lots of caching to increase speed.
Fixed some CSS issues for the game typeahead on the games landing page.
There were some strange redirect issues with the DNA panel pages. This has been repaired to behave correctly.
Fixed a performance issue with the first step of group hosting due to the new game data.
Fix the game type-ahead so that it handles ":" properly and provides better match results.
Added some data to the individual game pages for platform in the game title, other platforms, and release dates.
when adding a game using the type-ahead you will get a cancel link when you are entering platform in case you made a mistake.
Cleaned up some CSS issues on the guild recruitment pages. Most of it was IE7 issues.
Cleaned up some spacing in the gamerDNA panel around the game type-ahead.
When clicking the Add Game button from a specific game page, it now jumps your directly into adding the game.
Fixed an issue where the home button on the nav bar was not clickable in some instances.
Fixed an issue that was preventing preloading of backgrounds in Css that was contributing to performance issues.
Fixed issues where the nav bar was still wrapping due to some lengths of user names.
When you are picking a game using the type-ahead and the game is selected, the platform now displays to enforce your selection.
There were some errors being created by spam bots trying to submit the give-respect form. They have been blocked.