19
Jan

Update Post – January 19, 2021

Hello Obsidian Portal!

I ended up skipping a post in the roughly 3-months (ish) cycle for updates, so I hope you are ready for some news on what has been going on behind the scenes here on OP! I’ve changed the format for these posts slightly, in an effort to make them a more friendly read (the last format came off slightly patch notes-y. This has made the post a tad longer, but offers up some more insights and readability.

And now, on to the updates!

Main Site

  • [UPDATE] The “Default Order” filter on the Campaigns page has been changed to also include a requirement of having been updated within the last 6 weeks. This was done to more clearly separate the “Default Order” from the “Popularity” filter, and to ensure that all of the campaigns shown in the “Default Order” are active.
  • [UPDATE] An additional question that links to the “Video Tutorials” Help area article was added to the Support page’s Frequently Asked Questions list. This was done in an effort to help newer users find information and examples faster.
  • [UPDATE] The naming convention for certain links has been updated so as to be consistent across the site. This was done to avoid any confusion – and includes examples such as all links to the community forums being “Community” and eliminating instances where links labelled “Help” went to the Support page, as opposed to the Help area.
  • [BUG FIX] An issue that would cause the sorting functionality of the HTML table on the Character Sheet Templates page to stop functioning was identified and fixed.
  • [UPDATE] The last of the Google+ icons have been removed from the site. Examples of removed locations include the login and signup screens, and on the Edit Profile page. This was done to finalize the removal of Google+ from the site.
  • [UPDATE] The “Campaign of the Month” section of the Campaigns page has been updated to only display on the first page of the Campaigns search, and only if no filter has been applied to the listing of campaigns. This was done primarily for SEO purposes (to avoid the CotM section being seen as duplicated content), but it has the nice side effect of saving the user some scrolling on campaign list pages beyond the first.
  • [UPDATE] A new profile achievement badge has been added to recognize users who joined the site more than 10 years ago. This was done because to give some praise to longstanding users, who have been with Obsidian Portal through thick and thin!
  • [UPDATE] Our newest staff member, Jesse, has been added to the About page. This was done to keep members up to date on our team’s roster, and to give Jesse her due credit.
  • [UPDATE] A note has been added to the “Informal Preamble” area of the Terms of Service page to clarify content ownership. This was done in response to user concern that Obsidian Portal was trying to lay claim to users’ creations. As the updated preamble now states, we are not. Your content is yours!

Back End and Systems

  • [UPDATE] PayPal subscriptions will now automatically cancel on the second missed payment instead of the first. This was done due to the differences between PayPal and credit card payments, and enables our grace period policy for missed payments to now also be applied to PayPal subscriptions.
  • [BUG FIX] A spelling error in the “campaign-google-analytics-account” meta tag was corrected.
  • [UPDATE] We have reworked the sitemap setup to include the oldest and newest Campaigns. This was done in order to help search engines find all campaigns faster.
  • [UPDATE] The URLs for wiki pages and adventure logs have been standardized for more efficient search engine application. All wiki pages (including the main wiki page) will now use “wikis”, and all adventure log posts (including the listing page) will now use “adventure-log”. The previous URL naming conventions of “wiki_pages” and “posts” have been dropped.
  • [BUG FIX] An issue where the URL standardization for wiki pages and adventure logs wasn’t being applied to the recent updates stream was identified and fixed.
  • [UPDATE] “Canonical” links for the Front Page, Wiki Pages, Adventure Logs, Characters and Items pages were added. The “Home Page” wiki page was set to have the campaign’s home URL for its canonical link (to prevent Google from thinking it is duplicate content). This was done for SEO purposes.
  • [UPDATE] Google Search Console code was implemented. This was done for SEO purposes.
  • [BUG FIX] A bug was fixed where the time zone was not always being automatically detected for GMs and/or players signing up (via social sign-in or otherwise). This was done to help users get rolling faster and easier.
  • [BUG FIX] Fixed an issue where sometimes the password and retype password portion of the sign up process would incorrectly be invalid after an initial error occurred during the creation of a new account.
  • [UPDATE] Email sending functionality for the site has been switched over to a private IP address away from a shared IP address. This was done to prevent Obsidian Portal emails from being lumped in with spam mail and thus rejected when the shared IP is put on block lists.
  • [BUG FIX] A bug causing a Chrome console error (“The specified value ‘!’ does not conform to the required format. The format is ‘#rrggbb’ where rr, gg, bb are two-digit hexadecimal numbers.”) on campaign page loads has been identified and repaired. This was done to prevent unnecessary errors on page loads.
  • [UPDATE] The save and create functionality for characters has been updated to remove ‘script’ tags from entries when saving or creating. This was done to prevent XSS attacks on the site.

Campaign Site

  • [UPDATE] An additional class with the format “campaign-member-[login]” was added to the body tag of pages for Ascendant-level campaigns when being viewed by a campaign member. The [login] portion of the class is dynamic and will be the OP username of the current viewer. This was done to provide GMs with the option to add styling to their campaigns on a per-user basis if desired.
  • [BUG FIX] The “Add Player Secret” input area will now automatically check the “Who can see this?” checkbox associated with the user creating the secret.
  • [UPDATE] The focus will now automatically shift to the filter box when using the “See All Pages” button, the “Insert Character Link” button and the “Insert Wiki Link” button. This was done because it’s a nice quality of life update.
  • [FEATURE] Ascendant-level users now have a new feature for their campaign sites, Custom Navigation! With this feature, the user can customize the left-hand navigation for the campaign site. This feature has an associated sample insert button that replicates the default menu, a reset button, and active flagging.
  • [UPDATE] Campaign maps are now able to be made GM-only. This was done so GMs could have additional capabilities regarding campaign maps.
  • [UPDATE] A new button for inserting Item links has been added to the list of editor buttons. With this button, users can quickly and easily insert slug links for items, similar to how they can with wiki pages and characters. This was done to make inserting items match the other inserts.
  • [BUG FIX] Certain campaign-related buttons have been fixed in order to better respect the chosen style colors in the campaign’s Settings area. Examples include the Dice Roller popup dragon, checkboxes, and the “Change Character IMG” button. This was done to improve styling for users.
  • [BUG FIX] An bug was fixed that would enable campaign maps not marked as “Public” to still be usable as the thumbnail for profiles and on the Campaigns page.
  • [BUG FIX] Fixed the file upload messaging for Maps to not refer to an “avatar”. This was done to correct the messaging error.
  • [UPDATE] The maximum Map upload size was increased to 30MB (up from 5MB). This was done for bigger and better maps!
  • [BUG FIX] An issue preventing Tooltips and Random Generators from working when placed inside of an Accordion has been fixed.
  • [UPDATE] A new group of Map Marker icons (Banners!) has been added to the available list of Map Markers for all account levels.
  • [UPDATE] The “id” HTML element attribute is now permitted for use alongside the “class” and “style” elements. This was done for increased styling capability.
  • [BUG FIX] A bug was identified and resolved that would sometimes prevent map markers from showing up when the map was being viewed by a non-member of the campaign. This was done so guests and non-campaign members don’t miss out on markers.
  • [BUG FIX] Fixed an issue where changing the title of an Adventure Log entry would make it unable to be linked to via the “Wiki Link” insert button in the editor window. This was done so that users could change the title of Adventure Log entries and still have the ability to link to them.
  • [UPDATE] Pages and links associated with renamed Adventure Log entries now correctly work with the updated titles. This is true for all areas, including Calendar events, Forum posts, Characters, Items and Map Markers.
  • [BUG FIX] An issue was resolved that would sometimes make the clickable area for the “Who can see this?” checkboxes in the Player Secret editor area extend across the entire width of the form. This was done to prevent errors where users viewing the page and/or scrolling via touch (such as on phones/tablets) would unintentionally check or uncheck one or more checkboxes.
  • [UPDATE] The initial zoom level of maps being viewed has been changed to 2 zoom levels (instead of being fully zoomed in). This was done for ease of viewing purposes.
  • [UPDATE] The subtitle portion of Adventure Log entries has been added to the neighbor listings. This was done in order to facilitate different naming conventions for Adventure Log entries.
  • [BUG FIX] A bug in Calendar events that showed the raw textile when viewing the event (instead of the rendered HTML) was identified and resolved. This was done to prevent users from seeing un-rendered content.
  • [UPDATE] The “thead” HTML tag has been added to the list of allowed tags on Obsidian Portal. This enables users to take advantage of this structural enhancement tag for their tables. This was done to make table creation the same regardless of whether it is done with the Textile editor, or the CKEditor.
  • [UPDATE] The Search results now show the rendered HTML instead of raw Textile. This was done for consistency in viewing when using the Search feature.

Campaign Settings and Administration

  • [UPDATE] The “Show Items section” checkbox wording has been changed to note that the section “works fine, but is unpolished”, as opposed to being “Not Recommended”. This was done to make it clear that there is no danger of data loss for users who elect to use the Items section.
  • [BUG FIX] An error was corrected in the “Invite New Player” functionality that would permit the “mailto:” portion of a copy/pasted email address to be added to the outbound email’s address. This would result in a false success notification for the inviting GM, and a failure in email dispatch for the recipient.
  • [UPDATE] The mechanics of the “Game System” setting for campaigns in relation to DST usage for saved characters has been updated. This change enables continued usage of a DST for a saved character, even if the GM has changed the campaign’s “Game System”.
  • [UPDATE] The storage of DST data for characters has been updated to be per DST. This change will prevent loss of data if a user switches to (or back and forth from) a DST that does not share all of the dsf fields as the original. It will also prevent data loss if a user switches from using (or back and forth from using) a DST to not using a DST.
  • [UPDATE] The messaging regarding campaign banners in the Style area of the Settings tab has been updated to better help players with the layout of their banner images. This was done to help users avoid things like cut-off edges.
  • [UPDATE] The permissions of Co-GMs has been updated to enable them to remove players from the campaign. This was done as part of a general realignment of the Co-GM role.
Award Winning!

Gold ENnie for Best Website 09'-11'


Silver ENnie for Best Website, Best Podcast 2012-2013
Petrified Articles
Categories
© Copyright 2010-2024 Words In The Dark. All rights reserved. Created by Dream-Theme — premium wordpress themes. Proudly powered by WordPress.