Portal 2.0 (pre-beta)

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+Colibri
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Portal 2.0 (pre-beta)

Post by +Colibri »

It's with much joy that I can finally announce a first peek at the new portal.

Since the portal (as you see it now) was added in 2007 and improved in 2008, over the next year or two there were plans to upgrade it further. But as years went by, I decided not to upgrade the existing system since the web has evolved with new technologies. Also, we need more than just a chat system - although there are various collaboration suites available online, I found it would be hard to integrate such a service into the shard. So what we need is a sort of multipurpose site for exchanging and organizing all sorts of information. This has been in planning and some coding (first stage) over the last year (2015), but over the last month was able to really focus on this so that a working system with some functionality can be used (second stage).

At the moment, public and guild chats are functional. (you can only chat in a guild chat if you are a member of a guild). Private chats work server-side, but there's no web interface for them.


You can try it out at this address:
http://portal.uoex.net/v2/

But first, a few things to note:
- It works on a "per-account" basis. Your main character's name is used as your display name. (Main character being the one that has the most gametime on it).
- In the first few days, it will only be available during the times of day when I am near the computer so I can shut it down if something bad happens.
- It is a very raw interface, under construction, scaffolding still attached...
- No need to post bug reports or suggestions. There are many many things that are missing from this, or can be improved. Again this basically a working preview.

- But if you do post anything here - I'll probably read it, but might not reply to every post.
- The "old" portal will remain online for a while, until this new one has all the features of the old and has proven to be reliable... probably sometime after the third stage is published.

During the next 2 weeks i'll be coding other things, but after that, I'll continue working on this in batches.
Third stage - planned to be available around the end of March:
- private messages (unless if they're added sooner, depending on available time)
- an interface that can be used on mobile devices as well.
- help requests will be tied into the portal, allowing us (staff) to reply to them even without being at the computer. (and so that you can see the response even if you are disconnected... basically, every help request will be a mini chat channel, allowing multiple players or staff members to participate).

Fourth stage - most likely end of April:
- certain player services to be available through this: for example, you will be able to submit a towncrier announcement, and as a staffmember approves it, it goes
- miscelaneous tools for staff.

This is intended to be continually upgraded, but time will tell what should be added after that.
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SLiMX
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Re: Portal 2.0 (pre-beta)

Post by SLiMX »

Wow, excellent ideas! Very cool :)
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Adrycks
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Re: Portal 2.0 (pre-beta)

Post by Adrycks »

I love it ! Portal guild chat is awesome ! Thx +Coli
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Re: Portal 2.0 (pre-beta)

Post by rainydays »

Amazin - would be very nice to set your own timezone :-)
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Gaara
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Re: Portal 2.0 (pre-beta)

Post by Gaara »

Sounds awesome! :nod:
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Re: Portal 2.0 (pre-beta)

Post by SLiMX »

Oddly, says my username/password is incorrect. I've logged out of old portal and back in and everything should be fine but when trying to sign into 2.0 I get this error. Tried a different browser, all login names because my account name, forum name and toon with most hours are all different. I have had a name change in the past, maybe this is why? ( I have tried that name too). Tried pw reset and never got the email. I also realize it's only up when +C is on and others are using when I try.

Any suggestions?

Hazardous
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Re: Portal 2.0 (pre-beta)

Post by lestatzero »

SLiMX wrote:Oddly, says my username/password is incorrect. I've logged out of old portal and back in and everything should be fine but when trying to sign into 2.0 I get this error. Tried a different browser, all login names because my account name, forum name and toon with most hours are all different. I have had a name change in the past, maybe this is why? ( I have tried that name too). Tried pw reset and never got the email. I also realize it's only up when +C is on and others are using when I try.

Any suggestions?

Hazardous
the portal uses the same username / password that you use to log into the game. Your name change should not affect your username/password I was able to log in just fine.

Not sure which browser you are using but Google Chrome and the newest Firefox work. the older IE does not you also need to make sure your running one of the newer versions of Java and that Java is enabled.
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+Colibri
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Re: Portal 2.0 (pre-beta)

Post by +Colibri »

Quick update: mentioned in the initial post that the 3rd stage will be available in the end of march, but I got delayed for about 2 weeks with other unplanned stuff (life). I intend to start working on this again on sunday.

First is support for private messages and mobile device friendlyness. Going to publish after those additions.
Then it's the help system upgrade, and after it's published, going to put this to rest for a few weeks.
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Dyēus Phater
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Re: Portal 2.0 (pre-beta)

Post by Dyēus Phater »

Have to say Sir, It looks good so far. excited to see more.
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Re: Portal 2.0 (pre-beta)

Post by Sailor Jerry »

+Colibri -

First and foremost, thank you all you do and the world you've created for us all!

When time permits and for those of us not familiar with the benefits of this portal... could you explain what this does for the average player? What are your expectation of future functionality?

I tried logging on to the new system a while back with no luck, bad timing on my part I assumed. I get the admin tools, automated service functions but did I hear correctly this provides live world and guild chat?
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+Nyx
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Re: Portal 2.0 (pre-beta)

Post by +Nyx »

You'll be able to see live guild chat and reply to it, as well as reply to your pm's (once that goes in anyway). Additionally, there will eventually be ways for players to make suggestions for the shard, and others to +1 -1 it, giving us an easier way to parse good and desired changes or updates.

Page responses will be quicker, as we will be able to reply to them from the web interface without being at a computer (I personally monitor the forums from my iPad a -ton-, and would happily be answering pages if I didn't need to go to my office and sit at my desk to do it). It will also add a huge amount of transparency in terms of data, for all staff. So when players page regarding a lost item, harassment, etc then we will rarely need to tell them to wait for +C. It'll all be there ready for us to investigate.

Eventually it could have things like a more integrated events calendar, as well as events tracking (so we could see a list of all attendees, activity levels, and so on) which would help us with various issues- such as folks who got disconnected and missed out on their reward, or to see which events are best loved or with poorest attendance.
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Sailor Jerry
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Re: Portal 2.0 (pre-beta)

Post by Sailor Jerry »

Very nice! Thank you Nyx
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+Colibri
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Re: Portal 2.0 (pre-beta)

Post by +Colibri »

Thanks for the very nice explanation +Nyx.
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Re: Portal 2.0 (pre-beta)

Post by SunBG »

+1 to uoex portal v2
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Re: Portal 2.0 (pre-beta)

Post by Tattersail »

+1

Can anything be done, so you follow the chat instead of having to scroll down to read new chat..? It happens automatically on the old uoex portal, but here (for me at least) I have to manually track the newest chat constantly...

[edit] Actually a few ideas you might look at or not :) I'm a firefox user, dunno if that has anything to do with the following

- Being able to send a message by pressing 'enter' would be awesome, rather than having to click 'send' with my mouse
- Enlarging the 'message' box, so I can actually see the entirety of the message I intend to send. Being able to see a mere 19 characters at a time doesn't really seem sufficient :)

Good work so far though :D
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