The Rize Nexus dev blog.

Razer competition update, Win Microsoft Points + Xbox LIVE Subscriptions + New Tutorials!

We've been digging our way through the huge amount of competition entries for our Razer Giveaway and we've stumbled across a little issue. There seems to have been a few crossed wires regarding the entries. We've received a large number of non-PC related entries, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and some non-gaming related sites as well. Due to the overwhelming amount of mixed entries; we will be removing this competition and using the prizes in a new, more simplified competition. This will give our whole fanbase an equal chance to win. We'd like to thank everyone for their awesome entries and we do apologise for any iconvenience.

Don't worry! This just means that there will be even more prizes, with even more chance to win! :)

Please read below for the new competition details.

FESTIVE GIVEAWAY

Starting from next Monday(5th December) we will be giving away Razer PC Gaming hardware throughout the week via our Facebook page. All you need to do is tag yourself in the product pictures that we post! For example, if we post a picture of a Razer DeathAdder mouse and you want to take part - simply tag yourself in the picture.

But that's not all! It's time to involve our console scene in our giveaways. Alongside the Razer Giveaway, we will also be adding Xbox Live subscriptions and a truck-load of Microsoft Points!!

We will be announcing exactly what will be on offer this Sunday(4th December), so 'Like' us on Facebook and stay tuned!

IN OTHER NEWS..

More Nexus tutorials added!

Clan Management guides are now available on our Support page. We will also be adding guides for 'Site Settings', 'Modules' our 'File Manager' very soon.

Have a request for a specific tutorial/guide?

If you have any requests or you feel that there needs to be additions to the current tutorials, please do not hesitate to let us know! You can do this via our Get Satisfaction page or via our Contact page.

REMEMBER: ALL feedback is welcome via our Get Satisfaction page. As you know, we work closely with the gaming community, so we will take every response into consideration, no matter how big or small it may be! :)

The Rize Nexus Team
www.rizenexus.com

Two steps closer to release

As you all know we take all your feedback seriously! So after a lot of time and hard work we have some awesome new features for you to play around with!

Now, we did say that V1.3 was coming packed with our brand new 'Skin Editor', but I’m afraid we have had to push that back to V1.5 to ensure that all the necessary features are added and any bugs ironed out. Please be patient with the current skins, as once this is introduced, you will have endless ways to make your site unique.

In place of the Skin Editor we have managed to complete all of V1.3, all of the V1.4 updates as well as brand spanking new custom-made integrated forums! So, no more nightmares using those dreaded PHPBB forums anymore, ensuring smooth sailing from now on :)

All that is left of the BETA is V1.5, after which, the system will be fully released and we will have plenty of time to work on introducing new customisable themes.

Here is a full list of what's been incorporated in these stages:

Server Monitor
Ability to add different site header for each page
Emoticons in comments
Predefined news templates
Preview button for news posts in backend
Labeling system for news posts
Calendar widget upgraded
Match statistics now displayed on frontend
Number of screenshots in results increased to 6
Date added to results on frontend
Match URL added to results system
Statements added to results system
New Awards module added
New forum system added (MUCH more user-friendly)

The next and final stage of the update will be focused on the new Skin Editor and major upgrades to the user profiles and roster module, along with a big shuffle in the CMS navigation system.

Update V1.2 Done & Dusted!

Here’s a full rundown on what’s coming in BETA V1.3.

Skin Editor:
This nasty little section should really appeal to the masses! The addition of this will enable you to change your skin colour (in its entirety), background image, fav.ico image, font’s and sizes! This is going to be an extensive section of our CMS in the near future, so expect a lot of development! Aim: The Charlie Sheen of editors??

External Links:
Option to add external links to the buttons on the navigation bar.

Images:
This is just a list of acceptable image file types, to clear up any confusion!

Site Banner:
You will now have the ability to unlock the headers and place individual banners on each page.

Comments:
The addition of Emoticons on the comments module.

Donate System:
This is a whole new module that will give you the option of configuring your donation system through your Nexus site! Get your communities to chip in and help pay for your servers, either that or perhaps your “entertainment” costs for the weekend? (Vodka/Kebab/Lap dance, whatever floats your boat!)

Predefined news item templates:
We strive to make your editorial jobs as easy as possible and with this new dropdown menu, we are sure to make a positive impact! There will be a number of post templates for you to pick from to help with your general news, coverage & announcements!

Preview News posts:
Just as it says on the tins peeps.. Preview your work before you hit that little publish button.

Label News items:
More help for editors! Tag news items in the CMS with such labels as “Draft”, “Review” etc, to give your editorial team a clean system to work together on. The ability to filter these labels of course ;)

Calendar Tweaks:
1. Set the number of calendar items to be shown in the widget.
2. Choose which event labels are listed in the widget.
3. Add/Remove user labels

We are looking into some adjustments on the features that have just been released. The list is yet to be finalised but I can tell you that we will be knocking them out with the third update, so stay tuned.

Coming up in round 4!

1. Server Monitor
2. Players can specify their availability for a match
3. Match Statistics on frontend
4. Match screenshots limit now raised to 6
5. Date on matches displayed on frontend! (Exciting one!)
6. Link to external match fixtures
7. Statements on matches
8. Awards Module

Stay tuned for some BIG announcements in the near future peeps!

BETA Update V1.2

Update V1.1 is now fully online! Below is a list of all the features that have been added.

Additions

fConnect (Please note, this requires a couple of clicks on your part! Tutorial to follow.)
Snippets Module
Xbox Live Tag plug-in
WYSIWYG Icon Additions
Google Analytics (Once again, just little bit of work, tutorial to follow!)
Nexus feeds

Fixes/Tweaks

Improved SEO homepage handling
Fixed minor frontend editor bugs
Improved robots.txt generation
Improved SEO XML sitemap
Fixed Search Module bug that triggered when renaming certain page urls
Fixed minor bugs in the comment system
Fixed minor user profile bugs
Added internal cache system
Uploaded images now compressed to 720
Fixed Control Panel Background bug
Control Panel button added on Admin bar and existing buttons renamed
Nexus Support Link added to dashboard
Updated TinyMCE to fix a few bugs in IE9
Added scrollbars to, and fixed small bugs in, the page-management 'block-view'

Now let's have a look at what is coming up in stage two!

User Module Search function

The addition of a search field in the user module, enabling you to locate users with ease!

Shoutbox
A separate module will be added for AJAX real-time shoutbox, saving you the hassle of adding and modifying confusing code!

Facebook Fans & Widgets
Facebook Fans widget, along with Facebook Like for your team page.

Social Media Linking

This will give you the ability to keep your social sites up to date with your Nexus content! Twitter it and Facebook Share it

Username Linking
Usernames from comments and forums will now be linked to the users profile

Page Layouts
We are going to add a couple of extra page layouts to your content pages, basic for the moment but lot's more to come in the future!

News Icons

When the news module is used as a listing, the Game icon will now be assigned to the item and displayed in the listing.

Dropdown Menus
You will now have the ability to create dropdown menu's from your navigation, giving you much more flexibility on your number pages.

Contact Module
An addition of this module, making your site look more professional. Users will enter their question/issue, in the field, which will send an email to the address you supply.

Arcade plugin for forums

Just as it says on the tin! An arcade plugin with a ton of games for you and your community to compete for the top place on the scoreboard, hellafun.

Ready for a looksie at stage 3?

External linking on navigation, different headers on individual pages, donate system, predefined news templates, template editor module (change BG and fav.ico), big calendar update and much more!

Rize Nexus BETA Update V1.1

We are happy to announce that we currently have the first stage of the BETA update under development! There will be a total of five stages in this update, after which we will be officially launching our product.

So without delay, here are some of the main features that will be coming shortly:

fConnect
All websites will give the user an option to sign in with their facebook details instead of having to create fresh account details. Profile attributes will be made to match as many as your facebook details as possible.

Snippets Module
This module will allow you to add plain text html or javascript in a separate module so it can be re-used in multiple pages. Some examples of what this may be used for are: Facebook social tools, Twitter, mIRC, challonge and much more! This process is much cleaner and causes fewer problems than using the WYSIWYG which other companies use.

Xbox Live Tag plug-in
This is an add-on for our integrated phpBB forums, allowing users to display their tags in their profiles and posts.

WYSIWYG Additions
There will be three dropdown menus added to the WYSIWYG, including game icons, flags and emotions, making it easier to customise your news posts.

Google Analytics
The ability to add your own Google Analytics account in the control panel will now be available, enabling you to keep track of all of your site statistics for sponsors or just for your own curiosity! Google, Bing and Yahoo validation keys will also be available for the user to input.

Nexus feeds
We will be incorporating our own Twitter and Facebook feeds into the control panel dashboard in place of the login log, which we will use to keep you updated with all the news on themes and updates.

Fixes & Upgrades

Fixed session bug where users were locked out of their session after visiting forum pages
Improved SEO homepage handling
Fixed minor frontend editor bugs
Improved robots.txt generation
Improved SEO XML sitemap
Fixed Search Module bug that triggered when renaming certain page urls
Fixed minor bugs in the comment system
Fixed minor user profile bugs
Added internal cache system
Uploaded images now compressed to 720
Fixed Control Panel Background bug
Control Panel button added on Admin bar and existing buttons renamed
Nexus Support Link added to dashboard

Some of these features have already been incorporated as you might notice, but once the entire list is implemented we will announce the second stage, V1.2, along with a sneak peek at V1.3.

Here is a sneak peek at what is coming in stage two..

Social Widgets, New arcade plug-in, Contact form, Real-time shout box, Drop-down menus & much much more!

All feedback welcome! If you have any head over to our feedback forum @ http://getsatisfaction.com/rize_nexus - thanks :)