Daniel A Koepke's blog
Changes for June, 2009
Major changes:
- Search has been re-launched and is faster and better than before. You can search for courses, groups, bundles, web documents, and users. The accuracy and speed are much improved compared to DIVA 1.0. Search will show you all of the items you have access to, so you can use it to search over your private files. DIVA even suggests spelling fixes if you mistype a search and get no results. For example, a search for "arcitecture" (note the misspelling) will suggest a search for "architecture". We'll be improving the search even more in the near future.
- We've moved the Upload option into the top navigation out of the "more" sub-menu. And we've added your quick list into the "more" drop-down menu, so that you can immediately jump into the courses and groups on your quick list from anywhere on DIVA. We'll be pushing some more updates to the top navigation and "more" menu (in particular, some aesthetic improvements) soon.
- DIVA no longer asks for you to re-submit your form data after using the "back" button to return to a course/group to which you've just added content.
- Creating courses with the discipline set to "None" now works correctly (previously gave a 404).
- DIVA now correctly validates the input on the "Describe" step to prevent the creation of bundles with no content.
- Minor permissions issues were fixed.
- Ignore case of username and e-mail address on login and in URLs.
- Clicking outside the "More" menu when it's opened will now close it.
- Items are no longer displayed twice when moving items from "Uncategorized" into a category in the Workspace.
- Added an option for "Switch to editor view" to gain full access to a bundle you have edit permission to. Previously, if you had (for example) disabled the ability for other people to download a bundle, there was no way for you to download the bundle without temporarily re-enabling the download button. Now, you can switch to the editor view to gain complete access to the bundle. This feature is only available on bundles that you have permission to edit.
- Allow direct playback of QuickTime MOV files containing H.264 video and AAC audio through the Flash player.
DIVA Workshops: From your couch!
Now that summer is nearly upon us and the spring semester has ended, we all want to take a long vacation at the beach. We at the DIVA Team won’t be doing that though. We’ll be here. Like we always are. But don’t worry; you don’t have to be here at school to get great DIVA support. We’ve started using a new program so that you can participate in DIVA workshops anytime over the summer. Called Dimdim, it allows anyone with a Flash compatible browser and a broadband Internet connection to participate in our informative workshops from nearly everywhere. You can contribute with text, but Dimdim also supports your mics and webcams if you want to meet "face-to-face".If you’re interested, pack your laptop and some sunscreen, head to the beach and send us an email at divateam@sfsu.edu. We’ll work out a workshop time that’s best for you where we will answer your questions and show you how to use DIVA’s features.
DIVA change log for Apr. 2, 2009
A series of small bug fixes and improvements were pushed today to DIVA 2.0. The following is a partial list.
Bug fixes
- Account requests should now be processed.
- Fixed problem with group Sharing and Access Control page.
- Fixed problem with group invitations.
- Fixed problem with newly created groups having corrupted roles.
- Fixed order of blog posts in courses.
- Fixed problem with group folders and permissions.
- Some imported groups were marked as archived.
- Groups are now listed on the Workspace.
- Old versions of bundles are no longer visible to non-editors.
- My DIVA page no longer shows options for functionality you don't have permission to use.
- Order members in a group by last name.
- Editors of a bundle may delete comments.
- A simple CAPTCHA added to protect against comment spam.
- Improved handling of invitations and account requests.
- Ability to invite users to a group as a Member or as a Manager.
Feature spotlight: Blogging
We're proud to introduce you to DIVA 2.0. As you may have noticed, things look quite different. (And we're still finishing up a few rough edges here and there.) DIVA 2.0 marks a major step forward for DIVA, with new features, a refined workflow, and a simpler, cleaner interface. We're going to do a series of posts on our blog here to introduce you to some of the great new features and improvements that DIVA 2.0 delivers. First up: blogging.
DIVA 2.0 gives you your own blog. To write a blog, choose the "New blog post" link from your "My DIVA" page. Give your post a title and a body, and then choose where you want it to show up. You can show your blog posts on your "My DIVA" page and/or in any of your courses or groups. You can use this feature to write announcements, highlight updates, and more. You can even accept comments and trackbacks on your posts (of course, you can also disable these options).
DIVA 1.0's podcasting feature is integrated with DIVA 2.0's blogs. To create a podcast, first upload an MP3 using the "Upload" option from your My DIVA page or from under the More menu in the top navigation. Once you've uploaded and described your MP3, start a new blog post as above. Just after the post's body, there's a section for adding an enclosure. When you choose an MP3 file as an enclosure, you're creating a podcast. As before, you can post these podcasts to your courses. In the near future, we'll be refining the "create a podcast" workflow and adding support for video casting (vodcasting).