v2.0.0
This release is a completely new version of Mconf-Web, still using the same base and concepts of the 0.x versions, but with a lot of changes, improvements and optimizations in the code and also in the site's design, usability and consistency. Also, the application is in general more configurable, better structured and more optimized than before. We're calling it version 2.0 to make it clear that a lot has changed since the latest stable version. It also includes several new features, that are specified below.
Main changes:
- Updated Rails from 3.0 to 4.x
- Recommended way to install ruby is now with rbenv. We also use a much newer version of ruby.
- The library station was replaced by several other libraries that are better, are actively maintained and have bigger communities behind them, such as devise and cancancan.
- A new design, that is cleaner and should also be easier to be modified to apply custom visual identities to the website. Uses Twitter's Bootstrap 2 and Font Awesome.
Other changes (not all, only the most remarkable after the ones in the list above):
- [#370] God, used for monitoring, replaced by Monit.
- [#246] Integration with LDAP for user authentication.
- [#412] Upload and crop of logos (user avatars, logos in spaces) was completely reimplemented. Includes the removal of the default logos available in the past version, as a way to simplify the feature (for both users and developers) and make the website cleaner (spaces will use a default logo unless one is uploaded, so there won't be random images that give no information of what the space really is).
- [#457] The feature to control invitations to spaces and requests to join spaces was completely reimplemented. In the previous versions this was done by station, but now is done internally by Mconf-Web with another method that's a lot simpler.
- [#906] The feature to create the recent activities was completely reimplemented. In the previous versions this was done by station, but now is done mostly by a library called PublicActivity.
- [#333, #877, and others] New pages for the list of spaces, now with more information and pagination.
- [#866, and others] Better buttons and messages in the interface to start, join and finish web conferences.
- [#986] Users don't have to set the "record" flag, a title and description before creating a conference anymore. The flag is now set automatically and the title and description can be edited after the recording is made available. It was designed to work with versions of Mconf-Live/BigBlueButton that have the record button inside the session. This feature is optional: if disabled, the user will be prompted to set the record flag before opening a new session.
- [#953] Added option to require administrators to accept new accounts. With this option enabled, users can register new accounts but have to wait until an administrator accepts their accounts to be able to log in. It is optional and disabled by default.
- [#1778] Added option to moderate spaces. With this option enabled, users can create spaces but administrators have to accept them before they can be actively used.
- [#963] Administrators can now set a flag to allow/disallow users to record meetings. By default no user can record, except administrators (whose permissions ignore their record flag). When a user can record, he can record in his own web conference room and in the web conference room of the spaces he belongs to.
- [#1168] The application now uses resque and resque-scheduler for all background tasks and scheduling. They replaced both delayed_job and whenever/cron.
- [#1368, #1404, #1423] Several improvements in the sign in via Shibboleth. See this page to understand some part of what changed and check for possible issues when migrating.
- [#1114] A new event module was implemented, still considered in a beta stage but already with a lot of improvements over the events in the previous version of Mconf-Web.
- [#1202, #385, #386, #867, #1231, #1245, others] Several improvements in error pages and redirects to make it easier for the user to know what is happening in edge cases (no permission to access a page, not signed in, etc).
- [#457, #838, #1067] Improved process to invite people to join a space and to request to join a space.
- [#1148, #1513] Reviewed roles/permissions in web conferences.
- [#1153, #1045, #1604, #1552] Several new administration options, such as the option to permanently remove users and spaces (not only disable them), option to confirm a user via interface, option to automatically add users to spaces without requiring them to accept an invitation, option for space admins to remove users from spaces, and several others.
- [#1297] Made all emails use the same format, a very simple format but standard for all emails the application sends.
See also: