Major Additions - Zoints LOCAL 2.0 - Enhanced profiles, social portal, networking, blogging, and more

Zoints Local 2.0 - Enhanced profiles, social portal, networking, blogging, and more
Zoints LOCAL 2.0 is now GOLD!

Before installing, we encourage you to make backups and take the appropriate cautions that you would with any significant addition to your forum community.

We would also like to encourage developers to share hacks with the community at dev.zoints.com . Your improvements and enhancements are helpful and appreciated.

What is new to Zoints Local? What makes 2.0 worth the wait?

We know that many of you have waited patiently for this much anticipated update and we love you for it. Let's discuss why 2.0 is just plain awesome and why your forum users would want the creativity and connection it provides.

Zoints Local still brings truly customizable and unique profiles, unlike any free system out there, and is simple to install but let's check out the bullet points of new features for 2.0.

Community Central by Zoints - Your Forum's Social Hub

To develop a well connected and devoted user base, members need a personal connection to your forum. Community Central ties members together by creating personal connections and curiosity. Think about it like a community portal for your members and everything they do that isn?t posting a thread.

Activities on non-forum based aspects of a site are often lost or go un-noticed. Community Central is the hub for your users: to see who has updated their profile, to know who is interacting with others, to read the latest blog entries, to find popular tags on profiles/blogs/threads, and more. Community Central shows what?s going on in your community and encourages more connections, more community, and more fun. And, Zoints Community Central is completely controlled within your vB Admin CP!

Community Tag Pages show for each popular tag who is tagged with it, what blog entries are tagged with it and what threads are tagged with it (threads tagged by Zoints Thread Tags.) It's almost as if it is the ultimate search on an accurately and frequently tagged forum and brings content not found through any other function to connect it all.

Community Central is completely controlled within your vB Admin CP for easy access to manage it's system, templates and so on.

(Full Image)

(Full Image)

(Full Image)

Completely Overhauled, Total Blogging Solution

Another great addition to Zoints Local is its totally revamped blogging system. No longer will you need to seek out expensive paid alternatives to find a full feature blog for your forum. The blog page itself is now a block page with AJAX drop and drag technology, which means users can add relevant (and of course irrelevant) blocks to their blogs' content. Users can now create multiple blog categories for all of their entries which allows for improved organization of a user's entries and easier search for content. All blog entries can now be tagged with entry moods and entry tags, so if this was a blog entry on my page likely my mood would be Teary (tears of joy) and my tags could be Zoints Local 2.0 - vBulletin.org - ZL etc. There is also now RSS Syndication with the blogs so guests or other users would be able to easily subscribe to a user's blog and creating another path to your community. As far as new blocks; there is the blog panel, blog archive, blog tag cloud, recent blog comments, blogroll, and a blog categories list. When you put it all together, the blog is vastly improved and will offer a more rewarding experience to users.

(Full Image)

Activity Blocks and the XPSF MP3 Player

Other new blocks added to the profile page, include the Network Activity Block, Personal Activity Block and an XPSF Music Player. The activity blocks increase the chances members will continue to network with one another. The Music Player adds depth to the user?s profile. These additions are a huge addition to any community and help create and foster a need for members to return to your forum.

vB Product Improvements

The vB product has also seen a few changes to help further integrate Zoints into your community and improve the likelihood of profile interaction for your members. Member profiles now show within the postbit the last date they were updated and can be highlighted if they were updated on the same day you see their post (to encourage members to view updated profiles.) Also, you can display recently updated/created or random profiles on forum home. So whether you want to see the active and updated profiles getting the attention or for your new members to get a few warm welcomes, this will help.

Tighter 3.7 Integration

With the 3.7 version, there has also been integration with new features from vB 3.7. Both on Community Central and on individual profile blocks, there is use of the new 3.7 Social Groups and Photo Albums (including displaying a user's albums if the profile block for it is enabled.) You can see both of these in action on various screens in this thread.

What is Zoints Local?

Installed on your forum and under your control, Zoints Local is what you want it to be for your community. If you want to provide your members with a homepage they can personalize, you can. If you want members to share more about themselves via greatly enhanced profiles, you can. If you want members to have access to a complete blogging solution, you can. Networking? Resumes? Photos? Video sharing? No problem. Via Zoints' page and block management system, you can do what you want, how you want, with ease. Learn more about pages and blocks.

Zoints Local takes your forum's basic profile and turns it into a portal where a whole new world opens up, all on your website. As you can see below, your members can have everything from a personal homepage to an enhanced profile, blog, network, pages to show off their vehicle and anything else that can be dreamed up. And don't worry, we even include a page that shows the entire default vBulletin profile if you want it.

The key to Zoints Local is that the power is in YOUR hands. We know that today?s forum member is looking for something beyond a basic layout that they can find on any forum they joined powered by the same software, it?s just not worth their time to invest in creating a profile that many on the forum will overlook. Zoints Local 2.0 addresses this issue by expanding on the connectivity to provide you with a social networking solution that will make your dedicated members even more committed to your forum. Through measures such as our new central page, new activity blocks and postbit profile update indicators, your members will have a reason to check out other profiles, make new friends and get to know their current ones better. In a world where forums now have to compete with so many other time competitors online, forums need more than just content to drive members back, they need a true community aspect. By building a connected community, your members will not just remain loyal but they will be much more likely to recruit for your forum as they have such a positive affinity for the community. Zoints Local will help to provide the tools to make that possible.

(Full Image)

(Full Image)

Some sites using Zoints Local
Hundreds of forums are currently running Zoints Local. Here are just a few:

Forum: http://www.strike3forums.com/forums/
Zoints Local: http://www.strike3forums.com/forums/z/missionhockey21/

(If you would like your forum featured above, please contact Doug)

What will Zoints local bring to my forum?

Zoints Local brings a new level of possibilities to your community development and overall website appearance. There are so many features and options that it?s impossible for us to list them all here. As a community based platform that allows forum owners to share blocks, the opportunities to expand your site with Zoints Local continue to grow every day ? there?s just no telling what feature, block or idea will come out next. At the Zoints Development Forum you can download blocks posted by other community owners and developers. This way, if you own a writing forum, a software forum, a nursing forum, or a forum dedicated to any other topic, you can contour pages and blocks to specifically fit the needs of your community. Learn more about sharing blocks.

A few of the blocks and pages packaged with Zoints Local:
About Me, My Activity, My Discussions, My Links, Instant Chat, XSPF Music Player, My Media, My Photos, My Interests, My Communities, My Network, My Network Activity Quick Comments, Ratings, My Blog, RSS Feeds, Social Actions and many more. Virtually any existing "widget" shared on the internet can quickly be converted into a block, many in just a few minutes.

What else does Zoints Local offer?

Zoints Local is a state of the art product with all sorts of amazing features that go beyond the normal forum profile.

Drag and Drop technology - Do you want to move a block from one part of your profile to another? Do you want to change the order of your pages? No problem, just drag and drop! It's that easy.

Social Networking - Forget just friends, Zoints Local allows your members to create as many "Groups" as they want. We all have friends, family, colleagues, forum friends, and various other people in our lives.

Comprehensive privacy controls - Your members can create a variety of groups and show each group different content on a page by page basis. Zoints allows you to show what you want, when you want, to whom you want. Learn more about Zoints' Privacy Controls.

Style Sharing - When your members create custom styles, they can easily share them with other members of your community via the Styles Database.

Global Search - Zoints Local includes a global search that bridges communities and creates a virtual freeway between forums on the internet. Searches conducted through Zoints return results from every community that uses Zoints Local. Think of it as Google, for people. Google sends you a lot of traffic, and so can Zoints People Search.

The best part about Zoints Local is that you pick what to let your members use and what not to let them use.

What sort of administration options exist?

The Zoints Local system gives you extensive control of how your Zoints profiles should behave. You can turn features on and off, determine if you want your members to be able to edit/create/manage styles of their own, define default styles, define the default block layout, default pages, edit block options and much more.

Zoints Local 2.0 now implements a file-based phrasing system which will allow the system to be ported to other languages in a much simpler way. If you create a language system, please share it with us so you can help out other forums in need of the same one! Also with 2.0 is improved Module API and block management, all of which are detailed in the links below.

Zoints Local 2.0 also brings new user control options to your forum. You can login in as a user or edit their options from one click on their profile page. If a user is deleted or banned, their Zoints Profile account is closed. You can list reasons as to why an account is closed in case other members are curious. And you can now view comments left by each user in case you had a troublemaker or a spammer that you need to quick seek and destroy all traces of.

You can now find zAdmin by simply accessing your vB Admin CP and going to the Zoints Profile Settings section. If you are in a panic, in a rush or new to Zoints, all of your settings can be found from this simple area.

Here?s a couple screenshots from the admin control panel:

How do I get started? (Installation, Support, Update Instructions, Changelog)

Getting Zoints Local running on your site is a quick and painless process. Just follow the simple steps below and you can have your site running Zoints Local in a matter of minutes. Once you have the system setup, it?s completely up to you to decide how you want things to work. Customize, add on or leave the system exactly as it comes out of the box ? Zoints Local gives you the power to choose!

Step 1 ? Download the attached zip file.

Step 2 ? Upload everything under the "upload" folder to your forum's root.

Upload the /z/ folder to your forum's root directory (one of the below examples should fit most setups):

yourdomain.com/z/ or
subdomain.yourdomain.com/z/ or
yourdomain.com/forumdirectory/z/


Step 3 - Run the installation script found at /z/install/index.php and follow the directions

Step 4 - During the installation you will need to register your forum with Zoints to obtain a token and authentication key

Step 5 ? Once installation is complete, log in to your vBulletin Admin Control Panel and upload the plugin product file found in the /products/ folder

Step 6 ? Configure Zoints as you see fit! The new Community Central feature can be configured under the Zoints Local vBulletin options.

Promoting your forum through Zoints

Along with all of the features, tools and added functionality Zoints Local offers for your site, the Zoints is also interested in bringing you more traffic. Here?s how:

1. Add your forum to the Zoints directory at http://zoints.com/communities after you install. More information can be found in this thread.

2. The Zoints network will include your site in searches and other relevant results bringing you qualified traffic without any additional effort.

3. If you install Zoints Local on a Big-Board, please email us at big-boards@zoints.com with your url so we can get you added to the Zoints Enabled directory on BigBoards.com

Support

Due to the scope of this software, we ask that help requests be submitted at http://network.zoints.com in this specific forum so we can provide quick, efficient support.

Changelog

The full (and very lengthy) changelog can be found in the download.


Upgrade Instructions
Zoints Local 2.0.0.5 (Gold)
===========================================

* UPLOAD THE ENTIRE CONTENTS of the /upload/ folder found in the
zip.
* Do a Recursive CHMOD of the /z/includes/HTMLPURIFIER/ directory to 777 (world-writable).
* After uploading the new files, access the following page in your browser:

http://yourdomain.com/forum/z/install/manager.php
(Replace "http://yourdomain.com/forum/" with your forum's URL)

And select to upgrade Zoints Local
* Import Zoints Profile vBulletin Product titled product-product-zointsprofile.xml and make sure to select the "Overwrite" option!



*** Zoints Local 2.0 does not support Autonomous mode.

***System Requirements***

Zoints Local requires the following:

- A linux or windows based webserver. Windows in ISAPI mode is not currently supported.
- vBulletin forum software (additional platforms will be added soon).
- PHP 4.3.3 or greater.
- MySQL 4.1 or greater.
- Your server must allow port 80 post and get requests to be made to Zoints.com
- Safemode is not currently supported.

That's it!

[Zoints]

Originally Posted by Sakai Ray

How do you post a image in a custom block since the gallery doesn't load for me at all?

Could you clarify this?

[darklumina]

I tried to install but I gave up when after the install the hack would not work with our vbulletin skin. I eventually uninstalled it because I couldn't fix it.

[Zoints]

Originally Posted by darklumina

I tried to install but I gave up when after the install the hack would not work with our vbulletin skin. I eventually uninstalled it because I couldn't fix it.

What sort of problems were you having? We'd be happy to help you get this working properly

[darklumina]

It installed fine but it did not handle the current vbulletin very well. Gradients, font styles, and placements were all wrong. It was if it used the skin but either overwrote or neglected the vbulletin style CSS.

I did uninstall it so I do not have an example but if need be I guess I can reupload it and install it again to display as long as no user can access it.

[Zoints]

Originally Posted by darklumina

It installed fine but it did not handle the current vbulletin very well. Gradients, font styles, and placements were all wrong. It was if it used the skin but either overwrote or neglected the vbulletin style CSS.

I did uninstall it so I do not have an example but if need be I guess I can reupload it and install it again to display as long as no user can access it.

If you reinstall, but do not upload the product, the profile system will be there, but not easily accessible to your users. Then, if you'd like, you can submit a support ticket with temporary access to your site and we can work on matching it it up for you

[bitbender]

I too had some style issues with the mod, but that was easily sorted by going into the style editor and making up style(s) similar to the two skins my membership use. I then saved them as global shares.

My bigger beeflette is that I cannot seem to find a usergroup perms setting for which groups can or cannot use. For me, that's important.

[HSeldon]

You acknowledge that ZOINTS reserves the right to charge for the SERVICE or certain parts thereof, and to change its fees from time to time in its discretion. If your membership is terminated due to a breach of this AGREEMENT, any unused portion of your fees will not be refunded.

Yeah right ... anyone agreeing to THAT "TOS" (http://zoints.com/forum-owner-TOS.z) is, in my personal opinion, careless at best.

I almost installed this.

[Strike3ForumsMH]

Originally Posted by intricatic

Once this hits release, and not just release candidate, I'll probably install it because the profile mod looks wicked cool. I just want to play it safe and wait for the bugs to be ironed out before putting it on a live board.

Plus, Zoints has done a lot to help establish the community I help to run, and I guess that makes me a loyal Zointer or something. Does the future of Zoints look good? I certainly hope so, because Zoints rocks.

(Don't worry Zoints, I haven't abandoned you. Hehe)

I have one question, though, and not sure if it's been asked or not (I'm in a huge rush to do like 20,000 things at the same time) - does this create any issues with vBSEO/vBBlog?

Hi intricatic,

Thanks for the kind words, we really appreciate them. As for vBSEO, I am using 3.1 on my personal forum and no issues are created with it (I just use the default .htaccess that comes with ZL.) As for the vB Blog, I can't help you there so hopefully someone with that modification can chime in. From our end, that I know of, you would need to obviously disable our blog and our blog blocks to avoid confusion for your users.

Originally Posted by bitbender

I too had some style issues with the mod, but that was easily sorted by going into the style editor and making up style(s) similar to the two skins my membership use. I then saved them as global shares.

My bigger beeflette is that I cannot seem to find a usergroup perms setting for which groups can or cannot use. For me, that's important.

At this time, that is not currently available. We felt that it would be confusing to have two different profile systems in effect, one for some and one for others. Others have wanted this though and perhaps you could get a coder to do it for you. Let us know if you have any success.

You could disable member profile viewing for some usergroups, but that would be a total disabling through vB Admin CP. So if you are looking at enabling ZL for some but keeping the default for others, we don't currently have that feature.

Originally Posted by HSeldon

Yeah right ... anyone agreeing to THAT "TOS" (http://zoints.com/forum-owner-TOS.z) is, in my personal opinion, careless at best.

I almost installed this.

HSeldon,

That TOS was created a long time ago. We have had Zoints Local and all of our mods 100% free in every sense of the word for our entire time of operation. Nobody will ever contact you now or in the future for using Zoints Local or any modification currently released. Why was that put in then? I don't know, I didn't write it or see discussion about it. I can only assume it is standard legal mumbo jumbo. But think about it, we get an email and a username from you, that's it. We have never asked for details where we could actually get payment from anyone as that is not our intention or our purpose with it.

I'll see if I can get any further clarification on that for you. But I am pretty sure it is just saying that Zoints can, if it chooses to, change the price of the service (from free to something else) in the future but that wouldn't effect people who already have and use it, just the people who would download it after that point. Right now, right here ZL2 is 100% free to install, download and receive support on and I promise to you, based on what I know as I am not an owner of Zoints, there is no intention of changing that.

- Reid

[PGAmerica]

I am still getting the following error when I click on my profile.

Invalid Forum specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the admin?

I have the .htaccess file in the "z" folder, but I get the same error with or without the file uploaded.

HELP!!

[bitbender]

We felt that it would be confusing to have two different profile systems in effect, one for some and one for others

Good point, but consider the fact that a paid subscription usergroup would entail better facilities for that group - this profile system versus the default one.

One of the benefits my members enjoy from donating to help defray my costs is that I tend to load functions into their usergroups that basic free usergreopus do not get.

That was my line of thought there. But, thanks. I got your message.