No sooner did I finish work on the 1.0.5 release and draft up a blog post regarding user management changes (and shortcomings in the workflow) than I queued and executed a couple big updates to user management. I’m excited to say that some of the most glaring shortcomings have finally been addressed and the mod is now even better than ever.
Up until now, if a site administrator wanted to manage a users account details or remove them, they had to do so manually in the database. This is OK for people like me who know their way around phpMyAdmin and a database, but for the average site admin with limited technical knowledge, that’s a pretty big (not to mention scary) leap to take. A less imposing way to see a list of site members was to use the Browse User Profiles link off the “My profile” page, but how many admin’s would go there to find members? (Especially since I never documented that in the admin guide, whoops).
So for 1.0.6 Release Candidate 1, there are several additions to help solve these issues. So let’s take a quick look!
Admin Dashboard Tools
New to the Admin Dashboard is the Tools & Utilities section. This features the existing users requiring activation tool as well as the new Edit About Page tool. It also sees the addition of two new user specific tools as well:
- Member Management Toolhis works the same as most of the other create, read, update, delete (CRUD) tools on the site like the news and league search pages. It displays a listing of all registered members of the site. It also lets admin’s manage each users lock status (such as unlocking an account after too many login attempt), user activation, editing their information and deleting accounts all in one place. This was one of the most significant admin tools missing before, and now it is finally a part of the site
- Security Settings Tools
A new security manager allows admin’s to enable spam-bot countermeasures on the sites public facing forms such as the registration and contact forms. The site will come loaded with support for reCAPTCHA, the leading online spam prevention tool. All you’ll need is areCAPTCHA account and a public and private key to ensure spam bots will be a worry of the past.
Public Profile Updates
The public profiles list has been “cleaned up” so to speak as only active users will be displayed in this list now. This is to cut down on possible attempts by users to join but never activate and spam search engines with URLs and bogus email addresses in their profiles. A big bug that caused any two digit or higher user id’s to not display has also been squashed.
Beware, locked account are now truly “locked”
For the majority of the beta, making login mistakes didn’t come with a penalty. The locked user status has now been completely connected meaning, if a user goes over the set # of failed login attempts, their account is locked and they will not be able to access the site. The site admin must unlock their account in the member manager for it to be available again.
Although not a complete rebuild or rewrite, user management gets a significant boost and closes the loop on some of the most “must-have” tools needed by site admins. Download the mod and try out your own fantasy league today to see them in action.
Notes on the change from Patch #4 to Release Candidate 1
Patch #4 (version 1.0.6) was supposed to be released Wednesday August 31. Due to Hurricane Irene and related power and internet access related issues, this release had to be cancelled. While the final 1.0 code was set to be released September 12, 2011, the first Release Candidate, OOTP Fantasy leagues RC 1, will be released on this day instead. This is so that beta testing on the season aspect of the mod, encompassing the rotisserie and trade features, can be completed as planned. The Final 1.0 Release is no set for two weeks later on September 26, 2011.
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