Gummy Bear 1.3 is now available in the new Sueetie Marketplace. Released a little over 3 months since version 1.2, Gummy Bear 1.3 adds many major architectural enhancements. Localization, Background Tasks, Multi-Blog support, Event Logging and Exception Capturing, a completely restructured Theming Model…like I said, major.
In addition to the new features is a new installation experience that has reduced a four-step process to a single step while eliminating both the YetAnotherForum.NET and Gallery Server Pro setup wizards. I call it the new “Don’t Make Me Think!” Gummy Bear Installation.
I’m also pleased to know everyone will be enjoying a much superior download experience in the new Sueetie Marketplace. A thumbnail with a truncated .ZIP file name has been replaced by a descriptive selection list and item page with screenshots, a detailed rich-text description and additional links.
The setup and upgrade documentation has been substantially revised for Gummy Bear 1.3 as you’ll find in Installing Gummy Bear and the Gummy Bear 1.2 to 1.3 Upgrade Guide. I improved documentation on theming Gummy Bear as well since we now have a locked-down site-wide theming model going into the future. Also on theming, for the first time we can provide a Lollipop Theme Pack for learning purposes and to use as a template for building new site themes. That’s available in the new Sueetie Marketplace as well.
Here’s a list of the new features in Gummy Bear 1.3 that I wrote down. I know I’m missing some.
- New Lollipop Theme with two additional them variations: Lollipop Black and Blocked Lollipop
- YetAnotherForum.NET Upgrade from 1.9.3 to 1.9.4 RC2
- Ability to view Gallery Server Pro images and other media anywhere in a Sueetie Community
- User one-click IP Lookup
- User Avatar Drop-in HTML Control
- Administrator configured Members Only Blog Comment Option
- Newsletter Subscription Capturing
- User Profile Time Zone Support for full YetAnotherForum.NET integration
- Administrative User Activity Log Report
- Sueetie Web Framework converted from a Website Project to a WebApplication
- New Theming Architecture. Full Master file and CSS independence across all applications
- Gallery Server Pro Upgrade to 2.3.3750
- Localization Support for non-English communities and custom resource control
- Lucene-based Global Search Engine searching all community content in a single form
- Administrative Download Report that displays download totals for designated media items. Includes cross-reporting by group, application, individual files and by user
- Event Log Report and Exception Capturing
- Background task architecture with support for site developers to create custom background tasks. Background monitoring report in Sueetie Administration
- Aggregate Blog Posts and Site Activity Logs support RSS syndication
- Multiple Blogs. Site Blog Display Control and Aggregated Blog Post List Control
- Global Footer Menu Control
- IP Banning. Ban users at community level from logging in or creating new site accounts based on IP mask
What’s Next
Gummy Bear 1.3 is a huge upgrade, but I have no plans to go on holiday. Because Sueetie in Gummy Bear 1.3 is now so architecturally rich, I can start focusing more on developers and a Sueetie Developer Package for 1.3. Don’t make me say “SDK,” but that gives you the idea of what’s coming. It doesn’t have a name yet, but I have a few in mind. Sueetie has always been about providing a rich Online Community Framework for developers using the best .NET apps on the Internet. The Sueetie Developer Package will be a major step in satisfying that long-standing goal. The Developer Package should be available later this week, so expect a heavy signal on your Sueetie Channel soon. We ain’t done yet.