This is the last new feature to be announced for Sueetie 2.0, I promise. Sueetie Version 2.0 was almost wrapped up like a present on Christmas Morning until I realized we could substantially improve User Profile services with relatively little investment and delay. The new User Profile services are online at Sueetie.com, so Sueetie Administrators anticipating v2.0 please check it out.
The plan for v2.0 all-along was to fold Sueetie Profiling into YetAnotherForum.NET’s sweet User Profile services. A pre-requisite to that plan was the YAF 1.9.5 RTM release. That’s not going to happen because 1.9.5 still in beta, but that’s okay. We still have a rock solid YAF 1.9.4 profile model to build upon. YAF 1.9.5 will be in Sueetie v.2.1.
Back to Member Profile Services. The short of it is that YAF’s User Profile Services are really phenomenal and scream out to be Sueetie’s Member Dashboard page in v2.0 and going forward. Out of the gate we have messaging services, an extensive list of additional user profile properties, all member account management functions like change password and update avatar (with some back-end integration work), and very cool YAF features like individual Photo Albums. YAF User services are the Sueetie Member Dashboard launching pad for an exciting future slate of services, both imagined and not yet imagined.
Below is the official Member Dashboard Wiki Document at Sueetie.com with the screenshots and details.
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A Community With Its Users at the Center
I think we can agree that all communities center around its users, without whom there would be no community. So it's important in a Sueetie Community to provide a feature rich, personal home base for each member. With the release of Sueetie v2.0 we're doing just that by integrating Sueetie profile management with YetAnotherForum.NET's rich profile and messaging services.
Here's a sample of the new user profile management page which we're calling the Member Dashboard.
If you view the menu options on the left-hand side you can see that this is also a member messaging center. For Sueetie v2.0 we're using the out-of-the-box YAF.NET profile and account management features with Sueetie integration extensions in the back-end. In future releases of Sueetie this area will be a true personal dashboard with an array of new services.
Current features supported in the User Dashboard
Messenging
- Inbox
- Sent Messages
- Archive Messages
- Create New Message
Personal Profile
- Edit Profile
- Edit Buddies
- Edit Albums
- Modify Avatar
- Signature
- Subscriptions
- Change Password
What If I Don't Use Forums in my Sueetie Community?
For Version 2.0 and the foreseeable future we plan to support both the new YAF.NET-based Member Dashboard and the old User Profile and Account Management pages. We did scale back on the old profile functions, however. We removed several profile properties like Twittername, website, and so forth. We also removed favorites and follower functions from the old profiling pages.
We scaled back on old profiling services because our thinking is that communities that don't have a forum most likely don't have much of a focus on user profiles. All sites still need basic functions like changing user avatars and updating passwords, which is what the old profile pages include. Below is the scaled-back user account management page for sites that do not use the new YAF-based Dashboard profile in Version 2.0+.
Below is the scaled back user profile page for sites not using the v2.0 Dashboard.
How to Select Your Site Profile Type
Sueetie Version 2.0 will by default be configured to use the YetAnotherForum.NET-based Dashboard Member Profile. If you want to use the pre-2.0 profile system, simply change the "UseForumProfile" property in the Sueetie.config (/util/config/sueetie.config.)
The "UseForumProfile" property affects the behavior of the Welcome and Avatar links in the User Menu (shown below) and elsewhere where the User Avatar is display, liked on recent Forum Topic Lists.
ForumFolderName Property
A quick word regarding the sueetie.config "ForumFolderName" property shown above. Use this property to change the url created for the new YAF-based User Profile pages. The Sueetie.com ForumFolderName is "forum", since the url to the Sueetie Forums is http://sueetie.com/forum/. If your forum url was http://yoursite.com/discussions, for example, enter "discussions" as your ForumFolderName.
The Future of the Sueetie Member Dashboard
We think the future of the Sueetie Member Dashboard is pretty exciting. Already out of the starting gate we've got a rich collection of services we haven't had before by leveraging YetAnotherForum.NET. And now that we've established the YAF-Sueetie Dashboard model in Version 2.0, we'll be able to use it as a baseline for new member services to come!