IndexU Support

Nicecoder May Newsletter

April brought us a lot of new releases and bugifxes and kept us all very busy. So here we start May with a very large newsletter.

iDesk 1.5 Released
Nicecoder has released it’s long awaited update to iDesk. For those that do not know, iDesk is a helpdesk script that is very simple to use and yet has amazing features found on much more expensive software.
With iDesk simplicity is the key. iDesk does not require users to create an account to create a ticket. Users simply need to submit a ticket via the web interface or to send in an email.
Features include spam filtering, multiple departments, knowledgebase, downloads area, pre-defined responses and much more.
http://www.nicecoder.com/community/showthread.php?t=6535

Nicecoder is proud to announce IndexU Deluxe v1.00 and IndexU v5.41

IndexU Deluxe v1.00
The demo for IndexU Deluxe is now available and fully functional. All pages and files can be viewed but the templates cannot be edited simply to prevent spam/abuse. The demo refreshes itself automatically. You can find the demo at http://www.nicecoder.com/demo/indexu/

IndexU Deluxe v1.00 contains all bugfixes up to and including http://nicecoder.com/svn/ r798

Some of the new features of IndexU Deluxe are

Plugin system:
The plugin system allows users to add modifications to their IndexU without having to edit the actual code. This makes it easier for non-programmers to customize their site.

Web search now uses Yahoo, no more need for the Google SOAP seach api key which is no longer available

Payment history:
Users can now view the payment history of listings right from the control panel all in one convenient location.

Discount Coupons:
Users can offer their visitors discount coupons on any or all levels of listing types (basic, sponsored and premium) and may set an expiry date for coupons.

Category suggestions:
Category suggestions can now be approved/denied right in the control panel without the need to manually add them.

v5.41
IndexU V5.41 contains many bugfixes from v5.40 and contains all bugfixes up to and including http://nicecoder.com/svn/index2.php r785

Why two versions?
Users had issues with our recent decision to move forward with only a new product and a new license. Now users are able to choose which version they would like to proceed with.

New Users
Users who purchase a license as of today will only be eligible to purchase IndexU Deluxe and will not have access to v5.x.

Existing Users
Users that already have an existing license have two choices to make

a) Continue with the v5 trunk of IndexU
b) Agree to the new license and proceed with IndexU Deluxe

Existing users who choose to upgrade to IndexU Deluxe
You will receive access to IndexU Deluxe in the client area and still have access to IndexU 5.x in SVN to maintain any old sites if you so choose.

IndexU Deluxe licenses must be renewed yearly at a cost of $30 per license up to a maximum of $99 for multiple license owners. If you do not renew your license your site will still function normally, however you will no longer have access to the files in the client area or SVN and may have limited access on the forum (to planned license owners only area).

Existing users who choose not to upgrade to IndexU Deluxe
You will continue to have access to v5.x and related files in the client area and will receive bugfixes and security updates. You will also have access to the v5 trunk of SVN.

What happens if I upgrade?
When you upgrade to IndexU Deluxe all your current v5 licenses will be suspended. You will then have access to new licenses in your client area. You will need to replace your old licenses with the new licenses.

If you ordered Indexu over one year ago, we will add one month (from the date you fill out the form) to your license and you may download IndexU Deluxe and any updates for the next month. After this time you must renew your license at a cost of $30 per year per license or a maximum of $99 for multiple license owners.

If you ordered IndexU less than one year ago, we will add one year to your existing license. After that time is up you must renew your license at a cost of $30 per year per license or a maximum of $99 for multiple license owners.

How to upgrade your license from 5.x to IndexU Deluxe
Visit this http://www.nicecoder.com/indexu5todeluxe.php URL and complete the form.

Please see http://www.nicecoder.com/community/showthread.php?p=32605 the discussion thread for any questions you may have.

Mod Of The Month contest
The winner for the mod of the month contest for March was mpdaddy and his Improved Link Validation Mod. This mod makes it easier and faster to validate a large number of links.
http://www.nicecoder.com/community/showthread.php?t=6551

The winner for the mod of the month contest for April has not been announced yet. That winner will be included in next months newsletter.

Recent mods & fixes
esm has written a mod that adds a link submitters IP address to the submission
http://www.nicecoder.com/community/showthread.php?t=6425

With the release of iDesk 1.5 a new theme was released by idesksupport.com. You can view the theme at the URL below
http://www.idesksupport.com/2008/04/07/blue-theme/

The Nicecoder Team
Bruce (support)
Dody (co-owner/programmer)
John (co-owner)

Nicecoder March Newsletter

Welcome to a new year and a new direction for Nicecoder. There have been a number of changes in the background that users have not seen and I have reluctantly been holding back on. Due to technical issues the Febuary newsletter was created, but it was not sent out. Therefore this month you get an extra large newsletter that covers February and March

The new year brings us a new office with some new programmers! There are now a total of seven programmers for Nicecoder. The programmers will be working on all Nicecoder products including the Extreme DMOZ Extractor, iDesk and IndexU. While we can’t make any promises or announce any dates, we can expect good things to come out of this and should see some updates soon. The decision to move forward with a team of programmers was brought about by Dody and John who want to see Nicecoder take a giant step forward in a new direction. I for one am excited to see what will come of this.

December was a slow month for updates due to Dody opening the new office and hiring the programmers. January provided us with a number of fixes and news bits. February was spent working on IndexU Deluxe and was a slow month otherwise.

Mod Of The Month contest
Nicecoder is now offering a Mod Of The Month contest. You can find full and complete details at the link below
http://www.nicecoder.com/community/showthread.php?p=28455

The winner for the mod of the month for January is inspireme for his Targeted Article mod. You can view the mod at http://www.nicecoder.com/community/showthread.php?p=29017. Congrats to Matt and his $100 reward will be coming to him soon.

The winner for the mod of the month for February is fxdir for his Print page feature. You can view the mod at http://www.nicecoder.com/community/showthread.php?t=6374. Congrats to fxdir and his $100 reward will be coming to him soon.

A new manual for the Extreme DMOZ Extractor
I have written a new manual for the Extreme DMOZ Extractor. The new manual shows exactly how to use the Extractor to get categories and links and how to upload them to your IndexU. In fact in the last week the manual was even updated to show a bit more detail! The manual can be found in the client area and can also be found at http://www.nicecoder.com/community/showthread.php?t=5802

More good news about manuals
Many users have spoken about how much they like the IndexU Install Guide that I wrote a while back. I’m pleased to say that the Install Guide has been added to the client area so users no longer have to go searching for it.

More translations added
A few new translations have been added to the client area. These are the Greek, Swedish and Japanese translations. This brings the total number of translations up to thirteen! With an upcoming feature of the new IndexU being able to change character sets in the admin panel, this makes IndexU to a truly international program.

IndexU Deluxe
Dody has recently changed the version number in SVN to IndexU Deluxe and has stated that the new version should be available very soon. Changes include the following
mail templates being stored in the database
setting stored in the database

This will reduce the amount of work requred when upgrading. New features and functions include SMTP mail sending, subscription payments for 2checkout and paypal, preventing duplicate URL submissions and a number of other fixes as well as a new look for the script and an enhanced admin area.

IndexU Deluxe also includes a new version of the Kosmos template which is tableless and includes fewer files than before! This will make it easier for sitewide modifications.

IndexU Deluxe will also include a plugin engine!!!
With the plugin engine you can:
- attach the plugin to a hook (and multiple hooks)
- create new admin menus and forms
- enable and disable plugins

The plugin engine stands to revolutionize IndexU and keep it at the top of the ladder of directory scripts.

Lastly, one of the new features of IndexU Deluxe will be the use of the gettext localization framework to allows users to easily translate their version of IndexU for their language. You can read more about gettext at http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/gettext.html

Recent Fixes
Paypal and 2checkout subscriptions have now been added to the SVN version of IndexU.

Recent Mods
Adding social bookmarks to your site
http://www.nicecoder.com/community/showthread.php?t=5875

Google Checkout payment module
http://www.nicecoder.com/community/showthread.php?t=6102

Banned Mod
http://www.nicecoder.com/community/showthread.php?t=6414

Tips
A few users recently had an issue where they couldn’t see .htaccess files when using their Mac. A solution was found and provided.
http://www.indexusupport.com/2007/12/12/mac-yuk-issues-with-htaccess/
(note - requires signup to view, signup is free)

The Nicecoder Team
Bruce (support)
Dody (co-owner/programmer)
John (co-owner)

Welcome to a new year and a new direction for Nicecoder. There have been a number of changes in the background that users have not seen and I have reluctantly been holding back on.

The new year brings us a new office with some new programmers! There are now a total of seven programmers for Nicecoder. The programmers will be working on all Nicecoder products including the Extreme DMOZ Extractor, iDesk and IndexU. While we can’t make any promises or announce any dates, we can expect good things to come out of this and should see some updates soon. The decision to move forward with a team of programmers was brought about by Dody and John who want to see Nicecoder take a giant step forward in a new direction. I for one am excited to see what will come of this.

December was a slow month for updates due to Dody opening the new office and hiring the programmers so no new fixes were released but January provided us with a number of fixes and news bits.

Mod Of The Month contest
Nicecoder is now offering a Mod Of The Month contest. You can find full and complete details at the link below
http://www.nicecoder.com/community/showthread.php?p=28455

The winner for the mod of the month for January is inspireme for his Targeted Article mod. You can view the mod at http://www.nicecoder.com/community/showthread.php?p=29017. Congrats to Matt and his $100 reward will be coming to him soon.

A new manual for the Extreme DMOZ Extractor
I have written a new manual for the Extreme DMOZ Extractor. The new manual shows exactly how to use the Extractor to get categories and links and how to upload them to your IndexU. The manual can be found in the client area and can also be found at http://www.nicecoder.com/community/showthread.php?t=5802

More good news about manuals
Many users have spoken about how much they like the IndexU Install Guide that I wrote a while back. I’m pleased to say that the Install Guide has been added to the client area so users no longer have to go searching for it.

More translations added
A few new translations have been added to the client area. These are the Greek, Swedish and Japanese translations. This brings the total number of translations up to thirteen! With an upcoming feature of the new IndexU being able to change character sets in the admin panel, this makes IndexU to a truly international program.

IndexU Deluxe
Dody has recently changed the version number in SVN to IndexU Deluxe and has stated that the new version should be available some time in Febuary. Changes include mail templates being stored in the database as well as a number of settings. This will reduce the amount of work requred when upgrading. New features and functions include SMTP mail sending, subscription payments for 2checkout and paypal, preventing duplicate URL submissions and a number of other fixes as well as a new look for the script and an enhanced admin area.

Recent Fixes
Paypal and 2checkout subscriptions have now been added to the SVN version of IndexU.

Recent Mods
Adding social bookmarks to your site
http://www.nicecoder.com/community/showthread.php?t=5875

Google Checkout payment module
http://www.nicecoder.com/community/showthread.php?t=6102

Tips
A few users recently had an issue where they couldn’t see .htaccess files when using their Mac. A solution was found and provided.
http://www.indexusupport.com/2007/12/12/mac-yuk-issues-with-htaccess/
(note - requires signup to view, signup is free)

The Nicecoder Team
Bruce (support)
Dody (co-owner/programmer)
John (co-owner)

Things at Nicecoder have been heating up during the month of November. News of a new release has been given but no date has been set yet. A large number of fixes were released last month that take care of some issues that users were having and a discussion on the future of IndexU is still taking place on the forums.

I am happy to say that users are participating in the discussion and telling us the direction they would like to see IndexU to take. A number of the items discussed have already been implimented and a number of items are planned for the near future.

I’m looking forward to working with everyone in the new year and hope you have a great holiday season. See you again next month!

New Pricing
New pricing has recently been introduced and this should give IndexU a boost in the sales department.
As a year end sale current licenses for IndexU are only $60!
https://www.nicecoder.com/order/more_information.php?product_id=3,2

Nicecoder has also introduced a 10 and 25 domain license for users that don’t really need “unlimited”.
https://www.nicecoder.com/order/browse_products.php?category_id=2

Automated Installer
Dody has recently written a script that will install your copy of IndexU for you right from the Nicecoder website! The installer is free to use and should work on any webserver. Feel free to check it out!
http://www.nicecoder.com/installer/index.php

Recent Fixes

Fixes can be viewed and downloaded by visiting http://www.nicecoder.com/svn/
To log onto SVN you will need to enter your email address (from the client area) as the username and your license number as the password

Fix price cheating
http://www.nicecoder.com/svn/index.php?act=changeset&id=550

Fix 2checkout product name
http://www.nicecoder.com/svn/index.php?act=changeset&id=549

Add new category permission, “Not Allowed (Visible in add / modify a listing)”, and now check all 3 categories permission when add / modify a listing
http://www.nicecoder.com/svn/index.php?act=changeset&id=548

Use phpmailer for sending email, add smtp email setting
http://www.nicecoder.com/svn/index.php?act=changeset&id=545

There have also been a number of fixes for captcha issues that some users have reported.

Recent Mods

Most mods can be downloaded on the forum. However some mods may require payment or a visit to a third party website

Add-On - (3rd party reciprocal)
http://www.nicecoder.com/community/showthread.php?t=5787

Email reminder for sponsored and premium listing owners
http://www.nicecoder.com/community/showthread.php?t=5603

Tips

Recently on my blog I detailed how to impliment the IndexU spam filters. This is a great feature that not many IndexU users know much about. Using this tip you can filter out spam keywords and domains and they will get sent into your spam links area where they can be deleted at your leisure.
http://www.indexusupport.com/2007/12/07/indexu-spam-filters/
(note - requires signup to view, signup is free)

That’s all for this month
Happy Holidays to Everyone!

The Nicecoder Team
Bruce (support)
Dody (co-owner/programmer)
John (co-owner)