Announcing Ushahidi v3.0.0-beta.17 release!

It's been a couple of weeks since we last saw an Ushahidi Release. But, there’s been a lot happening in the background leading up to today:

Sophie recently talked out designing the v3 frontend, and debut the Ushahidi platform pattern library (Demo here)

We conducted some UX tests with a few legacy v2 users, led by Sharon, who posted results of the usability study

The design team digested feedback from the UX Test, and has been using that as basis for iterative designs and changes.

Today, we roll out Ushahidi v3.0.0-beta.17, with lots of new features and changes from the technical team.   Take it out for a spin on our demo site, but keep in mind that this is not ready for production, but we continue to get closer and closer. Log in credentials for the test site are as follows:- username: demo password: testing

What’s New?

We’ve made updates to the timeline and graph views:

Users can now use created time, updated time, or a custom time field as the time variable on timeline

'Post count by category' graphs only show a single level of categories by default

Filters now apply to graph and timeline views too

We fixed missing values in timelines. The timeline should now show accurate post counts

Get post counts grouped by custom fields values

Users can now set an audience when publishing a post. Each post can be published to everyone, or just to specific roles

New users can register through the web client, rather than being added by an admin

Post lists now allows you to bulk delete posts, and go direct to editing a post

New messages auto create an "unstructured" post. Unstructured posts will appear in the posts list. In future admins will be able assign unstructured posts a type, complete required stages and finally publish a post

What’s changed?

Frontend

We’ve fixed issues with anonymous access and logging out of the client

Page titles update with the current page, and site name.

Site name is now used in the site header

We’ve also fixed and updated map settings and moved these two functions to the tools section

Added JSCS style to enforce consistent code style in the client codebase

Removed broken workspace sections

Removed old translations and set up transifex to auto update with the latest source strings

Updated site settings and removed incomplete tools

Collections and Saved Searches are now shown in the menu. However viewing the posts in each collection or saved search is still a work in progress.

API

We’ve created default saved searches on new deployments

We’ve added PHP 5.6 support

We renamed form groups to form stages in the API

We’ve fixed various permissions issues in the API

What’s coming up next?

Here’s a couple of things to expect in the next release:-

Create, edit and view saved searches and collections of posts

Replacing Twitter Bootstrap styling with the final pattern library styles

Adding an editor for post types so you can modify the information collected when creating a post

How Can I help?

Translators!

We just updated repository for v3 on Transifex, removing old strings and updating new ones based on the recent changes. We could use your help getting translations up to 80% (See our Translators Power Ushahidi Campaign). Here’s a quick guide on how to get started

Developers

Download and Install the platform

Set up a development build

Follow our developer processes to send in bug reports and submit changes.

If you’re not already set up on Phabricator, please head over to the Ushahidi Phabricator page and sign up. Once your account is approved, here’s a guide to get you started.

Users/Deployers

Have a look at our roadmap,to track progress on tasks, and add your voice into anything you feel is a high priority for you.

Everyone!

Join our discussions on IRC/Hipchat/Gitter(Posting on any one of these channels displays on all of them) and the mailing list.

We are grateful for you, the Ushahidi community for all your input and feedback! Do feel free to reach out to any of us with questions, comments and concerns. In the meantime, stay tuned on our blog, meetup page, twitter, facebook page and wiki for more announcements. Happy v3 release day!