Andrey Yasko
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UNA 12.0.0-B1 (Antares) Released

So much happened in 2020. While there were not many blockbuster movies made, it seems that news and reality of life provided enough drama and entertainment to make up for it many times over. Global pandemic, global panic, global reshaping of the society - whatever you choose to call it - the world has changed, or at least started to change. 

We are community software developers. Wo create tools that power independent social networks and provide configuration services for startups with multi-user apps ideas. To us 2020 was the year that amplified the gravity of our mission to the point when it's no longer about building a financially successful business or having a good time coding together - it is now a social responsibility of utmost significance. We must do our absolute best to halt the advance of monolithic technology giants that took full control of social networking, communication, commerce, media and entertainment. 

There is no justification for the likes of Facebook, Youtube Amazon, Zoom, Netflix and Google skyrocketing their revenue and valuations while further abusing freedom of speech, infringing on privacy and stifling competition. It is not OK that just a handful of enterprises have the power to decide what we get to see, hear, read and say. 

If we don't want to end up like the ELO's 21st century man - "Though you ride on the wheels of tomorrow
You still wander the fields of your sorrow" - facing the future that's not at all what we were dreaming about, but rather a hegemony of tech giants, then we must fight. We must give the power of technology back to people - to community leaders with ideas and determination to create multiple startups that give rise to a new wave of independent communities of all kinds and sizes. Anyone should be able to create online groups, automate businesses, unite people around shared causes, share knowledge, share creative art, collaborate with teams, operate community marketplaces and reach out to their social connections without giving away privacy, compromising on level of control and sucking up to someone else's commercial or political agenda.

We build UNA to do our part. We want to you to use UNA to do yours. 

On the first week of 2021 we have finally released the largest and the most important update we ever produced...

UNA 12 (Antares)

One post is not enough to even begin to describe the scope of this release. We added educational modules to expand to Learning Management; added Tasks for team collaboration; improved core performance significantly; restructured Studio to make UNA more suitable for building custom networking solutions; added asynchronous loading for blocks and menus; introduced forms fields privacy controls; added location controls without Google places; overhauled timeline feeds and the list goes on. 

Over the next few weeks we'll be publishing more details about v12, releasing additional modules and updating documentation. There is also a plan for new series of video tutorials and regular webinars, but for now we have to keep the announcement simple - look at the list of most notable improvements and help us test the first beta. 

New modules released:

- API
- Classes
- Courses
- Tasks

New modules coming in upcoming betas:

- Feedback
- Media
- Reminders
- Reviews

System enhancements:

- New Studio GUI - #3073
- Record Video type of uploader - #3081
- Asynchronous blocks with placeholders - #3051 #2896
- Asynchronous badges for menus - #3002
- Custom lists of different contents (instead of favourites) - #2875
- Speed improvements - #3039 #3006
- Location field improvements, integration of non Google services - #1519
- Pinned comments - #2597
- Rateable form fields - #2991
- Privacy for form fields - #2745
- Nested forms - #2990
- Ability to use use any profile field as replaceable marker in page blocks - #3082
- Sliding menus were changes to menus with "More..." item - #2496
- Templates are less in size and more prune to work upon updates - #3108
- Sticky columns for pages - #2954
- New interface for Labels - #2878
- Previews for PDF files in attachments section - #2859
- Pages/blocks cache issue with additional css/js files is now fixes - #2572
- Ability to clear reports - #3056
- Automatically suspend content after N reports - #3049
- More prune to work reset password functionality - #2995
- 2FA improvements - #2943
- Badges improvement - #2702
- Custom pages now support images for sharing in other networks - #2932
- Ability to use different S3 compatible storages such as Google Cloud Storage, Wasabi and SigV4 support for Amazon S3 Storage - #2952
- Moderator notes - #2764
- Reports functionality for comments - #2649
- Pages builder: default system(hidden) cell for inactive blocks - #2692
- Pages builder: block menu design selector - #2334
- Page builder for site search page - #1785
- Show total number of records in some grids - #2445
- Membership levels: immediate upgrade for infinite user levels - #2777
- Option for default cURL timeout - #3079
- API enhancements (more endpoints) - #3098 #2776 #2634
- Memcached cache can be cleared now - #3078
- Server audit improvements - #3013
- Moderators can't suspend other moderators and admins now - #2975
- MySQL cluster support with readonly nodes - #2950
- Profiles and accounts names can't start with "@" now - #2673
- Build-in `bx_file_get_contents` function can send JSON POST - #3093
- Design enhancements - #3046
- Install command line interface enhancements - #3041

Modules enhancements:

- Payments: single transaction mode for multiple purchases from different vendors - #2992
- Payments: Apple In-App purchase support - #2941 #2915
- Payments: improvements - #2892
- Files: major redesign and hierarchal structure - #3068
- Forum: different new attachments - #2861
- Posts: audio attachments - #2860
- Group based modules: paid join - #1904
- Group based modules: roles for users in groups - #2973
- Group based modules: ability for group admins to manage(edit/remove) all content in a context - #2843
- Group based modules: regular notification is sent now upon invitation - #2973
- Timeline: ability to mute individual profiles in the feed - #3050
- Timeline: updated cards - #3026
- Timeline: timeline post media editing - #701
- Notifications: possibility to set default value (active or inactive) for users' settings - #2963
- Notifications: possibility in settings to select all with a single click - #2946
- Ads/Posts: smaller images for Timeline cards - #2978
- Content modules: use first photo as main photo if cover photo isn't uploaded - #2966
- Events: Upcoming events - #2790
- Videos: multi-categories - #2774
- Organizations: multi-categories - #2772
- Persons/Organizations: option to not deactivate profiles after edit - #2585
- Decorous: template enhancement - #2951 #2602
- Polls: some empty white space in Timeline card was removed - #2949
- Massmailer: visibility based on ACL - #3069
- Stripe: strong customer authentication - #3040

There is a more - you can see the full list and review the code here - UNA 12.0.0-B1 on Github. 152 issues closed overall.

IMPORTANT: UNA 12 is still in Beta

This is the very first beta of a very big feature update. To use this version you'd have to switch to beta channel and run the update. It is not considered production-ready yet, so make sure to make backups of you are updating a live site. We plan to iterate betas quickly but v12 is still rough, so please be careful and report your observations in the Discussions section.

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Comments (65)

    • Sounds Great! Thank You UNA Team! When will it be available for UNA hosted cloud packages?

    • T

      Wow! Impressive!

      • Thanks!

        • T

          what is the use of API module..

        • A huge step forward. We just started testing Beta - there are a few glitches but overall UNA has become a much better place. Thank you everyone. 

          • T

            hi, how to disable this location field and use location on and off button

            image_transcoder.php?o=bx_froala_image&h=4439&dpx=1&t=1610027762

          • My header logo to my site has disappeared. I like the new recording button for posts. Very fast now. Will go more in depth when I get a chance.

            • I've noticed when I set "Asynchronous Mode" to anything but off, the content in the block refuses to load, instead I'm left with a white background where the content should be.

            • Links to Sounds from Timeline shows me Database query error...also I uploaded a screenshot pic that's underneath this but the preview showed up blank and even in this post you can't see I uploaded anything until you click the blank space underneath my writing

              • Awesome Andrew, UNA 12 is looking really good.

                I see an issue with scrolling on pages, with a 3 column page, the column with the longest number of items will scroll to the end before the actual page will scroll. 

                Is there a way to set the desired column to scroll?

                • Yes, we are tuning up these sticky columns. Some layouts and combinations require extra consideration. The issue you observed is already being addressed. For now you can turn off sticky blocks in Page builder. 

                • It's a breathtaking revolution. I really love this. Big up to the team.

                  • Very good  comments and vision, it was for the cause of freedom of speech that I looked at social media scripts from Elgg to Oxwall, and then to Dolphin and  now UNA, I have UNA up and running as a free speech social media platform.  I like the features such as the full text editor with html input which Facebook and Twitter would not dare empower their users with using.  

                    • Could not agree more, but it has been frustrating the last 6 months try to have key mods work on my site which. I am seriously trying for the last 6 months to provide an alternate to big tech social media but keep hitting roadblocks in una platform. Time is slipping away as other platforms create these sites. I would have been ready to promote Freedoms Square 6 mos ago.

                      • I have gone into developer and changed the update channel to beta. I have gone into the dashboard in studio and it shows the the update is available but it will not complete the update. Has anyone else had this problem? I need some help.

                      • T

                        I'm currently testing the 1st beta and I'm a little bit confused with the new "Roles" config options. You mentioned it in relation with the groups module, which I replaced with Spaces module for our community's special needs. Please, can you explain Roles in your next video for UNA 12?

                        • Great!
                          Andrew Boon  how long do you estimate for the stable version?

                          • If programming were an Olympic sport, Alex T⚜️ would be covered with gold medals.

                            • I'm getting a lot of titles across site and in studio where it is displayed as such: 

                              _sys_grid_total_count (as an example)

                              image_transcoder.php?o=bx_froala_image&h=4455&dpx=1&t=1610249954

                            • I'm also getting PHP failures in studio php audits

                              • and my profile headers at top of pages is misaligned

                                image_transcoder.php?o=bx_froala_image&h=4454&dpx=1&t=1610249797.

                              • Hi, I tried to follow Alex T⚜️ instructions on Peter's question above, however we don't have Developer installed and when I go to install it now I'm getting the message "Check the Script version for compatibility- The module is not compatible with your version of UNA" because the Developer module in the app store is 12.0.0. Is it possible to get an older version put back into the app store too or how do we fix this?
                                LeonidS Andrew Boon

                              • I am getting this now when I go into notifications to change settings. Remember also sees this error when they go to notifications of the site.image_transcoder.php?o=bx_froala_image&h=4457&dpx=1&t=1610297105

                              • Thanks Andrew Boon this is a huge milestone to take UNA to another level. Great job as usual !
                                One item I would ask if you could add to your to-do-list please. To implement "Videos Embedding" within {Videos} Mod in your next release.  Videos Mod should have both Videos Upload & Videos Embedding. We should not be asking the users to go to "Posts" or "Discussions" Mods to embed videos, it gets very confusing..
                                Regarding Social Networking CONTROL, recently the world has seen the giant Tech companies such as google, twitter, FB and even Amazon acting as Gods in order to destroy Freedom of Speech, we definitely need a better alternative. You said:  "We must do our absolute best to halt the advance of monolithic technology giants that took full control of social networking, communication, commerce, media and entertainment.."  which I totally agree with. But there is one more challenge, what would you do when your hosting company bends over to the Crooks in our Government's threats to shutdown your site or else ? This is actually happened 2 days ago.  Parler.com App was removed from Google's App Store, and Also Amazon threatened to shutdown their servers since their site is hosted on Amazon. You can read about it here: Parler CEO denounces ‘coordinated attack’ by Big Tech as Amazon prepares to pull plug on its servers   So what do we do when all hosting companies go after your website ? We used to have lots of competition & technology to choose from, but today we have Big Sharks swimming around asking the small Fish to either follow along or they get eaten alive.. I really feel this world is becoming North Korea now. This is a dictatorship allover again.. The Globalist are executing their agenda as we speak..

                                • M

                                  AWS gave Parler until Monday to either remove everything that supported violence and hate speech, or find another host. 

                                  [my thoughts on part of what happened...from an Admin's point of view and not a political one]
                                  Every platform where Trump had a social networking/media account has either muted, blocked or completely deleted his accounts.  I just had a thought on that...that it wasn't necessarily blocking him (although I'm sure that was a big part of it on some accounts), it was taking care of the resulting comments before they even got started.

                                  • parlor et al anything bigthat was highly touted- is nothing more than a profiling project... data collection to self identify radicals and political dissidents.   fed through l.e.o/c👀a supercomputers.

                                    not to worry in the above specificity unless your one of those prone to coup dè etat.  

                                    free speech will ultimately win, i feel.

                                  • M

                                    Brand new install to 11.0.4. No update button anywhere. So, I ran the SQL statement mentioned above. Update button is now in Dashboard. Click the button. No update. Refreshed page and cleared all caches. Same result. 

                                    Should I just dump the install altogether and install RC12? If so, will the install scripts automatically update the database tables for any adding/removal of additional fields? It just seems like there's not much I can do without having access to the downloaded modules.

                                    ***

                                    Seriously looking forward to designing a site with this. I was overjoyed when I learned that the team who designed Dolphin was behind this. I started keeping my eye on Dolphin in the early days and would check on it now and then. I had apparently missed the time when the transition to UNA was mentioned and happened to get an email talking about the upcoming RC12.

                                    • Andrew Boon  i am very excited.  im glad you guys are ideologically on the same page.  the internet is a human centric tool, not a too, to use humans at capitolistic psychologically trained deluded and thus cheated zombies.   the real danger is self evident-  if nothing is done tech will kill off and homogenize future brains and all known history will basically be lost, and any remaining old books or pdf etc will be viewed as heracy.   this cannot happen.   im on your team.  

                                      • image_transcoder.php?o=bx_froala_image&h=4459&dpx=1&t=1610328680

                                        • S

                                          Alex T⚜️ I don't seem to find out any way to enable Group based modules: paid join - #1904. Could you please advise on where to find that option?

                                          Also, the organizations module still does not allow other members to 'Follow'. The option is shown on the Navigation module under organizations View Actions, however, it does not appear when people see the Organization profile.

                                          • M

                                            I just installed a new site and my core is 11.04 and the apps/modules downloaded are for 12.00. Apart from 2 apps i can't install any app as there is no option to choose between for which core i have to install the apps. We can't update a new site as developer module is also for 12.0.0. 

                                          • Andrew Boon do you have and ETA on the final UNA 12 and B2? 

                                            We would love to get this into production, the speed improvements are really impressive.

                                            • Thanks!

                                              • "There is no justification for the likes of Facebook, Youtube Amazon, Zoom, Netflix and Google skyrocketing their revenue and valuations while further abusing freedom of speech, infringing on privacy and stifling competition. It is not OK that just a handful of enterprises have the power to decide what we get to see, hear, read and say. "
                                                This is a topic all for itself, the big tech gurus are like the gestapo right now and need breaking up or we will all loose our right to free speech forever.

                                                Oh and we sill need a spell checker :|

                                                • Awesome release, I've been following Boonex since the 2Ks but had to focus on other duties for many years, it's crazy how much progress has been made. Congratulations to Andrew and the Boonex community.

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