If you haven’t heard by now, IndexU Deluxe version 1.4.2 was released on October 29th. Its an update release but not in the traditional sense. Here’s what you can expect to find in version 1.4.2

Nicecoder is proud to announce that IndexU Deluxe 1.4.2 has been released.

There is no bug fixed in this release. But we do some improvements:

- update payment gateway, move to database
- update api service.php
- update plugin library
- added remote approve and reject listing, it will enable you to do one click approve or reject from email notification message you received

As I wrote in a previous post, the payment gateway configuration is now centrally stored in the database versus being stored in the php files. This way, each time an upgrade is performed, you wont have to worry about going back and redoing all the settings. I’m extremely happy that NiceCoder made this a priority.

Also, if you haven’t been paying attention to the Forums or NiceCoder’s site, a few of their products have gone from licensed products to open source. Those products that now fall under Open Source are as follows

1. iDesk – Help Desk Software
2. NiceTalk – Professional Live Help Desk
3. NiceMember – Membership Accounting Software similar to Amember

The pro about this is that no longer do you have to pay for the software and then pay a yearly support fee. The con, unless we see a big influx of community members for these products, dont expect much support or updates.

Lastly, the long awaited update to DMOZ Extractor has been released. The big difference is now its no longer a desktop software but a plugin for IndexU Deluxe. It does have some nice new features to it too. Two of the biggest ones is that its UTF-8 ready and when importing categories, you no longer have to start with a blank database. There are other new features to it, but you’ll need to read them on NiceCoder’s Blog. DMOZ Extractor plugin is free for those that have a membership to IndexUTemplates.com. If your not a member, you should become one. For the price, you can beat all the templates and plugins that come with it!

October was a fruitful month for NiceCoder’s flagship product, IndexU Deluxe. It started with the release of version 1.4.1. Here’s whats new in version 1.4.1:

Version 1.4.1 is a bugfix update and contains the following

Features
- Added who’s online listing in admin panel (it was removed before)
- Added captcha input form

Bugfixes
- Fix cronjobs time status
- Fix admin change password
- Fix tell a friend captcha
- Fix loading admin issue when adding a sub category
- Fix extreme dmoz extractor db import and remove tab delimiter import
- Fix Paypal Subscription

The update is available for all current license holders in the Client Area on NiceCoder’s website.

We also saw a number of plugin releases.

• eBanner 2.0 – An update to the original eBanner plugin. It now allows for a default banner placeholder so others will know when you have an empty ad space to sell. Click on it will redirect the user to the order page.
• Sociable – This is one of my favorite new plugins. Its a complete port from the popular WordPress plugin. It allows the admin to select which social bookmarkings to display.
• Quick Category Adder – This plugin allows for the Admin to easily add new Categories and Sub-Categories on the fly. You can now add hundreds of new Categories within minutes.
• Twitter Auto Tweet – This plugin will automatically tweet any new link that has been approved. Right now it works with the default IndexU Deluxe Link Validation but I’m having some problems getting it to work correctly with the Improved_Link_Validation plugin.

These 4 new plugins can be found on IndexUTemplates.com. If your a member of the site, you’ll have access to these plugins, and all previous plugins and templates, for free. If your not a member of the site, I suggest you become one. For $69.00 a year, you get unlimited access to all templates and plugins created by NiceCoder. Well worth it in my opinion

I posted this over at NiceCoder’s Community Forum yesterday after I discovered I lost a bunch of paid listings on my directories….

So, due to work and a couple of people in my family having illnesses, its been hard for me to login to my directories lately. There are a bunch of validations I need to do and other maintenance.

So I decided to login to my largest directory first. Low and behold I found 22 links in the ’suspended’ column. Now I’m puzzled. I’ve never had 22 people submit a Premium or Sponsored listing and NOT pay. I login to Paypal and 2CO to make sure that I’m not losing my mind and just as I thought, none of those were ever paid for.

I’m now thinking something must be wrong with the ‘add’ process… And there sure is!!! WHEN I UPGRADED IT RESET ALL OF THE PAYMENT MODs BACK TO THE DEFAULTS!!! Now I’m banging my head against the wall!!! I pretty much just lost 22 paid links because I didn’t go back in and configure the payment mods again correctly.

Wait… It gets worse….

I log into the other 4 only to find the EXACT same thing! In total I probably lost roughly 40 paid listings in the last month to month and a half. 

There’s two lessons here to be learned. If you upgrade your NOT done the upgrade until you reconfigure the payment mods!!! The other lesson is that the payment mods should be housed in the DB, not in individual files. This would eliminate the need to having to reconfigure them every time a backup is done.

Dody, I believe this should be on the HIGH priority list. I’m adding it as a suggestion in the Project Tools area, but I beg of you… Please find a way where our payment settings wont get overwritten with each and every upgrade.

John Milton responded to my post by saying that he forwarded it to Dody and it should become a high priority for the next IndexU update. Hopefully by posting this, in the mean time, others wont run into the same issue I have

Earlier this week, NiceCoder released v. 1.4 of its flag ship product, IndexU Deluxe. I must say that this is probably the first version that NiceCoder has released that seems to be completely bug free! Since they implamented the beta testing program ( originally created by Bruceper ) updated versions are starting to come cleaner and better.

Here are some of the changes in IndexU Deluxe v. 1.4:

Version 1.4 is a bugfix update and contains the following

Features
- Improve power search
- Add greek alphabet in for permalink (seo url)
- Improve sitemap
- Improve login block
- Add captcha for send password

Bugfixes
- MD5 user password
- Pagination in paid invoice listing
- Find and replace query in admin panel
- Custom field problem with multi select

You can download v1.4 from NiceCoder’s Client Area

I’ve noticed a few users on the NiceCoder Community Forum asking what is the proper way to upgrade to this version. Remember, in our Tutorial section, we have video tutorials that will help guide you through the upgrade process.

If you remember a couple of months ago, Dody, lead programmer and partial owner of NiceCoder decided to leave NiceCoder to explore other areas. As of a few days ago, Dody has rejoined NiceCoder again. He will resume his old position as Lead Programmer.

In other news, Bruceper, or Bruce as most people know him, has decided to leave NiceCoder in order to start his own venture. Bruce is the current owner of two scripts, that NiceCoder use to sell under their umbrella of products, WPDirectory Pro and NiceBackup. WPDirectory Pro has been taking off in sales as the first real directory plugin for the popular blogging software Wordpress. It has alot of the same features as IndexU, although it is considered the ‘lite’ version of IndexU. Take a moment to check it out. It even is a great subsitute for the built in links that Wordpress offers.

Those that have bought WPDirectory Pro in the past and went to the NiceCoder Forums for support, should now head over to WPDirectory Pro Forums to recieve help.

IndexU Hosting is happy for Bruce and hopes to forge a strong relationship with him and his new company. WPDirectory Pro and Wordpress are part of the Guaranteed to Run Out of the Box scripts our servers host.

NiceCoder announced yesterday that they have released two new themes for IndexU. The new themes, Colourise1-0 and MarketPlace1-0, are available for IndexUTemplate subscribers for free. If your not a member of IndexUTemplates, you can purchase the theme individually from NiceCoder’s website.

I’m personally interested in Colourise. Its a dark theme, which normally doesn’t interest me, but the header really makes this theme for me. One suggestion if you decide to use this theme, edit the CSS so that link titles use a white ( or bright ) font. Its currently set as black and with the background, its extremely hard to see.

NiceCoder released IndexU Deluxe 1.3.3 today. For those upgrading their current directories, you might find that you can no longer access the Admin panel with your normal username and password. This isn’t a bug.

NiceCoder made a change in version 1.3.3 that passwords now use md5. In order to do that, the password on the Admin account needed to be change.

After upgrading, login to the Admin panel with username = ‘Admin’ and password = ‘admin’. You’ll notice this is the default username and password for IndexU Deluxe when doing a fresh / new install.

Make sure to visit the NiceCoder Community Forum for help or further discussion on this

NiceCoder announced the release of IndexU 1.3.2 today… Here is whats posted over on their site

IndexU Deluxe 1.3.2 has been released. Version 1.3.2 is a bugfix release and fixes the following issues.

Updates
- Sitemap on admin panel and cronjob 

IndexU Hosting recommends upgrading to the latest version of IndexU. If you need help with the upgrade, let us know.

Two announcements in one night from NiceCoder….

Nicecoder is proud to announce that IndexU Deluxe v1.31 has been released.

IndexU Deluxe v1.31 is a bugfix release and contains the following fixes and updates
- Bugfix – Fixed admin menu not staying open after clicking on a link
- Bugfix – Fixed an issue with the sitemap when run by crom
- Bugfix – Fixed an issue with the sitemap using $date instead of $last_mod

Unfortunately since SVN is down I am not able to compile a list of fixes. I’ll get a list for you as soon as I can.

Head on over to the Client Area in order to download the update

NiceCoder today announced a new contest. They are suspending their MOTM ( Mod of the Month ) / POTM ( Plugin of the Month ), to offer their new video contest…

We want to spread the word about our products. Yes this means ANY of our current products. And you can help us spread the word and have a chance to win some money at the same time.

Here are the rules :

1. Only new videos for current products are allowed to be used to qualify and only count for the calendar month they were released
2. More than one video may be released to increase chances of winning
3. Nicecoder will choose the winners by picking the most creative and most informative video uploaded
4. My vote will be held in reserve to resolve any ties that may occur
5. Moderators/employees/owners are not eligible to win but may participate
6. The same user may not win twice in one month
7. Eligible submissions must be released on Youtube
8. Winner will be announced by the tenth of the following month
9. To qualify users must post the URL in the submission thread
10. By submitting a video, you give Nicecoder the right to use that video in perpetuity at no cost or legal obligation to you.
11. All videos submitted will be added to the Nicecoder site at some point in time. No decision has been made on this yet.

Current products are
IndexU Deluxe
iDesk 1.6.x
NiceTalk
NiceMember 

Head over to the NiceCoder Community Forums to read the full contest and rules!