New Features

• Newly designed login screen
• Change Log on the Dashboard and under Data
• Interface version upgrade from the Dashboard
• Current Plan display on the Dashboard
• Parent drop-down when working with nested models
• Date/ time defaults to today
• Address Postal code changed to ZIP
• New header/ nav display in admin
• Localization scheme with advanced user permissions
• Model Inheritance

Bug Fixes

• IE display issues

There are a number of updates and fixes in this minor release:

• Displaying models without columns: A fix in the Content section of the Admin for displaying content for models without columns.
• Model name blacklist: Improvements to the naming “blacklist” to ensure no conflicts can happen when naming models.
• URL field: Now allows use of slashes (/ or \) as well as hyphens.
• Page nesting: When you add a new Page, now the Parent page can be selected from a dropdown menu.
• Reorganization: When reorganizing a list of content in the right panel, the screen refreshes instead of going blank.
• Nested set naming convention: Now child items in a nested set don’t include the parent name, but the hierarchy and context is maintained when sorting/searching.
• Various bug fixes

More features and tweaks coming soon!

We wanted to let you know about a few minor fixes that we’ve put out in this release.

• Fixed has_one association bug: The has_one association type will be inline on forms now (not in the association tab).
• Fixed date formatting bug: Dates as displayed in templates no longer cause errors.
• Fixed content paging bug: If there is no content but you have pagination on a template, it will no longer throw an error.
• Fixed date range bug: Updated so that date/time column doesn’t create a date entry prior to the “start” date.
• Fixed association/draft bug: If you associate a “published” item to another item that is in “draft”, updating the published item no longer disassociates the two items.

Also, in a previous minor release, we added another element to Interface that we think will be helpful to developers.

• Separation of Prod and Dev instances: This means that you can update your Interface version on Dev first and test it out, see how it affects your site, before updating on Prod.

We also added a way for users to reset their passwords. Visit the Account Center login page and use the “forgot your password” link. accountcenter.interfacecms.com

The time between the last update and this latest 2.3 version has been really exciting because we’ve been spending time not only on some new features and improvements, but also working with teams USING Interface on great projects.

Version 2.3

Enhancements

• Save options implemented across associations
• UI enhancements (such as, easier way to edit associated items)
• API ability to order by multiple fields
• Added incremental loading to association search

New Features

• New file upload using swf upload (faster and better for large files, such as video and pdfs!)
• Added “sensitive” column type for content columns to hide from the API (while still allowing the rest of the model to be available)
• Model Inheritance

Check out our Examples page to see some of the latest sites to be launched in Interface, such as Uncommon and Invisible Creature.

We have a few new features in the works, so stay tuned!

To our Interface and Web Hosting customers,

Last night, around 11:20pm PST, our web hosting partner, Slicehost, experienced a significant power outage at a data center that interrupted service to a large number of websites between 11:20pm-12:45am.

Our hosting monitoring system alerted us to the problem and staff was aware of the problem immediately. Our servers were affected by this and although they were brought back up as quickly as possible, several of our client’s websites were unavailable during this period.

As of 1am, all of our client’s websites had come back online and were functioning properly. Some lingering problems still existed today, but our team has been working to correct those since early this morning.

We’re always looking for ways to improve our customer’s website performance and reliability. Even with this recent issue, Slicehost continues to be highly regarded as the best choice in the cloud/ web hosting industry.

Sign up for the Service Updates blog RSS feed to learn about any service interruptions and information as we learn it ourselves. If you have any further concerns, feel free to touch base with us.

Thanks again for your business,

The Interface Crew

The team has been really excited to spend time lately on “little” things that are making Interface more polished and well-rounded.

Enhancements

• Improvements to search logic
• Content list bug fixes
• Tweaked various minor display issues
• Search now finds results from Locations (i.e., search by city) and Images (search by image file name, etc.)

New Features

• Added Save Options for content: Save and New (saves current item and then opens form to add a new one), Save and Duplicate (saves current item and then creates a duplicate of that item to edit & save), Save and Close (saves and then closes current item)
• Included color and quality options to image cache
• Ability to search across nested associations from Content List search in toolbar.

To update your Interface version, make sure your developers and the project are ready for the update and then use the “Update Now” button on the Dashboard. You’ll get an email notifying you when the update is complete.

The team is focused on a number of other small improvements for the next Interface version before we move on to a few new big features. In the meantime, check the Blog for more information about Interface.

We are excited to see a number of minor tweaks and new features with version 2.1 just released this week.

Enhancements

• Thumbnail display: Images crop and center rather than stretch
• Model namespace: Namespace for Models allows you to name a Model anything without risk of collisions with Interface or Ruby classes.
• File delete link: Added a link for the ability to delete an uploaded image or file.

New Features

• Instance update: Dashboard element that displays your current Interface version and the most recent version release. Option to update your version with “Update” button.
• WYSIWYG: Option to add a WYSIWYG text formatting bar to “text” models via model configuration.

Stay tuned for more announcements soon; we’re working on some great stuff!

This summer, the Interface development team worked on numerous new features and elements to bring Interface to version 2.0. On top of many subtle and/or “little” improvements, v2.0 has:

A New UI & Design

• Gorgeous new design by JD Hooge at Gridplane
• Streamlined navigation
• Condensed and centralized toolbars
• Dashboard with shortcuts, support links & account information
• Model creation screen overhaul–new form-builder style
• Association viewing as drop-down menu
• Popover box for model configuration & content associating
• Drop-down menu for quick access to other Interface instances
• Thumbnail display view

An Account Center

• Ability to sign up for new Interface instance online; automatic instance deploy
• Re-occurring billing
• Account Center area to manage account and user information
• Support tickets to report Interface bugs

A User Account System

• Centralized User system: One login for any Interface instances you’re a user of
• User add + invite system

New Hosting

• New hosting provider with cloud hosting for improved reliability and maintenance

New Features

• Import from CSV, including associated items
• Export models and/or content
• Date/time column with calendar date selector
• Batch content select, publish/draft, delete actions
• Domain Mapping
• URL shortcuts

Improved Features

• Error messages more consistent and user-friendly
• API overhaul
• Enhanced content filtering and searching
• “Remember me” on login fixed
• Content item sort & search results maintained in middle column
• Content list column expands to show more than 100 results
• Content list item count updates according to selected items

Stay tuned for more info, news, and updates from the Interface team as we continue to enhance Interface.

Here in the Service Update blog you can find all manner of important updates pertaining to Interface–maintenance, hosting notices, bug fixes, new features and versions.

Check back often for the latest news, or subscribe to our RSS feed.