Thanks!

Gerald

Next up are implementation of the last features we're getting ready for launch.  Should be an exciting couple weeks with new and useful functionality coming your way!

Afternoon folks!  Another update and this one is a big honking bag of bugfixes (and status on bugs I was unable to duplicate), among other things.  Without further ado, here's the skinny:

• In the sweeps list and the bookmarks list it was possible for the bookmark and notify buttons to be enabled when a contest was expired.  They should appropriately show as disabled from here on.
• When a contest is expired, or has not yet started the date in the listing will be highlighted in red to hopefully catch your attention if your current search is showing expired contests.
• Went over SweepsUnleashed with a fine-toothed comb, there were two reports.  First was that there are times when there would always be 1(or more) contests that would stay in the Unleashed batch.  This one threw me for a loop for a bit but it turns out that it's when there is a contest with unlimited entries it adds it back to unleashed every time it's started.  This is appropriate behavior.  The second issue was that Unleashed was freezing at the end of a run.  I ran it probably 100 times and was not able to duplicate this.
• The Next and End pager controls on all lists pages were starting off showing as disabled (though they actually worked).  This has been corrected and all paging controls seem to function correctly now.
• There was a bug when trying to remove a bookmark from your bookmark list.  This has been fixed and you can now remove bookmarks again.
• The Home option in the top navigation will no longer be highlighted when in the SMS
• The position of the status bar (where status messages are displayed in the SMS) was off when using different resolutions.  This has been corrected and the bar should always look as intended.
• The URL for the SMS has changed.  If you had any deep links directly to the SMS they will no long function.  FYI, it is NOT recommended to bookmark pages within the SMS as they may change at any time and you get bounced back to the main site to log in anyway.
• There was a report that in the notification emails the "Last Entered" information wasn't updated correctly and always said "Never".   I was unable to duplicate this and closed the ticket.
• Had a tickets regarding errors in beta applications.  I was unable to duplicate this but it may have very well been solved with some earlier changes to the system.
• I'd filed a ticket about an error when entering contests through bookmark notifications.  I believe this was corrected with the authentication rewrite.

If I said I couldn't duplicate something and you can, please do let us know so maybe you could help us out.  If I can't duplicate it, I can't fix it.

As always we appreciate your bug reports and feedback, please keep 'em coming and feel free to even ramp it up and nit-pick us (please).

Next up for 1.0b.005 release are some highly requested items.  It will begin storing preferences for sorting and searches among other things and bookmarks and notifications are getting a LOT of love.  Going to be barely recognizable when it's finished.

Thanks!

Gerald

• Can not remove bookmarks currently, generates an error.
• Home option of top menu stays highlighted when in the Sweeps and Contests area.
• and more.

Next update will have a bunch of minor bugfixes then will attack bookmarks, notifications, and entering contests with a VENGEANCE!

As always we value your feedback on problems you have and thinks you like and dislike.  Please keep the information flowing to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Gerald

• Reworked authentication again.  Hopefully there is nothing you should notice on your side except a few less problems.  I do have a BIG favor to ask though. . .Please let us know if you see ANY weird problems with authentication (logging in/out) or authorization (permission denied, no access).  This is very complex code that, again, interacts with multiple applications and the best testing I can do is have you guys pound on it.  If you do see a problem please send us an email to support with the date and time, and what you saw that wasn't right.  This includes entering from bookmark notifications, logged in when you shouldn't be, logged out when you shouldn't be, access errors, unknown errors, etc.
• Went deep into the workings of how the listing functions work including sorting, bookmarking, unbookmarking, etc.  For those of you that are fairly recent (may have been since alpha even) the bookmarking and such hasn't actually worked correctly.  By design as soon as you bookmark a sweep/contest it should be immediately removed from the list unless you have Include Bookmarks checked.  It's not been working that way for awhile but should be working as designed now.
• There should no longer be any paging or sorting issues in the lists.  This includes losing sorting after paging.
• Paging works pretty much like it always has.  At some point I'll revisit this, but at the moment there's not a much better solution off the top.  What will happen is when you page it will immediately scroll you to the top of the page then load the new data (see the blue "spinner" at the top for working/idle status).  If you find that this isn't working for you, please let me know with what operating system (Windows XP, Windows 7, Vista, Mac OS X, etc) and what browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc) you are using so I can attempt to troubleshoot it.

Hopefully that wasn't too verbose.  As always thank those of you that reported and helped diagnose these issues.  If you'll keep up the good work, we'll keep up our end!

Gerald

Evening folks.  Well, black Friday really did turn out to be black for us here at SweepsU.com.  The update we released had a number of unintended side effects (read: bugs).  I think I've got just about everything squished so if you find something that disagrees with this posting, please do let us know ASAP via replying to this blog entry, the forums or community messaging (real live support email address coming this week or so, just need to train folks on ticket system).  Anyway, here's the skinny:

• The new paging system was flawed.  This caused problem with the page selector dropdown, and the items per page dropdown not working.  This also caused problems with bookmarking such that it would send you back to page one of the sweeps list and had a chance of bookmarking something other than what you clicked (usually the first entry on the first page).  Check your bookmarks, make sure you've bookmarked what you intended over the last 4 days.  I've reverted to the old paging system and all of these problems should be fixed.
• There were problems with the new authentication system where by it was slow getting authenticated from time to time.  This could also cause entering a contest from a bookmark notification to fail.  It was very rare, but happened a few times.

I think that covers everything I've heard about or noticed myself over the last couple days.  If you do see something else, or see one of the above still broken, please let us know.

Thanks!

Gerald

Deployed a couple quick fixes this morning to issues mostly related to the new authentication system.  Here's what they were:

• Fixed issue where beta applications could not be submitted due to errors in email verification.
• Fixed issue (hopefully) where entering a sweep/contest from the email notification was failing periodically.
• Removed SMS Change Log from the SMS menu.  I think the blog is probably a much better way to communicate the most current changes.  Feedback welcome.
• Other minor back-end and administrative changes.

Good afternoon all, hope everybody's having/had a great black Friday.  I've been sitting here for the past 8 hours and 18 minutes tweaking stuff for you guys so you could kick your heels up when you finished fighting the crowds and get some sweeping done.  Here are the details on the changes:

• Completely rewrote authentication system.  That CAS login screen is no more.  Instead we'll use the native login for the content management system (website) and if you're reading this, you've already figured that out ; )  Also the synchronization problems between the Sweeps Management System and the website should be eliminated (ie. if you're logged in to one, you should be logged into both)
• Along with the changes to the authentication system the session lifetime is now set to 4 hours.  This means that once you login, unless you close your browser you won't be logged out until 4 hours of inactivity.  Every time you do something that timer will reset.  If you do close your browser, your session is terminated and you'll have to log back in.
• Removed the old chat system and replaced it with a new system that should be more appropriate.  While many of you dropped by the old system with some consistency it was extremely rare that others were on at the same time.  This new chat system is tied into the Community system and can be seen and used on the Community page.
• The Invite a Friend feature wasn't correctly validating emails.  It was possible to send an invitation to someone who had already received an invite, or was already a member of the SweepsU.com community.  This has been corrected and it is no longer possible to send invitations under those circumstances.
• Took another swing at the issue with the paging on lists like the sweeps list, and the bookmarks list, etc.  I think I've finally got the final solution in place.  When you use the arrows to navigate between pages it will now do a complete page refresh sending you back to the top of the new page.  NOTE:  This is only for the arrow navigation (First, Previous, Next, Last), the drop down menus to go directly to a page, and the items per page drop down work the same as always.  I'm trying to figure out a solution for those, but haven't yet
• Have added an Announcement Bar to the site.  It is an area toward the top of the page that is bordered in red (under main navigation).  When there is something important to communicate to you guys we will put it there.  We will only leave any given announcement up for a couple days so that it doesn't become ignored.  This means that if you see it, please read it.

That's the big stuff, there was also some template tweaking and administrative system tweaks, etc.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, or if you'd like to make a suggestion regarding SweepsU.com please don't hesitate to contact us via the forums or community pages.

Thanks!

Gerald

and the SweepsU.com Team

P.S.  Please go vote for Erica, only two days left!!

Another fairly big update today, but mostly stuff for the SweepsU.com Team and internal stuff.   One big requested feature for you guys though!  Click Read More below for the list of changes:

• Changes to the Beta Registration URL and related changes to invitation email
• On Bookmarks list, remove Last Drawing (will be used again later) and added Bookmarked On date.  This is a sortable field and you can now see your most recently ordered bookmarks (Thanks Mike!)
• Fixed database problem with Report a Problem which was keeping us from seeing the problem reports.  Made application changes to fix actual problem and added email notification to SweepsU.com support team on problem report submission.
• Added instructions for SweepsUFound under the prize box, hopefully it'll make a bit more sense now.  Also added email notifications to the SweepsU.com moderators on SweepsUFound submission.
• Added a number of tools to help keep SMS user accounts synced with website user accounts.

I've got a really busy month coming up so this may be the last big one for a couple weeks.  As always, please let us know what you think, like, dislike, etc.

Gerald