Early on during development of IP.Downloads 2.3, one key area we identified that we wanted to improve was the notification capabilities of IP.Downloads. In previous versions of IP.Downloads, you can elect to be notified when a file you are watching is updated, and you can elect to be notified when a file you submit is approved or denied. These are necessary and useful notification options, however they do not encompass all of the scenarios users might want to be notified of within the application.
New Comments
We have implemented the new 'Like' and 'Comments' systems into IP.Downloads 2.3 (we will discuss this further in our next blog entry), and in doing so have added the ability to allow users to be notified when a new comment is received on a file. A user need only visit a file, 'like' it, and choose to be notified of new comments if they so wish. If you are subscribed to files, or have any files in your favorites list in your current IP.Downloads installation, those will be removed, and converted into 'likes' appropriately when you upgrade to IP.Downloads 2.3.
New Files
In addition to supporting 'likes' for files, you can now 'like' any category in IP.Downloads, allowing you to receive notifications (if you choose) when new files are submitted to a category you like.
Broken Files
Until IP.Downloads 2.3, no one would be notified when a file is reported broken. A note would be added to the top of the page with some details, and the file would be listed in the Moderation panel, however this requires moderators to be vigilant and to actively monitor the Moderation panel to discover when files are reported broken.
Beginning with IP.Downloads 2.3, you will now be able to elect to be notified when a file you have submitted is reported broken (as the file submitter). This allows you to know if any of your files are being reported as broken by the community, giving you the opportunity to address issues with the file if needed, and to communicate with moderators more effectively if they contact you about the file.
Additionally, moderators will now be able to elect to be notified when a file is reported broken, giving them the opportunity to let the software handle notifying them of problems, rather than requiring the moderators to actively monitor areas of the software to discover problems on their own. We believe this new functionality will ease the workload of your moderators, and ensure consistent communication occurs between the software and your staff.
As an aside - we have also added group-based permissions for who can report a file as broken, which will now allow administrators to better control who has access to perform this action in IP.Downloads.
Files Pending Approval
In addition to having no way to know when a file is reported broken, in previous versions of IP.Downloads moderators had no way to know (without checking for themselves) if a file is pending approval. This means that moderators must monitor the downloads area manually to determine if files are pending approval, which is time consuming and inefficient. Beginning with IP.Downloads 2.3.0, your moderators will now be able to elect to receive notifications of new files pending approval, allowing them to be notified when action is required on their part, without having to actively monitor the downloads area.
Summary
With IP.Downloads 2.3 we are working to improve both the consistency between IP.Downloads and IP.Board (as well as our other addon applications), and the usability in the application itself. We believe these small but important changes will allow you (the admin), your staff, and your users much better control over how they interact with the software, saving everyone time, energy, and useless clicks. ;)
Let us know what you think in the comments, and subscribe to our blog if you are looking forward to our next IP.Downloads blog entry, which will discuss some further usability and consistency improvements you can expect to see in IP.Downloads 2.3!