For the first post of our new Connect Blog we’d like to announce the imminent release of Centercode Connect 9.1. Connect 9.1 is a small release focused on Project Management Usability, bug fixes, and a number of small long-requested enhancements.
Introduction
As our set of Project Tools has grown in breadth with each new release, our interface for accessing them has not. Connect 9.1 aims to resolve this by revisiting and improving the interface surrounding our Project Manager tools, including both Project Setup and Project Resources.
Simplified Project Setup Process
Creating new Projects in Connect is now quicker than ever. We have replaced the Project Setup Wizard with a single consolidated page which incorporates the basic Project options including name, description, template, string set, and theme. Once this page has been completed, new Project Managers will land on the revised Project Tools page, including new help via inline tips.
Project Tools Revamp
We’ve revamped the Project Tools (previously Project Resources) interface to be quicker, more customizable, and more consistent. Our new interface allows users to drag the tools they use most often directly onto their Project Menu, while hiding the tools they use infrequently. These options may be personal, as well as defaulted for other users. In addition, all tools have had their user interface cleaned up substantially, enforcing consistent terminology and functionality across all of our Project Tools (Feedback, Tasks, Surveys, Forums, Releases, Content, Notices, E-Mail, etc).
Inline Project Manager Hints
While revisiting our Project Tools we’ve injected hundreds of Hints directly into each page. These hints are accessed by clicking a small question mark in the top right-corner. Doing so will display hints directly along-side every feature within each Tool. Connect 9.1 includes 300+ initial hints, a number that will grow with each release moving forward.
External Destination File Attachments
A long-time request, Project Managers may now include Feedback File Attachments when utilizing External Destinations. This allows files such as screenshots and logs to be attached and sent automatically to systems like Jire and BugZilla.
FTP Upload (in Connect Enterprise Edition)
Connect Enterprise Edition now includes FTP support for uploading large files to Connect Content and Releases. This is intended to address the inadequacies of HTTP to handle large-file uploads, allowing multi-gigabyte files to be uploaded via the FTP protocol, including resume support.
Connect 9.1 is in final test and will be released soon.
Thanks!
Neil White
CTO @ Centercode
