6/27 Scheduled Update

The Connections Online production site (col.connectionsonline.net) is scheduled to be updated this weekend. This update includes a few user interface updates along with some new features.

Updates

• The Support Community link in the page footer is now displayed as a Help icon in the sidebar. With the addition of this new icon in the sidebar, the order of the icons was also changed. Starting out, the new Help icon will always link to the same help page in the Connections Online forums, but it will be changed in the next update to point to page-specific help.
• The Sign Out icon is removed from the sidebar, and new Settings and Sign Out links are added next to the user name. This change makes room for the new Help icon and, hopefully, makes signing out and finding your user settings more intuitive.
• The chart used on metric pages and on the metric report is updated to remove the labels along both axes and to remove the export button. The Y axis was confusing for some because the numbers shown were not formatted (it would show .8 instead of 80%), and the X axis was confusing because the dates shown lined up with the dates that metrics were entered instead of the dates that the metrics represented (a metric entered on 5/30 that represented May's value would look like it lined up above June instead of May). The export button was removed because printing the report or just taking a screenshot would work just as well.
• The list of metric owners on metric pages is updated to work better on touch devices. Previously, the delete button that appeared on roll-over was not accessible from touch devices. Now, touch devices will show the button next to each name by default. The user icon is now also hidden on desktop screens until the owner's name is hovered over, and the entire owner, including name and icons, is now displayed as one object.

New Features

• Single Sign-on Authentication. Sites can now configure sign-on for Connections Online to work with their own internal authorization system (including Windows Authentication).

• Logging in with Facebook and Twitter. Sites can now allow their users to tie their Facebook and Twitter accounts to their Connections Online account. This makes logging into Connections Online easier from mobile devices. This does not allow Connections Online to post or tweet on their social media accounts. It is only used for authentication.

• Third-Party App/Website Authorization. Developers may now create apps or websites that log into Connections Online as specific users without needing to know the user's password, as long as the user (or a site administrator) gives the app permission to do so. Authorized apps can be viewed and deleted on the site admin page and on user settings pages. Developers will be able to create new apps from the new /developer page in Connections Online.