This month, we have a few enhancements around the Topics/hashtags feature and addressed some challenges for LDAP-integrated communities. We’ve also improved out mobile browser experience so that the entire Socialcast feature set (Projects, Challenges, Town Halls, etc.) can now be accessed from a mobile tablet or phone. Check it out below!*
1. Topics Included in Search Dropdown
You can now easily search and discover Topics/hashtags directly from the global search bar at the top of your community page. Type in your keyword or use a preceding # symbol, and a list of Matched Tags will appear. Clicking on the topic will send you directly to the Topic page.
2. Markdown Support in Topic Description
We now support markdown rendering in the Topic description field. Although a minor enhancement for Topics themselves, many of the integrations available in the Integration Store can leverage topics and the description field to surface more valuable information from that system into the Socialcast stream. Third-party developers or regular users can now simply add the supported github style of markdown to topic descriptions and have it rendered after save.
3. Ability to Bulk Send Activation Emails to Pending Users
We now support the ability to bulk resend activation emails to users in a Pending Activation status. Pending Activation users are those that have accepted an invitation to join the community, but have not fully completed the account activation process. This is especially beneficial for LDAP communities, where all provisioned users are initially put in a Pending Activation status until the individual clicks through their activation email. If that email is lost or deleted, an admin would have to resend the email on a per user basis. Now, admins can select multiple or all users to bulk send activation emails.
To bulk send activation emails to pending users, admins can follow these steps:
- Navigate to Admin Settings > User Management > filter by Pending Activation
- Either select individual users or click the ‘Select All’ button to select all users
- Click the ‘Resend Selected Activations’
This will result in activation emails being resent to all selected users.
4. Preferred Name or Nickname Field
Many people go by something other than their given first name, whether that be their middle name or a nickname. Those companies that sync their users with Active Directory or have other LDAP integrations typically don’t have a preferred name field to map. As a result, users were being forced to use a name in Socialcast that was not known by their colleagues. This problem is now a thing of the past as we are providing support for “Preferred Names” or “Nicknames.”
Admins can now go under Admin Settings > Community Management > User Management > Actions > Edit and manually enter a ‘Preferred Name’ for that particular individual. Users can also Edit their Profile and enter a ‘Preferred Name’.
Once this is done, Socialcast will display the Preferred Name in all places where the user is referenced. Community members can @mention the user by their Preferred Name or their Given First Name, and the auto-suggest drop down will work across the web and mobile apps!
5. Desktop Mode for Mobile Browser
We have now enabled the desktop mode to be the default viewing experience for users who try to access Socialcast through their mobile browsers. This means that when you visit your Socialcast community through a mobile browser such as Safari or Chrome, you will have the same experience as the desktop browser version and full access to the entire Socialcast feature set.
In this new layout, we have moved all the navigation buttons to the top of the browser, extended the stream to be full width, and removed the web flyout functionality so that your memberships can be viewed on a static dashboard page.
This also means that we have retired the old mobile web solution. For the most optimal experience, download our native apps for iOS and Android today!
*Please note that On-Premise clients will receive these features in a future release.