Directra Build #607

Directra provides a new way in which you can be notified of changes to your Group. Activities are logged and categorized, then presented in a concise, easy-to-read digest. You can receive notifications daily via email and real-time using an RSS feed.

Similar types of activities are grouped together for easier reading. For example, let's say one of your Group members uploaded ten pictures during the day. Rather than report each upload separately (and bombarding you with emails), Directra will let you know that ten photos were uploaded and provide a link so that you can view all photos and see the latest ones that were uploaded.

Notifications are delivered per Group, so if you're a member of more than one Group you'll get a separate digest for each Group. After your Group admin has enable notifications, you can use any of the following methods for viewing changes to your Groups.

1. Get a daily email digest summarizing all changes for the previous day. Set this up using the Notifications section in your iPanel.
2. Follow an RSS feed using your browser or other RSS reader. Use Subscribe to RSS Feed on the More tab.

For details, see Directra Notifications.

You can create a podcast to view your Group media files (photos, videos and other files) using a podcast reader. You can then transer video and music files from the reader to your iPod or other mobile device. Use Subscribe to Podcast on the Media tab.  Learn more ...

A few weeks ago we released the ability to send text messages to other Group members using Directra or your phone. At that time we were in the process of getting a fully-qualified SMS short code and required you to use a temporary short code along with the keyword Group. The process is now complete. From now on, please use the short code 45997 when using your phone to send a Directra text message. And ... you do not have to use the keyword Group. Just type and send your message using the new short code (45997).

See Text Messaging in Directra for more information.

In our last release we added cover flow, allowing a new way to display photos (the Photoflow gadget) and members (the Memberflow gadget) in the center column of the home page. While this feature worked fine when there were only a few photos to display, if you had a large number of photos it was possible that your browser could become unresponsive while the photos were loading. We're looking into this problem but in the meantime we have removed the feature. Member photos will be displayed in a montage, while uploaded photos will display in a photo rotator, just as they do in the left and right columns.