This is our first monthly Keeping it Rolling Update post, which now puts us on the hook for delivering every month.
The intent is to give insights to our immediate past and future release updates for both SocialEngine PHP and SocialEngine Cloud, in addition to giving a peek into priorities we are working on, things happening around the office, and any other stuff worthy of sharing.
A Short Recap of Our May (in chronological order)
- Kyle’s singing and songwriting talent got him an onscreen performance in the CW show Heart of Dixie. Okay, that was in April, but too cool to leave out.
- Jason traveled to China to build a business relationship that could bring cool communities to SocialEngine. We provided him with a GoPro, but 90% of the footage we got back was of his feet walking around the streets of Hangzhou.
- James was the officiant at his friend’s wedding in New Orleans. It took him about three full days to return to human form.
- Stepan set a few PRs (personal records) for his trail running up Mt. Sanitas in Boulder. He still claims the FourSquare mayorship for Mt. Sanitas Summit, which he took from James.
- Mike successfully welcomed his first child, little lady Ada Estelle Feineman. Mom, dad, and child are doing wonderful.
Released SocialEngine PHP 4.8.2 and 4.8.3
4.8.2 brought much needed performance improvements, with some people reporting >20% improvement.
4.8.3 brought ability to play HTML5 videos on the mobile devices uploaded directly using ffmpeg. Mike created a video demonstrating an easy way to set up functionality introduced in 4.8.3.
…and we continued with bug fixes, so please keep leveraging our public bug tracker.
SocialEngine Cloud
Since we are frequently updating SocialEngine Cloud, we want to focus the discussion on our SocialEngine Cloud Community so as not to overwhelm the blog with numerous updates and notes. If you’re interested in SocialEngine Cloud updates and product discussions, join the community and participate with us, and check out our May Release Notes.
Note: we had some hosting issues that impacted SocialEngine Cloud and our website, thanks to all of those who reported the issues to us and being patient while we fixed em.
SocialEngine Rebrand Effort
Yes, there is a rebrand effort underway. We’re excited to pump up the visual standards of the SocialEngine brand. We planned the rebranding efforts with user stories, wireframes and features we’d like to add to the next version of our site. Don’t worry, no developer time was used up in the development of the brand, but we are going to have to pull some resources for the launch.
What’s Happening in June
Mike, our lead developer is out of the office for a few weeks to attend to his wife and new baby. Yes, we said a few weeks as we don’t put a limit on the right amount of time to be with a newborn, so we hope he’s enjoying life and we look forward to seeing him well rested (yeah right) when he returns.
SocialEngine PHP
We are shipping a new version in the next week, then our focus is going to turn toward the relaunch of the brand. This version will bring the ability to upload media (video, photo) from mobile and further mobile improvements.
Site Relaunch With New Features
This is more than just making our site look pretty, it’s addressing feedback to provide an option to purchase certified add ons to ensure the stability and performance of the platform, in addition to helping our 3rd party developers with better visibility and recognition on the site and marketplace. Some highlights of the July (tentative) launch include:
- SocialEngine PHP Marketplace
- Developer Spotlight
- Dedicated Support with Integrated Knowledge Base
- Product Demo
We’re Hiring
We are looking for a full-time PHP developer with Laravel experience. Remote work opportunity. If you want to be on our team, send your resume to jobs@socialengine.com.
As always we are open to getting your feedback so please don’t hesitate to email me directly: james@socialengine.com.
With appreciation,
James
Co-President and CEO
