New release: sklera 4.0.1
New Features in v4
The first quarter has been a busy time for us. Our efforts since the release of 3.9.1 were heavily focused on bugfixes and polish of the existing features. But we haven't rested on our laurels and spent a fair bit of time creating exciting new features as well - such as the long awaited introduction of Two Factor Authentication (2FA)!
We also added two extremely useful aspects: the sklera File Sync Agent, as well as a new optional module for municipalities: the Digital Municipal Notice Board.
Two Factor Authentication (2FA)
One aspect which had bugged us for quite a while was the lack of options for our users to further secure their access to the sklera CMS. The permissions system we introduced in 3.9.1 laid an important foundation - as advanced users can receive tailored permissions - but we wanted to top that.
Users can now individually decide to enable a second factor for logging in. sklera does support a second factor starting with 4.0.1. You can choose between either receiving tokens via E-Mail (which requires your user to have an E-Mail address associated with your sklera account), or you can use one of a variety of authenticator apps (such as Google Authenticator, Lastpass or other compatible apps). Administrators additionally have the option to force the usage of 2FA for users in a channel.
sklera File Sync Agent
The second major addition is our new sklera File Sync Agent for sklera standard and sklera professional users. This is a small app for Windows, Linux and MacOS which enables to automatically and continuously synchronize a local file folder on your PC to a folder in your sklera Media Library. Not only the selected folder itself - the entire folder tree within that folder will be replicated in sklera. The File Sync Agent supports every file type you can add to sklera.
This way you won't need to worry if this weeks' menu in the library is recent or not - if you edit or replace the file in the folder on your hard drive while the sync agent is running the item in the library will automatically update to reflect that. You can also sync your cloud storage (like Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, iCloud, NextCloud or linked network drives) with sklera this way - simply pick the local folder of these services as a sync source, and sklera handles the rest!
New module: Digital Municipal Notice Board
sklera offers a host of functions out of the box which are useful for public information displays used by municipalities. Current events, culture, local news... In short, a digital showcase with everything relevant to the local community, without being constrained by the physical dimensions of a notice board.
Official notices, public journals and similar documents can be shown in a digital form as well - but may have more stringent requirements such as verification that only authorized users added, edited or removed pertinent documents. Our new module takes this challenge and extends sklera by providing this paper trail, as well as a simple-to-use app which can be used interactively on a touchscreen. Authorized users can swiftly create new categories and add documents to these, and define a time period when this document should show up in the notice board. And once the notice has expired, detailed statistics are available - how often was the document opened, how often downloaded?
More new stuff and bugfixes in 4.0.1
Note: We've since backported some of the bugfixes to 3.9.1 as well.
New features in 4.0.1:
- Feature: Channel settings: You can now set the default file owner in the library. Newly added files in the library have either the uploader as owner (which is the default behaviour), or set the owner to 'no one', which means any uploaded file will be visible to all users of your media library.
- Feature for multi channel users: Screen Layouts can now be copied from one channel to another.
- Extended object permissions: Screen Groups and individual screens can now receive object permissions to restrict access to them.
- Layouts / Screenlayouts: New option in the save menu to convert a Layout to a Screenlayout (or vice versa, a Screenlayout into a regular layout).
Tweaks of existing features in 4.0.1:
- Tweak: Playlist manager now allows filtering the table by playlist name.
- RSS-Data: Now includes Image copyright information if present.
- Event Logs: Added a new event 'Item replaced' which is triggered by replacing an item in the library.
- Media Library, Upload via URL: This function now considers the currently active folder when uploading files instead of dumping it in the root folder.
- Layout Editor, QR Code Widget: Added the option of linking an item from the media library. Scanning the QR code enables a direct download of files from the library.
- Remote Control tweaks: The remote control of screens can now optionally be password protected. Additionally uploads via the remote can now be disabled, and items on the remote can be filtered by tags.
Bugfixes in 4.0.1
- Bugfix: Tooltips in the media library and while editing playlists were broken since 3.9.1. This has been remedied.
- Bugfix in the mobile view of the library: the Upload file button triggered the camera on mobile devices instead of presenting a file picker.
- Edit screen: Fixed a bug that prevented saving changes if the screen had screen group policies, but no individual policies set.
- Policies: Fixed a bug which prevented policies from being deleted while it still had screens attached to it.
- Policies: Fixed a bug when the policy field 'screen layout' was set to active without picking a screenlayout. This prevented affected screens from being edited.
- Layout Editor for screen layouts: Size/Resolution changes not automatically adjusts the playout widget to cover the new layout format.
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