Archived Chat Changelog (2017 version)

Status
Not open for further replies.
sola

sola

Chat Architect
Staff member
Updates including bug-fixes and new features to the chat client will be posted here for the benefit of anyone interested in what has been worked on. This thread only concerns technical information about the chat client itself; nothing related to the main site, forum, or policies is concerned here.

I will include version numbers in each update post. As of Tuesday, March 7th, 2017, the client version was 0.11.8.
 
Last edited:
Version 0.11.9:
  • Fixed bug causing users to sometimes not appear in userlists even though they really are in the room.
  • Fixed bug causing all guests being highlighted constantly by people who did not type their names.
  • Doubled the timeout threshold before "Too Slow to Sort" happens where userlist sort functions automatically disable on slower devices.
  • Added a blushing emoji.
 
Version 0.12.0:
  • Several improvements to cam/mic media protocol for more consistent updates about who has their cam/mic on.
  • When connection to media server is lost and then reconnects, you will now see a notice that you may need to republish your media before anyone will see that you are on cam (only applies if you were already published when connection was lost).
  • Fixed alignment of misc. notices being incorrect.
  • Fixed bug where /MSG command shortcut to PM someone was opening a PM tab of your own name instead of the person being messaged.
  • Fixed bug with hashtags in messages not correctly switching to room of the same name when you are already joined to that room.
  • Changed behavior when clicking on usernames in messages so that it will try to jump to the person's name in the current userlist, but if they are not in that room, it will instead tell you if they are in another room shared with you, your friends list, or if they are not in any shared rooms with you (instead of automatically opening a PM).
  • Added a slider in Options/Appearance for changing message font scaling.
This update should also help anyone who was wrongfully affected by bans against other users.
 
Version 0.12.1:
  • Added /BLOCK (or /ignore) and /UNBLOCK (or /unignore) commands for managing ignore list. Just try typing them and you will see more information.
  • Fixed bug causing null/undefined entries to be saved to ignore list.
  • Fixed certain long text in messages causing message tab to be pushed far out of view on Chrome, Edge, and IE browsers.
  • Theme preference will now be saved automatically between sessions (as long as your browser supports saving).
  • Misc. internal changes preparing for future unicode support.
 
Version 0.12.2:
  • Fixed vertical scrollbar bug on emoji/whispers/etc. in Chrome/Edge/IE.
  • Misc. internal device detection improvements.
  • Whispers will now trigger highlight events.
  • Improved date picker on guest login dialog and fixed an off-by-one error on day of month.
  • Checking the "Remember Me" checkbox when logging into your forum account from within the chat login dialog itself should now keep your session alive the same as checking "Stay Logged In" on the main forum login does.
 
Version 0.12.3:
  • Clicking on a username in a message will show a popup menu instead of jumping to the userlist. Works in rooms and PMs.
  • Omit certain pointless buttons from the user menus for your own user (like whisper, block, etc.).
  • Webcam feature will prefer front-facing cameras if recognized (mainly helps Android users with more than one camera).
  • Your own webcam preview window will now show the local preview instead of the remote looped back from the server.
 
Version 0.12.4:
  • Added two new userlist sort methods to sort by webcam status (one mode is media+alphabetical, the other is media+gender).
  • Fixed error collecting WebRTC media constraints on some older browsers (Opera in particular).
  • Fixed friends list not repopulating after disconnects.
  • Aliased /CLOSE and /LEAVE to do the same thing as /PART (closes current room/PM tab) for convenience.
  • Aliased /QUERY to /MSG.
  • Allow /MSG and /QUERY with just a username given to open a PM tab without sending a message.
 
Version 0.12.6:
  • Added new option to always allow PMs from friends, regardless of gender block settings or all other PMs being disabled.
  • Added labels to the buttons across the top for larger screen sizes to make the purpose of the buttons more clear.
  • Fixed away status not being applied to friends list.
  • Fixed cam/mic icons not being applied to friends list.
  • Ensure that symbols (like staff prefixes) are not shown in friends list.
  • Fixed alternate sort methods (for gender/webcam sorting) not setting correct button labels when joining a new room after having already changed the sort method in another or friends list.
  • Added a work-around to delay sorting the user list after joining a new room if alternate sort methods are used.
 
Version 0.12.7:
  • Fixed friends sometimes not having gender and other details set in friends list when not in the same rooms as you.
  • Fixed "@mention" username markup not correctly handling longer usernames or certain special characters.
  • Added @mention syntax to ignore/block list names for convenience.
  • Fixed highlights not being case-insensitive.
  • Fixed context menus when touching on a username in a message being nearly impossible to close on Safari Mobile.
  • Optimized memory allocation for several types of message markups.
  • Reduced font size on nav bar button labels shown on large screens.
 
Version 0.13.0:
  • Enabled GPU acceleration.
  • Implemented lazy-loading of userlist users for significant performance increase.
  • Optimized userlist sorting methods.
  • Changed "Too Slow to Sort" timeout to fixed value of three seconds (was previously calculated by the user count).
  • Clicking on users in userlists will now show the same context menu as clicking on usernames in messages.
  • Added the "Add Friend/Unfriend" item to user context menus.
  • The volume controls for your own media window are now hidden to avoid confusion.
 
This is a bit late because backend server updates were being made alongside client updates to take advantage of changes to both.

Version 0.14.0 (April 4th):
  • Client was made to work with updated backend, many internal changes.
  • Fixed message line height issues.
  • Fixed a bug with the options dialog size.

Version 0.14.1 (April 5th):
  • Misc. internal changes for how image uploads work with the backend.

Version 0.14.2 (April 10th):
  • Misc. internal changes for backend compatibility.
 
Version 0.14.3:
  • No longer show the "Connection to cam and mic media server lost" message since it is now part of the main chat connection.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause the page to freeze upon receiving a PM in certain cases.
  • Fixed a rare bug causing a strange split-view of tabs when switching between tabs, as well as messages being sent to the wrong conversation if this happens.
  • Added a second close button to image popups, with the report button now sandwiched in between the close buttons to make it harder to accidentally click Report.
  • Added an additional confirmation prompt when reporting image messages to be really, really sure that you want to report an image.
 
Version 0.14.4:
  • Fixed image reporting not sending reports correctly.
  • There are now separate icons for camera and microphone publish states next to names in the userlist. The camera icon is the same as before, but there is now a headphones icon indicating a microphone is published. Both will appear if both are published.
 
Several incremental updates were skipped again this time, as there was a complete server rewrite.

Version 0.15.0 (June 1st):
  • Significant performance increases from many functions in the client now being handled asynchronously. Most notably: parsing of incoming messages, inserting message lines, message area scrolling, inserting users into userlists, lazy-loading user styling and avatars, and userlist sorting.
  • Error handling when parsing incoming server messages improved considerably.
  • Added login/logout menu links. This is only for the chat session itself and not the forum sessioon.
  • Implemented a new way of receiving various configuration settings from the server upon getting into chat. This is mainly to ensure that features are correctly enabled or disabled for registered users/guests, as well as some moderator tools.
  • Added rate-limiting to desktop notifications so that it's not possible for many to pile up within a few seconds.
Version 0.16.0 (June 7th):
  • Login process will handle "ghosting" of existing sessions more consistently (when you are already logged into your account from one device or browser tab and then try to login again from another).
  • Added a "Share" button with a dialog to copy room links for sharing around the internet.
  • The rooms list will now always sort rooms by user count, descending.
  • Fixed ban messages sometimes not being displayed when you are banned.
  • "Erroneous username" dialog will now show more helpful information.
  • Fixed image upload messages not working at all on Internet Explorer 11.
  • Misc. moderator tool improvements and changes.
Version 0.16.1 (June 12th):
  • Fixed highlight sound playing when you send a whisper to someone, which was useless and annoying.
  • Fixed splash screen not being removed from background if the login dialog was shown at startup (leading to some graphical glitches on certain devices).
  • Minor improvements to idle/away timer checks.
  • Implemented image message attributes which will allow for various helpful text to be tagged beside image message links.
Also made a bunch of new bugs. Yay!
 
Version 0.16.2 (June 14th):
  • Fixed links to freechatnow.com not opening.
  • Slight userlist speed-up.
  • Added mass-unpublish event for resetting all active webcam/mic publishers when media server is reset.
  • Misc. tweaks for mods.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Featured content

Back
Top