Dolphin 7 (Hookie) Public Preview. Build 12.
The very first public preview of Dolphin 7 is available now. As many of you know, we were initially planning to release an interim 6.5 version and a few months later - v7, but while working on it we realized that this renovation should not be "half-baked". We went on to develop the biggest version upgrade BoonEx has ever had.
Dolphin 7 is the last major update based on the current engine. We plan to officially support and develop it for about 3 years after the Dolphin 7 release and will be issuing smaller updates (7.1, 7.2, etc) every 6-9 months (not sixty nine, but six to nine months). Dolphin 8, based on Poseidon (BoonEx proprietary software engine and development framework) should replace Dolphin 7 once functionality is matched and the proper upgrade path is developed. Dolphin 7.x and 8.x will live together for a while, so plan accordingly.
Hookie is based on Dolphin 6.1 (Spunky), but has been re-worked to an extent that they are almost absolutely different. We had to freeze development of all BoonEx projects for a few months (including Poseidon, Expertzzz and Unity) just to focus on Dolphin 7. It is still far from ready, but the day has come to show you what we have already done and what it is going to be like. Please, engage your imagination and patience while "previewing" the demo - many of the bells'n'whistles are not added yet and we have a list of known issues. We do, however, believe that at this stage you can see and appreciate the amount of work done towards improvement of every single aspect of the script.
Dolphin 7 will re-shape the BoonEx organization, policies and licensing terms dramatically. We expect a wave of upgrades and realize that we need serious internal restructuring and a policies update to keep up with demand.
Dolphin 7 is being designed to WOW your site's visitors and members, monetize your traffic and get your business into the world of mobile communities.
General Overview
Historically, Dolphin has been developed based on webmasters' requests. This time we've taken a different approach and re-designed it for end-users, placing usability and UI consistency first. We researched functionality of Facebook, MySpace, PoF and many other social networks and dating sites; we designed a logically-structured navigation tree; tested numerous use-cases; talked to people and tried different approaches. Now Dolphin 7 boasts significantly improved navigation, layout and UI logic.
On the back-end, Hookie has received proper attention as well. We moved all major modules to separate folders and re-wrote the code to separate them. We added caching to most of the "power hungry" pages; introduced standardized forms; integrated jQuery and optimized DB queries.
Hookie is an all-in-one package. It includes Ray Widgets and Orca Forum as native components now. So, the whole thing is now called Dolphin and will require just a single license. Flash apps have all been dramatically improved and new ones were added. Dolphin 7 will at last come as a single-install - no more Free/Ad-Free variants - just run it for free or add license to have all BoonEx links automatically removed (no re-installation of flash-apps required). Flash apps won't have banners or ad-links anymore, just "powered by BoonEx" links.
Take a look at...
... new design and layout. It is now unified across all pages and cleaned thoroughly almost everywhere (yet the work is still in progress).
... new "adaptive" navigation structure, design and logic
... new members browsing, pagination, search, QuickBox, simple + extended views
... Google Maps integration (far from final though)
... new "Leaders" box
... new Join and Login forms
... new language-sensitive Promo
... searches: keyword search, people search, quick search (and more planned)
... new Account
... new Friends
... new Mail
... new Activity
... new Profile
... new Boards (with Rooms, visible attendants, and soon - saved boards)
... new Video Player with "related videos" stream
... new Music Player with EQ
... Media Albums
... Categories
... new Polls
... completely new, dynamic Comments, integrated for all modules, with multi-level nesting and dynamic post-editing
... Video Comments, integrated with text comments
... multi-functional Wall with text, video, photo and music posting, link sharing and nested comments
... integrated forum
... Calendars, World Maps, Hot or Not and numerous other browsing options
... new Events
... random quotes
... AJAX site-alerts
... new Videos, Music, Photos pages with a huge pack of improvements, new players and browsing options
... multiple files upload for media sharing modules
... new "Sites" module, replacing old "Links" page
... new Ads (classifieds)
... new eCards
... Desktop App, based on Adobe-Air
... ok, at this stage I'm tired remembering every new feature and you're probably done reading them. Just go and play, but please read this post to the end first.
Don't look at (so far)...
... floating member menu. Still at the early stage of development, this menu will feature AJAX-based Quick-IM, Presence, Friends Tracker, Alerts Tracker, Fast Mail, and more. It can be put on top and can be "frozen" there, by the way.
... OpenID support is still under development
... Google OpenSocial is already in, but not quite in full, so give it some time
... Facebook Apps support is still at the early development stage, so you can't see it
... Profile customization is going to be in as well, better than ever but not yet
... Couple Profiles are working now, but still need some thought and time
... Settings, including Privacy Settings are yet another major feature, which you can't see now but is under active development. It's a very sophisticated and exciting new system, which will allow grouping and selective control over information access/permissions for profile owners.
... speed and security. Although we made quite a few improvements, we still plan to use the professional services of MySQL consultants and security verification consultants to improve the script when all features are in.
... admin panel. It has been re-worked, but is not ready for preview yet.
... iPhone App - it's working, but you can't install it to your iPhone yet, anyway.
... Android App - not working yet and is in fact 40-50% ready
... mobile version, yes, yes we do work on mobile versions of dolphin as well. It's an optimized version of the site that works with mobile browsers.
... pages/blocks that say "under development"
... Module "Files" based on "media sharing" with any file, presented via Flash Presenter
... "micro-blogging" and Statuses (nearly done)
... More "location-awareness" functionality (getting close)
... Mobile payment, sms payment, micropayment
... Games (open platform, "widgets")
... Site-map generation, SEO improvements, targeted "canonicals" and "no-indexes" and improved URLs
... HTML notifications/letters and notification settings (a cool new system's coming up)
... matchmaking system
... community moderation tools
... affiliate, banner and advertising systems
... many other things, that will definitely be added, but I'm getting too sleepy to even try to list all of them.
So...
As you can see there is a huge list of things we've challenged ourselves to do, but trust me, the most difficult part is over - bits and pieces will be going together a lot faster now.
Dolphin 7 is 100% open-source. I mean 100%, including Flash Apps, Adobe Air App, iPhone App and Android App. We plan to start providing access to code as soon as the first Official Beta is ready.
Remember, this is a PREVIEW version only. We know about lots and lots of things that should be done, so chances are that we know what you were going to say, but don't let it stop you. Share your impressions, observations, ideas and suggestions. We're happy to hear from you, but please let's stick to the proper discussion channels:
- if you want to share you impressions/opinions - comment in this post.
- if you want to engage others (BoonEx-ers included) into a discussion, use this forum.
- if you want to give a detailed review or publish your ponderings/observations about Dolphin 7, but out of this post context - post in Blogs.
Now I just hold my breath in hopes of a warm welcome for Hookie.
drums...
THE URL: http://www.demozzz.com/dolphin7a
The new Dolphin solution is powered by UNA Community Management System.
SEEING IT NOW
KEEP UP THE GR8 WORK GUYS!! =D=D
Thanks!
yours always
sammie xXx
Personally, I am excited about mobile payments or sms payments. I foresee many vertical social networks that will sell products consumer to consumer. Easy and inexpensive mobile payments will facilitate this.
Checkout RevolutionMoneyExchange.com and Obopay.com as examples. Dolphin can partner with them see more
Congratulation Boonex, you are GENIUS, BRILLIANT, INSPIRED, YOU NAME IT!!!
Respect from me now and soon from the whole industry!
All the Best for now - and I pray for 8 with multidomain - then my business can really roll out!
I just wanted to let you know Andre and the team that this is absolutely amazing. Now that things are starting to slow back down at school I'm going to do my best to be on this community every single see more
maybe its not the application, but your internet connection? i didnt see any problem at all with the performance.
Regards,
DosDawg
Few years back, when I used 'Vmware' I had a feeling in my mind - "WOW"
Today after seeing this software, I have the exact same feeling - WOW !!!!
Great job guys !!!
When it comes to spouses should be just a description, not two, as well as photos.
but I feel like a child who discovers the Christmas gifts
thank you for this moment
thank you for your hard work .. this version will have all features that I thought for my site ..
Go Go .. I'm enthusiastic for complete this work and install this to my site :)
best regards
Rawaf
Rob
p.s. Thank goodness you improved the menu system - that terrible menu on 6.x really detracted from an see more
we shall see how this all pans out.
Regards,
DosDawg
The bottom menu is too big. It need to be about three times smaller.
Also I tested the email.... I can email my self :)
and I can request to be friends with my self. :>))
I just have one question.
Will this integrate well with vBulletin or other forums better than Dolphin 6?
Thanks for all the hard work!
i think that we need some form of editor, but to allow html, would also assume you allow jscript, and if you have dealt with any other open source platforms, you know that there are those little b*st*rds, that have nothing better to do with their time, than to spend it trying to tear up stuff.
I think some form of tagging utilizing braces or brackets for customizing the profiles description would be a great asset, but at the same time, we have to consider security.
Regards,
DosDawg
Regards,
DosDawg
I agree with that Dolphin has to be designed for end-users ! This is a self-evident truth !
Version upgrades could come every 6-9 months... but issues and solutions have to be published as soon as they are known !!! You will have to innovate for that too ;-))
Congtratulations ;-)
you are 100% correct in referring to bug tracking and fixing known and reported issues, and not rely on those of us who spend countless hours trying to figure this stuff out. although i am sure we will be the ones that fix the majority of it, it would be nice if Boonex implements an innovative measure for this approach.
Regards,
DosDawg
Orca needs to be more like phpbb3 in its ease of use(image uploading,signatures etc), or an effective way to integrate phpbb3 into Dolphin.
You lads have obviously put in a huge amount of effort already - well done
Lots of great things happening as I believe BoonEx is moving in the right direction.
This is exciting :D
...sip...
Congratulations!
It will be nice to select the menu type from the admin area (the old horizontal menu which fits better on some templates or the new drop down menu)
I'm going now to track any bugs I can find, we all should do that for a beta version with less trouble..
I still want to go with 6.1.x but looking forward to the next month....
great job !!!!!!!!
Any bugs included with this design....
ah...now i need to look into field of dolphin...my work is gone!!
lol...
Great work Boonex.
Dolphin7 rocks!
its
....i need to look into *another* field of dolphin...
... floating member menu. Still at the early stage of development, this menu will feature AJAX-based Quick-IM, Presence, Friends Tracker, Alerts Tracker, Fast Mail, and more. It can be put on top and can be "frozen" there, by the way.
... OpenID support is still under development
... Google OpenSocial is already in, but not quite in full, so give it some time
... Facebook Apps support is still at the early development stage, so you can't see it
... see more
Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen, and couples, and 'in-between's for the warm welcome. BoonEx team, Julia and I are very excited and have huge plans and motivation to release the world's (or worlds') best community script ASAP!
In the Chat(Ray), when there is no text also when enter is hit, blank text goes into the chat. This is should be fixed. Users may use this bug to flood the chatroom.
Thanks
Please test it also in IE6, now doesn't look well ;)
I don't know if you aready work on this but I would like to propose you some new features like:
1. Userpoints for adding articles, polls, ads, pictures, videos etc. With achieved points, user get coupons then buy products from an online store included in Dolphin.
2. Widget box integration
3. External applications support, for example a better forum (maybe phpbb3/smf/vb see more
Please test it also in IE6, now doesn't look well ;)
I don't know if you aready work on this but I would like to propose you some new features like:
1. Userpoints for adding articles, polls, ads, pictures, videos etc. With achieved points, user get coupons then buy products from an online store included in Dolphin.
2. Widget box integration
3. External applications support, for example a better forum (maybe phpbb3/smf/vb see more
This brings dolphin and boonex to the league of contemporary cms/community softwares. Well done!
Still a working progress but so far thumbs up.
As previously said, notifications is key to keeping a community active.
It would be great to have a notification or alerts for
1. friend's activities... When friends post blogs, pictures, etc (i dont know if that is there already though... as I have no friend see more
From what i am viewing you guys have done an awesome wicked job. From your post with all of the new features, you have been certainly working extremely hard.
I do not see one thing posted on here, and that is the custom pages. This has not worked in the past, has this been corrected so that you are able to add new pages from the admin panel?
I am in line with Caltrade in regards to having an option for service providers utilizing this script for something other than a dating see more
I Love it!
http://openinviter.com/
they already have a plugin for Dolphin 6.x
I've got about 10 new customers hanging on waiting for this product!
it is really well done
it will give a real plus for our sites
it will be much more fun and easy to use for members
In my opinion this is missing in this version 7
it is the search by region and city
you add ;
fetured - options -
Country + Country + Country
Search people - Options
Country + Country + Country
why not change to :
fetured - options -
Country + region or state + city
add fields is on the see more
Very cool features but it seems that seo aspects are from version to version more critical!
1.The header is woooow toooooo loooong. Please smal header the body text shout be higher in a good seo script!
2. The ajax blocks on the frontpage produce to much urls. Open each link like top members in a new window - its a new url with the same content. Thats a seo "no go" (the links should be rel="noindex, follow"
3. The same with TAGS. Tags are producing see more
Rachel
I think boards has huge potential as a fun photo drawing application ( but looks untouched in Dolphin 7), if people could drag and drop jpegs or png files on to it say from there desktop, also the ability to do lots more with text eg scale, reposition, transform, style it etc... Also it might be useful to have some built in props such as speech bubble, funny see more
1.Great Design
2.Great Layout
3.Great improvement in RAY
4.Great added features
Cons:
1.Speed improvement is required
2.App bar gets under RAY(chat etc)
3.Yahoo like Left categorized collapsible menu is appreciated(due to lots of sub menus)
4.Instead of Full page loading, body of the page could be loaded while clicking the menus
5.File sharing is missing
Overall: Good Job
I still need some time to check it all out, but at first glance, it looks great !!
1.Speed: not all the countries have high speed internets. eg: In India avg speed is 512kbps
2.Due to speed and few technical something, RAY is hard to load when compared to JW FLV Media Player 4.3
3.and in my opinion Nokia mosh, Mobango kind of feature is missing badly...
However i do miss the ability for people to change their profile in to their own design. This is a very important feature. Is this ability being added so our members can use html my-space profiles or just as the mod Dadniel made which is even better?
1. I noticed that the admin is not ready yet, but have the admin accounts been reworked to allow site email to be sent to them? This would be a very useful feature that is impossible in 6.x since Admins are separate accounts.
2. Would it be possible to get a preview of the SQL Schema if the tables have changed drastically, so us integrators/developers can get an idea of what might need to be changed at the database level?
Overall see more
Are languagefiles available, so we can start translating.
Have they changed a lot?
Can't wait to update my site.
Grttzz
Danny
It's possible to use our template with this version without more changes?
regards and good job
You have blessed us all with this peek at V7. So far I like what I see and I plan to buy my second SmartPro package within the next 30 days.
Go Baby Go!!!!
Juker
It feels good to handle and it seems a smooth ride to get along.
:-)
Please consider to:
A) make PROFILE EDIT page with custom fields.
B) ability for members to PAY/UPGRADE Membership... with different levels.. such as in Search Results to appear on top if buying Premium Membership, control the number of Pictures/Videos a user can upload, etc.
C) EVENTS Search should be like profile search, so people can Filter by State, Category, etc. (Calendar/List View.
D) ADS should be seen throughout the site as GoogleAds and not as a specific see more
i know is not finish yet , but just incase you guys might forget . the profiles need a media player playlist.. and the ability to add music to your profiles from the music and video gallery.. and are the templates from the last version compatible with this one?
other than its looking great..=]
Here, here, exactly... everyone is pitching in and saying what about this, what about that???
Boonex can not possibly cover and grant every persons wishes as to what they want included...
As with previous incarnations of dolphin (adapt to what you need, if possible..... or NOT!)...
Not everything is possible with anything in this see more
I have a mobile compartment to my site at the moment but it is very limited in its functionality.. Members can not participate in groups,Blogs or forums.. Now my question is will the V 7.0 allow them accessabilty to these see more
Besides, you bought the addons for Dolphin 6... not Dolphin 7.
will be perfect with "Mobile payment, sms payment, micropayment"
i hope the final version will come verry soon.
Thanks...
Looks cool!
I liked it , it looks great, but a question
Can it be made lighter so it can load also faster on 256 k connection?
Thanks
fix'd.
Will Dolphin 7 incalude Photo tagging?
Example, tagging a friend INSIDE a photo
Thanks in dvance
George ^^
I see there is still some work needed, Let me make a few simple see more
Be capabilities as following:
1. Member's photo and video albums can be set to private or public;
2. Album viewing option, like auto play or next;
3. Multiple album styles option, such as normal or flash page;
4. Group photo and video albums support;
5. Easy to add new features from admin panel, such as ebook and on-line shop;
6. Easy to set different skin from admin panel;
7. Request to join to a private group;
and so on .... (will add more wish listings later).
waiting see more
when can i xpect its release?
I'm th' new kid on th' block so I haven't had enough time to get my site finished installing, configuring & released to the public yet and after seeing Dolphin 7 I have decided that work on my site is now completely on hold until further notice from Y'all...
All I can do is echo the words already spoken by others here & that is WOW WOW & WOW!!!
Color me impressed and say I'm done. LOL
Shalom all,
Calev
great job, excellent graphics and fast light
but remains a major doubt everything you expected but you have not created the integration with other video chat software.
qst and the main problem that many are leaving the video chat. xche not created flashchat mod x, 123flashchat .... ect ect and you will see that there will be a success even greater. xche ray chta leaves to be desired and does not fit too many bugs anything x
Dolphin 7 is cool version. There is some thing i will if you can change.
Menu on bottom is toooo biiiig, if you can make it more discrete and without this grey bold border around, And maybe make possible to move it left or right and not just up and down.
Another thing this comment or what is it on right top corner as like
"Treat your friend as if he might become an enemy."
Publilius Syrus"
Can members write here message which will be showed at this see more
Hope you make a browse ctructure also for cities not just for countries!!!!!
What on earth possessed you guys to change the BLOG TEXT EDITOR from a full featured WYSIWYG text editor allowing HTML, IMAGES, FRAMES, Etc. to a virtually useless TEXT ONLY editor.
We feature six professional (paid) bloggers and the Version 6.1.4. editor was perfect for their use. The V7 blog editor is USELESS and we hope you will restore the old one.
Respectfully,
Juker
The new MEMBERS page is great!
My only question is: Can we add additional SEARCH GROUPS through the admin panel? Sex is fine, Age is fine, Country is fine, but we want to add searches by Member Levels and name searches by Alphabet letters.
Thanks,
Juker
Will pre-install it for you before 7 is ready, save time! Order now, and get free Sham-wow and the jinzu-goat knife!
10 bucks. :D
Besides you can count sheeps in your sleep, not goats just doesn't sound right. :) I want the ability to have the ability of the ability.That would be awesome aswell.
try to fix it like msn : if he logout, the results appears immediately in the site and on desktop.
Thanks
I have ONE major suggestion, which I believe would make this product infinitely more versatile. I think there should be an addition of a 1 click option in the Admin panel to remove all Relationship, Male/Female, Couple, and Hot-or-Not type instances from the site. This OPTION would make this software much more versatile, and useful to a larger audience who may want to use it for other purposes.
After 48 hours of close scrutiny of V7 (admittedly without access to the Admin panel) I am convinced that, as with the prior big releases, NO focused effort to meet the software requirements for the "Business Community" has been taken.
Once again this new release is entirely slanted towards the Dating Niche and once again at great expense and loss of time, our lot is to surgically remove all of the dating crap and virtually reprogram the Dolphin package see more
Very, very nice!!
Where and when can I download:))?
Keep on the good work!
secondly i have a doubt. i am new in this industry.i was planning to start my social networking site with dolphin 6.1.4 just then i got to know about dolphin7.My qustion is that will i would be able to upgrade my site to dolphin7 in future from 6.1.4 without losing my database? are you going to provide any update patch to dolphin7 ? or i should wait for the release of dolphin7.Also tell me the expected release date. thanx
1. Error on age. I put in my birthday, but it is saying I am 28, not 27 like I should be. I double checked that I put in my birthday correctly, but still showing as a year older.
2. No Profile customization. Unless I am missing something, there is no way to customize the look of your profile? Would be nice to have something like the admin section of 6.1 where you can move around modules and change the size of the columns. see more
Also, what´s up with translations to Spanish and other languages?
Thanks for the great work you do for all of us!
Regards,
H.
Can't wait till 7 comes out:D