What To Expect In The Next Dolphin PRO

We have already done some work planned for Dolphin PRO 7.2 and outlined some of the key improvements, which will be actively worked on as soon as Dolphin U Beta is released. Today, we'd like to share our ideas with you. BoonEx community can be very insightful when it comes to discussion of Dolphin features, so we decided to bring up these plans and talk about them in detail over the next few weeks. Dolphin PRO has been relatively stable and hasn't had a major version update for over 14 months, but it is and will remain our flagship product, so let's see what we can do to make it even better...

1. New Licensing

First, Dolphin PRO licensing is going to change. Dolphin PRO 7.2 will not be requiring "Powered by BoonEx" links anymore, but we strongly recommend buying a license now if you want to lock expenses for paid modules later on.

2. Key Modules Redesign

Some of the most important modules, such as Photos, Video, Profiles, Timeline, etc. will receive design refresh. This is mostly about improving user-experience and bringing in more modern design conventions. 

3. Responsive design

Big as it sounds, we believe that Dolphin PRO has to become responsive, too. This may likely be realised in a form of an additional template, so as not to disturb established websites too much.

4. Payments

Dolphin needs to become more lucrative! After all, you want to recoup all your software and hosting expenses and then make money to launch even more social networks ;) . We have already done most of this, and after a little more tuning we are going to introduce a number of site payments improvements. Integration of PayPal Pro, recurring payments, payment at sign up and modular payment system (installing different gateways easily) should bring Dolphin PRO a much needed boost of commercial efficiency.

5. TinyMCE Update

Latest version of TinyMCE editor will be integrated. Although update of this component may sound trivial, it is such an important part of Dolphin that any changes really need careful and thorough work to keep the platform stable. Now is the time to move up to the latest iteration.

6. MoxieManager for TinyMCE

A good file-manager for Dolphin PRO has been suggested (vocally enough, looking at you... you know who you are) for a while now. So, we're going to finance a yearly license of MoxieManager and include it with Dolphin PRO from now on. 

7. Administration/moderation tools in user-end interface

We have already done some of these, and will add more. The idea, like in Dolphin U, is to create more content/users-moderation tools within the site front-end, without giving moderators access to Admin panel.  

8. Css/js cache enhancements - site speed improvement

One more thing that's already done, thanks to borrowing from Dolphin U. Client-side site speed is dramatically improved, creating a much better perceived speed experience for your end-users. 

10. Language system improvements

Nod to Dolphin U again - Dolphin PRO will now use default lang file for non-existing keys. This is already done, too.

11. Social sharing info in meta tags

You would want Dolphin to be able to tell Facebook (and the likes) which photo must be used for thumbnails in shared content. The idea comes from Dolphin U as well. 

12. Mobile Apps Update

Both Android and iOS apps will at very least transition to the latest design "languages" - Google's Material Design and Apple's iOS 8 design. We also plan some changes in UI to match the new Dolphin PRO, and with your help, we'll be looking at whatever else needs to be improved or added. 

So, as you can see Dolphin PRO benefits a lot from Dolphin U development and we believe that it is actually a very safe and effective way to try any changes before "disturbing" the main platform. We expect both Dolphins to share more and more good ideas, making each other more powerful and refined.