This is a quick blog post to outline some changes we have just rolled out in regards to Support Subscriptions for Jamroom:

The yearly "VIP Member" subscription has been removed - there is no longer a yearly subscription needed to gain immediate access to Marketplace modules and skins - all users now have access to purchase and download new Jamroom modules and skins at the time of their release.  The VIP Member was the very first subscription we offered for Jamroom, but with our subscription offerings increasing to now include hosting, we felt this was a subscription we no longer needed to offer, and user feedback was that having to wait for new releases was not a popular idea.

If you are currently a Yearly VIP Member we want to thank you for your support , so please make sure and do the following:

- Log in to PayPal and CANCEL the yearly VIP Member subscription profile - this will prevent you from being charged again when your subscription anniversary rolls around.  Unfortunately we cannot cancel the subscription from our end.

- After you have canceled, please contact us at support [at] jamroom [dot] net and let us know what Marketplace Item you would like for FREE .  For your support of Jamroom we would like to give you a free marketplace item of your choice (developed by us, The Jamroom Network - no 3rd party modules or skins)

All User have full access to the Jamroom Support Forum - VIP Subscribers do get an additional perk by having access to set a Forum Signature where you can set a link to your Jamroom site - regular members do not get access to set a Signature (spammers aren't likely to be subscribers).  All users now have unlimited access to the Jamroom Support forum.

No more Backstage Forum - the backstage forum has been set to "Read Only" - if you have posted in the Backstage Forum for help, please make sure and create a post in the User Support Forum:

https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/forum

The team will no longer be posting or following up in the Backstage forum, and within the next 30 days the backstage forum profile will be set to private and no longer be available.  We know this is going to be a bummer for some of you, but it's going to help us streamline our support - the Jamroom user base has grown considerably over the last 6 months and more often than not we have not been able to follow up in the Backstage forum as it is.

If you cannot post to the main User Support forum (for whatever reason) you will want to subscribe to the VIP Support subscription and have us help you using priority ticket access.

These changes will help streamline our subscription offerings, as well as our support - if anyone has any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.  These changes should have minimal impact on the majority of users, but we know change can be hard - please let us know if you have an issues or concerns.

Thank you!

After more than a month of development I'm excited to announce that we have released the first beta of the new Site Builder module!

The new Site Builder module has been built from the ground up to provide a flexible, fast and easy to use framework for creating "widgets" in Site Builder pages.  Going forward this will allow us to easily create new widgets for specific use cases, as well as make it much easier to integrate existing modules into the Site Builder widget system.

Some highlights of the new Site Builder:

• Single Module - the New Site Builder is now just a single module.  Where previously there were four, the new version has all the required functionality bundled into a single module.  This should remove any issues that would be caused by not having all the old Site Builder modules activated or configured.

• Works with Any Skin - skins no longer need to be customized to work with Site Builder - any skin will work "out of the box".  The only change that is needed is to add the new {jrSiteBuilder_menu} template function in the location you would like the Menu Editor to place it's content.

• New Widget Browser - the new Site Builder module presents you with a familiar layout and interface for the Widget Browser - one that has been modeled after Jamroom's ACP (Admin Control Panel).  It's very easy to see at a glance what widgets are available to be used in a page.  New Widget Settings allow you to show different widgets to different user groups - all on the same page.

• New Menu Editor - the new Menu Editor makes it easy to create fully customized menus with support for offsite URLs as well as custom OnClick Javascript code.

• New Page Layout and Config - there is an all new Page Layout tool for adjusting the rows and columns on Site Builder pages, as well as new Page Settings that allow you to create pages that are only viewable to specific users or groups.

Our hope is the new Site Builder is easy to use for both users that are new to Jamroom and Site Builder, as well as experienced users who are looking for a powerful way to customize their site.

Some notes on upgrading and running the new Site Builder:

• The new Site Builder is a BETA release - we feel it is solid enough for daily use, but also know that once we release it we will get user feedback to help drive the direction the module will evolve in - and we want to get everyone involved as early as we can.  To install from the Jamroom Marketplace, make sure you have enabled the BETA channel in your Marketplace -> Tools -> Release Channels section.

• If you are currently using the existing Site Builder modules and you install the NEW Site Builder module, your existing Site Builder pages, menu items and widgets will be migrated to the new SB, and the existing Site Builder modules will be disabled .  Nothing is deleted in the "old" Site Builder setup.  If you encounter issues in the upgrade, you can disable the new Site Builder module and re-enable the old Site Builder modules.  Please let us know you encounter any issues.

• At this time only the Elastic, Lucid and NingJa skins have been updated with the new {jrSiteBuilder_menu} template function.

• NingJa Users - when updating to the new Site Builder, if you have NOT previously used the old Site Builder, you will need to customize the header menu to suit your needs by clicking on "Menu Editor" from the Site Builder menu.  The NingJa skin comes with quite a few choices in the header menu "out of the box" - however these menu items are part of the header_menu_desktop.tpl template, so are not preloaded into Site Builder.  If you have customized your header_menu_desktop.tpl file and would rather use that, you can modify the template and remove the {jrSiteBuilder_menu} template function call.

Make sure and join us in the Support Forum if you have any questions, feedback, suggestions or issues with the new Site Builder:

https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/forum

We're here to help and hope you enjoy using the new Site Builder!

After several weeks of beta testing, Jamroom Hosting is now live for everyone!

If you are looking for high end Jamroom Hosting that doesn't slow down , Jamroom Hosting has you covered.  Built from the ground up to be 100% tuned for Jamroom you can run your Jamroom site with confidence knowing the platform is fast AND you're covered by VIP Support .

You'll find the new "Hosting" option right in your profile menu - it is the bright orange button when viewing your profile that says "Hosting" - simply click on that to get started with full featured Jamroom Hosting:

• All Servers are fully managed and backed up daily .
• Create as many Jamroom Domains on your server as you like.
• One click install of any Jamroom Distribution (Jamroom Core, Genosis, Site Builder, etc.)
• Unlimited Modules and Skins for Jamroom domains on your server(s).
• Instant setup on our cluster of fast, dedicated Media Conversion Servers.
• Easy to use Control Panel for managing all your servers.
• Mailgun integration for super reliable email delivery.
• SFTP Access to Jamroom on your server for direct file access.
• Priority Ticket support for help with your Jamroom questions.

I want to thank all of the feedback our beta testers have provided so far, and while we're now "out of beta" that doesn't mean we're done thinking of ways to make Jamroom Hosting even better, so if you have feedback please let us know.

Make sure and checkout out the Jamroom Hosting documentation for guides on getting started and how to use Jamroom Hosting:

https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/documentation/jamroom-hosting

We're excited to launch what we consider the "next chapter" for Jamroom!

Thanks!

I'm really excited to announce something that our customers have been asking for for years - Jamroom Hosting !

Hosting is something we've long been asked to do, but have always deferred it to hosting providers that we felt were better equipped to handle the myriad of options that you can get in a hosting plan.  However, one thing that seems to be getting harder to find is high quality and high performance hosting .  Hosting has pretty much been a "race to the bottom" in price, which in turn almost always leads to a decrease in performance.  While dedicated servers and VPS's have also become cheaper, if you are not a system administrator these types of options are not usually viable.

So we've been hard at work here building a new type of hosting for Jamroom - one that is 100% dedicated to running Jamroom about as awesome as you can run it.

This means we have included some really cool stuff:

• Every Server is a dedicated, fully managed VPS that is 100% dedicated to you.
• All Servers are fully managed and backed up daily .
• Create as many Jamroom Domains on your server as you like.
• One click install of any Jamroom Distribution (Jamroom Core, Genosis, Site Builder, etc.)
• Instant setup on our cluster of fast, dedicated Media Conversion Servers.

This last one is awesome - all your Audio and Video media conversions will be handled by our cluster of dedicated Media encoders - this frees your server from having to do media conversions at all, which can be very CPU intensive (and if you are currently on a low end hosting platform you know it can take A LONG time to convert large video files).

We've built a custom Control Panel that runs here on Jamroom.net and gives you access to creating new Jamroom Domains on your server(s) as easily as clicking a button.  This makes it a perfect setup for those that are running multiple Jamroom sites (web design firms with clients, savvy webmasters that run multiple sites, etc.).

It's also perfectly setup for development, as each domain is mapped to a secondary domain - this allows you to create your site on the secondary domain and when you're ready to "go live" all it takes is a click of the button to swap to your "live" Jamroom domain.

UNLIMITED MODULES AND SKINS

The other awesome part of hosting with Jamroom Hosting is that for all domains on your servers, you can install unlimited modules and skins!   As long as you are hosting with us, there's no charge for any module or skin you would like to install on any domain on your Jamroom server.

Have a lot of client sites you want to setup?  No problem - you can set them all up on your server with whatever modules and skins you need.

OPTIMIZED FOR JAMROOM

All servers that are created in your account have been optimized for running Jamroom - this includes:

• custom MySQL settings for the size of your server
• custom PHP settings to allow much larger uploads
• optimized PHP cache settings to make Jamroom fly
• Mailgun SMTP for super reliable email delivery

One thing that is important to point out is that these servers are 100% dedicated to Jamroom - there's no "Cpanel" or "WHM" or "Plesk" control panels here - these types of control panels offer hundreds of different hosting options and choices, and almost always make the server they are loaded on much slower.  So if you need Cpanel hosting, or the ability to run non-Jamroom scripts on your server, you'll want to stick with a "normal" hosting provider.

COMING SOON

Right now we are in the process of putting the final set of features and touches in place to get Jamroom Hosting released to everyone - our goal is to go live by the end of February.

If you would like to get involved earlier with us, we're looking for a few beta testers who want to give us feedback on how things work, and also want to get a special deal on pricing.  If you'd like to be involved in beta testing Jamroom Hosting, please contact us at support [at] jamroom [dot] net.

We're really excited to get this rolled out as soon as we can - if you have any feedback or questions, please let us know in our support forum .

Thanks!

I'm really excited about a new Jamroom module that has just been release - Profile Domains :

https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/networkmarket/195/profile-domains

Long time Jamroom users know that this is an idea that is many years old, and was kicked around as far back as Jamroom 3.  Unfortunately the architecture of Jamroom 3 and 4 didn't make it possible to support this type of feature.  With Jamroom 5 we now have a single entry point for all URL routing, and with the advanced events and listeners that are built throughout the Jamroom Core, the time has come where Jamroom can now support this !

The Profile Domains module is an advanced module for Jamroom sites that want to map domain names to profiles in your Jamroom.

For example - you might have an artist that wants their own domain name, but they don't want to run their own site.  Ideally they would just point their own domain name to their profile running in YOUR Jamroom.  This is what the Profile Domains module brings to Jamroom.

You can host as many different mapped domains as you would like, and the module will properly remap the entire profile so the URLs are all updated with the mapped domain.

Combine this with the Profile Tweaks module and you can create an entire "site within a site" for your users.  And with Jamroom's flexible Quota system this gives you a feature that can really enhance your premium subscription offerings.

Note that this module is considered an "advanced" module, since it requires you to have shell (SSH) access to your Jamroom server, or at least the ability to edit the Apache config for your domain.

If you have any questions about the Profile Domains module, make sure and join us in our  Support Forum and we can happily answer any questions you might have.

Thanks for reading!

We've just taken the wraps off the new Jamroom.net design, and we hope you like it!

As many of you know we have several "Jamroom Projects" going on such as Site Builder, Ning To Jamroom, Genosis, etc. that take the Jamroom Core and extend it in new ways. 

We wanted to make sure these Jamroom Projects were highlighted in a better way so they could be more easily found, so the new design features the Jamroom Projects prominently right on the front page.

We also are excited to announce our newest Subscription, which those of you who run several Jamroom sites will find exciting.  Going forward we now offer a VIP Premium Unlimited Subscription:

https://www.jamroom.net/subscribe

This new subscription allows you to install as many free and paid modules on an unlimited number of domains you control for a single monthly price.  You no longer have to purchase licenses for individual modules and skins - instead just install whatever skins and modules you need for your site.

For the next month we are offering this new subscription at only $44 per month - which is $5 less than the normal price of $49.  If you manage multiple Jamroom sites and would like to use Jamroom for even more of your clients and customers, this deal is awesome - it even includes Priority Ticket support!  So for an extra $15 per month above the VIP Support plan you can unlock unlimited modules and skins!  Note that this only includes modules and skins by us (The Jamroom Network) and does not include 3rd party modules or skins.

We hope you enjoy the new look and wish you a happy 2015 - we hope the new year is a great one for you!

Thanks!

It was today 11 years ago (July 28th, 2003) that Jamroom 1.0b1 was released to the world.  This was before MySpace, YouTube, Facebook or any of the other large social networks were around, and the idea of "social networking" was brand new.  Of course some of the earliest people to get into it were musicians - looking for ways to promote their music online, and so Jamroom was born to fill a small niche.

11 years later Jamroom is still kicking - there definitely have been "ups and downs" over the last 11 years, but I think it has been more up than down

So to celebrate Jamrooms's 11th birthday we're running a "25% off Birthday Special" where you can get 25% off any marketplace item that we have created (The Jamroom Network). This will be good for the next 4 days only - on August 1st the special goes away, so if there are Marketplace items you've been wanting to pick up, now is the time.  Note that the discount does not include Bundles (which are already discounted more than 25%) - just single modules and skins.

To get the discount, enter the following promo code:

IIT2KkhsTem5

Into the "Promo Code" section of your Marketplace module in your Jamroom install - this will apply the discount to your account so the items you purchase will automatically discounted.

Let us know if you have any questions about the promo - otherwise here's to many more years of Jamroom

Thanks!

I have just finished pushing up a HUGE number of module and skin updates - all for the new Jamroom Core 5.2:

https://www.jamroom.net/download

This new release of the Jamroom Core wraps up a lot of work that has been going on over the last month or so - some of these small changes were introduced in Jamroom Core 5.1.x releases, but Jamroom 5.2 wraps this work up and gives us a new version moving forward.

Some of the cool new features:

• New customizable Dashboard .  You can now select the information that is shown in the dashboard "panels", as well as customize the number of rows/columns that are shown in the dashboard. Simply click on a panel to customize it.

• New Graph Support module for generating line, area and plot graphs.  You can see this in action in the new Dashboard setup for the profile and user panels - these new panels have a small graph icon that when clicked on will show you a graph.  Going forward this new module will be utilized by more modules and sections in the ACP.

• New System Tips module - a really helpful module for new (and even long time) Jamroom users that includes walkthoughs and tips on how to do many things in the ACP.  Just click on the "Tour" tab to launch the tour for that module.

• Brand new "Lucid" skin designed for running a blog-centered community.  This is a really clean skin, easy to customize and expand to suit your needs.

• Lots of updates to the Elastic skin to make it cleaner and easier to customize.  Includes an all new Mobile menu for easier navigation when on mobile devices.

• Lots of low level DataStore and process improvements designed to make the system faster as well as use less memory.  This includes improved DS performance, how settings and config items are loaded, as well as how Language strings are handled.

• Lots of small updates and touches - you'll see new features and small tweaks in a lot of the modules and sections designed to make things smoother and work a bit better.

If you are already running Jamroom Core 5.1.x, updating is easy in your Marketplace.  You can also install the new free Graph Support and System Tips modules , as well as the new Lucid Skin if you'd like to check those out (for sure install the Graph Support - you'll want that).

Now that the 5.2 core is out, you'll also see some additional module updates over the next few weeks as we add support for the new custom dashboard and other features in.

We hope you enjoy the new release, and please join us in the User Forum:

https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/forum

If you have any questions about the new release.

We hope you enjoy Jamroom 5.2!

- The Jamroom Team

It has been a while since we have run a special here on Jamroom.net, so today we're kicking off a new "Spring Special" with 20% off all Jamroom Network modules and skins !

To take advantage of the discount, enter the following Promo Code:

GEjsjuQNXNeZ

into your ACP -> Marketplace -> Promo Codes section of your Jamroom site - that will automatically apply the promo to any marketplace purchase.  If you cannot use the Marketplace, and want to take advantage of the special, make sure and contact us at support@jamroom.net and we can help you out (at this time promo codes only work automatically through the Marketplace module).

We also have some new modules that have been just released:

 - User Polls - Easily allow your users to create and vote in "Polls" on their profile:

    https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/networkmarket/130/user-polls

 - Media URL Scanner - converts embedded URLs into nice inline, embedded media players:

    https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/networkmarket/131/media-url-scanner

 - Meta Tag Manager - a free module making it easy to add and update custom Meta Tags for your site:

    https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/networkmarket/129/meta-tag-manager

These new modules are available right now to Jamroom subscribers:

https://www.jamroom.net/subscribe

and will be available to everyone in 2 weeks.  If you're not a Jamroom subscriber, for only $29 a year you get early access to all new Jamroom modules and skins, plus access to Backstage.

We hope you enjoy the new releases - we look forward to seeing you online!

- The Jamroom Team

This week we have 2 new modules that we've just released:

Issue Tracker

The new Issue Tracker module is a powerful issue tracking system that can be used in almost any support organization - we use it here on Jamroom.net for all bug/feature/request tracking.  It's super easy to use, integrates well into the profile, and provides a central place for all issue tracking.  Features include:

• Both public and private issue tracking for team members.
• Full image and file attachment support for tickets, and commenting with the Comments module installed.
• Feature Request tickets with "feature voting" support.
• "Back Burner" tab for tasks and ideas you want to track, but are not pressing.

We've been using the Issue Tracker module here on Jamroom.net for several months, and figured it was time to make it available in the Marketplace:

https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/networkmarket/117/issue-tracker

iFrame Control

Our second module this week is the new (free) "iFrame Control" module.  With the iFrame control module you can safely add support for trusted iframes to your site, without having to worry that the remote SRC URL is going to inject malicious code into your site.  You can easily add/remove trusted sources from the iFrame Control module.

https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/networkmarket/116/iframe-control

We also have an updated release of the Jamroom Core (5.1.24) that adds some new features:

• Bundled jQuery has been updated to the very latest release (1.11.0)
• New Watermarking support in the Image Support module for watermarking images with your own custom watermark.
• New "fill" crop parameter support for cropping an image to a specific size -the resulting image will be "letterboxed" so the full image aspect ratio is maintained.
• Updated DataStore support including a new function - jrCore_db_update_multiple_items() - that should help developers write more compact and efficient DataStore code.
• The "group_by" parameter for jrCore_db_search_items() can now accept multiple fields, separated by a comma.
• New "signed" Checktype type for testing that a number is a whole number (both positive and negative).

As always, please join us in the User Support Forum:

https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/forum

and let us know how you're using Jamroom.  We look forward to seeing you online!

- The Jamroom Team