Spring is in full swing with Centercode’s garden of new features and improvements! Last month in our GoEarly program, we planted the seeds for our new embedding system for content within resources, and now those features are ready to bloom. And that’s not all! This month’s GoEarly release includes the results of our second DevJam, bringing you a bouquet of nearly one hundred small improvements, bug fixes, and quality-of-life features!

 new features  

✨ New Features ✨  

Help your resources bloom with embeds!

This month’s main feature is the full release of our brand-new content embedding system, adding even more functionality to our recently updated resource creation system! These new embedding features bring you a more feature-rich, streamlined, and intuitive new way to embed a wide range of custom and preset embed options. It's never been easier to add external video, social media, and scheduling tools (with many more to come!) into your Centercode resources (content, releases, and activities). 

When creating a resource, you’ll now find the “External embed” option listed in the “Include” portion of the resource. Selecting that will present you with a drop-down menu that allows you to select the type of embed you’d like to include. We've expanded the capabilities of Centercode’s embedding system to include inline JavaScript and link assets via the “Custom embedded script” option, and you'll also get a number of pre-built embed selections.

Selecting any of the pre-built embed types will present you with a helpful infobox (and accompanying linked help article), telling you how to acquire the embed code from the external source (YouTube, Loom, Figma, etc) and which field to embed the code in.

If you don't see the option you are looking for on the list, we also have a custom embedded script option that now includes the ability to include inline JavaScript and linked file assets. This custom embedding option will cover the vast majority (if not all) of proper embeds - we haven’t met one we couldn’t support!

These powerful new embed tools give you a new degree of freedom in presenting vital testing material, visual aids, and scheduling tools to your testers—and we can’t wait to see what you do with them! For more detailed information on these tools and how to use them, see our helpful knowledge base article here!

Updated Data Column Names
(Updated 30 April 2024)

This release also includes some long-overdue data column updates that bring the Centercode Data Engine (CDE) in line with the copy and formatting changes we've made throughout the site. Generally speaking, most changes are capitalization changes - adjusting from title casing to sentence casing. For example: Email Address is changing to Email address. In some cases, however, we're adjusting the terminology: EA Integration ID is changing to SSO integration ID, and Engagement Score is changing to simply Points.

This change impacts data elements throughout the platform including User Management, Feedback Management, and Custom Reporting. While generally not something an in-site user would need to worry much about -- Single Sign-On, Webhook, and Jira integrations won't be affected -- the data column name change will likely affect reporting integrations. For example, data being ingested by external analysis tools like Power BI, Tableau, Splunk, or Excel may be looking for data that is being renamed. In this case, the data won't be found until those systems are updated with the new data column names -- so they know which columns are which.

I've linked a spreadsheet that shows all the copy changes below. 

Centercode Data Engine updates - Column name changes (April 2024)

💡 Centercode GoEarly features 💡 

DevJam 2: Electric Boogaloo

Coming soon to a GoEarly implementation near you are the results of Centercode’s second DevJam - back by popular demand! We gathered another huge batch of small but impactful bugs and improvements that spanned all aspects of the platform and set our dev team loose on them. The result? Nearly a hundred bug fixes, UI tweaks, and string clarifications! Check out that DevJam hand-off board!

If you’re not already participating in our GoEarly program, sign up here to get your hands on these new updates before they go live!

fixes  

🐞  Bug Fixes 🐞 

Macros & Automation

• An order of operations adjustment was made to macros that email users while also removing them (removal is now last, with some protections to prevent access during execution time).

Performance

• Removed a data point calculation from User Summary pages that was not used which should improve performance of the User Summary page
• Additional work on jQuery refactoring/depreciation was performed.

🐞  Bug Fixes 🐞 

User Authentication & SSO

• User-Agent header has been added to OAuth provider API calls

📈  Improvements 📈  

This week we've got a few updates in addition to our usual bugfixes, making some improvements to our new resource creation system, as well as some general email updates!

Resource creation updates!

• "How will users access this resource" dropdown has been changed to a "Prompt this resource as a notice" checkbox, which will then allow you to select the notice type and behavior
   
  
• The "Include a hero image" option is now located in the "Content options" section
   
  
• If a Content Type has Homepage or Single Page enabled, hero image/full width/edge to edge are disabled with a tooltip explaining why

Email improvements!

• When using the built-in notify email option and customizing, the text is now appropriately centered (to match how it sends)
• Logos in emails will now be a consistent size across all templates
• Improved system generated email compatibility/visuals when viewing them in Outlook

🐞  Bug Fixes 🐞 

Onboarding/Recruiting

• Updated QR code generator support, which are once again working as intended. 

Miscellaneous

• Copy email link on user summary was adjusted to once again function as expected.

📈  Improvements 📈 

Smoother new user experience!

• Timezones are now auto-detected based on personal system settings the first time a user encounters the account settings page.

Spring has officially sprung! In the spirit of the season, Centercode is also springing forward, with this month’s focus being on a redesign and refresh of our GoEarly program, making it easier than ever to provide feedback and shape the future of upcoming Centercode releases!

announcements

March on into your own private beta site!

This month the focus is on our newly revamped GoEarly Program, freshly redesigned to streamline your access to upcoming releases while amplifying the value of your feedback. With this revamped structure, you'll now have access to up to three distinct Centercode sites at all times: your unchanged Live Site, a Stage Site (if included in your license) for testing new processes and configurations against production code, and an opt-in GoEarly Beta Site exclusively for exploring forthcoming features. The Beta Site, private to your team and pre-loaded with demo data, provides an opportunity to test monthly releases ahead of schedule, enabling you to provide feedback and shape the development process before these features reach your Live Site in a zero-risk environment!

In the new GoEarly program, we'll be implementing Centercode's structured Delta methodology in a continuous project format. Regular weekly patches will ensure that all three site types are kept up-to-date with bug fixes. 

Your participation in the GoEarly Program is crucial in shaping Centercode's evolution, so please join us for the next testing phase that starts on April 1, 2024! Click here to check it out!

💡 Centercode GoEarly features 💡 

Embed like never before!

The first set of features we’ll be introducing into the 2024 GoEarly program is a more feature rich, streamlined, and intuitive new way to embed a wide range of custom and preset embed options for many popular external video, social media, and scheduling tools (with many more to come!) into your Centercode resources (content, releases, and activities). 

We’re excited to get this new tool into your hands and hear what you’ve got to say about it, so get in there and get testing!

🐞  Bug Fixes 🐞 

User Authentication & SSO

• Adjustments to the primary site URL will no longer break Google SSO

🐞  Bug Fixes 🐞 

Data Engine & Custom Reports

• Emailed custom reports will once again have expected lines and spacing.

Onboarding/Recruiting

• A correction was made to referral source display within recruiting under a specific condition.

Miscellaneous

• A correction was made to the displayed selection of "Use full browser width" in Content.

📈  Improvements 📈 

A few UI touch-ups!

• A quality pass was completed on User Card performance and positioning
• Additional fine-tuning of some functional and visual elements of the new Content changes introduced last week. These include session-based storage of certain selections, edge-to-edge and full page adjustments, and UI element interaction adjustments
• A handful of base String adjustments were made, including a new loading theme for the month

🐞  Bug Fixes 🐞 

Data Engine & Custom Reports

• Data engine date and time display adjusted when times fall on or directly after midnight

Form Engine & Custom Surveys

• Removed admin completed survey will no longer prevent form view modification

User Authentication & SSO

• A sign-in issue with SSO and longer implementation names that could occur was corrected

It’s February, and love is in the air! In the spirit of the season, Centercode’s February release brings you a whole new way to get your heartfelt feelings (and important test info) out to your testers with a totally revamped resource/content creation system. We’ve updated and streamlined the content creation process and added a bouquet of new options and features along the way to get your content looking better than ever before!

 new features

✨ New Features ✨  

A whole new way to create

Resources (which include content, features, and releases) are the primary way you’ll communicate information to your testers, distribute test-critical files, and give them instructions on what and how to test your product. In this release, we’ve overhauled and streamlined the UI to make the resource creation process more intuitive, added some useful new features, and paved the way for three exciting new resource element types coming down the line!

Defining your resource 

The first steps in the new resource creation process are to define the resource type from your available types, name it, and define how you would like this content to be accessed. Defining the resource type early in the process gives you a better idea of what the resource will need to contain, and controls which options will be available in that specific resource. One of the handy new features included in this update is a dynamic in-line help box, which defines the functionality of the resource type you have selected, tells how your users will be able to access it, and provides links to further information if necessary.

Populating your resource

Once you’ve selected the type of resource you’re creating and how it will be accessed, you'll be presented with a series of checkbox options for all of the types of information your resource can contain. This allows you a finer degree of control over what exactly you’d like to present to your testers. These options update dynamically based on your previous selections, ensuring that you’re presenting the information appropriately and effectively (for example, preventing you from placing files or distributed values in an agreement that the user will only see a single time). Additionally, each of these options include a handy new hover-over description, detailing the functionality and giving a few suggested use-cases!

Selecting any of these options will add the appropriate section below, allowing you to further customize what it will contain. One notable new feature here is the inclusion of the “Inline images” section — a more flexible, first-class way to insert images, spreadsheets, and other information to your testers. This also includes a brand-new “Hero image” function, which will add a full width, banner-style image across the top of your resource!

Selecting the audience for your resource

Finally, you’ll use the “Content/release/feature options” (depending on which resource you’re creating) and “Team access” sections to determine who can see your content, and when (via notices). Two new features here include the two new content options “Use full browser width” and “Render edge-to-edge (both examples featuring a new hero image!). Note: Hero Images are not compatible with the Full Browser Width option.

 “Use full browser width” will dynamically scale the page width based on the viewer's browser width: 

Here's an example of a Hero Image on a piece of content:

 “Render edge-to-edge” will remove all white padding around displayed resources:

Another notable new bit of functionality here is that since you are defining whether a resource is a notice earlier in the process now, the ability to set a content or release as a notice in the “Team access” section will be dynamically enabled or disabled based on your earlier selections!

fixes  

🐞  Bug Fixes 🐞 

Data Engine & Custom Reports

• A few adjustments were made when presenting Release values in Reporting

Miscellaneous

• A correction was made to a specific cancel action functioning incorrectly

🐞  Bug Fixes 🐞 

User Authentication & SSO

• Project quick invited new users taking SSO methods into the site will gain teams at the Community scope as intended