Vyew 4.0 Beta – Fixed intermittent missing pages
Note:On Wednesday at 3pm PST -- minor update to fix this bug on the beta server will be performed. At the most, you may experience a temporary error while loading a room. This will last about 10 minutes.
Last week a bug was discovered in which certain pages on the beta product were missing. The data was not lost, it was just not loading. We have fixed it and will be updating the beta server. This bug was reported to occur less than 10% of the time. If you experienced this bug and require a missing page to be replaced, please contact support with the exact Book name/ID and page number.
Vyew 4.0 Interface Overview
Changes in the UI - Where did my buttons go?
We've changed a few things around in hopes of simplifying the UI:- Removed Book Menu - Most items moved into the Main Menu such as renaming, publishing, activity logs, settings.
- Moved Edit Menu - Moved into the drawing tools side bar. This includes cut/copy/paste, undo/redo, etc...
- Import Button renamed to INSERT - The Insert menu now houses inserting any new media, plugins, or blank pages and screenshots.
- Removed buttons: Insert Plugin, Paste, Print, Add Page, Duplicate Page - these buttons were moved into the INSERT menu, or EDIT menu.
- Moved Login Status / Logout into the Main Menu.
More Help Topics:
- Quick Start Guide
- Screen Sharing Troubleshooter
- Setting up a Mic/Webcam
- About Sync/Unsync Mode
- About User Roles/Permissions
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Announcing Vyew 4.0 beta
Important: The purpose of the beta release is to let a portion of our users test our new UI and give us feedback. Please read the section below about what is missing. The product itself is not yet ready for mass public use.
The Vyew team has been working hard on a new version we are very proud of. We're still working out the final kinks, but we have something thats ready to be used.
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What's new in the final Vyew 4.0 release?
It's been rebuilt from the ground up in the latest Flash Flex4 technology which means...- The interface is more responsive, faster, and more stable.
- Loading times* will be faster.
- Simpler, easier to use interface.
- Secure - We've added more security to keep your content safe.
- Searching - Search for content within your rooms.
- Unified Invites - Scheduling meetings and open-ended invites can be managed in one place.
- Notifications* - Get notified when certain rooms are modified, or people leave you comments.
Note: VyewBooks have been renamed to "Rooms." We've dropped the term VyewBook, because it didn't seem as intuitive as a generic name like "room." So from now, we'll be referring to VyewBooks as Vyew Rooms.
But wait there's more!
With our new technology platform we're able to do more things. Right around the corner from the 4.0 release will be...- Export to PDF/Print - Yea, we know, our current print function isn't very great. This one will rock.
- New Page Navigator with page thumbnails.
- Email in/out of Vyew - Send an attachment to your Vyew room, and it'll get imported immediately.
- Recording/Playback of meetings - We've been promising this for a while, now we can do it right.
- Encrypted Meetings - Business customers can rest assured with fully encrypted meeting room.
What's missing in the BETA release?
- There are many little final touches in the interface that are not done.
- Most of the "plugins" are not available, such as graphing calculator, dynamic button, video player, etc.
- You cannot upload interactive SWF files.
- The text tool is lacking many of the final features.
- No foreign language support.
- No naming and arranging pages in the room yet.
- No multi-select tool.
We are dedicated to your collaboration experience
In the coming months we'll be listening even more closely to our users and continuously testing and refining our interface. We are committed to building the easiest to use, and most capable collaboration platform on the market. We apologize if any of you felt ignored in the last six months, but now you'll know why -- Vyew 4.0 has a lot of bug fixes since our last version.How do I use Vyew 4.0?
Goto: http://vyew.com/go/switchversionsWhat if I find a bug?
Please report it to us here: http://vyew.com/bugWhat if I dont like Vyew 4.0?
We will leave our old version online until Vyew 4.0 is rock solid. By going to the same url, you can switch back to the old version.Database maintenance notice
Over the weekend we ran routine maintenance on our database servers. Today we are re-syncing all our user accounts across all servers to make sure all data is in sync. Between 11:15am and 12:37pm today (PST Pacific Time), one of our servers fell out of sync, so it may have appeared to a handful of our users, that they had lost some data. All servers are back in proper working order and no data has been lost. We apologize for the inconvenience.Reassurance
I just want to reassure all our users:- Data integrity and security is our highest priority
- Vyew is continually sync'd and backed up across multiple U.S. locations
- All Vyew rooms auto-save to the servers every 3 minutes
- Incremental backups are made every night
- Complete snapshot backups made every 3 days
Vyew Progress Update (Dec 09)
A few changes this last month:- Desktop Sharing - We are working to make this feature more stable and work more seamlessly among presenters. We have installed a few new changes which should facilitate a smoother experience. We are still working on a few more stability features to be released next month. If you still have any problems, be sure to submit a test report here, and use the Vyew Accelerator for desktop sharing.
- Dynamic Button - The button plugin allows collaborators and up to open external link URL's automatically for everyone in the room.
- Bug fixes - A lot of minor bug fixes including single apostrophes in book names sometimes had problems redirecting when opening.
Coming up...
We have been working hard on our next major version release, Vyew 4.0. We hope to have this launched early in 2010.- New, easier to use interface
- Faster interface response times
- Faster drawing tools response times
- Higher security
- and much more.... to be listed later.
Upcoming System Maintenance
The Vyew system will go down for routine maintenance on:.
Thursday Dec 10 / 10:00 pm (Pacific)- EST: Friday Dec 11 / 2:00 am
- Mexico City: Friday Dec 11 / Midnight
- London: Friday Dec 11 / 7:00 am
- Moscow: Friday Dec 11 / 9:00 am
- Hong Kong: Friday Dec 11 / 3:00 pm
- Sydney: Friday Dec 11 / 5:00 pm
Vyew: A Collaborative WarRoom
A war room is a place that is used to provide centralized command for communications. Unlike a conference room, a war room is dedicated to a specific objective where information is readily available and displayed at all times. Personnel can come in and out to contribute new data and thoughts over-time, or in real-time meetings. Vyew is a browser-based environment for communication, sharing content, enabling workflow; and all are captured, integrated and managed. Vyew increases the productivity of multiple participant activities … in real-time, any-time and over-time, replicating the functions of the physical war room. The white paper on the Collaborative WarRoom™ can be accessed here.Vyew Service Interruption Resolved (Wed Nov 18)
Early this morning we had network issues with our storage server. This did not at all affect the data on the server, but only the connection to the data. NO DATA WAS LOST. These issues have been resolved, we apologize for the inconvenience. We are now taking steps to ensure this problem doesn't happen again, and adding more detailed network monitoring sensors so we will be alerted earlier if the problem does occur again. If were you are in a room that content loading problems, refreshing the page would've fixed it. If you had problems uploading, we believe the initial upload DID work, so a browser refresh should fix it. If not, try re-uploading again. If you still have any other problems please contact us immediately.Development Notes – October 2009
- ADD: New "Convert PDF to JPG" importing option. For PDF's which has complex graphics, like a lot of lines or color gradients, they used to make the VyewBook very slow. This option solves the problem. (More Info)
- FIX: Sometimes imported powerpoints were coming in too large in the screen.
- FIX: Scheduled Meetings had required a user login. Now they do not.
- FIX: Some users who used strange characters for their password were having login problems.
- Speed and Responsiveness
- Ease of Use
- Stability
Server Outage — Oct 12, 11:00pm PST
We apologize. Some of you experienced a server outage while we were running some maintenance scripts on our server. There was a technical error that is now resolved.System Maintenance Friday Oct 9 Noon-2pm PST
Today we will be working on the servers. Your meetings will not be interrupted, and Vyew will remain online, but you may experience slight delays while connecting to your meeting.Vyew Keyboard Shortcuts (Hotkeys)
Increase your speed and productivity by using keyboard shortcuts. Where relevant, we have made an effort to make Vyew's hotkeys consistent with hotkeys from other common applications such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Word. Read moreMarch 2009
This month we've been mainly working on corporate/enterprise features and did some minor fixes to the UI.- Fixed Bug: VOIP (Push To Talk) lost connection sporadically when passing the mic around.
- Non-owners can now remove their own video/webcam screen
- Unlocking locked objects now easier - just click on the object, then the unlock button in the lower right corner of the object.
- Removed "Sync Viewable Area" from sync menu because it caused problems when used among many collaborators who scrolled/zoomed at the same time
New feature changes in Vyew
Collaborators now have fewer rightsChanges in Vyew that affect you
- Collaborators can only edit/delete their own objects and cannot delete pages
We have removed some rights of the “Collaborator” usertype because we felt that Collaborators should be contributors of content and ideas, and the editorial work should be left to the moderators/owners. So as of tomorrow Collaborators can’t edit or delete drawings, images, or text created by other users.
If you trust your participants enough to let them delete other peoples content, then you should make them a Moderator.
- New Voice Server
We have deployed a new VOIP (Push To Talk) server that more stable and reliable. We are interested in your feedback on how much better (or not better) it is.
- The Vyew Public API
If you are a developer and have an web app of your own, it can now interact with VyewBooks. More Info
February 2009
Collaborator Rights have been changed
We have taken away some rights of the Collaborator user type to minimize accidental deletions and re-inforce the collaborative workflow: collaborators contribute content, and moderators/owners edit it.- Can only modify their own objects - Now, Collaborators can ONLY modify/delete objects that they have created. That includes drawings, notes, text, and imported files.
- Cannot delete pages - Collaborators cannot delete pages at all, they can only create new pages.
New Voice Server
We have deployed a new voice server which should improve the voice quality and availability of the Voip (Push To Talk) feature. Please let us know if you notice an improvement (or non-improvement).Minor Changes
- Dynamic Button (Vyew Script) - The Goto Page function now uses Page Names instead of Page Numbers
- Sidebar Comments - Collapsing/Expanding Sidebar comments is now synced accross all pages in the Vyewbook
- Downloading Files - When clicking on a file, a download button appears in the right corner. There was a bug with this feature -- it didnt work when the file was locked. That bug is fixed.
Faster Support for Customers
Did you know? Paying Vyew Customers have priority email support?
Pay customer support emails are handled first. To take advantage of this you must submit your support emails through our website contact form. Read more
Vyew server-side API Released
Your WebApp can now interact with Vyew
Are you a developer? Vyew now has two types of API’s:
1. Client-side API = so you can build plugins in Adobe Flash that import into Vyew
2. Server-side API = If you have a webapp of your own, you can integrate it with Vyew to create Vyew meeting rooms, import content etc.
January 2009
We have been busily preparing to convert much of the Vyew application to a faster Flash 10 platform which will increase speed, security and stability in the product.- Fixed a bug in the Video Pod which caused a lot of CPU usage.
- Invitation Email fixes - Made some changes to outgoing emails so that now there is a much less chance of them getting stuck in spam boxes.
- Flash 10 fixes: Chat and downloading the original file had problems in Flash 10.
- Backend security fixes
October 2008
- Vyew Public API released to allow partners to integrate with Vyew.
- Flash 10 Fix - Uploading failed for people with Flash 10 because of new security settings in Flash.
- Fixed: People with a ton of VyewBooks and files were experiencing crashes when opening the "Import file from other book" dialog.
- Fixed: Copying and pasting multiple objects had a bug, now when pasting multiple objects now preserves relative position among eachother.
- Fixed some bugs in Audio Recording.
- Changed the way SYNC Mode works. Previously, when SYNC Mode was on, scrolling was also synchronized. Now, there is an option for this in the SYNC Mode menu.
Vyew 3.0 Article on Webware
Josh Lowensohn of Webware wrote a great review of Vyew 3.0 on September 16th. Here's the link.Vyew Releases Vyew Version 3.0
Vyew 3.0 Uniquely Combines Real-time and Always-on Collaboration and Contextual Discussion on Any Digital Content Using Any Browser on Windows, Macintosh or Linux
BERKELEY, Calif. – September 15, 2008 – Vyew, a leading provider of browser-based visual-collaboration and web-conferencing software, today announced the release of Vyew 3.0. Vyew 3.0 improves the experience of web conferencing and visual collaboration with contextual discussions, voice comments, webcam support and other communication enhancements.
Vyew 3.0 is the only conferencing and collaboration platform selected and profiled in the “Collaboration” category in a PC World article, “25 Best Business Software Tools and Web Services,” published on September 7, 2008. A video demonstration of Vyew 3.0 is available here.
Stanford Engineering Everywhere Launches using Vyew
On September 17 Stanford School of Engineering distributed a news release announcing the launch of Stanford Engineering Everywhere (http://see.stanford.edu), a new online portal that offers engineering courses from Stanford University for free. Here is a link to the news release.
Vyew provides a conferencing and collaboration framework for Stanford Engineering Everywhere in an integrated environment that includes lecture videos and transcripts, handouts, assignments, solutions and discussion forums that can be duplicated and used for annotation or collaborative learning by any individual or educational institution.
PC World: Vyew – 25 Best Business Software Tools
Vyew is in good company with Salesforce.com, Google Docs, and others in a PC World article, “25 Best Business Software Tools and Web Services.”Vyew is the only conferencing and visual-collaboration platform listed in the article.
Here is a link to the article.
The article was syndicated by the IDG to:
• CIO
April 2008 (Version 3.0)
Version 3.0 constitutes all the major additions in the last 3 months, including:- New Desktop Sharing Engine (see details below)
- Voicemail Notes
- Sidebar discussion area for comments
- Edit images inline
- Push-To-Talk VOIP and Webcam
- Background Importing
- New Desktop Sharing Engine — The Java based desktop sharing engine is more stable a little bit faster than the last version. When desktop sharing starts, a control bar will popup, so you can start/stop sharing without having to go back to the Vyew browser. In the past, we tried to minimize the browser during the Desktop Sharing startup, but this created problems within certain browsers. Now, you must minimize the browser yourself.
- Desktop Sharing Zoom Mode — Desktop sharing can now be seen in a 100% Zoom mode, which auto-scrolls and crops the area of where the presenters mouse is. This makes viewing a presentation at 100% much easier. Try it out!
Vyew Partners with FreeConference
FreeConference Launches Beta of SharePlus™ Desktop SharingBERKELEY, Calif. – November 5, 2007 – Vyew, a leading provider of browser-based visual collaboration and web conferencing software, and FreeConference, the pioneer of free audio conference call services, today announced that they have entered into a strategic partnership to create new conferencing services using each other’s proprietary conferencing platform and technologies.
Under the agreement, both companies are embedding the partner’s service into their respective solutions. Vyew subscribers who want conference calling while collaborating online can click on a “Free Conference Calls” button within Vyew for instant access toFreeConference.com’s reservationless conference call service. This combination provides the first free web conferencing service with free integrated audio.
