Version 2.0.1
Released: October 07, 2008
Performance enhancements, many minor bug fixes and the following features and changes:
- Rich Text Edit now has a table button to make tables easier to build.
- Page Editor Refresh button will now pick up stylesheet changes. Before you would have to refresh the whole browser to pick up these changes.
- Margins and padding on Rich Text elements has been changed. People were frustrated with the large margins on the Rich Text components because text elements would not sit tight in the corner of a box. Only margins on new elements should be affected. If you find the new padding too little, you can set your own in the stylesheet. Styles we commonly set are:
h1, h2 { margin-bottom: 0.5em; }
p { margin-bottom: 1em; }
li { padding-bottom: 0.5em; }
- You can no longer change your own role. This was done to protect against the loophole where an account has one billing manager and that billing manager changes their account role, thus making it impossible to create and assign a new billing manager, or even get the billing manager role back.
- Wrapped content DIVs (Boxes) can now have background colors.
Version 2.0
Released: September 16, 2008
Overview
Version 2.0 includes a new user-based pricing plan, among other changes. After the upgrade, the Administrator is automatically assigned the Billing Manager role, while Developers and Reviewers will retain their current roles. The new pricing plan, user roles, and other changes are described in detail below.
Pricing Options for Current ProtoShare Customers
You have the option to stay on your current pricing plan, or you can upgrade to the new user-based pricing. The decision is yours, although within the next 6 months, we will require that all customers upgrade their pricing plans. If you choose to stay with the current pricing plan, you will be limited to one project with entitlements (disk space, users, and reviewers) that are part of your plan.
To upgrade to a new pricing plan, the project Administrator must sign into the ProtoShare account, click the Billing link, edit the Plan Details, and select either the Team or the Network plan. These plans allow for a specific number of projects, and charge based on the number of licensed users. All users other than Reviewers are licensed users.
We feel that the new pricing plan is a much better value. It allows for multiple projects within the same ProtoShare account, resource allocations are more generous, and you have the ability to archive projects and keep them accessible even when they’re no longer under development.
Multiple Projects
You can now collaborate on multiple projects within one ProtoShare account. You can create as many projects as allowed by your ProtoShare plan. If you reach your project limit, you can archive existing projects or upgrade your plan. Archived projects cannot be worked on or viewed, but all the data, including the comments remains intact. You would typically archive a project at the end of development, after it has been deployed.
Dashboard Replaced with Home Page
The Dashboard has been replaced with the Home page. The Home page provides you with convenient access to all projects. Depending on your privileges, you can also access various screens where you can manage projects, manage users, configure account settings, and manage billing.
Additionally, the Activity Log is now available only as a pop-up window. and getting started information is available via links in the lower right-hand corner of the Home page. All service interruption notices will also be displayed in this area.
New User Roles
ProtoShare has five user roles, which provide you with the flexibility to efficiently manage projects and users. Multiple users can be assigned to these roles. The five roles are described below.
- Billing Manager – Has access to all ProtoShare features. After the ProtoShare 2.0 upgrade, the Administrator is automatically assigned the Billing Manager role. Only Billing Managers can access the Billing screen. Billing Managers can create, archive, delete, and manage any projects.
- Company Manager – Has access to all ProtoShare features except those related to billing management. The Company Manager role is particularly useful for organizations in which the Billing Manager’s sole task is to manage the ProtoShare billing information. Company Managers can create, archive, delete, and manage any projects.
- Project Manager – Has access to all project-related features and some management features. Project Managers can create, archive, delete, and manage any projects of which they are a member.
- Developer – Has access to project-related features only. Developer’s primary responsibilities include creating prototype pages, and building wireframes and templates. Developers must be assigned to projects by a user with Project Manager privileges or better.
- Reviewer – Has access to only the Home page and the Review screen. Reviewers must be assigned to projects by a user with Project Manager privileges or better.
International Character Support (UTF-8)
International characters are supported throughout ProtoShare including the Rich Text Editor, the Build Screen, the Review screen, and generated emails. Note that language support is OS-specific, and you might need to install specific language packs on your computer.
New Pricing Plan
ProtoShare 2.0 has two pricing plans. These plans are per licensed user. All users other than Reviewers are licensed users.
Team
Active Projects: 10
Archived Projects: 50
Reviewers: Unlimited
$25.00/mo per licensed user
Each user license includes:
200 Pages
1 GB Storage
Network
Active Projects: Unlimited
Archived Projects: Unlimited
Reviewers: Unlimited
$49.00/mo per licensed user
Each user license includes:
1000 Pages
5 GB Storage
Improved Hyperlink Component
You can now leave the Text setting blank, specify a link target and resize the component to fit an area. This provides a convenient, quick way to create image map links without having to slice up images.
New Flash Component
You can now include Flash files in page wireframes. Like any other content, the Flash file is available for stakeholder feedback in the Wireframe tab of the Review screen.
Performance Improvements
ProtoShare 2.0 includes many performance improvements. In particular, page load times have been reduced by using AJAX and advanced caching techniques, and by reducing the number and size of the files downloaded to your computer.
Browser Compatibility / Firefox 3
With this release, we will no longer be supporting Firefox 2.0 on the PC and Mac. You must upgrade to Firefox 3, which is the only browser we fully support. Click here for the free upgrade: http://getfirefox.com.
We offer partial support for the following browsers:
- Safari 3 (Mac OS X, Windows XP & Vista): Home, Review
- Internet Explorer 7 (Windows XP & Vista): Access to all ProtoShare features except visual layout editor
- Internet Explorer 6 (Windows XP): Home, Review
The following browsers are unsupported:
- Firefox 2 on all platforms
- Firefox 3 on Linux
- Safari 2 on all platforms
Version 1.0.3
Released: August 05, 2008
Performance enhancements.
Version 1.0.2
Released: July 14, 2008
Additional support for automated deployments and minor performance improvements.
Version 1.0.1
Released: June 26, 2008
New Features
Branding
Now you can upload your agency or company logo next to the ProtoShare header, helping you create and maintain a more professional presence for your clients or team. Want an Enterprise solution? You can also white-label ProtoShare with your agency or company logo. To upload your logo, click on the Manage > Settings link. To white-label ProtoShare, contact customer service.
Flash Comps
In addition to static images, ProtoShare now supports .swf files in the Comp tabs. To upload a .swf file, open the Build screen, click the desired page in the site map, and click the Comps tab.
Text editor upgrade
Responding to customer's requests for easier and more user-friendly text editing, we gave ProtoShare a new and improved text editor. The new editor includes improved formatting capabilities, table creation, and more. The editor is available via the Rich Text and Box components.
This new text editor does things a little differently than the old one, so you may experience difficulties restyling some of your old text with the new editor.
Firefox 3 compliant
ProtoShare now seamlessly works with the Firefox 3 browser.
Known Issues
IFrame component
The IFrame component does not work with sites that "break out" of iframes. When a site breaks out of an iframe, you cannot access the associated page in ProtoShare and it must be deleted. Therefore, you should verify that the IFrame component works with the specified URL before building the rest of the wireframe.
