[fred]

The latest version of the BBO web-client is now available. You will automatically pick up the latest version if you log in through the yellow "Play bridge now" link on our home page (www.bridgebase.com).

Changes include:

1. Users can include a picture in the profiles (web-client only)

In order to try this, edit your profile (the easiest way is to click the square containing your own user ID in the very top right corner of the web-client). You will see a new "My picture" area to the right of where the traditional profile data is edited. If you have already selected a picture, it will appear in this area. There are also 3 buttons in this area:

- "Upload picture". This allows you to upload a file from your hard disk. For most members pictures that are uploaded have to be approved. We expect that the approval/rejection of uploaded pictures will in practice be something that will happen fairly quickly. Uploaded pictures must be gif, bmp, jpg, or png. There is a 150K limit on the size of uploaded picture files. Pictures that are roughly square in shape rate to work best.

- "Stock pictures". This allows you to select a picture from a list of pictures that we supply. Currently we have have about 20 of these. Most likely we will add more in the future. When you select a stock picture it should take effect immediately.

- "Clear picture". Removes your picture. Users that have not selected a picture will have the default picture (a BBO logo) appear in their profiles

Some aspects of the profile popups have been redesigned (nothing major) in order to accommodate the pictures.

2. The web-client now supports the following emoticons. In each case I have left a space between the 2 characters in order to prevent Forums from displaying actual emoticons. Don't include the space in order to make emoticons appear in the web-client.

: )
: (
: D
: P
: $
; )

3. There are controls at the top of the lists of friends/hosts/stars that allow the user to sort these lists by either user ID (the default) or by status/location. This makes it a lot easier for users to identify (for example) which of their friends are available to play or (for example) which tables a lot of stars are kibitzing.

4. Some changes to how the "Director!" button works:

- If there is more than one item in the list of reasons to call the TD, the dialog box that appears when the user clicks "Director!" works the same way as it always has.
- If there is only 1 item in the list of reasons and that item is "Withdraw from this tourney" (as it typical for robot tourneys), the button says "Withdraw" instead of "Director". The user has to confirm "Are you sure you want to withdraw?" if he clicks this button.
- Otherwise, if there is only 1 item in the list of reasons (for example "I want a TD to come to my table" - typical for ACBL tourneys), the user no longer has to select the reason he is calling the TD (but he still has to fill in the blank)

5. When user logs in he is informed of his masterpoint total, his BB$ balance, and his MB$ balance (only if it is non-zero) through a new popup that will appear at the bottom of web-client window.

6. If the user is typing a chat message that extends beyond the end of the input area, the input area will grow in the vertical direction.

Please let us know if you have any questions or suggestions or if you find any bugs. You can either do that by sending me e-mail (fred@bridgebase.com) or by making a Forums post here:

Link to web-client feedback thread

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com