Next week it will finally happen! After 7 years, basically without any updates, we are going to upgrade Dynamics User Group’s website.
We are upgrading to the latest version of Telligent Community Server 9.0. Our current version is 4.0. And while the website on the outside is not changed that much, then under the hood, everything is different. The jump is as big as going from Dynamics NAV 4.0 to Dynamics NAV 2016.
I has taken a lot of time getting here. In fact I started the project in 2010, where I have been evaluating alternative solutions for the website. I even had a fully converted solution up and running (test only) with two different community solutions. But neither came even close to Telligent Community, in terms of offering a complete integrated community platform. At least not where it would run out of the box and be as easy to administer as TC. It’s also the community platform that Microsoft mostly uses for their internal communities, including http://community.dynamics.com.
Everything is being upgraded!
The good news first.
All our current forum and blog posts, wikis, downloads, yes all content will be upgraded fully.
All current site URL’s will continue to work. So any links you might have saved or shared, will still point back to the correct post.
When the site is back online, after the upgrade, then you will be able to login with your username and password. (So at least make sure you have the correct email registered on your account, in case you’ve forgotten your password).
But a lot will changed
The current layout is being changed more or less completely. Like Microsoft retired NAV forms, and replaced them with pages, then the old “themes” don’t exist anymore. They where coded Visual Studio, with lots of C# etc. Now everything is integrated in the control panels. So the new look will be very different. And fully responsive. So now you will be able to participate in Dynamics User Group from your smartphone!
The overall site navigation has also been turned upside down. In the current website it’s organized like
Forums
Forums/AX
Forums/NAV
Blogs
Blogs/AX
Blogs/NAV
Files
Files/AX
Etc. …
The application first, and then product group.
On the new site it will be:
AX
AX/Forums
AX/Blogs
AX/Files
Etc. …
So the user group (AX, NAV, CRM and GP) first, and then applications (forums, blogs, files, wikis and events). A NAV user is normally not very interested in what’s going on in AX, and vice versa. So the future structure is going to be much more “natural”.
When you login with your account, then you will notice that besides having a member account, you will also need to join YOUR user groups!
Joining will enable live and email notifications. But these can be customized from your account settings.
The site is going to be upgraded Friday, March 18th. to Sunday, March 20th.
Dynamicsuser.net will be closed while the upgrade happens.
But you can already now see how it’s going to look on the test site: http://v6.dynamicsuser.net
You can login with your existing account. I have turned off all email going out of the test site. So you will not be able to register a new account, nor logging in if you’ve changed your password the last 2-3 weeks (as the backup used is that old).
Please report any suggestions/errors to this forum: Web Site Debate