The main upgrade is that the new platform has been prepared and partially implemented, which will allow us in the future to modularly put all the old functionality on modern high-tech rails.
Since there are thousands of users on the platform, we want to tell you about the reasons for such significant changes.
To do this, we need to look back and see what and how has been done on the platform for almost a decade.
We started developing the platform about 10 years ago using the basic functionality of a simple and free forum engine.
As Freeteam grew, we refined the functionality of the forum: added the categories and statuses of the players, expanded the user profile, implemented our internal currency - FTP (FreeTeamPoints) - and gamification elements, as well as a bunch of other less noticeable but important functions.
7 years ago we decided to develop our own candidates’ testing system. A professional, who participated in the development of a system for testing stewards for the Euro 2012 championship, assisted us in the evaluation system implementation, and this system has shown very good results.
We chose CMS Joomla to develop this kind of system. In addition to testing modules, Joomla allowed us to implement a full-fledged website functionality in order to more conveniently cover the life of our project in the form of articles. And also develop additional regular sections of the site.
The next step was the implementation of a system for accounting of the financial relationships with our users. This is how our Fund ideology was born.
Since we have already used two CMS’ - a website and a forum - we considered it impractical to implement the Fund system with some other tech-solution, so we decided to continue developing for CMS Joomla.
Our Fund accounting system remains the most advanced on the stacking market and, as a matter of fact, it has no analogues in the world at the moment.
Step by step, we continued to develop the project and added new modules to our system:
- a training system with a schedule and online classes in ZOOM - long before this became a mainstream solution;
- a system for processing of surveys, evaluation and further transfer of candidates to appropriate funds;
- developed a store section where you can buy poker software and our branded merchandise with our inner currency - FreeTeamPoints. Since this moment FTP has acquired real liquidity! Almost like money!
- implemented end-to-end authorization, adjusted the design of the website and forum to a single look. Visually, it became a unified platform.
During this time, there were also global improvements.
Here we would like to note:
- a gateway for connecting the platform with the blockchain and conversion of the internal FTP currency into full-fledged blockchain tokens.
This mechanic has been developed and tested on multiple blockchains. Perhaps we will soon return to this task and our inner currency will become exchangeable for a cryptocurrency in a couple of clicks.
- implemented the integration of the site with automated online courses functionality based on OpenedX. OpenedX is a collaborative development of American universities for distance learning and certification of their students. Now this functionality, with its huge possibilities in creation of online courses, is available for our users.
Several coaches from the Freeteam team have already started developing online training courses on this new platform.
- made integration with CRM Bitrix. We connected the platform and CRM with the Discord server and several messengers, which allows our support team to communicate with users more conveniently and quickly.
Still, time does not stand still and at the moment most of our modules are visually ans sometimes techically outdated, like the forum engine itself and Joomla.
There are many new, more modern and safe solutions that are more reliable, simpler and cheaper to maintain and develop.
Therefore, we made a decision to make a global update of our whole platform.
Since the platform has grown greatly over these 10 years, it is not realistic to make such a transition in one day or even a month. We will update our system step by step.
As of today, we have implemented the first - intro - part.
At the moment, everything related to registration, authorization, posting and displaying articles, with basic administration elements, is implemented on a new and modern engine.
The page layout has become responsive and will be displayed correctly on mobile devices.
This engine is integrated and linked to all operating parts of our platform.
In the future, we will transfer the remaining parts on a modular basis: training, processing of surveys, store module, funds, forum, profile section and so on.
The IT industry is changing very fast: new technologies and new solutions emerge every day. The approach we have chosen will allow us not to stop, but to maintain and update what we have. And new modules can be added or transferred taking into account the changing situation in the industry.
At the first sight it may seem to you that some functionality became less usable, but that’s only an impression - most of us have already got used to it. We want to assure you that this is a temporary phenomenon - our team is now constantly working to fix bugs, including thanks to your requests, which means that soon everything will not just be as good as before, but much better!
Thank you for your patience and loyalty. We will try to update the remaining modules as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Best regards, Freeteam platform administration.
P.S. Bug reports and screenshots are welcome and help our team fix bugs faster. You can write about the errors found in the comments to this post, or in our Discord channel. Thanks in advance for your participation!:)
2021-02-05 17:17:20
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