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Hmmmm, something seems different...

Welcome to 2.0!  You might be saying "Wait, didn't QUBES 1.0 just launch in October??"  Well, yes, we did, but this isn't QUBES 2.0 - it's HubZero 2.0.  HubZero is the content management system (CMS) underlying QUBES Hub, and is a "powerful, open source software platform for creating dynamic web sites that support scientific research and educational activities."  Every year in September a new release of HubZero is made available.  This year marked the release of version 2.0!  Most of the changes to the Hub are notable only to those brave system administrators and hub managers (i.e. the "people behind the curtain") as they branched off Joomla! to create their very own CMS.  However, there are some nifty new features that hopefully you will find useful.  Below is a list of these, in no particular order of awesomeness (well, except for maybe the first one).

Group Forum Email Digest

Tired of receiving so many emails from discussion forums? Then this is for you! Email digests in group discussion forums was something that QUBES really wanted implemented as soon as we adopted the HubZero platform - so much in fact that we actually put our money where are mouth was and funded its development! This is a good time to mention that if there is anything that you would like changed or added to the site, you can create a wish in our wish list! The email digest was Wish #43.

As you can see in the picture, group forum email digests allow you to turn off emails, or put them in a daily, weekly, or monthly digest. This is an independent setting for each group that you are a member of, so you can receive posts immediately in one group, and as a weekly digest in another.  Click here to find out where these settings are located (HINT: in the Forum area in all of your Groups, located in the right panel under "Email Settings").

Group Files Area

Besides being able to store files within Group projects, Group members can now share files in a more straightforward manner by simply accessing the new Files area. Technically, this area is not new, but previously was only available to Group managers in the Group settings area. It has some current limitations as compared to the Projects' files area, but it can still be useful nonetheless! Check out this Knowledge Base article for more information on the different ways of sharing files on the Hub, in particular the limitations on this area mentioned above.

Project Ownership

Projects are a great way to collaborate with colleagues, including a variety of helpful tools such as file storage and syncing with Google Drive (click here for more information on Projects). Projects can now be moved freely between individual and group owners. This can be useful, for example, if projects are created within a workshop and then need to be reassigned or moved once the workshop is complete. To learn how to change ownership of a Project, click here.

Project Roles

There is now a new role for Project members - the Reviewer role, which gives someone read-only access to all areas of a project. For more information on member roles and how to set them, check out this Knowledge Base article.

Importing Citations

There are many reference managers on the market (e.g. Mendeley and Zotero) which can help you track, store, share, and organize your research sources. Similar to this, QUBES Groups has a Citations area that mirrors some of this functionality for your collaborations on the site. Technically, it was designed to store citations from products created by members of the group, but it can just as easily be used as a general purpose citation manager. In the new release, you can now import an existing list of citations (in BibTeX or Endnote format) directly into your group. Check out this link for an in-depth introduction to Citations.

Ordering Posts in a Collection

To learn how to set a defined ordering for posts in a collection, click here. One important thing that isn't mentioned in the previous link is that you are only able to reorder posts when the collection is in list view. Once in list view, you can move a post wherever you want in the list by pressing and holding the up-down arrow icon in the upper-left corner of a post, and then dragging the post to the proper location in the list.

 

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