Please note: This article was last updated in 2007. For the latest product updates please visit the homepage of this blog’s Product News section.
We’ve so far only talked about the new Offline feature with Google Gears that we launched with the latest release. And while most of the energy went into that, we also added some other new features and enhancements.
Here’s A Short List:
- Passwords for public maps
You can now set passwords for public maps for secure linking and embedding and to hide them from the public maps list
- Blog embedding for everybody
Now you don’t need to be Premium user anymore to embed maps into websites or blogs
- Embed API
A new embed API allows you to seamlessly integrate our map editor in virtually any other web application
- Improved performance
Vastly reduced the number of requests when loading a map by combining icons and other tuning measures
- Reseller Scheme
If you’re interested in reselling MindMeister to other users just sign up for an account here and get 20% on every license sold!
- Other enhancements
Easy enable notifications when first sharing a map – tag auto completion – reworked publish dialog with easy copy buttons – view invoices and export as PDF – and many more…
Right now we’re working on a few fixes to some editing problems that some people have been having, as well as on a number of new features. They are things that have been requested frequently and that we think we need to complete our mind mapping offering, such as attachments and images, connections between nodes, possibly some project management things (e.g. task info) as well as Geistesblitz enhancements.
Speaking of features, here is a suggestion for you:
Why does MM load 16 external JS files and 4 external CSS files when I open a map? On top of that, they seem to be uncompressed as well.
I suggest that you write a script that automatically:
1) Combines all JS files into one JS file
2) Combines all CSS files into one CSS file
3) Compresses both of the above (removing whitespace, comments, etc)
4) Cache this on the server
5) Just load the two cached files, one for JS and one CSS file
This would both reduce the number of HTTP requests made and reduce the amount of data transferred, thus making MM faster to load 🙂
Since all files are combined into new files and cached by a script, you could still edit the original files in their original formats with indents, linebreaks and comments 🙂
Maybe you also could look into combining the toolbar icons into one graphic (\”css sprite\”), saving about 20 extra http requests?
I just think these small efforts would really make an impact on your outstanding product, and I am ready to accept a premium membership as a reward for making my excellent suggestion 😉
Best regards,
Torkil
Hi Torkil,
Thanks for these suggestions – believe it or not, we\’ve already done the JS combining for the next release. They\’re separate files at the moment, but they are compressed (with gzip – what makes you think they aren\’t?).
Re CSS combining, this is always a trade-off of load time vs number of requests. For the moment we\’ll stick with a few smaller files that are only loaded when needed (speeds up loading of the front page).
CSS sprites are cool, that\’s why we\’ve combined the 80 or so icons into one sprite in the last release. They have one major problem though, and that\’s to do with PNG alpha transparency on IE6. But you\’re right, the toolbar icons are a candidate (they\’re gifs anyway).
Thanks for your tips – would love to give you a Premium upgrade but I guess then we\’d suddenly get lots of blog comments … tell you what though, when you upgrade I\’ll extend your membership by 6 months! Not as good as a straight upgrade I know, but all I can do…
Thanks again & stay tuned for faster loading,
Michael
Haha, great response 😉 Can\’t wait to see the next upgrade then! MM is really a candidate for being implemented in our CRP/Project management tool.
Is your Web application il8n (international) and if so, will you localize it (so that it could be globalized ;-). I like it but it would be better if it could also be in French.
Thank you !
thanks for change in free version.
expecially for embed code