What's New

What's New - December 2024

We've made significant improvements to make Dev Collabate even more powerful and user-friendly!

🎨 Enhanced Collaborative IDE

File Explorer

• New file browser in the IDE sidebar for easy navigation
• Collapsible sidebar - Click the collapse button to tuck it away and maximize coding space
• File tree view - Browse your workspace files and folders
• Quick file access - Click any file to open it in the editor
• Auto-refresh - Files update automatically as you work

Web App Preview (View Tab)

• Build full web applications directly in the IDE
• Live preview - Start a web server and see your app in the View tab
• Supported frameworks:
  • Rails:

    gem install rails
    rails new myapp
    rails s

    Then switch to View tab
  • Node.js:

    npm start

    Then switch to View tab
  • Django:

    python manage.py runserver

    Then switch to View tab
  • PHP:

    php -S localhost:8000

    Then switch to View tab
• Server controls - Start, stop, and refresh your web app from the View tab
• Persistent workspace - Your files and Git repos are saved across sessions

Enhanced Code Editor

• Auto-closing brackets - Automatically closes parentheses, braces, brackets, and more
• Smart autocomplete - Context-aware suggestions for variables, functions, and keywords
• Tab to accept - Press Tab or Enter to accept autocomplete suggestions
• Language auto-detection - Editor automatically detects your code language
• Syntax highlighting - Full color coding for all supported languages including Rust, PHP, and more

Improved Terminal

• Git integration - Run all standard Git commands:

  git init
  git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git
  git add .
  git commit -m "message"
  git push

• Persistent workspace - Your Git repository persists across sessions
• Package installation - Install gems, npm packages, cargo crates, and more
• Long-running servers - Start web servers that run in the background
• Better error messages - Clearer output when commands fail
• Compilation status - See "Compiling..." status for compiled languages (Rust, C++)

🎯 Interactive Whiteboard (Board Tab)

Enhanced Drawing Tools

• Rectangle tool - Create boxes and containers
• Text tool - Add labels and annotations
• Line tool - Draw connections between elements
• Select/Move tool - Click and drag shapes to reposition them

Improved Navigation

• Pan in all directions - Right-click and drag to move around the canvas
• Spacebar panning - Hold Spacebar and drag to pan
• Larger canvas - More space to work (4000x6000px)
• Smooth scrolling - Natural movement in all directions

Export Options

• Export PNG - Download your board as an image
• Download JSON - Save your board structure for later

📱 Mobile Experience Improvements

• Touch-friendly buttons - All buttons are now 44px minimum for easy tapping
• Better spacing - Improved padding and margins throughout
• Responsive layout - Header and controls stack properly on mobile
• Optimized sidebar - Panel slides in smoothly on mobile devices
• Larger form inputs - Easier to type on mobile screens

🎙️ Audio Room Enhancements

Guest Experience

• Listen before signing in - Unauthenticated users can hear audio before joining
• Visual feedback - Audio visualizer around host's profile shows audio is working
• Sign-in overlay - Beautiful card prompting guests to sign in to participate
• Room sharing - Share room links with dynamic meta tags for social media

Participant Management

• Collapsible participants list - Clean, organized dropdown
• Real-time updates - See participants join/leave instantly
• Speaker promotion - Hosts can promote listeners to speakers
• Move speakers down - Hosts can demote speakers back to listeners
• Live status indicators - See who's speaking in real-time

🔧 Technical Improvements

Language Support

• Rust - Full support with Cargo package management
• PHP - Composer support for dependency management
• C++ - System library installation via apt-get
• Shell/Bash - Enhanced shell command execution

Performance

• Faster compilation - Increased timeouts for compiled languages (Rust, C++)
• Better error handling - More informative error messages
• Optimized Docker - Faster container startup and execution

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed typing indicator showing "Guest" instead of username
• Fixed remote cursor labels showing "User" instead of actual username
• Fixed promoted speakers not appearing on stage without reload
• Fixed Git commands failing with entrypoint errors
• Fixed board tools not working after panning changes
• Fixed file explorer collapse button not responding
• Improved mobile UX with better touch targets and spacing

📚 Learn More

Check out our detailed documentation:

• Collaborative IDE Guide - Complete guide to using the IDE
• Audio Rooms Guide - Learn about audio room features
• Full Changelog - Complete version history

💡 Quick Tips

• Use Tab to accept autocomplete suggestions
• Right-click and drag on the board to pan around
• Click the collapse button (◀) on the file explorer to maximize coding space
• Build Rails apps:

  gem install rails
  rails new myapp
  rails s

  Then switch to View tab
• Use Git commands directly in the terminal - your repo persists across sessions