Sitebuilder Updates Scheduled for 4/07
By Keith Hickman
Apr 18, 2007, 17:07
Hello AWSP & Houston's Host Sitebuilder Customers,
We are updating the Sitebuilder this week. The following is a list of enhancements and fixes
scheduled.
Site Manager System Update: 4.11 schedule
This update
will include the following new features and enhancements.
Browser
Icon
The latest versions of most web browsers show a small icon in the
address bar for websites and on the web page tabs. This new site builder feature
lets you set the browser icon. You can either choose one of the standard icons
or upload your own .ico file.
Blog Comments
Visitors to your website
can post comments on your blog posts. When comments are posted, you will
receive an email notification. You must approve comments before they are
published on your website. To enable user comments, go to the blog settings
page. For each blog post, you must check the enable comments box to allow
visitors to post comments..
Mailing List Enhancements
It is now
easier for visitors to signup for your site mailing list. You can add a check
box on any form (using the form builder) that will let a visitor add their email
to your general mailing list when submitting the form. The new auto responder
feature lets you setup a series of emails that will be automatically sent to
your general mailing list subscribers. You can configure the emails to
automatically be delivered at daily intervals.
Content Rotator
Use
the content rotator to setup a section of your web page that rotates/changes
each time the page is viewed or have content that is set to display on specific
dates. To enable content rotation, edit any page, click the add button and
choose the content rotator from the design accents menu. Setup each of your
content sections and add content.
Photo Display Components
The photo
display components have been enhanced to make it easier for you to upload photos
and setup photo galleries/rotators. The new photo components support upload of
multiple files and automatic gallery generation. You specify gallery settings
(image sizes, layout, style and other properties) and the system will generate
all the image files for the gallery.
Google Maps
Place interactive
Google maps on your site using the Google maps component. To use the component
you must first obtain a map key from Google. NOTE: Currently the Google maps
component is only supported for a single domain. If your site has multiple
domain names then you can only have the map display on one of your domains.
Text & Styles
We have reorganized some of the links on the design
area and provided new options for customizing your text. The new "Text &
Styles" area of the design manager includes links for setting up your page
titles, group boxes, shopping cart as well as layout settings. NEW: You can now
set your default style for your site text, site headings and links. This
includes the font name, size, color and style attributes such as bold, italic
and underline.
Custom Font Names
The standard text editor has been
updated to allow you to specify your own font names for styling text. Your font
names will appear in the font drop down selection list for the text editor, page
titles and group boxes. IMPORTANT: If visitors to your site do not have a font
installed on their computer, they will not able to see the text in that font
(text will be displayed in the default font for their browser)
User
Account Import/Export
Export your user list and create/update user accounts
by uploading a user import file. Use the import to set user account information
and specify which user groups the account should be in.
Page Name Format
(dashes)
Configure how spaces are handled in page names. To set the page
urls You can choose to have spaces replaced with either a "-" dash or a "_"
underscore. To set the page name, view your site, click the settings button and
then click the "editor settings" link. This setting only applies to newly
created pages. Existing pages will not be changed.
Ex. "Contact_Us" or
"Contact-Us"
User FTP Accounts
If you need to have a place to
exchange files with customers, you can enable the User based FTP accounts
option. When this option is enabled customers can login to an FTP account on
your site and transfer files. To enable user based FTP accounts click the "user
account settings" link and check the "Enable FTP access for user accounts" box.
Message Board
Enhanced to allow message board posts to include
formatted text.
Sitemaps.org (Google sitemaps)
Many of the top search
engines now allow you to provide them with a sitemap of all the pages on your
site. Having a sitemap does not increase your search rankings, but it does help
the search engines index your site. You can also view additional information
about your site through the search engine tools when using a sitemap. To learn
more, edit your site. Click the settings link and then click the "search
engines" link.
File Upload Utility - Preview
Use the File Upload
Utility to view a list of files on your website, transfer large files (larger
than 20mb) and to upload multiple files at the same time. The File Upload
Utility is a java application that you can run from the site builder. A link
to the file upload utility is available from the file manager and the image
gallery components. Requirements: you must have Java Version 5 or greater
installed. You can download the latest version of Java by going to http://www.java.com.
Ecommerce:
Wishlist
To enable the wish list feature, go to the store manager page. Click
the shopping cart settings link and check the "Wish list/gift registry" box.
With the wish list feature your site users can add any product on your site to
their wishlists. Users can use the wishlist to save the items for purchase at a
later date or they can give their email addresses to friends/family to purchase
items off of the list. This feature can also be used as a gift registry. Users
can setup an account, add items to their list and specify how many of a each
item they would like. The system tracks purchases and will remove items from the
wish list once all the requested quantities have been purchased.
Ecommerce: Generate U.S.P.S. shipping labels
On the order management
pages you can click an option to generate a printable U.S.P.S. shipping label
for your order. To print labels you must have a U.S.P.S. Web tools account and
contact U.S.P.S to enable your account for production delivery confirmation and
express mail labels. You must add your own postage fees to the shipping
labels.
Ecommerce: Copy Product
It is now easier to setup a large
number of products that have similar descriptions/options. Once you setup a
product you can use the "copy product" button to create a copy of a product. You
can then edit the copied product entry and make any necessary modifications.
Ecommerce: Payment Gateways
HSBC, Pay Trace, Sterling Payment,
PayJunction
Ecommerce: Misc
- Google Base export for products
- Support for Switch/Solo cards in PayPal Payments Pro
- Product link
generator (generates link with tracking code)
- Ecommerce shipping flat
rate by weight
- Added product cost field to the product export - will be
used for future reports
- New checkout option to use either a state drop
down selection list or text entry field
- Customize the "Coupon/Gift
Certificate" label
- Removed "no products in category" message when viewing
an empty category page
Misc Fixes/Enhancements
- Added select page
button to user account configuration page for selecting the login and welcome
pages
- Fix link editor to allow users to the full link name. ex "http://www.linkname.com" instead of just "www.linkname.com"
- User login component
- added option to enable a create account link below the login component
-
Billing history - added link for a printable version of the
page
DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP
As we are finishing this latest update we are
in the process of planning our development schedule for the next system update
and would like to get your feedback. Which of the following features would you
most like to see in the next update? Also feel free to give us your input on
any other features/updates that you would like to suggest.
User account
based editing: the site administrator would be able to create login accounts to
the website admin area and specify which areas/pages of their site admin that
the user accounts have permission to access/edit. Ex. Setup multiple user
accounts that can edit pages on the site.
Multiple banners: feature to
allow users to setup multiple banners/headers on their sites and specify
different banners to display on different pages.
Design manager: enhance the
design manager to allow site owners to work on a new design that is not live.
would allow them to change colors, banners, logo settings, layout... in preview
mode and then make these changes live when they are ready.
Page editing:
make page editing easier by allowing you to move components on the page without
having to reload the page. When you click the arrow to move a component it is
immediately moved.
Database features: site owners could setup custom data
forms to collect and display information. You could setup a database (custom
fields) that was searchable/sortable for site visitors.
International
features: more options for international customers to customize text and site
builder settings
Spam: enhanced spam filtering
Ecommerce: enhanced
coupons (per category, per product), enhance search, order editing, customer
submitted product reviews/rating
Regards,
Keith Hickman
Director,
Marketing & Web Development
Advanced Web Site Publishing
http://www.awsp.com/
Phone:
281-554-9557
Fax: 281-554-9558
Cell: 713-724-7483
Toll Free:
1-866-900-AWSP (2977)
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www.awsp.com
