Welcome to the BLOX Digital (formerly TownNews) customer community! Connect with other BLOX Digital customers—and with us—to suggest features, share best practices and ask questions.

Though BLOX Digital representatives often participate in discussions, this is not a customer service site. For immediate help, call 800-293-9576 or submit a support request via our online ticketing system.

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Under review

Question: Any way to change content displayed in one block based on what's in a second block?

Aidian 7 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 7 years ago 2

So we've got one block in which we want to display a story which will be randomly selected from a list of stories.


We've got a second block where we want to display the remaining stories from that list -- but not the one selected to display in the first block.


Does that make sense?  And how to do it?

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Under review

Building a "newsroom" contact page

Graham Archer 7 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 7 years ago 6

Is there a way to grab all the "author bio" information we put in Blox user areas and pull it into one coherent page? Like is there a block that we can pin author assets to to create a "meet the newsroom" page of some sort?

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Under review

Anyone else have a page curl that displays like this?

Nick 7 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 7 years ago 1

Our page curl ad isn't displaying correctly. It jumps around and shifts behind the curl. I'm used to the curl revealing an image that doesn't bounce around. Check out the video and let me know if any of y'all have similar issues.


Youtube video

I found a video that demonstrates how I think it should work. Notice how the ad graphic doesn't shift. It just fades from the small ad to the large ad.


Youtube video


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Better sharing buttons in longform?

Bob Rose 7 years ago in BLOX CMS 0

We like the new article designing functionality, but notice that we lose the sharing tools for any longform. So our best stories become the most difficult to share. How about larger, persistent share buttons along the left edge of longform stories?

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Stats for metered site use of free stories

Grant Hamilton 7 years ago in BLOX CMS 0

I'd like to know how many unique viewers are using one, two, three etc. free visits and how many hit the subscribe button at some point.

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Accessible CAPTCHAs

Robert Dundon 7 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Robert Armstrong 7 years ago 1

Currently, it appears that the CAPTCHA in the forms in Blox CMS are just an image. Is there any audio or other alternative for sight-impaired users?


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Handling Table Assets via Webservices API

Robert Dundon 7 years ago in BLOX CMS 0

I've looked through the improvements to the API where you can create and update editorial assets, which is great!


However, I found no way to get, update or create table assets, though I can retrieve existing ones and create (empty) table assets.


Is there a way (or a plan) to provide this in the future?

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Any plans to support AMP-AD/AMP-EMBED for monetization?

Jayson 7 years ago in BLOX CMS 0

Are there plans to allow AdSense ads in AMP templates? https://www.ampproject.org/docs/reference/components/amp-ad

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Under review

Social Teaser Field

Henry M. Lopez 7 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Kyle Whitfield 7 years ago 7

I am writing in regard to the Teaser field on the asset editor and asking another field be added — the social teaser. We are currently on Zen and when we move next month to Flex, we will lose one of the best uses of the Teaser. Right now, since Zen isn't completely supported by Teaser, when I add an image to Teaser its image shows up in the OG and Twitter tags for that asset(article). But, it does not show up as the thumbnail preview on the public facing home or index pages and it doesn't show up on the article page. That's fabulous.


Sadly once we move to Flex, the Teaser content, my understanding is, will show on the site's public-facing side on the index and home pages. Boo!


We aggressively use social images created in Adobe Spark to promote content in FB and Twitter. We often use these on stories where we have no art and on stories where we can make it more interesting in social media. But, there aren't really the type of images that make for good on-site thumbnails. 

Image 289



My usage of these promo images, which have no place on the story page either, really help spur forward user engagement. So, what I'm asking for is another tab called Social Teaser that acts just like Teaser except it isn't used for thumbnails — the social teasers url is passed only for social media. We want these images to come up when people share.


Image 290



The hierarchy then for OG and Twitter tags would be

Social Teaser

If not, then

Teaser

If not, then

Article image

If not, then

Default image as stored in settings.


I hope you'll consider. This is a concession to the idea that like all platforms, social needs content built for it and that should be supported in the CMS. You can see by the images shared above these look strong in social media, but really don't have a place as a thumbnail. If there's already a way to achieve what I'm asking, please let me know, I didn't see it in documentation. Web editors, please vote up this idea, and if you want to learn more about this technique reach out to me at webeditor@sfnewmexican.com


Thanks for your consideration. 

Henry M. Lopez

Digital Enterprise 


Image 291

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Image 292



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Under review

Paging gallery display options

Graham Archer 7 years ago in BLOX CMS updated 7 years ago 3

Hey folks, anyone know of ways to further tweak paging gallery display options? For instance, it'd be cool to have the numbers be reversible (count down, rather than up), hide the numbers or make the photo credits have a lower profile (they're pretty prominent). Wasn't sure if those settings existed, but if not, would be a cool one to put on the radar. Be nice if you could just add a #reverse keyword to a collection and have it count down, for instance.

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Completed

Webinar | Industry outlook: Behind the stats that matter to your business

Cherry Wolf (Marketing specialist) 7 years ago updated 7 years ago 2

Join us on August 3rd @ 10:30 AM CDT

At our August customer webinar, we’ll take a deep dive into the numbers that are influencing the news industry today, and explore the concrete ways our solutions can help you thrive in an evolving marketplace.


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Here are just a few of the topics we’ll cover:

  • How many visitors block your ads? How should you respond?

  • More than half of web traffic is mobile . . . What BLOX CMS features can help you serve up a great multi-screen user experience?

  • How can you use audience targeting to boost revenue from both drive-by and loyal users?

  • Which social media platform delivers the most traffic? Are you optimized for social?

  • How can our new collection types—we offer more than a dozen—help you create compelling multimedia content?

  • . . . and much, much more!

Join us on August 3rd at 10:30 AM CDT to learn more.

Want to take in the webinar on your own time? Register now and we’ll send you a link to the webinar recording once it’s ready.

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Popover ad when mouse leaves browsing window

Nick 7 years ago in BLOX CMS 0

I've seen a new ad movement where the user is on a website and they decide they want to navigate away. So they move the mouse outside the web page to click a bookmark or type in a URL. But they're attention is interrupted by a popover window!


Sometimes this can be annoying but I saw a really good implementation of it. On the LA Times' website they offer 4 weeks for 99 cents. Nice deal. But I don't want to subscribe today. I'll shop on Amazo...What? A window just told me I can get 8 WEEKS for 99 cents!


That's an awesome way to close the sale when someone decides to pass on the initial offer. As this seems to be a trend I would think it would benefit BLOX customers. So is that something any of y'all could use?

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Planned

Trim for web

Erica Smith 9 years ago updated 7 years ago 10

The TCMS "trim for print" feature is nice for stories that need to lose an inch or two for print, but can run in-full online. But the opposite would be nice, too.


This would alleviate some problems, starting with pesky date issues. If print wants to run "today," they could, while online the date would remain "Wednesday" or "Feb. 17" or whatever style was desired. ("Today" in print is often not "today" online — the publication date online is generally a day earlier.)


This also would help when trims made for print cut parts of sentences or paragraphs. It's easy to lose or move the first reference to a person or place when trimming content for print. This feature would allow the complete sentence or paragraph to stay online, and a print-only version of the sentence or paragraph to be written for print.

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Completed

Webinar | 2017 Products & Services Roadmap Update

Cherry Wolf (Marketing specialist) 7 years ago in BLOX CMS updated 7 years ago 1

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At our July 2017 customer webinar, we’ll share an update of our 2017 Products & Services Roadmap. We’ll highlight recent changes and give you a sneak peek at the exciting innovations that are in the works for BLOX CMS, BLOX Total CMS, TownNews.com iQ, the Content Exchange Network and more.


Join us on July 13th at 10:30 AM CDT to learn more.