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.
![](/s/cache/11/45/11452aa3c4c2ba87a8656c08109b235a.png)
Feature Request: Add word wrap ability to HTML Block Editor
It's not often that I need to edit HTML on Blox, but when I do it would be very useful to have the option to word wrap so I can see my code while making quick edits. At the very least a Maximize button would be cool too. Of course if I am doing more vigorous work I would use a 3rd-Party notepad; however I find myself using this HTML block more and more often. Thanks for your consideration. I have placed a prototype image below.
![](https://cdn.userecho.com/characters/71.png?1)
Separate alt text field for images
Can you add an field for alt text in images? Right now, the system picks up the title as alt text, but we want to use alt text that is more detailed than a title would be. I know people have asked for this in the past. What's the status?
![](/s/cache/f6/35/f635839fc14b90087060d4dce84c15c0.png)
Ordering Pinned Assets
Hi everyone!
We've been kicking around an idea for pinned assets and I'd love to get your feedback.
Presently, and as you may already be aware, pinned assets default the top of a block. Multiple pinned items can be sorted / reordered.
We're considering a feature that would allow designers access to drag/drop pinned assets to whichever order they want in a block, i.e., pin a single item to the third position as opposed to the top (default).
We're looking for feedback!
Have you struggled with this before?
Would you use this feature?
![](https://cdn.userecho.com/characters/66.png?1)
Feature request: "Read More" page break to put content in front/behind paywall
Would like a feature where we can insert a sort of page break in-line into an article asset in Blox that would put everything before the break in front of the paywall, and everything after it behind the paywall. So for instance, we could insert a "Read More" page break after the first 3-4 paragraphs of a story, so readers would be able to view those 3-4 paragraphs for free, but when they click on "Read More" they would be prompted to log into their existing account (if they weren't already logged in), or sign up for a subscription.
![](https://cdn.userecho.com/characters/115.png?1)
Drop Down Menu Changes
Can we make additions / changes to our drop down menu, or do we need to involve Town News and have them do it for us for a fee?
![](https://cdn.userecho.com/characters/68.png?1)
Feature request: Notifications for editors
Would it be possible to set up an automatic notification system where an editor receives some sort of notification/email when a reporter files a story and/or updates its status?
![](/s/cache/21/91/2191e9e2c4055fad7c95148424757a6c.png)
While we don't have an integrated notification system, we do fire webhook events during assets save, and in the new few weeks will be adding support for triggering webhooks when an asset changes workflow process.
We have some customers who use tools like Zapier to consume the webhooks and trigger an email or similar. If you have access to a basic developer, the would also be able to create a system to listen to them.
Joe Hansen
Director of Solutions Support
TownNews
![](https://cdn.userecho.com/characters/76.png?1)
Feature request: update RSS sorting to allow update time.
It would be ideal to be able to sort feeds on last updated time in addition to publish time. We use RSS feeds to serve content to our mobile apps and often times we have a story that is published and updated throughout several days/weeks. For example, a high-profile trial.
![](/s/cache/48/3c/483ce705fe6c5d932ff4e7c33505e4ff.png)
Field59 Watermark generation?
Who wouldn't like to see Field59 autogenerate a watermark in the videos we upload? Is that going to be a future possibility?
![](https://cdn.userecho.com/characters/67.png?1)
We've switched to 'Blue' BLOX - I need to have access to editorial content from Tribune New Services please
![](/s/cache/21/91/2191e9e2c4055fad7c95148424757a6c.png)
Please submit a support ticket at support.townnews.com for any issues like these. The community forum is designed for discussions around features, use cases, and other "commentary"..
Director of Solutions Support
TownNews
![](https://cdn.userecho.com/characters/72.png?1)
Feature Request: Choose photo presentation on document placement
It would be helpful in the Child Asset placement window to be able to choose the image presentation mode you need. This would be especially helpful for mugshots where the mugshot presentation mode hasn't been set in Blox (either intentionally or not).
It would save a lot of time to have the option to check a box/choose a presentation change for each photo in the Child Asset window while placing, instead of having to back out of placing the asset and then go open each mugshot individually and change its presentation.
We also do have some editors who don't want their mugs to display with the mug presentation online. So those images don't need that setting online, but they do need that mugshot treatment on InDesign pages.
![](https://cdn.userecho.com/characters/116.png?1)
Tracking subscriptions in BLOX from a specific event
I am opening an event for Street Fairs/Community Event tables were we talk about the paper and offer a deal for customers to subscribe. I need to track this separately from other subscriptions. Is the promo code field the best bet? Can I set up the promo code without a discount? Has anyone done this successfully in the recent pass? We are also just setting up access IQ +. Thanks, Thea Giardina, www.newjerseyhills.com
ps: we have 13 papers that cover 4 counties so tracking is important
![](/s/cache/84/02/84021bd6ea799745781ffeaaf6345f30.png)
Webinar | NEW! Our revamped e-Edition UX boosts mobile usability, customer loyalty, and engagement
Webinar recording now available.
The preliminary results are in! More readers are visiting e-Editions, those readers are coming back more often, and they’re reading even more pages. All thanks to our new, FREE upgrade that focuses on the user experience. At this customer webinar, Bridget Sibthorp-Moecker, director of audience, and Shahid Ali, director of user experience, take us through the exciting improvements and how easy it is to switch over.
Click on the link to find:
- Video recording of yesterday's webinar.
- Slide deck for easy sharing with your team.
- Case study: Richmond.com’s readers are loving the redesigned e-Edition from TownNews
- FAQ: We answer your top questions about the redesign.
- and links you'll need to get started.
![](https://cdn.userecho.com/characters/65.png?1)
AdOwl - Manual Approval Email Customization
I know every who is manually approving these AdOwl orders has experienced clients requesting receipts because the Approval email is lacking vital information.
This is what our client receives in the Approval email:
————————————
"Subject: Your ad order #7 has been approved
Your ad order #7 has been approved.
The ad will start on Jun 8, 2022, 12:00 AM.”
————————————
Do we see a problem here?
I submitted a ticket to TNews and was told to copy/paste or write into the popup all the information that I needed. This is not conducive for a business to manually copy/paste or write transaction information for every single order "for something that should be already there.”
Some clients cannot submit this to Accounts Receivable the way it is currently written and there is no way to generate a true receipt for them. I currently have to pull up their order and print it as a PDF and email it to them stating that this is all I can produce, all because the Approval email lacks the vital information needed.
I replied back to TNews to gain access to the email template for editing or have them edit the current email to look more professional. I learned that we were not the only ones that have requested this feature and to submit a request ticket since they were unable to give me access to the template or make the changes required.
Below is a sample of what the default Approval email should look like.
—————— sample ——————
Hello (First Last Name shortcode),
Your ad order ID (ID# shortcode) for the amount of ($ amount shortcode) has been approved and will start on (order start date shortcode) and will end (order end date shortcode).
Please keep this email receipt for your records
Thank you,
(Business Name Shortcode)
(Contact Number Shortcode)
————————————————
As you can see the above format covers:
- Client/Business Name
- Order #
- Cost
- Run Start Date
- Closing statement
- Business Name (Branding shortcodes)
I truly believe all your clients would love it as well because it covers all the vital information needed for a receipt and cuts down on the wasted labor hours making a custom approval email.
Note: Upon writing this I found a similar post dating back 5 years and I was flabbergasted to learn that it was still under review.
![](/s/cache/3c/37/3c37e2d36460cfa0a7df7f2eae34d80b.png)
Customization options needed for automatic emails
I've had a feature request open about this since last May (Ticket 666975) but wanted to get some public visibility on it as well. The addition of BLOX Notifier actually makes the situation worse and I have some good example images to share.
There are now two different ways to automatically send emails upon specific conditions in BLOX and both of them lack the customization ability needed to maintain a newspaper's brand and achieve specific goals.
First are examples of what our current breaking news emails look like, but they have to be sent manually through Email Reach's "Single Run." They maintain the style of all our other email newsletters and meet branding goals at the expense of being a manual process that gets forgotten at times.
![Image 466](/s/attachments/10530/1/110/6bdf19fec83bc456192024e6e5027139.png)
![Image 467](/s/attachments/10530/1/110/613cb06510b6164ddd101dbe2143957b.png)
Automatic Alerts for BLOX Email Reach
This option has been around for a couple years and allows filtering that most papers would need, however there is no ability to customize how these emails look. You are stuck with the examples below.
![Image 468](/s/attachments/10530/1/110/905c10ffc7b9087a8076913e7554d73b.png)
![Image 469](/s/attachments/10530/1/110/fa163f3ba1842ad1bb2449d205564b91.png)
BLOX Notifier
I was hopeful the newly released BLOX Notifier would bring some improvements but unfortunately it is even worse. Emails produced by it are completely void of branding and most other useful information.
![Image 470](/s/attachments/10530/1/110/509402114c358cb6c001789753b01cb9.png)
![Image 471](/s/attachments/10530/1/110/601d8287099f24962bf7b3a8a52932bf.png)
![](/s/cache/86/78/8678fccc68c8a12d52a4416eb9ef3a5d.png)
A few quick things:
1. The BLOX Notifier alerts should look like the BLOX Email Reach alerts. This is something we're working to fix.
2. We can make changes to the asset page "email" mode design in a generic way, so let me know what type of thing you'd like to see there.
3. We are working on a new way to be able to send better branded emails of all kinds... email alerts and reset password, etc. We are building a "Site Branding" panel where you can set your colors and your logo, etc. That way we will be able to use your logo and colors in a standard way on system-built items such as this.
Customer support service by UserEcho