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.

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0

Screen names with Facebook and Google authentications

John 9 years ago in BLOX CMS 0

Is it possible to auto generate screen names with the provided Facebook and Google authentication systems? I've enabled the authentication but when signing in the first time it will ask you to enter a Screen Name with the authenticated email automatically filled in. Once completing the CAPTCHA the system feeds back and says "this email address is already used, would you like to login?" This happened with both Facebook and Google signup and sign in pages.


It would be great if the screen name is autogenerated using data from "first name" during authentication. So the user is just logged in without the need to enter more info.


I can take some screen grabs if this doesn't make sense.


Thanks everyone. I just started wrapping my head around the BLOX system last week and It's awesome. I look forward to learning more and hopefully upgrading to FLEX soon.

+2
Under review

eEdition PDF Download Link

Andrew McBride 9 years ago in BLOX CMS updated 9 years ago 2

Is there a way to add functionality for a PDF edition download link outside of the eEdition app? Would like to include a button below the thumbnail.


This would increase ease for a lot of our users since they prefer to download and view without an internet connection at a later time. Our users also prefer the PDF download because of the quality and readability.

It would reduce the number of clicks by 4 or more and decrease load time as well especially on low end devices.

0

Feature Request: Title Caps in Footers for Sections and Geolocations

Kevin M. Cox 9 years ago in BLOX CMS updated 9 years ago 2

We have several Sections as well as numerous cities we cover that are two words. Right now in the footer of our site only the first of the two words is capitalized while the second is not.


See “High school” and “League city” below.


Image 112


To me the section is only slightly annoying while the city name is a bigger problem. To the average reader it is going to appear that we made a mistake and typed the name of the city incorrectly.


My feature request would be for the Sections and Geolocations in the footer to use title caps. e.g. High School and League City.


Let me know what y’al think, thanks.

0

EEdition ad positions?

Lindy 9 years ago in BLOX CMS 0

Is there an ad region map out there on the positions within the e-edition? (something visual).

0
Planned

Mosaic block won't show cropped preview

Nick 9 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 9 years ago 1

Is there a way to crop image previews in the mosaic block? I've tried adding a preview image and a static preview but only cropping the actual image changes what the way the preview displays in the mosaic block.

Answer
Christine Masters 9 years ago

Hi Nick! Yes, that block should show image previews - I consider it a bug that the MAIN image shows up anywhere but on the story page (and maybe in a top story slideshow, not sure about that). I will add a bug ticket for this.

0
Under review

Recurring Credit Card Subscriptions / Replacement for PGP Email Option

Kevin M. Cox 9 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 9 years ago 5

As I’m sure you all saw in the update last month, Town News will be disabling the use of PGP encrypted email to capture credit card numbers sometime soon.


We had been using this feature very successfully to capture credit card numbers for entry into Circulation Pro for recurring (Easy Pay) subscriptions.


How are the rest of y’all handling recurring subscriptions?


For those who were using PGP email through Town News forms what is your plan for a replacement?


There were several suggestions in the notice from Town News, but redirecting users to a third-party site to enter their payment information is exactly the type of thing we train consumers to watch out for to avoid being scammed.


Thanks for any and all suggestions and discussion!

——————————————————————————————————

Security update: PGP encryption with BLOX CMS

You're receiving this message because your email address is used on a BLOX CMS form using PGP encryption.

Due to heightened security standards, TownNews.com will be changing the functionality of PGP encryption on BLOX CMS. When this change takes effect, credit card numbers will no longer be transmissible via email using TownNews.com systems and resources. This applies to both unencrypted and PGP-encrypted email messages. This software upgrade will occur in the very near future, sometime on or after January 1, 2016.

This update is necessary to ensure that we and our customers maintain Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance. PCI compliance is a strict set of standards that any organization accepting credit card transactions must meet. These measures will strengthen security and help safeguard our clients from the potential negative impacts of PCI non-compliance.

If you have BLOX CMS forms that currently accept credit card information, there are a variety of alternatives:

  • Remove credit card fields from your forms and replace them with a message informing customers that you will contact them via phone to complete the transaction. We can assist you with this change.
  • Use a payment handler such as Verisign or Authorize.net, which will allow forms to accept credit card transactions. Please note that use of 3rd-party payment handlers does incur a setup charge, along with monthly and per transaction charges from these companies. We can assist you with this change.
  • Accept credit card transactions via a 3rd-party online service dedicated to hosting PGP-encrypted forms (TownNews.com does not endorse or have a relationship with these companies). Options include, but are not limited to:

It's possible that you received this message in error, perhaps due to a form existing with PGP email (but disabled), or a form with both PGP enabled and a regular payment handler.

You may receive additional notifications for other TownNews.com products affected by changes to PGP and online credit card processing as we continually review and enhance our security procedures.

We apologize for any inconvenience this necessary security upgrade may cause. It is our goal to make this process as painless as possible for our customers.

We sincerely appreciate your business and look forward to serving you in the future. Please call our support team at 800-293-9576 if you have specific questions or concerns.

0
Planned

Edit Article Footer / Section & Location Tags

Kevin M. Cox 9 years ago in BLOX CMS updated 9 years ago 9

I’m wondering if there is a way to edit the behavior / display of the Section and GeoLocation tags that are displayed in an article footer:



Image 80



I’m actually hoping to do two different things here.



1. Change the name displayed for a section.



We have several nested sections like “/news/free/“ and the text displayed in the footer for an article there just says “Posted in Free.” It would be great if we could customize it to say something like: “Posted in News” or “Posted in Free News” as that will be much more descriptive than the text pulled right now.



2. Change the URL that a GeoLocation links to.



By default when clicking the Location Tag link the site runs a search for assets that have that GeoLocation tagged: http://www.galvnews.com/topic/?g=seabrook&t=&l=25&d=&d1=&d2=&f=html&s=&sd=desc&s=start_time



I’d like to be able to edit the URL associated with a Geolocation to instead point to a URL that I’ve setup with blocks that run this same filter, e.g. http://www.galvnews.com/communities/galveston



This presents a much cleaner display of headlines without the large search box at the top.



Please let me know what y’all think or if this is already possible and I just missed it.



Thanks!

0
Answered

Trying to understand ad impression limits in relation to the ad's end date

Nick 9 years ago in BLOX CMS updated 9 years ago 5

We have our first ad that's set for a limited number of impressions instead of a date range. The date of the event the ad is for(which I set as the absolute end date) is approaching quickly but the impression limit hasn't been met. But it isn't showing online anymore today. I did some research on help.bloxcms.com and I see that it's spreading it over the course of the ad's start and stop date. I don't want it to do that.


I see this on the help site: "If the scheduled run dates for the ad are MORE THAN 2 years, the Total impression limit will be a simple, hard limit from the start date of the ad."


So does that mean if I set it to end on Jan 1, 2038 it will just run through the impressions as quickly as it can display the ad rather than spreading the impressions? Because that's what I want.

Answer
Christine Masters 9 years ago

  1. If you remove the end date and leave the monthly impression limit, the ad will serve out the impressions as soon as possible (given weighting and rotation of other ads).
  2. If you remove the impression limit and leave the end date, it will serve the maximum number of impressions possible during that time (given weighting and rotation of other ads), and will end at that time regardless of impressions.
  3. If you have a DAILY impression limit, it also will not try to average the impressions over the month.

The combination of the two limitations (end date and impression limit) tells Ad Manager that you want to spread the impressions over that time as best you can.


So, I would remove the impression limit, keep the end date, and make sure it is the only add (or at least weighted really high in the rotation).

0

Webinar announcement: Introducing the TownNews.com Content Exchange program

anonymous 9 years ago 0

Webinar: Introducing the TownNews.com
Content Exchange program

TownNews.com's Content Exchange program helps web publishers like you build revenue and audience from the content you're already creating. Share articles, images and videos with our vast network of media sites to earn additional ad revenue and attract new users with professional content you select from the exchange.


Image 115

Best of all, the TownNews.com Content Exchange is completely FREE and turnkey for BLOX CMS customers. At our January webinar, Tim Turner, Content Exchange program manager, will discuss the program and how to get involved.


Topics will include:

- Generating revenue from tag-along ads through the program's generous revenue
sharing plan.

- Improving visitor satisfaction by offering in-house coverage alongside high-quality
journalism from around the country.

- Reaching a wider audience by putting your content and branding in front of more
people, on more sites.

- Q&A session to follow presentation.


Join us on Thursday, Jan. 14th at 10:30 AM CST.

+2

Set zoom on map?

Aidian 9 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Jacki Gray 9 years ago 1

I've got two questions regarding the location/mapping capability in articles:

1) Is there any way to set the zoom level at which the maps will be displayed? Right now the map will always show zoomed out to a sort of regional level, when usually I'd like to show a street or neighborhood location.

2) Is there any way to put the map full width across the article column? I've been using a hacky approach involving an HTML asset to do this, but it'd be awesome to just use the integrated google map.

We're a Flex site, which could make a difference.

Thanks!

0
Under review

Flex collapsible block option

Craig V 9 years ago in BLOX CMS updated 9 years ago 2

Is there a Flex collapsible block option like the one on Zen?

0

Twitter Beyond 140

Kevin M. Cox 9 years ago in BLOX CMS updated 9 years ago 0

Just a heads-up for those who haven't seen it yet. This would require some code changes to Social Broadcast I'm sure.


Twitter Considering 10,000-Character Limit for Tweets


The key detail:


"Twitter is currently testing a version of the product in which tweets appear the same way they do now, displaying just 140 characters, with some kind of call to action that there is more content you can’t see. Clicking on the tweets would then expand them to reveal more content. The point of this is to keep the same look and feel for your timeline, although this design is not necessarily final, sources say."

0

Feature Request: display weather radar/sat map in different locations

Aidian 9 years ago in BLOX CMS 0

I would love to be able to display the weather satelitte/radar map in different locations than just as part of one tab on the weather index page.


I'd like to be able to embed it in the body of an article, and ideally use it as the lead asset the same way we'd use a photo. In a perfect world we'd be able to set the map options to display on page load (e.g. which overlays; which base layers; present image, past or future loop, whatever).


We're a Flex site. Until recently, I was able to get half way there by putting a flexible iframe around the weather map. However the provider or at least the service changed recently and this approach no longer works.


Doesn't look like it would take much to do, and it would be a big draw when we've got newsworthy weather.

0
Answered

Ads in e-edition not clickable if they are in another asset's region

Nick 9 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Rich Griffin | Product Manager (Product Manager) 9 years ago 7

Sometimes our e-edition doesn't allow ads to be clickable(to view them in full size) if they're in the rectangle region of another asset. This was an issue a few months ago but was corrected when an e-edition update was made in BLOX. But now with the latest e-edition update the issue is back. Here are some examples...


Image 109



In the next example the ad is clickable but only the part that isn't in the region of the main asset.


Image 110


Image 111

+1

Wanted: Author and byline fields for YouTube assets

Erica Smith 9 years ago 0

Anyone else? Adding a "byline" as the description is clunky. Possible, but clunky and not a good user experience. I can batch edit and add an author to a video. Still clunky, and it appears as the "author," not with the byline style we prefer.