Our sites use some variation of a block that updates with trending article links - they may be autopopulated based on defined rules or editor selected or some combination of both. We're trying to track the traffic that jump from these links into our articles.

Currently, the only solution available is entering UTM code data in via the block settings. This appears to be part of TN settings to only offer it this way.

However, as UTM codes are only designed to work with referral traffic and not from the same domain/GA property as the destination, there's a known issue where it can essentially 'break' the current user session. 

What will happen is that when a user clicks on a same-domain/GA property UTM coded link their current session will end and a new session will begin on the new page. This creates a data accuracy issue that can't easily be fixed without abandoning the UTM tracking effort.

There are 2 other known solutions to track this traffic - hashtag anchor fragment usage or TN events.

Preferably would like to use TN events as long as it's clear which widget the action occurred on and where the user went. Would think this could be accomplished by labeling the Category as 'Widget Tracking' (or something else that makes it obvious), the Action as the name of the widget as it appears on the site, and Label is the Page Title for where the user jumped to. 

Alternatively, appending a url with #widgetname instead of UTM coding would be searchable in GA's All Pages report but requires making some GTM updates https://www.simoahava.com/gtm-tips/track-url-fragments-as-pageviews/ - this could be a messy process if it interferes with other GA manipulations. 

Either would have to be developed. 

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Allowing for a simple class='' option on each menu link.  Once that option is available, then it will be up to the end-user (us) to define the class within your system, and chose to use it on the link.  Updating would be as simple as changing the class name on the link in the editor.

You already do this for each 'block'.  It just needs extending to the links within the menu blocks.  Fairly simple feature, and one that wouldn't impact much on your system, but it would bring a lot of flexibility to the entire system, especially if you extended it to other items as well.  Each 'item' (html entity) then has a class='' field that contains a user managed variable that could be controlled in your editor.  I can imagine some very fancy work done, using this alone, and without you having to do anything extra after implementation.

We've had several people call about spam redirects on our website in the past couple of weeks. And we've already had three in the past hour. I submitted a ticket to TownNews and they said it isn't coming from our website. They said it comes from insecure websites and apps.

I think it's coming from Outbrain. When I load a story page with Outbrain enabled the page doesn't load securely on my phone and I get redirects. I disabled Outbrain and the pages then load securely. I also stopped getting the spam redirects.

So I decided to turn Outbrain back on. The page stopped loading securely and I started getting the redirects. Turned it off again, no redirects.

If this isn't originating from our website why does disabling Outbrain stop the redirects? And if this isn't originating from our website why do we have a noticeable influx of complaints?

We got an invite to this new program, anyone else currently participating or have thoughts to share?

https://media.twitter.com/en_us/article-container/articles/generic/the-twitter-timeline-ads-program.html

We need the ability for optimal, simple navigation of our archived pdf publication by being able to

1: view either one or both pages full-screen without cutting the pages off. They need to fit the screen, and

2: then the ability to zoom in or out as one pleases.

3: This ability exists within an Adobe pdf, of which our publications can be downloaded, but some of our readers are not interested in downloading instructions or aren't fluent at downloading files so we need them to be able to easily read the publication online as if they were in an Adobe pdf, so that it takes as little thought as possible.

4: Also, to retain the option to view in the current format. The current format which doesn't allow zooming is still a good format, it just lacks the option to zoom in or out, or to view the spreads on screen.

5: The default format should be the one we are requesting, the "Adobe Reader pdf" format with spread viewing and zooming capability.

How PDF documents are displayed is a bit underwhelming.

Are there any plans to have a PDF reader added to BLOX so that we can display a PDF in the browser, rather than making the user download it just to view?

Adding in something native in like https://pdfobject.com/ would be simple, but I would love something more robust like https://issuu.com/ or https://www.scribd.com

It would be great to use GIT version control system to be able to get updates from TownNews base skins to be able to keep our modified (or branded) skins up to date. This would be easier to maintain up to date and helpful with trouble-shooting as tools such as diff could be used to see what has been changed.

Pulling updates, merging and pushing to git repositories or remote points, that would be then used by blox as source for the templates/skins would be amazing!

We would like to sign up new subscribers at events and festivals, etc. We have Paypal portable credit card swipers similar to Square and would like a way to connect this to the Blox subscription portal.

Hello, 

We would like to expand the 48 hour window for email links for user-submitted calendar events. Currently, our calendar admin receives an email notification to approve or deny an event (something that we'd like to maintain control of, as we get a lot of submissions that don't fit for the calendar). The link expires after 48 hours and our calendar admin must make a point to approve events over the weekend or on holidays. We would like to expand that 48-hour window, to 120 hours, or 5 days. We would prefer expanding the 48-hour window time instead of having our calendar admin login to CMS to approve events as we feel it will simply help streamline the process and provide faster updates for our audiences. 

Hello,

Our staff is currently working on developing an app for our website. However, our app developers would like us to provide an iCal feed for the website's calendar feature, instead of an RSS feed. Does anyone have experience creating iCal feeds for a TownNews calendar? If so, could you please assist me with the steps?

For reference, here is the link to our calendar: http://www.theeastcarolinian.com/calendar/

Thanks in advance!

Best,

Annah

Is there any documentation dealing with templates/components/skins/etc for flex sites? Beyond the bare UTL api docs all I've seen are a series of videos at http://help.bloxcms.com/knowledge-base/developers_corner/. Those videos are focused entirely on Zen sites and are no help for someone working on Flex. Am I missing something?

We have had great luck building vertical galleries of images, HTML assets, articles, etc. But the font size is more formatted for a cutline-size block of text than a more robust report. 

Consider this vertical gallery: https://madison.com/news/national/life-or-death-warning-major-study-says-world-has-just/collection_6e57491c-80d0-5b19-9983-1320aee9f99b.html

This proved to be a very popular article, but the text is cutline sized, so it's hard to read.

Another example: https://madison.com/now/today/your-daily-capital-gazette-publishes-as-suspect-charged-with-murder/collection_8dd73a20-ec6d-5e71-9c16-dc5bded6ffb0.html#1

And another: https://madison.com/news/data/the-most-dangerous-states-for-drinking-and-driving/collection_6e736b8a-782c-563b-830c-49ae16cb13da.html

Standard article sized type would be a perfect alternative: https://madison.com/news/nation/government-and-politics/nikki-haley-resigning-as-ambassador-to-united-nations/article_177ce5fb-915e-5819-b7cd-d0b570ad27ed.html#tncms-source

The rules could be: Direct children of the collection get larger size font. Children of children, such as a photo embedded in an article, get the regular smaller-size cutline text.

I think this would improve time on site because people would read more from those collections, as well as improving the reader experience.

Thanks!

I'm trying to figure out how to change what email address our newsletter is sent from. I've verified and set the preferred address in Constant Contact, but newsletters sent from within BLOX don't use it. Is there a way to overwrite or change what email is used for newsletters?