Though TownNews.com 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.
Users are having to clear cache to view FLEX e-editions
We've had a number of problems with our website loading since we migrated to FLEX. Specifically the issues come from viewing the e-edition on Safari mainly on the iPhone, but not always. I get calls at least once a week about this. You can see the problem in the image below. Someone from Town News told me to have the subscribers clear their cache. That typically works but on this non-mobile device it didn't. I submitted a ticket and am waiting to hear back.
One time on my phone even the regular website displayed code as if it wasn't loading the CSS. I had to clear my cache for it to work.
So do any of you FLEX users have this problem?
Alright, we'll consider this issue officially addressed at this point.
Haven't look at hard stats yet, but <lastmod> addition to site maps appears to have increased search traffic, at least on our site
Thanks for the addition!
What's the expected XML format for the "Blox Classifieds Standard XML" Job?
Posted a TN Ticket, but added here as well and in case anyone else has the same question.
I have a question about the "jobs" feature in the Application
settings (via the top-right gear in Blox) in the Classifieds application. One option is "Blox
Classifieds Standard XML job"
Since XML can be many standards and formats, is there any idea on which format is expected? I couldn't find anything so far.
The BLOX Classifieds Standard XML format is documented as part of a larger import and export guide. Here is the relevant section about this format:
That document covers other import formats such as NITF and how to tune that for ingestion in BLOX.
Inform PerfectPixel locations
We embed videos on article pages via a tool from Inform, our video vendor. The PerfectPixel tool has three positions available -- numbered 1-3 -- in the default Flex templates.
Both positions 1 and 2 are stacked at the top of the body text, below the social media sharing buttons. The position is responsive, so the width adjusts with the body text when related assets are attached to the story. But having them stacked is redundant.
It would be nice if Position 1 was higher on the page to allow for a larger video, even when related assets are used. Currently, there's not a way to show a PerfectPixel video wider than 490px -- the width of the body text -- on a page with related assets.
Proposal: Putting the Position 1 div in the wider space below the byline would allow for larger video playback on article pages. And gives editors three distinct positions to choose from on the page.
Moving the div higher would cause the video to compete with a child photo asset attached to the story. But editors would be able to manage whether a video or photo was the dominant visual on the page.
Fixed "donation" bar at bottom of page
My boss is interested in having a bar (dismissable) at the bottom of our pages, similar to what The Guardian does, that would ask for donations to our endowment. You can take a look at their logic by going to https://www.theguardian.com/us or in the screenshot that I'm adding below -- the aqua-colored bar goes to a donation page. I would assume other papers could use this for subscriptions as well as donations. Just wondering if there's existing logic that could be used to create this, or if it's something that would have to be built separately.
Google AMP: If we're getting ready to enable ... 1 question ...
If we enable it and find out something unexpected that we don't like about it, how long does it take to disable. I know there's a disable function in BLOX. Just curious how long it takes from that point for AMP to actually stop. Thanks,
-- Kyle
Hi Kyle!
Technically, Google AMP is enabled when the AMP link is included in your article documents. Adding this link is what BLOX CMS does for you when you enable AMP within our system. Google then scrapes the pages and hosts them on Google's superfast cache servers.
I can tell you that when you turn off Google AMP within BLOX CMS, we will stop including the Google AMP link as soon as the cache expires (5 - 10 mins).
So the question is how long it stays in Google's cache. It looks like they sort of address it here:
https://developers.google.com/amp/cache/update-ping
"Cached content that no longer exists will eventually get removed from the cache"
So I guess the answer is, eventually! =) I am not sure if there could be something TownNews.com could offer regarding the "update-ping" that is discussed there, I will ask our developers about that.
It sounds like you are just interested in experimenting with AMP. If so, I would point at that because it is enabled via a URL custom property, you could do it on one section as a test (say, sports or entertainment). Then you could track mobile page views for those sections and see how they track compared to previous sections, etc.
Hope this helps!
Feature Request: limit login by IP address
In a situation where we'd like to give a subscriber extra concurrent logins (overriding the global limit), it would be nice to be able to limit them by IP address. For example, we'd like to give a school media center 10 concurrent logins, but limit them to the media center's IP address.
Who here is using Google AMP through BLOX?
How many ads do y'all include on your AMP pages? Is there a min or max? Curious to see what people's experiences are with it.
Can someone describe the Zen custom property article_rail?
I'm trying to do a minor site redesign for one of our Zen sites(since we can't switch to FLEX yet). And I'd like to see how it looks to drop the right rail from the article pages. There's a custom property article_rail. I've set it to false but it doesn't seem to do anything. Is there something I need to do to make this work?
Hi Nick!
This property adds a region that will be inside the story on article pages. Unfortunately, this was before we had Utility Regions, so in order to get to it in the block editor, you have to go to the index page and then you'll see a box that says something like, "This region will only appear on article pages." If you place blocks there, they will NOT show on the index page, but will show in the article.
Honestly, this was very confusing to customers, so we moved to Utility Regions on Flex. But, you can still employ it on Zen if needed.
Feature request: Expanding on infinite scroll
Is it possible to consider expanding infinite scroll so that when a user gets to the bottom of a story, the next story in the index loads, the URL changes and ad refreshes?
Example -- http://www.espn.com/blog/sec
The current iteration of infinite scroll where it populates related stories is great. We thinking populating new stories would go even further in piling up page views and helping a site recirculation traffic.
Feature suggestion: Larger previews of attached child images
I often find myself having to choose a lead photo from the ones our photographer has attached to an asset. However, the previews are tiny when you hover your mouse over them. And even if you open the image asset, you really have to hit the "crop" button to get a larger view. And that just shows you one image at a time.
How about a special button that can open attached child images in a special "grid view" window that will let you see their previews at a larger (adjustable?) size. Bonus points if you can rearrange the children's order from that grid window.
Of course, I'd like to see this both in CMS, but especially in TCMS.
Feature Request: Allow a sub-domain to point to Flex templates during transition from Zen
We're in the middle of our transition from Zen to Flex and my biggest complaint is that there is no publicly viewable way for people without a BLOX admin account to preview the new site. The login requirement also makes it harder for us to test it on a multitude of devices.
Now obviously this won't help us since we'll be done with the transition before it could be implemented, but I think a really cool and helpful feature would be the ability to point a sub-domain at the Flex URL map before the switchover, and NOT require an admin login.
For example: http://beta.galvnews.com
Now obviously I can redirect a URL to the appropriate preview URL right now, and have already done so. But the login requiernment prevents us from sharing the preview of the new site with a reader advisory panel or colleagues at a sister paper, etc.
What do y'all think?
Feature request: Using cookies to remember users' preferences
Feature request: The ability to ask a user which 'section' of a site they'd like to default to next time they visit a certain page.
1) What problem(s) does this idea solve?
>> It's possible our company would one day like to market 1 URL to our readers instead of 3 (one for each market we cover). This feature would help us with our messaging.
2) Why do you need this idea implemented? Provide as many problems or use cases as possible.
>> Example: Joe Smith visits theadvocate.com. He sees a window that asks if he'd like the site to remember which page he'd like to visit next time he comes to theadvocate.com. Joe says 'yes, I'd like to automatically be taken to the New Orleans section (theadvocate.com/new_orleans).
3) How often would you use this feature? >> Daily
4) How many people in your organization would use this feature? >> Everyone. About 100
5) Post on TownNews community forum >> Will do
Metered Paywall
Is anyone running a metered paywall (vs. a hard paywall)?
We’ve started discussing the pros/cons prompted by this article:
I’d appreciate any feedback y’all have on the subject.
Customer support service by UserEcho