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+4

GeoIP/Geolocations to customize website experience for users

Mary Shepard 9 years ago 0
I would like Town News to include location identification on the site so that we are able to tailor/customize the site per a users location.

Currently we are able to edit the zip code that is used for the search block or to enter a new zip code. However, in our case our circulation area covers over 75+ zip codes. Not using IP-location information in 2016 seems like very poor usability to me. We should be identifying where visitors are located and using their zip code to deliver more accurate search results the first time they search based on the user’s location.

Additionally this could be expanded to allow site designers to develop blocks that would dynamically deliver the most relevant content based on a users location i.e. weather, news, offers, etc.

0
Answered

There seems to be a setting forcing lower case letters into caps

Jacki Gray 9 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 9 years ago 2

Something in the Flex template is forcing the capital even though the user is entering it lower. You can see this on our keyword tags displaying on detail pages.


See this sample: http://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/life-style/local-feature/photos-mansfield-business-turns-to-the-internet-to-sell-environmentally/collection_97510d74-211e-11e6-99b0-176ff8d7cb54.html


Screengrab of keywords entered lower in the admin:


Image 168


Screengrab of keywords forced upper on the front end:


Image 169



Can this be changed (we shouldn't force capital letters for style and accuracy reasons) in UTL or in the template so that it reflects throughout the entire site? I put a ticket in but was told if this were modified it would take us off the upgrade path. Would other customers benefit from a fix like so?


Answer
Christine Masters 9 years ago

BLOX currently forces whatever you type in to be lowercase, so right now everything is lower. We need the keywords to be lowercase for data integrity issues (so that they all search the same).


It used to be that we didn't touch these at all and left them lower case, but we got a lot of complaints, so we started adding a "title case" to them.


However, we have a feature in the system that would keep a "front-facing" version of the keyword (essentially, whatever you type in), and a "search optimized" version which would be in the search index for searching purposes. This will allow you to display things the way they type, but all have them searched the same.


Until that happens, however, Nick's suggestion would work and would not take you off the upgrade path (since it is just CSS). I will update the ticket in the system with this information so our support staff can help.

0

Join us | How to generate more revenue with BLOX Live e-Editions

anonymous 9 years ago 0
Image 167

At our June customer webinar, Rich Griffin (BLOX Live e-Editions product manager) and Jon Winters (BLOX Total CMS product architect) will discuss the latest updates and new revenue opportunities.

We'll cover:
- Generating revenue with new banner ad positions for BLOX Live e-Editions.
- Increasing user engagement with cutout asset upgrades.
- Saving time with improved asset merging and simplified page replication in BLOX Total CMS
- And much, much more!


Join us on Thursday, June 2nd at 10:30 AM CDT.

0

Conflicting schedules

Greg Wood 9 years ago in BLOX CMS 0

Can someone tell me how schedules interact if there are more than one active on the page? I've tried dragging one schedule above the other one to see if that one takes precedence but I wasn't able to do that.

+1

email collection

Jennifer Perkins 9 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Kevin M. Cox 9 years ago 1

Please let me know if there's currently a way to work this with the paywall. If not, the idea is:


A temporary 'subscription' option where a non-subscriber could be offered a limited-time access to hard-paywalled content if they submitted their email address to be added to a list.


For example, if we had a new product we wanted to promote by email campaign, and we wanted to quickly build a distribution list, we turned on a month-long access to paywalled content on the website for non-subscribers. When they hit the paywall on the article, they would be prompted to purchase a subscription or - for a limited time - submit their email for that new product promotion.

0
Answered

Anyone else's ads just lose ALL of their impressions and clickthrus?

Nick 9 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Patrick O'Lone (Director of Software Development) 9 years ago 1

Checked my ads around 4:30 p.m. and everything was fine. Checked again at 5 p.m. and several ads lost ALL of their impressions and clickthrus. Some ads didn't lose all of their impressions but did lose tens of thousands. This happened on all three of our BLOX sites.

Answer

On May 13th, 2016, we made an emergency change to our stats software to fix legacy ad tracking. Stats were temporarily reset back to April 5th and reprocessed. All ad stats should have been reprocessed and restored early on Saturday, May 14th, 2016 including the missing data between April 5th and May 13th.

+2
Under review

FLEX right rail regions aren't diverse enough on tablet and phone

Nick 9 years ago in BLOX CMS updated 9 years ago 14

In prepping our FLEX site for launch there's been a pretty big frustration with the regions available beginning at the right rail. Desktop is fine. But when you switch to a tablet or mobile phone breakpoint the options available are minimized beginning in the rail. I'll use a screenshot of the Boxy layout at a tablet breakpoint to illustrate my point as it’s the one we chose for our site.


Image 157


As you can see above the top rail ad is fine. Plenty of rows with one and two columns. But after the top rail ad we’re reduced to full width rows. This presents two problems. 1. As I’ve just mentioned there is a lack of diversity in the regions below the top rail ad. 2. (And this is really design busting) the top rail ad is no longer at the top! That means I have to create a new ad region block specifically to put it higher on tablet and mobile. I ended up just creating a new block for desktop and another for mobile and completely ignoring the top rail ad region.


So the easy solution to this problem would be something like this(and this screenshot will just start at the rail top ad)…


Image 158


This is more a suggestion for future site launches. But maybe opening up some regions down there wouldn't be site-busting for people who are already on FLEX.


So did anyone else have this problem when launching on FLEX?

0

Newsletter unsubscribe links missing

Maureen Reinert 9 years ago in BLOX CMS updated 9 years ago 2

Has anyone else noticed a problem with unsubscribe links no longer being added to the end of the newsletters? Until recently there were links at the end for unsubscribing, but those have disappeared. The Constant Contact footer information shows a link, but there isn't one on the actual email.

+4

Feature Request: Podcast asset creation to simplify XML and RSS Data.

John 9 years ago in BLOX CMS updated 9 years ago 2

I'm slowly working through this with my town news contact but it seems like it will be more complicated and I might need to reach out to a third party company.


I'm trying to create a couple podcasts with some students and the level of detail required in the XML is far too much for the currect town news "audio asset" option.


Is it possible to add a Podcast asset with all the specific podcast details Apple and Stitcher require?


Here is an example of a video podcast's RSS XML.


http://feeds.twit.tv/ww_video_large.xml

0

Flash graphics

hbremer1 9 years ago in BLOX CMS 0

I'm trying to upload some Flash graphics but when I create the Flash asset, I can only see a 600x400(ish) portion of the graphic ... anybody know of any way to make the viewing area larger?

+5

Feature request: Add photo gallery to poll assets

Erica Smith 9 years ago 0

Polls are awesome. They'd be more awesome if I could add images as child assets and have those images show up as a photo gallery. (If you add photos to a poll asset now, they show up as cards under the poll.) This of the "who wore it best" polls you could do! The contest-type polls! Anyone else interested?

0

Bug? Business card Grid doesn't obey column count on Medium and Small breakpoints

Nick 9 years ago in BLOX CMS updated 9 years ago 1

I've got a Business card: Grid(FLEX) set as Display mode: Slideshow and Columns: 2. All is good on Large breakpoint. On Medium and Small it goes to 4 columns. On Extra-Small it goes to 1 column. I understand Extra-Small going to 1 column because it's so small. But Medium and Small should still obey the column layout setting, right? Is this a bug or is it intentional?

0
Answered

Click on the first photo in a story and the second photo shows up, and vice versa

Nick 9 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 9 years ago 2

We've got an issue on all three of our sites that happens when you click a child photo in a story. When you click the first one, it brings up the bigger gallery page with the second selected. When you click the second, the first opens. And this happens no matter how many photos you have in a story. Here's a graphic, because why not...


Image 154


So does anyone else have the problem?

Answer
Christine Masters 9 years ago

Hi Nick!


I was able to reproduce this on my test site, and I updated your ticket with the information and volunteered to walk through it for the dev so he can see what's happening. I assume it is a bug with the photo count for the URL, so we'll put in a bug ticket for that. Thanks!

+2

Mugshots and mobile

Erica Smith 9 years ago updated by Rebecca Fellenbaum 9 years ago 1

The mugshot presentation style is great for desktop users, but awful for mobile users, and we have more mobile users than desktop.

Here's what I mean by awful: Say you have a story with two photos and two mugshots (using the mugshot presentation style on those two photo assets).

Desktop view: Headline, two photos at the top of the story in a gallery format, two mugshots in the left rail and the story in the larger portion of the page.

Mobile view: Headline, mugshot, mugshot (they're stacked), photos in a gallery format, then the story. You're in real trouble if you have a story with more than a couple of mugshots.

I want to change this — and I think it should be a global change. Ideally, on mobile the mugshots would be part of the photo gallery — the order in which they're added as child assets would be the order they appear in the mobile photo gallery.


Anyone else in favor?

0

Webinar recording: Spring cleaning 101

anonymous 9 years ago 0

At our May customer webinar, Christine Masters, director of product management, discussed a variety of ways to refresh and renew your website.


Highlights include:

  • Keeping your site up-to-date by cleaning out old blocks, auditing your admins and evaluating your ads.
  • Freshening up your front page with new display blocks.
  • Making sure your site is mobile-ready and search optimized.
  • And much, much more!

For more information, watch the recorded webinar today!