Allow the Calendar in BLOX to associate an event with a Facebook event. Then, you can use the FB API to pull photos to the BLOX page!

Is it possible to have the "breadcrumbs" that are at the top of section pages by default continue to be displayed above articles? This would allow easy back-tracking into the section.

I thought I could do it with Utility Regions but it won't allow me to place the standard "Section | Utility: Page heading | Dynamic" block there.

Is anyone else doing something similar?

I would be very interested to hear from other users about improvements they'd like to see to Blox-native commenting. Here are my suggestions so far.

(And to head off the inevitable: I am not switching to Disqus or FB just to get features. This is about improving the Blox system.)

• The ability to moderate comments from the article page, rather than having to go into the Blox back-end.
• "Trusted" commenters or some other sort of ranking system. Trusted commenters would be able to post links without review and their comments would be filtered nearer to the top of a comment list with a "Best Comments" sort order.
• A "Best Comments" sort order, which would be decided by the upvote/downvote system.
• See above: An upvote/downvote system for comments.
• Ability to have clickable links
• See above: Ability to hold comments for moderation if they contain links
• Ability for users to edit their own posts.
• Ability for users to upload images.
• Ability for newsrooms to specify a period after which comments on an article close automatically.
• Ability to show comments already posted AFTER commenting has been disabled, rather than having them all disappear.
• Pipe dream: Real time comments.
• Others?

We are attempting to use the new promo designer block. When a reader abandons his/her unfinished AdOwl order, I would like to offer the reader a button to call us. With an active click-to-call button. Tech support says it isn't possible. Can that be right? Ideas?

I'd like to sort Classified ads placed via AdOwl by category for a given date range. 

To do this. I need to be able to export a search result which includes both an AdOwl identifier and category information. I'm not finding a way to do this.

Category is not a filter setting for AdOwl Orders or Transactions searches.

I can export AdOwl Transactions, but the export does not include category information.

I do not appear to have the capability to export search results for AdOwl Orders.

AdOwl ads contain a unique External ID. but this does not appear to be searchable/indexed content in a Classifieds search: also. I am unable to export the results of a Classified search.

We would use this feature several times per year, perhaps monthly.  

This feature would be used by two people (Classifieds Manager, CEO), which constitutes 50% of our users.

It's so frustrating how a parent or child asset becomes an automatic sidebar in our layout. So you can lay out an article beautifully. But if, a year later, you add that original article as a child asset to a new article, then it ruins the layout on the original article -- putting this "sidebar space" on the left column with one article in it, and shifting the layout of the whole article to the right. So then every time I add an old article as a child asset to a new article, I have to go back to the old article and fix the layout, so that its new "parent" is inserted at the end, rather than default being moved to the left side and ruining the layout.

In the new BLOX NOW app, we'd like to be able to select a landing page when you open the app. This way people can select if they want local news, business, homepage or what when the app opens. We had this in our old app and I think people really liked it.

I came across the block template "Email card: Summary horizontal" (among

a few other Core email block templates) that don't support custom "Read

More" text.

I needed this feature for moving an obits newsletter from Zen to Flex, the text for the custom block template on Zen was " View Obituary / Sign Guestbook," which is more sensitive and empathetic than "Read More" I would imagine there are other use cases for this as well.

However, I did notice that the Core block template uses the macro email_assetLead in the Core Flex Email component.

Blocks using that macro can use "read_more_text" as a custom property to

support custom text.

I made a custom copy of the Core block template "Email card: Summary

horizontal" for now, but of course it'd be nice to have this in Core.

In newsrooms everywhere, our customers are gathering, analyzing, and presenting the news and information that is vital to every healthy community.

To help spread the word about the critical work you're doing, we've created the #LocalMediaProud hashtag on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. We'd love to see pics of your team, in the newsroom and on the job. Don't be shy, we know you're out there. :)

Share your newsroom pics to #LocalMediaProud today!

Aaron Gillette

Marketing director

TownNews

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. 

Webinar recording now available.

What’s new at TownNews

Engage your audience and earn more revenue with these features and updates you may have missed. At our November customer webinar, Christine Masters, director of product management, and Susan Bell, product manager for BLOX OTT and the BLOX Now app, will highlight the recent advancements you need to know about.

Topics will include:

• An overview of our revamped mobile reporting interface
• New revenue opportunities in BLOX Business Directory
• Improved home screen navigation for BLOX OTT
• The latest BLOX CMS speed and security enhancements
• . . . and much more!

Ready to get started? Watch it today.

Webinar recording now available.

When local events happen—from public forums to sporting events to live music—your community looks to you for quality coverage. At our October customer webinar, Derek Gebler, vice president of broadcast and video, will show how easy it can be to produce live video coverage of local events, and distribute your video content to the world with TownNews.com’s integrated digital solutions.

Topics will include:

• The benefits of producing live video during local events.

• A pre-flight plan, including a gear checklist, equipment testing, and working with the venue.

• Camera placement, sound recording, and off-site monitoring.

• Using VideoLink to live stream to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and your own website.

• Post-event editing, distribution, and analytics.

• . . . and much more!

Ready to get started? Watch it today.