We'll be rolling out some new features to all Platform subscribers this week. This free upgrade will include major enhancements to the customer database and how the application can be integrated with web forms. In addition, the update will include a new "site settings" panel, blog author enhancements and a number of usability enhancements.

Customer Database Enhancements

This update will allow site owners to collect additional information in standard web forms and have that information update the related records in the customer database. In addition, website visitors will be able to update custom fields using the "Update Customer Details" web form. As part of this change, three existing workflows are being enhanced.

• Use form fields to collect custom information - The form builder is being enhanced to allow administrators to add custom fields from the customer database to be added to web forms. This new feature will allow you to setup custom fields in the customer database and then populate these fields with web forms.
• Custom information can be edited by customers - The customer details module is being enhanced to allow site visitors or secure zone members to update custom information in the customer database. Site owners can choose to allow site users to update one or all of the form fields. All of the form fields will be added as a single block when you add them to the Update Customer Details form, but you will be able to remove individual fields to customize the fields available on the form.
• Existing items can be assigned to a specific custom form - After a site has launched, you can attach forms to existing items and add values when first editing and item. This will help avoid having to click on "add custom fields" for every existing entity.

This new feature has been one of our most requested features and we hope this new functionality makes your website even more powerful. If you have questions about this feature, please contact us.

New Site Settings Section

We recently added "site settings" section in the admin area. This new section will be used to consolidate site-wide settings for your site. There are three specific items available now.

• Shop settings - You can now define a shopping cart lifetime so you can define how long items are kept in a users cart after a customer leaves your website. You can also enable or disable the product feed.
• Captcha settings - Allows you to define whether a to force server-side verification of Captcha fields on forms.
• Facebook settings - This new section allows you to define settings affecting Facebook integration on your site.

We'll be adding more site-wide settings to this new section in the coming months and hope this makes it easier to manage site-wide settings that used to be spread across multiple parts of the application.

Blog Post Author Updates

Multi-user sites can now edit the author of blog posts and add an author bio for each user. Site users can upload an author photo and bio in the "my account" section. This bio can be attached to each of this users blog posts.

Usability Enhancements

In addition to the new customer database and forms functionality outlines above, this update will include a number of usability enhancements.

• The links in the Live Feed on your dashboard will link directly to the targeted item instead of the main customer details page. We hope this reduces the number of clicks required to get to the information you are looking for.
• When you edit content in the WYSIWYG editor the system will automatically insert paragraphs tags instead of line breaks going forward. In the past, when you hit "enter" in the editor it would insert a line-break instead of wrapping content in a <p> tag.
• We've removed the automatic page refresh that occurred when you added a custom CRM field to a customer, case or order. This should speed up the process for you.
• When you hit save, the page used to refresh and scroll back to the top of the page. After this update, it won't automatically scroll to the top so you won't lose your place on the page.
• We've made it easier to select the country when setting up payment gateways, tax codes or shipping options.
• We've updated the customer list so you can see all customers instead of limiting you to viewing the customers added in the last year.
• All lists have been updated so they won't display items that have been disabled.
• After this update you can use the selected web app template when adding new items.
• We've edited the main menu so it loads the blog post list when you select a blog instead of loading the blog details screen. This should reduce the number of clicks it takes you to get to the blog post list. In addition, this edit has been applied to all other system lists.
• FTP connection information will be shown in the file manager.

Permalink | Posted: Aug 30, 2011

During a recent upgrade, we rolled out a number of new features for all of our Business Platform subscribers. This update included enhancements to the modules functionality, mobile-friendly template support, customizable URL's for web apps and better integration of social sharing tools.

Modules

Modules can now be inserted inside of other modules and content holders. In addition, modules can now be inserted in blog posts and web app list and detail views.

Mobile Template Support

More and more users are accessing websites from devices like the iPhone and iPad. This release included functionality to allow us to create device-specific templates that can detect the type of device users are accessing your site from. Based on this information, the system can automatically use the most appropriate template for the device. In other words, this release allows us to create device-specific designs and automatically display the most appropriate design to the user.

If you have questions about how to implement this on your site, please contact us.

SEO Friendly URLs for Web Apps

The URLs for web apps can now be customized. In the past, items within a web application would have a URL that looked like domain.com/webapp_12345/itemname. The URL string can now be customized so it looks like domain.com/photography/portraits. You can edit the URL from the "Manage Web App" screen in the admin section of your website.

Social Sharing Integration

The system now includes the integration of three social networking modules. These modules include:

• Facebook Like - This module will add a Facebook Like button to any page.
• Twitter Tweet - This module will add a Twitter Tweet This button to any page.
• Facebook Comments - This module will replace the default commenting system with Facebook Comments.

We hope you like these new features. If you have any questions about any of the features described above, please contact us.

Permalink | Posted: Jul 29, 2011

UPDATE (3/17/11 3PM EST): System update has been completed with issues. All systems are now operational, but Refer to a friend from custom web forms are NOT sending emails at this point. This issue is going to be fixed tomorrow.

UPDATE (3/16/11 9:00AM EST): This system update has been postponed. During the upgrade procedure we encountered some issues. We rolled back the upgrade and will reschedule this. We will post an update when more information is available.

We are rolling out a system upgrade to all Business Platform subscribers on March 16th, 2011 at 4:00 AM EST. This upgrade will take several hours but we do not anticipate any service interruption. This upgrade includes the launch of new menu modules, email campaign improvements and a number of enhancements. In addition, this release will correct the Google Maps bug we posted about earlier.

Email Marketing Upgrade

After this release, the system will automatically remove customers who mark your messages as "spam" from your lists. The customer will not be removed from your database, but they will be "opted out" of your list so you do not continue to email users who have reported your messages as spam. This will improve the deliverability of your email campaigns. In addition, the email campaign report will now show how many of your subscribers have marked your message as "spam". The report will not display specific information about what customer reported the message as spam due to privacy restrictions.

Dynamic Menu & Multiple Module Template Upgrade

This upgrade will dramatically improve the way dynamic menus are created and managed within the system. It provides additional flexibility to control the way menus are displayed and behave. Existing websites will not notice any change. We will publish a follow up post detailing how this new functionality can be incorporated into your site.

Security Upgrade To Web Forms & Bookings Modules

• Secure connections for web forms with payment processing: This upgrade will cause all forms that request payment information to automatically use a secure (https) url. The form "action" will automatically point to a secure url when you create a new webform that processes a credit card payment. In the past you were required to manually edit the form "action" to point to a secure connection, but that will not be required after this upgrade. This will not be a retroactive change, so any existing web forms that collect payment information will not be automatically upgraded. These forms must be updated before our April upgrade or the will not continue to work properly.
• Bookings module upgrades: This upgrade will make it easier to create bookings that require payments. We will be adding a new checkbox on the Booking details page that allows you to specify whether the booking requires payment or not. If you create a booking that requires payment, the system will automatically direct customers to a secure (https) URL to safely submit payment information when they visit the booking detail page from the booking list page. However, If the booking detail page is accessed directly, you will still need to manually update the form action to point it to a secure URL.

BUGS being squashed in this upgrade

We love fixing bugs!

This update will fix a number of minor bugs. These bugs have affected a small number of sites with very specific (unusual) use cases.

• Fix the search form on the Support Central page
• Fix an issue with Payment Express Gateway where payment status was set to SUCCEED, even though an exception was thrown; now if any error occurs, payment status is set to FAIL
• Update copy product feature to generate a new product code and a new URL while preserving the ones of the original product
• Fix an issue with PayPal Websites Payment Pro gateway causing recurrent orders older than 1 year to fail
• Fix an issue causing QuickBooks to stop synchronizing for a site when account(s) are reset
• Fix product export to include product grouping in exported product list
• Fix a bug causing Google Maps to no longer display the position markers but only the shadow markers
• Fix a bug causing workflows to not include invoice in email notification when using PayPal Websites Standards

If you have any questions about these updates, please contact us.

Permalink | Posted: Mar 14, 2011

We are currently experiencing a problem on some websites that use the Google Maps API to display data stored in a Web Application. The "marker" that indicates a specific location on the map is not loading properly due to a change in the javascript used to render the maps. The maps are displaying and the markers of the shadows are displaying, but the marker itself is missing.

This issue is currently being corrected and we anticipate rolling out a fix for this later this week. Please bookmark this post and check back for status updates and additional information. We will post updates when they become available.

Update (3/14 10:26PM EST): This issue has been diagnosed and will be fixed in the March upgrade, which is scheduled to occur on March 16th. (more information)

UPDATE (3/16/11 9:00AM EST): This system update has been postponed. During the upgrade procedure we encountered some issues. We rolled back the upgrade and will reschedule this. We will post an update when more information is available.

Permalink | Posted: Mar 14, 2011

We are committed to providing a secure infrastructure for your Business Platform websites. In April we are rolling out some changes that will increase the security of sensitive information transmitted via your website. Our infrastructure is already incredibly secure (we've never experienced a single successful hack) and we are fully PCI compliant. These changes will only improve upon our already secure platform and help you better protect sensitive website user information like email addresses, secure passwords and payment information.

We have rolled out several security enhancements this year already. After the April release, which is scheduled for April 29th, 2011, we will start enforcing the new security policies. If your website does not comply, some features may be disabled. If you have questions about this, please contact us. Here is an overview of planned changes, impacted customers, required actions and timelines.

Deny HTTP calls in APIs

• What is changing: After this release you will not be able to connect to the API via a non-secure HTTP connection. You will only be able to use secure HTTPS connection.
• Why it is changing: We have not forced customers to access the API via a secure URL in the past. The option was always available, but not mandatory. We want to eliminate the risk associated with transmitting data over non-secure connections and will force a secure connection going forward. Starting in April of 2011, we are going to enforce this for all sites.
• How this might impact you: All sites and applications using the Business Platform APIs over HTTP will cause an error. If you have developed or implemented a solution using our API's you will be required to update the application to make sure API calls are made via a secure connection. There will not be any system downtime as part of this change.

Deny HTTP calls that include customer sensitive information

• What is changing: After the April release the system will not allow forms on non-secure connections to transmit payment information.
• Why it is changing: We have not forced customers to process credit card forms on secure connections in the past. However, every payment form that we setup when developing your site was created using a secure connection. If you have added a payment form to your site that is not on a secure connection, this form was transmitting payment information in a non-secure way. The system would previously allow this, but after this update the system will require that all forms that transmit credit card information are on a secure URL. This option was always available, but not mandatory when users setup their own payment forms. We want to eliminate the risk associated with transmitting data over non-secure connections and will force a secure connection going forward. Starting in April of 2011, we are going to enforce this for all sites.
• How this might impact you: Users will need to update their websites so that payment forms are on a secure URL (https) instead of a non-secure URL (http). You can check your current forms by visiting the page with the payment form and looking at the URL in the address bar on your browser. If the address starts with HTTPS your form is configured properly. If the web page address begins with HTTP it will require an update. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Upgrade the Dreamweaver Plugin to require HTTPS login

• What is changing: The Dreamweaver plugin will require a secure connection after this release.
• Why it is changing: This is also changing to improve site security.
• How this might impact you: Users who are using the Dreamweaver plugin should update their installation of the plugin to the latest version. The old version will stop working after this update.

If you have any questions about any of the changes mentioned above, please contact us.

Permalink | Posted: Mar 04, 2011

Business Platform subscribers are going to receive a minor upgrade on Feb 28th. This upgrade will include improvements to email campaigns and changes to the ecommerce and web apps systems. This update will not require any changes on your site, but might affect your use of the system in the future.

Email Marketing Changes

• We are adding a new feature that will create a global black list for email campaigns: bounced emails due to "mail box unavailable" or "user does not exist" errors will be recorded in a Global Black List and the system will block from sending campaigns to that email address for 45 days unless the recipient verifies via double opt-in.
• Block list emails report: the email campaigns report page will display how many recipients are black listed due to invalid email address and also have the link to open a report to show the email addresses that are invalid. Users can unsubscribe those invalid email addresses using the action drop down at the top of the results.

These new features are designed to reduce the likelihood that email campaigns are marked as SPAM.

New limits on the number of products and web app items displayed on a page

• What is changing: Going forward, the system will impose a limit on the number of web app items and products displayed on a page. If your page displays more than 500 items, the system will force pagination (page numbers).
• Why is it changing?This change will improve system performance and scalability. When a website displays a large (more than 500) number of products or web app items it affects the overall system load and could cause performance issues.
• How will this impact you? Pagination is generally in use on most sites, so there should not be any design impact or need to modify your site. The good news is that product pages and web app item lists should load faster.

New limits on the number of products and web app items that can be imported at one time

• What is changing: Going forward, the system will impose a limit on the number of products and web app items that can be exported or imported at one time. If your import or export exceeds the limit, the items that exceed the limit will be ignored and you will have to perform a subsequent export or import to complete the process. The limit will be set to 10,000 products or web app items for imports done through the Admin interface of your site.
• Why is it changing? This change will increase system performance and scalability. Similar to displaying a large number of products or web app items in the same page, importing or exporting these resources are affecting system performance, and we want to prevent future system failures.
• How will this impact you? Customers with large number of products or web app items will have to perform multiple exports/imports to update the products or web app items on their web site. We have update the interface so it includes options for importing or exporting large intervals of products (first 10,000, next 10,000, etc).

Permalink | Posted: Feb 24, 2011