Affino Updates History

This is a minor, but important update for Affino. We have added some nice features for further customising advanced events in Affino, which means you can now leverage advanced events into creating whole event microsites with the minimum of effort.

There are also fixes for issues reported by our clients and through the monitoring of our error logs since the 9.0.6 major release, including fixing some extra padding that can be seen on some design elements. If you do see padding issues, and they are not there from your custom CSS (which does come up quite a bit) then please reach out to the Affino team.

 

Upgrade Guidance

It is important to liaise with the support team to schedule an update window where they can be on hand to support the update. Another big quality of life improvement is adding the date to all exports, meaning that you can now more easily track your exports.

It is essential that you run through the complete update process starting with the Affino Updater, followed by the sequence of the system and design updates laid out on the Control > Update screen.

 

Key Features

Advanced Events

In this release we have made a number of updates to events (Advanced Events) that make them more customizable and in particular if you want to build event microsites on top of them. 

This means you can now do things like hide the event navigation, since you will have your microsite navigation; slim down the header on the sub pages or hide it entirely; and add more header information both on the main panel and for speakers and sponsors.

This is a great step forward because now you can really leverage the simplicity and productivity of working with advanced events for standalone event sites.

 

Fixes and Minor Enhancements

Fixes are elements which didn’t work as well as they should, and have now been made to work better. Minor enhancements provide subtle improvements that most people won’t notice (some will love), but which nonetheless improve on the overall Affino experience.

 

We also pro-actively monitor and fix low-level errors that occur in the background to ensure it doesn’t affect your workflows and to maintain stability in our platform. On the display-side, we continuously update the CSS and Javascript to support the latest changes on all major web browsers.

 

Ad Campaigns - fixed an error occurring when clicking Load More.

AI Report - updated the filter to maintain its state when redirecting back to the listing screen.

Analysis - fixed an issue with the dates on a number of analysis graphs displaying incorrectly.

Article Steps - added a Live setting on Steps

Cookie Bar - fixed an issue with the cookie bar when reloading pages.

Client Campaigns - fixed an issue with clients not able to download the exported data.

Directory Articles - updated the editing logic that prevented customers from editing their directory.

Embargo Dates - updated Outgoing Feeds, Message generation, Content Subscriptions and My Interest alerts to support the embargo dates on articles.

Events - fixed a filtering issue when loading more events

Exports - updated the file name of all export spreadsheets to include the date and time.

Forums - fixed an error on the forum listing.

Logins - fixed an issue with simultaneous logins logged incorrectly.

Logout - fixed an issue for users not able to log out on the Safari browser.

Message Campaigns / Messages - added Message Type column for all listings.

Subscription - fixed an issue where customers cancelling their future subscription from My Account would lose access for the current subscription.

Site Search - updated the search query to accommodate the reserved word “Script”.

 

Removed

 

No components, filters or columns have been removed in this release.

 

Integration Updates

 

There are no integration updates in this release.

 

Component Changes

 

There are no changes to the components in this release.

 

Chart JS updated to - no change

 

DataTables updated to - no change

 

DropzoneJS updated to - no change

 

GrapesJS updated to - no change

 

GrapesJS MJML - no change

 

JQuery updated to - no change

 

JQueryUI updated to - no change

 

JSoup updated to - no change

flatpickr updated to - no change

 

FontAwesome updated to - no change

 

HighCharts updated to - no change

TinyMCE updated to - no change

 

Video.js updated to - no change

 

Vue JS updated to - no change

 

Summer is upon us, and we have a great new Affino update, full of feature updates requested by the Affino community. The release is focused on a myriad of little things that add up to something much bigger in terms of making everything just that bit more productive, useful, and easier to use every day for your teams and your audiences.

 

Highlights include more productive Ad management and support for Ads.txt; a more productive AI training and support service; the ability to embargo breaking news until the exact second you want it to go live; enhanced metering bypass; and a lot of the commercial updates we promised we would be bringing to you this year.

 

There are also a great number of behind the scenes updates where we have tuned Affino to work better in the increasingly AI bot dominated landscape. Most importantly we have made a host of improvements on how Affino analytic data is captured, aggregated and retained. This means that the analytics will be by far the best yet provided by Affino. No web and email analytics can ever be perfect but this update gets us closer to the goal.It is important to note that you will see changes in your stats moving forward, in some cases significant ones.

 

We continue to deliver on our eCommerce roadmap and have included some important updates in this release. Being able to select a Stripe or GoCardless Subscription ID and payment on a Pro Forma enables you to tie externally generated subscriptions to an order within Affino to utilise the extensive features of Affino’s report and analysis. We’ve added a Maximum Lifetime Limit setting on the Catalogue Item so you can restrict the number of purchases a user can make for the same item. This might be useful for example where you don’t want users to buy a trial subscription over and over again.

 

We now list out Messages by Message Type, and you can auto-archive different message types depending on our preferences. If you send out 100,000’s of automated promotion messages in particular you can greatly optimise and speed up your Affino Messaging workflows.

 

There are key Advertising updates in this release. We are introducing support for Ads.txt, which improves support for 3rd party ad platforms, and reduces the chance of malicious ads being served. We have also introduced Banner types to Affino’s Ad service. This will be a significant productivity boost, meaning that you now only need to create a single Ad Campaign to serve banners to differently sized ad slots.

 

This would not be a Summer Special without the dozens of smaller features we have improved, including: the Analysis Dashboard has many more tooltips to explain what each indicator is, and the data series are our best yet. We have made Metering Bypass much more granular on Messaging, you can now select to bypass metering on individual messages. You can now display the alternative avatar for contacts on most screens. Added click tracking to Article Steps. Added support for Video uploads on Dynamic Forms. Made it easier to lock down Staging Sites to specific IP Addresses and many more. We’ve finally changed every mention from Twitter to X (hopefully no more social media platform rebrands for a while). See below for all the great updates.

 

Affino’s AI services have seen improvements across every aspect including: a higher impact AI Popup, improved conversational AI experience with more copy and feedback options and refined AI navigation. The AI Reporting, which is key to training up the AI and delivering enhanced AI answers has been greatly enhanced with the ability to track any improvements you made to the underlying content to improve each answer. The AI dashboard now also has an ‘All’ option so you can have an overview of how all your AI’s are performing in one view.

 

We now enforce encryption throughout Affino’s internal operations, tightening up security from the ground-up. We have also invested a great deal of time and effort into smoothing out as many of the low level issues as possible with moving to the new Tech Platform last year, meaning that Affino is no more robust than ever.

 

Upgrade Guidance

 

This is an essential update for Affino, and we strongly recommend updating as a priority. There are both security and analytics enhancements in this update which make it critical that it is applied at the earliest opportunity.

 

NOTE - 

 

It is essential to liaise with the support team to schedule an update window where they can be on hand to support the update. This is particularly important if you have custom code as we have re-worked key security elements which require custom code to be updated.

 

It is essential that you run through the complete update process starting with the Affino Updater, followed by the sequence of the system and design updates laid out on the Control > Update screen.

 

Key Features

 

Ads.txt

Ads.txt or Authorised Digital Sellers provides a means for you to identify authorised sellers such as AdSense to present inventory on your site. We have created a new Ads.txt Profile for you to enter this information.

 

Article Embargo

We have added a new Embargo End (date and time) setting on each article. This means that you can set a precise time before an article is cached and published, particularly useful where there is a strict contractual obligation applied. The reason we have added this setting in addition to the Publish Start (date and time) is that articles are cached up to 5 minutes before the Publish Start time to ensure site optimisation. Using this setting means the article (detail) will be available immediately after this time and will not be cached beforehand. Note: you must set the Publish Start time up to 5 minutes after the Embargo End time to prevent it being available on the listing.

 

Banner Type

We have added a new way to select different sized Creatives for an Ad Campaign, making it much easier and quicker to pull in all your creatives into one campaign and then filtering which sizes need to be displayed into each ad campaign placement slot. To do this select the Banner Type on the Creative, select the required Creatives in the Ad Campaign and then simply choose which Banner Types to serve on each placement item on the Ad Campaign Theme.

 

Bypass Metering

We have added a new setting on Messages for bypassing the metering gate. This, in addition to the setting on the Metering Profile for all Message Campaigns to bypass the metering gate, means you have more flexibility to choose which articles users can view before being asked to register or log in.

 

Contact > Alternative Avatar

We have extended the Hi-res functionality (originally for uploading a hi-resolution file for print purposes) to now be available on the Contact Listing Design Element. Renamed to Alternative Avatar, you can now select to display a different sized profile image on the Contact Listing Design Element, compared to the avatar image size set on the Public Profile. A use case here might be to list speakers of an event with a larger profile picture. Note: Ensure you have enabled the Show Alternative Avatar setting on the CRM Settings.

 

Message Types / Storage Time Frames

As messages and notifications are used extensively throughout Affino, we have now split out the four different types on the listing screen on Message Campaigns and Messages. This helps to optimise the database queries, particularly where our clients have 100,000s of messages. You can also set how many months of messages you wish to store for each message type. Keeping this in tabs will ensure your site performance is optimised.

 

Pro Forma Orders - Subscriptions

We have added a new feature for you to tie a subscription created outside of Affino (directly within Stripe or GoCardless) to an order created via a Pro Forma within Affino. This ensures you can bring those external orders into the Affino reporting and analysis features. You need to select the correct Subscription ID and payment (where there are multiple payments) on the Pro Forma Order and this will carry through to the Order when created.

 

Fixes and Minor Enhancements

 

Fixes are elements which didn’t work as well as they should, and have now been made to work better. Minor enhancements provide subtle improvements that most people won’t notice (some will love), but which nonetheless improve on the overall Affino experience.

 

The fixes and enhancements highlighted here will be meaningful to a number of Affino users.

 

—---

 

Accounts - fixed an error with the tag column link.

 

Ad Campaign - added Banner Type to the Creative popup selector.

 

Ad Campaign Channel - fixed an issue where no data was being displayed.

 

Ad Campaign Theme - added a setting to select the Banner Types to display within each Campaign Item and Campaign Placement Area on the display-side.

 

AI Dashboard - fixed an issue with the dark mode not loading correctly.

 

AI Profile - added a Zone selector filter for multi-zone site setup.

 

AI Report - updated the Action column to enable the checkbox for all rows, previously just active for those containing a feedback response.

 

Analysis Dashboard - improved the data aggregation of users within segments; added some explanatory text on each key metric.

 

App Bar - fixed an issue not displaying forum names.

 

Article - added Embargo End date and time setting, fixed an issue with the Channel and Section filters not opening the popup window; displaying dimensions metadata for images uploaded to an article; fixed an issue embedding iframes into articles; added support for embedding twitter cards containing the x.com URL; fixed an intermittent issue with images being removed after the article is saved.

 

Article Export - added Embargo End column to the export spreadsheet.

 

Article Feature Scroller - fixed a full width layout issue.

 

Article Import - added Embargo End column to the import spreadsheet. We are also showing when the sample file was last updated with a link to the sample spreadsheet.

 

Article Report - added Filtered and Identified toggles for the Message Clicks column; updated the data aggregation for the 90 day time frame.

 

Article Steps - added click tracking to steps, Note: click stats are attributed to the article to which the Step is linked.

 

Assign Conversion Events - fixed a timeout issue where the number of contacts to assign a conversion event was greater than 1000. In this scenario, we now run a scheduled task to process users in batches of 1000 instead of executing this real-time.

 

Catalogue Item - fixed an error when deleting a catalogue item. 

 

Catalogue Item Export - added Hide From Listing column.

 

Catalogue Item Import - added Hide From Listing column.

 

Checkout - added a Maximum Lifetime Limit setting on the Catalogue Item to restrict users purchasing multiple quantities of the same item; fixed an issue with not displaying a gift recipient’s contact details whilst Hide Delivery If Not Required is enabled; fixed the Order History link on the Acknowledgement screen to link to My Account correctly.

 

Checkout Profile - adadded a setting to show the View Invoice link on the Acknowledgement screen.  Note: this is just the control-side setting - further development is required to update the display-side.

ded 

 

Channel - fixed an issue not being able to copy an AI Channel due to the AI Profile being already selected on another Channel; Topic URL Filtering is now enabled by default.

 

Channel popup selector - updated the single Channel selector to display the same filters and columns as the multi-selector.

 

Contacts - renamed Hi-res to Alternative Avatar, fixed an issue adding filtered contacts to a Contact List; fixed an issue displaying the Hi-res image thumbnail on the listing, added a field to capture a user’s role within their company.

 

Contact Listing Design Element - added an option to Show Alternative Avatar.

 

Conversion Events - Include User Information In Notification is now selected by default.

 

Creatives - added Banner Type column to the listing.

 

CRM Settings - added message storage time frames.

 

Dashboard - removed some legacy Javascript code.

 

Directory - added Category Topics to the Scoped search results when using an AND operator; fixed a number of minor layout and styling issues.

 

Dynamic Form - added support for video uploads in MP4, WebM and MOV formats; added the media file name to the notification, linking to the form entry; fixed an issue with naming a field the same as Affino’s reserved words.

 

Edit Profile - fixed an issue displaying HTML tags when a user edits their profile. We are now displaying some basic formatting buttons on the wysiwyg.

 

Event Article - fixed an error adding a custom article to an event.

 

Exports (All) - added the date and time of the export into the filename.

 

File Deletion Logs - added a type filter to help identify files being deleted.

 

IP Address Filter / IP Address - used for restricting access to the zone, these two Control screens have now been combined. We have also added support for IPv6 IP addresses and display your IP Address at the top to make it easy to copy and paste.

 

Media Items - added support for WEBP images for uploading thumbnails and main images for videos.

 

Media Library Profile - renamed QuickTime to MOV.

 

Message - added a Bypass Metering setting so individual messages can be configured to bypass the metering gate; added validation to prevent Message Campaign and Messages Format combinations are not selected incorrectly; optimised the estimated reach calculations and storage of recipient data; updated the advisory text when calculating estimated reach; fixed an issue with the Unsubscribe link for Personal Messages; Messages are now listed by Message Types.

 

Message > Test Message - added advisory text detailing that the HTML will not be regenerated if the message has already been sent to recipients.

 

Message Campaigns - now listed by Message Types.

 

Message Profiles - renamed to Mailing List Profiles.

 

My Account Profile - added a setting to show the View Invoice link within My Account Note: this is the just the control-side setting - further development is required to update the display-side.

 

Order - when the Order Status is updated to Refunded, we now set the Payment Status to Not Paid. This will ensure that the reporting elements do not include refunded orders.

 

Order Export - fixed an issue exporting a filtered list of orders.

 

Pro Forma Orders - added Subscription ID setting for linking subscription payments created in Stripe/GoCardless to an Affino order; non-live terms are no longer listed on the Terms and Conditions dropdown field.

 

Public Profile - added a Show Roles setting to display this on My Profile.

 

Search - added support for event start dates.

 

User Export - added a setting to export archived users only.

 

Workflow Profile - included the Embargo Date field to be hidden if Hide Publication is enabled.

 

Zone - renamed Hi-res to Alternative Avatar; Short Canonical URL is now enabled by default; fixed an issue displaying a blank Main panel; Topic URL Format is now set to “ /channel/section/[topic]” by default, Twitter Account renamed to X (formerly Twitter) Account .

 

Removed

 

Channel - removed the Embed Width setting as this is no longer needed in responsive page layouts, removed Encrypted setting; removed the Encrypted setting as this is no longer needed since every Zone requires SSL encryption.

 

Google Sitemap Profiles - removed Auto Submit To Search Engines setting as this is no longer needed.

 

User Security - removed the Include Subscribers filter as the Contact Type multi-selector can filter by Mailing List users.

 

Zone - removed Encrypt Zone setting as all zones are now required to be SSL encrypted.

 

Integration Updates

 

There are no integration updates in this release.

 

Component Changes

 

Affino benefits from using some great frameworks, here are the updates we’ve rolled out for these frameworks in this release:

 

Chart JS updated to - no change

 

DataTables updated to - no change

 

DropzoneJS updated to - no change

 

GrapesJS updated to - no change

 

GrapesJS MJML - no change

 

JQuery updated to - no change

 

JQuery Migrate updated to - v3.5.2

 

JQueryUI updated to - v1.13.3

 

JSoup updated to - v1.18.1

 

Flatpickr updated to - no change

 

FontAwesome updated to - no change

 

HighCharts updated to - no change

 

TinyMCE updated to - v7.2.1

 

Video.js updated to - v7.21.5

 

Vue JS updated to - no change

This is a minor, but important, update for Affino. We have further refined the Messages Analytics, and a number of message related analysis screens, mainly by adding in the ability for you to switch between Bot Filtered and Identified message clicks on each screen. 

 

Please note that Bot Filtered clicks now also include the identified ones as our most complete measure of the number of actual people viewing and clicking on messages. We have more work to do here, in particular on identifying when users are viewing and clicking through apps, but the great news is that we have the new engine in place which can be tuned and refined as these things evolve as they are doing now faster than ever.

 

A great quality of life improvement in this update is that we have included a Batch Reference filter on the User Export to make it easier to update users within each batch.

 

For those running subscriptions through a combination of Affino and Stripe there are a couple of important improvements here, so definitely update if you’re using Stripe.

 

There are also fixes for minor bugs that have been reported by our clients and through the monitoring of our error logs since the 9.0.5 major release, including fixing some extra padding that can be seen on some design elements.

 

Upgrade Guidance

 

Please ensure you are on the latest 9.0.5 major version before upgrading, and if not, make sure you fully read the 9.0.5 release notes and schedule in the update as there are significant changes and infrastructure updates required alongside 9.0.5.

 

It is important to liaise with the support team to schedule an update window where they can be on hand to support the update. 

 

It is essential that you run through the complete update process starting with the Affino Updater, followed by the sequence of the system and design updates laid out on the Control > Update screen.

 

Fixes and Minor Enhancements

 

Fixes are elements which didn’t work as well as they should, and have now been made to work better. Minor enhancements provide subtle improvements that most people won’t notice (some will love), but which nonetheless improve on the overall Affino experience.

 

The fixes and enhancements highlighted here will be meaningful to a number of Affino users.

 

—---

 

Account - added Bot Filtered / Identified buttons to the Analysis tab for message click analysis. Please note that we are checking for each message that the account contacts received, whether the clicks made were from the individuals. 

 

Account > Engagement Report - added Bot Filtered / Identified buttons for message click analysis.

 

Accounts Report - added Bot Filtered / Identified buttons to the report for message click analysis.

 

Analysis Dashboard - hidden the 404 channel from displaying within the analysis results.

 

Article - fixed a Javascript issue displaying “Error” when editing an article.

 

Article Listing - fixed an issue with sorting the View column

 

Articles Report - removed the “Last 90 Days” option from the Time Frame filter as this is not reporting upon.

 

Checkout - fixed an issue with renewal orders not being created on second and subsequent renewal orders;

 

Contact - added Bot Filtered / Identified buttons to the Analysis tab for message click analysis. Please note that we are checking for each message that the contact received, whether the clicks made were from that individual.

 

Contact List - fixed a text encoding issue with the export data.

 

Client Campaigns - added Bot Filtered / Identified setting to the Client Campaign for message click analysis.

 

Messages - added Bot Filtered / Identified buttons for message click analysis; fixed an spacing issue between the filters and listing

 

Payment Gateway > Stripe - updated the Webhook URL help text.

 

Skins - fixed a styling padding issue when skins are generated.

 

Topic List - fixed an issue sorting the listing columns.

 

User Export - Added a Batch Reference filter to the User export.

 

Removed

 

No components, filters or columns have been removed in this release.

 

Integration Updates

 

There are no integration updates in this release.

 

Component Changes

 

Affino benefits from using some great frameworks, here are the updates we’ve rolled out for these frameworks in this release:

 

Chart JS updated to - no change

 

DataTables updated to - no change

 

DropzoneJS updated to - no change

 

GrapesJS updated to - no change

 

GrapesJS MJML - no change

 

JQuery updated to - no change

 

JQueryUI updated to - no change

 

JSoup updated to - no change

 

flatpickr updated to - no change

 

FontAwesome updated to - no change

 

HighCharts updated to - no change

 

TinyMCE updated to - v7.1.2

 

Video.js updated to - no change

 

Vue JS updated to - no change

This release sees improvements in many aspects across Affino that will benefit everyone, enhancing the speed and usability across many Affino services. 

 

Affino’s AI services are now significantly faster, better and nicer looking, and for the first time Affino’s Expert AI Service is aware of the full conversation you are having.

 

We have made some important updates to the message click stats, mailing list subscriber import, and subscriptions, amongst others. In general working with messages in Affino is now faster and more insightful than at any point.

 

We have also made some inroads into the commerce developments with updates to the Payment Gateways and Checkout with much more tabled for the next major release. We have added a number of important subscription safeguards into this release, including critical integration updates with Stripe. 

 

Altogether there are hundreds of improvements in this Affino Update, which taken together add up to a nicely improved overall experience. With the breakthrough in Affino’s AI performance we can’t wait to see all the great new AI Service Prototypes over the coming weeks and months.

 

There are also important underlying performance, analytics and security updates, making this an essential priority Affino Update which everyone needs to adopt at the earliest opportunity.

 

Upgrade Guidance

 

This is an essential update for Affino, and we strongly recommend updating as a priority.

 

NOTE - you will need a new Affino Licence Key, with the new Site Management security right. This should be in turn assigned to your key webmaster and admin security groups as many Affino Control Settings screens now use this new security clearance. The Affino team will automatically apply this new Licence Key if they are running the update. If you prefer to run the update yourself, please ensure you first request a licence key to be installed on your instance. 

 

NOTE - if you have not yet updated to the 2024 version of the Stripe API then you must do so now or you are highly likely to have issues with your subscriptions renewals and promotions. Ensure you test on your staging instance if possible, but be aware that Stripe have made a number of critical changes which require this Affino release for the best compatibility.

 

NOTE - there are a number of key Affino infrastructure updates that accompany this Update if you have not updated to the previous release, so this will need tight coordination with the Affino Team to ensure a smooth update process.

 

It is important to liaise with the support team to schedule an update window where they can be on hand to support the update. 

 

It is essential that you run through the complete update process starting with the Affino Updater, followed by the sequence of the system and design updates laid out on the Control > Update screen.

Key Features

 

New Conversational AI Services up 500% faster

This update sees the introduction of the full Affino conversational AI engine. This means you can have more complete conversations where the AI is aware of the previous questions and answers in any given conversation and will reference them in its replies. This can make for a much more natural conversation, but it also does require more AI tuning and finesse to produce the best results.

 

In the few short weeks since the initial launch of Affino’s Expert AI Services we have seen major breakthroughs in the performance and capabilities of many of the underlying aI technologies we use, such as the launch of ChatGPT 4o which we adopted within a week of launch. We have invested further with a tight focus on speeding up the overall performance of Affino’s AI services. 

 

This includes moving to a new generation of AI vector data storage in the core Affino cloud which is thousands of times faster than the previous version. We have also upgraded the entire AI tech stack to the latest generation, which has unlocked the performance gains promised by ChatGPT 4o.

 

The core Affino AI Expert Service engine sees a host of incremental improvements, making it more approachable for new users, and we have added critical new levers to support you with tuning your AI services to work best with your content. The text itself is now also better formatted and looks great on the screen.

 

Added together these make Affino’s AI services dramatically better and deliver fast, insightful and where preferred very entertaining experiences. You can experience this by using the AI services on Affino.com, and now directly linked from every screen in the updated Affino Control Centre.

 

It is time to start building your AI Prototypes for the Great Leap Forward.

 

Message Clicks

Under Messages and Message Campaigns, you’ll see we now have two new tabs providing a more granular view on message clicks. We now surface both a Bot Filtered and Identified metric by running message clicks through a number of bot filtering procedures to filter out known bots providing a more accurate picture of real clicks. Furthermore, we check which of those bot filtered clicks can be identified as a user within the CRM giving further insight to the click traffic of your messages. Note: In the next release you will see Bot Filtered and Identified clicks across other analysis areas where message clicks are being shown.

 

Payment Gateways 

We have enhanced the Stripe integration to deal with a specific scenario where Stripe creates a second default payment method for customers who initially fail a 3D Secure authentication process and subsequently doesn’t renew onto a renewal catalogue item. This occurs on products where the renewing subscription period differs such as a 3 monthly trial renewing onto a monthly subscription. 

 

We are also setting the Use Tax Rate For Subscriptions and Use Coupons For Subscriptions settings on Stripe by default and Use Renewal Catalogue Item Price And Tax setting on Stripe and GoCardless payment gateways making an easier set up journey. 

 

In addition, we have simplified the creation of a Stripe payment gateway by generating the Webhook URL at the outset so you no longer need to enter a dummy value before receiving the correct one in a later step of the setup journey.

 

Checkout

A much requested feature is the ability to re-order the address fields on the checkout page and this is now configurable on the Checkout Profile. Note: The country field remains as the first address field as this is used with the Postal Address File (PAF) functionality.

 

Subscriptions

If a renewal order is subsequently cancelled, we now check the previous order and clear the ‘Renewed’ subscription status so that it will lapse. This is an important enhancement meaning the Subscription Expiry Report and analysis is more accurate. 

 

Mailing List Subscriber Import

Some major improvements here for bulk subscribing new and existing users to mailing lists. If a user already exists in the CRM, we simply subscribe them to the selected mailing lists. If they had previously unsubscribed, there is a new setting (Update Unsubscribed Users) on the import screen to resubscribe them. For those not in the CRM, we now create a mailing list contact record and subscribe them to the selected mailing lists.

 

Contacts

There are now four new columns that can be enabled on the contacts listing via CRM Settings, providing more insight on a contact’s Live Subscriptions, No. Logins, No. Page Views and whether they are a new registrant. Use the newly added Activity Data dropdown options on the grey bar to fine-tune the Time Frame and Zone for which you wish to view the logins, page views and registration data. We have also included corresponding settings on the User Export to output data for No. Logins, No. Page Views and New Registrations.

 

Metering Profile

We have updated the metered page views so you can select 1-6 days for a more nuanced metering setup, e.g. users can view one article per day.

 

System Security Right

A new Site Management system security right has been created to secure the following component - Google Maps Profile, Google Sitemap Profile, Recruitment Profile, SMS Provider, Data and Services Usage and Team Time Profile distinguishing this from ‘Site Editors’ and the more a generic ‘Security’ access level. Note: Please ensure you request a new licence key before upgrading and then assign this system security right to the appropriate security groups who require access to the aforementioned components.

 

Design Script

Now available is a setting on the Design Script to reload the page for each of the cookie types. This is sometimes required by scripts such as Adsense to correctly serve their ads to the users. Note: Reloading the page results in an additional page impression recorded.

 

User Export

There is a new setting in the User Export to export a list of archived users. Please note this will include archived mailing list users. To remove these from the export, use the Contact Type filter.

 

Fixes and Minor Enhancements

 

Fixes are elements which didn’t work as well as they should, and have now been made to work better. Minor enhancements provide subtle improvements that most people won’t notice (some will love), but which nonetheless improve on the overall Affino experience.

 

The fixes and enhancements highlighted here will be meaningful to a number of Affino users.

 

—---

 

Articles - added image file size next to each uploaded image; fixed a TinyMCE issue defaulting to a security setting which prevents the use of embed codes; fixed an issue not generating thumbnails where the main image is less than 600px wide.

 

Client Campaign - we have added a setting to choose to display Bot Filtered or Identified message clicks. The dashboard will be updated in the next release.

 

Contact - updated the 2FA saved devices to display the IP address and limiting the listing to 20 most recent devices and up to 90 days old; fixed an issue editing and saving a contact record; reinstated the mailing list contact type on the contact record screen.

 

Converting Articles Report - fixed an issue with the ‘More’ button loading the data.

 

Channel - fixed an issue where the Share Profile was inadvertently removed when the Show Bookmark and/or Show Bookmark Icon To Guests were selected.

 

Creatives - fixed an issue when saving creatives.

 

Directory Articles - fixed a Javascript issue with saving an article with media uploaded; added additional advisory information where a media upload file does not meet the requirements.

 

Message Template - fixed an issue with placeholder dropdown not working. Please ensure you test your templates again before sending out new messages.

 

My Profile - fixed an issue when attempting to save a profile.

 

Overlay Panel - updated an issue where the overlay panel was not displayed based on the Inclusion and Exclusion content security right settings.

 

Workflow Profile - fixed an issue displaying the Alternative Thumbnail despite the Hide Thumbnail setting being enabled.

 

Removed

 

Removed To Do Lists. There are many help guides, FAQs, support forum and the Support Chat which better provide help and advice on setting up your workflows.

 

Removed the Hide Old Content setting on Sitemap Profile as this is no longer supported. We have corrected the default value of the Hide Content Older Than setting to 730 days.

 

Removed the Include Subscriber filter on User Security and updated the Contact Type to default to Full Member and non-member. To include mailing list subscribers, simply use the Contact Type filter.

 

Integration Updates

 

There are no integration updates in this release.

 

Component Changes

 

Affino benefits from using some great frameworks, here are the updates we’ve rolled out for these frameworks in this release:

 

Chart JS updated to - v4.4.3

 

DataTables updated to - no change

 

DropzoneJS updated to - no change

 

GrapesJS updated to - no change

 

GrapesJS MJML - no change

 

JQuery updated to - no change

 

JQueryUI updated to - no change

 

JSoup updated to - no change

 

flatpickr updated to - no change

 

FontAwesome updated to - no change

 

HighCharts updated to - no change

 

TinyMCE updated to - v7.1.1

 

Video.js updated to - no change

 

Vue JS updated to - no change

 

This update is primarily focused on bug fixes and performance optimisation following the major Affino AI update. There are however some additional enhancements which will benefit everyone and improve a number of user and management workflows. 

 

Key Features

Affino AI

This release sees the immediate introduction of support for ChatGPT’s latest GPT 4o announced just a couple of days ago. This promises faster response times and an improved overall experience for Affino AI.

Conversion Events

An important enhancement is we have added a new memo text field to conversion events so you can insert a user’s details, such as the name, email, job title, company, address and demographic details onto the email notification. This makes the email more easily actionable as well as providing a means for pushing data to external platforms using automated tools such as Zapier. Note that this should be used in a secure and GDPR compliant manner, and has an additional performance impact so should only be used as needed for integration and workflow purposes.

Large Article Images

We have also added a new Large Article Images component, under Publish to help you to identify images that may need to be compressed to improve site performance and for search engine optimisation. We have seen individual images up to 23 MB on sites which negatively impact on both the user experience and SEO, so please ensure you use this service to replace these oversized images with more appropriate ones.

Converting Articles Report

We have added a monthly conversions filter to the Converting Article Report, which calculates the conversion rates using the monthly aggregated data impressions over the past two years. This is in addition to the Conversion Date Range filter which uses the daily impressions data stored over the past year. We are also displaying the extended date range for which the impressions data is available for up to two years.

Message Template Builder

We have added a new Unsubscribe text block for better layout and styling of the Unsubscribe link on messages. Please note the text that is output remains on the Message Profile Text Item. Ensure that you do not use any HTML in the Text Item.

Upgrade Guidance

This is an essential update for the Affino AI Update, and we recommend updating as a priority.

It is important to liaise with the support team to schedule an update window where they can be on hand to support the update. 

It is essential that you run through the complete update process starting with the Affino Updater, followed by the sequence of the system and design updates laid out on the Control > Update screen.

Fixes and Minor Enhancements

Fixes are elements which didn’t work as well as they should, and have now been made to work better. Minor enhancements provide subtle improvements that most people won’t notice (some will love), but which nonetheless improve on the overall Affino experience.

 

The fixes and enhancements highlighted here will be meaningful to a number of Affino users.

—---

Ad Campaigns - fixed an error when attempting to delete an ad campaign that has already been used.

AI Popup Chat - updated to display the introductory text (set on the AI Profile)  and two suggested links at the top of the AI popup chat application.

Article Highlights Design Element - fixed issue of the element not showing if Header Title is blank.

Checkout - fixed an issue when users clicked the back button when on the payment screen.

Contact - fixed a saving issue on a contact record.

Countries - fixed an issue defining the three-letter Romania ISO Code as ROM instead of ROU.

Directory Articles - fixed an error when generating thumbnails.

Editions Highlights Design Element - fixed issue of the element not showing if Header Title is blank.

Forums - fixed an issue with moderators not getting access to view threads.

Messages - fixed an issue displaying the Message Campaign on the listing.

Search Indexing - optimised the search indexing engine including new centralised error logging capabilities.

 

Removed

 

There are no fields or components removed in this release.

 

Integration Updates

 

There are no integration updates in this release.

 

Component Changes

 

There are no changes to the development frameworks used within Affino in this release.

 

This update sees the introduction of Affino’s AI Services, the core of which is the ability to turn your content into interactive chat AI’s. It is possible to set up AI prototypes within minutes and then train up and deploy full scale expert, support or indeed entertainment AI’s in short order trained from your articles and forum threads. Simply set up each AI using the AI Profiles and make each one live on their own dedicated AI Channel. You can then launch a whole suite of AI’s which can work alongside each other and your team.

It means you can now create a whole new generation of great experiences for your audiences with AI’s able to take your content much further than simply displaying a list of articles for users to read.

Affino’s AI services have gone through multiple generations in our research and development lab - to ensure that we are providing enterprise grade services right from the outset. We have built them on the best of breed AI technology available today, with a focus on providing the best quality answers and experiences from day one, for both the AI owners and users.

Behind the scenes we provide the tools for managing the AI content, with near real-time updating of the AIs, and a bit slower when training with 100,000’s of articles. We provide a powerful set of AI configuration options, with useful feedback reporting and usage tracking against individuals and companies. There is extensive usage analytics through the new dedicated AI Dashboard and enhanced AI Channel Analysis.

Crucially you will be able to monetise your AI services from day one through subscriptions and ads, and can use them either on a standalone basis, or as part of an integrated media experience.

Affino provides a suite of AI advisory and support services alongside the Affino AI SaaS, including extensive AI training, AI content and commercial advisory, focus groups, help guides, and support.

There are a host of other significant updates including support for the WebP image format across Affino, a lossless and lossy compression format for images that are perfectly suited for websites as file sizes are smaller in comparison to PNGs and JPGs. You can now upload WebP images within articles, forums and directories, creating media items for re-use across the site. This is an important step forward for SEO, with smaller web pages and faster experiences. Since WebP is now supported by all major browsers and devices - the timing feels right.

Another significant improvement on the SEO and social platform integration side is that it is now possible to show a limited view on secured articles even without metering. This means social sharing and SEO both share relevant titles and images when accessed by bots and other users.

The message sending engine has seen major enhancements to better detect and report upon message clicks. We now report on two sets of values for clicks so you can better understand what proportion of those clicks are from detected bots compared to human interaction. We now differentiate between Bot Filtered clicks (clicks are filtered through the Bot Access Profile, Affino’s bot detection engine as well as the AbuseDB global cybersecurity database) and human clicks (where we can detect our cookie or consumed data against the user).

 

Commercial reporting updates include the Subscription Volume Report which has seen an important upgrade with two new tabs, showing the volume of subscriptions and subscribers for a given month, on top of the volume of subscriptions that are created for that period. This means you can now have at your disposal, a full picture of the subscription volume changes month on month.

Once again, we have continued to improve the awards entry, judging and management suite. You can now update submitted entries directly from the Control Centre,vastly shortcutting this administration process. We’ve also added the file name next to each download to make it easier to match downloaded media and included links to judge’s contact records, all in all some useful features to help navigate the necessary components within the awards workflow.

Furthermore, we have re-thought and re-worked how unpaid orders are utilised within our reporting suite. In previous versions, a single set of fields within CRM Settings were used across the Sales Report, Sales Targets and Sales Leaderboard. Though seemingly more efficient, this doesn’t provide the granularity needed by some of our clients. For instance, you may wish to include orders awaiting payment confirmation in the sales report but wish to exclude these for a particular Sales Targets. We have therefore provided dedicated Order Status and Payment Status settings for each report allowing for greater customisation.

 

Upgrade Guidance 

It is important to liaise with the support team to schedule an update window where they can be on hand to support the update. It is essential that you run through the complete update process starting with the Affino Updater, followed by the sequence of the system and design updates laid out on the Control > Update screen.

As we have rolled out enhanced message sending and analytics engines to better handle bot clicks and human clicks, we advise you thoroughly run test messages to ensure the messages are sending as expected.

NOTE - Alongside this major update, we are updating many of the core Affino infrastructure elements including OS, Application stack and database services. This means that you will need to schedule the upgrade with the Affino team.

NOTE - If you’re using Stripe, we advise you upgrade to the 2024 version within the Developer screen on the Stripe dashboard and test thoroughly on your staging site. This is particularly important if you are on a version earlier than 2023 as their API changes each year. You may need to consult your Stripe representative for further details and assistance.

 

NOTE - This release sees both a new Message Send Engine and Message Click Tracking Engine. These are major components which have been created from the ground up. You must ensure you thoroughly test your Message Campaigns. Note that the message statistics moving forward will be different from how they have been to-date, in effect this will be a new baseline for more accurate message stats going forward. A major component has been improved bot detection and handling, however as increasingly it is simply not possible to tell between bots and humans reading your messages - there are limitations on what can be done here.

 

Key Enhancements

 

Affino AI v1

Today we are launching the v1 Affino AI services. Within a few minutes you can be up and running with your first AI’s, and then it takes a couple of hours for you to have your first prototypes indexed and ready to deploy.

We have focused on making the creation and management of AI services as simple and intuitive as possible, with useful defaults, and handy help guides from the outset. Which we have in turn used to train the Affino Support AI with, and so should be able answer most questions for you.

Once you are happy with your prototypes, get in touch and we will agree the level of AI service you will be moving to and issue the AI Service Key(s) so you can roll the AI(s) out at scale.

Affino AI Service Elements

AI Profile

The AI creation process happens in the AI Profile. This is where you define how it works, looks, who can access it and how much they can use it, and what articles and forums to use as the basis for the training data for each AI service.

AI Chat Channel

We have a new AI Chat channel, which you create, it simply needs a skin with a page navigation, the rest of the page is taken up with the AI interface. You can additionally select which channels the AI is available on as a popup, and which AI’s can be used alongside each other.

AI Reporting

Affino’s AI Reporting service lets you report on the quality of the AI responses, and you can log all AI interactions to ensure that they are of the quality you would like to deliver. The responses can then be viewed both on the individual contact and account level.

AI Dashboard

We have a new dedicated AI Dashboard which gives you a near real-time overview of all the key indicators for the AI, including how many tokens are used, and how many questions answered. You also have access to the Channel Stats, so you can see what companies and individuals are using the service, what the referrals are, including for the popups (the popup stats are included in each AI Channels stats).

AI Content Management

All the content can be easily managed through Affino’s CMS, and you can set up inbound content feeds to pull in content from 3rd party sources. Affino’s debug feature lets you see what underlying content is informing each AI response, meaning you can easily go in and update or exclude the content from the AI.

AI Management

We have put a particular focus on making it simple to manage the content and tweak the AI to optimise the service on an ongoing basis. If any content is updated, removed or added, then Affino automatically syncs that with the AI. You can tweak the User Role (i.e. how the AI behaves) right from the live interface. You can also dial up and down the level at which you include or exclude the matching of the underlying data for the AI responses since this will vary between AI services you provide.

Articles > Show Login within Article

Similar to metered content, it is now possible to display the login fields and insufficient rights message directly within articles instead of redirecting the user to the login channel. As we are only outputting part of the article text, this is a great enhancement to protect your articles from unauthorised bot scraping of your content. There is a new setting in the Content Security Right to enable this feature.

WebP support

In order to support the WebP image format, we have updated the Article edit, Article Import, Design Images, Directory Articles, Directory Products, Forums, Media Library Profile, Media File Path Export, Media Items, Media Workflow Profile.

 

Messaging - new Send and Click Tracking Engines

See the update note above. This release sees the introduction of two major new messaging components with ground up re-creations of the Message Send and Click Tracking components. You will want to test these with your message campaigns prior to sending out public mailers. Note that any messages sent moving forward will have different click tracking series from previous ones setting a new baseline in message tracking.

Checkout - Unlocking Baskets

When a basket is locked, commonly when a customer clicks the back button before entering payment details, they need to reset the basket. This now redirects back to the basket, restoring the previously selected items, encouraging the user to continue the purchasing user journey.

Awards Management

Award administrators can now edit an award entry directly from the Control Centre. Available fields for editing are the Company/Team/Individual Name field plus all the criteria fields of an entry. We have also upgraded the awards screens to better serve the judging workflow. We have added file names next to the download button and judge’s export for improved visibility and easier matching of media items. There is now more flexibility for you to opt to display or hide the scoring and comments from the judges for each criterion..

Awards Media Export

The Awards Media Export now includes a category dropdown selector to keep the export files smaller. This is important where large award programmes were timing out when attempting to download all the files from all entries.

Articles > Hide Ad Campaign On Sponsored Articles

There is a new setting on the Zone to hide ad campaigns from sponsored articles, meaning your sponsored content can be dedicated to your sponsor without showing other ads within their content.

Unused Content

We have updated this screen with a new action functionality so you can bulk delete, move or make non-live unused articles.

Dynamic Forms

The Log User Information setting is now enabled by default as this is often missed.

Bot Access Profile

It is now possible to enter an IP Address or User-Agent to block or whitelist. Please be careful when using the IP Address with the  blocking option as this might inadvertently lock you out of Affino.

 

Sales Leaderboard > unpaid orders

Configure the Sales Leaderboard to include orders with preferred Order Status and Payment Status. This provides much more flexibility for your reporting needs. Important: If you are using the Sales Leaderboard, you will need to update the settings on the CRM Settings component.

Sales Report > Unpaid orders

The Unpaid filter has been replaced with Order Status and Payment Status filters allowing for more granular reporting. This report is no longer dependent on the global Unpaid Order settings on the CRM Settings, previously used for multiple reports. Important: If you are using the Sales Report, ensure you check the Exclude Order Status and Exclude Payment Status filters.

Subscription Volume Report

This report sees a major update to include two new tabs, Live Subscriptions and Subscribers. You can now see the volume of subscriptions (and subscribers) live, in addition to the number of subscriptions that were created in a given month.

 

Other Enhancements

 

Analysis Dashboard - updated the x-axis to use more meaningful units depending on the time frame selected.

Article - HTML divs and other HTML markup now fully stripped out when using the Copy to Clipboard function.

Article > popup article selector - added a Live setting so you can search for live/non-live articles.

Attendee Import - added a button link to Attendee Batch Delete.

Catalogue Items - rearranged some of the filters on Catalogue Items listing to be grouped together more meaningfully and to place the more regularly used ones at the top; re-labelled Goods (heading) to Goods / Digital assets for consistency; added Catalogue Item Code on the view screen..

Catalogue Items Import - added ArticleCode column to be consistent with the export. Be sure to download the sample file from the help information when using the import feature.

Channel - renamed Hide From Site Search field to Hide From Search Results to make it clearer. Updated the filters for consistency across Affino.

Channel selector - added support for selecting a Parent Channel.

 

Channels profile selectors - we have updated all profile selectors on Channels to use the popup selector field instead of a dropdown. Since some profiles are required fields, it is now easier to create the Channel and then select the profile at a later stage if it has not already been set up.

 

Checkout - If Hide Delivery Address If Not Required is enabled, we now hide the recipient delivery address for gifting digital products; We have added a Coupon Notice text box to the checkout. You can configure this on the Catalogue item. Please note there is a separate notice for the Smart Coupon Notice.

Checkout Profile - added a setting to Show Delivery Time Frame to display the time frame below the shipping options on the Checkout; added an Address Field Sort Order to provide sorting of the address fields on the Checkout. Please note we have only added the setting on the profile and it will not sort the fields on the display side until the next release.

Contacts - rearranged some of the filters on Contacts listing to be grouped together more meaningfully and to place the more regularly used ones at the top.

Contact > Digital Assets tab - added a Subscription History panel for improved visibility.

Contact Lists - re-labelled the Delete action to Remove from list to make it clearer that the contact is not deleted from the CRM.

Control Centre - added a new AI button to link to the AI Support Bot on Affino.com

Content Security Rights - removed the Delete button from the Logged In and Logged Out security rights as this can inadvertently cause layout issues on the display side.

Conversion Events > Message Read trigger - we are limiting this trigger to be used only against non-scheduled message campaigns to ensure huge numbers of data points are not stored unnecessarily.

Design Object - fixed an issue with the searching of Design Scripts within the Design Object.

Design Objects > Skin - added warning messages for deprecated Design Elements. Important: it is vital that you replace these with the newer versions as old elements are no longer supported and will be removed in upcoming releases.

Dynamic Forms - updated the email notification to remove the HTML table layout, now each field is listed below each other, making it easier to enter into other ticketing systems.

Imports - added link to appropriate component on the email notification for quicker access.

Link Articles - added priority setting to aid surfacing of important links to the top of listings..

Menu - improved the save functionality so you can add menu items more easily and save it with fewer steps. Also included are some minor layout and alignment improvements.

Order Line Item Report - added CatalogueID column and re-ordered Item Code | Catalogue ID | Catalogue Item Name | Catalogue Item Description to be consistent with the export file.

Orders - rearranged some of the filters on Order listing to be grouped together more meaningfully and to place the more regularly used ones at the top.

Overlay Panel - close button now located at the top right of the panel instead of the entire window.

Payment Gateway > Paypal IPN - added support for payment lookup so legacy Paypal orders can be reconciled and hence fed into the Affino reporting.

Referral Analysis - updated Referral URLs to report correctly on Landing Pages.

Section - updated the filters for consistency across Affino; fixed an issue with the Scoped Search not returning results correctly.

Section selector - added support for selecting a Parent Section.

Stop Code Report - added links for the number of cancellations to Subscriptions component for improved usability.

Subscription Renewal Profile - updated the Catalogue Item selector to filter out recurring subscription, i.e. where Automatic Renewal is ticked.

Subscriptions - added a Cancellation Date(s) date range filter.

Topic Profile - added support for displaying only child topics.

User Export - added LastPageView column.

User Import - Registration Zone is now a required field on the User Import to improve data integrity.

User Profile - re-arranged the Registration Profile, External Integration Profile and Login Attempts fields for better grouping of fields.

Zone - moved the Store Profile setting into the Profiles panel.

Fixes and Minor Enhancements

 

Fixes are elements which didn’t work as well as they should, and have now been made to work better. Minor enhancements provide subtle improvements that most people won’t notice (some will love), but which nonetheless improve on the overall Affino experience.

 

The fixes and enhancements highlighted here will be meaningful to a number of Affino users.

Ad Campaign Analysis - fixed an issue with the export numbers not matching with the dashboard.

Ad Campaign Theme - fixed an issue with the Hide Expired Campaigns button not displayed where an ad campaign’s start date had been changed.

Analysis Dashboard - fixed an issue with Avg Time on Page not calculated correctly.

Appbar - fixed a loading issue of the Structure buttons.

Article Batch Delete - fixed an issue with the Delete button not being displayed.

Articles - fixed an issue with the Publish Start Date variable publishing articles a few minutes early.

Articles > Directory Article - fixed an issue with saving the article, fixed an issue with Vimeo links not displaying; fixed an issue with the Link Tracking function; fixed an issue with embed codes not saving on first try.

Attendees - fixed an encoding issue with attendee names.

Awards Profile - fixed a content lookup issue and minor issue with the session variable when submitting a judge’s score/comments.

Catalogue Item - fixed an issue with the gift warning message; fixed an issue with relating a digital good to a Catalogue Item.

Checkout - fixed a payment gateway message issue; fixed an issue with gifting on Catalogue Items within a Catalogue Group; fixed a minor error when a coupon that doesn’t exist is added to the Coupon field; fixed an issue with the PAF Provider function.

Contacts - fixed an issue with paging displaying blank; fixed an issue with deleting other addresses on the contact record; fixed an error on the Commerce tab; fixed issue with the x-axis on the Analysis tab > Engagement graph; Contact Association on summary panel now links to contact.

Contact Lists - fixed an issue with saving the link as a favourite.

Design Images - fixed a pagination issue.

Directory > Listing - updated some minor styling issues.

Dynamic Forms - fixed an issue with pipe character and spaces in field options.

Editions Highlight Design Element - added additional security checks for editions without a Section selected.

Forums - fixed an issue with the activity dates not listing threads in reverse chronological order.

Live Design Mode - fixed some errors on Design Elements.

Login - fixed an issue with the login workflow that was redirecting users to the 404 page.

Media Items - fixed an issue with Content Security Rights not being applied to media items correctly; fixed a missing icon on the Media Item selector.

Message - fixed a regex error causing a saving issue; fixed an issue with split testing not sending messages with the correct Sender selected.

Message Template Builder - removed the hardcoded border radius on the Social Media icons; fixed an issue with layers not updating dynamically; ;fixed an issue with the logo stretching on the template, fixed an issue with special characters in titles; fixed an issue with the saving of the title; fixed an issue with the link text on a button.

Metering Profile - fixed minor error with a number format.

My Library - fixed minor error with missing image class variable.

My Message - fixed minor error with missing image class variable.

Online Forms - fixed an encoding issue with special characters.

Opportunities - fixed an encoding issue on Account field.

Order Batch Delete - fixed an issue with the Save button not showing.

Orders - fixed an issue with the Country filter.

Search - updated the search field on the display-side to allow searching of two characters; fixed an issue with the cloud search not recognising bracket characters.

Topics - fixed minor listing error.

Removed

 

Order Line Items Report - removed the Unpaid filter since there is already the Order Status and Payment Status filters which can be used to achieve the same outcome.

Coupon - removed the Coupon Combination settings to make it easier to configure and support.

Media Items - removed the Purchase Override Security Clearance setting as this is deprecated.

Integration Updates

 

CRM API - The following methods have been updated: Add Permission to User; Revoke User Permission; Get User Subscriptions; Create/Update User Preference; Create User Subscription and Update User Subscription. If you are using this API, please check the documentation for your integration.

Component Changes

 

Affino benefits from using some great frameworks, here are the updates we’ve rolled out for these frameworks in this release:

 

Chart JS updated to - v4.4.2

 

DataTables updated to - no change

 

DropzoneJS updated to - no change

 

GrapesJS updated to - no change

 

GrapesJS MJML - v1.0.5

 

JQuery updated to - no change

 

JQueryUI updated to - no change

 

JSoup updated to - v1.17.2

flatpickr updated to - no change

 

FontAwesome updated to - no change

 

HighCharts updated to - no change

TinyMCE updated to - v7.0.1

 

Video.js updated to - no change

 

Vue JS updated to - no change

 

 

 

This update fixes a number of minor bugs and performance issues, along with the continued enhancement to the Awards workflows with a new feature for exporting judging scores and comments on the display side (judges can now run these themselves). 

 

In addition, a new Edition Batch Delete component has been added to make it easier to work with bulk edition imports. The PAF (Postcode Address File) workflow has been improved for looking up addresses from postcodes.

 

Bug Fixes and Minor Updates

Control Side

Account - fixed an issue with using a space separator on the IP Addresses field.

Article - fixed an issue with adding recent viewers to a contact list.

Awards Management - updated the sort order on the export to reflect what is on the Awards Profile.

Awards Profile - added a new setting to enable all judges or just the lead judge to export the entries, scores and comments to an xlsx file. Please note this does not include any uploaded files.

Article Steps - updated the Created column to sort reverse chronologically.

Dynamic Forms - fixed a character encoding issue.

Edition Batch Delete - added a new component for deleting edition batches.

Form Entries - fixed an issue approving/rejecting incomplete entries and it is now possible to search by email address.

 

Postal Address Finder (Updated API) - now the country field is above the address fields on the checkout and registration if PAF Provider is selected on the Checkout Profile and/or Demographic Profile. Also implemented PAF on Edit Profile.

User Auto Archive - fixed an issue with the scheduled task.

User Import - fixed an issue with updating security rights.

Display Side

Articles - social sharing of articles to X (Twitter) is no longer reliant on entering an Twitter account on the CRM Profile.

PDF watermarking - fixed an issue with the account name, improved the generation of the filename and the watermark is no longer shown for a guest user.

My Interest - fixed an issue with theme colour.

Registration - fixed an issue with the CAPTCHA capitalising the characters on tablets.

System - Numerous code and data cleanup tasks.

 

Integration Updates 

 

The following integrations were updated in this release.

 

 getAddress() - updated to latest API. Note that this is a critical update when using postcode lookups

 

Component Changes

 

Affino benefits from using some great frameworks, here are the updates we’ve rolled out for these frameworks in this release:

 

No frameworks were updated

This is a minor bug fix and performance update, focused on smoothing out the edges from the recent major Affino 9 update.

 

Bug Fixes and Minor Updates

 

Control Side

 

Articles - fixed an issue with adding recent viewers to a contact list

 

Articles Report - fixed a filtering issue selecting than 90 days

 

Media Items - fixed a sort order error

 

Contacts - fixed issue with listing duplicate subscriptions within Digital Assets tab

 

Message Template Builder - fixed issue with campaigns not being responsive, fixed a LinkedIn link issue on social icons

 

Related Content Design Element - fixed reported error

 

Contact Lists - fixed a scheduled task issue with auto assigning contacts

 

Menu - added error handling where you cannot delete a Section if being referenced in the Menu

 

User Export - fixed issue with multiple file export where the data was corrupted

 

Customer Ladder Analysis - fixed an error on the User Export button

Display Side

 

Dynamic Form - updated the dynamic message code in the URL to be a unique identifier

 

Forum - fixed an issue with creating an opportunity from a thread

 

Registration - fixed an encoding issue on the company field

 

Checkout - minor layout issue on the checkout acknowledgement screen on Macs, fixed issue with displaying the gifting start date field

 

Integration Updates

 

The following integrations were updated in this release.

 

BASD (currency formatting) 

 

Component Changes

 

Affino benefits from using some great frameworks, here are the updates we’ve rolled out for these frameworks in this release:

 

TinyMCE updated to - no update

 

This minor bug fix and performance update is focused on smoothing the edges from the recent major Affino 9 update.

 

Bug Fixes and Minor Updates

 

Registration confirmation - fixed encoding issue

 

Message Template Builder - fixed a message body background issue, setting it to white by default if not set in the template

 

Media files - fixed issue with adding watermark

 

PDF Invoices - fixed issue with bank details characters missing off the end

 

Smart Article Listing / Smart Media Listing / Edition Highlight - optimisation to prevent timeout issue

 

Prime Related Content / Manually Related Content DE - fixed an issue with chevron icon duplicated

 

Article Feature Scroller - fixed extra padding on images

 

Integration Updates

 

The following integrations were updated in this release.

 

BASD (currency formatting) 

 

Component Changes

 

Affino benefits from using some great frameworks, here are the updates we’ve rolled out for these frameworks in this release:

 

TinyMCE updated to - no update

 

This bug fix and performance update is focused on smoothing the edges from the recent major Affino 9 update.

 

Bug Fixes and Minor Updates

 

Ad Campaign (closing pop-up ads)

 

Articles (link clicks panel now displaying consistently)

 

Attendees (attendee type)

 

Bug Fixes and Minor Enhancements

 

Catalogue Items (currency formatting)

 

Contact Lists (auto assign)

 

Dynamic Forms (Create Contact)

 

Editions (subscriber export)

 

Messaging (bounce handling)

 

Message Template Builder (multiple fixes)

 

Performance (further performance optimisations)

 

Subscriptions (removed from contact when the contact is removed from an account and reassigned to the account; account filter)

 

Integration Updates

 

The following integrations were updated in this release.

 

BASD (currency formatting) 

 

Component Changes

 

Affino benefits from using some great frameworks, here are the updates we’ve rolled out for these frameworks in this release:

 

TinyMCE updated to - no update

This bug fix and performance update is focused on smoothing the edges from the recent major Affino 9 update.

 

Bug Fixes and Minor Enhancements

 

Article Listing (show more)

 

Attendee Management (fixes, made some attendee assignment fields non-editable)

 

Audio (MP3) Player (improved formatting)

 

Blog (navigation)

 

Character Encoding (fixed multiple issues with character encoding. If you spot any character issues please share them with us and they will be fixed quickly)

 

Display (numerous display-side formatting fixes)

 

Dynamic Forms (multi-zone fixes, listing, character formatting)

 

Editions (subscriber export)

 

Error Handling (improved)

 

Forums (message owner, parameter error)

 

Message Template (saving)

 

News Sitemap (error)

 

Performance Optimisations (multiple: crucially also for the malicious bot detection which has been greatly optimised; as well as starting up Affino; locale and geo location)

 

Related Content (fixed drag and drop sorting)

 

Subscriptions (fixed issues with automatically removing subscriptions from contacts who have been removed from an account)

 

Integration Updates

 

The following integrations were updated in this release.

 

There are no integration updates in this release 

 

Component Changes

 

Affino benefits from using some great frameworks, here are the updates we’ve rolled out for these frameworks in this release:

 

TinyMCE updated to - no update

This bug fix and performance update is focused on smoothing the edges from the recent major Affino 9 update.

 

Key Enhancements

 

Awards Updates

This release includes a number of key updates to Awards owing to the time sensitive nature of the upcoming awards programmes for the Affino community. They key updates are:

• Attendee Management - It is now possible to add and edit Attendees directly within the Control Centre.
• Attendee Import (new) - event attendees captured outside of Affino can now be imported using the new Attendee Import. This is useful when using Affino in combination with one or more 3rd party event signup platforms.
• Attendee Batch Delete - quickly delete any batch of imported attendees which is not quite right
• Attendee Export - added Attendee Type to track attendees by their origin and whether or not they purchased a ticket, the options are: Paying | Non-paying | External Paying | External Non-paying.
• Catalogue Item - directly link added to the Attendees for each paid for event

Bug Fixes and Minor Enhancements

 

Articles (Copy to Clipboard text formatting, Control Centre Article Listing)

 

Campaign Theme (Hide expired campaigns)

 

Campaign Stats (advertiser error)

 

Checkout (error, payment, Stripe payment error reporting improvements, acknowledgement screen logo size)

 

Contact (editing, viewing)

 

Control Searches (default text reverted to All, had been changed to Search)

 

Conversion Events (changed logic on when to run some conversion event automations to minimise potential issues)

 

Dynamic Form Listing (missing forms)

 

Event Listing (duplicate events)

 

Form Entry Export (error)

 

Forums (live view)

 

Message Template Builder (multiple fixes)

 

Pro Forma Orders (Stripe payments, Invoice Formatting)

 

Products (Manufacturer's ID, Brand, Manufacturer, Custom Field 2 now displayed)

 

Session Management (critical optimisation for abusive IP Address identification)

 

Store Profile (URL Parameters)

 

Integration Updates

 

The following integrations were updated in this release.

 

Google Merchant Centre (product pricing values with too many decimal places)

 

Stripe (improved error reporting and fixed issue with taking payments against pro forma orders)

 

Component Changes

 

Affino benefits from using some great frameworks, here are the updates we’ve rolled out for these frameworks in this release:

 

TinyMCE updated to - no update

This bug fix and performance update is focused on smoothing the edges from the recent major Affino 9 update.

 

Bug Fixes and Minor Enhancements

 

Analysis (error)

 

Article (iframe support in articles)

 

Article Text Copy to Clipboard (improved profile and text formatting)

 

Attendees (set existing attendees as paying, Attendee Import)

 

Attendee Import (elements in place, will be in next major release)

 

Catalogue Item Import (optimisation)

 

Checkout (delivery address notice)

 

Contact Lists (search)

 

Content Lookup (error)

 

Design Centre (logo)

 

Design Style (error)

 

Incoming Feeds (error)

 

Message / Message Campaign (calculate circulation)

 

Receipt (logo)

 

Redirects (error)

 

Registration (notifications)

 

Shipping Profiles (paging)

 

Subscriptions (stop code selector)

 

Topics (ignoring zone settings)

 

Integration Updates

 

The following integrations were updated in this release.

 

Google Base - refined integration 

 

Component Changes

 

Affino benefits from using some great frameworks, here are the updates we’ve rolled out for these frameworks in this release:

 

TinyMCE updated to v6.7.3

This bug fix and performance update is focused on smoothing the edges from the recent major Affino 9 update.

 

Key Enhancements

 

Audience Dashboard Segmentation

This release sees the introduction of a new Unique User metric on the Analysis Dashboard, which is only available for segmented users (i.e. identified / logged in users). It means that for any given timeframe you will be able to see exactly how many of the users in the segment were active. Note that this is a new data series which is only available following the update.

 

AI Services (pre-alpha)

Please note again that any AI interface elements you see are purely for the designated alpha test users running Affino's AI services. As a general user you should not expect any of these to work for you. We have the AI service release scheduled in as the next major release following the current round of testing.

 

Bug Fixes and Minor Enhancements

 

Awards (entries)

 

Bulk Delete (action button)

 

Contacts (listing)

 

Contact List (add contact popup)

 

Converting Articles Report (listing)

 

Conversion Events (editing)

 

Demographic Profile (editing)

 

Directory (phone icon, duplicate address)

 

Events (listing)

 

Fourms (error)

 

Login DE (optimisation)

 

Logging Out (error)

 

Messages (editing)

 

Message Subscribers (listing)

 

Metering Profile (error fixed)

 

Orders (error fixed)

 

Overlay Panels (deletion)

 

Relating (show more)

 

Session Management (further refinements)

 

Integration Updates

 

The following integrations were updated in this release.
 
Google Base (errors)

 

Component Changes

 

Affino benefits from using some great frameworks, here are the updates we’ve rolled out for these frameworks in this release:

 

FontAwesome - updated to v6.4.2

This bug fix and performance update is focused on smoothing the edges from the recent major Affino 9 update.

 

Bug Fixes and Minor Enhancements

 

Accounts (control error)

 

Ad Campaigns (ad serving error)

 

Article Archive (article deletion)

 

Bulk Mailing List Subscriptions

 

Cacheing

 

Catalogue Items (pricing format)

 

Contacts (control error)

 

Dynamic Forms (file upload, last updated filter)

 

Google Base Profiles (editing)

 

Orders (shipping label logos)

 

IP Addresses (improved detection and blocking of malicious IP Addresses)

 

Invoices (formatting)

 

Messaging (multiple critical fixes)

 

Message Template Builder (multiple critical fixes)

 

Pro Forma (catalogue item selector)

 

Product Listing (sort)

 

Reporting (currency formatting)

 

Referral Analysis (filters)

 

Sales Targets (currency formatting)

 

Saving (incorrect notifications)

 

Search (critical fixes)

 

Security Groups (paging)

 

Self Service Directories (media)

 

Sitemaps (performance optimisation)

 

Topics (control error)

 

User Export (cleanup)

 

Webservice Profiles (error)

 

Integration Updates

 

The following integrations were updated in this release.

 

Pay360 

 

YouTube - embeds

 

Component Changes

 

Affino benefits from using some great frameworks, here are the updates we’ve rolled out for these frameworks in this release:

 

TinyMCE updated to v6.7.2

 

 

 

 

 

This bug fix and performance update is focused on smoothing the edges from the recent major Affino 9 update.

 

Bug Fixes and Minor Enhancements

 

Ad Campaigns (performance and reliability enhancements)

 

Article (display)

 

Articles (control centre article listing sort order)

 

Article Export (fixed)

 

Awards Category Entries Export (fixed)

 

Caching Optimisation (enhanced fragment caching)

 

Coupon Report Export (fixed)

 

Deprecated Templates (enhanced error handling)

 

Directories (saving draft articles)

 

Dynamic Forms (file upload)

 

Error Handling (enhanced)

 

Header (REST Header fix)

 

Login (resolved 404 issue)

 

Media Uploads (fixed)

 

Members (show more)

 

Message Template Builder (button text, multiple, another essential set of MTB fixes)

 

Message Heatmaps (fixed)

 

Message (test sending)

 

My Account (revoking permission)

 

Performance Optimisation (multiple, enhanced CPU check)

 

Sessions (new session management engine, essential for resolving multiple session issues)

 

Site Analysis (fixed issue with missing section / article names)

 

Skins (fix)

 

WYSIWYG (link tracking)

This bug fix and performance release is focused on smoothing the edges from the recent major release.

 

Bug Fixes and Minor Enhancements

 

This is the first post-Affino 9 launch release so there are a number of behind the scenes fixes which are in place to ensure.

 

Article Clipboard (html stripping, security update)

 

Articles (multi-display, control centre listing order, batch delete)

 

Awards Profile

 

Contact Lists (copying)

 

Content Lookup

 

Control Nav

 

Edition Profiles (listing)

 

Events listing (ordering)

 

Invoice (format)

 

Messages (test message)

 

Message Template Builder (multiple fixes, this is an essential upgrade for the MTB)

 

Orders (subscriptions, Get Data)

 

Pro Forma Orders (editing)

 

Search / Scoped Search (multiple fixes)

 

WYSIWYG Editor (link tracking for image links)

 

Integration Updates

 

The following integrations were updated in this release.

 

Stripe - fixed currency formatting on new framework

 

Component Changes

 

Affino benefits from using some great frameworks, here are the updates we’ve rolled out for these frameworks in this release:

 

TinyMCE updated to v6.7.1

Affino 9 introduces the next generation of the Affino SaaS Service. This year has seen the biggest technical shift in Affino for over a decade, and after thirty five updates to Affino 8 we are introducing the first version of Affino 9. It is a radical shift to a new generation of open source technologies with a firm AI and Open Source foundation.

 

2023 has been an exciting year in and feels like the coming of age for AI as a Service (AaaS) and together with the rapid maturity of AI foundational technologies including Langchain and vector databases, we are seeing the biggest and most radical shift since the introduction of cloud computing. We are entering an era of AI enhanced productivity across the board, so embracing AI technology such as LLMs (large language models) and Vector Databases has become fundamental to how future applications will be developed.

 

In many ways we started this journey years ago with the adoption of Python as one of our primary programming languages, and increasingly built Affino on a serverless architecture for many of our new services including our Affino Analytics Dashboard. So many technologies have coalesced to usher in the AI age and we have ensured that Affino has the firm foundation to do so with the launch of Affino 9.

 

The single biggest challenge for existing Affino users will be the switch over to the new service architecture. Because of the size of the shift our primary goal with the Affino 9.0.1 update is to change as little as possible in the Control Centre and Display side experiences, with the major new features kept for future updates. Instead the goal is to support the Affino community to ensure that all your business critical workflows, management interfaces, and user experiences are as close to identical before and after.

 

To aid with the transition to Affino 9, we will provide dedicated Affino 9 Staging services for all migrations, along with the Affino team being on-hand to guide and support with the transition.

 

Once you are up and running on Affino 9 you will benefit from the major AI, Commercial, Publishing and Next Generation Control Centre updates we will be bringing to you over the coming year, for what will be a transformed Affino service.

 

Key Enhancements

 

Key Technical Innovations

We have added a new big data architecture to Affino, as well as a framework to train and support multiple AI’s (LLM’s) and to store their associated Vector Data. We have moved on from many core proprietary technologies to their open source equivalents, and with the frameworks we were using we have in many cases jumped to major new generations of those technologies.

 

How we develop Affino has evolved alongside the technical switch, with more AI co-pilot assistance when developing, the adoption of AWS serverless layers, key new open source frameworks, and we have continued the shift from per-Affino Instance databases to distributed data clouds, with the goal to ultimately move all the data on to distributed and big data services over the coming years.

 

The biggest shift with this release though is the move from a proprietary application server development framework to an open source one. To realise this ambition we have spent nearly two calendar years and many more man years in porting Affino to the new framework. Since the two frameworks, whilst using the same programming language and underlying concepts vary considerably in terms of the syntax and features they support. To support the porting of Affino to the new framework we have created a new compatibility layer which has delivered very effectively, and in many cases we have been able to migrate more of Affino’s services to serverless approaches for improved performance, scalability and reliability.

 

AI Framework

Affino 9 has AI at its core, and this update sees a considerable extension of Affino’s underlying AI framework. Note that this is all behind the scenes, and whilst we have developed some great AI interfaces. these will be rolled out in the next major update so as to minimise the disruption in this new generation update cycle.

 

Affino Styling

Affino’s Control Centre Navigation has the new Affino colours in place and definitely pops a great deal more than Affino 8. It also provides a great transition into the upcoming Affino 9 design language which we will be bringing to all Affino Control Centre screens over the coming months, starting with the main Control Centres themselves and then initially being rolled out in the new AI assisted content management suite.

 

Over the course of the Affino 9 development we have identified dozens of styling improvements we can make throughout Affino, so the experience on both the Control and Display sides is now smoother than ever. We feel confident that your designs will still look great since we are very focused on the principle of this release being a major technical shift forward but one which has a minimal functional aspect , and even in the event that you have customised your CSS or JS these should remain unaffected.

 

Deprecated Templates and Design Elements - Important

We have updated the Design Centre to highlight deprecated Design Elements used in Design Objects and Skins, and if you enable Design Mode on the Display side on the App Bar then you will see all the deprecated design elements outlined and red tinted. It is essential that these are swapped out for the newer generation elements, some of which have been in place now for up to 8 years.

 

This is because after this initial Affino 9 release we will be looking to remove the current generation of deprecated Design Elements and Templates over the coming releases. It has been some time now since they were officially supported and the move to Affino 9 means that it no longer makes sense to continue to do so. Our efforts are much better spent with AI enabling Affino throughout.

 

If you need assistance with swapping out your deprecated templates and design elements simply reach out to the Affino team and we can provide assistance, training or even support you with the updates directly.

 

Upgrade Guidance

 

Affino 9 is a new generation service, with a fundamentally different set of underlying technical platforms. As a result there is a unique update process from Affino 8 to Affino 9.

 

Multi Step Upgrade Process

Affino will provide a dedicated Affino 9 Staging instance for 48 hours of intensive QA. Please liaise closely with the Affino team via your dedicated support forum during the Affino 9 QA period, to ensure all your issues are resolved.

 

When the upgrade is run, it first updates the Affino updater, this is the final Affino 8 Update. Next this is cloned to the new Affino 9 Staging service and the Affino Updater is run again to convert the site to an Affino 9 site. Note that this is a one way process which is why we are running this initially through a dedicated staging programme.

 

We have shared a test plan framework for the migration to Affino 9, however you should extend this to additionally test all your core workflows, and any custom services. In the event there are any issues the Affino team will look to resolve them the same day or first thing the next day, and if required extend the QA period, however the goal is to keep it focused and effective.

 

The Staging and Quality Assurance process is default set at 48 hours, and for most sites this should be sufficient. For more bespoke Affino implementations, and for those with multiple brands you may well wish to present a testing plan which takes longer, or which has two staging phases, i.e. an initial test period followed by a second one. It is essential that this plan and the timing is agreed with the Affino team at the earliest opportunity.

 

Note that all active scheduled tasks are wiped when you update the site so make sure that any required ones are completed prior to running the update.

 

It is important to liaise with the support team to schedule in an update window where they can be on hand to support with the update. It is essential that you run through the complete update process starting with the Affino Updater, followed by the sequence of the system and design updates laid out on the Control > Update screen.

 

The  Beta elements in this release are: panels, multi factor authentication, bot blocking, and the analysis dashboard segments, Magic Links and the Handoff API. To see the current list of Beta elements you can also navigate to them on the Support Menu.

 

Other Enhancements

 

Ad Campaigns - we have updated Campaign Themes so that rather than having an option to Remove Expired Ad Campaigns, we now have one for Hide Expired Ad Campaigns. This is for the simple reason that by removing the campaigns from the themes we were losing key ad campaign analytics, so now they are simply hidden and not removed from the Ad Campaign Themes.

 

AI - you will see references to AI in Affino, however these are simply placeholders for future rollouts, so for example the new AI Channel Type is visible but not supported in this release.

 

Articles - Article Analysis has been updated to be more context based, only showing key panels when relevant.

 

Awards - There are a host of awards updates in this release, focused on making awards easier and faster to use. Improved customisation by adding more text items; Added overall score to the overall judging screen as well as for each criterion; added ‘Judging submitted by first name last name’ to the category listing so it is possible to see when the judging of each award was submitted; Category Summary limit increased from 5,000 words to 10,000 words. Note that the next release sees major new features coming to awards, further rounding out its capabilities.

 

Bot Access Profile - now refers to User Agent rather than Browser String (it should have referred to User Agent from the outset).

 

Channels - it is now possible to copy a channel and create the new one in a new zone, very useful when rolling out multiple or new sites on your Affino instance.

 

Client Campaign Dashboard - selected article stats are now always displayed irrespective of timeframe.

 

Contact List DE - we have further refined the ability to show rankings for only x users in a list. So for example you can list out the top 10 contacts from a list and the rest are shown without a ranking.

 

Directories - improved stying and layout, in particular on Mobile.

 

Editions - if is now possible to display the Circulation Date on editions, and we have updated the existing setting to say Show Publish Date. We have also generally improved the help and information around edition creation. We have also added support for Media 2 in the import, since this could be a file or an embed, this is only supported through the Media 2 Screen Name.

 

Events - new Hide All option to hide the all button on the events listing. Set in the Events Profile.

 

Event Profiles - have now been re-instated to provide options for how events are displayed. Initially the focus is on what combination of past and future events are / aren’t displayed and the filtering options.

 

Forums - we have refined the security and access rights further on the forums, so for example a projects moderator no longer needs to be a moderator on client forums to post addendums to project threads. Topic thread styling and functionality is also now much improved.

 

Link Articles - now support mailto: links

 

Media - we have implemented as a core Affino feature the ability to watermark PDF’s which are being downloaded from a media library. The watermark contains key personal information of the user, e.g. first name, last name, and email address to minimise the amount of sharing of the PDF’s.

 

Messages - Big styling updates updates on My Messages, including the ability to hide the main My Profile menu on the screen. We also updated a number of settings labels to provide more clarity on their purpose

 

Message Template Builder (MTB) - we have moved to the latest version of the latest generation frameworks for the message template builder. Note that this is a major update and has meant extensive refactoring of the MTB. If any issues arise with your message templates from this release please reach out to the Affino team for any assistance required.

 

Orders - subscription related delivery addresses are now labelled as Subscription Del. Address for clarity.

 

Order Export - Added Last Order Status and date stamp columns

 

Overlay Panels - Affino now supports both Content Security Right Inclusion and Exclusion to support more nuanced use cases for Overlay panels, e.g. for non-members, non-logged in users, up-selling and event promotions.

 

Payment Gateways - we have noticed recently that increasingly users have been setting data to be sent through from payment gateways to Affino which are nor directly relevant to the Affino related transactions, so it is not even displayed but takes up considerable data space. Affino is now optimised to remove any payment gateway data not directly related to transactions in Affino.

 

Public Profiles - we have made a change to the articles listed on public profiles. Previously they were restricted to articles from the zone the user was on. We have removed this restriction so articles associated with a contact’s public profile can now be pulled in from all zones. Affino now also displays link articles on public profiles.

 

Site Search - deleted articles now rapidly removed from the Site and Scoped Searches. In addition we also now rapidly remove channels, contacts, form items, editions, forum elements, and media items. We have added the option to Ignore Article Priority on the site search. This is useful where you want to use article prioritisation when listing on sections, but not within the site search itself.

 

Social Media - improved support for Twitter / X allowing for larger images to be shared.

 

Subscription Renewal Profile - we have added new Include and Exclude Subscribers with Coupon. This way you can separate out the comms for users who are on different promotional price plans, e.g. students.

 

Topics - the Screen Name is now displayed on the Topic View screen

 

Two Factor Authentication (2FA) - improved session and authentication tracking, greatly reducing the frequency needed for re-authenticating.

 

Unpaid Orders - new CRM Settings which define what Unpaid Orders refer to in Affino as these vary between order types and use cases. Now more flexible.

 

Welcome - we have updated the registration workflow to support multiple Welcome screens on the same Registration Profile. This way a user who has multi-site access will automatically be taken to the welcome screen for the zone they are on. Note - for multi-site setups you will need to enable this to ensure that users are taken to the correct welcome screen once you update.

 

WYSIWYG Editor - this release sees an updated version of the WYSIWYG editor throughout Affino. A major update is that we have removed the right-click context menu throughout so that instead you can now use your default browser spell checks and context menus. The Data Tables and other elements previously available on the context menu are still available from the toolbar. We have also improved the auto-save feature within the wysiwyg editor and the editing sessions now last up to 90 minutes.

 

Zones - added an audit panel with all the key audit attributes.

 

Fixes and Minor Enhancements

 

Fixes are elements which didn’t work as well as they should, and have now been made to work better. Minor enhancements provide subtle improvements that most people won’t notice (some will love), but which nonetheless improve on the overall Affino experience.

 

Note that we have hundreds of fixes not covered in the list below since they are either specific to the Affino 8 to 9 platform migration and would never have impacted on anyone, or because they are simply minor issues which we have fixed as part of the Affino 9 quality assurance process but were never identified previously.

 

It means the issues highlighted here are those which have been reported, fixed and will be meaningful to a number of Affino users.

 

Account Engagement Report (optimised, no longer display zero value items)

 

Advertisers (deletion)

 

Analysis Dashboard (new users, display errors)

 

Article Batch Delete

 

Article Listing (no. of articles listed)

 

Article Step (import, deletion)

 

Articles Report (selections)

 

Awards Entry (deletion)

 

Button DE (alignment, pop up)

 

Checkout (tax recalculation when switching addresses)

 

Client Campaign Dashboard (stats, leads export, Chrome downloading)

 

Comments and Ratings (refined, fixed moderation, paragraph formatting)

 

Contacts (removing topics)

 

Control Centre (mobile nav)

 

Conversion Events (multiple triggers improved and fixed, now firing more constantly, in particular for complex workflows including registrations)

 

Converting Articles Report (updated identification and retention)

 

Cookie Policy (fixes and switched the primary and secondary classes so that there is a consistency between the policy and the bar)

 

Deferred Income Report (currency selector)

 

Demographics (User Icon renamed to Avatar)

 

Directory (search, copying)

 

Dynamic Forms (data pre-population)

 

Events (past events now list in reverse chronological order consistently, event signup tab, events listing)

 

Feature Article (use main column width)

 

Forums (topics refined further, improved layouts)

 

Magic Links (usability, editing, simultaneous session limits)

 

Menu DE (multiple fixes)

 

Message Campaign (estimated reach optimisation)

 

Message Template Builder (multiple)

 

My Interests (improved styling)

 

My Preferences (improved styling)

 

My Profile (non-live articles no longer listed)

 

Opportunities (listing)

 

Orders (added checks to prevent duplicate payments being logged, Line Item Types)

 

Outgoing Feeds (updated to enforce all the URL rules in the feed)

 

Pro Forma Order (adding)

 

Public Profile (show more articles)

 

Recruitment (multiple fixes and styling enhancements)

 

Sales Report (usability)

 

Search (improved support for special characters)

 

Self Service Workflow (character limits)

 

Seminars (improved styling and usability)

 

Subscriber Export (addresses)

 

Text and Image DE (text width)

 

Topic URLs (zoning, rolled out where missing on some templates)

 

Unused Content Report (usability)

 

User Export (resolved issue with long bios)

 

User Import

 

VAT Number Validation

 

Removed

 

The following elements were removed from Affino in this release:

 

HR - we have deprecated all HR elements in this release. We have found that Affino’s HR module is not broadly adopted and as it is also a peripheral element we have decided to deprecate it. If you have an immediate HR project then now is the time to let us know as these elements are all set to be removed in an upcoming release.

 

The following payment gateways are no longer supported:

• PayPal - Website Payments Pro
• PayPal - Website Payments Pro (iframe)
• Pay360 - formerly PayPoint

Integration Updates

 

The following integrations were updated in this release.

 

Google Base - updated integration to support larger product sets

 

Stripe - improved handling of orders which have a failed and then successful payment

 

Component Changes

 

Affino benefits from using some great frameworks, here are the updates we’ve rolled out for these frameworks in this release:

 

Chart JS updated to - v4.4.0

 

DataTables updated to - no change

 

DropzoneJS updated to - no change

 

GrapesJS updated to - 0.21.7

 

GrapesJS MJML - updated to 1.0.4

 

JQuery updated to - v3.7.1

 

JQueryUI updated to - no change

 

JSoup updated to - no change

 

flatpickr updated to - no change

 

FontAwesome updated to - no change

 

HighCharts updated to - no change

 

TinyMCE updated to - v6.7.0

 

Video.js updated to - no change

 

Vue JS updated to - v2.6.12

Affino Updater Update Release

 

This release is purely focused on updating the Affino Updater for the Affino 9 upgrade.