Affino 6.0.7 Release

Affino just got easier, this is one of those Affino releases where you may not notice many of the updates, and instead Affino will just feel better, more stylish and faster. Much of what is in this release comes from observing users working with Affino and aims to remove hundreds of the hurdles and pitfalls which slow you down when building and managing advanced social commerce sites.

 

We have moved forward with the two key Affino objectives for 2011: the new Control Centre and making Affino mobile. There have been hundreds of tweaks to make the Control Centre more usable, especially for running larger sites. There have also been big changes to make the Control Centre work for different screen sizes and have a higher contrast, essential for mobile devices and tablets. We’ve also swapped out some Flash interfaces for HTML ones which work on all the iOS platforms.

 

On top of that, major improvements have been made throughout the ecommerce process, Forums, new Recruitment platform, greatly improved Blogging and Events and refined members’ pages.

 

Key users who will benefit from this release are: Designers, who will find it easier to implement designs; Pro Bloggers, who can now create much more engaging blogs; Pro Forum Moderators, for whom we have transformed the forum experience and provided with a host of fresh management tools; Store Managers for whom Affino just leapt forward; Event Managers, who have greatly improved tools for managing large events; and Recruiters and Human Resource managers who now have a powerful new recruitment platform.

 

Upgrade Guidance

 

Important - you will need a new Affino licence key for this release. Please contact support or your account manager in advance of updating.

 

This is a significant Affino release and follows one of the longest development phases we’ve ever had for an Affino release. The sheer volume of changes and enhancements means that there is a chance that new issues will have been introduced, so it if you’re running an ecommerce based site it is recommended that you wait one week from the release before upgrading.

 

It is essential that you run through the complete update process starting with the Affino Updater, followed by the System Update, Re-Initialise Site, Design Element Update and Skin Update; all of which are available on the Settings > Update screen.

 

Key Enhancements

 

Ecommerce

Almost every part of managing your store is improved with new control screens for all the key tasks. These allow you to Zone / Channel / Section filter everything much better and provide greatly improved management of all aspects of the store. In particular we’ve improved order management, shopping baskets, exports, and catalogue attributes.

 

 

We’ve introduced a new Store Management Channel that allows specific Zones (sites) to have their stores monitored by 3^rd parties without giving them full access to the Control Centre. They manage orders, shopping carts and order lists for their stores in a branded interface.

 

The Shopping Basket and Checkout processes have both been extensively refined and now provide an even smoother experience.

 

Possibly the most significant improvement in this release for stores is the new Product Search (beta) which is a great improvement for drilling down into the product catalogue. It should have a high impact on driving sales on stores, particularly for those with large product catalogues. It does require structured Tagging of your products for the full benefit, so it is a killer feature when used effectively.

 

Forums v2

This is the biggest update of Affino forums since they were first introduced. It amounts to a complete overhaul of the forums and brings them up to the leading edge in forum technology. The forums can now be fully moderated by 3^rd parties, including forum creation and editing; thread merging; as well as the ability to unrestricted messaging of members when anti-spam and member messaging restrictions are in place.

 

The biggest changes to the forums are the great new posting features, it is now easy to simply include URLs to YouTube, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo and Slideshare pages and Affino automatically embeds the media. Affino does the same for image URLs, with popup full-size views. There’s also a great new BB Editor that makes it easy to format posts and include emoticons (smilies).

 

Forums are much more customisable with many great new styling options. In practice the forums have had a great makeover and every screen looks better than before and is more usable.

 

Other features include: a New Posts screen which shows you the posts which have been made since your last login (up to 100 threads); duplicate forum post prevention; much shorter URLs for easier sharing; great notifications improvements with better formatting and automatic jumping to the correct page / post; a dedicated Customer Ladder for forum members and an improved member info panel.

 

Entry Forms v3

We’ve completely revamped almost all the forms in Affino in this release. This makes it easier to manage your site throughout as the entry screens are now more intuitive throughout. They’re also much better looking, which makes the whole experience of managing the site that bit better.

 

It also means that we have single style for forms throughout Affino. Importantly it is now possible for more styling on the forms on the live pages, allowing you to place Design Menus around each entry field block. This greatly improves the usability of long forms.

 

There are a lot of great usability enhancements such as the automated clearing of broken (deleted) images from entry forms, optimised content formatting, smarter look-ups and sorting of entries, and dynamic adjustment for best-fit on screen.

 

The forms have also been optimised to be used to tablets and mobile devices in preparation for the major Affino mobile push this summer.

 

 

Recruitment v1

The largest project for this Affino release has been the new Recruitment management within Affino. This is a high-end recruitment system that allows recruitment agencies and companies to manage their recruitment process online. It allows for fully automated through to fully manual management and powerful candidate list management as well as user generated briefs.

 

The development of this project has touched on every aspect of how users manage their profiles and has lead to greatly improved public pages and management interfaces for all users.

 

The recruitment platform allows you to set up targeted recruitment for multiple different sectors, with dedicated workflows for Candidates, Clients and Consultants / HR. We provide dedicated recruitment tools for candidate searches and notifying candidates and clients throughout the process, including SMS alerts.

 

Candidates can create their own ‘target job profile’ when updating their details, stating their preferred locales, sectors and salary range whilst also providing all the key skills, education and experience information necessary; as well as the ability to upload and manage their CVs. Affino also allows users to dynamically populate their profiles from LinkedIn.

 

The Job Briefs are also highly automated and configurable at the same time. They address real-world data issues and allow for weighted profile matching between candidates and briefs, with dedicated workflows around each job / brief.

 

Blogs v3

The Blogs in Affino are now greatly improved for Pro Bloggers. In particular the new Media Embeds allow for much more engaged posts, with multiple media items and images now easy to include in a blog post. We’ve also introduced an Intro field whereby you can fully specify how the listing looks, and can include multiple media items in the listing pages as well as the blog detail pages.

 

The ability to edit the creator means that it is now possible to blog on behalf of others. We’ve also made many subtle improvements to the look and feel of the blogs.

 

Advanced Filters v1

We’ve introduced New Look filters in the Control Centre that greatly improve the usability for larger sites and multi-site Affino instances. We’ve made them very dynamic, with many predictive, filtered look-ups.

 

Key interfaces that have had an upgrade to the new style are: Articles, Incoming Feeds, Archive, Orders, Inventory, and Shopping Baskets.

 

Public Profile

This release sees the introduction of a new Personal Statistics Tab in Affino. It allows your community members to log privately dozens of personal statistics such as height, weight, and blood pressure. It then creates graphs and charts to show how these have developed over time. This is a great development for health and wellness communities.

 

It is now possible to hide the navigation tabs and create own custom public profile navigation using ?profile=my links, e.g. ?profile=my-photos. We have also introduced a new layout on Main profile tab, which greatly improves presentation for users who have not yet populated their profiles. Community Moderators can now always see users Public Profiles, even if secured, and we’ve made a number of improvements for moderating and managing profiles.

 

Events v3

Affino has become a great deal more capable for running major event in this release. It is now possible to pull in all aspects of events into a single event location, including: venues, seminars, breakout events, keynote presenters, networking, accommodation, photo gallery, showcase video and more.

 

It means that instead of having a highly trained user spending a week creating an advanced event page, it is now possible to train almost anyone who then takes no more than a day to set up the online presence for the whole event.

 

Other Enhancements

 

App Bar – you can now switch instantly on any of the modes by clicking on the status icons; Skin regeneration now automatically refreshes the page; also now displays even more page elements in the info panels

 

Application – removed separate Bot Scope from application setup. New Affino Caching engines mean that it is now more efficient to run everything within a single scope. We still distinguish between Bots and other users in the tracking and sessions.

 

Articles – it is now possible to change the Article (and Media Item) Creator, essentially allowing publications to write articles on behalf of users

 

Article Listing – revamped article listing in the Control Centre, not only does it have the new Filter Bar for greatly improved navigation, but it also allows for bulk article moving

 

Archiving v3– new public archive ability means that content can now be automatically shifted to a public archive before being taken offline and deleted; especially useful for news sites

 

Browse Bar v2 – the page browse bar has been greatly updated which means many of the settings in the Browse Settings have been made redundant and have been removed

 

Caching – this release sees another leap in Affino’s cache management. It means that Affino now caches up to 10,000 queries per site in memory (as opposed to less than that for each server previously) and has much better cache refresh management for handling new content and changes. This has a significant impact for personalised and store page browsing as these are now both considerably faster

 

Campaigns – it is now possible to select media items for Flash banners. No longer necessary to script them

 

Channels – more nuanced Channel editing means that we now update Section names when channels are edited, only if they were the same to begin with

 

Control Centre –you can now set whether you have a narrow or widescreen Control Centre; also the key navigation on the Control Centre is now purely HTML based that means you can now manage Affino sites much better from the iPad and mobile devices. When coupled with all the updates to the entry forms, this is a major step in making Affino compatible with tablets and mobiles

 

Coupon Import – upgraded to allow the importing of enforced coupon relationships

 

Credits v2 – the credit system has been upgraded significantly in this release, you can now manually assign credits to users and accounts; new Credit listing screen shows you all the available credits assigned to users and accounts; greatly improved management throughout

 

Customer Ladder – moved to Promote Control Centre, numerous refinements and enhancements

 

Emoticons v1 – you can now use custom Emoticons in your forums by adding Emoticons and setting up an Emoticon Profile, which is then applied to the Forum Profile. Great for creating more engaging communities

 

Engagement Panel – updated to work in narrower spaces

 

Form Style – text buttons can now have bold labels

 

Google Base – it is now possible to re-authenticate a Google Base account without setting everything up from scratch again

 

Incoming Feeds – further refinements to reduce duplicate inbound media, now only imports a single instance of a media item with any given name

 

Key Word Import – new Key Word import allows simple CSV import of Key Words

 

Login – new Secured Content notification lets users know if they’re trying to access a secured page when they’re attempting to log in

 

MasterCard Direct Payment Gateway v1 – added new payment gateway for taking payments in Dubai / UAE in Dirhams

 

Media Centre – improved styling and usability

 

Member Listing – improved formatting and member search

 

Micro Blog DE – it is now possible to put in the absolute width to prevent long words / URLs from pushing the column out of alignment.

 

Notebook / Favourites – improved navigation allows for easy return to the page you were on

 

Radar Chart v1 – New content item allows you and your users to create radar charts which they can use to define aspects such as their achievement levels. These can be managed through the new Radar Chart DE as well and designed into any skin. Integrates with Google Charts.

 

Registration Notifications – can now have banners, improved message formatting, and are tailored better for each Zone

 

Related Prime Content – can now appear before the Prime Content which means you can show related items wherever you wish on the screen

 

Restructure v2 – improved formatting and greatly improved usability

 

Sections / Auto-Multi-Display – it is now possible to set up sections so that content entered into the section is automatically multi-displayed to other sections; this is very useful when automating staff publishing workflows.

 

Skins – it is now possible to put rotating backgrounds on to skins and to page through them with the Background Navigator

 

Social CRM v2 - Affino’s Contact and Account Management have had the most significant updates since they were originally launched. Both have been extensively re-designed so that they are now much easier to use. There are over 40 updates here alone

 

Spam Prevention – now also applies to friend requests, preventing networking spam

 

Team Time – improved Team Time usability so users can now see their full reports, especially important for outside contractors to see the time they’ve logged on contracts

 

Technologies – Both TinyMCE and JQuery updated to the latest stable releases

 

Templating – designers can now download any template from the Template directory, note that if you mess up core templates you will invalidate the support contract and may prevent your site from working

 

Text Items – now Zone specific, meaning that each site on an Affino instance can have it’s own custom labels

 

To Do Lists – we’ve added a number of new To Do lists to assist you when you’re setting up key aspects of Affino including for: Online Directories, Recruitment, Customer Ladder, Key Words

 

Video Player – numerous improvements to selling videos through the video player including: more customisable Buy button, improved presentation of video info, more obvious in-player navigation; we’ve enabled integration between the Affino video player and Vimeo videos so you can watch them through the Affino player, unfortunately there are a number of issues with the Vimeo functionality so this can be turned on or off; greatly improved the video player promotion panel so it looks much better and provides a more intuitive buying experience

 

 

What’s New v2 – new What’s New profile allows you to define better the content which is displayed on the automated What’s New screen and the order in which it is displayed, adds up to a major update

 

Fixes

 

Articles – articles are now consistently added in the right place, fixed the issue that was causing articles from occasionally being saved in the wrong sections

 

Audit – fixed Audit URL search

 

Blog Highlights DE – now working reliably with Topic filters

 

Catalogue Attributes – Catalogue ID modifier now applied correctly to purchases

 

Catalogue Items – no longer error out with a Google Base error when being deleted

 

Catalogue Item Export – now exports related items reliably

 

Carousel – now works better with just single items being displayed

 

Channels – numerous issues fixed to improve Channel deletion

 

Checkout – multiple fixes to address checkout issues

 

Comments and Ratings – improved internationalisation; no longer send comments to Facebook for secured content; now display when guest commenting is turned off

 

Comments Management – now works effectively across multiple Zones

 

Coupons – fixed numerous coupon related issues, especially where using ‘enforced coupons’ to combine multiple properties into a single coupon.

 

Currency Selector – now returns you to the exact page you were on

 

Dashboards – no longer error out with ‘CurrentAffinoVersion’ error; resolved international character errors

 

Discounts – can now be applied to catalogue items with the inch “ symbol, also can apply to up to 2,000 different items at a time

 

Ecommerce – Tax Codes and Rules now work on a country basis (rather than being universal); no longer round up prices for My Store goods, Saleable Articles and Catalogue Attributes

 

Facebook – incoming Facebook comments now working reliably again; fixed numerous other Facebook integration issues

 

Google Sitemaps – fixed date formatting issues

 

Highlights Scroller DE – no longer errors out when selecting the background

 

Inventory – updating the inventory now works reliably

 

Mac Compatibility – resolved numerous issues where Affino was not rendering correction on Macs

 

Media Editor – fixed ‘CurrentAffinoVersion’ issue which was causing the editor to error out

 

Media Uploader – resolved issue when uploading very large videos

 

Media Library – fixed issue where the first user was being allocated to all media items displayed on the screen; fixed Media Library Search; SoundCloud thumbnails now displaying reliably

 

Media Processing – updated the media generation to prevent automation from occasionally failing

 

Media Scroller – fixed issue causing some thumbnails to appear broken

 

Media Workflows – now working reliably, resolved issue where the occasional user was not able to see the edit button

 

My Messages – displaying emoticons reliably again

 

Newsletter – no longer attempt to display all newsletter subscribers on a single screen; subscriber export now works reliably

 

Online Directory – resolved numerous issues with Online Directories

 

Online Forms – resolved issue when no recipients selected on Online Form

 

Online Forms DE – the button mode now works reliably

 

Public Profiles – no longer display duplicate group memberships

 

Profile Updating – fixed issue, which was causing some profiles to error out when updated; no longer display the Address 2 field if it’s been de-selected; much improved CV file updating

 

Registration – settings no longer cached to allow for rapid changes in registration process and to prevent caching errors

 

Redirects – now working reliably again

 

Related Items – updated so that only items within a Zone can be selected, removes confusion since only related items from within the same Zone are displayed

 

Saleable Article  - resolved issue which was causing the display to error out

 

Section - improved handling of publish start and end on sections, now works reliably

 

Shopping Basket – catalogue items with double quotes can now be reliably added to the shopping basket

 

Site Search – now shows reliably the correct pricing for all products; no longer applies fuzzy logic to numbers, which are now searched for exact matches

 

Slideshare – updated Affino to work with the latest Slideshare embed code; now displays reliably when embedded in content

 

Skins – resolved ‘Design Menu’ error which was preventing skins from being generated

 

Smart Item – numerous fixes for formatting and editing

 

SoundCloud – updated integration to fix data issues

 

Status Updates – Twitter links now display cleanly again

 

Structure Copy – no longer having issues with screen names

 

To Do Lists – now working reliably

 

User Import – numerous fixes implemented to make user import more robust

 

Video Player – now counts video views accurately; no longer errors out when viewing video on demand purchases; no longer tries to sell the video you purchased to you; fixed ‘share by email’ for videos; YouTube thumbnails now displaying in Video Walls

 

VoicePay – extended the timeout when connecting to VoicePay to prevent errors which were occurring when it was taking too long to respond; externally streamed preview videos now play reliably

 

Whishlist – resolved errors with special characters; now works reliably

 

Who’s Online – now displaying who’s online reliably in the Control Centre for Zoned communities

 

Workflow Profiles -  can now be copied reliably

 

Zones – can now be deleted reliably; automatically deletes the Homepage when it is the last channel on a Zone

 

And Hundreds more minor fixes and improvements in formatting, styling and usability.