Affino 7.5.7 Release - Design Tweaks and Bug Fixes

 

This is primarily a quick Bug Fix release, but nonetheless it has some nice new features for responsive sites with the updated Site Search being the most anticipated as it now allows for reverse chronological searches with a greatly improved look and feel. We’ve also launched the new responsive newsletter sign-up page which has been keenly awaited.

 

More significantly in many ways, this release sees the v1 version or the Responsive Prime Related Content DE which will display all related articles and newsletters wherever it is included. It will mean you’ll want to update your Skins to put this in place wherever you want to display related content.

 

We’ve also rolled out the new Smart Button and Smart Text DE’s. These are great new elements and replace the existing responsive Button and Text DE’s. They use the v7 framework so look great. The Article Listing DE gets another great update and can now create article grids. Other new responsive areas are Invites and the Member Listing, both of which are now in glorious v7 technicolour. You can also have two column listings for Channels / Sections.

 

This release is also a further milestone towards the v1 responsive design centre, a key enhancement is the introduction of Custom ID’s on cells which means that you no longer have to worry about breaking your custom CSS / JS when re-organising your Skins. We’re also very close to the v1 Design Centre release, having delivered over 80% of the functionality and some just missed the cut for this release.

 

A lot of care and attention has also gone into this release with making sure that all the existing v7 responsive elements are as optimised and good looking as possible, so updating your site will simply make it better looking in lots of nice ways.

 

On the Bug Fix side, lots of important fixes in this release, most significantly ordering your steps has now been restored, and there are plenty more useful fixes added and gremlins removed.

 

Upgrade Guidance

 

The Affino 7.5.x releases are essential updates for all Affino sites. It is an easy update, simply go through the standard update process. You will need a new licence key to access the updated Social CRM elements if you have not yet requested one, so please contact your account manager.

 

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, Skin Update and finally Clear Guest Cache; all of which are available on the Settings > Update screen. 

 

Note that you will need to re-index your Search content, this can be done by going to Settings > Search Update > and select Standard Items to re-index your search

 

Key Enhancements

 

Responsive Site Search v2

 

Updated Site Search with v7 Responsive Framework, for greatly improved styling, with optional thumbnails, teasers, dates and sections on each result. Great update for news sites with the new reverse chronological option when setting up the search so that your users can see the latest stories at the top.

 

Custom IDs on Cells

 

This one will be a bit obscure to users who don’t use the Design Centre much, but for those who do this is a great update. It allows you to assign a Custom ID to each Design Cell, meaning that any custom CSS / JS you write will continue to target it whatever you move the cell on the underlying Skin (page design).

 

Responsive Newsletter Sign-up v1

 

This one has been a long time coming so a number of Affino sites will want to switch their Classic newsletter sign-up page to the new responsive version. Has all the functions of the old one with a great new v7 responsive look and feel.

 

Responsive Prime Related Content v1

 

We’ve rolled out the first version of the Prime Related Content DE. It is now possible to manually relate articles to one another and display them wherever the design element is used. Initially just supports Articles and Newsletters. Let us know what other content types you need supporting and we’ll add them in the upcoming releases. note that you will need to include the DE on your pages to display the related content.

 

Responsive Article Listing DE v2

 

Great new update to the Article Listing DE which allows you to build article grids for the first time so for example have a 3 across and 3 down grid of articles. All working nicely with the v7 responsive framework. Note that the divider now comes from the Design Style so hat if you are changing your highlights be aware that you may also need to update your Design Style.

 

Smart Button DE v1

 

We have a new design element to replace the Button DE. It is fully realised in the v7 responsive framework, looks great, and allows you to create two types of button: image and text, with full smart capabilities such as mouseover, focus highlights when in channels and section trees, and panels which display on click / mouseover. Note that the Button DE which is built on the v6 framework will be deprecated, meaning you can still use them but you cannot create new ones. You will want to swap your Button DE’s out and replace them with Smart Buttons.

 

Smart Text DE v1

 

Great new v7 responsive text design element which replaces the existing Text DE. Has greatly improved styling. Note that the Text DE is now deprecated and you should look to swap it with the new Smart Text DE wherever possible.

 

Other Enhancements

 

Creatives - Affino now automatically re-names creative images used in ads and replaces the name with an UUID, this is to prevent them from being blocked. Naming creative ads with ad related names meant that they were being instantly blocked by the ad blockers.

 

Responsive Forms - now look great within any design context. User the ‘Start Break Point’ setting on the Design Cell to select how you want your form to look. This is especially useful when including narrow forms of the full desktop breakpoint (view).

 

Responsive Media Listing DE - standardised the settings to be consistent with the other listing design elements

 

Responsive Member Listing - new v7 version of the Member Listing for a greatly improved way to search and list out members.

 

Responsive Design Objects - Selecting an object, script of design element automatically updates the name on the design cell to match.

 

Responsive Invites - new v7 responsive version of Invites comes to Affino.

 

Responsive Two Column Channel Listing - new listing style which allows you to list two sets of channels / sections side by side instead of just one.

 

Responsive Listings - styling improvements throughout

 

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, but which nonetheless improve on the overall Affino experience.

 

Article Detail - improved spacing, bullets now display reliably, now works well with Start Break Point

 

Article Listing DE - resolved issues with special characters, now works well with Start Break Point

 

Article Steps - improved spacing and frames. Fixed Sort Order issues.

 

App Bar - now works well when adding articles whatever the context

 

Auto Multi-display - now works in all contexts

 

Contacts - improved filters

 

Control Centre - no longer displaying html on pages

 

Demographic Profile - resolved errors

 

Design Panel - now displays reliably

 

Download - now takes users to login page if they lack permission to download

 

Link Articles - resolved issues

 

Login / Logout - resolved login and logout issues

 

Media Library - list view no longer errors out

 

Media Upload - updated ImageMagick to latest release for improved Gif handling

 

My Account Profile - no longer errors when adding

 

My Information - resolved issues causing the profile view to error out

 

My Messages - resolved message composing issues

 

Pending Users - no longer errors out when approving

 

Recruitment - resolved issue with apply button

 

Registration  - Terms and Conditions now an editable Text Item, multiple fixes on the registration form styling

 

Section Detail - improved formatting

 

Sharing Buttons - alignment issues resolved

 

Site Analysis - no longer displaying information dump, no longer errors out when over 1,000 channels

 

Skins - resolved Skin generation errors

 

Sitemap - channels now displayed in correct order if you’ve used Sort Order for ordering them

 

Un-used Content - added From Publish Start filter

 

Removed

 

This Affino release sees a number of elements removed in preparation of the move to Responsive, including:

 

Button DE and Text DE - these are still in place, but are built on the v6 responsive framework and it is not possible to update them to v7 without breaking every single Affino site. As a result they’ve been replaced by Smart Button DE and Smart Text DE respectively. It is no longer possible to add new Button and Text DE’s.

 

Component Changes

 

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

 

HighCharts updated to 4.2.2