July release
[random display web app items from category, forgot password for online payments and bug corrections]
We are announcing a new Business Catalyst release, scheduled to go live next week.
This release includes several fixes that were impacting partners and customers using our eCommerce module, a new module setting allowing partners to display individual random items from a category, some improvements to the new File Manager, Forgot password support for offline payments and a few other bug fixes.
Known issues can be found posted here: http://forums.adobe.com/docs/DOC-2372
Features and enhancements
Random display items per category
One frequent request we had from partners, was the ability to display random web app items from a specific category. With the next release we're going to include this setting not only for web apps, but for all items that supported random display: web app items, news, blogs, events, FAQs, Forums, Media Downloads. To display a random item from a category, a user should use the cr attribute in the module. See below some samples for each of the updates modules:
- webapps -
{ module_webapps,5579,cr,41117 } - webappscustomer -
{ module_webappscustomer,5579,cr,41117 } - news -
{ module_announcement,cr,41117 }or{ module_announcement,cr,41117,true,ajax,_top } - blog -
{ module_blog,cr,41117 } - events -
{ module_booking,cr,41117 } - faq -
{ module_faq,cr,41117 }or{ module_faq,cr,41117,true,ajax,_top } - forum -
{ module_forum,cr,41117 } - media downloads -
{ module_literature,cr,41117 }
The new setting is also available through the module manager or our Dreamweaver integration
: 
For more information on this new module parameter, read the Module Quick Reference guide.
Send web form to additional email addresses
With this release, we are enabling webBasics site owners to send the web form notification to multiple email addresses. To enable that, we've added a new web form setting, named "Notification E-mail", that allows users to enter the email addresses where the web form notification should be sent:
Note: This functionality is available for all plans. When a workflow is applied on the form, this setting will list the email addresses included in the first step of the attached workflow.
"Forgot password workflow" for offline payments
Due to PCI-DSS security requirements, we have implemented a compliant workflow for the Offline Payment (OP) password.
- Every user who has access to orders made through the offline payment gateway, will be required to set-up a security question and answer that the user will later use for the "Forgot Password" workflow.
- In addition to this, we have published a compliant procedure to reset the Offline Payment password, in case a user forgets the security question and answer. It will be publicly available in our Knowledge Base.
Other changes
- New File Manager: we've added keyboard shortcuts for some of the most common actions (see tooltips)
- New File Manager: added support for multiple file upload; (not supported on Internet Explorer 8/9 and tablets)
- Report on opt-in status: we've updated custom reports to allow customers also export the customer opt-n status
- Updated events subscribers list to also display the subscriber email address
Deprecated functionality
- With this release we are going to remove the reset password functionality from Partner Portal because it raises security implications as it allowed partners to view a user password; to reset an admin user password, partners can login into the site admin console and use the send password recovery email link from the Admin Users interface.
- With August release, the Module Manager interface will remove the option to "Use Image for Button [x]" available for some modules (web form submit button, product search form button and more). The current browser support is good enough for enabling more effective ways to style buttons with CSS instead. This also helps with preparing to replace the current Module Manager with the better version available in File Manager.
Issues fixed by July release
- Issue 2892059 - Fixed an issue preventing the Facebook like and comments module to render after choosing a different product from a product group; to enable Facebook comments, partners also need to update the way this plugin is included in the site; for more details on what needs to be updated, read the "Facebook comments plugin does not work properly when used with Product Grouping" technote
- Issue 3219275 - Fixed an issue causing recurrent orders to be created without a shipping option
- Issue 2668311 - Fixed an issue causing recurrent orders to include an incorrect shipping description
- Issue 2900590 - Fixed an issue causing an incorrect address to be displayed for web app items
- Issue 3096566 - Improved performance on loyalty email campaigns
- Issue 3213170 - Fixed an issue generating multiple email notifications for the same transaction when a purchase is made through Payment Express payment gateway
- Issue 2839472 - Fixed an issue preventing users from saving the web form Auto Responder when the interface language was set to French
- Issue 3219621 - Fixed an issue generating random errors when updating customer details
- Issue 3220784 - Updated forum notifications to include the site URL even when a default domain is not set
- Issue 3221426 - Fixed an issue causing weekly emails to show "0 visitors" in right sidebar for webBasics websites even when the site had visits
- Issue 3221199 - Updated File Manager to prevent scrolling to the top of the page after saving a file
- Issue 3221464 - Fixed an issue in the blog user interface preventing users from deleting tags
- Issue 3228822 - Updated Payment Gateway user interface to have Save button enabled at all times to allow users save PayPal settings
- Issue 3228829 - Fixed an bug making Import Data page not accessible from the old user interface
- Issue 3228812 - Fixed an issue causing the Manage New Comments Rules to be displayed empty
- Issue 3228560 - Fixed an issue causing the link to support to load the business owner support page even if the logged in user was a partner
- Issue 3230060 - Fixed an issue preventing streaming literature items from being displayed correctly if extension was in uppercase
- Issue 3230807 - Fixed an issue causing module_ratingrank to not display custom images
- Issue 3230062 - Fixed an issue causing the Dashboard Reports to show the end date one day in the future.
- Issue 2832342 - Fixed a bug causing Opt-In status to be exported blank when exporting a Customer Report to CSV
- Issue 3208395 - Users can now change their recovery email from My Details page
- Issue 3214348 - Updated visitors report Geographic location graph so that it also display entries with missing or incomplete information
- Issue 2751493 - Made "Limit Delivery to Following Countries" list selection reflect the select shipping option
- Issue 3286799 - Fixed an issue in Custom Reports causing the report builder to crash when trying to filter by case status
- Issue 3284135 - Fixed an issue preventing the image for removing products in the edit order screen from being rendered
Business Catalyst new admin interface updates
- Updated several controls display rule to depend on user permission instead of user type (partner or business owner); this issue prevented Partners from accessing the new File Manager when logged in on sites that did not belong to their partner portal.
- Fixed an issue causing link manager to not load if started from Rad editor link manager opened in pop-up windows
- Fixed a problem causing the code editor to crash when pasting more than 140 characters
What's next
- Import customers/web apps performance: following the release, we're going to release a update that aims to improve performance of our import engine; this aims to reduce import time and avoid timeouts during import;
- Page metadata changes: we plan to update the way page metadata is handled (for more details, see planned changes page)
- New admin interface: updated the save and related action buttons behavior to be consistent throughout the entire admin (mockups)
- Product Inventory Control per Attributes: we are planning to update the current e-commerce module to enable store owners to manage inventory based on product attributes; this feature is expected to be included in the September release.
- New analytics infrastructure - beta: we will release a beta version of a new analytics infrastructure. This aims to solve performance issues when viewing analytics data, and some minor tweaks in visit calculations. A separate post on the paid partner forum with more information on how to access this beta version will be published next week.
Thank you,
Cristinel Anastasoaie
Adobe Business Catalyst Product Manager