Beta: Monday 20 January, 2025 Full Client Release: Mon 27 & Tue 28 January, 2025
Due to the holidays there was no release 206. We have combined the features and fixes of 206 and 207 into one release. It makes for a great read, so make sure you grab your coffee (or tea)β¦
New Year, New CMS!
The current CMS design has been around for many years and it is due for a refresh. We are launching 2025 with the first phase of our new look and feel CMS experience. Starting off with a new menu design and some light-touch styling improvements module by module, before making more functional improvements later this year.
We would love to know what you think! Please use the new popup form in the Dashboard to do so.
We would also love some users to join our feedback group and participate in early previews of our latest designs. If you have any other questions on the new experience, please reach out to Chief Experience Officer george@culturesuite.co with general feedback or questions.
Genres list becomes Filter buttons
In Release v205, we extended our Genres List filter part to also display tags, locations and themes. We have renamed the Part into βfilter buttonsβ. Get it while itβs still hot!
More filter options: Tag limit
We have added a new βtagsLimitβ parameter for the Event list filter part. This enables you to define how many tags are shown initially before showing the βmoreβ button. In this example the tagsLimit parameter is set to 3:
Queue optimisations
The latest Queue changes in previous releases have resulted in more visible traffic on the website. This is a deliberate improvement that helps us visualise what is actually going on on any given website.
These sessions sometimes lead to a short queue. It is important that any session that is not showing activity will be cleaned up as fast as possible. That is why we introduced the βSession stale afterβ time setting (default is 15 minutes), which defines when an inactive session can be cleaned up.
During the payment step on the website, we cannot see activity when a visitor is at the payment provider page. We typically use a long Session stale after (min) time, to make sure when visitors return after payment, their session is still active on the website and they do not get sent back to the queue after payment.
From Release v207, we no longer activate the queue on the landing page after returning from the payment. Landing on this page is always possible now. That means the Session stale after (min) time could be decreased to 10 or even 5 minutes before we clean up inactive sessions, now that the payment step no longer counts towards a visitorβs inactivity. You will find this setting in your Control Panel > Queuing
We have also added ways to collect more data about visitors in Queue stats. This will help us to identify bots and other traffic much faster in the future, so we can exclude this traffic from any queue in the future.
Let png be png!
Our crop tool uses the WebP file format to generate all the crops. WebP is a rather new standard for images on the web, and does a really good job to optimize file size vs image quality. However, in graphic artwork, WebP compression can be slightly visible on sharp edges. For graphics with sharp lines and edges, it is best to use the .png file format, because that is a lossless format. In this release we made sure that whenever a png file is uploaded, each generated crop will be stored as a png file, making sure all crispy details will stay crispy, anywhere, any time.
Support for "slider" parameter in the (Whatβs on) events list
Your event list can use multiple templates to display your Whatβs on overview. Including list, compact list, brochure view, mobile-ish tiles, and now includes slider as an extra option!
Now, we do not recommend you put your entire season in one slider, but if you are working with a smaller filtered view of events in a separate Whatβs on page, you can use the slider template to display your events.
Maintenance
The Maintenance module now handles downtime of integrated box office software a lot better. When activating a Maintenance message, all data traffic with the box-office system is stopped. A message is shown at any part of the website where a connection with the box office would be needed (shopping cart, order flow, account, login, etc.)
Sidenote above the Description on mobile on Production pages
We have added a new Parameter to display the sidenote above the description part on Production pages on mobile devices, as sidenotes donβt fit next to the description on smaller screens. The default behaviour is for the sidenote to show underneath the description. This parameter moves the sidenote above the description.
In Routes & Parts > Website Show Detail > Description Part, add the parameter sideNoteAbove and set it to βtrueβ.
Additional Fixes & Improvements
- Fix to display the location on a Production card when all events within the Production have the same location
- Fix for correctly checking the availability of cross-sells in order flow
- Fix for cross-selll status updater (Itix)
- Stories: Fix Story type too long resulting in 500 error
- Courses now have OpenGraph data
- View from seat feature now available in the Spektrix purchase path
- Added mail template preview for cancellation mails in the Special Access menu
- Redirects module now strips any trailing / for better redirecting
- The automated CRM & sales data import is now always running every 1 hour (was sometimes 6 hours)
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