Keeping up the theme of releasing Google based widgets at Xmas (see last year) we thought we'd add the much requested Google maps feature to SiteMaker so that you can help your customers find you - if you want them to find you ;-)

Google Maps Integration

  • Add a Google maps interface directly into your site
  • Set a location beacon to show your exact location on the map
  • Allow your customers to manipulate the map (zoom/drag) to help them get their bearings
  • It's in the 'functional' folder called 'google map'

Improved YouTube Video Feed

We have also updated our video player to use YouTube’s very own video API to ensure reliability. This will mean that if YouTube change how they serve videos, you don’t have to worry about your video failing, we will pick up any changes and ensure the video feed is maintained.

However, please be aware that if the video owner has set or marked the video as "private" or "embed only", the video will not be available via our player.

Some other stuff

  • 4 new templates to choose from
  • File manager reorganisation, including up to date 'all' folders to help you find things more easily

And...that's it. Not quite the usual Xmas bonanza granted, but we've been working on several big pieces of new functionality and haven't been able to complete them in time to get them to Santa.

We tried outsourcing some of our development to Santa's Elves to speed things up, but the economy at the North Pole is still largely based on traditional manufacturing and hasn't yet made the transition to a service sector based economy with strong conceptual software skills, so that didn't work out so well. On the plus side they did make us a nice set of toy soldiers.

So you'll have to accept an IOU from us, for early next year, for the membership and e-Commerce features. But to give you a little sneak preview, I've got a couple of screenshots of the work in progress.

membershipPermissions_small.jpg

The enhanced membership features will arrive first. We're building them first as a platform the the e-Commerce improvements, e.g. to run a good shop, you want your customers to be able to create user accounts and we found our current membership tools a bit lacking. So the new ones will make it easier to create and manage members, set permissions for pages (e.g. members only), and communicate with those members via mailing lists. The above screenshot shows the 'permissions' section where you can select multiple pages and apply view/edit rights in one go.

shopProducts_small.jpg

One of the big limitations with the current PayPal tools is that you have to set up each product separately. Well no more. With the new system you will be able to use the product manager interface and manage the attributes of your products in one place, e.g. price, sizes, colour. Once your products are set up you can display them in your site using 'product display widgets' which make it quick to add and organise many different products on a page, e.g. you can add them just like adding images to a gallery which will automatically set-up the price display and the 'buy'/'add to cart' buttons for you. The above screenshot shows the product manager in 'product list' mode.

So there you go, we are working on them, honest! These are screenshots from the working prototypes, so not just pretty pictures, though the final designs may change a bit as we do usability testing.

Have a wonderful Xmas (or holiday season) and we'll see you all in the New Year. Ho ho ho.