New Release - 27 October 2009 - Finalised New Toolbar
By Joe on Monday, October 26 2009, 17:48 - Release notes - Permalink
Thank you to all of those who provided us with feedback over the past few weeks while the Toolbar has been running in Beta. This has been very helpful to us in ironing out some of those strange little bugs. We're very pleased to announce that the new (and improved) Toolbar is now live! Here's a quick grab of what the final version looks like.
So what are the differences? Read on, read on...
Bug fixes and improvements
On the road to make it fully ready for everyone to use we've had to fix quite a few little buglets and add a few sprinkles of magic. The highlights of which are:
- CTRL key now works again
- Keyboard shortcuts now function normally again
- @ symbol and backspace now work correctly in Chrome
- '-1' error (and '404' on Macs) for large file uploads has been fixed
- In Firefox the keyboard nudge, enter, tab keys and cursor will work normally again
- 'Delete this page' option has been restored to the 'Pages' menu
- Domains module now loads in the edit environment (doesn't go back to moonfruit.com)
- Loading has been optimised for quicker download and more feedback
- Sidebar panels now animate to add a bit of sparkle (we all need sparkle ;-) )
You can still get to the new Toolbar in the same way, e.g. 'View' --> 'New Toolbar', or if you're already using it you'll get the updates automatically.
I thought I'd give you a quick summary of the advantages of the new Toolbar from the last blog article. We're really please with how it has turned out and hope you like it too.
New Toolbar highlights
The major drive for this change was to better organise the features available and create the structure so that we can expand services further in the future. Moonfruit has grown to include so many features over the years, sometimes the most important ones get lost, so this is an opportunity to re-present them for how they are, or can be, used today. The advantages of the new Toolbar are:
- Use the full screen browser for editing - you can move edit tools outside the boundary of your site
- Zoom in/out while editing - you make your site bigger/smaller to help you 'see' it in full glory
- Sticky edit tools - the Toolbar remains at the top and the Editor will remain on screen as you scroll up and down
- Show off-screen objects - if you drag something off your site (outside the boundary), you can choose to hide or display off screen objects while in Edit mode (new under 'view')
- Detailed insert menu - more objects can be added in one click, including some new HTML snippets ('Insert' menu)
- Quick pages menu - includes quicker ways to add pages, copy pages and change page length, plus edit meta data (for search engines) more quickly (see 'Pages' menu)
- Links to other services - Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, AdSense can all be viewed without leaving your site (new 'Services' menu)
- Copy site/transfer site feature - allows you to create copies of your site as the basis for a new site (not for backup)
- HTML widget - add any HTML snippet to your site using our HTML widget snippet (e.g. Google Gadgets, all Widgetbox widgets, all Amazon widgets and more).
Here's the original beta release article if you missed it.
And if you want to give it a go why not build your own free website ;-)
So that's it for now. Look out for a further announcement next week with some exciting service improvements...

Comments
Such a relief to have the cursor back in FF! You also seem to have fixed the bizarre and unpredictable behaviour of the cursor keys in FF so I can now move the cursor position reliably one character at a time - this was a problem long before the new edit environment and it used to drive me mad. So big thanks for that.
Ooh, maybe spoke too soon! All my page based metadata seems to have disappeared?
Hi Steve, what page and site are you looking at? Thanks, Joe
Hi Steve,
Ok I can see that now. The data isn't gone, it's just not being displayed for some reason. Let me get the guys onto it. Thanks for letting me know!
Joe
Hi Joe, seems to be true of all pages on all my sites. The metadata is there (I can see it in the advanced view) but in the new toolbar the boxes for keywords and description are blank. An example at random: http://www.stephenbrownphotography.... But all pages have the same problem.
Sorry - posted before I saw your reply!
No worries. We've found the problem and will release a fix shortly. Thanks for letting us know.
Joe
Prior to the latest changes, ie this week, I have been able to highlight and copy the content in the meta sidebar - keywords and page description. Now when I right click to copy just get the adobe flash stuff coming up. Any comments on this please.
Hi Alan,
I'll get the guys to take a look and see what's up. Thanks for letting us know,
Joe
Hi Guys,
I have implemented the html snippet widget for use on one of my sites.
I have added a script for random banners with links, to allow for random advertising, however, although I have used a script that should make the link open in a new window, this does not seem to happen, it continues to open the linked site in the same window, which is not the best option for me.
Any ideas why the link does not open in a new window, is this a possible problem with the html widget.
Any help would be appreciated.
many thanks in advance.
Faddy
Hi Faddy,
When we coded the HTML widget I made the call that links should open in the same browser window. This is considered good practice as the browsers history stays consistent allowing user to hit the Back button to return to the original site. When a new window is opened the history resets and the back button can't be used to return to the site. The user can become lost and they may never find their way back to your web page, especially if they're running with a maximised browser.
This decision was mostly done to cover situation where a link target hadn't been specified, in the case of your script where it has I could change the logic to take this into account, it's a discussion we've already started having in the office and your feedback helps feed into this.
Can I ask why it's better for you to have the links open in a new window?
tl;dr; this is how it's meant to work, we do plan to expand on the options for using link targets in the HTML widget so a site leader can customise the experience.
cheers,
Dan - Moonfruit Developer
I want to take advantage of all of the social networking tools; Twitter, a Wordpress blog, Facebook, etc. Is there a tutorial somewhere that can walk me step by step through the process of integrating them into my website?
Hi Dan,
thank you for your quick and informative response, the reason i wanted the links to open in a new window was so as the end user, when finished with viewing the linked site, could return back to my site instantly as it would still be open. I underrstand you saying they could use the back button, but if they have been browsing the linked site for a while, that could lead to requiring many back commands to get back to my site. Its not a major problem to me, more of an observation, however as you say, if you think changing the logic to take this into account is right, then i'm sure you guys will progress the matter.
Also, I noticed, when I view my script in FF, it's perfect, however i have now noticed that when i view it in IE, the picture image moves from its original location, to the bottom left of my page, but a dotted outline remains where it should be and the link is still there also, very wierd and not good for IE viewers, can you shed any light on this.
many thanks for all help
cheers
Faddy
Hi,
i've a big problem : When i go on my site, i have no answer. In fine, we have the same problem with Moonfruit (France). What's about it?
Please help me
David
Hi David,
Gandi.net who house our servers for moonfruit.fr were doing planned network work last night so this led to a disruption in service. All has been restored now. Thanks,
Joe
I am new to this, so pardon my ignorance. I have been told by my techie friends that I need "PHPsupport" ) that I plan to host with you. Do you have PHP support and how do I do it? They need this to subscribe to a three way linking service.
Hi Nara,
We do not offer PHP support. If you want that sort of integration then SiteMaker and Moonfruit won't be the right web building package for you. Our software is designed for folks who want simply site building and don't want or need to worry about programming or back end support. We do our own proprietary hosting with our own infrastructure. So it's just not possible.
Regards
Walt
Loving the new toolbar and breathing a sigh of relief that the cursor key jog works again in FF! Please, please, PUH-LEASE redesign and re-release the BLOG PAGE. It's very ugly, small, and non-customisable. Yuk! Also, can we have a Twitter button for the soc networking widget. It's been the hottest SN site for a long time now. I tried inserting a blog page from another service with an iframe but that's not a good option for many reasons. I'm thinking a Wordpress plugin/page would be too tough to implement??
Cheers
JD
Using a MACBook Pro OSX Leopard and Safari browser. Since the new release the cursor vibrates up and down ONLY while editing our site. The cursor is fine on other web pages. Is this a known problem? It is very annoying...