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Affino 6.0.14 Release - Usability and Ecommerce

29 March 201212:34

Markus Karlsson

Initially Affino 6.0.14 was aimed at being primarily a bug fix release to follow up Affino 6.0.13, which was a major leap in Affino’s evolution. It has evolved somewhat though and there are some great usability and ecommerce focused improvements also in this release. Altogether there are nearly 200 updates in this release.

We have tackled a number of key Affino usability issues with this release: The checkout is much more intelligent in how it handles mixed baskets, i.e ones with incompatible purchases like a subscription which needs to be paid for by Direct Debit and a set of knives which needs to be paid for up-front and the user has to meet specific age requirements; coupon management has been updated for using on large catalogues; and the new Dynamic Tagging engine means that we’ve rolled out what we believe is the best possible tagging interface ever seen.

The ecommerce aspects of Affino have again had the most attention, and we’re rapidly approaching our goal to making the store management experience second to none. There are dozens of refinements in this release, which when added together will make the experience that much slicker and easy to use.

Overall this release is really aimed at smoothing out wrinkles with the Affino management experience and it really delivers.

Upgrade Guidance

This is a minor Affino release which is primarily focused on bug fixes and usability improvements. It means that the upgrade experience will be very smooth for most users with minimal disruption. For users upgrading from Affino 6.0.12 it is essential to also read the Affino 6.0.13 release notes since it was a very significant one.

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.

Key Enhancements

Dynamic Tagging

In the last release saw the new universal tagging engine in Affino, however it introduced some limitations for users who are actually tagging the content. This release sees the introduction of a superb tagging engine which combines free-form tagging, predictive drop-downs and hints and a Topic selector.

This should cater for all tagging needs. The new tagging interface also looks great.

Age Restrictions

We have rolled out Age Restricted products in Affino. It is an advanced version which handles all the purchasing scenarios which users might face, whether they’re guests, logging in, registering for the first time or just browsing.

All Catalogue Items can now be set to have age restrictions on who can buy them. Users must enter their date of birth during the checkout process (or prior to it) to be able to purchase age restricted products. Users who are underage will automatically be unable add the products to their shopping baskets or will have them removed when they log in on the checkout. At all points are users notified exactly what’s happening and which products are restricted and to what age they are restricted to.

Coupons

We have added three new key abilities for managing coupons, which means that they will be significantly more useful than before. We’ve added Export and Delete options, and what makes these great is that you can filter precisely which coupons you want to remove or export for archiving.

The big breakthrough comes from the fact that you no longer need to assign coupons in an all-or-nothing fashion. The Catalogue Item selector now has a great search and filter bar which allows you to target products in bulk within Sections, or specific types or with specific tags. When working with thousands / millions of coupons and items this is absolutely essential.

Ztorm Integration beta

Affino now integrates with Ztorm - ztorm.com - for selling digital Software downloads. Affino can automatically pull in the Ztorm software catalogue, classify the games and immediately and seamlessly sell them.

We’ve also developed a new My Software screen on My Account which allows users to verify their purchase and download the games and associated media. This is the first version so we are anticipating that we will need to evolve it somewhat for the following release.

Other Enhancements

Avatars - can now be hidden from the registration and the user editing to completely hide them on a live site.

Commerce - key enhancement for handling subscriptions (renewable payments) via one payment gateway whilst handling upfront payments through another, in the same store; also handles unique subscription requirements whereby users are notified that they must checkout before adding additional items to the basket; key enhancement to ensure that Cash on Delivery payments are not taken for download (digital subscription) sales. Updated alerts handling on the checkout; new calendar selector for delivery days; specific dates can be excluded as delivery days; it is now possible to have multiple in-page payment gateways on the same checkout screen; order exports now include the coupons for each order

Conversion Events - can now be logged / not logged; can trigger integration scripts to fire off custom events

Error Notifications - improved styling

Events - it is now possible to change the speaker order and display their details in a modal dialogue rather than taking them to the members pages; add custom event panels

Feeds (outgoing) - now only cached for 5 minutes. This may well be reviewed moving ahead as an increasing volume of mobile content is being fed through outgoing feeds.

Forums - only Community Moderators can now merge threads; Forum Thread titles now display as the Page Title

Funding Platform v1.1 - numerous fixes and improvements make this an essential update. Greatly improved styling; added Funding Project To List and prompts to support with the setup process

Google Analytics Integration - Affino now tracks online forms and dynamic form entries through to Google Analytics in the format: /online-form/FORM_NAME and /dynamic_form/FORM_NAME

Imports - all imports now have greatly improved validation and error notices. Will provide much more useful feedback on incorrectly formatted import data.

Invites - can no longer be made by Pending Users, and the content is filtered according to the profanity filter. This is done to reduce invite spam. For users experiencing invite spam make sure you use the capabilities of the Spam Prevention Profile as well.

Secure JavaScript - added Static Content Security controls in the Security Centre. These allow you to determine the domains / paths you wish to authenticate

Lists - Display-side List headers now also becoming sticky

Login - a great number of tweaks have been made to the Popup login making this an essential update; pending users are no longer able to invite other users; invite comments are no filtered for profanities; the invite modal dialogue now looks much better; it is now possible to default select the ‘remember my login’ option

Member Search - new adaptive search means that Affino searches through more details on smaller sites including job titles and company details

Messaging - no longer sends out messages to suspended users

Mixcloud Integration v1 - Affino now integrates using oembed with Mixcloud

My Account v1.5 - major improvements in how the My Account pages are styled and used. Key usability improvements throughout. Further enhancements upcoming.

Order Notifications - now include Tax information if it’s displayed on the checkout. It is now an option to display the payment gateway return code.

Payment Methods - new Payment Method Type option allows you test what kind of transactions are supported by each payment gateway. This can vary a great deal owing to the services being provided and subscribed to by differing payment gateway providers; and also based on the services and products being sold and the way in which you wish to sell them. Works with advanced product and service matrices.

Product Search - added more Divs around product search results for improved customisation

Recommendation DE - can now be used multiple times on the same Skin for more intuitive recommendations

Recommended Products DE - now makes personalised recommendations to users when on most pages, whilst making product specific recommendations when displayed on a detailed product page; not longer recommends products which have already been purchased.

Realex Integration - it is now possible to select a subset of the available card options

Shopping Basket DE - many tweaks made to improve how the drop-down basket works making this an essential update.

Smart Debit - completely re-written Smart Debit integration. Now integrated as an external payment gateway. Works with two collection days each month, i.e. 1st and 15th of the month. Works with free subscription periods, i.e. payment delays.

Subscriptions - it is now possible to delay the start of a subscription for users, i.e. 30 day’s free. This only works with the Smart Debit payment gateway though. Additional gateway support may incur costs.

User Bulk Update v1 - renamed from User Security Clearance. New Control allows you to bulk updates users’ company names, Security Clearance and Security Group memberships.

Wishlists - now with more style

YouTube Integration - Affino now supports YouTube’s new short links

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.

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