PortalProdigy News

April 12, 2010

 

We are excited to release PortalProdigy Version 4.42 which includes a number of enhancements to improve your online experience and productivity.  Your website will be updated to the new version sometime this week.  We thank you for choosing PortalProdigy and look forward to serving your online needs.  Please feel free to contact us to discuss your ideas and issues. We are constantly striving to improve the PortalProdigy product and appreciate your feedback.

Enhancements in Version 4.42

Admin Menus

Admin Menus provide permitted users with menus to access administrative features of your website.  This feature replaces the static Main Administration Menu.  It allows customized menus to be created for specific users groups.  Members of the “Admin” Security Group are automatically assigned a default Administration menu. For all other Security Groups, Admin Menus must be assigned using Security Group Management. The old style Main Administration Menu is still available by clicking the Main Menu option located in the header of all Administrative pages.

One of the benefits of the new Admin Menus is that they are visible on almost all Administrative pages, thus allowing you to quickly jump to another management page. Using right click on a menu item you can easily open another management page in a new tab or window.

Administrative users that are not assigned to the “Admin” Security Group will need to be assigned Admin Menus.  See http://www.portalprodigy.com/main.asp?uri=1003&di=617 for instructions.

Dashboard:

Your website now includes a variety of graphs to give you a quick overview of your website’s performance.  The dashboard is viewable by administrative users that are members of the “Admin” Security Group.  It is displayed as the default administration page. 

Click the update button to refresh the graphs with the latest data. 

Quick Registration:

A new Membership assignment feature makes it easy to assign registrants to contact types and security groups that can be used for categorization, retrieval, reporting, email broadcasting, etc.

We have added an option to Quick Registration Builder to specify a Membership Type.  This allows you to automatically assign Contact Types, Security Groups, Contact Menu, and Price Group when someone submits a registration form.  To configure this new feature:

1)      You must first use Membership Type Management to create a membership. You must specify a name in the Title field.  Set Sub-Type = “Registration Only”.  In the Membership Groups section specify the Security Groups (Pre-Approved, Approved, and Expired), Contact Types, Price Group and Contact Menu that you want assigned. In the Calculate Expiration Date As section set to “No Expiration”.  Leave all other fields set to their default values. Save and exit.

2)      Using Quick Registration Builder to edit each of your registration forms.  Set Membership Type to the applicable type.  Save and exit.

Menu Builder:

We have made the following enhancements to Menu Builder:

1)      We added an “Open in new window” option.  This opens the menu item in a new browser window.  This should be used when providing links to other websites.  This will leave your website open in the user’s browser so when they close the other website they can return to your website.

2)      Menu Item Options – the option labels were given more appropriate names.  We also expanded the Feature option choices.  They include administrative features as well public features.  Note that even though you include an administrative link in a menu, the system will still require the user to have access rights before allowing them to access the feature. 

Collection Manager:

We have made Collection Manager easier to use.  It includes the following enhancements:

1)      Improved design that separates Components from Styles.  Components are Mini Browser types such as Greeting, Events, News, Products, Shopping Cart, etc.  Styles are the templates that determine the appearance (style) of each Mini Browser.  A single component such as an Events Mini Browser may have several style choices available. You can edit the styles as well as to create your own. 

2)      Add and Edit buttons are intuitively placed below the applicable item.  This applies to Styles and Record Sets.  Record Sets are groups of data.  Some components such as the Events Mini Browser have automated record sets.  E.g. the Events Mini Browser always displays the five most current Events.  Other components such as Menus allow you to build your own record sets.  You can have many menus each with a different record set (menu topics and items).

3)      The “Unstructured MB” has been renamed to “Custom”.  This component is used to create custom Mini Browsers.  E.g. an advertisement as a picture that hyperlinks to something, an embedded flash, or and embedded You-Tube video.

4)      The “Structured MB” has been renamed to “List”.  This component is used to create Mini Browsers that contain a list of items.  List Builder is used to input a list of items including headings, descriptive text, images, and hyperlinks. 

Request Mini Browser:

You can now insert a Request Form within a side bar, the main content section of your home page, or within a document page. E.g. include a request for assistance form directly on your home page or a request for more information form directly on a document page.

Email Notifications for new Requests:

We added tags to the Request object in Broadcaster for the form fields so the complete form contents can be included in an email notification; eliminating the need to go to the website to view the information. Request forms are a great way of building a “Contact Us” form.  The new tags use the sort order number (this is the Order # in the Form Builder Management form).  See the Email Template example below.

1)      Email Template:

Dear <%CONTACT:FirstName%>,

 

The following person has submitted a contact request on your website:

 

Name: <%REQUEST:FormAnswerID1%>

Company: <%REQUEST:FormAnswerID2%>

Title: <%REQUEST:FormAnswerID3%>

Email: <%REQUEST:FormAnswerID4%>

Phone: <%REQUEST:FormAnswerID5%>

 

<%REQUEST:FormAnswerID6%>

 

Click on this link to view: <%REQUEST:AdminRequestLink%>

2)      Form Builder:

The Order # field is highlighted in the screen picture below.

 

Form Builder:

Form Builder is used to build Survey Forms and Request Forms. We made the following enhancements to Form Builder:

1)      Question List – this is displayed on the right hand side so you can see all of your form’s questions and quickly jump to any one of them. 

2)      Label/Question – this is now a memo field so you can enter longer text.  On screen forms will display the full value and reports will automatically truncate the value, using the first sentence only.  This preserves the readability of reports.

3)      Choice Response Type – we have enabled it as a memo field so you can easily paste a list of values into it rather than having to enter them one at a time.  Insert one value per row. We also added an enumeration option for the response choices.  Use the Reorder Responses button to easily change the sort order of the responses.  Note that the Scoring & Branching button is part of a future enhancement and currently not functional. 

4)      Text Response Type – select data format option “Text” for text box and “Large Text” for memo field.

5)      None Response Type – use this to display text on the form.  The text will be displayed without an input (response) field/control.  This provides and easy method of inserting headings and providing instructions that apply to multiple questions.

6)      Instructions – use to you attach a short instruction or explanation to an individual question.  When an instruction is entered, an information icon is displayed next to the question.

Document Collections:

Allows the insertion of components into document pages the same way you insert components into the main content section of your Home Page.  Have a standard blurb that you want inserted at the bottom of multiple pages?  Use the new Document Collections feature to automatically insert it into the applicable documents. Want to change the blurb?  Change it in once place and it is automatically updated in all documents. 

At the present time the following components can be inserted into documents (we will be adding more in the future):

1)      Custom Mini Browser – create custom Mini Browsers and insert them into documents.  This makes it easy to insert a Flash or You-Tube Video in one or more documents.

2)      Document Mini Browser – insert another document into a document.  This is great for inserting standard blurbs, footers, etc

3)      Products Mini Browser – find the product catalog limiting? Now you can provide and format product information as documents and insert tables with automatically updated product information included pricing. Include add to cart, request quote, and place a bid options. This is great way to advertise a group of products where the information on the page applies to all products in the group.  You can define your own product groups with no limit on the number of groups or the number of products in each group. 

4)      Request Mini Browser - now you can add a form to a document page.  E.g. include a request more information form.

Contact Import:

You can now create Company records when importing Contacts.  You can also include both a Company Code and Contact Code in your imports to link both contacts and companies to your other systems such as your accounting system.  This makes cross referencing and repetitive updates easy.

Exchanges:

This feature has become more powerful and flexible with:

1)      Additional Fields – we have added a number of new fields.

2)      Applications – setup a job board and accept applications automatically linked to the job listing applied for.

3)      File Attachments – allow users to attach files to their listings or applications.  Easily define the allowable file types.

4)      Profiles – allow users to create and save profiles that can be used to fill out applications.  Great for job boards.

5)      Fees – are now fully integrated with the shopping cart feature.  This allows users to submit multiple listings with single checkout and payment.

Exchanges are a versatile feature that can be used for a variety of applications including document submission, connecting people and resources, classified ads, employment opportunities, etc.  Contact your PortalProdigy representative to learn more about the Exchanges feature and how you can take advantage of it.

New Products & Services

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

Having a great website is of no value if people are not coming to it.  We can help you drive more quality traffic to your website.  PortalProdigy includes a number of SEO features and no one is better qualified to assist you in their implementation. 

Our expert staff is available to help you promote your website and organization’s mission.  We will tailor a promotional campaign to fit your budget and objectives.  Contact us for details.

Job Board Builder:

Job Board Builder is a turnkey solution for building and operating a website to advertise jobs and automate the process of accepting online applications.  For more information see www.jobboardbuilder.com

Referral Program

Earn Service Credits:

Do you know of someone that wants to build a website or to improve their existing website?   

Do your friends and associates a favor by referring them to PortalProdigy and earn service credits that can be redeemed for PortalProdigy services including hosting, development work, and SEO services.  Contact us for details.

About Us

PortalProdigy is dedicated to helping organizations take advantage of the web.  Our flagship product the PortalProdigy Internet Interaction Manager permits organizations to build and manage a highly functional website/web portal and to run their entire organization from the Internet.  PortalProdigy includes a comprehensive content management system that allows non-technical users to manage web content and provide a number of online services. The PortalProdigy product is backed by a highly skilled team of experts to insure your success on the web. 

Our services include:

·       Website design including logos and branding

·       Website promotion and marketing

·       Search Engine Optimization

·       Content creation and formatting

·       Data conversion and data importation

·       Integration with other systems

·       Custom programming

·       Business and technical consulting

·       Support and training

For additional information you may contact us by phone, email, or online.

Phone: (609) 584-7747 ext 202          assistance@portalprodigy.com           http://www.portalprodigy.com/main.asp?uri=1083&rid=4