Today the June release was launched, and it included a long shopping list of updates to both the core system and to several modules, so without hesitation - here it is!

• Improved Spam filtering
• New tabbed administrative interfaces
• Support for TinyMCE Snippets
• Improved memory usage of the Online Store Module
• New Blog Manager options
• Integration of the Social Media Manager and the Blog Manager
• New Search and Membership Management options in the Membership Access System
• Improved image handling in the Product Catalog

With this update, we also included the framework for the new Twitter Update module and several that will be released in July. These updates include improved handling of e-commerce configurations, new options for handling Flash video, and the first version of our Google Analytics integration.

The New Year brings changes for many organizations, and we are eager to share some exciting new changes at Lewis Media. We have two sides to our business: first, we provide web design and consulting services, and second we sell our software to marketing and design agencies world-wide.  

In late 2008 we were approached by a marketing firm who was interested in purchasing our software and that arm of the business. We have recently completed the sale, which will lead to some changes in the way we operate.

To ensure our web design and consulting clients continue to receive the highest level of service available, we are partnering with ZFactor Communications, a long time strategic partner and registered reseller of our Bistro software. The new, closer alliance will see ZFactor taking the lead on delivering more comprehensive web marketing services while our software development activities move to their new home.

Although this will have little impact on our design clients and their websites, it does mean that there will be some new faces and additional services to support them. The most visible changes will be the ZFactor logo on future communications (including newsletters, invoices and cards) and a host of new services to enhance their online and offline marketing. This also means that our Kitchener office will be closing. While software support for Bistro customers and resellers will continue to be provided through our distributor website, online resources and built-in help desk, all other support will be managed by the ZFactor team through their Waterloo office.

These changes represent an exciting new direction for both Lewis Media and ZFactor. We've enjoyed working with you and look forward to a successful and continually evolving business relationship.

If you have any questions about the new partnership or about your site - please don't hesitate to drop us a line.

We received many questions about our February update - here is a quick recap of some of the answers that have been posted to comments, emails and help requests.

What are the new Menu Manager AutoStuff tags?

You can find the full list of new tags in the Online Manual in the Appendices, however for your reference here, the new tags are: SUBMENU, SUBMENU WITH PIPES, SUBMENU AS LIST, SUBMENU AS HORIZONTAL TABLE, SUBMENU AS VERTICAL TABLE, and BREADCRUMBS. These are producer-level tags, so they won't appear in the AutoStuff drop-down list that is visible as you edit content - you will need to type them into the editor, or insert them into your theme files.

What are the new Support Plan pricing options?

We've posted the updated Support Plan price points in the Pricing section of our website. An important clarification - Automatic updates do require an active support plan. However, even if you don't have an active support plan, you can still update Bistro whenever you like, by clicking on System Setup => Check for Updates.

Do I still need the Title Override Beta module?

If you had the Title Override Beta module installed on your site, updating your URL Manager (now called the SEO Manager) will eliminate the need for your Title Override manager. The update process will import all the custom titles you have created, and will disable the Title Override module. However, it will not uninstall the module entirely. To keep your Bistro installation running smoothly, you may want to click on "Admin" => "Manage Modules" and uninstall the Title Override Beta.

It seems we're having an issue with our phone system this morning - if you're trying to reach us right now, the best option for the time being is by email. I'll update this post once we have it resolved.

~ Joseph

Feb 26th Update: It seems we're partially back up and running now - at least our voicemail has kicked back in. Time to look at alternatives. Any suggestions?

It's that time of month again - release day! And today's release is a large one touching the Bistro system, our distributor's website, and nine of the modules. So, here are the highlights of the release to Bistro 2.7.0.3 (for a full list of updates, you can always read our Software Updates RSS Feed).

• Bistro Core: upgraded the installer, added more information to the trouble shooting packages, improved support agreement controls, and streamlined module installation when downloading new modules
• Improved logging and error messages in the Page Manager
• XSS security patch for the Member Access System
• New Menu Manager AutoStuff tags for Breadcrumbs and Sub Menus
• The URL Manager has been renamed to the SEO Manager
• Minor bug fixes in the Contact Us Form, Online Store, and Articles Manager
• 1.0 Release of the Social Media Manager
• Improved Performance and Stability Monitoring

Out of these updates, there are a couple of pretty significant changes. First, the "URL Manager" being renamed to the "SEO Manager" includes several new features as well as opening the door for more comprehensive SEO features that were looking for a home. Previously, this module simply generated search-engine-friendly and custom URLs. With today's release, though, this module now supports XML Site Maps, as well as SEO title override fields (options previously provided through the Title Override module). This change of direction of the URL manager will allow us to further enhance Bistro's already-impressive SEO features.

A second important note, is the release of the Social Media Manager (SMM) - this is the first of our "Social Networking" modules that are specifically designed to add features to other modules. The SMM gives users the ability to easily add social bookmarking and sharing links to content on their website, or to add these buttons into their theme, for inclusion on every page. Watch out for next month's follow-on release of our Twitter connector.

The final update worth bringing your attention to, are the new Performance and Stability monitoring tools - although most end-user's won't notice these changes in-action, our distributors have been working with them for the past couple of weeks. The new monitoring tools respond even more quickly to site outages, and now include helpful monthly reports for distributors, informing them of the status of the Bistro sites they manage. These reports complement our existing trend-analysis tools, and give our distributors more information to use when helping their clients.

As I mentioned in my previous post, one of the newest Bistro features is the Troubleshooting Package. We've had some clients ask what information is included in the Troubleshooting Package, so here is more detail. First, it is important to note that sending this package to our help desk is always optional - when you submit a new request there is a checkbox to include the package (defaulted to checked) and when you respond to an existing request, there is a checkbox to update the package (defaulted to unchecked). When you sends in your Troubleshooting Package, the information included is:

• Web Server software and version (e.g. Apache 2 or IIS 6.0)
• PHP Version (e.g. PHP 5.0.5)
• MySQL Version (e.g. MySQL 3.23)
• The last 10 messages stored in your Bistro Error Log
• The last 10 messages stored in your Bistro Security Alarm Log
• The list of modules (names and versions) installed on your site
• The default email address configured for your site
• The number of Apache core dumps (if any) in your site

Now, in addition to this information, there are also a few elements that are stored with each help request that are necessary for us to properly respond to requests. These elements are submitted with every help request and response, regardless of whether a Troubleshooting Package is included:

• Bistro version
• Software branded name (e.g. Bistro to Easy Web CMS or something else)
• Submitter's Name and Email Address
• Whether you are a Super Admin or a Regular Admin
• Whether you have access to the Documentation
• The User-Agent string of the user

The last element on the above list gives us some particularly useful information, including which browser and operating system the user has on their computer - since many of the requests that are submitted deal with browser-specific issues, this information helps us better test and debug any questions that come through. We are continuously re-evaluating this list of information to make sure we are only collecting the minimum information required to provide support, so if you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to drop us a line.

The January Bistro update is out - it's been a busy, busy month - and the update this month includes some interesting feature upgrades (for a full list of updates, you can always read our Software Updates RSS Feed). First off, the Bistro update to 2.7.0.2 includes some small interface improvements:

• help requests can now be sent with a "troubleshooting package" to make it easier for our support staff to debug issues. The troubleshooting package includes things like recent errors and security alarms, the versions of software running on your website, your browser and version - things that our suppor staff would normally have to ask you about anyway.
• lists of editable content (like the lists of pages, news items etc.) can now be resized so you can view more entries at a time - this makes it easier to scroll through and find the content you want to edit.
• we've installed a re-ordering framework that will help us make more modules "sortable" - this will allow you to manually sort your content as opposed to relying on the default sorting behaviour (which is usually date-based or alphabetic order).

On the sorting topic above, we've started this series of changes by making the Profile Manager sortable (it also has category and subcategory support as well now!) and in the next few updates we'll start adding that feature to other modules as well. This update also included a number of small bugs and usability issues, as well as the patching of a security issue in the Member Access System (MAS). Other than that, this update also laid the foundation for the next batch of updates that we're releasing, including a whole docket of new features that will be coming down the pipe. Here's a preview of some of the upcoming changes:

1. Public JQuery Support
   In the past, we've avoided using JavaScript for public features, however we've been experimenting with some new JQuery features that degrade very nicely, so we'll be adding options to a number of modules to include JQuery improvements like additional Lightbox usage for photos.
   
2. Social Bookmarking <- New Module!
   Our Blog module makes extensive use of social bookmarking options, but this module will help designers add social bookmarks to all their content. We're very pumped about this one!
   
3. Auto Tweeter <- New Module!
   When you're updating your site, this module will allow you to automatically post that update to your Twitter feed, making it easier to keep your social networking tools up-to-date.
   
4. Improved Stats
   Although a lot of the sites powered by Bistro use proprietary stats and analytics (like Google Analytics of Omniture), we often field requests for additional stats information, and additional visualization tools. We're working on some exciting upgrades to our visualization, and should be pushing them live shortly.
   
5. SEO Module
   This upgrade and renaming of the URL Manager will include a number of new SEO-related features to make Bistro more search-engine-friendly. Since this will be an upgrade to an existing module, it's also a free module :)

There are a number of new tools and features that we're working on here at the office, but the above is all I can share right now. Looking forward to when I can share more ;)

Important Hosting Update: At 9:30 AM EST on Sunday January 11, the primary hard drive on Shrike suffered a critical failure. We immediately began the replacement/restore process, which normally takes less than 60 minutes to complete. However, during the restoration, the process was interrupted, corrupting the restored files and the operating system image.  To resolve this we are now re-building the server's operating system and installed application base. On behalf of the entire Lewis Media team, I appoligze to those clients that are dealing with website outages durings this process. We are working to restore these sites as quickly as possible. I will update this blog post as more information becomes available.

5:45 PM Update: We have been able to successfully restore all sites on the server from the automated backups performed earlier today. We are currently in the process of restoring DNS entries and site functionality.

2:30 AM Update: We are back up and running. We'll be sending out the official update and review later this morning.

One of the most frequently-used features of Bistro is the integrated Help Desk system - this system allows Bistro users to submit software support requests directly to our team right from inside the software. Traditionally, the system has acted very much like an internal secure email system. However we're just now finishing up the last details for our January release, which will see some exciting upgrades to this system. Most notably, the system will now give user's the option to include an optional "Service Book". This Service Book will carry an updatable payload that includes things like software versions, server software, operating system, error logs and security alarms. It will also feature improved integration with our existing stability and performance monitoring. This will give our support team much more information with which to trouble-shoot.

It's good to see these coming together - the stability/performance monitoring and the built in help desk system have been aching to be brought together for quite some time now, so I'm thrilled to see it happening. It feels a bit like an early Christmast present!

This month's update has me really excited - we were able to spend the time to clean up some rough edges that have been sitting our on development roadmap for a while, so this batch of changes includes a lot of little details that had previously been delayed. This month's updates include:

• Bistro Core System v2.7
• Menu Manager v1.9.1
• Newsletter Manager v1.9.2
• Online Store v1.16
• Member Access System v1.5.1
• Bloggerator v1.4.1
• Page Manager v1.8.2

Some of the highlights from this month's release are:

• "Forgot My Password" feature on login
• Enhanced AutoStuff tags
• Upgraded Asset Manager to include MS Office document types and Flash file types
• Better support for older MySQL versions
• Upgraded SEO Search capabilities with the Online Store
• Streamlined checkout process when using Gift Cards
• The Help area now includes the new Online Manual

January's release should be coming out on the 16th, and will likely focus on some new features to improve our support and monitoring services, to better increase the resiliency of Bistro websites. Stay tuned!