Metro Publisher v2.8 Release Notes

Beta Features

There are three new important beta features that we'd love for you to try out. You can turn them on or off at any time.

1. Mobile Friendly (Responsive) Design
   The new responsive design feature allows your current Metro Publisher website to provide an optimal viewing experience — easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and zooming — on various devices such as tablets and mobile phones.
   
   
2. SEO Optimized Location Searches
   New location search pages offer improved search optimization. This should increase search relevance and improve inbound traffic to your location searches over time. Find out more.
   
   • Better SEO
   • Map/List views split into two pages
   • Location address no longer required
3. SEO Optimized Event Searches
   New event search pages offer improved search optimization. This should increase search relevance and improve inbound traffic to your event calendar searches over time.
   
• Better SEO
• Map/List views split into two pages
• Event category no longer required

Enable Beta Features

If you'd like to try out these new beta features, you will need to enable them by logging in as an admin, then going to Settings > Beta Features. Check the options you would like to enable. Once you have done that, wait for the cache to clear, and your site will be updated automatically. These new features are in beta mode, which means you might find bugs or things you think should be different. Please report anything you notice via the support site. We look forward to your feedback. You can turn any of these features off again at any time.

Additional Features

1. Combined Content Types
   This is the first phase of a major improvement to content types. With this release, articles, reviews, and blog entries have been combined and are now found under a new tab in the main navigation labeled "Content." This represents a giant change that, once complete, will make the workflow for creating new entries easier and much more flexible. Find out more.
   
   • Articles, Reviews, and Blog Entries
   • New work flow
   • New URL Structure for better SEO
     
     Example: Previous to this release, the URL for a review would be:
     
     yourwebsite.com/reviews/name-of-review
     
     With the new combined content types, the URLs now display the path to the piece of content based on where it is assigned like this:
     
     yourwebsite.com/section-name/name-of-review
     
     All previous URLs will automatically redirect to the new ones with a 301 redirect. This ensures that any Google ranking built up for an individual piece of content is transferred to the new address.
     
     
2. QR Codes (Pro Only)
   Increase mobile engagement with custom generated QR codes. QR codes are now automatically generated for articles, reviews, and blog entries, and redirects for any Metro Publisher clients running Metro Publisher Pro. You no longer have to use third parties to generate these codes. Find our more.
   
   
3. New DFP Ad Code: Google Publisher Tags
   DFP has new features that are enabled by upgrading your DFP account to utilize Google Publisher Tags (GPT). For your Metro Publisher site, the new GPT tags allow you to gather more ad impressions on slideshows. Updating your DFP account and your Metro Publisher site can be done in two easy steps – and it takes only a 5 minutes! Find out more.
   
   
4. HTML Sprockets for Standard Users
   By popular demand, we've added HTML sprockets for standard users.
   
   
5. Threaded Commenting
   At your request, comments have been improved to included threaded replies. This feature allows for much greater connection between different comment threads and a more logical order of comments. But that is not all, comments now also include:
   
   • Edit your users' comments
   • Reply to comments from within work site
   • Screen name for staff comments
   • RSS feed for comments on public pages
   
   
6. Meta Titles for Locations
   Locations now include a field to customize the meta title and description. Use this new feature to better optimize your location pages by adding keyword rich meta tiles and descriptions.
   
   
7. Google+ Page Verification
   Add Google+ to your header links and automatically verify site ownership. Find out more.
   
   
8. Linkedin Added to Header Links
   The Linkedin chicklet has been added to the social media links in the header.
   
   
9. Default Thumbnail Image for Social Media
   Add your logo as the default thumbnail image to the Theme Gallery. If you share a story that has no images via Facebook or other social media, this default image will appear. Find out more.
   
   

10. Twitter Sprocket Changes
    Twitter has discontinued support of its API without authentication. It is impossible to automatically upgrade existing sprockets to use authentication. We think that it will be simpler for users to just use the standard Twitter embed code and have implemented HTML sprockets to allow this. Use them to embed your Twitter feed. Find out more.
    
    

11. Twitter Cards
    Twitter cards make it possible for you to attach media experiences to Tweets that link to your content. To activate this feature, you will need to do a few things. Find out more.
    
    
12. Directions on Location Pages
    Google's direction tool has been added to location pages. Now your readers can get directions to by car, bike, or walking right on the page.
    
    
    
    Location page with directions displayed on map
    
    
13. General Improvements and Bug Fixes
    As always, this release also includes various improvements and fixes throughout the system.