Metro Publisher Release 2.14 has successfully completed its testing phase and our clients are now gradually being upgraded to v2.14.

Here is our extensive list of improvements:

 

Custom Event Types

By popular demand, event types are now completely customizable so that you can create your own tags and group them into custom categories to both pique your readers' interest and suit their specific needs.

This feature includes:

• Custom tags and your own tag categories to organize events
• A tags browser in admin

Custom event tags and categories represent the first in a series of upgrades to events and locations. For example, in our next release, v2.15 we'll be upgrading locations with custom tags.

Watch these videos for more information:
Tags Overview
Using Tags for Event Searches

We've also added two rich-text description fields at the top and the bottom of event (and location) search pages. You can now add formatted text and links to explain the details of the methodology behind your customized searches, e.g. for staff favorites or best-rated.

 

Responsive Ads for DFP

Also by popular demand, we have an elegant new integration with Google’s DoubleClick for Publishers which allows your site to serve up a variety of responsive ad sizes based on a user's screen width. Info here: DFP Responsive Ads

This feature includes:

• Various creatives for different mobile screen widths within single line item in DFP
• Streamlined set of default ad slots
• Ad slot targeting via tags 

 

New Standard Theme

With this release, we've added a new theme called Vibrant. This is the first of a variety of new themes we'll be rolling out throughout 2015. 

 

Here are some of the features of the new theme:

• Full-width Header
• Drop Down Navigation for Subsections
• Headline Stories: Full-width images, title and description
• Lead Stories: Full-width images, title and description

This theme is available to all users via the Theme Editor. You can find it by logging in to your Metro Publisher work site as an Admin and going to Design > Choose Theme.

 

New 3rd Party Integration – Chartbeat

Charbeat provides real-time traffic and audience-behavior data for analysis of visitor actions and content performance on your site, as well as an ad sales platform. Find out more about Chartbeat.

To add the Chartbeat integration to your site, please follow the instructions outlined by our support document here: Chartbeat Publishing for Editorial

 

RSS Feeds Update

• Image and author RSS embedding for MailChimp 

 

New Roundups Features

• Hide map option added
• Option for ascending/descending order added
• Location title override added
• Special feature: Roundup with a single location

 –> For map integration via a roundup with a single location we have changed the zoom level for improved display

 

 

Pages

• “Draft” state allows Pages to be temporarily or permanently hidden from public view
• Header insert added

 –> Allows addition of a custom og:image tag to determine which image should be displayed in Facebook posts, for example

 

Locations & Directory Listings

• Order of images in the directory can now be rearranged
• Copy option added – easier entry of businesses with multiple locations
• Location searches now have option to show ONLY listings
• Option to turn off the map and address info on locations for businesses/services without a physical address added
• Rich text fields added to top and bottom of location searches
• Location types added:

• Arts & Culture: Art Tours, Art Appraisals, Books, Publisher
• Camps: Enrichment, Sports/Athletics, Performing Arts, Special Needs, Speciality
• Education: Continuing education
• Health care: Mental health, Substance abuse
  > Health Practitioners: Social worker
• Legal: Law added to all subcategories
• Nonprofit/Charity: Social service agency, Professional/Trade association
• Restaurant: Canadian
• Retail: Art Supplies, Art Framing, Art Shipping, Art Insurance 

 

Images in Design Center

• Images can now be deleted via the 'x' button which appears on each image 

 

Homepage

• Warning before copying the homepage via "Copy this weekday's homepage" added
• "Check all" and "check none" buttons fixed 

 

Comment Forms

• Publish/Unpublish button added to edit comment forms 

 

Related Links (PRO feature)

• Customizable default header text for related articles added to default texts

• Admin -> Settings -> Message -> Related Links Title on Articles field

 

Reminders

• Google Authorship shut down: The Google+ authorship feature allowed Google to make the connection between published content and the author who created that content, provided they had a Google+ account. Since Google has discontinued this service, we have to rely on the usual means to make sure search engines know who authored content; ie. tagging. If you consistently tag your content by author, then that information will show up in the byline and the meta keywords of the page source code. Search engines can read this.

  Here is an example of what the search bots see:

   <meta name="keywords" content="Asian Food, Jane Doe"/> 

• Contactology integration phased out: In place of Contactology, you will have several options to use RSS to automate your newsletters. Info here: Contactology Newsletter Overview 

• Events overview table data: The information listed in the Event Center overview table has changed a few times due to customer requests and space limitations. Please note that you can sort each column by clicking on the column header. The "Title" column contains three kinds of information:

• Event title
• Source
• Event category

 Sorting for this column is therefore by title.