7.34 Release Highlights

Release Schedule

• Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.:
  • Tue, 20th August 2019 07:00 am Prague time (01:00 am D.C. time)
• Voice of America:
  • Wed, 21st August 2019 03:00 am D.C. time (09:00 am Prague time)
• Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc.:
  • Wed, 21st August 2019 04:30 am D.C. time (10:30 am Prague time)
• Office of Cuba Broadcasting:
  • Wed, 21st August 2019 06:30 am D.C. time (12:30 pm Prague time)
• LibertyNet:
  • Wed, 21st August 2019 13:00 Prague time (07:00 am D.C. time)​

Table of contents

1. Podcast Widget, Google Podcast Support
2. Facebook Share Counter
3. Application Promo for Android Devices
4. Structured Data Improvements for Article Content Types, AMPs, and a Homepage
5. Pangea Comments Optimization
6. Pangea Manual Streaming for Social Media
7. Pangea Scheduler 8.0
8. Landing Pages for USAGM Direct

New Features

1. Podcast Widget, Google Podcast Support

Podcasts are a popular and unique way to deliver audio content to the end user. Different podcast platforms (iTunes, Google Podcast, Soundcloud and others) help services spread their audio- and video-content.

A new sophisticated tool to promote podcasts has therefore been developed - Podcast widget:

The Podcast widget will be connected to a Media (TV/Radio) Zone, which must have the Podcast enabled. Based on this connection, the latest episode of the podcast will be displayed in the widget automatically.

Sticky player will start after the user clicks on the Play button. This way, the viewer can then listen or watch the latest episode of the podcast.

This new widget will also make it possible to subscribe to the podcast. A special modal will display various platform links, which will be added to the Zone with enabled podcast (at the moment, this will primarily be iTunes and Google, but this list will be extended):

Only those Podcast services, which are available for the Mobile users platform (iTunes for iPhone users, Google Podcast for Android users), will be displayed on mobile devices.

This widget is available for 1 column layout.

We're planning to add subscription information to other multimedia pages in the next release.

Google podcast link:

Pangea used to support only iTunes links on site pages.

Now it will be possible to add Google podcast link on Media Zone settings, and we are ready to add other podcast platforms links in the next release.

iTunes and Google Podcast links will be displayed on Subscription modal, Podcast program index page, and Schedule page.

Key do disable/enable date in Podcast titles

Date used to be a mandatory parameter of Podcast item titles. Given the various setup of Podcast platforms, this would mean that on some of them, the date would appear twice (one would be displayed automatically by the Podcast platform and the other would be a part of the Title for the Podcast item). In order to give services a way to prevent this, it will be possible to hide the date from the Podcast item title with the following config key:

DateFormat.PodcastTitle

2. Facebook Share Counter

Facebook has stopped providing information necessary for Facebook Share Counter to work properly. In order to keep the functionality, we have implemented the API from the SharedCount to be able to get this information.

Those services, which have been using the Facebook share counter feature on their web pages, will now get the numbers based on how many times their content has been shared after the release.

​

3. Application Promo for Android Devices

This feature is dedicated to services, who have native Mobile applications:

As you know Apple has app promo on the top of the Mobile pages (if native Mobile exists). We tried to mimic what Apple has just for Android users:

Special App promo banner will be displayed on the top of the mobile pages for Android users.

App link will take your users to the Google play page with your application.

You can customize the icon, the title, as well as the name of the button. Please find list of the keys below:

• Responsive.AndroidAppPromoBanner.Enabled - to enable this feature
• Responsive.AndroidAppPromoBanner.AppIconUrl - URL of the app icon (please add one to GDB first - can be taken from Google Play)
• Responsive.AndroidAppPromoBanner.GooglePlayUrl - Google Play URL
• Responsive.AndroidAppPromoBanner.AppTitle - localization of application Title
• Responsive.AndroidAppPromoBanner.PromoText - localization of Promo text
• Responsive.AndroidAppPromoBanner.CallToActionTitle - localization of the button "View"

Once the mobile page is closed by the user, it should store the state in a cookie and keep the banner invisible for the user for a configurable period of time.

4. Structured Data Improvements for Article Content Types, AMPs, and a Homepage

The structured data is a standardized format for search engines to understand the content of the page. Google Search also uses these structured data to enable special result features and enhancements.

We have already implemented structured data markup to our article content types (articles, news, blogs features, etc) which can enhance the website`s appearance in the Google Search results. Google enhanced features could be the website's placement in the Top stories carousel, host carousel, Visual stories, and rich result features such as headline text and larger-than-thumbnail images.

Our AMP pages have structured data as well, which means that they can appear in a carousel of stories in Google search results.

​Based on the feedback from our users, we have improved the structured data markup for article content types and AMPs (Accelerate Mobile pages).

Reviewing our structured data for a website, we have improved structured data for homepages.

5. Pangea Comments Optimization

The design for Pangea Comments has been slightly changed in this, Release in order to make them more light and compact. This should improve the viewing experience for our mobile users (for example, "Submit" button is hidden until user starts typing):

6. Pangea Manual Streaming for Social Media

This new feature will allow our users to start and stop their live video streams to social media manually. Unlike the current process where it was necessary to contact Pangea Customer Care, as well as the Streaming team any time it was necessary to set up a manual live stream to social media, this new feature will allow every service to manually select the source video, set the social media targets, and start or stop the live stream at their convenience.

In order to set up the manual live stream, it is necessary to:

1- Enter the name of the event

2- Expected ending time of the event

3- Select the video source

4- Enter your email to get notified about the stream status

5- Enter your phone number to get notified about the stream status

6- Select the social media target (Youtube, Facebook, VK, Odnoklassniki, Periscope/Twitter)

7- enter the name of your social media page

8- Copy and paste the server url and stream key from your social media account

9- You can select as many social media channels for the stream as you wish

10- Start the stream

This feature will be released gradually. That means that after the 7.34 release, it will only be available for Current Time in order to test all the features, before releasing it to all the services at the next release 7.35

7. Pangea Scheduler 8.0

Following the trends of contemporary calendars, the Scheduler 8.0 offers a clear and unified user experience. The new scheduler merges video and audio schedulers in one modern interface.

In 7.34, We are releasing the scheduler 8.0 as well as the template week 8.0. We will be releasing the show edit page within the next releases.

8. Direct Landing Pages

USAGM Direct has been expanded by Landing Pages, which narrow down the visible content for the affiliates to site per entity. Content is divided by Programs (TV and Radio) and stand alone items, which will ease the navigation on the site. Additionally, services can choose three highlighted items, so important content is pinned on top of the page.

Landing Page gathers all content from a particular service and gives more editorial control. It also facilitates the site navigation for affiliates and can be used for promotional purposes for potential partners.

In Phase I Landing Pages were created for following services: RFE: English, Russian, Current Time; VOA: English, Spanish, Indonesian.

​