7.18 Release Highlights

About

The Release 7.18 of Pangea system will bring improvements to existing features as well as the new solutions based on a feedback from our users. We would like to present all components we have been recently working on.

NEW CMS – Layout Builder for Sections

In the 7.18 release, we are launching the first page of your new Pangea CMS – Section Layout Builder. The Layout Builder will allow web administrators to organize and customize widget areas, including re-organizing and adding rows of widgets.

The Layout Builder also features a new CMS Header, with extended functionality. This header will be present on all new CMS pages.

To view Layout Builder and customize a section page, go to the Settings tab on any Section page and click "Layout Builder".

Layout Builder features:

1. New CMS header – Toggle through all Pangea applications

In the new header, once you are logged in, you can easily navigate to other Pangea applications, like Pangea MAM and Source. We are designing all Pangea apps with the same UX/UI, so navigating new apps will be intuitive.

2. New CMS header – Site Navigation

The Site Navigation lets you navigate to other site domains you have access to, so there will be no need to go to "My Sites" in the old CMS. All the sites can be reached from this menu.

3. Layout Builder – Breakpoint Preview

As most of our audience is accessing our pages from mobile devices, the breakpoint preview lets you see the structure of your section on various screen sizes. We advise you to use the preview when constructing section pages and especially when adding rows of widgets – a section that seems to be short and on a desktop screen can be very long on mobile devices.

4. Layout Builder – Layout Blocks

Using drag & drop functionality, you can easily add and re-shuffle widget rows to design a section page. We are supporting both 3 and 4-column layout. Please note that the drag & drop is not available for touch devices due to technical limitations.

5. Layout Builder – Special Widget Areas

The layout builder allows you to add the special widget areas like the Media Belt Slider / Dark Background "Fred" widget and the Content / Grey Background "Bob" widget and put them anywhere on the section page.

6. Layout Builder – Deleting of Blocks

To remove a widget block, simply use the trash icon in the upper righthand corner. Please note that only empty widget areas can be deleted. If you want to remove a row with content in it, please remove the widgets first on the section edit page. This is to prevent accidental removal of content from live section pages.

7. Layout Builder – Back to Section Editor

Once you are done with adding / removing / shuffling the layout blocks, you can go back to the section edit page by clicking the "Back to Section Editor" button.

All the changes done on the Layout Builder are saved instantly and automatically.

We will be rolling out the Layout builder for services per agreement and coordination regarding the user rights per service.

Sticky YouTube Video in Article Content

To further improve video consumption user experience, we have extended the existing sticky player functionality to also include YouTube videos embedded into the article body. Both mobile and desktop users are now able to watch YouTube videos while reading the article content.

Calendar on Media Zone Archive Pages

Before Pangea Release 7.18 it was not possible to search media content for a specific date on media zone archive pages. In this release, we implemented the calendar in the media zone archive pages for any web users to look for content. The calendar works on all tabs which contain content; article/ audio/video tab.

Pangea Comments on the Top of Content Pages

As some services have a lot of comments in the forum part, they asked us to bring the number of comments to the top of the page, above the sharing part on a content page.

If a service wants to enable the number of comments on an article, your web admin should enable it with the Responsive.Sharing.Comments.NumberEnabled key in Pangea CMS. Once enabled, if there is no comment yet to said article, it does not display "0". The number is displayed only after a user comments.

Refactor of Sitemap XML files for Search Engines

Google: "A sitemap is a file where you can list the web pages of your site to tell Google and other search engines about the organization of your site content. Search engine web crawlers like Googlebot read this file to more intelligently crawl your site."

We have refactored the Sitemap XML files. VOA, MBN and OCB, we recommend to reupload Sitemap XML file in your Google Search Console.

Follow-us on LiveJournal

Due to Services' requests, we developed an option to add Live Journal to the Follow Us widget in the footer and header.

Please, be aware that before promoting a LiveJournal account, you should set up the account with Responsive.Social.LiveJournal.UrlFollow and then update the Follow Us widget in the header/ footer.

LiveJournal in header

LiveJournal in the footer

Configuration Keys

Updating Tooltip for Facebook Sharing

Based on the fact that Facebook counts the number for sharing as the number of Likes of your URL, the number of shares of your URL and the number of likes and comments on stories on Facebook about your URL, we updated the default text for the Responsive.Sharing.Counter.FB.ToolTip localization key. If you use social counter, we recommend you to update the localization key.

Load More Button on Zone Archive Pages

We used to have maximum items setup for zone archive pages. Due to a change in logic for loading images, we do not need it anymore so we removed the Responsive.ZoneArchive.MaxItems key. This means that web users see the "Load more" button to the end of zone archive pages.

Terms of Use on the Subscribe Page

Per request from the RFE/RL Russian service that they needed to have text with a link to a page with "Terms of Use" in the Subscribe page (/subscribe.html page), we created a new configuration key Subscribe.AdditionalText to add a text with a link.

Document – First Class Citizen

In this release, we have extended the functionality for Documents uploaded to Pangea. As a first class Pangea citizen, it can use the variety of Pangea features, including: presentation page, archive, support in content widget – adding to a section page.

The aim is to allow your services to present e-books and other relevant documents on your pages, with the possibility to create your online library. You will be able to present the document and your audience will have the option to download the file directly from your pages.

In order to start using documents in the new way, the zone for documents needs to be set up or the current zone setting needs to be updated to support document content type. This is done simply via checkbox on zone setting page in CMS.

Document edit page in CMS

Document page on frontend

Document archive - library

Sharing of Live Blog Entries

Based on demand, we have developed share buttons for blog entries. That way, your visitors can share a specific blog posts on their social network. Upon click, the viewers will be taken to live blog page, where the shared live blog entry will be highlighted. The aim is to make the live blogs more interactive and popular on social networks.

The settings of social buttons for blog entries follows the settings of sharing for the live blog. The functionality can be turned on / off via a configuration key: Responsive.LiveBlog.LiveBlogItemSharing.Enable.

Please localize the "Shared" label via Responsive.LiveBlog.LiveBlogItemSharing.SharedTitle configuration key.

Video page – Related Content and Related Links

We have extended the functionality of Related Links to video pages. Also, the Related Content for videos now supports more content types.

Broadcasting Pages

We have been working on a solution for Broadcasting pages for RFE/RL (other Entities will be delivered in future releases). These pages offer an Affiliate tab which contain information about our affiliates/partners. Users can choose affiliates by location (country/city), and easily get Affiliate name, the name, tuning frequency, broadcasting days and times.

Direct Enhancements

There are two ways to feed content into Direct: manual (check box "sent to Direct") and automatic via Zone. In this release, we have enhanced the flexibility of automatic feeds to give editors more granular control.

• Follow Zone setup > content will follow setup done in primary zone

• Send to Direct > is working really the same as previous checkbox so manual push to Direct

• Do not allow for Direct > this will keep content out of Direct even if was accidentally pushed

Direct User Management

We have extended the user management page for granular Admin data. First, we added "Promote to Admin" functionality.

Second, after a new administrator is created you can go to the second tab "Admins Only" where you can see the current list of administrators and their regions of responsibility. From this tab you can directly change the regions of responsibility and other details.

Third, the in new tab called "Admins Logs" you have the complete history of all changes what each administrator did. Now the approval process is clear and all administrators will have complete overview about user actions.

CurrentTime Mobile Application

Pangea is proud to present a new fully remastered CurrentTime mobile application.

In this version:

• Regularly updated video newscasts

• Full archives of the CurrentTime TV shows

• TV scheduler

• Minimizable video player