In this Flex Templates release, we are adding Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) support for BLOX Calendar, a separate AMP implementation of Advanced Automatic Ads (AAA), and new promo code support for BLOX Subscription. We are also fixing a number of other issues.
NEW FEATURES
- We have made changes to the "Calendar Card: Event" block to have similar features as the rest of the calendar blocks. Changes include:
- Ability to set the Aspect ratio
- Add a class to turn on/off the start/end time of an event
- Ability to display in a grid
- Display the date instead of an image (FLEXBLOX-7576)
- A new block for BLOX Email Reach has been created that will allow sites to control the text that follows the subject line. This helps end users know more about the email before they open it, possibly improving open rates. (FLEXBLOX-7610)
- We are adding several new features for the BLOX Now app which will be marked as "beta" until available in the next version release. New features may be visible, but are unavailable in the current version. (FLEXBLOX-7626)
- This new setting under AMP allows for Advanced Automatic Ads (AAA) to be triggered differently than web pages. The default behavior is to inherit the setting from the main web page Advertising setting for in-story ads. You can select to Enable or Disable AAA for AMP pages. (FLEXBLOX-7671)
- A new BLOX Email Reach block has been created that will allow you to show a title and subtitle for an BLOX Email Reach page. (FLEXBLOX-7673)
- Additional support is being added to the user dashboard to allow OTT users to log in and synch their accounts. This is future functionality that will be available in a later version. (FLEXBLOX-7692)
- Due to changes in how Google Ad Manager works with pricing rules, we now need to pass the browser information as part of the GAM call. This issues has been addressed. (FLEXBLOX-7697)
- The label for the "Video: Player" block has been changed. It will now be called the "Video: Media Player" block. (FLEXBLOX-7519)
CHANGES
- The amphtml "link rel" is now available on BLOX Calendar pages, exposing those pages to Google AMP results. (FLEXBLOX-7400)
- With this release subscription promo code support will be available to all sites using BLOX Subscription Pro. Documentation is available here. (FLEXBLOX-7573)
- In this release, we have made changes to the box that surrounds the link to Tributes Store. We have centered the text and darkened the border to help the links to stand out. (FLEXBLOX-7663)
- In the BLOX Live e-Editions "lite" skin, the Utility Regions were not available, making it impossible to turn them off. This has been fixed. (FLEXBLOX-7664)
- To accommodate the new 1396px page width, we have made adjustments to the creative templates for the Pencil & Wallpaper ad as well as the Wallpaper ad. New versions have been posted to our documentation. (FLEXBLOX-7689)
BUG FIXES
- In some cases, the "fixed" article sharing tools caused white space or odd heights on some other blocks. This has been addressed. (FLEXBLOX-7678)
- This release corrects an issue where search results were not sorting properly. (FLEXBLOX-7686)
- The iAtom feed has been updated to include the pgs parameter, which controls the number of paragraphs shown in the feed. (FLEXBLOX-7694)
- The "Editorial: Breaking" block did not display properly in the new Centerpiece grid. This has been fixed. (FLEXBLOX-7700)