Dev Update 16

A while since our last update but we have been very busy nonetheless.

The new Orders section continues to be the black hole of all my time, but we continue to progress rebuilding all the functionality that is currently in place, along with some nice new additions. All this will then allow us to improve functionality much more easily in the future.

I had a little time to throw at the Page Editor and I had seen some nice effects whilst browsing Pinterest, so I thought, why not.

I have been able to add the ability to utilise this effect on the Call To Action, the Call To Action Groups and the Advanced Headings.

You can see the usage of all of this on the VB Media homepage.

This update has meant that the Call To Action Group has had a little bit of a re-jig in terms of it's settings.

There is a new group of settings called 'Item Wrap'.

This allows us to encompass settings, such as the number of columns, more logically (in my head anyway).

Just for good measure, I also added the ability to apply a colour and transparency to the background of this wrap as well, just for good measure.

This was all because I was looking for a type of 'frosted glass' effect to sit behind the content.

The mobile side of things isn't quite there yet, but by the time most people will have read this, I hope to have that fixed.

Blur isn't the only effect that you have to choose from.

As this utilises the CSS 'backdrop-filter' property, we have selected some of the other filters for you to choose from.

The list is currently:

• Blur
• Contrast
• Greyscale
• Hue-Rotate
• Invert
• Saturate
• Sepia

These can be used to apply some really nice effects to the image behind, and some... maybe not so nice. So please use with caution, and taste :)

Because of the way we have built the VB Media front-end websites, a good few months ago, we were able to be migrate everyone over to a new, more advanced cloud hosting service. This should have been seamless with no noticeable issues.

Still built on AWS, the new service has allowed us to introduce multi-region support, enabling us to offer the VB Media service outside of the UK whilst keeping the sites as fast as possible.

This also means that any UK-based VB Media customers can have their sites accessed overseas with very little limitations to speed for the user.

We have allocated some time to making adding products to the system much more efficient.

This is an internal development which would allow us to be much more responsive to supplier product changes.

Although not yet fully operational, we should be utilising this in the coming weeks.

All new products that area added and deprecated product removals will be logged in the 'News and Updates' section of the dashboard.

• Front End - fixed an issue where the Stripe logo was not appearing on some checkout pages
• Front End -  fixed a bug where GBP was being charged for sites set to EUR
• Front End - an update which better catered for differing tax/VAT labels when outside the UK
• Front End - caching improvements for individual pages to greatly improve page response time
• Front End - improvements to the navigation when it 'sticks' to the top of the page, it now does not cause the page to jump causing a jarring effect to the user
• Front End - update to the CSS for the search results page to better cater for sites with darker backgrounds
• Front End - fixed an issue which was showing the button on the pricing table sections even when size was set to none
• Front End - fixed an issue that was causing mobile navigations to have a transparent background when the main navigation was also transparent
• Front End - fixed an issue which meant that production notes on quotes were viewable by the customer
• Front End - fixed an issue where Route1 flyers were not showing that VAT was applicable when a lamination was selected
• Front End - an update to the CSS to act in accordance with Google Chrome now correctly interpreting ::selection
• Front End - fixed an issue on telephone numbers in the footer not having the 'tel:' prefix on the href
• Front End - ability to add a pay later button to the checkout process
• Front End - fixed an issue where footer images that had a link applied where not vertical-aligning correctly
• Front End - aria-labels added to user and basket links in the header
• Front End - slider buttons have been given 'names' so as to be more seo friendly
• Admin Area - fixed an issue where duplicating a text section in the Page Editor and Blog Editor was causing an error
• Admin Area - fixed an issue where materials that had not yet been made live were appearing in the list of addable materials to orders
• Admin Area - added the ability to add products that do not require artwork

These are but a few of the updates and fixes. In our dedication to the new Orders section, we have woefully neglected these update articles.