VB Media: Version 3 On The Horizon

VB Media Version 3 has been in the making for the last two and a half years. We have intimated its existence to a few people along the developmental course, but we are pleased to start being able to tell people more information as well as letting you follow on the next few months of development.

VB Media Version 3 represents a massive update to the product. We have completely changed the code-base used, which means a complete rewrite of all pages.

Some may remember the domain name changes we asked of you last year? This was in preparation of this new major version. By making the changes we have been able to develop the website that your customer’s see whilst making it compatible for both current and new versions, simultaneously.

It’s not just the customer-facing website that has had an overhaul (at least below the bonnet), the Admin Area as well has been given a major visual ‘spruce up’. 

Not only that, but we have massively improved upon the ‘Page Editor’. We have broken the page content down into sections which can be added, edited and re-ordered as per your needs. These sections are hugely customisable, and because of the amount of control and therefore unfathomable permutations available to you, we have also ‘pre-designed’ these sections so that you are not having to start from scratch every time.

I will go into more detail on the Page Editor as well as additional functionality of the Admin Area in a later blog article, but here are some screenshots to whet your appetite.

The whole purpose of this massive project was to allow us to be more agile when developing additional functionality for everyone. If we have planned this whole project correctly, then new features should be more frequent and purposeful.

We have invested heavily in this product because businesses are requiring more from a digital perspective and we want to be best positioned to help those involved in print to overcome the many obstacles facing this unique industry and its on-line offerings.

Here’s where it gets tricky. Whilst we want to release Version 3 as soon as possible we do not want to release something which is so full of bugs that it is unusable. Our plan is to use the system internally for a little while, so that we can try and catch as many of the issues so that you don’t end up pulling your hair out (for those that still have some).

Once we are happy with how the Admin Area is performing we will do a ‘soft launch’. We will contact a select handful of customers who have sites that are conducive to the new version and also are in the ‘sweet spot’ for usage so as to get a happy balance between feedback without compromising your business operations.

The best place to keep up to date on how Version 3 is progressing is this blog. We will be aiming to post regular updates as to the progression of the new version so that you can have some idea of the features and how they are used. Please bear in mind though that things may vary between now and launch and some functionality shown in these articles may be omitted for the sake of a working product (but that’s not to say they won't be added later down the line).

On a final note, did I mention that this blog has been created in the Version 3 Admin Area? Let us know if you come across any issues :)