Freestyler CMS News

Freestyler 5.2 Released

We are pleased to offer Freestyler 5.2 to new and existing customers.

Version 5.2 makes the world's easiest to use Enterprise Content Management even easier.

Freestyler is already one of the most affordable enterprise systems in the Australian marketplace, the latest release adds even more value for money.

The latest version features

• Performance enhancements
• New Simple permissions feature for Freestyler Lite
  
• Full text search for Microsoft SQL Server
• Interactive Debugger
  
• Interface enhancements make using Freestyler even faster and easier
• Common Module Library
• Ability to update Freestyler and modules separately
  

Datalink have been concurrently working on Freestyler Bravo, our much anticipated version 6.0 release for the last 12 months, which is now gaining momentum and slated for public release in April, 2008.
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Freestyler CMS, browser add-ons and Skype

Skype  is a great mostly free Internet telephone service and personally I use it from time to time but one thing I've noticed recently is that browser plug-ins like Skypes and Freestyler CMS don't always get along.

Like many of our customers I also use Freestyler and I know of a few of our customers who also use this combination of programs.  For the most part they work well side-by-side.

The problem is not Skype, but the plug-in which Skype adds to Internet Explorer and Firefox by default.  The feature highlights phone numbers so that you can click on them to launch Skype.  While this is convenient, it is not always practical and in my honest opinion, the feature should be optional.

So if you've seen something that looks like this:  on web pages you visit and you also use Freestyler, then there might be a potential problem.

And as I've found, it can have unpredictable effects on Freestyler's Rich Text Editor, particularly in Internet Explorer.  One effect can be after saving, all of the content after the first Skype number does not get saved.  The problem is that the add-on inserts a whole lot of HTML code that Freestyler doesn't yet recognise how to strip out.  This can give the impression of losing content.

With a growing number of Skype users, you can be sure we'll be working on a solution, but in the meantime it is probably safer to disable these add-ons when using Freestyler. 

I found this webpage with specific instructions on how to do just this.  The good news is that once you apply the change, Skype remembers it so that even if you upgrade the problem won't return.

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How to create pages without links to them in Freestyler CMS

I've had a few customers ask about how to do this lately - how to create web pages using Freestyler that aren't automatically linked to.  How to create standalone pages both is and isn't a strange request.  I've recently  posted about the importance of link integrity to content management systems (and that Freestyler does this automagically using "logical linking", "further information links" and "shortcuts").  Well, these types of pages can be just as important to the savvy Internet marketer.  It isn't yet in any manual, it is more of a tip and technique and is only readily accessible in some configurations of Freestyler, so I'll cover it briefly here and hopefully we'll include step-by-step instructions later.

In technical terms we sometimes refer to these as "orphaned pages".  Generally they should be discouraged (and some content management systems and particularly wikis are plagued by their associated problems) but in business terms, it can be a powerful tool for marketing campaigns, as you can use them as "landing pages" for targetted messages.  In fact, on the Datalink website we have several.

One example from a customer's case is that they had a YouTube video template and they only wanted to enable specific customers to see the URL, though they didn't want to login protect it.  So they wanted a public page that wouldn't have any links to it on the site.  Another example is a product which might not be part of your standard product line which you want to promote directly using a Google advertising campaign.

One consideration is that these types of pages need to be publicly accessible, but only by direct link.  Another consideration is that it isn't always appropriate for these pages aren't retrieved in search results or appear on your sitemap templates.

So before you go pulling your hair out lets have a look at some of the ways you can create them.

Continue reading How to create pages without links to them in Freestyler CMS

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