With the R172 release we have made some updates on the way we handle carts and orders to prevent partial payments on non-seamless payment gateways.

The change implied the separation of the cart ID from the order ID and a format change for the CartID cookie value. Before R172, the CartID cookie value used to be composed exclusively from digits (ex: "12345") and, with R172 release, the format has been updated to be an unique identifier composed from digits, letters and dashes (ex: "698148b7-12fc-4d47-a040-32e8a8357060").

We haven't included this change in the release notes, because the only BC endorsed method to use the CartID cookie (Hiding the "Shopping Cart Is Empty" message) doesn't reference the value of that cookie but only tests for the existence of that cookie (and that was not changed).

Based on some customer reports indicating broken functionality on e-commerce sites, we've done some investigations to determine the need of a system update to correct this issue. We've reached the conclusion that the above format change should have no impact on any JavaScript code we inject on a site, excepting the case when there is some customer code in the page that try to call directly our internal methods (UpdateItemQuantity, ApplyDiscountCode, ApplyGiftVoucher and ValidateCart), which we don't document or support. Therefore, we will not push any update to modify this behavior.

However, if you do use these methods and are impacted by these changes, you have the following options:

• Use the "{module_oid}" in the site template, if you need the Order ID (ex: insert "<input type="hidden" id="realOrderId" value="{module_oid}" />" in the page template and then use some JavaScript code to get the value at runtime)
• Use the CartID cookie and make sure you support the new format (although you should not have any format problems in JavaScript) if you need the Cart ID

Cristinel Anastasoaie
Adobe Business Catalyst Product Manager

We are performing a system update to fix some issues introduced by the R172 release.

The update includes fixes on order management, photo galleries pop-ups, partner portal broken links, permissions and pages - set up a start page:

• Issue 3109909: Fixed a problem causing workflow notifications to not be sent in some cases (after check out, when check out form contains secure login); the issue also caused incorrect order statuses in admin;
• Issue 3109042: Fixed a bug causing photo gallery to not work for some sites due to JavaScript errors; the same problem caused product images to stop working on some e-commerce sites;
• Issue 3109126: Fixed a language resource problem causing some links in Partner Portal to stop working
• Issue 3109723: Fixed a bug the prevented users from setting-up a start page
• Issue 3109003: Updated the permissions on the "Set Default 'From' Email" pop-up so that it uses Manage System Email permission instead of Administer System

The update should take up to 2 hours and we are not expecting any system downtime during the update.

Cristinel Anastasoaie
Adobe Business Catalyst Product Manager

This is your chance to give us input on how you’d like to receive support, how you want the next version of our support systems to look like, what kind of tools you prefer, and what your expecations might be.

To make conversations possible we are running 2 webinars on Wednesday Febr 8th, to allow our customers from around the world to join. Depending on your area please choose the one that fits you best.

• 9AM Central Europe / 6PM Brisbane / 7PM Canberra 
• 7PM Central Europe / 1PM Washington or New York / 10AM San Francisco

To allow for flowing conversation space is limited in both instances, but we would be happy to run another series if the requests are high.

Waiting to hear from you what you think the ideal support system would look like. To register please pick one of the sessions below. Once registered you will receive the link to the session and details.

The Business Catalyst team.

Meet Partner Patrick Steil, learn about upcoming SEO improvements, hear all the details regarding Phase 2 of our scheduled CRM password update and listen out for a fresh HTML quiz question!

Listen to this month's podcast:

Simply click the play button below to stream the podcast via your browser.

Alternatively, you can download the podcast in .mp3 format for offline listening.

To subscribe and receive the BC Podcast each month, you can find us on the iTunes store here or by simply searching "BC Podcast" from iTunes.

In January's episode:

• Meet Partner Patrick Steil
  
• Hear about his web design business, ChurchBuzz.org
  
• Learn how he and his wife have transformed and grown their business with Business Catalyst
  
• Read his article "Building a web development business the right way" at the BC Evangelist blog
  
• What to expect in the new few months?
  • Extensive SEO improvements across the board
    
  • CRM password updates which may affect your client sites
• A HTML brain-teaser - be the first listener to chime in with the correct answer in the comments, and we'll give you a special shout out in next year's first episode!

Hi guys, 

I’m Vlad, and I'm a new addition to the BC team, currently overseeing the whole BC support organization.

We know that in the past there have been issues with our support, so we are currently working on improving our support for all your projects, by tackling this from two different areas:

1. Increasing our team – We are currently working on increasing the size of our team, which would allow us to offer you more support and speedier replies. The new team is currently in training, and they will become active within the next few months.

2. New systems and tools in place – we are working to improve our systems, and to have better documentation available for you. Here are some of the changes in this respect:

   1. Build a much more friendly, community powered Q&A section and KB, which will be continuously monitored and reviewed.

   2. Rebuild the KB and forums in order to be easier to understand and use by the community, and have a close to real timed answered Q&A forum section.

   3. Have a proactive Help & support portal in which we’ll announce existing known issues and we’ll provide work-arounds in a timely manner, so our customers will always know what is happening, and if we encounter issues how they can solve them, or when they will be solved by us.

   4. Migrate to a new support environment (CRM + Chat + forum) that will help us scale up to the current & future support needs

As you can see there are many areas that we are working on, but all of this will only take effect in the next few months. We will keep you posted as we progress with our plan.

Looking forward to a great support experience for the BC partners,

Vlad

Last update: Friday, February 3rd, 2012

We are announcing a new Business Catalyst release scheduled to go live on February 8th.

Our R172 brings Business Catalyst V3 Beta to all users, further updates security for CRM users and solves some bug fixing. The release includes a large list of updates for Business Catalyst V3, some cross platform bug corrections and an improved code editor.

Business Catalyst V3 available to all users

Starting with the R172 release, we are extending the Business Catalyst V3 beta to all customers (Partners and Business owners). V2 will continue to be the default user interface, but users will be able to switch to the new user interface and the system will remember the selection.

Security update - CRM passwords

Effective February 8th 2012 we will further update the way we handle CRM user passwords, for security reasons. The new release will impact lost password workflows, add or update System Messages / System Emails and alter the way customers retrieve their passwords.

For more details please read the update announcement - Important Security Policy Updates for CRM Users - Effective February 8th

This is the second step in a larger update process. The first phase was released during December and was detailed previously as part of the Important Security Policy Updates - Effective December 14th blog post.

Security update - SOAP APIs will no longer work over HTTP

Starting with our R172 release, we are going to enforce the usage of our SOAP APIs over HTTPS. Any API calls over HTTP will be denied. For mode details about the change, please read the Security Policy Updates blog post.

This policy enforcement will also affect Triangle 2.60 users. Thus, starting with 8 February 2012, the Triangle 2.60 extension will not be able to login to Business Catalyst servers due to a change in authentication protocols. To allow partners to continue using Triangle, we have released a new version (2.61) and made it available for download in your Partner Portal, Tools section. All partners using Triangle 2.60 version are required to update. Partners using the new Business Catalyst extension are NOT impacted by the change.

You can download the updated Triangle version from here.

Trial sites will not be indexed by search engines

While a site is in Trial mode, we will automatically serve a robots.txt file which prevents search engine indexing. This will help you avoid having your site show up in search results while it's still in development, via the businesscatalyst.com or worldsecuresystems.com domains.

Once you've upgraded the site, we will stop serving the robots.txt file. You can then use your own robots.txt, if you choose to.

Enhanced code editor for File Manager

The file manager code editor has been enhanced to support syntax highlight and other features. This is just a start to make code editing more productive inside BC, more will come :)

Updated reports interface

In order to improve usability and navigation, we are going to update the menu structure on all Business Catalyst reports and refresh the graphs designs. The changes are going to apply to both old and new version of Business Catalyst.

Starting with R172, the Reports are going to have the following menu structure:

• Visitors is going to include: Overview, Geographic location, Visits and Page views, Unique visitors, Visitor loyalty, Browser and Operating Systems
• Traffic Sources will include: Overview, Referrals, Search Phrase, Search Engine Referrals and Spider
• Website Content will include: Overview, Pages, Entry Pages and Exit Pages
• Web Forms Usage will include: Overview, Inquirer Geographic Location, Inquiries and Top Web Form Usage
• e-Commerce will include: Overview, Shopper geographic location, Sales, Top products and Abandon rate
• Email Campaigns will include: Overview, Campaign, Subscriber Geographic Location, Subscriptions vs Unsubscriptions and Newsletters sent
• Custom Reports will include: Customer Reports, eCommerce Reports and Website Reports
• Special Reports will include the former Custom Reports (custom built report by BC engineers and linked into specific sites, only 31 still active)
• Admin Reports will include: Admin Usage and Total Traffic Reports

Issues fixed by R172 release

• BC photo galleries will no longer affect jQuery-based JavaScript functionality which you might have added to your site
• Update:  Issue 2977696 - starting with the R172 release, the secure zone logins will run through HTTPS. Existing secure zones will continue to run on HTTP, but we will turn on the possibility to make logins through HTTPS; future secure zones will have the login HTTPS enabled
• Updated: Issue 3076457 - Fixed a bug making the Affiliates Performance Reports unusable
• Issue 2986635 - Fixed reset password feature from Partner portal
• Issue 3070753 - Fixed a bug causing shipping currency for all the countries to be shown as US dollar $ when creating an user defined shipping
• Issue 3070416 - Fixed a bug blocking users from changing site theme
• Issue 3073436 - [Payment Gateways] Fixed a bug causing shipping name to be stored as a billing name on the billing receipt because CardName is not being passed to the Authorize .NET payment gateway
• Issue 3082100 - Fixed a bug allowing admin user (under some conditions) to see the unpaid invoices for a site on a Partner All billing type
• Issue 2719638 - Fixed a spelling error in the 'refer a partner' email message within partner portal
• Issue 2566849 - Updated forgot password workflow; in the new workflow the forgot password form will validate the username and password against existing entries in the CRM database
• Issue 2929248 - Fixed a bug causing multiple templates to be displayed as default for a site
• Issue 2940328 - Fixed a bug causing multiple random web app modules present on the same page to render the same items
• Issue 3050994 - Fixed a bug allowing any logged in user to edit web app items
• Issue 3067079 - Fixed a potential security issue

Business Catalyst V3 beta updates

With UI v3 we're putting more emphasis on user permissions: effective on R172, these directly affect the visibility of main navigation menu items.Although many of the Admin sections are controlled by their own permission, some of them rely only on the "Administer System" permission.

In order to give you more control, we're taking a step forward and separating a few sections to have their own permission, while still keeping permissions at a reasonable count to be usable. While we're not introducing a permission for every item in Admin Console, we're improving the permissions management for the most common situations.

Here are the changes:

Manage Categories
Old: Administer System
New: Add new set of permissions "Add/Edit/Delete/View Categories"

Discount Codes
Old: Administer System
New: Add new set of permissions "Add/Edit/Delete/View Discount Codes"

Gift Vouchers
Old: Administer System
New: Add new set of permissions "Add/Edit/Delete/View Gift Vouchers"

System Pages
Old: Administer System
New: Add new permission "Manage System Pages"
Note it's a single permission rather than 4 separate ones (Add/Edit/Delete/View).

System Emails
Old: Administer System
Proposed: Add new permission "Manage System Emails"
Note it's a single permission rather than 4 separate ones (Add/Edit/Delete/View).

For every role having the "Administer System" permission, we will add the new permissions listed above as a one-time action. Also, these permissions were renamed:

• View Usage Reports permission => "View Reports"
• View Admin Reports permission => "View Admin Activity Reports"

Some menu entries were also renamed:

• "Sitewide templates" to "Page Templates"
• "Site Manager > System Messages" to " Site Settings > System Pages"
• "Site Manager > System Emails" to "Site Settings - System Emails"

Besides the menu update, the release also includes the following fixes for V3:

• Update: Fixed a bug causing Admin V3 to generate a "WYSIWYG editor could not be found, please relaunch the Module Manager." error when trying to insert a module using Internet Explorer
• Fixed a bug causing pop-up windows to lack the close close button; Read the Hidden close button for - Preview Pop-ups GetSatisfaction thread for more details and user reports.
• Enhanced all filters behavior to fade-out when clicking outside the filter UI
• Update: Fixed a bug causing Upgrade button to not display in V3 for sites under Consolidated Billing
• Fixed a bug causing link manager to open in new window instead of popup, if previous selection was literature item
• Fixed a bug causing visits charts to reload when zoom in or out was at max
• Fixed a bug causing "Copy this webform" button to be displayed as a link positioned between "Save" & "Delete" buttons
• Fixed spacing and positioning for the Preview & Copy page footer buttons displayed on Site manager -> Pages -> Page details user interface
• Fixed search box positioning in webapp item list
• Fixed a bug causing floating action menu to not be displayed after save
• Fixed breadcrumbs on e-commerce and website reports
• Fixed a breadcrumb bug causing Dashboardv4.aspx to be opened instead of Development or Business Dashboards when using Home breadcrumbs
• Updated design on tasks list
• Fixed a bug preventing users from inserting images in rad editor using image manger (Bad request error)
• Fixed a bug in Export Product List causing loading indicator to remain on screen after file is successfully downloaded
• Fixed a bug in IE8 causing pop-up windows to display with the Title header
• Updated Business Dashboard layout
• Updated padding on all popup windows
• Fixed a bug in Create web form user interface causing the Web Form Details screen to be displayed under the main menu
• Fixed a breadcrumb problem on dashboard
• Added Add Field button in the second step of the Add Web AppWizard
• Fixed a bug causing browsers to load V2 screens when trying to open user interfaces in new browser windows or tabs
• Updated: Added Copy Menu, Menu Preview & Add menu actions to page actions
• Fixed a bug causing Delete button to be hidden after saving one system user
• Updated message displayed after importing web app items
• Fixed a bug in IE8 forcing logged in admin users to authenticate again when opening webmail
• Fixed a bug causing webmail to open inside V3 UI instead of a new window
• Fixed a bug making a causing a new WebApp entry to not be automatically in menu

Deprecated functionality

Refer-a-friend form has been removed from the new module manager UI and it will no longer be available for insertion. Existing forms will continue to work, and the confirmation page is still customizable only for sites created until March 2012.

As a replacement, we recommend to use Social Sharing modules which we keep enhancing. Visitors which aren't using Social networks will be able to tell their friends about a site by composing an email in their mail client and sending them the link. This is easier than using the old refer-a-friend form as they already have the contacts available in the email client and no captcha is needed.

If you still want to use the built-in Refer a friend functionality, create a form and embed the set of fields from Marketing > Refer a friend. Then customize or insert this form in a page as desired.

The existing forms, with action=/ReferAFriendProcess.aspx, will continue to work.

Managing meta tags has been removed from UI v3 and will no longer be available. Please see the SEO improvements plans for better alternatives on managing meta tags.

For web pages, we are also looking at removing the ability to notify users in a role when a page is about to expire (Web pages > Role responsible field), either for all sites or for pages which don't have this set to a value.

Visitor Details, Visitors by IP address and Spy Lens reports will be deprecated for privacy reasons.

What's next

We'd like to give you a heads-up with upcoming changes in the following release, without setting anything in stone though.

• Social modules templates will be removed from FTP. We learned there was almost no need to customize them, and having them on FTP prevents BC upgrading them to the latest supported markup by social networks.
• System_visitorDeviceClass and visitor.device will always return the correct detected device (no matter if multiscreen templates are enabled or not)

Enjoy!

Cristinel Anastasoaie
Adobe Business Catalyst Product Manager

Effective February 8th 2012 we will further update the way we handle CRM user passwords, for security reasons. The new release will impact lost password workflows, add or update System Messages / System Emails and alter the way customers retrieve their passwords.

This is the second step in a larger update process. The first phase was released during December and was detailed previously as part of the Important Security Policy Updates - Effective December 14th blog post.

Summary of the changes:

• Case sensitive passwords - beginning with the February release, passwords for new CRM users will be case sensitive. Existing customers will be gradually migrated to case sensitive passwords as they login into the system.
• System Messages (Pages) - added Password Retrieve Request (new) page which contains a form when the user can input his username or password in order to receive the password reset email; similar content to existing Lost Password form
• System Messages (Pages) - updated Password Retrieve Confirmation page
• System Messages (Pages) - added Password Reset (new) – opened via the link in the password reset email; contains a form in which the user inputs his new password
• System Messages (Pages) - added Password Reset Success (new) – displayed to the user after he has successfully reset his password
• System Messages (Pages) - updated Unauthorized Access page so that it contains a Lost Password link by default
• System Emails - Updated Lost Password and Secure Zone Details emails to replace {tag_password} with {tag_passwordresetlink}; {tag_password} has also been updated to send a password reset link instead of a clear password;
• Email Marketing > Create campaign - {tag_recipientpassword} will be deprecated and replaced with {tag_recipientPasswordResetLink} which will send a link to an update password form instead of clear passwords; when running already built campaigns, the {tag_recipientpassword} tag will return a link to a reset password page.
• APIs - ContactList_Retrieve, Contact_RetrieveByEmailAddress, Contact_RetrieveByEntityID, Contact_RetrieveByExternalID, Contact_RetrieveByUsernamePassword, Contact_Retrieve, Contact_Retrieve (message name Contact_Retrieve2), Contact_Retrieve (message name Contact_Retrieve3) - Password field will return an empty value.
• APIs - we have added a new API named Contact_RetrieveZonesByEntityID which retrieves the secure zones to which a given contact is subscribed

Note: For existing sites, the content of the modified system messages/emails is not changed automatically. In order to use the new templates Admin users should perform a "Reset to original" operation on the affected messages/emails.

February Security Update FAQ

Q: Can a Partner or Site Admin still update a CRM user password via the Admin UI?
A: Yes, Site Admins and Partners can still enter a new CRM user password through the Edit Customer UI. The new value will be saved and used by site customers to login to secure zones.

Q: How can a Partner or Site Admin help CRM users recover their passwords?
A: Since the CRM user password is no longer readable by Site Admins or Partners in Report or in Manager Customer UIs, we encourage Partners to use the following methods to help customers retrieve their passwords:

• Use "Email Login Details" from Customer Details > Manage Customer Subscriptions screen; this will send CRM customers and email that includes a link to a forgot password form which they can used to reset password.
• Update login pages to include a link a "Forgot Password" form that customers can use to reset secure zone passwords; Following the release, it is recommended to use the new Forgot Password page. Read the Allowing Customers to view and update CRM details article on the Business Catalyst Knowledge base for more information on how to help secure zone customers retrieve their passwords.

Q: What happened to the "Lost Password" form?
A: The "Lost Password" form has been deprecated and replaced with an automatically rendered form. Existing Lost Passwords form will continue to work and will send customers an email with an email and a link to change the password. The new Retrieve Password form is linked from all login screens and can be customized from System Messages section.

Q: What happens when the password field is left blank in the import file?
A: We have updated the import functionality so that it does not overwrite the existing password with a blank password. Leaving the password field blank in the import file will keep the existing password. The following uses cases are applicable when updating or inserting customers through import & API:

• If contact exists in CRM and password field is left blank in the import file, the system keeps the value existing in the database
• If contact exists in CRM and password field includes a value in the import file, the system updates the password with the value provided in the import file
• If contact does not exists in CRM and password field is left blank in the import file, the system creates a new contact and doesn't generate a password for it
• If contact does not exists in CRM and password field includes a value in the import file, the system creates a new contact generates a password based on the value provided in the import file.

Q: Following the February release, can Partners or Site Admins still automate the Secure Zone login by appending username and password to an URL?
A: No. Starting with our February release, site customers will have to enter username and password when accessing a secure zone. To avoid entering login credentials the next time they access the site, site customers can check the "Remember me" checkbox.

Q: Following the February release, can partners send passwords by email to all contacts created using import or APIs?
A: No. Starting with our February release, Partners will be able to include in the email a link to an Update Password form which can be used by CRM customers to setup a new password.

Q: Where can I find documentation about the new CRM APIs so that I can update my customer sites ahead of the February release?
A: You can find a description of the new API on our knowledge base. For more details, read the "Retrieve Secure Zones API Reference" article.

Please make sure that your customers and team members are aware of these important updates.

Thank you for all of your help and support,

Cristinel@Adobe

If you are interested in the BC Partnership Plans but never had a chance to upgrade, now you have a great opportunity. Our campaign for January offers 25% discount on both the Standard and the Premium Partnerships.

To claim this offer just follow the steps below:

1. Click "Upgrade & Power up the Partner Portal" in your Partner Portal
2. Choose your plan:
   1. Premium - $1995 once-off fee. -> $1496
   2. Standard - $995 once-off fee. -> $746
3. Add your personal and credit card details
4. Add in the discount code 2012JANUARY25

Why become a Business Catalyst Partner?

Our Partner Program is for web professionals just like you who are serious about building and selling Online Businesses. Increase your profits, close more deals and grow your web design business by becoming a Standard or Premium Business Catalyst Partner.

• Build fully functional online businesses for your clients by using our unified platform and without back-end coding 
• Accumulate a recurrent revenue for your business by receiving a 20% commission on all your clients’ monthly fees and a 10% override commission on hosting sales of referred Free, Standard or Premium Partners
• Premium Partners can fully rebrand the solution with their own company name and logo 
• Receive a free, fully-featured Business Catalyst site to promote your web design services and generate valuable leads for your business 
• Get full access to features such as site import and site replication - or roll your own hosting packages with our Consolidated Billing feature (Premium only) 
  
  Take a complete Partner tour here!  

Terms and conditions

• Offer must be redeemed prior to 11:59pm PST, 15th February, 2012
• Offer only valid for Free Partner accounts upgraded to a Standard or Premium plan for the first time or for existing Standard Partners that upgrade their account to the Premium level
• For existing Standard Partners the 25% discount will be applied to the price difference between the two plans - $1000. So the discounted amount to be paid for the upgrade will be $750
• The Partner fee is a one-time fee only and no additional fees are required for the sign up
• Offer not valid for existing Premium Partners
• Promo code must be entered correctly. If you encounter any difficulties in the process, please be sure to contact us via the live chat available on the Business Catalyst Homepage or by using the Contact Us Form
• If for some reason the total price does not display the new discounted amount after entering the Promo code, do not continue with the payment as we are not able to refund the 25% discount if the full amount has been processed against a credit card. Contact us before proceeding.
• No refunds for Partnership sign-up fees purchased on this promotion
• The discounts will not be cumulated with other discounts (example: the referral discount). If a new Partner has been referred and proceeds to sign-up using this 25% discount, there will still be a referral fee or ongoing master commission for the Master Partner.

Hello Partners,

We will be releasing several SEO improvements between January - April, targeting the following goals:

• solve the current SEO issues
• have SEO enabled out-of-the-box. For new sites, you should no longer be required to tweak SEO performance.

Below is a breakdown of the upcoming changes.

Trial sites will not be indexed by search engines

While a site is in Trial mode, we will automatically serve a robots.txt file which prevents search engine indexing. This will help you avoid having your site show up in search results while it's still in development, via the businesscatalyst.com or worldsecuresystems.com domains.

Once you've upgraded the site, we will stop serving the robots.txt file. You can then use your own robots.txt, if you choose to.

Have sites on BC domains redirect automatically to default domain after upgrade

To enable this, we are implementing a new engine for managing 301 Redirects. Here's a prototype of the UI (hold Shift key to highlight clickable areas). Among other improvements, the new engine supports any URL (including _blog, aspx, shtml) and a wildcard (e.g. if you just consolidated several about pages into a single one, you can redirect /about/* to /about.html).

While the existing redirects will be migrated to the new engine, there is no import/export functionality (reasoning: additional engineering resources were required for this, which we'd rather invest in more critical areas). However, we've invested in decreasing the need for import/export, by:

• being able to quickly search and edit all redirects online
• introducing wildcard support, so you can consolidate multiple related redirects in a single entry

In regards to BC domains, the issue we are solving is search engines seeing duplicate content on mysite.com, mysite.businesscatalyst.com and mysite.worldsecuresystems.com. Within 24 hours of adding a default domain to an upgraded site, we will automatically add the following 301 redirect rules:

This will work for white-labeled partners with white-labeled domains as well.

For example, a visitor reaching mysite.businesscatalyst.com/about.html will be 301 redirected to mysite.com/about.html.

The redirects aren't added immediately after adding the domain name, in order to give you time to update the DNS settings with your domain registrar, as instructed when adding a domain to BC. Also, /admin/ and a few other URLs will never be redirected, so that you can always access the Admin Console on the BC domain.

The following will not be addressed in the upcoming update:

• redirecting secure content on https://mysite.worldsecuresystems.com (just http://mysite.worldsecuresystems.com will be redirected)
• automatically solving the duplicate content issue for multiple domains. To solve this, you should add a rel=canonical link to templates. Finer control over the canonical link for products and web app items will be possible using liquid markup.

SEO options enabled out-of-the-box

All new sites will have automatically have the options available currently under Site Settings > SEO enabled, and this screen will be removed. The options are

• SEO friendly URLs for eCommerce, Announcements, Web Apps
• Enable partial URL matching for SEO friendly URLs
• Enable sitemap.xml for search engines

For existing sites, we will also activate all SEO options. Please let us know if you feel this will introduce any issues.

Note that sitemap.xml will always be enabled. However, as mentioned above, your site will not be indexed while on trial. Should you want to disable search engine indexing after upgrade, please use a custom robots.txt file or upload an empty sitemap.xml.

If you'd like to use a custom sitemap.xml file, simply upload it to your site. If this file exists, it will be served instead of the BC-generated sitemap.xml.

Site search module displays SEO friendly URLs

Search results for pages are now presented with .aspx URLs. These will be changed to SEO friendly URLs.

Handling page title and description metadata

The meta tags management functionality was removed from UI v3 as we're implementing better ways to manage the most common types: title and description. Search engines recommend these should be unique for every page.

Therefore, you will be able to manage page title and description metadata when editing a page:

• page title field presented in the UI will be the same as the <title> tag from HTML source. When one is changed, the other will also be updated to mirror this
• description metadata will be editable visually, similar to title
• page properties dialog will be removed

To set title and description for non-page entities, such as blog posts, products or web app items, you will be able to use the following in your layouts/module templates:

<head>
   <title>{tag_name}</title>
   <meta name="description" content="{tag_description}" />
</head> 

What about managing keywords metadata?

Search engines look for keywords in your site content (page title, URL, description metadata, and <body> content), and ignore the old keywords metadata tag. As setting keywords metadata won't help, we won't have a dedicated UI for it.

What about managing other metadata?

If you'd like to add other metadata tags to your pages or templates, including keywords, please add them using the HTML code editor.

Customizable URLs for blogs

We will investigate and attempt to implement a way to fully customize blog URLs, including "/_blog/" and using dashes instead of underscores in URLs.

What will not be implemented in 2012

Besides all the improvements above, there is far more which can be done regarding SEO. Long term, we are looking at adding more SEO features, such as:

• easy editing / batch update for all page titles and descriptions
• more granular control over sitemap.xml contents
• integrated SEO tools
• https support for redirects

Looking forward to your feedback, as we start developing these enhancements. For SEO best practices, see Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.

A Happy, Search Engine Optimized New Year! :)
Marius