Pulse 5.2 BETA2 is out.. new theme, smaller footprint and offline blogging!

[pulsecms]

Since the success of 5.1, we've been working on the next instalment of Pulse, and it's a beauty.

And includes a lot of the most popular feature requests and bug fixes from the forum and email

A new theme, smaller footprint and offline blogging!

To get at it, download the latest BETA from your dashboard and install it and start playing.

Here's the complete list of changes:

---

Pulse 5.2BETA1

NEW

• Offline Blogging Desktop Capabilities! Archive, write, preview, and publish your Pulse Blog posts with MarsEdit on your Mac or Open Live Writer for the PC. Make it even easier to edit your blog without needing a browser!
  

  

• Brand new Default Template using Bootstrap4! Previous template moved to “default-2” folder, as an example of a child template
  

  
  
  
  

• Select the service to use for the GeoIP settings in the stats. Select from: freegeoip, ipstack, snoopi. Enable in Settings and input the corresponding API key
• Added pre text on blog tags such as "posted in" - can be changed in language files
  https://forum.pulsecms.com/t/upgrading-from-pulse-3-to-pulse-5-on-non-template-site/1043/13
• New Dropdown styles added to default-2 template including responsive drawer menu on mobiles (new template also has beautiful mobile responsive sub-menu items!)

IMPROVEMENT

• Reduced File Size and number of Files of Pulsecore in order to speed up SFTP transfers on install! 83.57% file item size crushing! Only 17MB to upload!
• Added date to {{recentposts}} tag - thanks @rie05
• Reduced gap before inline edit boxes so doesn't jump down the page when visited as logged in user
• Added more space between Blog Tags
• Moved "Back" button in Blog to bottom of post (from top)
  https://forum.pulsecms.com/t/styling-pulse-cms-blog-pages/1061
• Redactor from 3.0.11 to 3.1.1
  https://imperavi.com/redactor/log/
• Improved deep links so Pulse installs on some server setups (which put all sites in the root) now work seamlessly with multi-site installs on the same server
  https://github.com/yuzoolcode/pulsecms-tracking/issues/59
• Editor user dashboard improvements: Block list showing for editors in the dashboard, download backups no longer showing and the sidebar shows pages that the editor can edit
  https://forum.pulsecms.com/t/need-editor-capability-clarification/1063/2
• Pages List in the Admin now shows the page title as well as the filename
• Login Admin Template welcome message now editable from the Admin Settings page. The old translations are used as the default if nothing entered
  https://forum.pulsecms.com/t/personalising-admin-login-screen/1092
• Navigation CSS moved from Pulsecore CSS file into the template CSS files so much cleaner and easier to work with. All custom templates need to include menu css in the their own assets.

FIXES

• Dashboard Notes Block Unordered List fix
• Policy Tag fix for the displayed font
• Fix styles issue for Locked pages using {{sb_login}} tag
  https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/pulse-5-1-password-protection/20940
• Renaming Blocks with conflicting directory names (eg Contact Form) is now fixed
• Editor login bug - session cleanup and typo fix
  https://github.com/yuzoolcode/pulsecms-tracking/issues/53
• Moving images now rebuilds the gallery.txt files and thumbs
• Related Gallery txt issue fixed
  https://github.com/yuzoolcode/pulsecms-tracking/issues/56
• Navigation Page Titles in the site navigation can now contain spaces eg "About Me"
• Fixed when admin is logged-out the policy page was broken and clashed with some theme CSS styles

Pulse 5.2BETA2

NEW

• Brought back Inline-Editing boxes and IDs so easier to edit inline and know what you are doing and improved colours so more subtle
  https://forum.pulsecms.com/t/bring-back-green-edit-boxes/1113/

IMPROVEMENT

• Improvements to default theme: logo a little smaller, Responsive menu improvements and a margin added to the back button in single post page.

FIXES

• Inline editing and a few other things missing from Default template now fixed (tags added again)

---

We're already working on BETA3 and there's a lot more to come

Keep Pulsing! ️

[pulsecms]

[jdloudon]

Excellent, just installed on a test site and nice work on reducing the file size.
An initial comment is that I am still having trouble with one of the most requested (by my clients) issue

We want to put {{social}} tags on each blog post and have it work so that the individual post is Facebooked, emailed or whatever.This still seems to be very hit and miss. I know we talked about this before so I am just following up.

I just lost a client because they now have extra staff in house and one of their junior designers decided to take on the website. She built it with Wix and it actually looks pretty good, but is as slow as treacle and very iffy on mobile devices. I had a peek at the code on a typical page:

over 4000 lines of code!
Typical Pulse page - about 200 lines!

I really try to push this issue with potential clients who thnk that the DIY drag n drop model is without flaws.
Cheers

[pulsecms]

Thanks @jdloudon and good to hear your positive comments!

The social issue you posted before (https://forum.pulsecms.com/t/blog-social-tags-issue/1083) is on the list. It doesn't feature in this update, but is scheduled for fix in 5.2BETA3 (the next release). So hang on there!

over 4000 lines of code!Typical Pulse page - about 200 lines!

That's a great case study and something you can push in your prepping of clients and estimates to win their business.

If there's anything else we could be doing (built into the product) or in terms of marketing, to help you win more clients then please let us know

[jdloudon]

Great thanks, look forward to the release/
Can you say more about the GeoIP settings in the stats. I had trouble before because of firewall settings.
...... input the corresponding API key

I can find the enti API but not the key. Which is the easiest and most reliable to use do you think?
j

[pulsecms]

Yes - so we thought you would benefit from this feature : )

All 3 are pretty good and all work well. Start with ipstack?

After you sign up for their APIs they will give you a Key - copy and paste this into your Pulse site to connect it to the GEO IP package.

Which one are you trying and can't find the key for?

[jdloudon]

Okay thanks
Have signed up for ipstack, and got the API key.
Now however I have an error which seems like it must be related:
On the test site when I click a link it gets a 443 stuck into the url: like this

http://www.darkstar.eu:443/blog

[pulsecms]

Looks like you need to install an SSL certificate on http://www.darkstar.eu ?

[jdloudon]

An SSL cert should not be mandatory. In fact I have several Pulse 5 site on at the mo and they all work perfectly without. Its only after I enabled ipstack that this started happening with darkstar.eu.
However I just checked this morning and it is not happening anymore. It was happening in Firefox and MSIE, but not Chrome. Now they are all ok. Weird huh?

oh and btw: just tried to get API key from freegeoip and there is this message:
_Great news! To offer you an even better free service, freegeoip.io has been integrated with ipstack.com. _
To continue using our free API, get your free API Key now!

[pulsecms]

It's a requirement from ipStack and some other services for the SSL.
Pulse is not requiring an SSL - but some services you might integrate with do.

But glad it is working now!

As an aside, starting in July Google started marking sites without SSL as "insecure"

Chrome will mark all HTTP sites as ‘not secure’ starting in July

Most hosts provide SSL for low-cost or free (via Let's Encrypt: https://letsencrypt.org

So SSL is recommended in most projects

[jdloudon]

I see that the requirement for SSL is already making itself clear, and I am slowly getting key sites secured. But in the meantime there are some issues with the GeoIP in Pulse 5.2
FreeGeo has integrated with IPstack, and as seen we DO need SSL for this to work.
That leaves us with Snoopi - but according to their website, to use the free version we do not need an API key. So how is their service deployed within Pulse?
I tried to contact Snoopi by email and using their online form and both failed so I have to assume that this is old code and is no longer being developed or supported,
If you have managed to use it within Pulse can you let us know how it is done please?
Thank you

[dadama]

Mars

What is the magic for accessing the blog using MarsEdit ?
Doug

[pulsecms]

@dadama In MarsEdit:

Preferences > Blogs:

• Full URL
• Endpoint is Full URL/web-blog-api
• Blog ID: blog/
• Select the main blog configuration item, then hold the option key and select Blog from the menu. You will be able to enter a username and password.
• Hold the option key and try it with set password (for the Pulse install) and username as “administrator”

Let us know how it goes

[dadama]

Indeed it works

A couple notes.

• Endpoint is: URL/web-blog-api (not /api).
• Entering the username and password isn’t very clear.

1) After entering the blog api connections details, close out of the preferences window and select the new Pulse blog in the Marsedit main window. Hit the refresh button and all the recent post should appear.

2) Hold the Option key while clicking the Blog menu in the menubar at the top of the screen.
Choose Blog > Enter Password (Do not choose Enter HTTP Password. If you do you will have to delete the set up and start over. I learned the hard-way).

3) Enter username “administrator” and the Pulse install password.

Blog away..

[pulsecms]

This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.