Release notes - Moonfruit Lounge

Thu, 16 Feb 2012

Walt

Thu, 16 Feb 2012, 14:42

Shop Update: Product Variants

Since October last year the ShopBuilder has gone from strength to strength and our customers have now built over 135,000 shops. There are already 168,552 products on sale. As Leila mentioned in an earlier blog we have been taking your recommendations on board for which features you'd like to see next and Product Variants (Options) came top of the list. Thanks to your feedback, today we pushed out an update that now allows you to apply variations to all your products e.g colour, range, size etc.

Variants

To update your shop to use variants, you need to use the update tab on the Editor for each ShopBuilder section. If you've not done this before it's very straightforward. Go to your shop page whilst logged in, click the shop on the page so it's highlighted and then go to the Editor. Click on the Update tab and click on the Update widget button. And then Save your page. You'll need to do this for the four sections (Product Catalog, Product Detail, Shopping Cart and Sale Confirmation) which you can work through using the drop down on the toolbar.

ShopBuilder Update Tab
Getting the new updates is easy

Adding variations is also very easy. Go to your Product List on the Shop section and edit that product. You will now see a section in the middle called Product Options which allows you set up product options or variations up to a maximum of 50 per product.

Product Variants in Editor
How you set up variants within the Editor

So not only does this give you more flexibility over the products you sell, allow you to add one base product and offer a range of variations, but it also means, for example, that if you run a Standard account you can run a shop that offers up to 2500 different items or units for sale (50 products x 50 variations).

Product Variants in View
How your customers will see variants in action on your website

As with other features of the ShopBuilder, Product Variations will also appear on your Mobile Shop and your Facebook Shop (where they've been set up correctly).

Bonus

Now, for the eagle-eyed amongst you, who spotted the bonus feature?

We managed to sneak in Duplicate a Product to the release. This will make it easier for our shop builders to easily copy a product which you can then modify or adapt as you see fit on your Product List. Using the Edit drop-down for each product you can quickly copy a product into your Product List.

Duplicate Product
Duplicating an existing product is now very simple

So, what's next?

Well, the next release is very exciting and will see our first version of the mobile editor going out the door. The editor will give you access to mobile version styling (colours) and include/exclude content from the mobile version. For those of you who consider mobile technology to be a key channel to visitors accessing your sites, this tool will give you more control. Obviously the HTML5 work will provide even greater benefits but that won't hit the streets until Q3.

So, what's next for the shop? We've had some great feedback from our customers and we now wish to find out what the next most important feature is for you to have added to the ShopBuilder. We have selected the next top 3 requested features that we keep hearing again and again, but we'd like to get more specific feedback on what we build next. So if you want to have your say on what shop feature you'd like to see developed next please cast your vote in our quick and simple survey. So, over to you.

Lastly, what we have fixed!

We fixed a number of bugs in this release, many of which were minor. The headline bug fixes were:

Google Webmaster Tools verification code is again being added to the HTML
You can now scroll again in edit mode across all supported browsers
Facebook Shop image popup gallery is now working correctly again

And that's another release.

Tue, 20 Dec 2011

Joe

Tue, 20 Dec 2011, 10:28

17 comments

Christmas release!

Ho ho ho. We thought we'd get a few more things out in the St Nick of time just before the holidays. We'll follow up later in the week with a summary of everything from 2011 and a hint at what's to come in 2012. But here's what's just been shipped.

Updates to the Shop Checkout page

Your customers can now set product quantities on the Checkout page when buying multiple items. And we've also made more clear the checkout options via PayPal, or paying by Card (not requiring a PayPal account). Plus there's a shipping drop down box.

NB. To get the Checkout page updates, you'll need to navigate to the 'Checkout page' (by using the shop drop down list in the Editor), and then on the Page Editor click 'Update template'.

Shipping updates

We've added the ability for you to set domestic and international shipping rates for your product purchases. This is part of a long line of shipping based features that we will continue with next year, but for now this is one additional variable you can change.

Category tweaks

You can now hide categories from the list so you can organise your products in secret ways, and then link to special hidden categories without them having to appear in the Category menu. You can also rename the 'All category'

Mobile render tweaks

We've updated the way we generate the mobile versions of your site to better organise the content we show. Items are grouped more logically and additional images will now show in the HTML version. Previously images covered by text would not be displayed, but provided at least 50% of the image is 'visible' we'll now show the image in the mobile version. We have another release slated for early 2012 which will further enhance the mobile version.

New Shop templates

We've updated all the shop templates to include the categories from the last release, and also the quantities, shipping and payment options from this release. We hope you'll agree there's some lovely stuff in there!

That's all for now. The team are already working on more goodies for early next year, but we'll soon be putting on our warmest socks and settling down for a good long sleep over the hols. We hope you have a wonderful time and a welcome break too.

As always, thoughts and feedback welcome.

Thu, 1 Dec 2011

Joe

Thu, 1 Dec 2011, 20:33

25 comments

Shop update: Categories!

As many of you will have noticed, we launched the long awaited ShopBuilder about a month ago and as promised we're going to have a continuous stream of new shop features coming as quickly as we can bake them in the Moonfruit oven. (We don't really bake our software, but you get the idea).

We've had a great response to the shop launch with over 45,000 shops having been built in the last month. And we've also had a lot of feedback from you about the additional features you'd like us to build as quickly as possible. We love the feedback, so keep it coming.

So first out of the oven is the new Category feature. Many of you were asking for it, so here it is.

Shop homepage with Category links

Categories allow you to create groupings for your products and have different ways of ordering and arranging them to suit the different audiences you may be addressing or targeting. In the shop manager you can now add categories and assign products to categories. One product can be in more than one category and the list order of products in each category can be different.

Category editor

Categories have their own URL so you can link directly to a category sub heading. We've also created a new link type on the link tab in the Editor so that any image or link can link to a category allowing you to construct your own navigation. You can add category links direct from the menu of your site too, so that your normal site menu can offer different category pages.

Link editor with new category link type

And if that wasn't enough, there is also a new category link widget in the File Manager which automatically creates a list of all your categories and links to each of them. You can customise the style of this category link widget and change the button style, font and colours.

Category list widget on right

The mobile and Facebook views have also been updated to incorporate the category view. So if you have more than two categories, your Facebook shop will show the category names and images, which link through to the category product lists. And on the mobile view you can navigate to the category types from the drop down at the top of the page.

Facebook shop with categories

Mobile shop with categories

So that's about it for now. All these images are taken from our shopdemo.moonfruit.com website, so feel free to have a look and a play there.

So what's next?

We're working on some improvements to the shipping options and the ability to change the quantities of items on the checkout page - so your customers can buy multiple numbers of an item more easily. These should be out before the end of the year (testing permitting). Then early next year we will bring out product variants, and after that basic stock control and discount/coupon options. After that? Well, some more stuff - helped by the feedback we get from you guys.

Tue, 1 Nov 2011

Joe

Tue, 1 Nov 2011, 12:30

40 comments

Shop Launch round-up!

It's been a busy few weeks here at Moonfruit HQ. Our new ShopBuilder product is now live and doing well, and has clocked up over 16,000 shop builds in the first week and a half, so we're pretty pleased. Here are just a few examples, selling everything from spices to handbags, headphones to concert tickets!

We launched the product with PayPal at their UK offices on Weds 19th Oct with a great audience made up of customers from Moonfruit, PayPal and StartUp Britain. The theme was Guerrilla ShopBuilding. We had PayPal's Cameron McClean and Beverley Bergin setting up the event and talking payment solutions. We then had StartUp Britain's Emma Jones and our very own CEO Wendy Tan taking about small business strategy and how to grow and get customers in these tough times, and me with a nerve wracking live multi-device demo (watched by the even more nervous development team from the back row!).

Wendy tells it how it is

It all went (came) off without a hitch and was very well received. We had a great time too and it was fantastic to meet so many of our customers and potential customers in one place to share ideas. We had some nice press too:

http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/10/19/moonfruit-makes-play-for-shop-identity-with-killer-facebook-integration/

http://www.three-sixty.co.uk/om4biz/?p=521

http://blog.workspacegroup.co.uk/blog/2011/10/20/tech-for-start-up-britain-week-guerilla-shopkeeping-fight-in.html

For those of you that haven't seen it yet, our new ShopBuilder allows you to publish once, sell everywhere, with your shop working immediately on web, mobile and Facebook. You update your products in one place and we publish the updates everywhere. All products added have their own page, URL and SEO data and are effortlessly connected to your main shop page.

Using PayPal's accelerated onboarding we can get you trading immediately with only an email address (no credit checking) and with their Express Checkout you can start collecting payments from your customers using web and mobile optimised payment gateways without any configuration required by you. We do the hard stuff, you get on with selling your stuff.

Web, mobile, social

Total design control

So what's next…?

…you may ask. Well the e-commerce road is long and littered with complexity, and we're not done yet. We see it as our job to make trading effortless and remove the barriers to setting up your own shop. We want to keep things simple, but also give you the features you need to run an effective store. So the challenge is to add features without cluttering the interface.

Next up is product categories, which will allow you to organise and group your products to create category specific lists and landing pages. Of course these will work across web, mobile and Facebook straight away, and here's what they will look like when you get them in a couple of weeks.

New category admin view

We hope to continue releasing new shop features every month or so (e.g. variable shipping, product variations, product quantities, coupons, etc.) so keep your eyes peeled!

Wed, 17 Aug 2011

Joe

Wed, 17 Aug 2011, 17:43

19 comments

New Release 17 August 2011

Hurrah it's release time again! Now hold your horses, it's not the shop yet, but it is creeping slowly towards the release window poised to jump out, but not quite yet. Instead we have a few previously unannounced goodies to release to you. They are:

New File Manager

The new File Manager brings file management on Moonfruit into the new decade! All your files (and ours) are now displayed in thumbnail or list view for easy review and navigation. List view allows you to sort by name, size, upload date and file type. You can also reduce or increase the size of the file manager window to see more or fewer of your files in one go. The upload process has been simplified with more feedback on progress of individual files, and you can now drag files between folders more quickly and easily.

File manager and upload

File manager list view

Getty images

Those amongst you with eagle eyes may have noticed the Getty name on our partners page some weeks ago, but we've now added a bunch of Getty images directly into our File Manager for you to use within your site. Initially there are 350 to choose from in the 'Getty' folder in the Library, but we'll be adding more as we go. Getty images are a great way of adding high quality photography to your site which can really make it look fantastic. These images are only available to subscribers, so that's another reason to upgrade ;-)

Getty Images in the File Manager

New templates

We've also added 5 new blog templates, as well as adding the blog to a bunch of the old templates, so there are now 30 blog starting points to choose from in the Moonfruit template wall! The 5 new templates look a little like this.

5 new blog templates

And that's about it for now. Let us know if you spot any unusual behaviour and as always we welcome your feedback!

Wed, 27 Jul 2011

Sarah

Wed, 27 Jul 2011, 15:52

16 comments

Get Blogging with Moonfruit!

Last week we put our blog feature out into the wild in public beta for everyone to try out and see what they thought of it. The feedback to date has been great and we're really glad that you all like it! The blog platform is waiting for you all to give it a try.

To help you get started we have 9 new beautiful blog specific templates for you to choose from. Alternatively you can use a standard template and tailor this to meet your own blogging needs.

Blog Templates First 9

We've had a few questions about what a blog actually is and how it might be useful to your business so here goes!

Blogging has been around since 1997 (in it's long form name weblog, shortened to blog around 1999). Since then people have been building these types of sites and as of 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence. Today the lines are very much blurred between what a blog is and what a website is. Traditionally a website was something were you update individual pages with content in the form of text, images, audio and video. There was no concept of when it was published and you couldn't easily syndicate it to other sites.

In comparison to a website, blogging provides a way to structure your content as 'posts' in reverse chronological order, with the most recent post available at the top of the page. Posts can be tagged to be able to find relevant content first and is published through a standard called RSS (the orange icons that you see on the internet). This in turn can be used to re-publish your content to other services automatically, such as TwitterFeed.com for publishing blog content to Twitter. Something that is fast becoming the norm with blogging is the ability to share your posts through Facebook and Twitter using the Like and Tweet buttons. Most blog platforms provide this as an extra that you have to add in yourself - we've taken all the pain away and it's there by default.

You can use a blog in various ways depending on whether you are blogging as a business or blogging for pleasure. If you are a business looking to use the Moonfruit blogging feature then you may choose to use it for letting people know about your latest products, Maybe provide news or information around what your company is up to at the moment, providing your customers with an insight into the inner workings of your business. Your blog isn't just about publishing either. When you publish a post you can enable comments and then have conversations with potential customers creating a community.

As an individual you can use your blog to share your passions, interests and insights. It is a place to share and learn from others. The world is your oyster and now is the time to give it a try!

Thu, 21 Jul 2011

Sarah

Thu, 21 Jul 2011, 17:30

21 comments

Moonfruit Blog Beta is now Live!

Calling all Moonfruiters! Blogging has been used as a global platform for announcements for some time now. It has provided a stage for the public to sadly learn that Lance Armstrong was to race his last Tour de France, or that Christiano Ronaldo had suddenly become a father. Blogging has become a natural tool for announcements, news and sharing content. We are really happy to announce (conveniently through a blog) that we here at Moonfruit are releasing the Moonfruit Blog Beta! We would love you to take a look and try it out.

The blog platform is a simple to use set of tools enabling you to update your blog page quickly and simply. You have a range of different ways in which you can do this in the editor. Firstly click on the blog beta button to add your blog content. Then create your first post.

You can have three different types of post: a text post, which is a post that only contains text; an article post, which enables images and text as well as being able to split an article across multiple pages; and finally an image post, which is (unsurprisingly!) a post that display images. If you are in a hurry and just want to write a quick text post then on the blog dashboard you can use the quick post feature. This will take the first line of your post as the title and send it straight out. If this is your first post then when you click to publish you'll be prompted to add your blog page to your site.

Blog Admin

As with all good blog platforms you can add tags to your posts and all posts are published to an RSS feed. On top of all this you can add metadata to every post enabling you to control your SEO (search engine optimisation) on a post by post basis. You will also find some global settings in the blog settings area. In this section you can set global site wide tags and the image alignment as well as decide how many posts you would like to be able to see on the blog page.

The thing that makes the Moonfruit blog different from other blog platforms is the ability to be creative with your blog site design. Just like with other pages a blog page can be edited through simple click, drag and edit. Quite simply what you see is what you get. If you have any questions on how to use the blog or find any "unusual features" then just ask.

Here are are a few Moonfruit sites that are already using our blog functionality. Do share your blog sites with us, it's always interesting to see what is of interest to you!

Blog Examples

We look forward to hearing about your experience with the blog.

And one bonus blog link The Moonfruit Intern blog.

Fri, 24 Jun 2011

Sarah

Fri, 24 Jun 2011, 17:21

19 comments

A new and fruity update!

The lovely team here at Moonfruit have been hard at work for the past couple of weeks and have released a minor update for you. We’ve been doing some performance enhancements on the blog which is currently in beta and it is now loading faster than it used to. The update also fixes a bug with the Google Search widget and forum search is back up and running! If you are based in the USA or Australia you may also find that our site loads a bit faster than it used to as well.

New templates

Sticking with the template tradition of always having new templates with updates, we've got 5 new ones available on the site wall on Moonfruit.com. Here’s a sneak peak!

Template Images

And that's about that for now. As always let us know if you have any comments or concerns and if you find any bugs or oddities, please let us know!

Wed, 1 Jun 2011

Joe

Wed, 1 Jun 2011, 11:14

52 comments

Beta blog update and some image goodies

Team fruit have been beavering away on some blog bug fixing and additional feature requests like highly trained little software ninja's – silently, stealthily and with great precision (except the occasional bug). So we have a small bundle of goodies to push out today. They are:

Image light-boxes

One of the requests that came in from the blog was to allow blog images to pop-up to full size to be seen in all their glory. We liked this so much we thought we'd apply it to all images in the product. When selecting an image on the page there's now a new 'pop-up' tab in the Editor allowing you to set the pop-up flag, the pop-up image and an image caption.

New pop-up editor panel

Image shown in full screen light-box

NB. This feature isn't available for images inside galleries or frames, but we'll look at extending it further in the future.

Blog Beta feature improvements!

(To join the blog beta, please see the details on the last article!)

New features

Tweet button on each article, both post and list view
Admin can set a display name to show as 'author' on the post rather than using the 'username' in the blog settings section
Admins can backdate posts so you can add in historical (or hysterical) articles
An RSS feed is now available, and an RSS button will appear on the blog template
A button to return to the list view is now available on all posts
Blog images will pop-up in a light-box effect (see above)
Images are now organised in folders in the blog file picker
Admins can turn off comments globally in the blog settings section
Links will be automatically created in article text if you type a URL when adding a post
Admins can set a default folder for blog image uploads
Tags on posts now link to filtered tag results, e.g. A list page per tag

Bug fixes

Links in posts are now working (hurray!)

New Tweet button on posts

Changes in the blog admin

We're still working on the rendering performance which we hope to ship in the next couple of weeks at which point the blog will be turned on for all users. We will continue to work on new features throughout the year too, though large parts of the team will be moving onto the shop.

NB. To get the new blog template (with the RSS button, tweet button, etc.), you will need to delete your current blog page (not the blog itself just the page) and add a new page back in from the pages section. The new blog page will not be default style again, so you will need to reapply your look and feel, and other items on the page will be lost. So you may want to copy all the page items to another page first, then delete the blog page, re-add it then copy them back. Sorry this is a bit inelegant, we'll look at changing that too.

New templates

And just for good measure we thought we'd keep up the tradition of adding in some new templates. So we've got 16 new ones now on the site wall on Moonfruit.com. Some of them look at little like this…

And that's about that for now. As always let us know if you have any comments or concerns and if you find any bugs or oddities, please let us know!

Thu, 31 Mar 2011

leila

Thu, 31 Mar 2011, 18:21

12 comments

Template-tastic!

We know how much you love new features... So, in addition to last weeks release, today we've added 6 more stylish templates for you to play with.

We had a lot of requests to introduce blank templates so you could design your site's from scratch. This has now been added in both black and white as well.

We'd love to see what you guys create , so please leave us a message on our Facebook Group or Twitter. The best sites will be featured on our home page for all to see :)

Here's a preview of the new designs. As always, we love to hear your feedback.

new templates

new templates 2

Moonfruit Lounge

Category - Release notes

Shop Update: Product Variants

Christmas release!

Shop update: Categories!

Shop Launch round-up!

New Release 17 August 2011

Get Blogging with Moonfruit!

Moonfruit Blog Beta is now Live!

A new and fruity update!

New templates

Beta blog update and some image goodies

Template-tastic!

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