Pulse Blog http://pulsecms.com/blog.php The Official Pulse CMS Blog en-us Pulse Pro 1.8.1 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=52 Pulse Pro 1.8.1 is a small release that includes two improvements that many people have asked for.

First, the contact form has some flexibility in that you can now add two custom fields if you need more than what it comes with. At the top of the form.php file you will see these two new lines:

$custom_fieldname1 = "";
$custom_fieldname2 = "";

Just fill one or both in and they will then show on the front end contact form.

The second change in 1.8.1 is that gallery sorting has been tweaked so that new picture uploads will always apper first or at the top.

If you are upgrading from 1.8, there are only 4 changed files:

-form.php
-manage-photo.php
-gallery.php
-gallery2.php

]]> Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:06:51 -0700 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=52 Pulse Pro 1.8 Released http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=51 Pulse Pro is now available for download.  Here is a list of what's new:

-Email notifications for new comments 
-Stats feature revamped and a bug fixed 
-Persistent login (via cookie), stay logged in for 7 days unless logged out 
-Ability to delete backups from admin 
-Slimbox theme (thumbs gallery) customized, must clear cache to view. 
-Security patch added 
-Bug fix, can no longer overwrite block with same name 
-Galleria plugin (slider gallery) updated to 1.2.6

Go to pulsecms.com/getpro to download the latest version or click here to view the demo.

]]> Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:39:04 -0700 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=51 Pulse Pro 1.7.2 - Visitor Stats http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=50 Pulse Pro 1.7.2 introduces a new feature, visitor stats.  This feature is not intended as a replacement for a full blown analytics package such as Google Analytics, but it gives a quick overview of your website's traffic.  There are only three metrics used, daily visitors, top referrers and top pages.  This basic set of information will tell you how many people are coming to your site, where they are coming from and what content they are viewing.

To track visitors on your site, just add the tracker embed code to the footer of any page you'd like to track.  If your site uses a master template, you can just include it in the footer and it will track all pages that use the template.

]]> Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:14:36 -0700 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=50 Pulse Pro 1.7.1 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=49 Pulse Pro 1.7.1 is a small update with the following changes:

-Recent posts feature added (The embed code is with the regular blog embed code) 
-Social media sharing buttons added to blog posts 
-Some inconsistencies cleaned up on forms (blog & contact) 
-Back button inside folders fixed
-Other minor cosmetic tweaks

Please go here to download. 

]]> Sat, 19 Nov 2011 08:11:35 -0700 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=49 Beta Feature: Recent Blog Posts http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=48 One feature that has been requested several times over the last year is the ability to show "Recent Blog Posts" on the home page. I never got around to incorporating this into Pulse Pro, but at one point I posted some guidelines in the forum on how one could theoretically modify the blog.php file to make it do this.

A user (Ricard L.) recently tried it out and successfully got it working.  I made a few minor tweaks and now am posting it as a new feature in Beta. Once its been tested by a few users and no bugs are found, I will probably incorporate it into the main version.  ##more##

To see how it looks in action, take a look at the Pulse home page.  It's pretty simple and just show the 3 most recent post titles and dates. You can tweak it and apply your own styles as needed.

To set it up on your Pulse Pro site, just copy the file recent.php into your "includes" folder. Then just use the same embed code you would use for the blog, but replace blog.php with recent.php and paste it into your home page html.

Download Here

]]> Sun, 23 Oct 2011 14:10:25 -0600 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=48 Content Editing - Best Practices http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=47

Users often ask me how they can change the font face and size from within the Pulse editor, or how they can get the full version of ckeditor. But if you are asking this question, then you might be missing the point of a CMS.  I know some users love all those rows of buttons in ckeditor, but hear me out... ##more##

If your site is built right, your frontend CSS file should have already declared all the font styles for your entire site. There should be a baseline font for all normal paragrah text as well as additional styles for your headings.  For example, at the very least your sites css file should set up the basics like so:
 
body {
font-family: sans-serif;}
p {
font-size: 12px;}
h1 {
font-size: 22px;}
h2 {
font-size: 18px;}
h3 {
font-size: 15px;}
 
Now all type on your site will have a unified font face with varying sizes for the different types of text.
 
Then when using the Pulse editor, you simply select the appropriate style from the drop down for the content you are editing.  By default, it will be normal or Paragraph text. For a headline, select H1 and for a sub-headline, h2 or h3. Then your content on the frontend will automatically obey your predefined CSS styles and everything will be uniform and consistent.  
 
Not only that, but it avoids the inline styling of every single bit of content and greatly reduces bloat while creating cleaner code. Another reason to do this is to prevent clients from using 4 different type faces, applying colors to everything, underlining words that are not links and generally mucking up your nice design.
 
Here is great article by six revisions that also speaks to this topic in more detail:
 
http://sixrevisions.com/user-interface/with-great-cms-power-comes-great-responsibility/
 
]]> Sat, 08 Oct 2011 11:35:07 -0600 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=47 Pulse Pro 1.7 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=46 The latest version of Pulse Pro has a brand new design (demo) as well as several other improvements.  The design was made to make Pulse look and feel more "app" like.  It makes better use of the screen to give you more room for editing and composing.  It's also optimized for small screens like the iPad.  

Which brings me to the next new item in 1.7.  With the release of ckeditor 3.6.2, it is now compatible with iOS 5 (due out in a few weeks). Once iOS 5 is released, you will be able to edit your site with Pulse right from an iPad.  Previously the wysiwyg textarea & toolbar would not load. ##more##

There is also a new, improved file manager in Pulse Pro.  This new file manager (kcfinder) is much more compatible with a variety of hosting environments.  Not only that, but it has some great new features like drag and drop uploading, folders, file rename, sorting options, etc.

Two other small improvements are updates to the gallery uploader and an update to the slider gallery script (galleria). 

To get the latest update, go to: pulsecms.com/getpro

If you experience any bugs, please use the contact form to report them.  Thanks!

]]> Mon, 19 Sep 2011 06:43:36 -0600 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=46 Pulse Pro 1.6 Released http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=45 Introducing Pulse Pro 1.6. This release changes things up a bit as it does not focus on the backend, but rather a new official frontend template. It was specifically designed from the ground up to be easily adapted and customized. Not only that, but the template is built using Responsive Web Design, meaning it's optimized for desktop, tablet and mobile browsers. Test it out and see how it changes based on screen size.

Deploying a complete website powered by Pulse Pro is now easier and faster than ever. Simply unzip and copy the entire package to your site and it's ready to use, front and back. Of course, this doesn't mean Pulse no longer works with existing sites. Nothing has changed in that regard, the official frontend template is entirely optional. ##more##

To see the template in action go here.

Oh, and you might have noticed that PulseCMS.com is also using the new frontend template. A company should eat its own dog food if it believes in the product.

]]> Wed, 27 Jul 2011 19:38:50 -0600 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=45 Pulse Pro in German - 1.5.4 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=44 Pulse Pro is now officially available in the German language.  Both English and German language files will be included with each new release, starting today.  To switch languages, just go to settings and use the drop down menu. Also, some credit goes to SiGa and other community members who did some earlier translations which this is based upon.

To get the latest version, go to: http://pulsecms.com/getpro ]]> Wed, 08 Jun 2011 06:11:46 -0600 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=44 Tip: Use your site's CSS in the block editor http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=43
See more here: http://pulsecms.com/tips/ ]]> Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:04:14 -0600 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=43 Pulse Pro 1.5.3 - Photo Captions http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=42

1. The gallery feature of Pulse Pro now has the ability to add captions to each individual photo.  Just click on a photo in the gallery admin to bring up the caption editor.  Captions will be displayed on the frontend in both the slider gallery as well as the thumbnail gallery.

2. Also in this update is an upgrade of the gallery uploader (plupload.com).  It fixes a memory leak as well as adds image resizing to uploads.  By default, the images will be resized to be a max of 800x800.  So if a user uploads an image that is 2000x2000, it will be automatically scaled down to 800x800.  This prevents the image from falling off the screen and also reduces the file size.  If an image is less than 800x800, it will not be changed.  Since large images will now be reduced in both dimension and file size, I have increased the max upload file size from 200k to 1mb.  A 1mb file is obviously too large and not web optimized, but upon upload, it will be significantly reduced. The last thing that this upgrade to the uploader does is enable safari drag and drop uploading, previously it only worked with chrome and firefox.

3. There is a small update to the block/blog editor adds the “Remove Formatting” button to the toolbar.  This is handy for when you are pasting text from Word and it adds a bunch of extra formatting. Clicking the button will strip out all formatting and allows you to start with clean, unformatted text.

4. Embed codes have been changed to shorter, relative paths. Existing embed codes will still work, this is only for newly created ones. This makes it easier if you develop on a local server and later move it to the live server.  You can use the same embeds whereas previously you would need to edit them.

5. Finally, the settings page has been slightly updated for better organization.

Pulse CMS Demo Page: http://pulsecms.com/demo/

Please report any bugs to: http://pulsecms.com/contact.php

]]> Mon, 04 Apr 2011 12:25:06 -0600 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=42 Pulse Pro 1.5.2 - Rewritten Blog URLs http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=41
pulsecms.com/blog.php (Main page)
pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=7 (Post)

With rewriting turned on, they will look like this:

pulsecms.com/blog/
pulsecms.com/blog/7

As you can see, the "?d=" and ".php" have been removed and it looks much nicer. Search engines also prefer URL's that do not have parameters(?d=) in them, so it is also beneficial in terms of SEO.

By default this option is turned off.  To enable it, go to the settings page and turn it on, then place the provided .htaccess file in the root of your domain.

The only requirement for using the new rewritten URL's is that your blog url must be in the domain root.  For example, example.com/blog.php.

To see the new URL format in action, check out the Pulse Blog itself.

UPDATE:

I have made some slight modifications to the rewrites and they now include the blog title for better SEO

Example: pulsecms.com/blog/39/pulse-pro-15-contact ]]> Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:08:14 -0700 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=41 Pulse Pro 1.5.1 - New File Manager http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=40 demo site)

The file manager is powered by the excellent Core Five File Manager (http://labs.corefive.com/projects/filemanager/).

Other items in this update are improvements to the new form as well as updates to ckeditor and jquery.

Pulse Pro users, you can download the latest version using the URL and serial # in your sales email. ]]> Mon, 07 Feb 2011 14:26:17 -0700 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=40 Pulse Pro 1.5 - Contact http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=39 demo here.

Just like all the other features in Pulse, you simply copy and paste the embed code into any .php page and you have a working form.  The only configuration required is to set the destination email on the settings page.  

The form will check that all fields have been completed and that a valid email address was used.  If the requirements are not met, the email will not be sent.  It also includes a hidden honeypot field that is only visible to spam bots.  If this field is filled in, the email will not be sent.

If you want to edit the colors, fonts, etc of the form, all style is stored in css/form.css.

Existing users, please use the serial # and URL from your sales email to download the update. ]]> Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:53:57 -0700 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=39 Free Design Pack Available http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=38 A few weeks ago I mentioned I was playing around with a free "design pack" for Pulse Pro. (Preview Here)  I am making it available for download today for anyone who wants it.  Its a very simple concept site that utilizes all the major features of Pulse Pro (Blog, Gallery & Blocks).  It's just two files and a couple images and should enable anyone to set up a quick blog site in a matter of minutes.  

To set it up, just edit index.php and place your Pulse Pro embed codes in the areas noted in the file.  Thats it.  

Let me know if you find any browser incompatibilities or other issues.  Thanks!

To download, go to the download page here.

]]> Fri, 07 Jan 2011 09:16:20 -0700 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=38 Pulse Pro 1.4.7 - Blog Teaser http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=37 Pulse Pro 1.4.7 adds the ability to truncate a blog post and add a "Read More" button. There is a new button in the toolbar when editing blog posts (Far right). When clicked, it will insert a special tag that tells Pulse you wish to stop here, insert the button and display the rest inside. You can also manually create the break by typing the tag anywhere in your post.

Also in this update is an image deletion bug fix for the gallery.  

This will be the last update for the year, with lots more coming in 2011, happy holidays to all Pulse users and thanks for your support :)

Mark

PS

Let me squeeze this into this post also, I'm playing around with a simple front end design pack that utilizes all the Pulse features (Block, Blog, Gallery). Just two files, index.php and style.css. Will eventually package it up and post for free if anyone wants to use it as a starting point for a simple personal blog site.  Here is the demo: http://pulsecms.com/front/

]]> Wed, 22 Dec 2010 08:30:08 -0700 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=37 Pulse Pro 1.4.6 - Dates http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=36 Pulse Pro is another small update that adds a blog date format option to the settings page.  This is aimed at making things a bit easier for international users and eliminates the need to modify any code to change the format.

There are now two options for the blog dates:   MM/DD/YYYY  or  DD/MM/YYYY

The update also addresses an issue with the gallery that affected some users with Solaris based hosting.

http://pulsecms.com/getpro

]]> Mon, 29 Nov 2010 19:28:35 -0700 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=36 Pulse Pro 1.4.5.1 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=35 Pulse Pro 1.4.5.1 is a small update that addresses a bug in the RSS feed that was introduced with the new settings page.  Only one file is affected (rss.php) so you can download and just replace that one file to fix the issue.

]]> Mon, 22 Nov 2010 09:27:17 -0700 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=35 Pulse Pro 1.4.5 - Drag & Drop Upload http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=34 Pulse Pro 1.4.5 implements a new drag and drop image uploader for the Gallery from the open source project http://plupload.com.

Chrome and Firefox users can now drag and drop images to upload as well as select multiple files at once.

Other browsers that do not support new HTML5 functionality yet will automatically fall back to a HTML4 version of the uploader.

Other Items in this release:

-The default CKEditor toolbar now includes the table tool.
-CKEditor updated to 3.4.2
-jQuery updated to 1.4.3

]]> Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:39:05 -0700 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=34 Pulse Pro 1.4.4 Released http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=33 Pulse Pro 1.4.4 is released and now available for download.  Pro customers, use the link and serial # in your sales email to get the latest version.  For instructions on how to upgrade your installation, see here: http://pulsecms.com/support.php

What's New?

A new settings page (see demo) is now visible in the admin user interface.  This allows you to edit all the settings in config.php right from a browser.  For those who wish to hide this from clients, simply edit a setting in config.php ($settings_page = false;).

A security patch has been applied to the blog.

A bug was fixed in the thumbs version of the gallery.

Zip & Doc files can now be uploaded from the file manager in blocks and blog entries.

Blog html output formatting has been cleaned up

]]> Mon, 01 Nov 2010 07:49:22 -0600 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=33 Pulse Pro 1.4.3 Now Available - Gallery Options http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=32 I just released an update to Pulse Pro that allows the user to easily change gallery formats.  You can choose from the new slider style gallery or the old, more simple thumbnail layout.  You just need to edit a setting in config.php and it will automatically switch between formats.  Thats the only change in this update, just wanted to get it out there to give people who use the old format an upgrade path.

You can view both gallery styles on the demo page: http://pulsecms.com/demo/

]]> Mon, 20 Sep 2010 08:38:38 -0600 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=32 Pulse Pro 1.4.2 Released http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=31 Pulse Pro 1.4.2 is released and available for download.  Here is a breakdown of whats new:

-New gallery format
-Two bugs fixed in blog 
-CKEditor 3.4 
-Embeds re-designed (Hidden)

Pro users can get the new version here: http://pulsecms.com/getpro/

]]> Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:06:23 -0400 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=31 Regarding reCAPTCHA (1.4.1) http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=30 Since implementing reCAPTCHA, there have been some complaints about its looks, limited customization and difficulty reading the words.  While it does do a very good job at eliminating spam, its not perfect. Recently, there have also been issues on some servers where the outgoing connection to the reCAPTCHA server was blocked by a firewall. I never liked the idea of relying on a 3rd party server for this exact reason.

So today I am releasing a new version with a custom captcha that is very simple, can be customized and will stop spammers.  It is based on a question and answer system that you can edit in config.php.  For example, what color is the sky?  What is 3+5? If the user does not answer with the answers you choose, they cannot submit a comment.  You can have as many questions in your config as you want and they will randomly rotate.

The new system is already on the Pulse blog as well as the demo so feel free to try it out.

Only two files changed, blog.php and config.php so if you want a quick upgrade, just replace those files. I would be a good idea to just rename the old files in case you need to revert.

]]> Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:55:21 -0400 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=30 Tips and Tricks http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=29
A few users brought up the idea of a tips and tricks section a few weeks ago and I thought it was a good idea.  So I have created a new page within the support section for this purpose.  There are just a few basic tips for now, but I will continue to build out this section as we go.  Let me know via the contact form if you have anything you would like to see in there.  Thanks.

]]> Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:49:19 -0400 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=29 Pulse Pro 1.4 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=28 Folders

This release of Pulse Pro brings several highly requested features, most notably, folders.  For those with larger collections of blocks, folders will be a big help in organizing content. Blocks can now be created inside a folder or outside in the root as before. Another new feature is that you can move blocks from one folder to another in case you need to reorganize. The third new feature related to block management is the ability to delete blocks. 

Language

Many users have requested Pulse to be translated into their native language and some have even generously submitted translated versions of Pulse.  While there will not be any official translations included with Pulse, there is now a central language file so that it can be more easily translated.  Instead of having to search through and edit 30 different files, all the wording in Pulse is now condensed into one file (lang.php) making the task of translating quick and easy. I encourage users to upload and share their “unofficial” translations in the forum.

Upgrade Notes:

Due to the new folders feature, a slight change to the file structure had to be made.  All user data is now stored in a folder called “data”.  Within that are 4 folders:

-backups
-blocks
-blog
-img

Unfortunately, this means that existing embed codes will need to be modified to work after you upgrade.  To fix this, just add “data” before “blocks” in the path like so:

include("/homepages/12/d278165188/htdocs/pulsecms/demo/blocks/Events.html"); 

include("/homepages/12/d278165188/htdocs/pulsecms/demo/data/blocks/Events.html"); 

]]> Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:42:03 -0400 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=28 Pulse Pro 1.3.8 Released http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=27 This update fixes a security vulnerability that could potentially allow an unauthorized user to delete a blog post.  If you want to replace only the changed files, they are as follows:

-edit-post.php
-del-post.php
-manage-blog.php

]]> Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:14:20 -0400 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=27 News Update http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=26 Yesterday it came to my attention that Pulse Pro had been leaked onto some illegal file sharing sites.  After some digging around, I identified the customer who was responsible.  The files have been taken down and the user has been contacted and warned.  So because of this, I had to change the assigned download URL's to lock things down a bit.  Please use the contact form and send me a message to receive your new download link.  Make sure to include the email address you used to place the order through paypal.  I apologize for the inconvenience.

]]> Sat, 03 Jul 2010 14:18:49 -0400 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=26 Pulse Pro 1.3.7 Released http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=25 Pulse Pro has been updated to version 1.3.7.  This is a small release with only one minor feature.  You can now use the link tool to upload and link to PDF files.  If you wish to do a manual upgrade of your existing install, download the new version and update the following files:

-/includes/view.php
-/includes/post.php
-/includes/edit-post.php
-/plugins/ckeditor/

Pro users: Download via the URL in your sales email.

]]> Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:27:31 -0400 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=25 Pulse Pro Security Patch 1.3.6.1 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=24 Pulse Pro has been updated to version 1.3.6.1 to address a vulnerability in which someone could view the email addresses of people who posted a comment on the blog. The patch does not alter any files, it only adds a .htaccess file to the "blocks" folder to prevent this.

If you wish to manually upgrade your install without reinstalling everything, simply download the new version and copy the .htaccess file into the "blocks" folder on your site. Also remember, .htaccess is considered a hidden file on some systems so you might need to turn on "view hidden files" in your FTP client in order to see and upload it.

]]> Sat, 12 Jun 2010 19:49:35 -0400 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=24 Pulse Pro 1.3.6 Released http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=23 Pulse Pro 1.3.6 brings support for multiple galleries.  You can now create as many individual galleries as you want, each with its own embed code. 

Two other minor features are themes for ReCaptcha and CKEditor v3.3.

Since many people did not like the default look of ReCaptcha, the default "theme" has been changed and you can choose from 3 different looks. This is accomplished by editing a line near the top of blog.php:  theme : 'blackglass'.

You can choose from blackglass, clean, and white.

As always, if you encounter any bugs, please let me know via the contact form, thanks!

]]> Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:32:02 -0400 http://pulsecms.com/blog.php?d=23