It’s hard to believe we’ve been in COVID19 lockdown for ONE YEAR, but we’ve been making good use of the time. Our 21.1 MatrixMaxx release rolled out the evening of Tuesday, April 13, 2021, launching a bunch of new functionality. Please take a few minutes to review these patch notes, as all notable changes are documented here.
You can find the recording of the April 15th Overview session here.
Major Generic Enhancements
CommerceMaxx Product Store Upgrades (Overview Video Timestamp 4:40)
As we’ve all been racing to make our worlds more virtual, staff have been coming up with more and more uses for the product store to support virtual meetings and sales. These enhancements support these efforts …
- NEW Product Version: Embedded Streaming Video support (internal reference MAXX-3582)
- Previously, the store offered 3 product format Versions: Print, Digital and Subscription. Now, there is a new fourth version to support the sale of access to Embedded Streaming Video
- First, you need to identify a streaming service/provider where you can host your video(s) and set them to only serve embedded on certain other sites. (Vimeo is an example of one such low-cost provider)
- You then take the embed code from your streaming service and add it in the Product Information when you create the product in CommerceMaxx.
- This info creates a restricted MatrixMaxx-generated WWW page, displaying the embedded video, that users are given immediate access to after completing their purchase of the video product.
- We also made some changes and refreshes to the generic Confirmation Page and Confirmation Email, to reflect that most purchases these days are digital and not tangible. (Note: if your implementation has a custom Confirmation, only some of these changes were applied.)
- Coming Soon! A Matrix webinar focusing specifically on how to setup a streaming video to properly restrict and sell it!
- ‘1-Click‘ digital Download for Free Products of type Digital Download (internal reference MAXX-3562)
- Shortens the flow for free digital products from the MatrixMaxx store by introducing a new ‘1-click Purchase‘ button
- The user simply clicks the “1-click purchase” button and if they are already logged in (and eligible for the $0 price) they are immediately directed to their “My Downloads” page with the product download available to them.
- If the user is not eligible for the $0 price, they will be directed into the cart/purchase flow.
- If the user is not already logged in, they will be prompted to do so at the point of clicking the button
- Currently this upgrade is only available for the Digital Download product version, but we are tentatively planning to expand it to Subscription and Streaming Video products in our 21.2 release in June
- If you discover that you want some styling/spacing tweaks after viewing this upgrade, our MatrixMaxx styles are controlled by the styles on your CMS/website, so please contact your CMS vendor, whether that is Matrix Services or someone else, for assistance!
- WWW Store display upgrade: Related Products (internal reference MAXX-3563)
- Enhanced display of Related Products on the WWW Product View page in the WWW store. Now it includes the addition of a Carousel with product info and images
- Upgraded related products to no longer display if unpublished (maxx-3604)
- Made related products ‘reciprocal’ to display on both products, similar to how relationships between companies are reciprocal. (maxx-3605)
- If you discover that you want some styling/spacing tweaks after viewing this upgrade, our MatrixMaxx styles are controlled by the styles on your CMS/website, so please contact your CMS vendor, whether that is Matrix Services or someone else, for assistance!
Communications/MailingMaxx: WWW Subscription Page Refresh and supporting improvements (Overview Video Timestamp 32:50)
Individuals lists created using the Communication Module’s MailingMaxx functionality may be set to Join Rule = Open to make them available for users to join/remove themselves directly on their WWW Profile page(s) in the List Subscriptions section. This WWW List Subscription functionality has been refreshed and upgraded to provide the user a cleaning experience. (internal reference MAXX-3585 and P9059)
- NEW ‘List Display Name’ field (uses existing list name field if not filled in) that allows spaces and special characters, for display label on WWW side
- NEW ‘frequency’ field which can be filled in to give info to users on how often to expect emails from that particular list (As needed, Weekly, Monthly, etc.)
- NEW grouping ability, to add Groups and tag your lists to appear under Group headings
- MatrixMaxx SiteAdmin staff users may create/edit/reorder ‘Group’ names (Admin menu -> ‘Edit Mailing List Subscription Options’ link)
- Then you may tag a List with one of these Groupings when it is set as Join Rule = Open
- The WWW List Subscription page sort order is as follows: Lists with no Group (in Alphabetical Order by List Display Name), followed by Lists that are Grouped. The Group order is determined by you (i.e., by the SiteAdmin who creates the Groups) and then lists are alphabetical under each Group heading.
- Note: Generically we have applied a basic, conservative style to this new heading. If you would like this styling adjusted, please work with whoever controls the stylesheets and stubpages for your website, whether that is Matrix Services, another vendor, or an internal resource.
- WWW Display modified to not show the email/listname (unless you are a client actively using/paying for discussion lists)
- and on Intranet-side Individual List view, new sorting is in place to help staff be able to ‘at a glance’ see critical list memberships (internal reference P9059)
Other Enhancements and Changes
Advocacy Update! Changes have happened and will be happening following the 2020 Election and Census. See the March 29th advocacy announcement for more details
Contacts: Committees: Add a popup warning on staff intranet side when editing a user’s status impacts their company connection and potentially their inherited membership. Committee Warning popup invites staff to check this individual’s committee memberships if any exist (internal reference 126373)
Contacts: Corrected subtle merge issue with the Company Sort field so it merged properly. (internal reference 125592)
Contacts: Now supporting display of multi-faceted individual relationships. e.g., Sometimes one individual is an Assistee to more than one person, but previously on the individual’s record only one name was displayed at a time. Now all names are displayed, on both the Assistant and Assistee individual records. (internal reference 125910)
Contacts: WWW Profile
- adjusted coding to consistently allow Primary Company Contacts to be able to see/pay invoices across all modules via My Account functionality (internal reference P8574)
- unrequired Prefix generically, and adjusted helptext to note that this field isn’t just for terms like ‘Mr’ and ‘Mrs.’ but also ‘Dr.’, etc. (internal reference 125702)
Commerce: WWW Payment Page: removed marketing code field. Per client feedback of user confusion between marketing code and coupon, plus little use of the marketing code field, this was removed from the interface (after initial release. 16apr21. reference 126500)
MeetingMaxx: Intranet-side Group Registration: Corrected behavior and flow when a staff user tries to create a new bundle/registration and they themselves are already registered for the meeting (but they are not the bundle coordinator for the bundle that holds their own registration) (Internal Reference 125790)
MeetingMaxx: Visual Exporter. Adjusted spacing on certain groupings, esp on bar charts. (internal reference 125834)
MeetingMaxx: Corrected issue on intranet side where staff were unable to override the meeting maximum limit and register additional attendees. (internal reference 126312)
Membership: WWW Public Directory: changed generic code so that contact emails are hidden behind a button. This stops them from being crawled and added to spam lists automatically. Sample on live client website. Please note: If your public directory is customized, this feature may not convey into your custom pages. If you are interested in this feature, please contact Matrix. (Internal Reference 125840)
Individual Export tweaks … (internal reference 125954)
- In the ‘Mailing Label Export’ from individual lists in the Communication Module we explicitly added the Shipping Address fields in addition to the main Address fields (which utilize logic to look for a suitable address if there is no explicitly flagged primary address)
- In the main Individual Exporter, if there is no specific Shipping or Directory or Home address selected and the individual is using an inferred address from their company, we now have this inferred address showing in the export
- In the main Individual Exporter we relabeled the main Address fields to start with ‘preferred’ to reflect the internal coding logic used on these columns (but based on client feedback of conflicts with merge field names we’ll be reverting this change in 21.2 in June 2021 or sooner per client as necessary) and also for clarity changed Ship to Shipping in the column label.
General Bug Fix … corrected subtle intermittent issue involving MatrixMouse notifications piling up and causing specific types of timeouts on certain intranet pages. Noticed by multiple clients: most frequently seen symptom was a “This form has already been submitted. We cannot process it twice” alert on submitting an intranet-side payment (Internal Reference : keyword nonce)
and last but not least …
We’ve added some new, beautiful Spring Images to the MatrixMaxx Intranet Login page and we’ve Updated the Animal Cams available on the MyMatrixMaxx Dashboard widget! Note that you may need to refresh or re-select widgets for them to update their stream source. (Internal Reference MAXX-3311)
Available Paid add-ons/Upgrades
Sometimes we develop new features that require implementation/configuration for the clients who want to utilize them …
Commerce: Product ‘Badge’ Highlights (Overview Video Timestamp 29:15)
Ever want to add a highlight badge to a Store Product? One that says ‘HOT!’ or ‘NEW!’ or something like that? This add-on allows you to do so!
- On the 3rd page of the Product Setup (which also holds images, preview file, upload, etc.) we add a new field called ‘Image Overlay Text’
- You may add a short word or phrase – up to 12 characters – that will show up as a highlight/overlay on a store product. 12 characters or less (Example: “New!” or “Sale!” or “Hot!”)
- The time/cost to implement this is for the MatrixMaxx team to turn on this upgrade in your implementation and also — as necessary — work with your design/style vendor (whether this is Matrix Services, another vendor, or an internal resource) to add appropriate styling for this badge to show up in an attractive way on the WWW Product Search and Product View pages.
- Based on our own setup and styling of our DEMO server, we anticipate this may be as little as 1-3 hours of MatrixMaxx time and 1-3 hours of FED/designer time (internal reference Maxx-3564)
- We have created a Support Center Article with instructions on styling this new feature.
Automated Nightly Sync between MatrixMaxx and MailChimp (Overview Video Timestamp 45:18)
Until this release, MatrixMaxx’s built-in list server re-sync’d lists every night but staff connecting lists to MailChimp needed to manually update these lists. We are now offering an automated sync that can be turned on, per client. Time/cost will vary based on your configuration and list-size. Contact Matrix if you are interested in enabling this feature! (internal reference 123899)
Individual Demographics in Meeting Registration flow (Overview Video Timestamp 49:20)
We now have the mechanism to insert certain individual demographics into the Meeting Registration flow. Meaning that any values in this field in the individual record will prepopulate in and then any edits the user makes in the registration flow will save back. Potential use cases: A field about interests, a field about ‘special requirements’, etc. Exact time/cost will depend on the number and types of fields added. Contact Matrix if you are interested in enabling this feature! (internal reference 125855)
Security, Privacy and Integrations
In addition to the upgrades noticeable in the interface, there are other things that have been changed ‘under the hood’ or are in the process of changing, including …
Integration with BeSpeake Virtual Meeting Platform (VMP) The MatrixMaxx team has worked with the BeSpeake team to expand our integration from basic SSO to allow session validation by registration fee or event. e.g., Only individuals registered under the “Board” fee can get into the Board session, or only individuals registered using the ‘Member’ fee can get into the Members Opening session, or only individuals registered for the Backstage Tour Event can actually enter that session. (Overview Video Timestamp 50:40)’
In progress! New High-level API! The MatrixMaxx team is working on a new, improved High Level API that will allow external vendors and systems to access Maxx’s most popular data with fewer calls. (Our existing low-level calls WILL continue to work although some tweaks may need to be communicated as we build out the structure to support both APIs) Several vendors are already using some of our initial calls with great success. To quote one of them ‘The Fewer API Calls the Better!‘
Database Optimizations. Added a new index to the MemberCommunications table to speed up intranet-side speed on many common pages (e.g., Company View and Individual View) [ internal reference 126505 ]