|
Hey Everybody,
I'd like to let you know about some exciting updates to my WebPasties™ service.
Event Calendar
First, I would like to introduce you to the Event Calendar pastie. The Event Calendar pastie makes it as easy as possible to add a calendar to your website. This calendar is extremely powerful in that you can add practically any type of recurring event combination. For example let's say you meet on every third Thursday of every other month. No problem.
Also, this pastie is probably the most ambitious pastie to date. Unique to this pastie is the ability to create user accounts and let certain people edit or add events without the ability to modify your calendar's look and feel. If this feature takes off like I think it will, I will roll user account support into other pasties such as the Slideshow and Event Signup pastie.
I haven't forgotten about making it fun though. You can choose from 36 holidays to include in your calendar. I made sure to include the important ones like Mardi Gras and St. Patty's Day. It also shows the moon phase which can be useful for those late night outdoor events.
News Ticker Enhancements
I have added a boatload of new RSS features to the News Ticker. So much in fact that I actually ended up giving the News Ticker pastie a new name. It is now called the RSS Ticker pastie. The big new feature is that now you can not only use other people's RSS feeds, but you can create your own RSS feeds.
Here is a short list of the other new RSS features:
-
You can choose to have the generic banner image for the Ticker be the image specified in the RSS feed.
-
You can change the link target globally for all news items.
-
You can show the publication date in news feeds you create.
-
You can limit the number of news items displayed from an external RSS feed.
-
You can specify that only the title text be displayed.
-
The publication date color is now customizable.
Web Poll Enhancements
By popular request, I have added a feature which allows you to show the results of a poll in a popup window. Also, as promised, I have enhanced the Web Poll's reset functionality. Now when you reset a poll, the cookie ID for the poll is changed. What this means is you can easily change the poll question without having to redo the appearance settings, etc.
Slideshow Enhancements
If you haven't been using the WebPasties slideshow component lately, now you have no excuse. With WebPasties' new  RSS feed support, you can have your slideshow access photos from your Flickr account. No need to manually upload photos to your web server anymore. After you post new photos to Flickr, your WebPasties slideshow will then update automatically within an hour's time.
One added benefit is that when a visitor to your site clicks on a photo in a Flickr based WebPasties Slideshow, they will be taken to the Flickr site where they can see the photo in its original size as well as make comments on it. Form-Mail Enhancements
To make your Form-Mails easy on the eyes, they are now sent in HTML format. Email clients that do not support HTML will continue to display the emails as plain text. In addition, the Form-Mail pastie now has support for file attachments. With this option, you can allow customers to send files that are up to 2 MB in size as email attachments. And lastly, I have added support which permits the Form-Mail's content to be posted using the secure HTTPS protocol.
Visit Trackers Enhancements
I have added the ability for you to specify the time zone for your tracker. To do so, simply go to the Edit window and select your time zone from the time zone picker. In addition to this feature, I have added identification for three new browser clients, specifically the RIM Blackberry, the JavaScript enabled Googlebot 2.1, and the JavaScript enabled MSNBot.
What's Next ?
I am currently working on a Podcast pastie.This pastie will permit you to create RSS feeds for your podcasts. With major companies like Apple and Sirius now embracing podcasts, it is looking like podcasting is going to be a pretty big thing and will undoubtedly shake up the broadcasting industry. Also, keep on the lookout soon for ICalendar support for the Event Calendar. | 
