Welcome to the March 2008 newsletter, our regular update on developments at Third Light and news about changes and improvements made to the IMS product. This month, we are pleased to announce a fresh and highly developed new set of IMS templates, designed to make your site look professional with the minimum of customisation. Features mentioned below will be released on Monday 10 March 2008. Please follow the instructions at the end of this email if you prefer not to receive our newsletters. New Default Templates Since late 2007, we have been working on a new set of user templates for IMS. These templates create the default look and feel of the non-admin portion of IMS, which is seen by any user or event user when accessing the system. Our main objectives in the new templates are to offer the same quality as the admin console, and a realistic starting point for customisations that can also be used without any further adjustment on the majority of sites. The new templates are the most advanced user interface yet in IMS. The new templates offer an attractive and consistent experience, which overhauls many aspects of navigating through pictures and thumbnails, and streamlines the e-commerce service that IMS offers. From 10 March, any new theme created will use the latest templates. You can test the templates by generating a new theme and a test user from that date. Palette tool for new templates We are pleased to introduce a new tool in the admin interface, which allows the most prominent colours of the new templates to be updated without having to change the code or stylesheets directly. The new Palette Tool is accessed as part of the theme when using the Configuration -> Manage Themes menu. It allows the dominant colours of the theme to be changed using a clickable palette. The font family for the stylesheet can also be adjusted here. Upgrading existing themes There is no automatic process for upgrading from the old templates to the new templates. This is because the older templates use different stylesheets and a different approach to the page layout. Many of the benefits of the new templates would not be possible in older themes, and code from the old themes does not have a literal translation to the new templates. However, in the majority of cases it is simple to generate a new IMS template and take advantage of the latest functions. For example, a good way to start would be as follows: 1) Create a new theme (on or after 10 March 2008) 2) Update the logo graphic for the theme 3) Use the palette picker to change the primary colours to your preferred colour scheme At this stage, the new templates will be consistent with your branding, and you may be in a position to make the theme your new default. Any other adjustments (eg. text changes or special customisations in the templates) can be ported to the new templates on a case-by-case basis. Bear in mind that Third Light do not offer technical support for customised templates; please consult your web developer for assistance if you need to update customised code to work with the latest templates. The new templates offer a simplified stylesheet and an XHTML-compatible starting point for customisations, designed to shorten the length of most IMS re-design projects considerably. Administration Console templates The new default templates, discussed above, are designed to offer the best overall balance of functionality and aesthetics for e-commerce users. However, we will also be releasing a further set of templates soon, designed to make the IMS user interface emulate exactly the same look and feel as the administration console. This will be especially appropriate for IMS Appliance users sharing upload privileges with non-admin users. Please watch for further news in forthcoming newsletters. RAW File Support From 10 March, IMS will include experimental support for RAW files, in a wide range of formats supported by major camera manufacturers. RAW formats are used to preserve the literal data which is captured by the sensor in the camera, without JPEG compression and without colour profiles or white balancing. This makes RAW formats popular with photo editors having discerning preferences on how to crop or balance an image, and with photographers keeping copies of the pure image data from their professional SLR cameras. IMS will present a preview of RAW files based on neutral white balancing and a limited amount of histogram balancing. As RAW data can be interpreted in many different ways, IMS previews of RAW files may not, therefore, always look as good as the finished product that can be obtained through tools such as Adobe PhotoShop. Also, RAW files will consume much more storage than JPEG files and cannot be scaled or rotated by IMS. In IMS, RAW support should be considered experimental. We would be grateful for any feedback. Miscellaneous Changes The following minor changes will be made live on 10 March. 1) The advanced search engine no longer strips the underscore "_" character from searches. Additionally, the General Search system - used by the majority of users - is now able to match filenames much more accurately, without the need to use the file extension in the search phrase. Provided the search term is more than 3 characters in length, and if no other results can be found, IMS will search for filenames based on the equivalent of the advanced search "Filename contains" method, automatically. 2) Images displayed in the rights-managed lightbox checkout are now delivered using HTTPS, to avoid a browser warning message being displayed about HTTP content in an HTTPS page. 3) The maximum file size for JPEG content has been increased to 25MB per file (was 17MB). IMS will also now send an email to the site support address when a file exceeding this threshold is uploaded, containing advice on how to limit the size of the file to a more manageable level. 4) A new caption type (file size) has been added. The file size will be automatically formatted in kilobytes or megabytes. 5) Long captions are now truncated at 150 characters on the Reporting -> Recent Downloads page, to avoid overloading this page with text. 6) The IMS Desktop Upload Tool has been updated. We have resolved a performance problem which affected the load time when an existing folder contained a large number of pictures. In such circumstances, the Upload Tool should now be approximately 10x faster. Please note that this release of the Upload Tool is a mandatory upgrade and will cause older versions to display an upgrade message from 10 March onwards. To update before 10 March, please use this link: http://www.thirdlight.com/ims/features/uploader New Print Supplier Beta In the next few months, Third Light will be offering support for a new professional photo lab. This facility will allow Third Light vendors to offer the highest quality of printing, with the added advantage of USA and European fulfillment options, to reduce the overall delivery time to many international destinations. Although the cost of these prints will be higher than our existing PhotoBox channel, the additional flexibility of selling pro lab. products alongside PhotoBox products will, we hope, appeal to a significant number of top-end gallery sites using IMS. If you would be interested in testing the latest printing service during a beta phase, due to start shortly, please contact support@thirdlight.com. We reserve the right to limit the beta, as some manual review of each order placed will be involved during the initial testing. Web Design Assistance As we focus on the technology and software behind IMS, we are unable to provide help with web design and branding issues. This is especially true of customised templates. If you need help implementing a particular look and feel, then we recommend making contact with Siftware, our web design partners, who will be able to help you. For more details and prices, please see: http://www.siftware.co.uk/services/ims-integration/ Feedback Every feature of IMS is based on your ideas and feedback. We keep a thorough record of all feedback and aim to implement the features that are most requested as part of our development plans. Simply email features@thirdlight.com to send us your comments. For support questions, please use the Help menu support tool, as this allows us to track your queries and answer questions more efficiently. With regards, Third Light Ltd. http://www.thirdlight.com/