Dear All, Welcome to the September 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 launching a powerful new way to manage sites with large numbers of users. We also have an update on the new Pictopia printing service mentioned in August. We're announcing reductions on card handling fees, and a new way to licence and own the IMS Appliance software, for growing businesses needing more quota and features. Features mentioned below will be released on 10 September 2008. Please follow the instructions at the end of this email if you prefer not to receive our newsletters. New IMS Appliances Third Light's flagship product is the IMS Corporate Appliance ('Appliance'), which is a standalone server solution for businesses wishing to run IMS on their own network or internally. Starting this month, we are offering a simplified way to licence and own the IMS product, supported by a new automatic updates service which allows you to manage software upgrades when you like (much like the updates service provided by Windows Update or Mac OS Software Update). For clients purchasing the Appliance, we are offering two new options commencing 1 September 2008: Option 1) Self-installation from CD-ROM on your own hardware If you would like to own an IMS server and install it on your own equipment, we offer the software licence for a fixed fee of £4750. You can subscribe to automatic product updates - managed from within the IMS Admin Console - and our support service for £999 per year. This option is aimed at organisations with their own IT staff in house. Installation is very easy, and requires reformatting the hard drive as IMS is a complete operating system which uses the whole server. If you prefer, installation inside VMWare is fully supported. Pre-installed hardware and remote installation services are available if required. Option 2) Hosted 'virtual appliance' in Third Light's data centre In order to offer the full range of Appliance features, we can now provide virtual appliances. These behave in exactly the same way as option 1 above, and provide the full range of features, but you do not need to buy hardware or arrange hosting. The initial quota is 50GB, using our secure and backed-up storage platform, and can be further extended as required. The charges are as follows: an annual subscription fee of £2500, including backups and your own IP address, support and software updates. There is a set up fee of £750. Migration of your existing IMS subscription and preparation of your IP address is free, if required. If either of these new options would interest you, or if you would like more information, please contact sales@thirdlight.com and we will be pleased to help you. User Groups On 10 September, we will release a replacement for the existing 'Users & Events -> Manage Users' page which will include the ability to group users. One of the challenges for IMS administrators managing large numbers of users is keeping these users configured in a consistent way. However, users often share the same basic properties, for example if they are members of the same department. In the new system, the group will define the basic settings and permissions for all of its members. This makes creating new users faster, and also allows many users to be updated at once by editing the group preferences. Each group can also, optionally, have a nominated administrator who deals with Download Request enquiries for its members. The new group features will extend (rather than replace) the existing model, where all users are independently configured. If you are familiar with the existing Manage Users page then the new layout of this page will be familiar and interchangeable, with all of the new group features on a separate tab. As this is a significant update to IMS we do recommend reviewing the IMS User Guide before using this feature. The User Guide will contain a new chapter on this topic and will describe how to create and maintain groups. Printing News As part of changes being made by PhotoBox this autumn, the option to customise packaging documentation included in print deliveries is to be withdrawn. The packaging will be replaced with standard packing documentation with no costs indicated (or will not be included in the delivery at all). The exact details of this change are being finalised at PhotoBox and will not come into effect immediately, but will be phased in depending on the product ordered and its associated packaging and manufacturing plant. Between now and Christmas we expect the complete retirement of the existing packaging processes. We will do what we can to keep our clients informed of changes made and will establish exact dates if possible. Last month, we began a beta test of the new Pictopia printing option in IMS. We are not ready to release the new Pictopia code as the beta process is ongoing. We have been busy working on some fine details related to the delivery processes. Deliveries originate in two continents and can therefore involve a range of different postage processes. This problem is now very nearly resolved. If you have requested access to the beta, we will be sending you a separate update as soon as possible. If you have not signed up to the beta but would like to do so, please email support@thirdlight.com. Just a reminder, the Pictopia service will provide a professional printing counterpart to the existing PhotoBox printing features in IMS, with neutral packaging options. Fee reductions for Euro and Dollar currencies Good news for our valued clients in the Euro zone and USA: effective from 1 September, the handling fee for Euro and Dollar sales made through the Third Light merchant service has been reduced to 5%, down from 8%. 'Recent Searches' report updated IMS keeps a record of all searches performed, and these records can be accessed at any time from the Reporting -> Recent Searches page. We have added a further report to this form which creates a histogram of the most popular searches performed, ranked by the number of times a particular phrase or search is requested. To access the new graphical report, open the Reporting -> Recent Searches page and change the 'Order by' box to 'Number of searches'. GPS and mapping support Many new digital SLRs and camera phones such as the Apple iPhone are equipped with a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. This means that every image captured includes the latitude and longitude (and sometimes altitude) of the camera at the instant the picture was taken. Since the number of devices supporting GPS is set to dramatically increase in the next few years, IMS now extracts this information and stores it. To make use of the GPS information, we have added Google Maps to IMS. When the location is known, you may simply click on a link and see a satellite map of the area. To help you test this feature, we have supplied a test file which contains a full range of meta data including GPS information. Here is the image (save this and then upload it to your IMS to see the mapping features on the Picture Console): http://www.thirdlight.com/downloads/gps_example.jpg Please do this after 10 September when the new system will be available. We are likely to add further GPS features once the level of hardware support increases. Miscellaneous Changes The following changes will be live on 10 September. 1) The Download Wizard now selects the 'Original file' option by default, if this choice is available to the user. 2) Enlarged previews of non-image assets such as PDF and EPS files are now supported. The preview image is accessed in the same was as normally used for Pictures: by clicking on the thumbnail on the Picture Console or by clicking the magnifying glass icon. 3) For your peace of mind, the CVV number is now blanked out on the 'Your Account' page. 4) A wide range of new time and date formats are now checked when importing capture times from EXIF image data. The changes made mean that many more camera manufacturers' time formats are handled correctly, and IMS will not accept times which are malformed (often being interpreted as 1 January 1970). 5) IMS now includes a site option which converts filenames into the format "sitename_imageref.jpg" at the point of download. This is to encourage consistency in the filenames stored to end-user computers and improve the chances of identifying files from their filename. A sample filename is "ukpics_2389484.jpg", where the site's main address is http://ukpics.thirdlight.com/ and the image reference number is 2389484. To enable this alternative filename system, go to Configuration -> Site Options and click on the IMS Functionality tab. The option to change the filename is labelled "Download filename mode". 6) The suggested maximum size of uploads made using the Browser Upload tool is 512MB. This information is now included in the guidance displayed on the upload page to help avoid problems. 7) The CSV file which can be exported from the Manage Users page has been replaced with a more detailed version. The fields included are: User Description Email Username Email Preference Access Level Number of Logins Last Login 8) On the main album listing page, IMS now indicates whether albums are "New" or "Updated". Previously, the word "New" was used in both instances. Web Design Assistance As we focus on the technology and software behind IMS, we do not provide web design or branding services. If you need help implementing a particular look and feel with the IMS templates, then we recommend making contact with Siftware, our web design partners, who will be able to help you. For more details, 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/