The Associated Press is migrating to modern infrastructure. A significant change is a move from its legacy Webfeeds method of syndicating content to a new API-based method.

The Associated will also no longer support the Web Feed Manager. Sites that are using that for downloads will need to migrate over to the BLOX wire tool. 

TownNews wants to remind sites, especially BLOX Total CMS appliance sites key end-of-life date is approaching. By now you may have noticed a dialog box when navigating to Editorial/Syndication. Note, beginning June 21, 2022, jobs slow down from 15 minutes to one hour for legacy Associated Press feeds. 

The Associated Press has extended the shut-off of the legacy channels until the end of 2022. However, both the Associated Press and TownNews, which is working on end-of-life support for legacy AP feeds, recommend making this change now as only the new methods will receive improvements.

TownNews also recommends BLOX Total CMS appliance sites update as soon as possible to the latest version, Appliance OS 2.32.0. It's paramount, though, for sites to use at least 2.29.0. From this version, 2.29, and on, only AP channels using the new Media API will be available. It is STRONGLY encouraged that all customers be prepared to upgrade to version 2.29 at a minimum now. 

Key end-of-life dates for legacy feeds:

June 21, 2022: jobs slow down from 15 minutes to one hour

Oct 1, 2022: TownNews will no longer support legacy Associated Press channels

December 21, 2022: The Associated Press ends legacy feeds

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Major Included Packages

• BLOX CMS version 1.61.3 (from 1.58.0)
• Syndicate 1.42.0 (from 1.33.0)
• PageTracker 1.18.1

BLOX CMS version 1.59.0-1.61.3

In this release of BLOX Core, we are adding functionality to apply default images to sections, and a brand-new capability to create HTML templates for default user-related emails. In addition, there are several other bug fixes and improvements.

Key Improvements:

• Assets marked with the "affiliate" flag will automatically have a "no follow" meta tag added to the page, but will be added to the news sitemap. (TNCMS-8249)
• When adding support for multiple authentication methods in our previous release, the location of the "change password" feature was moved and it was difficult to find for some users. It has been moved back up to the front screen of the user authentication panel, making it easier for users to find. This was previously released as an urgent release. (TNCMS-8245)
• The authentication ID was inadvertently removed from the user sessions panel during changes in our previous release. It has been restored. (TNCMS-8244)
• The cache time for media library images is now 24 hours. (TNCMS-8212)
• A video asset receiving a newly uploaded video file will wait for the video upload to complete before then serving the uploaded temporary file on the server back to the client. This is unnecessary in modern browsers, so we now allow video selection to be played directly from the file on the local machine. (TNCMS-8091)

New Features

• It is now possible to add a default image (or images) on a section-by-section basis, which will be used as default images if there are no images associated with a story. These are uploaded via the Media Library (Design → Media Library), then applied to each section via the Section tag editor. (TNCMS-8149)
• We have added new HTML email templates as the default setting for user-related emails in BLOX CMS. The new HTML emails look more professional, have updated messaging, and may improve email deliverability in some cases. The HTML emails now use templates that are available in the template editor and can be customized if desired. (TNCMS-7862)

BUG FIXES

• The new Automations tool in BLOX Core was not allowing new keywords to be added as criteria or transformations (only previously-used keywords could be added). This has been fixed. (TNCMS-8243)
• Page titles for URL items were being cut off in some cases because the user interface allowed for longer URLs, but they were not stored in the database at that length. Now, the URL map editor will limit page titles for URL to only 50 characters, to reflect how it is stored in the database. We would recommend doing a quick review of longer page titles and revising them if necessary. (TNCMS-8231)
• Children of a collection, when batch uploaded in an unpublished state, could not be batch published. This was fixed as part of an urgent release. (TNCMS-8037)
• BLOX Notifier messages where not being properly deleted when the delete button was clicked on BLOX TotalCMS appliances. This has been fixed. (TNCMS-7675)
• The ordering of related assets will be better preserved during the asset syndication process. (TNCMS-546549)

Full Release Notes:

1.61.3

PageTracker 1.18.1

In this minor software release TownNews is making infrastructure changes, along with bug fixes, that should not be noticeable to admin or front-end users.

BUG FIXES