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XLsuite Client Lesson Plan

The Framework:

1. Header

• Favicon

- Display Site home page.

• User Name
• Navigation

- Grey items.

• Search
• Advanced Search
  

2. User dashboard (left sidebar)

• Quick Entry
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  

  
  
  
• Unread Messages
  
  
  
  
  
  
• My History
  
  
  
  
  
  
• My Feeds
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Saved Searches
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Refreshing, resizing.
  
  
  
  
  

3. Record Related Dashboard (right sidebar)

• Messages
• Files
• Payments
• Refreshing, resizing.

4. Icon tray (footer)

• Print
• Resize
• iXLd Media links.
• Bug Reporter
• Logout

5. Main Page (centre)

• Tabs
  
• Common top tab items

- Link to this page.
- Refresh.
- Close other tabs.

• Main data and list views (see below)
  

Contacts:

1. Create a New Entry

• Info
• 
  
  
• Contact routes
• Network

• Tags
• Notes
• Submitting new entries.
• Cancel.
  

2. Edit an Entry

• Info

- Tabbing between fields.
- Saving and canceling changes.
- Show/Add fields.

• Notes
• Network

• Tags

- Tag cloud.

• Security

- Adding to a group.
- Setting custom permissions.

3. Edit My Account

• Email Accounts

Add your email pop3 settings and XLsuite will check your email. Enter new contacts into your database for you if the email address doesn't exist already, if it does their email will be sorted with the clients file.

If you are setting up a Gmail account, this is the proper settings.

4. The Contact List

• Custom top tab items

- Import.

• List header

- Filtering.

- Action Menu.
- Expand/Collapse All

• List body

- Sorting.
- Changing/adding Columns.
- Reordering Columns.
- Cell activation for a Contact's Info
- Cell activation for a related New Email.
- Cell activation for a related Web display.
- Summary extension panel.
- Selecting multiple rows.

• List Footer
  

- Pagination

5. Imports

• Previous Import List
• Actions
  

• New Import

- Upload a file.
- Force import.
- Exclude data rows.
- Use mapper.
- Add tags.
- Drag and drop storage fields.
- Full Name parser.
- Submit Import.
- Save Import as template.
- Cancel.

Communicate

1. Forums

• Categories

• Forums
• Topics

2. Templates

• Template List

- Actions.
- Edit Template.
- Pagination.

• New Template

- Label.
- Description.
- Tags.
- Group access.
- DB variables.
- Subject.
- Body.
- Create a template.
- Cancel.

3. Email

• New Email

- From selection.
- To selection.
- To input box.
- Add Cc.
- Add Bcc.
- Subject.
- Body.
- Send.
- Save.
- Discard.

• New Mass Mail

• Current Email
  
• Inbox

• Drafts
  
• Outbox
• Sent
  

Commerce

1. Listings

• List view

- Actions.
- View Type.
- MLS#.
- Address.
- Area.
- City.
- Style.
- Bed/Bath.
- Square feet.
- Price.
- Filter.

• Listings Search

- Table.
- Class.
- Limit.
- MLS Number.
- List Date.
- Status.
- City.
- Area.
- Street Address.
- Postal Code.
- List Price.
- Dwelling style.
- Dwelling type.
- Dwelling Class.
- Title of Land.
- Bedrooms.
- Bathrooms.
- Number of Images.
- Add a parameter.
- Save.
- Cancel.
- Submit.

• Targeted MLS# Import

- MLS Number.
- Address.
- Tag on Import.
- Send Link to Recipient.
- Add Recipient.
- New MLS# Line.
- Submit.
- Cancel.

• New/edit Listing
  

2. Catalog

3. Payments

• Payment List

- Status Filter
- Method Filter
- Invoice Filter

• New payment

- Reason.
- Status.
- Tracking number.
- Paid Amount.
- Payment Method.
- External ID.
- Pay by phone.
- Save.
- Cancel.

Resources

1. CMS

• Layout list view
  

- New Layout.

• New/edit Layout

- Title.
- Content Type.
- Encoding.
- Body.
- Read Access
- Edit Access
- Save.
- Cancel.

• Pages list view

- Title.
- Status.
- Behaviour.
- Slug.
- Add child.
- Destroy.
- View.

• New/edit Pages

- Title.
- Body.
- Behaviour.
- Slug.
- Parent.
- Layout.
- Status.
- Read Access
- Edit Access
- Save.
- Close.
- Cancel.
- Revert.
- View.

• Snippets list view

- New Snippet.

• New/edit Snippets

- Title.
- Body.
- Behaviour.
- Read Access
- Edit Access
- Save.
- Close.
- Cancel.
- Revert.
- View.

2. Content

• Feed list View.

- Action.
- Label.
- Feed URL.
- Tags.
- Show in My feeds.

• New/edit Feed

- Label.
- URL.
- Tag List.
- Tag Cloud.
- Description.
- Show in My Feeds.
- Create.
- Cancel.

• Files
• Links
  

3. Tutorial

4. About XL

5. Contact XL

Resources

1. Site Admin

2. My Account

3. Permissions

• Permission Sets
• Permissions
• Create new Set
  

4. User groups

• System Groups

- Access

• User Groups
• Add a Group.
  

5. Configurations

• Contact Request
• Display
• Feed Update
• Display
  

Google Takes on the OS

This is interesting and comes with little fanfare, but is definitely one of those shots over the bow that Steve Balmer must be hearing.

It will be interesting to see how much traction this gets, they're selling PC's for $200 at walmart, that should get some people interested in Linux.

It's apparently an overhauled version of Ubuntu with a bunch of Googly goodness added for good measure.

YouTube API help Needed

In XLsuite, We want to add Vlogging and Video commenting to things like the forum, comments in blogs and even on the property listings that are showing up so realtors and the general public could leave video posts.

If you know the Google and YouTube API's and can help with this we'd love your assistance.

Here's my video request

How NOT to advertise your services part 2

 

I was so taken with my focus on the fact the 1800 Got-Junk junk guys were now resorting to stapling thier signs to lamp posts and lowering they're brand to the level of the yard sale guy. That I failed to focus on the other, even more glaring error in brand development.

This would be the web design guy's well crafted marketing campaign.

So.... Besides the fact that you're not exactly laser targeting your target market demographic by posting your sign on the side of the road.

You furthermore are a web designer...
(that is clearly color blind)
but ...

wait for it...

you put your PHONE NUMBER on the sign.

Not your WEBSITE?

... again...

You're a web designer, but you don't show me your website address, you give me your phone number.

'nuf said.

Information Management

On a daily basis, the number of decisions, emails and communications that we make is increasing, I sometimes feel like this video. Come have a look at our new information management system it can help ease some of the pain you get from dealing with this type of information flow.

How NOT to advertise your services

 

I have to say that I'm particularly disapointed to see the 1-800-GOT-JUNK guys doing this.

As a company that I've always had a lot of respect for, it really depressed me to see this last night.

For a few years now we've all seen those damn "ebosa dot com" (I don't even want them to get a plug or link out of this post) signs posted to our lamp posts all around the lower mainland.

I'm not sure why the city doesn't fine these people, but of course, since it doesn't, I see that it has encouraged other unthinking small business owners into this ugly and intrusive form of advertising.

Stapling your crappy sign to every lamp post at every major intersection may in fact give you more visibility, but is it the right kind of visibility?

I can assure you that I go out of my way NOT to patron business that do this as I find it intrusive and offensive. Using a city lamp post to run renegade ads on is like visual spam, it's not effective and if anything creates a negative image about your business.

While I'll grant you that the got junk sign is a nicer vinyl cut, they're not placing themselves in the same category as yardsale guy with the magic marker. Not how I saw them 'till now.

I hope that the city starts to crack down on this, otherwise everything from plumbers to lawncare guys will be poluting the landscape with their crappy 4 x 9 vinyl cut signs (or worse, magic marker guy on the bottom).

If it's in front of a house where there is work being done, fine, I understand that, with the permission of the owner, your roofing company stuck up a sign for a couple of weeks... OK... but hanging out on the corner by the gas station has a whole other conotation to it.

Google Docs Rocks

I love these guys videos, they get down to the basics and really know how to simplify things.

This is a very good explanation of the benefits of using google docs.

IBM releases mashup wiki

I guess this is IBM's answer to Yahoo Pipes

The Impact of Social Media on Search Rankings - Search Engine Guide Blog

This sums it up nicely I think.

The Impact of Social Media on Search Rankings - Search Engine Guide Blog: "Optimizing Google Base Data Feeds Google Base is a database where you can upload all kinds of online and offline content for sale. Your items will include labels and attributes to help describe the content you are uploading, making it searchable for users. Attributes are the words that describe the characteristics of your items. You can enter multiple values separated by commas for any given attribute. Labels are keywords that can be used to classify or describe your item, such as products, services, and even a house for sale. The items you submit to Google Base will go in the Base directory, and some items, depending on relevance, might also go into the Google SERPs, Froogle or Google Maps. So the quality of your data is important if you want it to be found far and wide. Use Google Base custom attributes to optimize your feeds. Google Base allows you to specify your own custom attributes, which means you can include additional information about your items. Unlimited custom attributes can be included in your tab-delimited bulk upload file. Detailed descriptions can make your items more relevant, getting them into the Google index and other vertical databases, providing more opportunity for them to be found. Since many of those uploading their data feeds to Google Base don't know"

This is why I believe it's so important to tie our product and listings catalogs into Google Base with detailed data in the feeds.

New XLsuite UI and Features

I've created a video which looked a lot better on my screen than it does once it's been uploaded to google video. Regardless, I'm sharing it here and will work on getting the quality of these screen casts to go up.

The code for XLsuite is available here: http://xlsuite.org although the modifications you see here are not yet deployed as they are still internal code.

New Release of Ubuntu looks promissing

Along with a host of other goodies, this is the one that stood out the most for me.

Graphical configuration tool for X
You can now configure what driver you want to use for your graphic card, change the default resolution for all users or change your monitor's refresh rate without having to turn to the terminal. A new GUI has been added making it easy to adjust your video and monitor settings. This tool can also set up dual screen capabilities for cards that use the Xinerama mode.

Besides the fact that my first try with Ubuntu fried my hard drive and required a full rebuilding of the NTFS file system (which also enjoys native support in the new version which is nice), this new version of Ubuntu has a lot of good looking features and brings it one step closer to a mature OS worthy of consideration when selecting your operating system.

The fact that it's being shipped on Dell's now is also a very interesting move for long time hardware swashbuckler and trend breaker, Michael Dell. Just another example of a visionary company not affraid to knock over a few apple carts.

Despite my normal "white box" metality about new hardware, I'll probably give serious consideration to a Dell next time I'm in the market.

How to connect to Google Mail POP3 using XLsuite's servers

Configure XLsuite's POP3 reader to read from 127.0.0.1 port 5995, like this:

After that, it's the same thing as usual.

Strategy Letter VI - Joel on Software

Francois found this article just as we were discussing these issues in the office yesterday, it's very on topic with what we're going through as a development team.

Trying to standardize and make our application backwards compatible with other browsers is killing us. The fact that we're pioneering a new UI in addition to creating a CRM / CMS and the other features that we're trying for ... adding in creating a "flat" UI (as we call it internally) is making our development schedule take a nose dive, and often making us redo things as the UI is inconsistent across the application, or we need to then spend time getting it to work in Safari and then each IE whatever.whatever.

It's just not feasible for a small team like ours over the long term, it would be great to have a "lab" to develop a lot of this stuff with, but in reality... we need to just focus on the application design, not web standards... other people should do that as part of a larger tool set.

Strategy Letter VI - Joel on Software: "So if history repeats itself, we can expect some standardization of Ajax user interfaces to happen in the same way we got Microsoft Windows. Somebody is going to write a compelling SDK that you can use to make powerful Ajax applications with common user interface elements that work together. And whichever SDK wins the most developer mindshare will have the same kind of competitive stronghold as Microsoft had with their Windows API."

With that in mind, and after a fair bit of research into the various JS libraries that are out there now, we've decided to adopt the EXT.JS library as part of our tool.

It's going to make life easier going forward, but will require at least a few weeks of work to roll all of the stuff we've done thus far into the EXT framework. I'm excited about the functionality that I believe it will add to our application, it will bring us much closer to the "desktop feel" that we've been shooting for.

Linux vs PC vs Mac

ROTFLMAO is the only appropriate comment here :)

Inside CNET Labs: Yet another way to get Windows on your Mac | Crave : The gadget blog

Inside CNET Labs: Yet another way to get Windows on your Mac | Crave : The gadget blog: "VMware claims that Fusion supports more than 60 operating systems--both 32- and 64-bit--with dual-core processor support. While some users will benefit from being able to run Novell Netware or Linux as virtual machines on their Intel Macs, the largest user-base will mostly consist of those looking to run Windows Vista or Windows XP."

Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm a big mac basher. Not because i think that the mac suck, I don't... but more because I feel like the mac platform is much more geared at a novice computer user that doesn't understand complicated things like FTP, Copy and Paste and god forbid, installing a driver.

That combined with software that is purposely limiting (Why can I only upload a picture from iPhoto to a .mac account and not to an FTP site of my own for example?) to ensure that the consumer never deviates from the Mac platform, makes me less than eager to go buy their latest offerings.

That could change however if I could run an APP like VMware and run OSX along side of Ubuntu and maybe XP (I wouldn't touch vista for another year or so). Maybe I will take another look at the mac, god knows all the 'real ruby geeks' have one... maybe I should too.... ya, let's see how bogged down they run with 4 OS's running as virtual machines.

DreamHost Private Servers

DreamHost Private Servers: "DreamHost PS is our new invite-only premium shared hosting service, available only as an add-on to a current DreamHost hosting plan. DreamHost PS uses Linux-VServer to give you your own 'virtual machine', thereby protecting your CPU and RAM from all other users on your physical machine."

This is a good idea from Dreamhost. I'd all but given up on using them for hosting any of our Ruby on Rials projects because they simply weren't reliable enough for a commercial site, even a small one without a lot of traffic would suffer.

I would think that this sort of set up would isolate a lot of that, and as usual with DreamHost the price is good.

If you do decide to give it a try, you'll need to have a Dreamhost account. If you don't have one already, use this link to get a good cheap hosting account - you'll be throwing a few bucks our way which goes straight to supporting our opensource project... Thank you.

Once you have a dreamhost account, look in the control panel under "Private Server" and you can enable it there.

iMedia Connection: Google's Killer App

iMedia Connection: Google's Killer App: "Death by Google
Google has killed the web analytics software industry with the release of the new version of Google Analytics. The new version was released just under two months ago and is simply a quantum leap above any other analytics product on the plane"

I have to agree, it really is their hidden killer app. The amount of data that you can glean from properly installed analytics code is truly phenomenal. Where they came from, what they were searching, where you lost them.

There is some interesting screen recording technology that they have yet to incorporate, but really that's the only place left were there is some space in the analytics department. They've pretty much got everything else beat.

We use analytics pretty extensively on our network of sites and it will be added as a module to XLsuite before too long, allowing you to easily integrate your analytics account (not that it's hard to do it manually right now).

Google VS. Everyone

This article is a really good outline of the various "big markets" on the web and where Google fits in the general webosphere.

A good read check it out:

Traffic Secrets the "big boys" use.

Traffic Secrets Revealed:

This is by far the best video I've watched in a long time about how to drive serious traffic to your website.

While I'm pretty involved in the SEO industry and have gotten extremely effective at getting my websites to the top pages of Google's search results for the terms I'm trying to place well for.

This is really the tip of the ice burg. While I wouldn't tell you to abandon your SEO efforts, you should really be focusing on what your sales process looks like and getting it to the maximum conversion rates you can. Once you've perfected your sales process, there is a whole WORLD of traffic out there that will DWARF the traffic you can get from the search engines.

Check this video out to find out more, you'll understand the sales and conversion game much better after investing a little time in watching this husband and wife team explain to you in easy to understand language ... how the big boys do it!

A web 2.0 video

I really liked this video that outlines how the change from text to hypertext has changed the way we look at things, process things and learn things.

A little Orwellian but ... then... so is our life

Ebay Stores to go

Taking a page from the amazon book of marketing, it would seem that ebay has created a store that you can place on your website.

I took a few minutes to grab a few items and try it out.

The interface is very easy and you can create a store with YOUR products or other peoples (OPP) products in about 5 minutes.

To check it out: http://togo.ebay.com

Of course being an SEO and Traffic Driving sort of guy, I couldn't resist trying it out with some info products I'm interested in. Here's the store I created:

XLsuite Features Reviewed

XLsuite Features

Contact Management

The contact manager includes 3 views.

Contacts List View

Contact list allows you to view your contacts in a list view. Names and quick contact info like email and phone numbers are available for quick reference.

Contacts General Page

Contact Page (General View) shows you a detailed view of the contact in question. Things like their password, history, comments and testimonials are all available by clicking the tabs at the top of the contact screen. Data entry is smooth and fast using AJAX calls to save the data live when a use tabs out of a field or hits return. A desktop feel was the goal with the contact entry and editing. Additional fields can be added using the “Add Fields” link.

New Contacts:

New Contact page is accessed from the top “Contacts” menu or from the text link at the top of the General view. This allows you to see all the available fields for a fast contact entry experience. Tag fields let you easily categorize the contact and the referral field lets you link the contact to an existing contact in the database. This makes it easy to track how your contacts came to you as well as future integration with things like affiliate programs and commission tracking for sales agents (inside and outside).

Import Manager:

Import File:

The import module allows you to import contacts from any datasource.

Simply save your data in the .CSV format. Browse to the .CSV file on your computer and upload it to the system.

Data Mapping View:

You will then be shown a visual representation of the data on the left side, and the fields in your XLsuite database. Simply pick up the XLsuite field name in question and drag it to the corresponding field name in the CSV that you are importing. You can manually configure all of the data to import into the specific fields that you want to use. This is good for bulk imports from lead generation sites, your contacts from Outlook or other CRM's or even an excel spread sheet of your members.

Search Functions:

Search Functions:

There is a “quick search” that is available at the top right hand corner of the screen at all times. This quick search will search the field names. It's good for finding things like contacts, specific forum posts and general information (like type Vancouver and get all your contacts in Vancouver, as well as any forum posts that mention the word Vancouver).

By clicking the word “SEARCH”, a more advanced search will pop down from the top right corner. This allows you to search with more detail. Each field in the database can be separately searched, simply type in the first few letters of a field name and the available fields will drop down from the list.

Saved Search:

Once you've created a search that you will want to do frequently, you can save that search for future use by clicking the “save search” button. From then on simply clicking the “saved search” word will display your list of saved searches, so it becomes a quick matter to find things like leads in a specific area or for a specific sales agent. It's also great for creating reports, carefully stacking your search for the right criteria will allow you to create powerful reports that will give you business metrics at the click of a button.

Resources Section:

Content Management System (CMS)

The resources section has the Content Management System as well as information about how to use the system and information about XLsuite.

CMS Layouts View:

Within the CMS the “LAYOUTS” view allows you to set up constant elements of your page. The background image, navigation, header, footer, sidebar... the look of every new page you create. Multiple layouts can be used to define sections of the site.

CMS Pages View:

The “PAGES” view allows you to create and edit the pages inside your website. “ADD CHILD” to your main page, inherit the layout from the page you are creating, you can create as many pages as you need and group them accordingly.

CMS Page Editor View:

The specific pages can be set up to use plain text for maximum flexibility. Other options include using Textile markup or even a Rich Text Editor using the FCK Editor (we recommend using plain text or textile over the Rich Text editor since the code that it spits out will work, but is pretty “bloated”)

Of particular note is the “SLUG LINE” function that let's you place your page exactly where you want it in the URL. This is excellent for SEO purposes as it does not show any extensions and displays dynamic pages simply as URL addresses like : Xlsuite.com/training/how-to-use-the-cms

Please see the “how to use the CMS” document for detailed “how to” information.

Near Future Additions:

On deck soon is an addition to the CMS to include the snippets module, which will allow further content segregation and easy placement of repeat elements.

Content Section:

The CONTENT section has several planned features for things like banner ads, links, polls, forms and other elements you'll use on your site. Currently implemented functions include:

RSS Feed Importer:

This allows you to import feeds from multiple sources and tag them. You can then publish those feeds on your site as a quick way to create dynamic content. Setting up the feeds is as easy as plugging in the feed URL and selecting what you'd like to TAG it.

You can add multiple RSS feeds to your feed reader and tag them with multiple tags. So for example, if you enter 6 feeds from various sources, you can tag them all “industry_news” and then display the industry news on a page on your site. The 6 feeds will be merged into one new news feed that can be displayed either in order, or even randomly (which adds big points to your SEO value). This is a powerful way to integrate with other sites as well, feeding things like project changes, favorites, expense reports or forum posts to a side bar or page on your site.

Please read the “XLsuite Render Feed Syntax” post in our Documentations forum for more info:

http://xlsuite.com/admin/forum_categories/1/forums/5/topics/165

ADMIN Section:

The admin section holds the account payment information as well as the “my account” link which will quickly bring you to your account general contacts page.

The Groups and Permissions sections are also located here.

Groups Manager:

Groups section allows you to set up various access groups for your domain. Things like Client / Prospect / Moderator / Supplier. You can use these groups to quickly define who has access to various parts of your website and content.

Permission Sets:

Permissions allows you to assign permission sets. This is a way to group certain permissions together (like edit contact / edit estimate / view payments (but not edit)) into quick permission sets that you can use with your groups or assign to specific parties.

What's next?

We're working hard to bring you full email integration, template engine and a file manager next.

More features will follow including all of the content sections (as snippets) sequential mailing for lead generation automation and of course our integrated MLS listings manager for our Real Estate Clients.