We have just added search function to our Help Center. Now you can easily find any topic in the knowledgebase. You may search for any phrase using multiple key words. Search results are displayed as a list of articles relevant to your key phrase with a short excerpt from each article containing key words. This is a kind of format typically used by search engines.

By the way, WebAsyst Help Center section is fully implemented with the help of our Quick Pages application. It means that we are using Quick Pages as a back-end to maintain Help Center content and simple API allows us to publish this content on the website.

You can learn more about Quick Pages and sign up for free trial.

We have added an FTP feature to WebAsyst Document Depot. The feature lets you upload large size files into Document Depot via intermediate FTP folder and makes use of ftp process that allows a quick transfer of files between computers over Internet. You can transfer files via ftp on your server and place them in a local folder. Document Depot application has an access to this folder and lists its content directly in one of the windows accessible from the main menu.

Why do I need an FTP folder?

The underlying reasoning for adding an intermediate FTP folder visible from Document Depot comes from a common problem with downloading large size files (over 500 MB) into a web application.  WebAsyst is not an exception. Initial PHP scripts settings are not “tuned” to handle download/upload of large files into Document Depot. Thus, scripts may time out before download is complete. One way to get around this problem is to tune up PHP setting to handle larger files download. The FTP feature, however, is more effective solution, as it does not require modifying settings file, just creating an additional folder visible from the application.

Instructions on uploading files into Document Depot via FTP folder (for open source customers):

1. In the folder data/ (in the directory where WebAsyst is installed) create the following folder:
   DB_KEY/ftp, where DB_KEY is the database key that you use to log in to your WebAsyst account, where you need to transfer files via ftp. For example, if your WebAsyst account’s database key is AB1234, you should have the following folder in your WebAsyst root directory: data/AB1234/ftp/
2. Transfer files via ftp on your server and place them in the folder data/DB_KEY/ftp.
3. Open up Document Depot application. From the main menu select Document and then Service. Click on the FTP tab on the page displayed. You should see the listing of the files that were transferred in the folder data/DB_KEY/ftp. 
4. Select a Document Depot folder where you would like to copy files and click Copy to finish.

Note: In order to copy files to a Document Depot folder you must have “Write” or “Folder” access rights to that folder.

In Document Depot application there are three levels of access rights: Read, Read/Write and Folder. User with “Read” access rights should be able to see a list of files and open any file in this folder. However, we have found that open function was not working correctly after our recent upgrade last week. Now we have fixed this bug.

Also found and fixed was the following defect: Read-only folders and disabled menu items did not appear in gray. Normally “Read” folders appear in gray color in the Folders tree. For “Read” folder certain commands should be disabled, e.g. Add, Move, Delete. Disabled commands will appear in gray color in the pull down menu as in the sample below:

We have recently noticed that only about 10% of our website visitors who navigate to Free Trial page actually sign up for Free Trial. Possibly it was because in our Free Trial sign up form we requested visitors to enter E-Mail address which we used to send confirmation request.

People hate to register and leave their e-mails if they just want to look how product appears and check its major features.

So we decided to make Free Trial as simple as possible. Now you only need to enter your name (may be fictional at this point) and a verification word (as a routine shelter from hackers):

Once you click Create Account button we create a dedicated full-functional account for you. It’s that simple. Two words, one click! You can try it for yourself.

Once you in your WebAsyst account, you can look around, play with the system, try any features you wish and if you like it, click Register button (which is placed on a prominent spot) to make your WebAsyst account permanent.

Some customers who have WebAsyst source codes installed on their web servers reported problems with WebAsyst applications after the latest WebAsyst upgrade. Most of the problems have to do with page appearances. Errors can include missing or incomplete pages, missing or incomplete interface elements (e.g. menu, buttons), their incorrect layout, distortion of color, etc.

When these problems appear in WebAsyst after an upgrade we recommend emptying out the folder kernel/includes/smarty/compiled (in the directory where WebAsyst is installed on your computer). This folder contains files that may become obsolete after a system upgrade. Thus, they might cause the program running into errors.

Frequently we are asked if Quick Pages can be used as a simple CMS (Content Management System). In fact, we are using Quick Pages as a CMS for our own websites. To be exact, for some parts of our sites. For instance, Products section of our main site (http://www.webasyst.net/products.htm) is completely implemented in Quick Pages:

Using Quick Pages we can easily edit this page:

And this is how the page appears on our website:

All pages in the Products section which links you can see on the left (e.g. Contact Manager, Document Depot etc…) are implemented in Quick Pages. It allows us to easily maintain the whole section. No webmaster with HTML skills is required. Any person assigned to maintain website content can just login to her WebAsyst account, open Quick Pages, and add/edit web page text, images etc. All changes immediately appear on the website.

Though the process of integration of Quick Pages and a website is very easy, we have not made it a part of Quick Pages at the moment. We are using some “not documented” features which allow us to publish Quick Pages content on the pages of our website.

In future versions of Quick Pages, we plan to open this technique for public and give our customers this simple CMS tool. We just want to make this tool as simple and usable as possible, and it will take a little more time & effort from our developers.

If you were using WebAsyst Windows Client to access WebAsyst applications, you probably realized that Document Depot was the only WebAsyst application with native Windows user interface (UI). All other applications utilized built-in pseudo windows UI, i.e. their interface was actually implemented as HTML-page that appeared in the Internet Explorer built in a window of the Windows Client.

Document Depot UI was designed as a native windows application. The sample below shows the way it appeared in your screen:

In the new WebAsyst Windows Client version we’ve redesigned Document Depot UI to make it look like interface of other WebAsyst applications, i.e. it is executed now in a built-in Internet Explorer:

While it’s going to miss out on convenient drag-and-drop feature, the advantages are justified. Any new upgrade in functionality of browser interface required additional Document Depot coding, while some of it was very costly to implement. As a result, Document Depot UI functionality was lacking some important features that were implemented in the browser-based version.

As for drag-and-drop feature, we are currently working on designing a mechanism for the browser client - this would let you drag and drop files from you local computer in to WebAsyst browser-based window.

We have just released new major WebAsyst upgrade that affects all applications.

We have redesigned the WebAsyst user interface. The underlying mechanism of the updated interface is 100% CSS-based (CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets). Using CSS allows users to separate presentation from structure and behavior and makes user interface elements less code-dependent. This approach is becoming more popular in web applications design, as it is more efficient, and yields easier and faster ways to create new interface elements like color themes and layout variations.

In today’s new WebAsyst release we are adding new “look & feel” interface option – “Garden”. The name was chosen to reflect its light green palette and shades of garden-like colors. This new “look & feel” upgrade also gives a choice of main window layout - you can now display the main WebAsyst menu either at the top of your browser:

…or on the left:

For hosted solution customers: no action is required in order to upgrade your WebAsyst account. All changes have been applied automatically during the upgrade procedure we have implemented on November, 15 04:00am EDT.

For open source customers: you can download new version(s) for FREE. To do so, please login to your WebAsyst Customer Center account: https://my.webasyst.com.

IMPORTANT NOTE for WebAsyst Windows Client users:

If you are using WebAsyst Windows Client, you must 1). Uninstall the program on your desktop computer and 2). Install again from the same installation package which you used for your last installation (you can download it here: http://www.webasyst.net/downloads.php). Please notice, that simple reinstallation above previously installed version does not work – you must uninstall it first!