Blog

Userecho for feedback and bugs

14th October 2010 by René Lasseron

We have moved our user support entirely to Userecho. Please feel free to submit your ideas, bugs and questions to http://saurus.userecho.com.

Saurus CMS goes open source

10th June 2010 by René Lasseron

Saurus CMS, the content management system used by Sauropol websites, is now available as free open source software.

More at Saurus' website http://www.saurus.info/blog-saurus-cms-goes-open-source/

Saurus CMS #2 in Estonian web publishing

17th February 2010 by René Lasseron 1 comment

Saurus CMS, the web publishing software behind Sauropol.com service has second biggest market share in Estonia, the recent study reveals. Check out the entire report at http://www.saurus.info/estonian-cms-market-overview-2010/
 

Major software update

23rd November 2009 by René Lasseron 3 comments

We have updated the content management software that runs Sauropol sites to bring you these great new features:

  • File Manager has been completely reworked and features now multiple file upload and greatly enhanced usability. Oh, and it also loads much faster.
  • Article editor got "normal" selection in fonts drop-down to remove current style, "show blocks" feature and shortcut Ctrl-S to save current article.
  • Galleries: The album editor has been completely rewritten. You can now create albums without using File manager at all - just choose "New album" and mass-upload images. These images are also accessible via File manager as a new subfolder with the album name is created. Alternatively, you can choose existing folder of images when creating an album as before. We also added human friendly URLs to albums.
  • Web browser support: The software now works with all modern browsers.
  • Facelift of editor toolbar and login screens.
  • Interface language: You can now choose the language for the user interface when you login. Currently, only English and Estonian are available, but look for more in future.
  • Countless fixes and performance tweaks.

In case your're interested in details, check the Saurus CMS version log - we upgraded from version 4.5.7 to 4.6.3.

Sauropol started twitting

23rd November 2009 by René Lasseron

Follow us here: twitter.com/sauropol

Sauropol.com is currently being updated

18th November 2009 by René Lasseron

We are currently updating the content management software and your site might be offline for couple of hours.

We are sorry for the inconvenience, but hope that the new features will enhance your experience at Sauropol.

Introducing service partners

9th April 2009 by René Lasseron

Need to tweak your website design, change the layout or add a feature? You can now use professional help from our selection of web firms fluent with our software. Take a look at the list of Service partners and give them a call.

Software update

18th February 2009 by René Lasseron 2 comments

We updated the content management software running Sauropol sites with the following:

  • The article title is now fully visible for Firefox users on Mac.
  • GIF and PNG files now retain transparency in image gallery.
  • Non-latin characters in file names will be romanized when you upload them using File manager.
  • Fixed an error in feedback forms which caused the error page display [error] instead of the error message itself.
  • Security fix.

Customising the design and layout

8th January 2009 by René Lasseron 5 comments

If you know some basic HTML and CSS, it's quite simple customise the design and layout of your site. Here's how:

  1. Log in to your website.
  2. Choose Properties > Site Design from the toolbar above the page. Mouse-over the design package you like, choose Download and save the package .zip file to your computer.
    Unpack the downloaded .zip file which would create a folder called something like “sauropol_greatdesign”. Inside, you will find files like:

    style.css the .css files define the text sizes, fonts, colours, background images and other visual styles of the page. Read more about CSS from  www.w3schools.com/css.
    index.html

    .html files contain the page layout, menus and some of the behaviour. These files are mix of two type of code:

    - HTML is the tag language for defining web pages and is written between angle brackets like <body>. Read more about HTML from www.w3schools.com/html.

    - Saurus API is the language that pulls your website content like menus and articles from database where it is stored and displays it inside the HTML page layout. These calls are written between curly brackets like {print_content}. Learn about Saurus API from www.saurus.info/sapi.
  3. Once you have made the desired changes, pack the whole folder using ZIP compression and upload from the same place you downloaded it: there is an Upload button in Properties > Site Design page. Refresh the page to see your changes.

    When uploading, it does not matter what is the name of the .zip file or whether you compressed it within the folder or one level up. Just make sure to include all the files.
     

Tip: The easiest way to change the header image is to look inside the package folder and search for the image file that appears in your site header. Once found, replace it with your own graphic file with same file format and pixel size.

Updated visuals of action buttons

19th December 2008 by René Lasseron

Graphics of the v-shaped buttons attached to all editable objects have been enhanced so that they now appear better on dark backgrounds and also change appearance when hovered by mouse for better usability. We also updated the software with several improvements for speed and stability.

Have a joyful holidays!

New design templates and web services from Frukt Kuubis

10th December 2008 by René Lasseron 2 comments

We are pleased to introduce two new design templates: Integral and Invention, both prepared by a web design and marketing firm Frukt Kuubis. You can ask these guys to help you out with customizing your Sauropol website: whether to create a stunning graphics design, modify the current layout or add new functionality. Visit their booth at Online Expo for special offers valid until December 17, 2008.

Use a custom domain name

27th November 2008 by René Lasseron

You can now use a custom domain name for your Sauropol website. By “custom domain”, we mean a site address other than the default format of username.sauropol.com.

If you do not own a domain yet, you can buy one from a registrar like GoDaddy or Register. Once you own a domain, use the tools provided by your domain registrar's website to point the domain's A-record (IP address) to 75.125.137.50. Please note that you need to change your domain's A Record, not its nameservers. Once you've done this, you may need to wait up to 36 hours for the change to take effect.

Then, log into your Sauropol website and choose Properties > My Account to type in your domain name there. Good luck!

Edit your account details

29th October 2008 by René Lasseron

There is now a way to change your account details such as the name, e-mail address and password related to the service. Check out the new “My Account” page under “Properties” menu after logging in to your site.

During last weeks, we have released several minor updates bringing you:

  • Usability enhancements to user interface and templates.
  • Creating new sites is now much faster.
  • New tooltip-based quickstart for new users.
  • Missing RSS feed added back to Bizwatch template.

Simpler publishing

3rd October 2008 by René Lasseron

New content is initially created as unpublished in our software so you can double check before showing additions to site visitors. Since now, you had to click and uncheck Hidden option from the v-button to make new items public but we made it even simpler:

There is now an option to choose publishing status right when creating new objects.

Other recent improvements:

  • The Hidden checkbox in the v-button has changed to Publish/Unpublish for better compatibility between the terms found elsewhere.
  • The v-button now displays the type of the object it handles.
  • Fixes to pre-made templates, mostly in footer areas.
  • Backend optimisations related to creating new sites.
  • Fixes to human-friendly URLs which did not function in some cases.
  • Minor updates in software graphics.

Inserting Youtube videos and other gadgets

2nd September 2008 by René Lasseron

There’s now a convenient way for embedding Youtube videos, Google maps, gadgets and other 3rd party objects to your site: check out the new button in the text editor:

Saurus CMS - Inserting HTML snippet

Here's how to use it:

  • First, copy the appropriate HTML code from your source website. For example, in Youtube, it’s in the “Embed” field and starts something like <object width="425" height="344”.
  • Then, create an article in your Sauropol site, put the cursor in the text where you want the object to be placed, click the “Insert HTML snippet” button on the toolbar and paste the code when small window appears. That’s it!

 

10 new designs

29th August 2008 by René Lasseron 1 comment

We added ten new designs to choose from: Asterisk, Plainoffice, Mistybud, Naturescharm, Discovery, Earthling, Breakfast, Complimentary, Conglomerate and Industrial.

Check them out in the Designs section or apply to your own site after logging in.

Tutorials launched

25th August 2008 by René Lasseron 2 comments

Our site now features three video tutorials to give you an in-depth understanding about the v-buttons, various publishing options, site structure, templates and managing both hyperlinks and images.

In case you have additional questions or comments, open the Skype chat to talk us online.

Online support, more designs

15th August 2008 by René Lasseron

Great news: we just opened a public Skype chat to talk to you online and give instant feedback when a question or comment arises.

We also released 7 new designs to choose from: Swanky, Splatter, Collaboration, Amazinglycool, Isometric, Snowglass and Verticals. Log in to your site and choose Properties > Site Design to give them a try.

And there’s more - the software has been updated to version 4.5.4 which brings better support for inserting Flash movies into articles and various compatibility fixes with Firefox 3.

Bug reporting added to sites, more designs updated

18th July 2008 by René Lasseron

You can now notify us about bugs and feature requests right from your site. Check out the Help > Report a Bug menu item from the editor’s toolbar. Drop us a line and help us making the service better.

We also worked with the rest of the templates to comply with various browsers and content: Freeroad, Fspring, Logistix, New Forrest, Red bridge, Refreshing and Sunrise have received updates.

For techies - you can download any design template as a .zip file, modify the code and upload back to the site. Or, create one from scratch. Take a look at Saurus CMS tutorials and API reference to get started.

Design templates updated

11th July 2008 by René Lasseron 1 comment

We are working hard on fine tuning design templates for various content and cross-browser compatibility. Today, we released new versions of Bizwatch, Blue sky, Blueforest and Economics. Test them out and stay tuned - next week will bring more updates.

Public beta 2 is here

4th July 2008 by René Lasseron

This is the first publicly available release of Sauropol and we are really excited to see how it goes. Sure, we found some last-minute bugs and there are loads of features to be completed but you can freely play around and create great websites. Give us a feedback if you like it. Or if you don’t. Or if you find a bug or just wish to comment.

Software update brings great new features

27th June 2008 by René Lasseron

We have updated the Saurus CMS software used to run Sauropol sites to version 4.5.3 which brings a list of features including:

  • There’s now a new content template called Blog which lets you create, well obviously, a blog. It features article postings, comments, listing of latest posts, yearly/monthly archive and RSS feed.
  • There’s several enhancements in image gallery:
    - You can now add articles to the album listing page.
    - The thumbnail view displays album title and description, also each image now displays its name.
    - And it is now possible to upload new images to album right from the page, also delete and edit images.
  • Public view of the site now uses human-friendly URL-s which are automatically generated in text editor and section editor once you create new content. Click on the URL below title fields in these popups to change the value.
  • Captcha protection has been turned on to protect comments from being posted by robots.
  • You can output any section as RSS by adding parameter op=rss to the URL. Eg. site.sauropol.com/news/?op=rss or site.sauropol.com/?id=123&op=rss.
  • Dialog used to change site design has been greatly simplified – changing a template now requires less steps and refreshes the page as expected. It is also now possible to download the design package as a zip file, edit the contents and upload your edits to change the appearance and behaviour of your site.
  • Section editor has been redesigned to initially hide more advanced settings.
  • Filemanger’s thumbnail view now displays file names.
  • Compatibility with Firefox 3 has been greatly enhanced.

This update concerns both new and existing sites.