Thanks for joining us as we “spring ahead” into 2021 with Release C. As always the features we jam into each release come first and foremost from the feedback that you, our valued customers, provide.
Hopefully you spot something in here you’ve been hoping we’ll add to make your life easier. Read on to learn more about enhancement to our new Microsite Builder within Campaign Tools, an update to the Zoom SDK for VEX (hint it adds gallery view!), the ability to make fields required, and more! There’s something for everyone!
See the following video for a quick overview of what's new
Platform Updates
Ability to make content tags required
Admins now have the ability to make specific content tags required when users are bulk uploading or configuring content. Content tags are not only an important part of filtering and navigating for your visitors, but they also allow for robust content data insights and may be used in your marketing automation tool for scoring or alerting mechanisms.
To make a content tag required, navigate to the Content Tags section of your platform settings and select the cog icon next to the header.
Once an admin has set the required tags, users will be required to fill in these fields before saving their content configurations.
Note: This capability extends to our .csv bulk upload feature. If a required cell is empty when trying to upload the file, an error message email will be sent from support@pathfactory.com with the .csv file showcasing the error location.
Set a default search engine directive
If you have a specific search engine directive that you want to apply to all of your new content tracks, explore pages, microsites or VEX events going forward, you can now do this easily by setting a default in the Organization Settings. Navigate to the Search Engine Directive tab to easily scale your preferred option across all of the experiences created in your instance moving forward.
PDF hyperlinks now open into a new tab by default
Previously when including PDF assets into a content track, any hyperlink within the PDF would open in the same tab when clicked on by a visitor. We have updated our PDF renderer to make these hyperlinks open into a new tab by default to encourage your visitors to continue to binge within the PathFactory track after they are done engaging with the new tab.
Enhancements for screen readers, keyboard-only users and more
In order to make your PathFactory experiences more easily consumable for visitors engaging with low vision or in a non-visual format, we’ve provided the following enhancements. These are automatically applied to the various components of your experiences and there is no action required from your end.
- Alternative text is included for images in the image library to ensure they are informative for screen readers.
- Dialogs are properly labelled so boundaries are clearly communicated and screen readers can understand when they are leaving or entering a dialog while using the virtual cursor.
- Provide identifying portions of buttons, form fields, and other user interface controls a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 with adjacent colors to ensure users with low vision can identify the interface components.
- Provide identifying portions of states such as focus, hover, selected, current item and checked with sufficient contrast to identify that state with adjacent colors.
- Content reflows without loss of content or functionality and does not require two-dimensional scrolling. This ensures that users with low vision who require zoom to view page content will be able to access it.
- Textual equivalents are available for icon fonts to convey important information to users of assistive technology.
- Set a valid language code value in the element so that screen readers can interpret the page in its intended language.
- Custom controls provide a proper textual name, role and state so screen readers can distinguish their purpose and current state.
- Hidden text is available within the anchor element to distinguish between an active and inactive link.
- Headings are properly marked in HTML to ensure page structure visualization is accurate.
- Page elements such as buttons and links are properly nested to ensure assistive technologies and users can interpret these components correctly.
- Title attributes have a name value that is a short description of the contents of the frame so that users of assistive technologies can move between frames and access the page content they wish to view.
- Custom controls are keyboard accessible for easy navigation and interaction.
- Keyboard focus is indicated visually for keyboard-only users.
Filter on company name data point for API endpoints
If you are leveraging our public API, you are now able to filter your API session or page view endpoints by the following options to make it easier to focus on engagement data for certain key accounts:
- Company_name_eq
- company_name_not_eq
- Company_name_contains
Filtering by company_name_eq = 'null' should return only where company name is equal to null. Filtering by company_name_not_eq = 'null' should return data where company name is not equal to null. Filtering by company_name_contains = '' should return all data that contains the name given.
Certificate based Eloqua authentication
We have simplified the Eloqua integration process so that is no longer necessary to create and manage an Eloqua user dedicated to API integrations. Users can now authenticate PathFactory as an app in Eloqua by going to the Eloqua Account tab of their Organization Settings. When you click on the “Authenticate Eloqua User” button, you’ll be taken to the Oracle Eloqua permission request page.
External code available on the root domain of an instance
We have added the ability to select external code that will render on the root domain of a PathFactory instance, meaning the code will show on the login page / SSO page. This new capability is to support domain verification scenarios, such as verifying your domain in a Google Search Console or Facebook ad by adding a meta tag that loads on the root page of the domain.
To apply specific external code to your login / SSO page, Admins can visit the Organization Settings “Settings” tab and select from the external code drop down.
Increased code block size for external code
It is now easier to edit your external code items with a full screen editing view in your external code library. With more visual real estate to work with, you’ll spend less time using the scroll bar to see your code in its entirety.
Campaign Tools
Experience field merges are available on Explore pages
Any field merges that contain information about a content track (e.g. experience.name, experience.external_id) will now populate on the associated explore page for that track as well. This can be helpful if you are leveraging content track metadata for things such as attribution with CTA forms that you want to apply to the Explore page as well.
Search by source URL when adding content to a track
Now when adding content from your library to a Target or Recommend track, you are able to search by either the title or the source URL. Sometimes when working with a big library of content, the source URL is the easiest way to filter to what you need. No one understands that better than us!
Improved folder expansion within Target, Recommend and Explore
Previously when navigating through the folder structure set within Target, Recommend or Explore, if you clicked on a folder name to expand it then every folder in the tree structure would also expand. We recognized that it is cumbersome to then have to scroll to the folder you originally were looking for, so we have updated the functionality to only expand the folder that you selected when clicked.
Define the topics available in the topic filter for Microsites
Similar to how you can select which topics appear in the drop down for Recommend and Explore, we wanted to further this capability within the Microsite Builder Content Track and Featured Content blocks on landing pages. Now when you go to edit the block and the filter configurations, you’ll see an option to edit topic filters where you can pick and choose which topics will be included in the drop down.
Carousel layout available for Microsite featured content section
We have added the ability to apply a carousel layout for your Featured Content blocks in Microsite Builder to ensure a more visually appealing and easy to navigate microsite page. Simply hit the edit button on your featured content block and you will be able to change the layout option from Grid to Carousel.
Note: If the carousel option is selected for a given Featured Content block, assets will render as a carousel when previewing and in the live experience but the carousel will not show within the editing environment. A notification will appear in the block of the editor window to make users aware that a carousel cannot be previewed directly inside the editor.
Microsite analytics tab available for Reporter role
Reporter roles are now able to access the analytics section of each microsite. Any user with this role type will only see the “Configure” button for the microsite and when they click it will take them directly to the analytics tab. They will not be able to see or access the other tab sections within the microsite, but will be able to fully leverage the filter, download, send and schedule capabilities within the analytics section.
Text navigation item available for Microsites
When setting the navigation structure for your microsites, you can now create a text navigation option. This allows you to provide a drop down option showcasing other landing pages, links or tracks, without the need for the parent item to be linked to anything else.
VEX
VEX has been updated to Zoom SDK version 1.9.1
This update provides support for gallery view (in Zoom Webinars) amongst other new features. Create even more interaction for your live events, using Zoom SDK 1.9.1. Note: we’ve automatically applied this update for all PathFactory VEX customers, so no action is required on your part to take advantage of these new features.
Visit the Zoom Web SDK release notes page for further details.
VEX analytics tab available for Reporter role
Reporter roles are now able to access the analytics section of each VEX event. Any user with this role type will only see the “Configure” button for the VEX event and when they click it will take them directly to the analytics tab. They will not be able to see or access the other tab sections within the event, but will be able to fully leverage the filter, download, send and schedule capabilities within the analytics section.
Website Tools
Multiple title types for recommendations
Every B2B website is created differently and website owners use different tags to identify the titles of their pages. We have added a new feature which provides complete flexibility on how we index the title of your web pages which is subsequently shown within Guide and Concierge for website recommendations.
You can now choose from “meta title” (the og:title in the HTML of the page) or “page title” (HTML