Some Updates…
Hey everyone!
I know it’s been a while since you have received a decent update via our blog…. Sorry about that! During busy seasons, the blog typically ends up being at the bottom of our “gotta get done” list. We thought it’d be good to give you all an update of what we’ve been working on over these past 3 months or so. So in no particular order, here’s what our customers can look forward to getting in this next season:
1. At-a-glance Statistics: Although we’ve given you the ability to have super in-depth statistics through Google Analytics on your website, we’ve always wanted to give you the ability to have simple stats on your Dashboard. Since the launch of the new Greenhouse, we’ve been working on and fine-tuning this feature… Jason (and Ben) have been working hard to give you a simple, yet comprehensive statistics tool on your Dashboard so you don’t have to plug into Google Analytics unless you want a fire hose of info about your site’s traffic. This free upgrade to will be released in the next couple weeks.
2. List Page (aka “Staff Page”): We’re right in the final stages of development on this feature… Once again, since the launch of the new Greenhouse we started working on this feature that allows you to have customizable pages with a photo and text next to them (which is ideal for listing your staff, products or even restaurant items). Our developer, Jeremy, has been working hard to release this feature as soon as possible. We’ll be launching this a little bit after we release the new stats feature, so stay tuned!
3. iPad/iPhone version of Cloversites.com: This isn’t too exciting for most of you, but it’s become a necessity for us. Although all the content on your website shows up on mobile browsers, our website has always just had a simple splash page. So rather than hold out on technology to catch up with our site, we decided to make a custom HTML website for the more limited browsers. I must say, Ben and I have actually enjoyed designing and programming within these constraints. We’ll see how long that lasts, though… But this new version of our website should come out in the next couple of weeks.
4. New Site Designs: As always, we are just about due to release some new site designs… These designs should be released in the next month or so.
5. Additional Design Customizations on Site Designs: We’ve received requests for a few additional design customizations on a few site designs (Meadowbrook, Connection, and Origin). The last post highlighted these new updates, so check it out.
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So I hope these new upcoming features help explain our quietness over the past couple of months on our blog. We’ll get better at posting stuff… If things ever slow down.
Posted on September 7th, 2010 under Company News by Jim with 28 comments.
28 Comments
Curious to see why you feel modern web standards are restraints… I think I saw a tweet to that effect as well. Thoughts? #curious
Heheh, yeah, while we were reading over the post, we realized that it sounded a little defensive, but after debating for a minute, we didn’t feel like changing it.
There’s obviously a lot to the story of web standards, but as a quick answer… when it comes to flash vs html, there are a lot of things that html can’t do. One of the biggest ones that we had to work around for the new version of cloversites.com is the fact that so few fonts are available. Even when you add in the @font-face tag, it’s still a tiny fraction of what you can do with flash (and what people have been doing with flash for years).
Ok, crap, I’m already sounding defensive again. If you’re interested in more of my take about HTML (specifically HTML5), you can see my post here: http://www.speakingofclover.com/2010/07/what-html5-really-means/
Sup Drew- I love that after that whole post you found the one comment that might get me in trouble in the web world… Atta boy.
To keep it quick, web standards by definition are limiting- Your typography choices are limited (from web-safe fonts to @font-face), your layouts are limited within HTML, and your over-all experience is limited… So designing within these restraints isn’t very fun for designers (or at least for me). It feels like being asked to design a poster for someone, and being told I can only use 5 different colors and crayons. Creatively, it just feels limiting- that’s all.
But that being said, I think web standards are great. Recently, I’ve actually enjoyed trying to design within these constraints. So who knows… I just might take back my statements in a few months.
Nice comment, Drew. You got us both to answer.
Awesome feedback – thanks for the replies!
From Iowa to Simi…
You guys are doing well with the sites. Our site has been flawless. One important update you included (for FREE I might add!) was the enhanced integration of iTunes proprietary rss feeds. Thank you. This has been smooth and without interruption as well, since its inception.
Keep up the work, the updates are flawless.
“Impressive wingspan.”
you guys just keep getting better and better
Really looking forward to the “staff” profiles, I have a client (hair salon) ready to make the shift to clover once that feature is ready…bring it on!!!
Just curious when you think the photo albums page will be available ….
Thanks
Thanks for continuing to work on new features. We love our site and the ease of updating. We are eagerly waiting for the “staff page” feature!
Hey Kipp- We have a cue of new pages to be released after the list page comes out… Next will be forms, and then photo albums. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on the process.
When is the “form” option coming out? I’m dying and need it really bad…please god soon
We love our Clover site! While thinking about updates, it would be really helpful to be able to add a PayPal button to forms so that people can pay for events when they register, or give electronically to missions or other special offerings. Is this something that’s do-able?
Hey Noah- We are happy to say that it is going to be coming soon, however there aren’t any official release dates just yet. We definitely want to get these out as soon as we can and we will keep you posted on the dates.
Hey Sue- Great question. With Clover, it isn’t possible to embed a PayPal button, but you can create links through the use of your photos. Just create a graphic that looks like a button or prompts the visitor to click on the photo and place it in a photo area. Once your graphic is in place, you can create a link to PayPal! You can find the PayPal code by following these steps:
1. Sign into your Paypal account.
2. Click the “Merchant Services” button.
3. Click “Create a Button”.
4. Click “Donate”.
5. Fill out the donate button form and click “Create Button”.
6. On the next page click on the “Email” tab.
7. The link in the email tab is the link you will use to create a link in your Greenhouse.
I am so anxious to see the List and Form pages that will be coming out soon. You guys are awesome!!
Thanks for rolling out some updates! We’ve been using Jotform for forms, and are really looking forward to integrated forms.
We had two brand new visitors this past Sunday who found out about us through the new website. Thanks again!
great work! I launch our site live yesterday and was told [from 'others'] that it may take 3 days! So I put a note on our old site stating that we may be down for a few days, but by the end of the day I had moved my domain, set up emails, uploaded the nessary info to my new registrar and had our clover site up and working w/o a glitch by 5:30 pm. WOW! thx guys/gals @ clover. Sure there are some things [wish list] that I could ask for, but they have nothing to do with your quality, functionality, ease, and customer service. So I will save those for another time……thanks again! ["all progress occurs when people dare to be different!"]
Hey, guys. Again, great work on the updates thus far. I love how the simple stats offers the most viewed media items as well (something I couldn’t work out with google analytics). I am also really looking forward to the list pages.
I have a quick suggestion, though. You guys clearly update the blog and twitter more often than facebook. You haven’t posted anything on facebook in almost a year. It makes the page seem outdated and underused. It might be worth your while to simply link your twitter and facebook accounts so that when you update one, it updates the other. Not a huge deal, but I thought it might help in promoting clover.
Hey Wade. So encouraging to hear! Thanks for that. Your site is looking great!
Hey Mike. You’re right! Our Facebook page needs some love and we’ve heard it a couple times. Coming soon for sure -
I have a suggestion. For SEO purposes, it would be nice to be able to edit the “title tag” for each page, rather than just the home page.
Can’t wait for the staff, form, and possibly photo album pages to be added.
Hey Zubin,
We are super excited about the new features too! Coming soon -
And, we have definitely thought about adding a feature that would give you advanced control over the SEO settings on each page individually. Something we may do it in the future. Not the first thing on the radar right now, but we do think it’s a great idea!
hey any news on that list page? we’ve thought of like 20 implementations for that sucker. thanks!
Hey Paul, yeah, we’re in the final stages of it… It’s so close – we’re just finishing the last details and we’re hoping to launch it this week!
Hey… have a question about the calendar page- right now if someone views the calendar page all they see is a dot on any date that has something scheduled, but no indication of what that something is. Is there a way to list events on the calendar rather then hoping viewers will click on dots until something that interests them pops up? It would be great if we could post youth events in one color, general church stuff in another, etc.
Hey Sue,
As you mentioned, with Clover, our calendar really has a super clean look and you need to click on the actual date to see the event details, but there are other options out there. I wonder if you have considered linking to another calendar through a URL? We have customers that link to Google calendars and that works really well for them! Maybe that’s a possibility for you?
We so appreciate all that you do! You are innovative and I love the intuitiveness of Greenhouse. Can’t wait to use the coming photo albums page. Congregation members keep asking for pics to be posted on the site. Finally added a bulletin announcement letting them know the capabilites are coming. In the mean time we have a a page titled “Photo Gallery” and have scrolling pics. You guys are doing a fantastic job. Keep up the great work!