Red Leaf 6 released brings web portal enhancement to Prelude.

Prelude Server Enhancements

Ship-to and Ship-via Description Overrides

Ship-to and ship-via descriptions may now be overridden for individual site users. When entering ship-to or ship-via codes on the Setup Users screen, the description will initially load from Prelude but can be changed for each user.

Related Products Improvements

The handling of related products has been improved through two access codes:

• When viewing a product, if the web user has the ViewProductRelated access code, they will be able to view the related products (if any exist) for each product. Without this code, related products will not be displayed to the user.
• If the site visitor has the AddProductRelated access code and a product being added to the cart has related products, the related products will automatically be added to the cart below the original product. The site visitor can then remove any related products they don't want from the cart before conversion. This more closely mimics Prelude's default handling of related products.

When a related product is automatically added to the cart, if that related product itself has related products, those second-generation related products will not be automatically added to the cart.

Restricted Product List (RPL) on Roles

Prior to version 6 a restricted product list could be assigned to a user to restrict the products that the user can find, view, and otherwise access. To improve user administration, RPLs may now be added to roles to restrict the products that are available to all users assigned to that role. Any RPL assigned to a user will supersede any RPLs assigned to roles assigned to that user.

As each user can be assigned to several roles, it is possible for each role to be defined with a different RPL. When this occurs, only the first RPL will be used.

F5 - Zoom Added to Product Pages

When setting up product pages there is now an F5-Zoom option available to allow a site administrator to quickly view details about a specific product.

F10-Copy Added to Product Page Setup

A new F10-Copy feature has been added to the Setup Product Pages application to allow a product page to be copied to a new name.

New Browser Tracking

Red Leaf now records the the browser used to access the site into the RL.SESSION file in Prelude. This information can later be analyzed to determine which browsers are being used by your customers.

New User Interface Tracking

When a visitor first accesses the site, Red Leaf will now track the UI they are using (whether Desktop, Mobile, or Connect) into the RL.SESSION file in Prelude. This information can later be analyzed to determine which Red Leaf interfaces are being used by your customers.

E-mail Styling Improvements

Through version 5, e-mail styling was implemented using class-based CSS styling. However, some major e-mail providers do not recognize this type of styling, causing messages to not appear as expected. Going forward, CSS styles will be automatically applied to individual elements using inline styling, assuring styling will remain intact across multiple email service providers. Note that this requires no changes to your email-enabled text blocks as the formatting will be applied automatically by Red Leaf.

New Date/Time Updates

The current date, time, account, port, program, and user are now being recorded on carts during conversion and when favorites are updated. This allows us to better track when each update is happening and by whom.

General Web Enhancements

New CAPTCHA Security on Login/Signup

A CAPTCHA is an image rendering of text that is used for additional security to verify that a human, not a machine or hacker script, is attempting to access the site. A user must enter the letters and numbers shown in the CAPTCHA image to verify access.

The ViewLoginImage should be added to an anonymous role to cause the verification image to be displayed during login. As the user is anonymous up to the moment of logging in, adding this code to any other role for authenticated users will provide no value.

The ViewSignupImage should be added to an anonymous role to cause the verification image to be displayed during signup for the site. As the user is anonymous at the point of signing up for the site, adding this code to any other role for authenticated users will provide no value.

Improved Google Sitemap Support

Red Leaf URLs are now more compatible with Google Sitemaps, allowing your pages to be indexed for increased search results for your site. Contact Precision Solutions for more information about setting up a Google Sitemap.

Locator Optimizations

The Locator is a crucial utility object used throughout Red Leaf to support the customizability of the site. A few small but significant optimizations have been made to the Locator to improve the load time and efficiency of generating product views.

Password Enhancements

In prior versions, when a user clicked on Forgot Password and entered their user ID or email address, their existing password would be sent to them via email. For security reasons, this feature has been changed. When a user forgets their password, an e-mail with a link to change the existing password will be sent instead of the password itself. Also, additional e-mail addresses (such as an administrator) can be set in a user's notification list - /REDS, Setups Users, Miscellaneous Setup - for notifying others that a user has requested a change of password or that the password has been changed.

New Quote Features

Quotes were previously only distinguished as Current (from the Prelude QUOTE file) or Historical (from the Prelude QUOTE.HISTORY file). However, in Prelude, quotes may also be distinguished as being converted or unconverted/open. New programs have been added to allow the viewing and searching of converted vs. unconverted quotes.

Also, quotes may now be converted to orders through Red Leaf with appropriate permission.

New Order Features

Order status is now shown in current and historical order listings in the form of icons. Default icons are available in the form of a sectioned arrow, with a fully green arrow signifying an order is complete, an arrow with two green sections and one yellow sections signifying the order is on hold - administrative order hold, administrative invoice hold or credit hold - an arrow with two green sections signifying the order has pick tickets created for it and an arrow with one green section signifying the order is new. A second icon - an asterisk - will show if the order is backordered. Icons - and the text that shows when hovered - are fully customizable.

Mobile Enhancements

A number of new features have been added to Red Leaf's mobile interface to enhance the user experience:

Alter Egos Now Supported

Alter egos are now available in Red Leaf mobile in a dropdown format. When selected, the mobile site will change credentials to the new user without having to log out and back in with another user name and password. Alter egos must be configured on the Prelude server.

Product Options Now Supported

Options, if defined, will be shown above product listings in a compact collapsible. This will only be shown if the products in the view have options (like size, color, or brand).

Product Compare Now Supported

Compare is now available on Red Leaf Mobile. When viewing a product listing, a new button will appear to the right side of the product listing if the product has specifications available for comparison. This button can be selected, putting a checkmark in the empty circle on the button. After two or more products have been selected the user can then press the floating compare button and will be taken to the compare chart. Due to space limitations of the mobile devices, only two or three products can be compared at one time.

Desktop Enhancements

New Hijax Navigation

In previous versions of Red Leaf, Ajax navigation was used throughout. This caused the entire Red Leaf site to appear as if it was all under a single URL. As of version 6 Red Leaf now uses a more robust navigation method most commonly known as "Hijax". Hijax displays a different URL for each different page of the site with full back/forward button navigation. With this change, the phantom back button that was on the right side of the header is no longer needed and has been removed. More importantly, a user can pick up any Red Leaf URL in their browser and email it to another person to direct them to a specific Red Leaf page.

New Microsoft Excel ® Integration

Using a series of access codes, lists of carts, quotes, orders, invoices, customers (for Corporate users only), and customer sales detail may now be exported directly to Microsoft Excel ®.
Added Pagination and Sorting to Lists

When viewing a list of carts, quotes, orders, invoices, customer sales, or product ordering history, the list can now be paginated and dynamically sorted by any textual column.

New Product List Filter Bar

Borrowing a bit of brilliance from Red Leaf Mobile, a filter bar will now be shown above product listings for users with the ViewProductFilter access code. This filter bar will allow site visitors to zero-in on the products listed by entering a word or phrase. As characters are typed into the filter bar, the products shown in the list will be dynamically adjusted to show only the products that contain the word or phrase as typed. By default the filter will remove any products from the list that do not match the search word or phrase. However this presentation may be changed in your custom UI to dim the ineligible products or accentuate the eligible ones.

Transaction Search Improvements

When searching through quotes or orders, a Customer Product Number may be entered at the Product Number prompt to search for either a Red Leaf product number or a customer's specific CPN. Also, quotes, orders, and invoices may now be searched by their unique transaction number.

New Micro View

The micro view is a compact, miniature version of the grid view showing a small image, description, price, and icons that allow a user to add the product to a cart, add the product to a favorites list, or request information about the product. The micro view is a prototype of a change we're planning for an upcoming release where the Cart, Favorite, and Request Information buttons will be replaced by icons throughout the site. Your feedback on this upcoming modification would be most appreciated.
List, Grid, Micro Views Now Controlled by Access Codes

In prior versions, the List and Grid buttons on product views appeared all the time. With the addition of the Micro View, the ability to switch between views is now controlled by access codes AllowListView,AllowGridView and AllowMicroView. This allows customers to control which views are available for their site. Without these access codes, the default view as selected in Site Configuration will be the only view available to site visitors.

New Product Sort by Quantity Available

A sort option has been added to product listings which arranges products based on quantity available. The user can choose to sort products by the most available quantity to least, or vice versa. This option is only available for users with the ViewAvailWhse access code.

Added Display of Customer Product Numbers (CPNs)

Customer Product Numbers can now be shown in list and grid views for users with the ViewCPN access code. If there is more than one CPN for a product, they will be listed in a drop down select box.

Connect Enhancements

New UserUpdate Request

A new request (UserUpdate) has been added to allow the name, phone, email, and password to be updated for the currently authenticated user. Consult the Red Leaf Connect documentation, User section, for more details about this new request

New/Modified Access Codes

View Features

A number of new access codes have been added to allow different product details and features to be shown or suppressed without modifying the user interface code.