LISTSERV Maestro 8.1-4 Help

Customize Page Layout: Draft Version Preview of a Dataset Layout Element

This screen shows the preview of the draft version of the currently selected dataset layout element.

For each layout element, there are two different versions: The draft version and the production version. The production version is the version that subscribers who access the subscriber area pages actually see. The draft version, on the other hand, is not visible to the subscribers. Therefore, any changes can be safely made to the draft version without them becoming immediately visible. For example, pages can be customized one after the other by editing their draft versions, but the customized versions are to be made available all at once when each of the pages are finished. Or, the layout can be experimented with a bit, without disrupting the actual production versions that subscribers see.
Only when the draft version is finally deployed as the new production version will the changes become visible to subscribers.

There are two panes on this page, which are described in more detail below.

At the top right of this page, there is a drop-down list labelled "Currently Customizing:" that contains an entry for the subscriber area layout, and an entry for the layout of each list in the dataset. Navigating from the layout currently being customized to the layout of a different object (the subscriber area or a list) in the same dataset can be done quickly by making a selection in this drop-down list.

Left Pane: Selected Page / Template

The left pane displays a drop-down list that shows the currently selected layout element (usually a page or template, but can also be a notification, message or error text). By opening the drop-down list, it can be used to navigate to a different layout element of the dataset, simply by selecting the desired element.

Depending on which kind of layout element is selected, the area below the drop-down list displays the following:

• Template Page, Normal Page or Notification Email: A short description of the selected element is displayed.
   
• Message Text: The selection in the drop-down list does not actually select a message text as the selected layout element, but only selects one of the message groups.
  Below the drop-down list, a further list is displayed that shows all available messages in the currently selected group. Click on one of the messages in this list to actually select it as the layout element to be customized (or viewed).
  The currently selected messsage is then displayed with a bold font, and is no longer clickable.
  When a message group is initially selected in the drop-down list, the first message in this group will be selected by default.
   
• Input Validation Error: The selection in the drop-down list does not actually select an input error as the selected layout element, but only selects one of the error groups.
  Below the drop-down list, a further list is displayed that shows all available errors in the currently selected group. Click on one of the errors in this list to actually select it as the layout element to be customized (or viewed).
  The currently selected error is then displayed with a bold font, and is no longer clickable.
  Note: For each error group, there exists an "error group header/footer" that defines a common opening and closing text which is shared by all the errors in this group. This header/footer appears first in the list of errors in the group and is selected by default when an error group is initially selected in the drop-down list.

Right Pane: Draft Version Preview

The right pane displays several tabs, with the "Draft Version" tab currently being the active tab.

The tab content itself is roughly divided into four parts:

• The preview part, taking up the main part in the middle of the tab.
• The action icons, at the top right, above the preview part.
• The comments, at the top left, also above the preview part.
• The additional controls, at the bottom below the preview part (only available for some layout elements).

Preview Part

This is the actual preview of the selected layout element. Depending on the type of the selected element, the preview is displayed in different ways:

• Template Page: The preview displays the page as a normal HTML page, as it would appear in the browser of the subscriber. However, since the page being displayed is a template, a rectangular placeholder frame is used at the location where the actual content will appear when the template is used by a page.
   
• Normal Page: The preview displays the pages as a normal HTML page, as it would appear in the browser of the subscriber.
   
• Subscriber Notification Email Template: The preview displays the notification email template on two tabs, as the HTML and the plain text version. It also displays the character encoding that is configured for the template. On the plain text tab, it also displays the "maximum line length", i.e. the line length used to wrap the text with.
  
  A rectangular placeholder frame is used at the location where the actual content will appear when the template is used for an email.
  
  Note: The template will always be displayed with both the HTML and the plain text tab, even if the dataset should be configured to use only plain text emails. In this case, the content from the HTML tab will be ignored.
   
• Subscriber Notification Email: The preview displays the email on two tabs, as the HTML and the plain text version. It also displays the other email attributes like the "From" address, subject line and character encoding that will be used. On the plain text tab, it also displays the currently used "maximum line length", i.e. the line length used to wrap the text with.
  
  Note: The notification email will always be displayed with both the HTML and the plain text tab, even if the dataset should be configured to use only plain text emails. In this case, the content from the HTML tab will be ignored.
   
• Message Page Texts: The preview of the message page texts is shown by displaying the actual message page (which by itself is one of the normal pages, see above) as a HTML page, as it would appear in the browser of the subscriber with the currently selected message in place.
   
• Input Validation Errors: Errors are displayed by displaying a default page (using the header/footer template, see "template pages" above), with the selected error message displayed on this default page.

Action Icons

At the top right of the preview part, various action icons may be displayed to allow the executing of certain actions on the current draft version of the selected layout element. Not all actions are always available. The available actions may include the following ones:

• Edit Source: Click to edit the current draft version.
   
• Deploy As Production Version: Click to deploy the current draft version as the new production version. This will make a copy of the current draft version of the selected layout element and write it into the element's production version, making this the version of the selected element which subscribers actually see. The draft version remains unchanged.
   
• Copy From Production Version: Click to make a copy of the current production version and use it as the new draft version. This will overwrite all current changes in the draft version. The production version remains unchanged.
   
• Reset To System Default: Click to reset the current draft version to the LISTSERV Maestro system default. This will overwrite all manual changes in the draft version and will reset it to its default. The production version remains unchanged.
   

Comments

At the top left of the preview part, comments are displayed with further details about the currently selected layout element. The comments given are different depending on the type of the selected element:

• Header/Footer Template: The comment displays how many pages in the dataset and its lists are currently using the header/footer template (i.e. pages that do not have a header/footer defined of their own but are inheriting the template). Click the Details link to view a detailed list of which pages these are.
   
• Any of the List Page Templates: The first comment displays if the template page inherits the header/footer template (see above) or if the header/footer is defined locally on the list page template.
  
  The second comment below the first one displays how many list pages are currently using the list page template. These are the pages that locally define only the layout of the list profile fields, but inherit the rest of the page layout from this template.
  
  Those pages that define both the list profile fileds and the page layout locally aren't listed here.
   
• Any of the Normal Pages: The comment displays if the page inherits the header/footer template (see above) or if the header/footer is defined locally on the page.
   
• Notification Email Header/Footer Template: The comment displays how many notification emails in the dataset and its lists are currently using the header/footer template, either in its HTML or plain text version (i.e. notification emails that do not have a header/footer defined of their own but are inheriting the template).
   
• Any of the Notification Emails: The comment displays if the notification email inherits the email header/footer template (see above), either in its HTML or plain text version, or if the header/footer is defined locally in the notification email.
   
• Any of the Message Page Texts: The comment describes the currently selected message and the circumstances under which it is displayed to the subscriber.
   
• Any of the Input Validation Errors: The comment describes the currently selected error message and the circumstances under which it may occur. Also, unless the current message is already the error-header/footer of the error group, it provides a link to select the error-header/footer for the current error group as the selected layout element (by editing the error-header/footer, all errors in one error-group can be provided with the same opening and closing texts).

Additional Controls

At the bottom of the preview section, additional controls may appear that will allow for simulating certain system states so their impact can be verified on the actual preview. Only a few layout elements offer such additional controls, as listed below:

• List Edit-Profile Template: This template has two different states, one for existing subscribers who are only editing their existing list profile and one for new subscribers who are submitting their profile during a fresh subscribe to the list.
  
  To simulate these two possible states, a drop-down menu that allows toggling between the two states is displayed as an additional control.
   
• Subscriber Area Page: This page may present itself to the subscriber in different states, for example depending on if the subscriber has already confirmed his subscription or not. The following states can be simulated to preview how the subscriber area looks in each state:
  • Confirmed Subscriber (Default): The page is viewed in its default state as seen by normal confirmed subscribers.
  • Confirmed Subscriber (LISTSERV not available): Same as "Confirmed Subscriber (Default)" (see above), only this state additionally simulates that LISTSERV is not available (LISTSERV itself or the network is down). This situation may impact the presentation of Linked LISTSERV Lists; therefore, this simulated state is only available if there are any Linked LISTSERV Lists in the dataset.
  • Confirmed Subscriber with List-Subscription-Welcome-Message: The page is viewed by a confirmed existing dataset subscriber, who has just subscribed to an additional list from outside of the subscriber area (via the special external subscribe pages). At the end of the external subscribe, the dataset subscriber was automatically logged in to the subscriber area and was directed to this page, which is the first page the subscriber sees after the system has accepted the external subscription. Therefore, this page takes over the job of informing the subscriber of the success of their external subscribe, and displays a message that they are now freshly subscribed to the given subscriber list.
  • Confirmed Subscriber with List-Subscription-Welcome-Message (LISTSERV not available): Same as "Confirmed Subscriber with List-Subscription-Welcome-Message" (see above), only this state additionally simulates that LISTSERV is not available (LISTSERV itself or the network is down). This situation may impact the presentation of Linked LISTSERV Lists; therefore, this simulated state is only available if there are any Linked LISTSERV Lists in the dataset.
  • Unconfirmed Subscriber with Subscription-Unconfirmed-Message: The page is viewed by a subscriber who has still not confirmed his subscription (via the confirm link in the double opt-in confirmation mail). In this case, a message is displayed reminding the subscriber of the still unconfirmed state of their subscription, and how to confirm it.
  • Unconfirmed Subscriber with Join-Welcome-Message: The page is viewed by a "new" subscriber who has just joined the subscriber area (so they are viewing this page for the very first time) and has not yet confirmed the subscription. A similar reminder as above is displayed but, in addition, a "Welcome to the Subscriber Area" message is also displayed.
  • Unconfirmed Subscriber with List-Subscription-Welcome-Message: The page is viewed by a "new" subscriber who has not only just joined the subscriber area (so they are viewing this page for the very first time), but has also subscribed to the first list at the same time and not yet confirmed the subscription. A similar reminder and welcome message as above is displayed, but the welcome message is not only a general "Welcome to the Subscriber Area" message, but a more specific message about the subscriber list that the dataset subscriber has just subscribed to.
  To simulate these different states, a drop-down menu that gives the choice between the different states is displayed as an additional control. In addition, if the subscriber area page is selected, the right pane displays a third tab, the Subscriber Area State tab. This tab allows for making additional settings to simulate different subscriber states.

 
• Message Page: This page is used for different messages, where different subscriber actions are required, which in turn require different controls to be displayed by the message page. The following controls may be displayed, depending on the message:
  • None: The message requires no subscriber action; therefore, no additional controls are displayed.
  • Yes/No Button: The message requires a yes/no decision by the subscriber; therefore, two buttons with "Yes" and "No" labels are displayed.
  • Login Page Link: The message requires the subscriber to return to the subscriber area login page; therefore, a link to the login page is displayed.
  • Back Link: The message requires no subscriber action but allows the subscriber the option of going back to the page where they came from; therefore, a "back" link is displayed.
  To simulate the different message types, a drop-down menu that gives the choice between the different types is displayed as an additional control.

 
• External Profile Edit Page: This page is used to allow list subscribers to edit certain list subscription and general profile values without logging in to the subscriber area first. A user-defined subset of the dataset/list fields can be shown on the page. A drop-down menu and a set of checkboxes is displayed. These controls allow for selecting the dataset or any of the lists to show the page preview for and then for checking which of the dataset/list fields are to be displayed. First select the dataset or list, then select the desired fields by checking/unchecking the checkboxes. Click the Apply button to apply your choices and to refresh the preview.