Blesta 3.0: Custom Client Fields (video)
It’s incredible how quickly this year has gone by. It’s been productive, but I’m looking forward to what 2013 has in store. I think it’s going to be an amazing year for Blesta!
The v3 alpha is in its third release and is going great, the feedback we’re getting from developers is incredibly valuable and reassuring. We’re working towards the beta release now, resolving issues, and finishing up some critical features while pushing out regular alpha updates.
This week I wanted to show you custom client fields. Not an incredibly exciting feature, but it’s a really useful one.
- Custom Client Fields are Client Group specific, create different fields for different groups.
- Field labels can be language defines, so that they are available in many languages.
- Text box, check box, drop down, and text area fields are supported.
- Fields can be hidden from clients, or displayed as read-only to clients.
- Fields can be required, and custom regular expressions can be used for validation.
- Fields can optionally be encrypted in the database with 256-bit AES cipher.
- And of course, custom client fields can be created and fetched through the API.
The video is below, as usual you can make the video full screen, and be sure to turn on your sound!
Blesta 3.0: CLI Installer (video)
Whoa, it has been a busy week! If you didn’t hear, we released v3 alpha on Wednesday, which is a huge milestone. We’re excited and gearing up for the next phase, which I think will be a lot of fun.
Part of prepping for the alpha was building an installer and handling licensing. We opted to do a CLI installer for now, but you’ll have the option of installing via CLI or your browser at release. Once installed, the rest is handled in the browser — entering your license key and creating your first staff member.
The video is below, as usual you can make the video full screen, and be sure to turn on your sound!
Google Authenticator & Blesta
When we originally introduced two factor authentication there weren’t a whole lot of options available to produce one-time-passwords. Since that time a number of applications have popped up for Andriod, Blackberry, and iOS devices. Chief among those is the Google Authenticator.
Using your Google Authenticator with Blesta is pretty straight forward, but requires a little manipulation to get the key in the correct format. Blesta expects TOTP keys to be in hexadecimal format (base16), but Google Authenticator uses base32. So we have to convert our Google Authenticator keys into hexadecimal before storing in Blesta.
There are a number of online utilities to perform this operation. Here’s one: http://www.darkfader.net/toolbox/convert/.
As an example, “PEHMPSDNLXIOG65U” (in base32) becomes “790ec7c86d5dd0e37bb4″ in hexadecimal. Simply select Time-based One Time Password as the two factor authentication method in Blesta then enter the converted (hexdecimal) value and you’re good to go.
You can download the Google Authenticator from the iOS app store, or Android Marketplace.
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Blesta 3.0: Packages (video)
Packages in v3 are very similar to packages in previous versions, with a lot of additional functionality. The goal in redesigning packages for v3 was to facilitate addons, allow for quantities, provide for better organization of packages, and support specific pricing in multiple currencies (Rather than relying on currency conversion, which Blesta can do too).
A few notable items..
- Limited quantities supported! If you only have 100 of them, when they are sold they’re gone.. no more orders can be placed.
- Package Groups are new, Standard and Addon. Addon groups can be assigned to Standard groups, making their packages available as addons to the packages within them.
- Addon packages are just like normal packages and can be provisioning. An addon for an “extra 10GB disk”, could make an API call to add the disk space, without any staff involvement, assuming the module supports it, of course.
- Prices can be specified in multiple currencies. Set a 1 month term to 10 USD, and a 1 month term to 8 EUR and the client will be invoiced the price in their preferred currency, whatever that is.
- Package emails are no longer combined with the welcome email template that contains account registration details. A package welcome email is sent out separately when the service is created, allowing for more flexibility and control over service creation emails.
- Cancellation fees have been added, which are assessed if a service is canceled early.
The video is below, as usual you can make the video full screen, and be sure to turn on your sound!
Blesta 3.0: Client Themes (video)
We hear it all the time, people love the simplicity of Blesta. Part of the challenge in v3 was to add a lot of new functionality but at the same time maintain and even improve on the simplicity and ease of use of Blesta. The last thing we want is a cluttered interface displaying links to things most people will never use, which is why all the more advanced functionality is hidden under a tiny link called “Settings”. It’s also why non-core items have been delegated as plugins. If it’s a plugin, it can be uninstalled — get rid of those unnecessary links, get back to productivity!
Today’s video is on Client Themes, which can be created and selected under that tiny link, Settings. Selecting one of the themes Blesta ships with, or creating a new theme lets you quickly and easily theme Blesta to match your website without editing a single line of code. Of course, you can still dig down into the markup if you want to for a more complete integration, but it’s no longer a necessity for a unique, non cookie-cutter, client area.
Gradients! Need I say more?
The video is below, as usual you can make the video full screen, and be sure to turn on your sound!