Thanks for all the emails and comments you’ve left about the new control panel, released in Beta a few weeks ago.  We’ve used those to help get rid of any bugs and problems. And the good news is: the updated version is  now live!

Here’s what it looks like:

You might want to know what has changed! Y’ere tis:

• CTRL key now works!
• Keyboard shortcuts function normally again
• backspace and @ symbol now work in Google Chrome
• ‘-1′ error (and ‘404′ on Macs) for large file uploads is all fixed
• In Firefox the keyboard nudge, enter, tab keys and cursor will work normally again
• ‘Delete this page’ option has been restored to the ‘Pages’ menu
• Domains module now loads in the edit environment (doesn’t go back to webeden.co.uk)
• Loading has been optimised for quicker download and more feedback
• Sidebar panels now animate to add a bit of fuhzazz!

You can navigated to the new Toolbar in the same way (’View’ -> ‘New Toolbar’), or if you’re already using it you get the updates automatically.

These are the best bits about the new Toolbar (we think)
The main reason to make these changes were to reorganise all the features into a more logical order, and to build a structure that meant it was easier to add new stuff in the future. Previously when we added new features we placed them where we could find space. Now the most important stuff is the easiest to find.

This is what we like:

• Use the full screen browser for editing - you can move edit tools outside the boundary of your site
• Zoom in/out while editing - you make your site bigger/smaller to help you ’see’ it in full glory
• Sticky edit tools - the Toolbar remains at the top and the Editor will remain on screen as you scroll up and down
• Show off-screen objects - if you drag something off your site (outside the boundary), you can choose to hide or display off screen objects while in Edit mode (new under ‘view’)
• Detailed insert menu - more objects can be added in one click, including some new HTML snippets (’Insert’ menu)
• Quick pages menu - includes quicker ways to add pages, copy pages and change page length, plus edit meta data (for search engines) more quickly (see ‘Pages’ menu)
• Links to other services - Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, AdSense can all be viewed without leaving your site (new ‘Services’ menu)
• Copy site/transfer site feature - allows you to create copies of your site as the basis for a new site (not for backup)
• HTML widget - add any HTML snippet to your site using our HTML widget snippet (e.g. Google Gadgets, all Widgetbox widgets, all Amazon widgets and more).

That’s about it. What do you think? Leave us a comment below.

Wow-wee! As previewed last week, the new WebEden control panel and editing tools are now live, in Beta. Its an exciting time for us, and for you too (we hope!). This control panel is the result of months of hard work, and is the biggest update so far.

For those of you who missed the preview, this is what it looks like:

As we said, its the largest overhaul to the edit environment in the last 5 years, and sets up our website building platform for future development too. The long awaited HTML widget is now out of beta, works in all browsers (ooooohh), and opens up libraries of additional content. And you can now copy an entire site too…

New Toolbar (beta)
Some are calling it WebEden SiteMaker5, some call it WebEden+, all we know is we call it the New Toolbar. It’s been launched as an opt-in beta version, which means it’s fully functional, you can choose it, you can use it, but you’re not forced to. We’re looking for feedback - good and bad (constructive) - so that we can polish it off for a final release at a later stage. But it works and in our testing so far makes things far quicker and easier to do.

To get to it, login to your site and go to ‘View’ –> ‘New Toolbar (beta)’. Your site will reload in the new environment but you can revert to the old style toolbars at any time. The advantages of the new Toolbar are:

• Use the full screen browser for editing - you can move edit tools outside the boundary of your site
• Zoom in/out while editing - you make your site bigger/smaller to help ’see’ it in full glory
• Sticky edit tools - the Toolbar remains at the top and the Editor will remain on screen as you scroll up and down
• Show off-screen objects - if you drag something off your site (outside the boundary), you can choose to hide or display off screen objects (new under ‘view’)
• Detailed insert menu - more objects can be added in one click, including some new HTML snippets (’Insert’ menu)
• Quick pages menu - includes quick ways to add pages, copy pages and change page length, plus edit meta data (for search engines) more quickly (see ‘Pages’ menu)
• Links to other services - Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, AdSense can all be viewed without leaving your site (new ‘Services’ menu)

The major drive for this change was to better organise the features available and create the structure so that we can expand services further in the future. WebEden has grown to include so many features over the years, sometimes the most important ones get lost, so this is an opportunity to re-present them for how they are used today. When we started many years ago we built a ‘Page editor’ whereas today WebEden allows the management of your website over its whole lifecycle. From initial build -> monitoring traffic and performance -> developing community -> monetisation -> ongoing updates.

Copy/transfer site
Some new features in the ‘Admin’ section are the copy site and transfer site features. This allows you to create a copy of the design and structure of your site which you can use as the basis of a new site. Please note this isn’t a complete copy like backup, as some data is not copied, e.g. individual posts in comment feeds or forums. But the text, images, design, structure, etc., are all applied to the new site.

The transfer site feature allows you to transfer an existing site (or a new copy) to another user of WebEden.

Both features have been asked for many times, both by customers that want to build more sites themselves and by resellers who find they want to build similar sites for clients in similar industries over and over. These new features will help make that easier to achieve.

The HTML widget
You can’t add HTML to a Flash site, don’t be ridiculous! Or can you ;-) ? Some of you will have been using the Beta version of this widget for some time now, but for others this will be new. The HTML snippet widget allows you to paste in HTML code (or markup for the purists out there) that you might find elsewhere (Amazon affiliates, Youtube videos, Twitter feeds, etc.) into your WebEden website and use it seamlessly with our other features. The changes/improvements for this release are:

• The widget now works in all major browsers - Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and on PC and Mac
• Works with all HTML snippets (probably - we can’t find any yet it doesn’t work with, but I’m sure you will ;-)
• Some regularly used services (Youtube player, Twitter feed, etc.) have some preconfigured widgets (snippets) available to help you get started (use the ‘Setup’ tab to get the HTML code)

So this new feature makes available all Google Gadgets, all Widgetbox widgets, all Amazon widgets and more. Happy hunting!!

But remember, this still only works if you have the Flash 10 player!! Currently FP10 has around 86% penetration according to Adobe but growing by 3-4% per month.

Product selling page templates
There are now some new product selling page templates with suggested layouts for creating easy to use product pages on WebEden. You can do this in the ‘Add page’ option in the ‘pages’ menu.

For those of you waiting, these are not the long awaited e-commerce updates, so apologies about that, but we are still working towards that goal and the interface lays yet further foundations for the e-commerce tools that will require these new technologies to work as well as they can.

If you’re not sure how, you can watch a video tutorial on how to switch to the control panel.

Anyway, so that’s about it. We hope you enjoy it and let us know what you think! Enjoy!

Its been a while since we had an update of our Website Building system. A few months ago we let you know about the social networking tools integrated into WebEden. And lots of you have got to grips with the HTML snippet, to great effect.

But here comes the biggest update of the year. The Sitemaker developer team has been burning the midnight oil to come up with a major overhaul of the entire control panel.

For years now we’ve been adding on bit and bobs, new tools and widgets. We’ve stuck them in places that seemed logical at the time. But it has sometimes meant that the really cool stuff is buried deep inside the control panel.

So we’ve reorganised it to make sure that the best stuff is the easiest stuff to get your hands on. Its a time saving move for all you pro website builders out there, and also it will be much easier for beginners to get to grips with the system.

It’s not going to launch for a few weeks, but take a look at the preview and then us know what you think!

General section

Page section

Admin section

What do you think? Leave us a comment below.

Just a quick note to let you know that the WebEden website maker will have some scheduled downtime.

We will be carrying out database maintenance which will take approximately 1 hour, at 0730 on the 21st, the 24th and the 26th of August 2009

The work is to routine maintenance on the database which should result in improved overall performance of sites. The changes have been split into three different time slots during our periods of low activity in order to reduce the impact on customers.

Adobe have recently put out a bulletin that advises users to check and upgrade the version of Flash Player that they are using. So we’re passing that advice on to you. All customers of WebEden should update their Flash Player version if they are currently running v9.0.159.0 and v10.0.22.87 for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris. Adobe are strongly recommending this upgrade.

To check which version of the Adobe Flash Player that you’re running on your PC, access the ‘About Flash Player page‘, or right-click on any Flash content and then select “About Adobe Flash Player” from the menu. If you use lots of different browsers (such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera etc) on the same computer, make sure you perform the check for each browser you have installed. The page will indicate the ‘Version Information’ in a boxed section and list the version number e.g. “You have version 10,0,22,87 installed”.

If you are currently running Adobe Flash Player 9.0.246.0 or 10.0.32.18 then you don’t need to do anything. That’s the latest version.

However if you are running another version - especially v9.0.159.0 and v10.0.22.87 - then Adobe are recommending that you upgrade to the most recent version of the player. You can do this through the Flash Player Download Centre and take advantage of security updates.

If you want any more information about this, then check out the Adobe Website Bulletin page.

In May, as we never tire of pointing out, we catapulted your WebEden Website Builder into the dizzy world of social networking.

Lots of you have grabbed the new tools and are making really good use of them. You’re setting up membership permissions; inviting people from your social networks to become members of your site; and updating Facebook from your WebEden site.

We’ve had feedback too about how the tools could be improved, so we’ve worked hard to upgrade them.

Here’s what we’ve done:

Setting a redirect page after login

Hopefully a popular one this. The update allows you to your members to a ’success’ page after they have logged in to your site. This is a great opportunity to redirecting them to the ‘members home page’, or another page that you want them to look at. You can set the ‘post login page’ on the Settings tab of the ‘People’ section when editing your site.

Disabling Facebook Connect login

Facebook Connect allows new or existing members of your site to login using their Facebook credentials, so they have no need to create a new user account on your site. This speeds up the joining process, and makes it easier for you to attract new members.

It also ties together with the ability to post out a note to your Facebook wall from the ‘Send a message’ section of ‘People’, which is a great way to invite people to join your site.

This update allows you to disable the Facebook Connect login options for members This update allows you to turn Facebook Connect off!

If its so great, why turn it off? Well it seems that it doesn’t always fit with your plans to grow your websites: some customers (especially business users) had requested this.

Once again, you can change the settings to disable Facebook Connect on the ‘Settings’ tab in the ‘People’ section.

Have a go with the updates, and let us know what you think.

We’ve had a few requests here at WebEden towers for increased storage and bandwidth.

It seems that some of you are adding so many photos, videos and MP3s that our WebEden Max Package just ain’t big enough.

So to cope with this, we’ve added some new ’secret’ packages. Not so secret seeing as we’re telling you all about them. But we probably won’t put them on our pricing page since they’re only going to be right for super-experienced users.

You don’t get any more features with these packages, its just all about their capacity to cope with your content.

These all have increased storage and increased bandwidth.

• SuperMax 1: Disk- 3GB /  B’width - 120GB (4GB/24hr) / Domain vouchers- 3
• SuperMax 2: Disk- 5GB / B’width - 180GB (6GB/24hr) / Domain vouchers- 4
• SuperMax 3: Disk- 10GB / B’width - 240GB (8GB/24hr) / Domain vouchers- 5
• SuperMax 4: Disk- 15GB / B’width - 300GB (10GB/24hr) / Domain vouchers- 6

In order to get access to these new packages just type ’supermax’ into the promotions box on the upgrade panel.

Anyone need more? Leave us a coment below

Yesterday WebEden suffered a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack from unknown parties. We were flooded by an attack on one of our sites with 75% of all incoming traffic from over 2,300 IPs, which caused all traffic to be congested and page load times to be affected.

This DDoS overloaded our firewalls.

This meant that some customer sites became very slow.

We quickly responded and our engineers managed to dynamically block this content. This resolved the issue by around midday on 25th June.