TMM Insider Newsletter December 2008/January 2009 (Vol. I, Issue 9)

Recent News

Using X-Sendfile to Improve CARMA Performance

Back in June, we announced that CARMA now supports the Apache x-sendfile module. Using this module will allow Apache to easily serve content files to your surfers without going through a php script. Using this feature can greatly improve your servers performance with CARMA, especially if you have large amounts of traffic going through CARMA. If you wish to take advantage of this feature, please submit a support ticket in the ticket system.

New TooMuchMedia.com Website

Recently Too Much Media launched its totally resdesigned Web site! Each page now features a login to our ticket system. The new search box will now search all of the TMM-Related sites for what you may be looking for. We've updated the information concerning all of our products and features. We've also re-vamped the internal ticket system so that you can easily view past tickets or invoices. Check out the new site today at http://www.toomuchmedia.com

New FREE NATS Code Wordpress Add-on

The new NATS Code Wordpress Plugin turns Wordpress into an adtool. It lets you automatically insert affiliate NATS codes in your Wordpress posts by replacing [nats] with the referring affiliate's linkcode. You can download or learn more about the plugin at the following TMMWiki article: NATS Code Wordpress Plugin

New PPPCash and Trustcard API

NATS supports the new PPPCash and Trustcard API that enables member rebills. If you want this new feature, please submit an upgrade ticket.

Recent Additions and Bug Fixes

NATS 4.0

nats_list_linkcodes Available for Emails

We've made the NATS template function, nats_list_linkcodes, available on email you send to your affiliates, so you'll be able to easily send them current linkcodes. For details and examples, please see the following article: Nats list linkcodes

Making CCBill Refunds Expire

CCBill doesn't include expiration dates on refund transactions in its poll, so NATS didn't expire the members. Recent changes let NATS expire the members correctly even without an expiration date.

Smarty Functions Now Available on Poll Emails

You can now use Smarty functions on email sent to members and affiliates after a poll.

Member Email Address Decryption

We fixed several places where NATS template data used encrypted member addresses incorrectly.

FHG Thumbnail Mix-Up

When you added a new FHG to NATS, NATS downloaded the thumbnail from the URL you specified and put that thumbnail on the NATS server so affiliates could see it, but instead of making the image URL point to the NATS thumbnail, NATS pointed to the original thumbnail. Our fix makes NATS point to its thumbnail.

Adtools Can Be Sorted Naturally

NATS sorts your adtools using a MySQL string comparison. For example, numbers are sorted in the following order: 1, 10, 2. You can enable the following configuration option to have adtools sorted using a natural string comparison. For example: 1, 2, 10.

  $config['ADTOOLS_NATSORT'] = 1;

Adtools Use Smarty

NATS now interprets Smarty code in your adtools. Any text field in an adtool can contain Smarty.

Letting Users Use Their Username as Their Password

You can enable the following configuration option to let members set their username as their password, a combination NATS forbids by default.

  $config['ALLOW_USER_PASS_MATCH'] = 1;

GXBill Canada 900 Changes

To correctly record Canadian GXB900 transactions, you'll need this update. Please submit a ticket if you're interested.

Fixed Blank Admin Overview

On some versions of NATS4, clicking the Admin Overview link didn't display any information until you chose a date. We've updated the report so that it shows a report for the default date range.

Extended Sales Linkcodes

You can now get linkcodes for extended sales when you use the extended sales add-on module.

Form Field Values Quoted

Forms created by the {rebuild_form} template function now enclose form field values between quotes.

Manually Adding Members Postback

NATS can now send a postback to an external script after you manually add a member. For details, please see the following article: NATS4 Site User Management

Permit Sale Even If Cross Sell Fails

An incorrectly setup outgoing cross sell made NATS fail during both the cross sell and the original sale. Changes to NATS let it make the original sale even if the outgoing cross sell fails.

Extra Checking Prevents Expiration Errors

We've added extra checking to prevent expiration errors when NATS tries to estimate the expiration time.

RevUpCard Payment Output Format Now Part of NATS

NATS now includes the RevUpCard payment output format so you don't need to manually set it up. If you're on an older version of NATS4, you can use the instructions at the following URL to add RevUpCard to NATS: NATS4 RevUpCard

Administrator Reports Display Error

NATS sometimes overloaded a template variable on its administrator reports. We changed our back-end function to use a different template variable to prevent this display error from occurring again.

Transaction Data Available in Member Emails

You can now use transaction data in emails you send to a members or affiliates.

Showing Unencoded Linkcodes for Overriding Admins

NATS wouldn't display unencoded linkcodes to administrators when you override as an affiliate. We fixed this display error so that unencoded linkcodes are always displayed when they are available.

Nesting Limitations

After adtools have been limited, using the adtool limitation form again now combines your old and new limitations together.

Removed Double URL Encoding

Sometimes URLs in forms were URL encoded twice. We fixed this display error.

Displaying the Correct Total Number of Adtools

We fixed a display error that printed the wrong total number of adtools when an affiliate asked to see adtools from all sites.

Truncating Long URLs in Tables

The referring URL report adjusted to display the full URLs, so a 500-character URL made the report unreadable. The report now limits the URL display to 50 characters, but the full URL is kept intact internally.

Site Partner Stats Restricted to Site Partner's Site

We've recently fixed a bug which allowed site partners to view stats for sites they should not have access to.

NetCash Support Added to NATS4

You can now use NetCash as a biller in NATS4. For more information, please see the following article: NATS4 NetCash

NATS4 Supports Cross Sells To and From NATS3

You can now make cross sells from NATS4 to NATS3 and from NATS3 to NATS4.

Searching for Adtools by Group

We've recently corrected an error which prevented searching adtools by group.

Emails Accidentally Sent Without Subjects

There was an error which caused disabled emails to be sent with an error message. This has been fixed in the latest version.

Event Mails Sent Regardless of Member's Mass Mailing Settings

Members can choose to not receive mass mailings from the program owner when they sign-up. Most members choose not to receive the mass mailings, but NATS was also not sending those members event notifications -- for example, the join email. NATS now sends event emails to members regardless of their mass mailing setting.

FHG Thumbnails Can Be Replaced

You can now replace the thumbnail you uploaded for a free hosted gallery.

process_gateway.php Added to NATS4

We've added process gateway to NATS4 so you can receive cross sells from outside NATS. For more information, please see the following article: NATS4 Process Gateway Cross Sales Outside NATS

New Retention Report

We've finished porting the retention report to NATS4.

Extra FHG Displayed

When you try to display the first 20 FHG adtools, the first 21 are displayed. We fixed this minor display error.

NATS4 Now Supports CCBill Web900 Transactions

You can now make transactions through CCBill Web900 in NATS4.

NetBilling Poll Fixed to Update All Sites

We fixed the NetBilling poll so that it gets updated information for all of your sites instead of just one site.

Updates to Epoch Member Expiration

NATS wasn't expiring Epoch members when Epoch sent a void, credit, or chargeback in a poll. We fixed this error.

Members Can Retrieve Forgotten Passwords

Members can now retrieve their forgotten passwords in NATS4. For more information, please see the following article: NATS4 Password Retrieval

Adtools Not Limited by Default

Affiliates will get a paginated list of all adtools by default. To restrict the list to a subset of the available adtools, affiliate must enter a search criteria.

Site Settings Overriding Tour Settings

Between NATS 4.0.34.1 and 4.0.37.1, site default settings overrode tour specific settings. This has been corrected going forward. If you are currently in between the versions mentioned above, please submit a support ticket to be upgraded.

Wrong Banner Shape Reported by NATS

NATS reported the wrong banner shape in some cases. We fixed this.

Improved Administrator Reports

We made numerous small improvements to the NATS4 administrator reports.

Over 100 New Options Added to Configuration Admin

Almost all the NATS configuration options that were only available to advanced users who felt comfortable editing their configurations files are now available in the NATS Configuration Admin. Next to each option is a description of what changing this option can do for you.

Exchange Rate Temporarily Broken

On some versions of NATS4, the exchange rate was always zero. This issue is fixed as of the latest version. If you are experiencing this issue, please submit a support ticket.

sTrack Changes Ampersand in URLs

An ampersand in an strack URL was sometimes replaced with "&". This is fixed.

Enabling Search by Affiliate's First or Last Name

We've removed a bug that prevented searching on an affiliate's first or last name.

Automatically Downloading WTS IP Addresses

NATS will now automatically download a list of WTS IP addresses from WTS so that you don't need to update NATS every time WTS changes their IP addresses.

Payvia Field Conversions Failed When Conversion Not Needed

When you add a new field to a PayVia, NATS tried to convert the field name you gave to a valid internal name, but that didn't work if the name was already valid. We fixed it so that you can enter valid names directly.

nats_encode and nats_list_linkcodes Now Take userid Parameter

You can now generate linkcodes for a specific user using the userid parameter. Please refer to the following wiki article for complete details: Nats list linkcodes

Automatic Cascades Enabled

A bug prevented NATS from processing automatic cascades. We fixed the bug.

Affiliates Overcharged for Credits

NATS deducted the biller fees for a credit twice. NATS now computes the charge correctly.

NATS Sent Erroneous Notifications About Payout Failures

NATS told program owners that payouts failed even when they didn't and it didn't correctly record information about the alleged payout failure into the log. Both of these problems are fixed.

Downloadable Adtools Linked to Wrong Program

Downloadable adtools didn't grab the correct program I.D., so affiliates weren't always credited under the correct program. This is now fixed.

Member Session Information Update

In various places, NATS will now try to pull member information from sources other than the session if the surfer's browser disables cookies.

Payvia Dump Improvements

We've updated the default payvia dumps so that they are more consistent and use the correct fields throughout these dumps.

CSV and XML Dumps for Admin Reports

NATS now provides the ability to dump your admin reports in either a CSV of XML format, allowing you to view your stats outside of NATS.

Weighted Cascades Bug Fix

The was a bug in the signup process that occured at random times when using 2 or more weighted cascades with the same description. This is fixed as of the latest version.

Site Admin Internal Improvements

We've added better validation checks when editing a site in the Sites Admin, making it easier for your to find any potential mistakes if you enter in bad site information.

Switching Adtools Didn't Reset View Count

Switching from one adtool type to another didn't reset the page view count, so going from adtool 20 on one page to another page with only five adtools didn't show the five new adtools. This is fixed as of the latest version.

Creating Adtools with Spaces in Their Names

You can nowcreate adtool types with spaces in the name.

NATS Required Unrequired Netbilling Fields

NATS required several fields that Netbilling doesn't require; we no longer require the following fields: birth date, social security number, driver license number, and state.

CCBill Alternative Form URLs

You can now choose one of the alternative form URL's for CCBill.

CARMA 1.3

Unnecessary Sound Card Finding Code Disabled

When generating videos with mplayer, it could take up to 10 seconds to start generating the video as mplayer looked for a sound card. We added sound card-disabling code to CARMA to speed up video production.

TOUR_ALL_VIDEOS Added to Configuration Admin

You can now set the TOUR_ALL_VIDEOs configuration option from within the configuration admin. For more information, please see the following article: CARMA Config Variables: TOUR ALL VIDEOS

NATS 3.1

Member Login Log Records Member IP Address

An update to the member login log makes NATS correctly record the member's IP address in the member notes when they login.

Verifying Affiliate Account Changes

NATS can now display a list of affiliate account changes and let you prevent affiliates from changing their account details without administrator approval. For details, please see the following article: Verifying Account Changes

Cleanup Admin Speed Improvement

Several small changes to our back-end code can be enabled with the following configuration variable to speed up the cleanup admin.

  $config['CLEANUP_ADMIN_EXEC'] = 1;

Using WebCams's Amount Field

NATS usually gets the sale amount from the WebCams "Commission" variable, but a configuration variable in your NATS configuration file lets NATS get the sale amount from the WebCams "Amount" variable. For details, please see the following article: WebCams

Third Parties List Sorted Alphabetically

We sorted the third parties list in the Third Parties Admin alphabetically so you can quickly find specific third parties.

$0 Transactions Recorded

On version 3.1.54.1, NATS recorded legitimate CCBill 900 transactions as $0 transactions. This is fixed in the most recent version of NATS.

Conversion Ratios Added to Tour Report

We added conversion rations for the raw and unique clicks to the tour report.

Email Sent Multiple Times On Slowly Replicated Databases

Slowly replicated databases couldn't tell NATS when an email was sent, so NATS sometimes sent the email several times. NATS now checks the master database to see if the email was sent, resolving the problem.

Duplicate Billers Sometimes Ignored

NATS supports multiple instances of the same biller, but sometimes it only used the account information for the first biller. This is fixed.

Retention Report Memory Usage Reduced

We made a few changes to the retention report to reduct the amount of memory it uses when displayed.

DHD EU Debit Support

NATS now supports EU Debit transactions with DHD Media.

On the Hotplate

NATS 4.0

Disabling Adtool Rules No Longer Resets Times

We're removing the code that reset adtool rule times when you disable an adtool. You will be able to disable and re-enable time-based rules without changing any settings.

NetBilling Instant Upgrades

NATS4 will soon support NetBilling instant upgrades.

Version 3 - Style Stats Page

We are working on adding a "basic" statistics template for your affiliates in NATS 4.0 that will have the a similar look/feel/behavior of the NATS 3.1 stats page.

NATS 3.1

Dialers Can Send Expiration Date

Instead of expiring dialer members immediately upon notice from the dialer that their session has ended, NATS will begin accepting optional expiration date.

Affiliate Sessions Limited to One IP Address Per Login

To prevent unauthorized entry, NATS will soon limit affiliate sessions to one IP address per session. This lets affiliates paste a URL without any chance of remote session hijacking.

CARMA 1.3

Restricting Access to CARMA Stats

The next version of CARMA will allow you to configure whether a sub-admin can view your CARMA Stats.

TMM Insider Tip: Upgrade Plus

You can offer members an incentive to upgrade from a trial account to a full account before their trial period ends. Many billers support Upgrade Plus natively, but NATS includes a work-around for billers that don't support it. You can learn all about the NATS Upgrade Plus in its TMMWiki article: Upgrade Plus

Contact Us

If you're interested in any of the new features described in this newsletter, please submit a support ticket at the following URL with a brief description of the feature and we'll upgrade your system shortly.

  http://clients.toomuchmedia.com/

Is there something that you want to see in this newsletter? Do you have an idea for the TMM Insider Tip? If so, please contact the editor at kevin.wetter@toomuchmedia.com

Thought of a new feature that would benefit all of our clients? If so, then please submit a support ticket at http://clients.toomuchmedia.com