Squiz NZ Newsletter June 2009
24x7 Global SLA
From July, Squiz is offering a worldwide Service Level Agreement (SLA) to provide a staffed Help Desk 24x7.
The introduction of this service marks the adoption of MySource Matrix by some of the top tier of global businesses and organizations.
It makes Squiz one of only three CMS vendors in the world offering a true 24x7 Global SLA, and is a first for open source CMS vendors.
The 24x7 Global SLA is available to New Zealand clients, with local support from the Squiz NZ Help Desk during normal NZ business hours.
MySource Matrix International User Conference 2009

This year's International User Conference will be held in Hobart over two days.
The programme is filling up rapidly, but there is still space if you'd like to propose a paper or case study.
The User Conference is definitely worth attending: it's great for learning, fresh ideas and contacts, and it would be great to see a strong Kiwi presence.
When: Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 October (welcome drinks evening of Sunday 25th).
Where: Hobart Function and Conference Centre, Tasmania.
NZ contact: Kathy Olsen, phone (04) 805 0098.
New MySource Matrix Sites

Congratulations to Auckland University of Technology (AUT), The Correspondence School, Selwyn District Council and The New Zealand Law Society Family Law Section, on launching new sites running on MySource Matrix.
- Auckland University of Technology (AUT): http://www.aut.ac.nz/
- The Correspondence School: http://www.correspondence.school.nz/
- Selwyn District Council: http://www.selwyn.govt.nz/home
- NZLS Family Law: http://www.familylaw.org.nz/
And here's a few of the new MySource Matrix sites developed by Squiz in Australia.
- Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Sydney.
- Edith Cowan University, Western Australia.
- Department of Immigration & Citizenship.
- Live In Victoria, promoting Melbourne and the State of Victoria to skilled and business migrants.
- Discover Tasmania, the official tourism website for Tasmania.
- Power and Water Corporation, the sole provider of electricity and water supply throughout the Northern Territory.
- Cbus -Construction & Building Industry Super - is the industry superannuation fund for the construction, building, infrastructure and allied industries.
- Apprenticeships at Energy Australia
New MySource Matrix features
Following are some the new features added recently to MySource Matrix.
SOAP Server
A SOAP Server has been added to the Web Services package to enable core-level Matrix functions to be executed and queried by clients over the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). The SOAP Server includes APIs each of which performs a distinct set of Matrix functionality. These include Asset Service, Designs and Lookups Service, File Service, Link Service, Metadata Service, Permissions and Roles Service and Search Service.
Customisable Workflow Emails
A new screen, "Custom Messages", has been added to the Workflow Step asset for entering a custom Workflow message body for a Workflow Step. This enables the invitation, approval, rejection, stale workflow and escalation workflow messages to be customised.
PayPal Payment Gateway
Payments via PayPal are now supported in the MySource Matrix E-Commerce package through the "Buy Now" one-click infrastructure.
Built-in Virus Checking of Files
MySource Matrix can now virus check all files uploaded by editors in the editing interfaces and also files uploaded via custom forms by public users.
The new File Question rule "Uploaded File Virus Check" will scan the uploaded file via the ClamAV third-party utility as configured in "External Tools Configuration". This rule will prevent the file from being uploaded to the form should a virus be detected by the scanner.
A reminder: MySource Matrix development is driven by the user community - that means you!
To make a feature request, simply contact us, for an estimate of development time and cost. We'll also be happy to contact other users who may be prepared to share the development cost with you.
MySource Matrix training
Upcoming Courses - July
MATR 201 MySource Matrix System Administrator Concepts July 13 – 14
MATR 101 MySource Matrix Fundamentals July 20
MATR 102 MySource Matrix Advanced WYSIWYG July 21 (half day)
Upcoming training courses – August
MATR 210 MySource Matrix Packages – CMS August 10 – 11
MATR 212 MySource Matrix Packages – Search August 12 (half day).
View Training Courses / Training Schedule / Training Registration Form
Enquiries, email training@squiz.co.nz, or contact: Fran Denton, phone (04) 801 0098
Web professional training certifications
Squiz trainers in New Zealand, Australia and the UK have worked together to revamp our training certifications for successful completion of Squiz training courses with included theory and practical assessments. The revised certifications cover the following roles:
- MySource Matrix Content Editor
- MySource Matrix Content Author
- MySource Matrix Content Administrator
- MySource Matrix CMS Administrator
- MySource Matrix System Administrator
- MySource Matrix Trainer
Accessibility training dates
Version 2.0 of the New Zealand Government Web Standards 2.0 was released in March, adopting the W3C's WCAG2.0 standards.Accessibility specialist Bruce Aylward of W 3 A will run a series of training courses at Squiz’s training lab in Wellington. Each course is a practical, hands-on guide to complying with one of the three WCAG 2.0 priority levels.
Course dates
- 6 August – WCAG v2.0 Level A
- 13 August – WCAG v2.0 Level AA
- 20 August – WCAG v2.0 Level AAA
- 3 September – WCAG v2.0 Level A
- 10 September – WCAG v2.0 Level AA
- 17 September – WCAG v2.0 Level AAA
‘Squiz’ on Wikipedia
It's too wordy for an elevator pitch, but our Wikipedia entry is a great summary of our business nonetheless:
“The founders predicted (correctly) that web content management systems would become ubiquitous for the running of websites of any significant size and that over time the software would become a commodity, and services for the implementation and support of CMS systems would be increasingly in demand. Correspondingly, the software was built to meet large scale enterprise and government requirements, and Squiz's supported open source business model means the company earns revenue through services rather than software license fees.
Squiz has grown rapidly and has continued to reinvest its profits in research and development and thus drive the product development.”
CMS Survey Report 2009

User feedback about Supported Open Source CMS solutions points to increased adoption.
That's according to a recently published Econsultancy survey (the UK’s leading source of independent insight on digital marketing and e-commerce).
Overall, respondents’ indicated their companies were pretty satisfied with their current CMS – especially Supported Open Source - with a 93% satisfaction rating (for excellent, good and OK combined).
Least happy were the companies using Proprietary solutions who reported only a 77% satisfaction rating (for excellent, good and OK combined). T
Also notable was an overwhelming preference for companies to obtain support, training and implementation services from the CMS vendor (like Squiz) rather than a 3rd party (like a reseller).
June tips
Custom Forms
Single or Multi Page Forms in MySource Matrix can now export form submissions as an XML structure and upload CSV files to populate a select field.Form enhancements also include:
- Hide/show conditional field sets and questions (based on response to an earlier question on same page or previous page)
- Collapsible help notes
- Maximum length note
- Focused form items (to draw attention to the area around each form element as the user makes their way throughout the form)
- Sexy form validation
Accessible CAPTCHA
A CAPTCHA field is a method of verifying that a human, rather than a spam automated system, is using a form or logging in to a system.With the huge growth in spam and hacking, these CAPTCHA fields are becoming very common. Most rely on the user entering a randomly generated 4 digit code that is shown on the form page as an image. Obviously this blocks users with visual impairments: further, the 'audio' alternative is frequently too scrambled for users to discern.
Squiz has developed an accessible CAPTCHA option for MySource Matrix websites. Implementation notes follow.
- Select whether or not the CAPTCHA field will have an accessible CAPTCHA option.
- If this option is set to Yes, users will have the choice to use accessible validation. This involves the user inputting their email address and then clicking a validation link, which will be sent to their email account.
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