RecChat: Retiring the Classic WebTrac UI - The Final Countdown - 09/21/2023
Table of Contents
Episode Summary
The Classic Web UI for WebTrac will be retired in our November 3.1.10.27.00 release. The NextGen Web UI has been available since August 2020, has a lot to offer, is 100% free to move to, and easy to do yourself. Over 75% of customers have already made the switch, are you ready?
Recording
Transcript
Bret Alarcon 0:08
Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of RecChat. I'm your host Bret Alarcon. So we're just two months away from retirement retiring the classic Web UI for WebTrac. And the Next Gen Web UI has been available since August 2020. has a lot to offer. And it's 100%. Free to move to. And it's also easy to do yourself. So for today, I have Brian Hatch and Dave Ball with me. And they're going to be talking about what it takes to make the switch before you start. If you have any questions, ask them in their little q&a section. That's a little q&a Button down at the bottom. That's a question and we'll try and get an answer for you. Also, there's that little chat Button down there at the bottom as well, you can just make a comment if you'd like during the presentation. So with that, I'll hand it over to you, Dave, how you doing today?
Dave Ball 0:53
You can hear me? I'm just great. Thanks. Yeah, so we are retiring the classic Web UI as of the November release. And of course, if anyone doesn't know, I'm assuming everyone knows, but UI is the user interface on WebTrac. That's what it looks and how it feels to a customer using your your website. So there's two different flavors of that there is the classic version, which was introduced in 2014. And then our Next Gen version of that, which was now Bret said, 2020, I have 2018. Either way, it's getting old at this point. So it's been out there for quite a while. And it is time to retire the classic Web UI. And a little bit of history here on background information on that 75% of our customers have already moved over to the Next Gen UI. It's very stable. And it's been out for quite a while. And that is the version of the UI that we are making all of our changes on any any enhancement requests, any anything we need to do to make WebTrac better. We're focusing on that UI. And so. And, yeah, so the sorry. So the benefits of the Next Gen UI is that it's mobile responsive. So you know, as people go on different sized laptops, and mobile devices, the website itself, changes in size. very responsibly, and it looks right. You didn't get that necessarily with the classic Web UI. Yeah, and we've released quite a few features on the Next Gen UI that are not available. On the classic. For example, the facility Permit availability calendar, that's one of them. There's the enhanced social media share links and the and the mobile responsive splash pages, templates that we have. And there's also in the November release, which is when classic UI will be retired, there's going to be a pretty, pretty great enhancement request enhancement coming to Next Gen UI, which is family member login currently on WebTrac. Only a household, each household can have one web user name, and login for that household and do all the business under that household. In November, in the November release, when we retire classic. Each person in that household will be able to have their own web web Username, and they'll be able to be logged in at the same time. And it's up to the household how that works. But they could still just have one, but they could make a web Username for each person. So that's coming. And there will be more to come on that in a future RecChat Pretty soon actually. Now, what does this mean for you? If you're still on the classic UI, If you're hosted? In November, you will be automatically converted to the Next Gen UI. And if you haven't done anything at all to facilitate that move, you're going to end up with some generic branding. It's very easy to switch it over. But that's is what's going to happen. So you will be auto converted and you will just be using The new UI there have been no choice. If you are on premise, you don't use our hosted services. You could, you could wait and not apply the 27 release. You could wait as pretty much as long as you want, I suppose. The when you do, go to the 27 release, the same thing will happen that happens to the hosting customers in November, you'll get auto converted over. But the good news is, we are here to help with that process. And that's what Brian is here to discuss. And I'm gonna hand it over to him.
Brian Hatch 5:44
Thanks for the intro. Dave.
Bret Alarcon 5:45
Before you start, Brian, yeah, quick question. What date November
Dave Ball 5:51
roughly, it's usually like hosted is usually around the second week, I would guess, the Tuesday the second Tuesday, I'd have to look exactly. It's roughly then it was roughly over the 10th. But before the 15th, that was what I would guess.
Bret Alarcon 6:08
Sounds good.
Dave Ball 6:11
So exact.
Brian Hatch 6:13
So I guess I just doing some checking, it looks like this is our fourth RecChat on this specific topic. So this is gonna be some sort of record. Bret, I don't know if we keep track of those types of things. But I guess over the course of three plus years, like you said, Dave, a full pandemic later. And we are finally retiring this thing. So that's the nice milestone, one of the things I'd like to do is just go over a little bit more details about the conversion process. I don't know if everybody's seen the conversion guide, or has heard information from different sources. So I figured we'd just kind of go over it in a little bit more detail. There is a conversion guide that is available on out on our Help Help juice website. So if you go there, you can actually search for WebTrac conversion, which is going to be something we provide at the end of this RecChat today. So one way or the other, we'll be able to get that guide to you. But it's a step by step guide with video resources in it. So you can watch us do the conversion. And you can kind of follow along and do it on your own. If you're comfortable. So just want to make sure we everybody knew that was available. And if we don't have it to you, we can make sure you have it obviously, very shortly. So you can start reviewing that. The conversion process what that guide goes through, it's kind of four different steps as the way I kind of break it down. We set up a separate URL or separate WebTrac parameter and record in your live database. And that gives you the ability to basically test drive the new UI and all the changes that come with it before you make it available for your patrons. So you can double check your branding, your logo, your updated splash page, all the things involved with this, again, you get to finalize it before you actually make it available for your patrons. So that's kind of a key thing that we always like to make sure is clear for customers. Within the changes involved, the so one of them is the menu, we went from having one menu record in the old UI to having now two separate menu records in the new UI. So one is your My account. And one is your kind of standard menu. So we'd like to review those components and just make sure they're set the way you want them after the new UI is activated. And then the search page is kind of the other big piece there. Every module that you have displaying on WebTrac has its own search page with its own search criteria. And we want to make sure that the criteria that is displaying when the new UI is activated, is the ones that make sense for you and for your items.
Brian Hatch 8:37
So we usually go through each individual page and just double check that things are set the way you want them to be. And then the final piece is a splash page. And most people will take the opportunity to switch to an image based splash page, maybe a little bit more of a modern look. And it gives it you know, a sharp looking page that you can display as your landing page. And then obviously, some people have multiple pages that they actually walk people through during the search process. So that's something that we'd really recommend, we take a look at and get converted over. If, you know going back to what Dave said is, if we don't do anything, it will auto convert. And that's one of the things I guess we had some concerns with is the older style search pages, the way they convert, sometimes it's going to leave some things that maybe don't display quite right or overlapping, and just something we'd like to avoid. So that's why we really want to get ahead of it. We don't want you to find that out after the fact if we can kind of take a look at those get your converted over. It just avoids that whole scenario and you'll have the better looking site in the end kind of goes along with it. If you're not comfortable with these steps, which I think a lot of people might fall into. There's four listed here, but ultimately, there's a lot of little individual steps in between. And the splash page one in particular there anytime somebody sees HTML that can sometimes be intimidating. So if you're not comfortable with it, we're here to help many customers and maybe most customers have elected to include us in the process, whether that's from start to finish, or maybe just jumping in and helping out wherever it makes sense, that is a chargeable service. But the good news is, it's really a minimal amount of time, I think, on average, might be maybe two hours or less, depending on again, what part of it we're helping out with. But we can kind of fast track that usually over the course of maybe two sessions or so we can kind of review things with you, you can gather the different things that you'll need for you know, logos, colors and, and that other collateral. And then we kind of plug it in, we kind of go through that review of the site. So that's, that's a rough idea of what it might take if you need our assistance.
Brian Hatch 10:41
And we usually try to take the time to review the site as a whole as well. So not only to convert you to the new UI, but maybe take a step back and look and see, okay, are you using the right criteria? How are your search results and how you're building your items in a way that looks the best and make sure you're getting the most out of WebTrac is always something we would want to try to do as a part of that. Especially if it's been some time since you know, somebody's actually done an audit with you. So that would be one thing we always recommend. Hopefully, the timing on this is works out? Well, I don't know if most follow registrations are kind of complete or toward the towards the tail end, we have, you know, hopefully some time before the winter registration period kicks up. So if we could do it now, you know, in the next two months that it will kind of set you up for maybe a launch for that registration period was, was our thinking on this. A real quick note for the impact of patron. So I don't know if if you haven't seen the new UI, we can, will obviously include some links to some sites for you. But it's really is kind of a minimal impact. Other than obviously, a kind of a facelift for the site as a whole, and all be it a much more sharper, modern looking site, the steps are essentially going to be the same. So it's not like a patron wouldn't be able to use this site, if they could use it before they're going to use it. Now, that's one concern that we've heard a lot of folks have, but I think it is kind of a non issue.
Brian Hatch 12:03
And a lot of customers have in whatever the over the past few years kind of lined up marketing campaigns a little bit to kind of line up and announce that the changes coming, maybe give a few details and, and some plugs for all the things they can do on WebTrac. And they kind of tie the whole change in with it with a marketing campaign. That's been pretty common as well. So that's a little bit of an overview. Again, not in much detail. But that's kind of on purpose. The next steps just to kind of throw it out there. If anybody's on this wondering, well, what's next. It really depends on where you fall as far as handling it on your own, or if you need assistance. The first thing I would say for everybody is if you want to review that conversion guide, and I think you'll immediately kind of have a feeling one way or the other. I think that some folks will be like, oh, yeah, I've got this no big deal. And other folks might be complete opposite and say, No way I need help. So let us know where you fall. And again, we're here to assist in any way we can. We did send out an email on Monday, just all customers that we had flagged on the old UI, that were kind of primary contacts on our end. So you might have already received an email. Feel free with some details, feel free to respond to that. If you have any questions. There was actually a link in there. If you want to grab a time just to kind of connect up, discuss any questions you have or clarification you need on the process, that Type of thing. If you didn't get the email, I'd threw mine up here on the Screen just so you could reach out and feel free to shoot me a message, I can get you that information. And again, we can figure out kind of a path forward for whatever the next steps are for you. I think that was the majority of what I was planning on sharing today. Bret, I don't know I haven't been watching the queue.
Bret Alarcon 13:49
Yes. Well, thank you, Dave, and Brian, for that information. And we do have a couple of questions. First question is, how do we know if we're on the new UI or still on the old UI? Is there an easy way to tell?
Brian Hatch 14:01
Good question, and maybe I'll pull up an example site here. So I just grabbed one of our customers here at four we jumped in. So this is an example of the new UI. So for any customer, if you're wondering, the Menus, kind of the menu in the logo is kind of a tell for me when I'm looking at a site. If you have this layout at the top, you're on the new UI. If you have something else, you're on the old UI, I guess is the easy way to clarify that. So this is the standard menu that you'd see. And obviously it can be customized different ways. But it being at the top and having that rough layout is is the new UI.
Bret Alarcon 14:38
Thank you. Next question. If we have a custom CSS, is there a default template that we can point the new UI parameter to or another CSS file that we can play with a manipulate without affecting the existing UI?
Brian Hatch 14:54
I'm rereading that right now Bret because I
Bret Alarcon 14:57
Jut has some good questions here. Always go
Brian Hatch 15:01
Okay I mean, we have the ability to point to different CSS CSS is, but I'm wondering if we're trying to keep the original custom layout, if that's Juts goal here. My thought is you will have to change to this layout, we've had a handful of customers that have had truly custom built sites in the past that we've had to convert over. And they did have to kind of conform within this layout. And that has been a pretty big change for those people that truly were using a custom one. In the past, I would say, Jut we should connect up and and take a look at your site individually? Probably, and talk about that.
Bret Alarcon 15:50
Right now, the question came in, if I'm premise, what will happen with the November release? If we haven't turned on the new UI yet?
Brian Hatch 15:59
Well, I guess it depends if you're on premise when you apply the new UI, right? Because you have that flexibility, we will release it in November and you have the choice of applying it in November when it's released or in December or, or January, whenever that makes sense on your end. But the idea is we would you take that time that you need and and do the steps that we're highlighting here. Before you do that update, right just so you can kind of get that configured and set up and then apply the update as to maybe the final step.
Bret Alarcon 16:30
Jut also has this to add, we would like to change to the layout. But when I use the new I use new UI, I think parameter it is trying to push our customer or custom CSS and is not looking right. So
Brian Hatch 16:46
okay. I'll reach out to Jut, I think I know what that might be. I'll reach out to you. And we can, we can get that sorted out.
Bret Alarcon 16:57
And with that, it doesn't look like we have any more questions. I guess we can give it another minute or so to see if anybody has any questions or any other information they'd like to share. Any closing thoughts either Dave or Brien
Brian Hatch 17:12
I'm excited to not have another RecChat on this topic. Other than that, I appreciate it by jumping on and connecting up with us today.
Bret Alarcon 17:20
There'll be a fifth one. So you instead install the 27th version. And now you're up late looks crazy. Alright, actually a few more questions came in. So theoretically, theoretically, we could delay updating and leave the old UI up.
Brian Hatch 17:36
Yes, if you're on premise, you have that flexibility. I mean, we we recommend you stay up to date. But if you need to, or you know, that's the flexibility, I guess you'd have your on premise.
Bret Alarcon 17:46
But alright. And then Sandy said I might have misunderstood is the one on the Screen, the new or the old.
Brian Hatch 17:54
This is the new. This is one of our this is a splash page for one of our layouts, I'll actually browse to another page here just to get off the splash page. But you'll notice the menu at the top. I'll go to our login page as an example. But the menu at the top is kind of a tell. So this is our new UI with a logo and the menu configuration here. And again, we have to customize customizable options within that. But just being right at the top, there's kind of a tell for me.
Bret Alarcon 18:25
All right. Well, thank you, Dave, and Brian, and thank you everyone else for joining in and discussing what it will take to update. And Sandy says got it. I'm old. Thanks. Oh, I'm on old. Oh, my gosh, sorry.
Brian Hatch 18:44
That's how you end RecChat right there.
Bret Alarcon 18:45
Yeah with that big blunder. Oh, there's another question is the local logo located on the main splash page in the HTML code?
Brian Hatch 18:56
It's not by default, unless we were to do something in the splash page to to display it there. The logo is meant to be in the in the header of the page.
Bret Alarcon 19:07
All right. Well, again, thank you, everyone. Again, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Brian on that. Hopefully this is the last RecChat on this subject. And yeah, we'll take it from there.
Brian Hatch 19:20
Thanks guys.
Bret Alarcon 19:21
All right. Thanks, everyone.