Everything went well and the server was back online in 15 minutes. We will continue to monitor for any signs that there are still issues with the server but it reports 100% healthy right now.
FlowerManager Server Online and Healthy
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FlowerManager Server Memory Being Replaced – Going Offline Temporarily
The server is going offline now to have the memory replaced and should be back in about 15 minutes. I’ll make a post when it’s back online.
FlowerManager Server Status 11/29/2016
We apologize for the issues that some of you have experienced in the last 24 hours. Please know that we are working diligently to stabilize your service, and that for 99% of the day you are unaffected by this issue. Also please know that we proactively monitor the entire network and know the second there is an issue. So while you are welcome to contact us, you don’t need to contact us, because we’re already on it, working as quickly as we can to address whatever issues arise. We have enterprise level support contracts with the datacenter and our hardware vendors so everything that can be done, is being done.
What is Happening
We began having a random memory issue on one of our FlowerManager servers yesterday morning that caused a hung reboot, with another small hiccup in the late afternoon for a few minutes. Last night between 2am and 5am est Dell worked with us on the server and thought they had a 95% chance that they had fixed the issue without changing hardware.
What We’re Doing
This morning we had another anomaly, which we were proactively monitoring, so Dell is sending an engineer to replace a memory module right now. To replace the memory we will have to bring the server down for about 15 to 30 minutes. We could wait until 2 am tonight again, but we the server restarting later this afternoon, so we have decided to go ahead and have the replacement made this afternoon to eliminate any additional risk of downtime. Once the memory is replaced we’ll be back up and running smoothly. Our apologies for the inconvenience.
When Will It Be Fixed?
This repair will take place roughly between 2 pm and 3 pm EST today. I’ll keep you updated via email as we prepare to make the update and again when we come back online.
Again, I apologize for the inconvenience. With all the best measures in place and a lot of redundancy, occasionally there are still hardware problems that can’t be predicted. Thank goodness this has not done more than cause a few reboots.
Item Local Delivery Amount – Update
The Items have been updated to allow you to specify a Local Delivery amount of $0.00. This would allow you to essentially exclude the Item from your standard Local Delivery fee. Any other delivery fees, such as an Upcharge Date or Upcharge Zipcode will still apply, it just allows you to set the base Local Delivery Charge to $0.00 for that item.
Delivery Matrix – Updates Dec 2013
The purpose of this update was to help clarify to customers that they do not need to pay for a specific time unless they want a specific time. Some customers were confused by the choices with a dollar amount and were left still wondering when theirs would deliver and if they had to choose one of these options. Now you can enter $0 and it will show when they can expect delivery at no charge.
We’ve added the ability for you to allow for delivery at the specified time for no charge, or even offer a discount. If you enter 0 for the amount then it will offer them delivery at that time “for no additional charge” if you enter a negative amount (say -10) then it will offer delivery for that time “and save $10”. If you want that time to be unavailable for delivery then you leave the field blank.
Florist Product Search (Product Recipe)
We’ve add a new Florist Product Search feature to the website located at /floristProductSearch.cfm (ie. http://www.beneva.com/floristProductSearch.cfm). This search can be given to florists that you wire orders to so that they can look up your products and get detailed information that may not be available on the front-end of your site. It is not intended for customers. You can make a URL Alias if you would like to make it easier to find.(ie. http://www.beneva.com/FloristSearch)
Minimalist Theme Color Variations
A month ago, we launched our newest Flower Manager theme, the Minimalist Theme. Its a more modern take on the traditional Flower Manager themes and today we are adding a wide variety of colors to choose from that will fit your unique style and needs. These add a level of flexibility and versatility to the Minimalist Theme unlike anything we’ve provided before. Below are examples of the nine new color variations now available in the Minimalist Theme.
Pink Theme
The Pink Theme is perfect for celebrating Valentine’s Day and October to show your support for National Breast Cancer Awareness month. Also great for spring.
New FlowerManager Features and Minimalist Theme – Part I
We’d like to introduce a few new layout features along with a new “minimalist” theme. The new theme is really more than that… it’s a new design that has it’s own themes. So now you’ll have the traditional design with it’s themes, and the new modern/flat design with it’s theme’s.
We’re launching with a single theme but we’re releasing several new features to give you significant options in how your site looks and what features it has enabled, even using the traditional themes. Plus we’ve organized the “Wide Store Settings” to be much easier to use.
- Minimalist Theme
- New Wide Settings
- New Full-Width Feature Areas
- Fat Footer Toggle
- Extra Ornamentation
You can also turn off Home Page Specials and/or Homepage Products depending on the layout you would like to use. I’ve provided some examples below of many of the different payouts you can use.
SEO with Flowermanager and Wedding or Events Sites
There has been a lot of discussion recently in regards to the best practices of using Wedding or Event sites in conjunction with FlowerManager.
First off if you use the FlowerManager Wedding / Event site it is either hosted under your site at domain.com/events or under a separate domain of your choosing. There are pros and cons to consider having it set either way. We will specifically be focusing on SEO relevance and the blog portion in this post.
There are a few different scenarios we need to cover, the first being what we recommend the most for peak SEO performance as well as branding and user experience.
The Scenarios:
Delivery Matrix
The Delivery Matrix is intended to give you the opportunity to create multiple levels of Rush Delivery. It is based on the Address Type (residential, apt, business, etc.) the ZIPCODE and the time the customer is placing the order. You can create more than one Delivery Matrix.