What's new in Vernon Browser?

Learn about the latest features in Vernon Browser 6 and read the release notes.

PDF viewer released

You can embed PDFs on your object records with the PDF viewer. This means that people can read PDFs without leaving your object page.

If you have published a PDF on an object page, it is automatically available as an embedded PDF on the PDFs tab.

You can also allow people to search your PDFs if they have text in them.

  1. Go to Appearance > Object > Collection Fields.

  2. Next to Public PDFs, select Enable.

  3. Click Save.

Topic records supported

You can import Topic records from Vernon CMS into Vernon Browser, and connect them with your other records. Topic records let you create narratives in the Activities module.

Topic pages support Markdown basic syntax. This means you can design the pages with headings, bold, italics and more.

The Browser demonstration site includes two example narratives to show how copy can be combined with a selection of collection records:

Comment enhancements

You can moderate the comments that people add to your collection. That means you can choose to review comments before approving, rejecting or deleting them.

You can also set up automated replies to comments. Browser will email people to tell them that you have received their comment, which is awaiting moderation.

Lastly, you can sort your comments by date.

See Comments.

Upgrade now

Upgrade to version 6 of Vernon Browser

Release notes – Vernon Browser version 6

PDFs

  • Published PDFs are automatically embedded on object pages using a PDF viewer (15 December 2023).

  • Text-based PDFs are searchable (15 December 2023).

Map pins

  • Object records can have map pins showing their location, using Open Street Maps. Latitude and longitude must be recorded in Vernon CMS (31 May 2023).

Comments

  • Comments display with ‘time ago’ detail, for example ‘3 minutes ago’ (13 January 2023).
  • Auto-replies can be sent when a comment is posted (28 May 2021).
  • Comments can be moderated (12 February 2021).
  • Comments can be sorted by recently added date (12 February 2021).

See Comments.

Performance and scalability

  • Object records can include any number of fields (previously the maximum was 100 fields) (14 September 2022).
  • Improved site load times and better handling of larger volumes of records (3 August 2022).

Topic records supported

  • Topic records are now supported. You can import Topic records and connect them with your other records (12 February 2021).

Importing

  • Browser now skips invalid records during an import (those without a Published Collection term). Previously Browser stopped the entire import due to one invalid record (16 April 2021).

Design and navigation

  • Visitors can refine the list of related records that appear on Person/Organisation, Topic, and Venue pages (26 February 2024).

  • A welcome message can be displayed to visitors when they arrive on your Browser website. The message can display once or every time. Useful for cultural information or terms and conditions (19 July 2023).

  • Extended Markdown support for image captions and object fields (7 March 2023).
  • Improved image alt text, which now includes both the page title and image auto tags (24 May 2022).
  • Captions on Photo/Audio-Visual records can be published for Object, Person, Venue and Topic records (16 April 2021).
  • Saved lists can be shared with other users in your organisation (22 October 2021).
  • Topic tiles and Highlight tiles can be put on generic templates, not just the home page template (17 March 2021).
  • Exhibition Venue records are now displayed in a Label format specific to exhibitions. The Lightbox view now has a default 3-column layout (12 February 2021).
  • Detailed panel for related records now available.
  • Search results can be sorted by recently added date across all record types (12 February 2021).

Users and security

  • Email-based login is now supported. Users can login with their email address and password. You can invite a user to set a password by email. Users can also reset their passwords by email (22 October 2021).
  • Multi-factor authentication is now supported via email or the Google Authenticator app (22 October 2021).
  • New ‘Super User’ security group added to manage security settings and users (22 October 2021).
  • Minimum password strength requirements are now supported (22 October 2021).
  • Google ReCaptcha and Google Analytics upgraded to latest versions (12 February 2021).
  • Site login can be mandatory so Browser can be used for password-protected intranet sites (12 February 2021).

See Users and security.

API

  • New authentication options for Browser’s API (support for Basic authentication and the OAuth2 authentication standard) (22 October 2021).
  • Audit trails for Object, Person, Venue and Topic records are now available. The audit trail captures the changes for records when they get added, updated, and deleted (16 April 2021).

Bug fixes

  • Various bug fixes.