Below is the Hope Channel Website Network Blog. Here you will find the latest information on functionality, which has been implemented into the Hope Channel Website network platform. Directly below this note is a list of the developed/released functionality, from most recent to oldest. The blog posts follow the release list, and provide details. Please check back regularly to keep abreast of the latest updates.

1. Banner
2. Adding videos to shows or episodes
3. Telegram Social Media Icon
4. Google Tag Manager
5. Brightcove Social
6. Season numbers in RSS feeds
7. Podcast categories and subcategories
8. New social media box for WhatsApp
9. Backend module for editing shows and episodes
10. Hope Channel App Smart Banners
11. New feature: Enable or disable downloads in episodes
12. Implement the Facebook Pixel Code on your website
13. New media format 'AAC Audio' added
14. Link your Instagram page to your website
15. New website: Esperanza TV
16. New website: HC Indonesia
17. New website: HC North America
18. Introducing carousels - Grouping episodes and shows for the apps
19. Defining custom show images and colors for the apps
20. Hope Channel France media library added to the apps
21. Two livestreams added to the Hope Channel apps
22. New website: HC France
23. New website: HC Tanzania
24. New website: HC Kenya
25. New website: HC South East Asia
26. Big update of the Hope Channel app
27. New website: HC Philippines
28. New website: HC Norway
29. Media Library plugin update
30. New website: HC India
31. Updated specifications for website image sizes
32. Support for single episodes
33. New website: HC United Kingdom
34. New language filter for episode plugins
35. New website: HC Deaf
36. New website: HC MENA
37. Episode rating
38. YouTube videos available as Episode media links
39. VideoJS player has been updated
40. Use of original width images
41. New configuration options for media library
42. Embedding videos to other websites
43. New categories added
44. Error handling pages
45. New website: HC Italy
46. New website: HC Denmark
47. Anchor show manager launched
48. Livestream banner plugin added

14.07.2020

There is a banner which can be used by Hope Channel Partners for conveying information to visitors of the website. It should work on any device. The banner will appear at the top of the page when the visitor comes to the website. There is a little bit of setup for the banner to work, after this editors should be able to activate/deactivate and update the banner as they need to. For details please look under the training notes section of the website.

15.01.2020

You can now attach videos to shows or episodes. With this feature, you can upload a trailer to a show, or create segments of episodes that will be displayed individually.

Additionally, there is also a new video-list plugin where all videos of a show can be displayed.

The videos can also be categorized. The categories can be defined individually for each show.

14.02.2020

If you are looking to publish your Telegram messaging service on the homepage, there is now the option to include the Telegram icon. Please let us know if this is something you would like to have.

Currently there is no icon for the footer link available.

10.09.2019

If you are using Google Tag Manager functionality on the website, you can send us your GTM ID and we can implement the code into the website matched to your ID.

Overview of Google Tag Manager

03.09.2019 9:52

A new feature in Brightcove allows you to publish videos to YouTube which you have uploaded to the Brightcove platform. See more at the Brightcove support page:

https://support.brightcove.com/publishing-videos-social-media-platforms#youtube

27.08.2019 11:32

A new feature allows you to group episodes into seasons for your RSS feeds / podcasts.

To do this, set the appropriate flag in the show meta data:
 

NOTE: This will only work if season numbers are enabled on your website and if you have defined season numbers.

27.08.2019 11:26

Until now, all shows used a common category for the RSS feeds. Usually it was the category "Religion & Spirituality".

We added the possibility to set a category on show basis. We also add support for subcategories:

To get the list of possible categories or subcategories, hover your mouse over the "Categories" or "Subcategories" title. Alternatively, check the official list of Apple Podcasts categories.

Note that if you don't set a category and/or subcategory, the category that was set when installing the website will be used instead.

27.08.2019 11:10

From now on, you can add WhatsApp to your homepage template.

A link to WhatsApp will also be shown in the footer:

07.05.2019 18:46

A TYPO3 backend module was created in order to facilitate working with shows and episodes. The backend module helps you finding shows and episodes easily by alphabeth, categories, import ids or by searching for the title.

Shows:

 Episodes:

09.04.2019 09:10

To further promote the Hope Channel App, Smart Banner functionality has been implemented. If you would like to integrate the Smart Banner functionality into your website, please send us a request to implement this into your website. The banner will only appear when someone using a device running iOS (iPhone or iPad) visits your website, or when someone using an Android device running the Chrome browser comes to your website. When they land on your website, the banner will appear and allow them to download the Hope Channel App onto their device. The banner is a thin banner which will appear at the top (iOS) or bottom (Android) of the website and is unobtrusive for the viewer experience.

04.04.2019 12:06

We added a new feature allowing you to disable the download of episode media files.
 

Disable the download of episodes for an entire show:

In this case, the download of all episodes of the show will be disabled or enabled.
 

Disable the download of a single episode

In this case, the download of the selected episode will be disabled or enabled.

 
NOTE: The downloadable flag for episodes will only be displayed if the show allows downloads and/or if the episode has media links.

26.03.2019 10:00

If you would like to integrate the Facebook Pixel functionality into your website, please send us the Facebook Pixel ID for your account along with the request to implement this on your website. Currently only the Base code for the Facebook pixel has been made available.

https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/facebook-ads-pixel

31.10.2018 09:53

A new media format 'AAC Audio' was added to the list of media formats. From now on, you can add AAC audio files to your episodes in the media library.

Amongst other things, AAC audio files can be used for audio-only podcasts in iTunes.

05.10.2018 10:54

If you have an Instagram page, you can now link it on the homepage template.

Please follow the steps below:

1. Log into your TYPO3 backend.
2. Click on the Page view in the left column and find the "Global Content" folder/page in the pagetree.
3. Open the content element "Social Connection" on Global Content page for editing.
4. Please take the snippet and carefully place it between the existing elements where you want it. Please make sure that the HTML code is properly closed. You need to place the code right after a closing anchor tag </a> of the proceeding element. Carefully compare the snippet with the code and it should become clear what needs to be lined up.
5. Replace "hopechannel_singapore" with your Instagram channel.
6. Save and view the update in the front end.

26.09.2018 16:11

Esperanza TV goes live.

Check out their new website under http://www.esperanzatv.org.
 

05.09.2018 15:58

Hope Channel Indonesia goes live.

Check out their new website under http://www.hopetv.or.id.
 

01.08.2018 15:00

Hope Channel North America goes live.

Check out their new website under http://www.hopetv.org.
 

22.06.2018 08:31

The new Hope Channel apps (Android, iPhone, Roku, ...) will display contents in so-called carousels. Carousels are containers for either shows or episodes. In TYPO3, new carousels can be created by defining rules. For example, a carousel can be created that will display all shows having the category "Health", or another carousel that will display all episodes having the tags "bible, faith, god".

Check the docs to know more about the apps.
 

21.06.2018 16:26

A new feature allows creating custom show images and show colors for the Hope Channel apps. Default values can be configured and overridden as needed for each app (Android, iPhone, Roku, ...).

Custom colors:

Custom images:

Check the docs to know more about the apps.
 

20.04.2018 10:38

The media library contents were added to the Hope Channel apps.

The apps are available for Android Phones, Android Tablets, iPhones, iPads, Samsung SmartTV, Roku.
 

18.03.2018 16:01

Two new livestreams have been added to the Hope Channel apps:

• Hope Channel Polska | polish
• Hope TV Asia | english

The apps are available for Android Phones, Android Tablets, iPhones, iPads, Samsung SmartTV, Roku.
 

13.01.2018 09:42

Hope Channel France goes live.

Check out their new website under http://www.hopechannel.fr.
 

02.11.2017 21:44

Hope Channel Tanzania goes live.

Check out their new website under http://hopetv.or.tz.
 

22.09.2017 12:56

Hope Channel Kenya goes live.

Check out their new website under http://hck.co.ke.
 

13.09.2017 14:45

Hope Channel South East Asia goes live.

Check out their new website under http://hopetv.asia.
 

21.07.2017 14:52

A new version of the Hope Channel App is available in the Google Play Store and in the Apple App Store.

The app was recreated from scratch and has a light and modern design. The livestreams work now out of the box without having to install the Vitamio Plugin, and lots of new content has been added to the app.

What's new:

• New design and interfaces
• Supports newer devices
• Streaming of videos to Apple TV (iOS apps)
• Vitamio Player not required anymore
• Improved performance
• Free app (no ads, no restrictions)

App Requirements

• Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). Devices running at least Android 4.4 (KitKat) will support videos in better quality.

 Livestreams:

• Hope Channel
• Hope Church Channel
• Hope Channel International
• Hope Channel Inter-America
• Esperanza TV
• EsperanzaTV Interamérica
• EsperanzaTV Interamérique
• Nuevo Tiempo
• Novo Tempo
• Speranta TV
• Hope Channel Germany
• Hope Channel Germany Radio
• Hope Channel Africa
• Hope Channel Norway
• Hope Channel India
• Hope Channel Arabic (Al-Waad)
• Chinese Hope TV

Media Libraries:

• Hope Channel
• Hope Channel UK
• Hope Channel Norway
• Hope Channel Denmark
• Hope Channel Germany
• Hope Channel Germany Radio
• Hope Channel France
• Hope Channel Arabic (Al-Waad)
• Hope Channel Japan
• Church Channel Japan

NOTE: Channels working with YouTube to host their videos doesn't show in the app as YouTube videos are not included in the Hope Channel app.
 

20.07.2017 17:03

Hope Channel Philippines goes live.

Check out their new website under http://www.hopechannel.ph.
 

21.06.2017 12:51

Hope Channel Norway goes live.

Check out their new website under http://www.hopechannel.no.
 

08.05.2017 10:47

The “Shows Gallery” view of the Media Library plugin has been updated. For the Shows Gallery view there is now the option to order the shows using the following criteria:

1. Show Title: alphabetical sorting based on the show title.
2. Latest Shows: chronological order based on the show creation date.
3. Sort Order: ordering of the Shows based on their order in the Shows Table list.
4. Random: a random presentation of shows.

New option to order the shows in the plugin:

Ordering shows in the Shows table list:

03.05.2017 15:25

Hope Channel India goes live.

Check out their new website under http://hopetvindia.org.
 

19.04.17 16:35

We have updated our documentation in regards to image sizes:
http://support.stimme-der-hoffnung.de/hc/hc-website-network-2/documentation/image-sizes

On this page can one find our recommendations on image sizes for:

• General sizes
• Shows
• Episodes
• Podcasts
• Host / Guests
• Banners
• News

As noted in the training, TYPO3 will properly handle image sizes larger than those listed. However, some partners have expressed the desire to work with minimum recommended image sizes, thereby saving storage space. For those who wish to work in this manner, we would reccommend resizing images as per the above guidelines, before the images are uploaded to the TYPO3 Backend.

30.03.2017 15:13

Episodes never had to be assigned to shows, but they would only be found using the website search or in the list of all episodes.

A recent website update allows single episodes to be displayed in the latest episodes plugin or in the related episodes plugin.

12.12.2016 12:24

Hope Channel UK goes live

Check out their new website under http://hopetv.org.uk.
 

03.11.2016 15:47

We have added a language filter to the episode plugins. Now it is possible to select a language in the TYPO3 backend, so that only episodes of this language will be show on the website.

The language filter is available for following plugins:

• Episodes list
• Episodes teaser
  • Latest episodes
  • Related episodes
  • Best rated episodes
  • Most watched episodes
  • Featured episodes
     

29.11.2016 17:58

Hope Channel Deaf goes live

Check out their new website under http://www.hopechanneldeaf.org.
 

15.11.2016 11:22

Hope Channel MENA goes live

Check out their new website under http://al-waad.tv.
 

12.07.2016 10:25

The Episode rating for viewers is now completely implemented. When a user clicks on the "Heart" icon for liking an Episode the system performs two checks to verify that the user has not previously liked the Episode. If the user has not liked the Episode previously, the system stores the information. On a six hour schedule, the system updates the ratings in the Episodes table, so the hearts will display the correct count for the Episode.

12.07.2016 08:17

Episodes should now allow for Youtube videos to be referenced in the Media Links tab. The complete URL is not required, only the YouTube code at the end of the URL is needed.

12.07.2016 08:13

The VideoJS player version has been updated. There are some design changes within the player, such as the location of the time slider and the volume adjustment slider.

Old Player

New Player

11.07.2016 15:30

For smaller images combined with Text, we have made a small update to the CSS. If you use the TYPO3 standard content element type Image, and then in the Appearance tab set the Image Alignment to “Above, left” or “Above, right”, it will use the original image width.

It should still be responsive to different screen sizes. One can use this in combination with a Text element, to provide a smaller image in combination with text.

19.05.2016 10:44

New configuration options have been implemented in order to give more control on what will be displayed on the episode detail page.

For each of the following points, you can decide whether the functionality is going to be displayed or not:

• Number of views
• Sharing content
• Embedding video
• Rating video

19.05.2016 10:26

You can now embed videos of Hope Channel to other websites using the embed code we provide. Video embedding works both with the livestream and the videos of the media library.

22.04.2016 11:40

3 new categories have been added to the website:

• News
• Adventists
• Culture

With categories you can help your website visitors find your content easier as they can filter the content by categories. Categories are also used to display related contents. Categories can be added to shows and episodes.
 

20.04.2016 15:06

We've created error handling pages for 404 and 503 errors. The error pages can be customized and translated to your different website languages.

18.04.2016 09:42

Hope Channel Italy goes live with more than 80 shows and 1000 videos.

Check out their new website under http://www.hopechannel.it.
 

01.04.2016 13:18

Hope Channel Denmark goes live.

Check out their new website under http://www.hopechannel.dk.
 

21.03.2016 22:08

Customize your shows by setting a background image and some colors.

Have also a look at following links:

• Tutorial
• FAQ

21.03.2016 21:20

A new plugin is now available for the startpage of the website. The livestream plugin adds a livestream player and the corresponding schedule to the startpage.