Last week we released a new and improved version of Surreal CMS, and we couldn’t be happier with the feedback that everyone has provided so far. We put a lot of effort into this version, even working through the holidays to make sure that everything was up to standard for the January release. Needless to say, we’re very happy that everyone liked it.
As you can probably imagine, operating an online service for thousands of users means there is a lot of pressure to get things right. You end up making a lot of promises and, at times, it can be difficult to accommodate everyone’s needs. Part of our goal as a service provider is to balance out all of the features that people want with what is practical, feasible, and within the scope of what the average user expects to see from our service. When the time comes, we combine all of the feedback that gets emailed to us with the suggestions that get posted on UserVoice to come up with a list of features that might make it into a future release. Once we have a very concise list of ideas, we start evaluating, prioritizing, planning, and developing them.
With that in mind, here is an overview of some of the major features that went into this latest release.
User Interface
When we decided to revamp the user interface, we new it would be an extensive undertaking, but the end result was worth it. What you may not realize at first glance is that the entire interface was completely rewritten for this version — from the markup all the way to the scripting that powers most of the functionality. This was necessary for a number of technical reasons, but at the same time it allowed us to comply more closely with W3C standards. Here is a glimpse of what the new UI looks like:

Character Encoding
Aside from the interface, we also took on some back-end encoding issues that previously made it impossible to support languages with characters outside of the ISO-8859-1 spectrum. This includes languages such as Chinese, Russian, Polish, and many others. Fortunately, this is no longer an issue with the new version. (You may have already noticed that Polish and Chinese are already available.) We’re looking forward to translating Surreal CMS into a variety of new languages, so if you’re multilingual and we don’t support your language yet, get in touch with us and you may just earn yourself a free pro account.
Image Editor
This was something that people have been requesting for quite awhile, and we wanted to make sure that it made the cut this time. The image editor allows you to resize, flip, rotate, and crop images without leaving the CMS. You can access the image editor from within the File Manager by selecting a picture and clicking Edit Image. (You can also access the Image Editor if you have an <img class=”editable”> in your webpage.)

Customizable Toolbars
In the previous version, you could give your editors a Limited or a Full version of the rich-text editor. Now, you can turn each and every button on and off, as necessary. We’ve also enabled a few more options, including font size, foreground color, background color, underline, and a button for uploading and inserting documents. (You can customize your editor’s toolbars by going to Editors > Configure > Advanced.)

Custom Paths
With the addition of custom paths for documents, images, and media, we were finally able to fix the permissions in the File Manager. When you set custom paths, editors will be restricted to those locations when uploading, deleting, renaming, etc. In other words, your editors will only be able to upload and modify files and folders in the locations that you specifically set for documents, images, and media. (You can set these paths on a per-website basis by going to Websites > Configure > Advanced.)
This is obviously more secure than allowing editors full access to every folder in their website, especially for novice users. If necessary, you can re-enable full access to the File Manager by turning on that button in the editor’s toolbar. Also, if you don’t set any custom paths, your editors will still have access to the entire website via the File Manager.

Welcome Emails
Many users wanted the option of disabling the welcome message that gets sent when editors are created. In the new version, you can uncheck the Send Welcome Message button prior to adding an editor and the temporary password will be displayed on screen rather than being emailed. You can also reset passwords without sending an email as well.
For those of you who would like to continue using the welcome messages, you’ll notice that they now come from Your Name <you@your-email.com>. That is, the emails will appear to come from the name and email address that we have on file for you. (You can change your name and email address by visiting My Account > Preferences.)
Larger Max Upload Size
We’ve increased the upload size from 10MB to 20MB. This was actually updated a few months back, but we never formally announced it.
Help & Support Tab
By default, when editors submit a support request it gets emailed directly to their designer. Now, you have the option to set a custom URL for the support tab, which can be used to direct editors to a custom support page. You also have the option of completely disabling the Help & Support tab in case you’ve given your users alternative instructions for submitting help requests.

Search Filter
To help you sort through large numbers of websites, webpages, and editors, we’ve added a search filter to each page. Whenever there are more than 10 items in any of these lists, you’ll be able to find exactly what you’re looking for with just a key keystrokes — no more scrolling, browsing, and squinting.

Payment History for Pro Accounts
If you’ve signed up for a pro account, you can see your complete payment history by accessing My Account > Payment History.
What’s to Come?
We have a lot more great ideas and features in store for you in upcoming releases but, for starters, we’re going to be working on some white-label documentation that you can provide to your clients for training purposes. This will include both screencasts and printable material that you can hand out to them in person.
As usual, please keep the feedback coming! You can submit your ideas through our UserVoice page or send them directly to us from the Help & Support section inside the CMS.
And, of course, if you’re reading this but you haven’t signed up for a free account with Surreal CMS yet, there’s never been a better time.