Moving Forward: Parallels Business Automation Standard 4.2

**vbatraev** · Nov 30, 2011, 10:57 AM

Dear Partners,

During the last year we have released two major versions and several updates for PBAS.
As before, we put many improvements that you said were important into these releases such as better integration with other Parallels products, IPv6 support, additional services, new billing and ecommerce features, such as consolidated invoices and payment method tokenization.

We can see that the majority of PBAS customers are upgrading to the latest version and are giving us positive feedback about their experience with new functionality.

So we move forward and work very hard on delivering the next major release (PBAS 4.2), which should bring even more value to you and help you grow.
The next release will be focused on improving customer experience dramatically, because as we can hear from you, this is the most important thing.

This basically means improvements in two areas:
- Online Store – we redesign purchase wizard, make “single-step” checkout with minimized amount of clicks and information entered. Switch to new dynamic framework utilizing Ajax technology with improved performance.
- Customer Control Panel – unified “sexy” style, very easy navigation, improved user scenarios and better performance.
As you see, the focus will be around making customer experience as easy and straightforward as possible (hiding all the complexity and optimizing UI for day-to-day operations).

I will post detailed information about PBAS 4.2 improvements later in this thread.

Your feedback would be highly appreciated, so don’t hesitate to post your suggestions on this forum or contact me directly at: vbatraev@parallels.com.

Sincerely yours,
Victor Batraev
PBAS Program Manager
Parallels

**JuergenW** · Dec 10, 2011, 08:13 AM

Together with the planned Kayako 4 support this really sounds great! When can we expect PBAS 4.2?

**vbatraev** · Dec 15, 2011, 05:12 AM

When can we expect PBAS 4.2?

It should be released in Q1 2012.

**scardus01** · Feb 20, 2012, 07:10 AM

Hi Victor,

Originally Posted by vbatraev

I will post detailed information about PBAS 4.2 improvements later in this thread.

Since PBAS 4.2 was discussed at the Parallels Summit, I'm wondering if you have any v4.2 and/or roadmap information available to Partners that were unable to attend?

Thanks in advance,
Sean

**vbatraev** · Mar 19, 2012, 06:03 AM

You may check new CP interface here:

http://dev.myhspc.com/cp
user: qq@qq.qq
pass: qqqqqq

It's not 100% finished/tested yet. Icons, html on some screens will be updated.
Latest PBAS 4.2 nightly build is installed on the server. And I will keep it up-to-date.

Key changes are:
- Layout is changed to "Plesk like" style.
Double navigation was removed. Only top tabs are left.
- Skin was changed to new "unified" one.
New unified skin will be used in PBAS, future versions of Plesk and other Parallels products.
- New "Home" tab with service and billing information, quick access links.
- Affiliate programs management.
From CP customers may join affiliate campaigns, track sales/commission, request money from provider.
- Easy switch between subscriptions.
- Some performance improvements.
...

We are also working on CP customization guide with examples how to:
- add/delete tabs
- add/delete sections to "Home" tab
- add/delete/modify elements on other screens
- modify html templates
- add elements to the left and to the right on the main frame (e.g. some banners)

Feel free to post a feedback here or send it at vbatraev@parallels.com

**scardus01** · Mar 19, 2012, 06:10 AM

Hi Victor,

Thanks for the demo, it's much appreciated! Is that Plesk 11 we can see on the "test1" subscription?

Sean

**vbatraev** · Mar 19, 2012, 06:17 AM

Originally Posted by scardus01

Hi Victor,

Thanks for the demo, it's much appreciated! Is that Plesk 11 we can see on the "test1" subscription?

Sean

No, it's Plesk 10.4.4 with Azure theme installed.
Plesk themes: http://www.parallels.com/products/plesk/themes/

Styles for Plesk 11 and PBAS 4.2 should be identical. For 10.4.4 it a little bit differ.

**PaulC** · Mar 20, 2012, 10:20 AM

Victor,

We are using Plesk 9.5.4 integrated within PBAS for our shared hosting (Plesk Clients).

The Demo looks good, but how will the interface be handled in PBAS 4.2 for Plesk 9.5? The tabs at the top match up with how the Plesk 10/11 interfaces function, but that differs from 9.5

Many thanks,
Paul

**vbatraev** · Mar 20, 2012, 01:16 PM

Originally Posted by PaulC

Victor,

We are using Plesk 9.5.4 integrated within PBAS for our shared hosting (Plesk Clients).

The Demo looks good, but how will the interface be handled in PBAS 4.2 for Plesk 9.5? The tabs at the top match up with how the Plesk 10/11 interfaces function, but that differs from 9.5

Many thanks,
Paul

Hi Paul,

I will connect Plesk 9.5 node to this demo set tomorrow.

**vbatraev** · Mar 21, 2012, 07:08 AM

Originally Posted by vbatraev

Hi Paul,

I will connect Plesk 9.5 node to this demo set tomorrow.

Plesk 9.5 node is connected.
Plesk Client subscription is created for the customer.

**PaulC** · Mar 21, 2012, 09:22 AM

Victor,

Thank you - it looks like it integrates nicely with that version, at least until we are fully using Plesk 10/11.

I know it would be possible to remove the "Setup" tab in code, but can we have an option in the PCC for this? Our clients wouldnt need to reset the password.

On the subject of the PCC - is this still organised in the same way as versions up to 4.1?

Many thanks,
Paul

**vbatraev** · Mar 21, 2012, 09:37 AM

Originally Posted by PaulC

Victor,

Thank you - it looks like it integrates nicely with that version, at least until we are fully using Plesk 10/11.

I know it would be possible to remove the "Setup" tab in code, but can we have an option in the PCC for this? Our clients wouldnt need to reset the password.

On the subject of the PCC - is this still organised in the same way as versions up to 4.1?

Many thanks,
Paul

Paul,

PCC design will not be changed.
There will be no option in PCC to show/hide "Setup" tab, but it will be possible to hide it by means of customization.

**philippe henneau** · Mar 26, 2012, 03:04 PM

what is the release date?

**vbatraev** · Mar 28, 2012, 04:04 AM

Originally Posted by philippe henneau

what is the release date?

We are targeting to the mid of April.

**vbatraev** · Mar 28, 2012, 04:58 AM

Access to provider panel:

http://dev.myhspc.com/hspc/pcc
user: demo@dev.myhspc.com
pass: provider

New functionality available for review:
Changes in hosting plans management:
- Now it's possible to enable several OSes in PVC hosting plan
- Billable and Non-billable resources were merged - now it's possible to bill for any resource
- "Show in CP"/"Show in Store" controls were added for resources in hosting plan - you can build unique packages, hide resources from store to simplify purchase process
Old Non-billable resources are hidden by default from both CP and store.
- "Hosting Plan Resources" tab was added to "Billing Director > Product Manager > Hosting Plans". On this screen you can customize resources names and descriptions
- Show in CP"/"Show in Store" controls were added for applications

New "Fixed amount" type of promotions is available.
A promotion can be configured in Billing Director > Discount Manager > Promotions.
Its functionality is similar to old "Percent Discount" promotion plug-in.

New affiliate programs can be managed from Marketing Director > Campaign Manager.

**pinai** · Apr 13, 2012, 11:41 AM

Hello Victor,

This features could be interesting

– It could be great if the customer could see into its own control panel (home) which subscriptions or domains will expire in the next x days even with a button for ´renew now´, as other panels.
We don´t know if we can make this via API, if we can we code this there could be no problem.

- Information: It would be interesting that we could put somewhere in the panel our own ads on various matters, for example a maintenance service announcement, or simply a banner about any product we want to promote, located where customers will see faster when they log in into his panel, for example at the bottom of the panel

- Massive changes: For example, a customer, which has many domains could massively change the DNS servers to multiple domains at once, or the subscription which it belongs, this makes a big difference to the supplier, which sometimes we must be doing it manually or directly managing them over the database

– Include, in the Help and Support site, the Parallels Power Panel Guide.

- Now we can configurate a new vps hosting plan with several SO's (Centos, debian, etc), buy, why the customer can not reinstall his vps in other SO that the original?, we have customers asking this each day, they order a vps with debian, buy later he want change to centos, and now he must to cancel his vps and order a new one

Kind Regards,

**PaulC** · Apr 13, 2012, 04:09 PM

Hello Victor,

Thank you for the update on the PCC above.

The ability to hide resources in the Store and CP looks a good addition, thank you.

One thing we would have hoped is that the Mass Mailer WYSIWYG would be fixed in Google Chrome. Right now it is only usable in IE or Firefox. The request to fix this was made some time ago and so I'd hope it would be fixed in this version. The request ID for this is PBAS-26534.

We see alot of confusion about what the client believes the "All My Domains" section relates to. I think splitting that under the heading of "Views" may help that.

In general, PBAS 4.2 is looking a good improvement on what we already have.

Many thanks,
Paul

**vbatraev** · Apr 16, 2012, 08:04 AM