Welcome to the Summer PPO Newsletter! Over the last year, our team worked to develop an update that included backend improvements and increased accessibility conformance to WCAG 2.0 AA guidelines. All sites are now using this latest software.

This update includes the following:
  • Improved data loader, which helps your latest changes appear online more quickly
  • Search engine update from Solr to Elasticsearch
  • Added HTTPS for the Interface Management Site (IMS): https://admin.pastperfectonline.com
  • Increased security for IMS via an automatic logout after 30 minutes of inactivity
  • More semantically appropriate HTML elements
  • Updated and more specific page titles
  • New headings added to better identify page content and allow for easier screen reader navigation
  • New skip links added to the Search by Term and Advanced Search pages for improved keyboard and screen reader navigation
  • Added missing ARIA labels to search boxes and forms
  • Moved Advanced Search category labels from placeholder text to above the search boxes so they are always visible
  • Added or modified image alt text (based on record data) where it was previously missing or empty
  • Updated Related Records listed on People, Creator, Search Term, and Site records to display your Third Field instead of strictly displaying the Description field
  • Added pagination for Related Records
  • Forms now pull from Custom CSS for better design consistency
  • Changes to Forms addressing security changes for various email providers, which prevented Image Request, Feedback, and Email a Friend emails from being sent to some users

Now that this major project is complete, screenshots in the PPO User Guide will be updated over the next few months to reflect the visual changes. We also expect to begin hosting informational/training webinars again within the next year.
Important Email Security Changes Affecting Your Email Forms
Trying to respond to someone who sent an Image Request, Feedback, or Email a Friend message? Don't just hit "Reply!"

We have all seen a spoofed email in our inbox at some point -- the sender of the message claims to be your Aunt Gertrude or the email "From" line shows your boss's name, but it's actually from a scammer fishing for personal or financial information. Luckily, email providers continue to implement security measures to help protect you from such emails.

To ensure Image Requests, Feedback Forms, and Email a Friend messages are not blocked by these security changes, we adjusted how these emails are sent. The biggest change for you is that these emails are now sent by no-reply@pastperfectonline.com. When you click "Reply" on these emails, they will now default to sending your response to this unmonitored address.

If you want to reply to the original sender, you must manually type or copy their email address into the "To" field of your message in place of the no-reply address.

We understand this will be an adjustment especially for those of you who have been PastPerfect Online users for a long time. In addition to displaying "Do No Reply" as the sender name, we have added a heading at the top of each email as a reminder.
A Note on Accessibility
We have made many changes to improve accessibility compliance for PastPerfect Online sites, however, some standards depend upon your own settings and data entry. For example, the alt text for the thumbnail images on your catalog records is populated with the image's Caption field. If the Caption field is not populated, the word "Artifact" will be used instead. The Caption field is found on the Image Management screen within your PastPerfect program. After populating the Caption field, you will need to create and upload files to update your site with that content.

Improper or invalid HTML and insufficient color contrast are other ways a site may not be in compliance. There are several places on your site that custom HTML can be added as well as custom CSS that impacts styling of buttons, links, etc. For more information about web accessibility, please visit https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/.
Staff Pick
We are asking each of our staff to choose a favorite item from one of the many online collections. This item was selected from the online collection of the Museum of Broadcast Communications by Amanda because:

"I started listening to the classic radio shows when I was working with my dad and would sit in his office during breaks. While I love listening to the plots of the detective shows and comedies, my favorite part has to be the way they integrate their sponsors into the broadcast. Sometimes it was a typical commercial break, but the best is it when characters are in the middle of a story and the announcer showed up and starts trying to sell the cast on products like Johnson's Floor Wax (in the case of Fibber McGee and Molly). I like how this can of Johnson's Floor Wax serves as a promotion for the Fibber McGee and Molly program and shows the partnership between sponsors and radio shows that dominated the 40s and 50s."
Grant Reminder
Applications for the Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program, offered by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), are now open. The application is due by July 19, 2022.

The program supports projects that provide an essential underpinning for scholarship, education, and public programming in the humanities. Funding from this program strengthens efforts to extend the life of such materials and make their intellectual content widely accessible, often through the use of digital technology.
Featured Sites
View more PastPerfect Online sites on our List of Collections page.

If your site is not listed and you would like to be, please let us know by sending an email with your organization name to pposupport@museumsoftware.com.
Need help with your PastPerfect Online site?
Contact us! Please email pposupport@museumsoftware.com or call 1-800-562-6080 if you have any questions about your PastPerfect Online site. Our team is happy to help!
This newsletter is for clients who use PastPerfect Online. We intend to use it as a way to discuss features and training opportunities as well as planned maintenance. Feel free to forward to anyone in your organization who would benefit from its content.