Do you want to improve the request speeds that are being made to the NATS API? The version of NuSOAP used by NATS includes a caching system called 'nusoap_wsdlcache'. This system caches the wsdl file needed for API calls, rather than requesting this file each time a request is run to the NATS API. As a result, multiple request to the NATS API are sped up significantly. This can aid in speeding up the look up of information for a membership area or external management system. For further details on setting up this system, please visit our online article about setting up the NuSOAP wsdlcache system.

Sites can now have their own specific From and Reply To addresses. Do you want to have Member emails sent from a specific email address? In the latest version of NATS, Admins have the option to set specific from and reply-to details for Member or Affiliate emails. With these settings, you can define details for each of your sites so email addresses used will be specific per site rather than for your NATS installation as a whole.

• "EMAIL_FROM_" and "EMAIL_FROM_NICE_" set the address and the nice name for the from address for emails.
• "EMAIL_REPLY_" and "EMAIL_REPLY_NICE_" set the address and nice name for a reply-to address.
• "EMAIL_BCC_TO_" set an email address you would like to get a blind carbon copy of any emails sent.

Our advanced rule systems allow Admins to define when NATS will display certain items to Members or Affiliates. This system is available for cascades, join options, cross sales, payment methods, site redirects, adtools, and mass mailers. Rules allow you to have items be sent or displayed for specific situations while being held or hidden for other situations.

Owners can set Ignore, Disable, or Enable Rules

Rules can be found throughout your NATS admin. Depending on which page you are on, the types of rules in the system can be "IGNORE", "SHOW/ENABLE/SEND", or "DISABLE/HIDE/HOLD". Ignore rules are usually set for non active rules, allowing you to set up the specific details at a later time. "SHOW/ENABLE/SEND" rules are active rules, setting the item to show up on a join page, enabled for use in a cascade, or available to be sent. "DISABLE/HIDE/HOLD" rules hold or prevent the particular item from being displayed based upon the criteria of the rule. We would like to note that "DISABLE/HIDE/HOLD" rule types take precedence over "SHOW/ENABLE/SEND".

Beyond the different types of rules mentioned above, you can also define specific criteria on when that rule will apply. Depending on which section you are setting a rule for, you may be able to target specific Affiliates, Programs, or Sites. Also, different areas of NATS will have different criteria for rules. The Mailing Admin rules, for example, includes rule settings specific to member and affiliate status.

Rules can be very useful within many marketing situations. For further details on setting up your rules and their available settings, visit our on-line documentation.

Throttling is a security setting used to prevent surfers from attempting to access a particular page multiple times in a very short time-frame. Restricting the number of attempts that can be made for particular pages can help prevent authorization strings for transactions from being entered through brute force.

Throttling is a security setting in the NATS Configuration Admin

To configure Throttling through NATS, you would first go to the Configuration Admin under the "Security" section. In this page the Throttling section has options for THROTTLE_WHITE_LIST_IPS and THROTTLE_BLACK_LIST_IPS. These configurations are a comma-separated list of IP address that will always pass or fail the Throttling checks. Admins can also whitelist their IP address for testing purposes of particular pages. The available pages where Throttling is available is on the Approval, Upgradeplus, Upgraded, Upsellplus, Packageplus, and Tokenplus pages. For each of these pages, Admins can set first what counts as a page request to either Off, Every Page Request, or Failed Page Authentication, which will only occur whenever authentication fails for that particular page.

For further details in regards to using the Throttling system, please visit our wiki article here.

Previous Issues of TMM Insider can be found at our archive here.