MySource Matrix Developer

MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter Issue 2
Friday 17th December 2004

covers versions 3.2.0 stable, 3.3.0 beta, 3.5.0 development

News

Bug Tracker

The bug tracker has links in the left hand navigation to allow quick access to stored reports. The "View outstanding bugs" link will now list all open bugs that are not marked as features. It used to list all open bugs not marked as fixed, but this list had so many feature requests included that it was hard to find the bugs that needed fixing.

There is a new link called "View feature requests" that will show a report of all open bugs that have been marked as features.

Due to these changes, the outstanding bugs report will contain all bugs that have been fixed or marked as not being bugs. It will also list all bugs that have workarounds. From now on, once a bug has been fixed or a resolution found, the bug will be closed after a week of inactivity. This will be a manual process completed by Greg and will ensure that the outstanding bugs report is easier to read.

Online Poll Module

Our new MySource Matrix developers are currently working on an online poll module. It's not ready yet, but should be completed in the next couple of weeks. It will allow multiple questions per online poll, provide a "Past Polls" interface, provide a "Vote" interface, and allow poll questions to be shared between online polls. It also provide both HTML based and image based graphs of the votes. Stay tuned for updates on this new module.

Heavy Development

MySource Matrix is currently undergoing heavy development in the 3.5.0 development version. The asset map is going to be completely revamped to make it easier to use for systems with a large number of assets. Backend translation is also being worked on, including plans for a new integrated context sensitive help system for the administration interface. A triggering system is also being built to allow users to define business logic using a GUI interface (eg. when a standard page is created under "Intranet" also add it to the "New Pages" folder).

This development work will be completed by the end of January 2005, so don't expect too many new features to be added before then.

Cron Manager Changes

There have been a few changed made to the Cron Manager to fix some bugs and make the interface easier to use. All these changes are currently in 3.5.0 development but are not tested enough to be put into other versions yet. If Cron Manager problems become an issue for any clients, we can look into moving these changes to a beta (or even a stable) release.

Demo Systems

The changes to the Cron Manager and future statues in the development version require changes on demo systems. If you are running a demo system using the 3.5.0 development version, please read the new features section below for instructions.

MySQL Support

MySQL support was removed from the development version almost 2 months ago, but was reintroduced to an extent during the Oracle database changes. These changes to remove MySQL support have now been recommitted to the 3.3.0 beta and 3.5.0 development versions of MySource Matrix.

The changes remove the use of the db_extras_subquery function to handle subqueries in MySQL, and remove the use of concat switches (MySQL and PostgreSQL do concats differently by default) in queries. Can everyone please be on the lookout for problems with the reintroduction of these changes.

Metadata Changes

Squiz UK are currently working on changes to the metadata system, including changes to the way in which metadata values are stored in the database. Any developers who need to make changes to the metadata system should first check with Blair or Greg before starting any work.

New Features

Form Submission Improvements

Added to: 3.3.0 beta, 3.5.0 development

When logging submissions for custom forms, the submissions are stored as assets in MySource Matrix. The process of creating the submission asset and saving the submitted values was quite slow. This process has been improved by reducing the amount of times the submitted values are saved - reducing the number of database queries and the overall time to complete a form submission.

More work will be completed on form submission times once a set of database queries can be logged and ananlysed.

Future Statuses

Added to: 3.5.0 development

When adding a future status, there is now a button you can press to set the time of the future status to the time of the next Cron Manager run. This makes it easier to add future statuses by allowing the drop down fields to be populated automatically.

The future status interface now also checks to see if the Cron Manager appears to be configured. If it thinks that the Cron Manager has never run or will never run, it will not allow future statuses to be added. This could be a problem for demo systems running 3.5.0 development. Demo systems should always set the Epoch value of the Cron Manager (on the Options screen). Alternatively, the core/cron/run.php script can be run. The Cron Manager will set the Epoch value itself the first time this script is run.

Disabled Buttons On Commit

Added to: 3.5.0 development

To reduce confusion, pressing a button that submits a form while editing (such as the Commit, Lock, or Release Locks(s) buttons) now disables all buttons in the editing interface. Previously, pressing a submit button twice produced a Javascript warning, letting the user know that the form has already been submitted. This new method makes this process less confusing for users.

New Bugs Added To Bug Tracker

Notes:

Bug #374 (Cloning: Folder contents not cloned) was submitted by Andrei but was not a bug. Version 3.2.0 included a change to cloning where the parent asset and its dependants are cloned, not all children. This change was made to to stop problems with cloning large sites or other system hierarchies, fixing bug #247.

Bug #376 (New Index causes error in PostrgreSQL) was submitted by Blair and refers to a new index for PostgreSQL that improves the speed of some database queries. This index is only supported in versions 7.4 and greater of PostgreSQL and will cause a syntax error on older versions. It is fine to ignore this index if it does not work on the installed version of PostgreSQL for a MySource Matrix system.

Bug #377 (Bug #324 is still in 3.2) was submitted by James but was found to actually be a problem with a client site. The MySource Matrix core had been upgrade to 3.2.0 but the packages were still at version 3.1.0 RC1. Bug #324 was a custom form bug and the custom form asset had not been upgraded in the CMS package.

New Feature Requests Added To Bug Tracker

Bugs Fixed In The Bug Tracker

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