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My Source Matrix Developer Newsletter [Friday 15th July 2005 - Issue 32]

covers versions 3.4.4 stable, 3.6.0 RC1, 3.7.0 development

News

Important Notice Re Link Tree & Rollback

Some more changes have been made to My Source Matrix for what we hope is a permanent fix for the treeid problems we've been having recently with database systems have been set to a specific collating order (which can't be changed after initdb is run on the system). Basically it involves changing the treeid field from a varchar to a binary string type (bytea). These fields sort based on byte (read: ASCII) values, a critical feature of the treeid field's operation. This would also eliminate any problems still seen after the temporary changes where some characters are considered "equal" and thus ignored in the sort order.

The only performance issue is that the MAX() function, in getting a new child treeid (Asset_Manager::createAssetLink()), had to be replaced with a marginally slower limit query because MAX() is not supported on binary strings in PostgreSQL and probably not in Oracle either.

This has only been committed to the development branch at the moment, however if given the all-clear in testing, it will become a part of the 3.6.x stable branch. NOTE THAT THE UPGRADE PROCEDURE WILL REMOVE ALL ROLLBACK ENTRIES FOR THE LINK TREE - MAKING ROLLBACK VIEW MOVE USELESS. ALL ROLLBACK ENTIRES SHOULD BE PURGED AFTER THE UPGRADE HAS TAKEN PLACE.

Read This If You Implement Matrix Systems

The new search indexing and weightings system (see the new features section for details) now allows for much more control over what My Source Matrix indexes. Keeping the amount of indexed data minimal will improve searches by reducing the size of the search index.

Any client that is upgraded to checked out on a new 3.7.0 development system (or when 3.7.0 becomes 3.8.0 stable) should evaluate what their searching system. Specifically, they should determine: - what types of asset they search for - what parts of the system are searched - what pieces of data contain keywords that are searched

They should then change the indexing settings to only index: - the types of assets they search for - the parts of the asset tree they search within - the core asset components used in searches - the asset attributes used in searches - the metadata fields used in searches

This will reduce the size of the search index to the minimum required and also return much more targeted search results.

Read This If You Hack The Matrix

The changes made to the search system have extended to the assets themselves. All of the search functionality has been removed from the core into the search package. This has changed a few things.

There is no longer an informChanges() method in asset.inc. The search manager now listens to the assetUpdate event that gets fired in _updated(). This means that dates also get indexed when an asset changes, which did not happen before.

All getKeyData methods() have been removed. Instead, the search makes use of the getContent() method to acquire the raw contents of assets and attributes. This functionality should be generic enough to be useful in other circumstances.

Attributes are index by default. This means that you don't need to specify component weightings for attributes in the management class for assets as the default weighting for an attribute is always 1, unless the attribute has the is_admin flag set.

Oh, that reminds me. There is a new is_admin parameter for attributes that flags an attribute as being used for administrative purposes only. This just happens to be the case for most attributes. Some examples of attributes where the is_admin flag would be false are the image asset's width, height, alt tag, caption and size attributes as they have meaningful use on the frontend and represent content in one form or another.

New Features

Insert Symbol WYSIWYG Plugin

Added to: 3.7.0 development

A new plugin has been added to the WYSIWYG editor that allows you to enter symbols such as the copyright and trademark symbols. The new plugin appears in the plugin preferences list as "Special Chars".

Asset Lineage Divider Improved

Added to: 3.7.0 development

Previously, there way no way of specifying that a divider should not be used in the asset lineage design area. If the divider was left empty, the default divider would be used. This behavior has now been changed to allow for empty dividers. The asset lineage design area will now print the default divider if no <My Source_DIVIDER> tag is specified but will use no divider is an empty tag is used (<My Source_DIVIDER></My Source_DIVIDER>).

New Search Indexing And Weightings

Added to: 3.7.0 development

The search indexing and weightings system has been modified to give administrators greater control over the way their system is indexed. The biggest change is to the weightings system, which has received a significant interface overhaul.

There is no longer a relevance weights screen for any assets. All weightings specific to assets can now be set in the asset weightings screen in the search manager. Weightings are now very granular and can be set on assets, asset types, asset trees and on a global level. Asset components, asset attributes and metadata weightings are all customisable on each of the aforementioned levels. You can also turn off indexing for asset types, metadata assets and individual asset/attribute components on each of the levels.

Search will now index a lot more content by default, allowing all contents held within bodycopies to be discovered via the indexing system. However, you now have a lot more control over what gets indexed, so you are able to slim down the indexing system and only index the attributes, metadata and dates that you use for searching.

There is currently no upgrade procedure to bring the previous weightings system in line to this one. If you want to keep your weightings in your current system, you will have to wait for the upgrade procedure. Otherwise you can reindex the whole system to bring it in line with the new weightings/indexing system.

Default Content Type Preference

Added to: 3.7.0 development

A new preference has been added that allows you to configure the default content type used when creating DIVs and TABLEs in the bodycopy. Previously, a WYSIWYG cell was created as the default, but this can now be changed to any installed content type. Different preferences can also be set for each user group, allowing some editors to use WYSIWYG by default and others to use Raw HTML.

Planned Development

Simple Form

To be added to : 3.7.0
Estimated start date: already in development
Estimated end date : 22nd July 2005

Ecommerce Checkout Form

To be added to : 3.7.0
Estimated start date: already in development
Estimated end date : 28th July 2005

Listing Engine Form Redirect

To be added to : 3.7.0
Estimated start date: already in development
Estimated end date : 19th July 2005

Listing Engine Selections

To be added to : 3.7.0
Estimated start date: already in development
Estimated end date : 19th July 2005

Upgrading

3.5.0 Beta

Run step_02.php: no
Run step_03.php: no
Run compile_locale.php: yes

Additional queries: No additional queries are required for upgrades.

Additional comments: No additional upgrade steps are required.

3.7.0 Development

Run step_02.php: no
Run step_03.php: yes
Run compile_locale.php: yes

Additional queries: 

ALTER TABLE sq_sch_idx ADD type_code VARCHAR(100);
ALTER TABLE sq_sch_idx ALTER COLUMN type_code SET NOT NULL;
ALTER TABLE sq_ast_attr ADD is_admin char(1);
ALTER TABLE sq_ast_attr ALTER COLUMN is_admin SET DEFAULT 1;
UPDATE sq_ast_attr SET is_admin = 1;

ALTER TABLE sq_ast_lnk_tree DROP CONSTRAINT sq_ast_lnk_tree_pkey;
ALTER TABLE sq_ast_lnk_tree RENAME COLUMN treeid TO old_treeid;
ALTER TABLE sq_ast_lnk_tree ADD COLUMN treeid bytea;
ALTER TABLE sq_ast_lnk_tree ALTER COLUMN old_treeid DROP NOT NULL;
ALTER TABLE sq_rb_ast_lnk_tree DROP CONSTRAINT sq_rb_ast_lnk_tree_pkey;
ALTER TABLE sq_rb_ast_lnk_tree RENAME COLUMN treeid TO old_treeid;
ALTER TABLE sq_rb_ast_lnk_tree ALTER COLUMN old_treeid DROP NOT NULL;
ALTER TABLE sq_rb_ast_lnk_tree ADD COLUMN treeid bytea;

run recreate_link_tree.php here

ALTER TABLE sq_ast_lnk_tree ALTER COLUMN treeid SET NOT NULL;
ALTER TABLE sq_ast_lnk_tree ALTER COLUMN treeid SET DEFAULT ''::bytea;
ALTER TABLE sq_ast_lnk_tree ADD PRIMARY KEY (treeid);
ALTER TABLE sq_ast_lnk_tree DROP COLUMN old_treeid;
DELETE FROM sq_rb_ast_lnk_tree WHERE treeid IS NULL;
ALTER TABLE sq_rb_ast_lnk_tree ALTER COLUMN treeid SET NOT NULL;
ALTER TABLE sq_rb_ast_lnk_tree ALTER COLUMN treeid SET DEFAULT ''::bytea;
ALTER TABLE sq_rb_ast_lnk_tree ADD PRIMARY KEY (treeid);
ALTER TABLE sq_rb_ast_lnk_tree DROP COLUMN old_treeid;

Additional comments: re-index the entire My Source Matrix system. run "php ./scripts/recreate_link_tree.php"

New Bugs Added To Bug Tracker

Bug ID Stable Beta Dev Description
770 N Y Y CSS Design appends 2 css extensions
776 N Y Y Inconsistencies in asset map drag and drop when multiple assets being dragged
777 N N N Search folder does not show children of search results not confirmed
778 N Y Y Warning for removing URLs no longer has the URL in it
779 N Y Y Colour of Tabs a problem
781 N N N Submitting no value to reqd email address causes PHP Notice not confirmed
782 Y N N Users are not receiving WYSIWYG preferences from group membership
783 Y Y Y Expand Keywords plugin available without Lexicon package installed
784 N N N The Account managr page bodycopies shows irrelevant keywords not confirmed
787 Y Y Y Deleting a metadata schema doesn t remove it from assets
788 N Y Y Package strings not being included on Windows systems
789 Y Y Y Assets to which read permission is denied still appear in menu
790 N N N Web paths prefixed with act cause errors in design not confirmed
791 N Y Y Multiple line text questions with a maximum length have syntax errors
Notes:

Bug #773 ('content_type' var backport request) was submitted by James Hurst but was marked as Will Not Fix because no features will be back-ported to the current 3.4.x branch.

New Feature Requests Added To Bug Tracker

Bug ID Description
771 Asset Lineage can t print nothing for the divider
772 Use hyphens instead of underscores in urls
774 Quick edit links for Asset Listing right click menu
775 Additional CSS import syntaxes
780 Manually cascade should have an override or remove option
785 Default preview URL to first root URL
786 Preference to control default content type assets

Bugs Fixed In The Bug Tracker

Bug ID Stable Beta Dev Description
764 Y Y Y Freestyling permissions HIPO doesn t cascade
768 N Y Y Inconsistency in Date drop downs
770 N Y Y CSS Design appends 2 css extensions
778 N Y Y Warning for removing URLs no longer has the URL in it
782 Y N N Users are not receiving WYSIWYG preferences from group membership
783 Y Y Y Expand Keywords plugin available without Lexicon package installed
788 N Y Y Package strings not being included on Windows systems
789 Y Y Y Assets to which read permission is denied still appear in menus
791 N Y Y Multiple line text questions with a maximum length have syntax errors
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