MySource Matrix Developer

MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter Issue 47
Friday 28th October 2005

covers versions 3.4.7 stable, 3.6.1 stable, 3.7.0 development

News

XHTML Change For Listing Selection IDs

The listing engine assets have had their ID values for asset selections sanitised for XHTML compliance, both in their printing and in the JavaScript. Unfortunately due to the way the sanitisation works the selection ID has changed from <selection_name>_<group_name> to <selection_name><group_name> (eg. 'selectionall' instead of 'selection_all').

NOTE: This may affect hard-coded DOM manipulation of asset selections if explicitly referring to group check boxes by ID in JavaScript.

New Scripts On Delta

There are a couple of new scripts on Delta for developers to use to checkout MySource Matrix and The Construct unit testing framework.

To check out a MySource Matrix system on delta: The "matrix-checkout" script checks out a MySource Matrix branch and performs some of the preliminary steps to get a matrix system up and running.

First, it prompts you for a tag. Enter either 3-4-0, 3-6-0, or press enter for the latest dev. It then prompts you to enter a list of packages you would like. Enter the packages space separated. Eg. "cms search ldap".

The script then checks out the version specified. It also create a database (<username>_<version>) where username is your username and version is the version that you specified earlier, in the form X_X_X, or "dev" for the dev branch. It will also create the aliases needed for this system, in your alias file (/etc/apache2/squiz.d/<username>.conf), which will be accessible form http://delta.squiz.net/<username>_<version>.

After the script has completed running, your system is not yet installed. You still need to run steps 1, 2 and 3 of the install and compile locales for your system. The system root URL and DB DSNs are provided for you at the end of the script.

To check out a system for unit testing: The "testing-checkout" script checks out a MySource Matrix branch and performs some of the preliminary steps to get a matrix system up and running. It also checks out a copy of The Construct, the unit tests and Snoopy into a developer_tools directory in your home directory.

First, it prompts you for a tag. Unit tests currently only work with dev systems, so press enter.

Now select your current dev system from the list when it prompts you. The Construct ties itself to one of your existing systems so that you can unit test your own code. It creates its own database and data directory so it can use its set of test data instead of yours.

The script will then check out the developers tools and create a testing system in /home/<username>/matrix_installs/matrix_testing_dev. If you check that directory you will notice that all directories containing code are actually symbolic links to your dev install. Only data and cache are actual directories.

The script also creates a database for your testing system (<username>_testing_dev) and an alias for it in your alias file (which is the same as your database name, so it's accessible from http://delta.squiz.net/<username>_testing_dev )

You are now required to run steps 1, 2 and 3 as well as compile locales for your testing system (matrix_testing_dev). The DSN that you enter into main.inc after running step_01 should be for your testing system, not your dev system. The same goes for your system root url.

Once that's done, you will need to configure The Construct in the developer_tools directory. Edit the main.inc file in ~/developer_tools/the_construct/main.inc. The file should only require that you replace USERNAME with your actual username. Note that the install of simple test is common and resides in /home/common/matrix_scripts/simpletest, so don't install your own.

To test that The Construct has been successfully installed run: php run_tests.php -c -v

This cleans the testing system (matrix_testing_dev), runs the unit tests and reports its status to screen. If this is successful, you are ready to start developing unit tests.

New Features

Listing Engine No Results Bodycopy

Added to: 3.7.0 development

Previously, the search page was the only listing asset to have a 'No Results' bodycopy, allowing you to customise the look of the results page when the search did not find any assets. Now, all listing engine assets have the ability to print a different format if they have nothing to list.

For example, if you have a Whats New page that lists pages updated in the last day but no pages were updated in the last day, you can now print a message informing the user that there were no updates.

Search List Revamp

Added to: 3.7.0 development

There have been some big changes to Search List to get it working again and give it some new features. It now inherits from Listing Engine rather than Asset Listing and the new 'No Results' bodycopy is available. It has been changed to handle the new multiple data source search fields. The ability to use the search list on standard asset field data sources, such as asset name, has also been added.

Sort Listings By Metadata

Added to: 3.7.0 development

The listing engine assets now have the ability to sort their list of assets by the value of a metadata field. Previously, results could only be sorted by the value of an asset attribute.

RSS Data Source

Added to: 3.7.0 development

A new data source has be developed to read RSS feeds and display the entries from the feed as shadow assets in the asset map. When used with the asset listing, you are able to redisplay RSS feeds from other sites inside your MySource Matrix system.

Listing Engine XHTML Fix

Added to: 3.7.0 development

The 'select all' JavaScript code of the listing engine selections is now available as a keyword to allow you to place the JavaScript in a location that allows for XHTML compliance. This is mainly an issue for systems with very complex listings. If the keyword is not included within the asset listing, the JavaScript will be printed at the top of the listing, as it currently is.

Planned Development

Linking Shadow Assets And Normal Assets

To be added to : 3.7.0 development
Estimated start date: 31st October 2005
Estimated end date : 4th November 2005

A system is being developed to allow shadow assets to be linked to real assets within MySource Matrix. The functionality of the link would be less functional than standard asset links, but you will be able to see the shadow assets as children on the Matrix asset in the asset map and list the shadow assets in a standard asset listing. One of the things this will allow is for LDAP users to be placed in regular MySource Matrix user groups.

Numeric Sorting In Listings

To be added to : 3.7.0 development
Estimated start date: 2nd November 2005
Estimated end date : 11th November 2005

Listings already have the ability to sort by the value of an asset attribute, but sorting is done on strings and not numerically. So if you are sorting based on a numeric value such as a rating, the sorting will not work as expected. New functionality will be developed to allow for true numeric sorting on INT and FLOAT attributes of assets.

RSS Feeds

To be added to : 3.7.0 development
Estimated start date: already in development
Estimated end date : 4th November 2005

A Better Thesaurus

To be added to : 3.7.0 development
Estimated start date: already in development
Estimated end date : 1st November 2005

Bulk Email Management

To be added to : 3.7.0 development
Estimated start date: already in development
Estimated end date : 1st December 2005

Upgrading

3.7.0 Development

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

Additional queries: No additional queries are required for upgrades.

Additional comments: Run the fudge_co from the MySource Matrix root directory

New Bugs Added To Bug Tracker

Notes:

Bug #942 (System installed without system root URL breaks urls for web folders) was submitted by Anthony Barnes on the 23rd of September but has been marked as Can Not Replicate after 3 weeks without feedback.

New Feature Requests Added To Bug Tracker

No new feature requests were added the the MySource Matrix bug tracker.

Bugs Fixed In The Bug Tracker

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