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Developer Newsletters 2006
(Issues 99 - 102) November
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #102
There is no general MySource Matrix developer news this week.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #101
If you have a 3.11.0 development version running on PostgreSQL and with the Search package, that was checked out and installed between 10am October 17th and 10am last Tuesday (November 15th), and are having problems adding content to your system, please read on. The symptoms of this problem are frequent "duplicate key" database errors when adding content. This was traced to the changes made to Search to better support Oracle - when the primary key to the indexing table was changed to suit Oracle without realising that a part of the removed index was vital to the proper operation of indexing on PostgreSQL. Please note that this does not affect existing stable releases (3.8.x/3.10.x). Dev systems checked out and installed before October 17th should have the old index (which will work fine on PostgreSQL), and systems checked out since 10am this Tuesday will contain the fix to this issue. If your system is affected, you will need to run the queries listed in the "Upgrading" section of this newsletter.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #100
Two new versions of MySource Matrix were released to the community last Monday. Version 3.10.3 and 3.8.8 are predominantly bug-fix releases, with version 3.10.3 incorporating 45 bug fixes, and version 3.8.8 including 24 fixes. One feature change has also been made in both versions: the Role Assignments screen, previously available only for normal users, have been made available to LDAP and IPB users in both versions, allowing management of roles for users authenticated through external systems. Users of versions 3.10.2 and 3.8.7 of MySource Matrix are strongly encouraged to upgrade to these latest stable releases. The next release date is scheduled for Monday, 4th December.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #99
Two new releases of MySource Matrix, versions 3.10.3 and 3.8.8, will be released to the web site on Monday, 6th November. Users running previous versions are strongly recommended to upgrade to these versions when they become available.
(Issues 95 - 98) October
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #98
This week saw the release of version 2.0 of Mozilla's Firefox web browser. Among its many new features and changes is a change in how access keys are activated. Access keys have been traditionally accessed using "ALT+access key", and these form the basis of some of MySource Matrix's keyboard shortcuts such as "ALT+S" for committing screens. On Unix-based and Mac OS X systems, the shortcut was "CTRL+access key". In Firefox 2, there have been changes in the access key shortcuts on Windows and Unix-based systems, and this affects keyboard shortcuts within Matrix that depend on them. On Windows, the new combination is "ALT+SHIFT+access key", so to commit a screen the shortcut would now be "ALT+SHIFT+S". On *nix systems, the shortcut is "CTRL+SHIFT+access key". On OS X the shortcut has not changed.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #97
There is no general MySource Matrix developer news this week. However, it should be noted that there is a lot of information in the upgrading section this issue that system administrators would do well to read.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #96
Two new stable versions of MySource Matrix were released last Monday, 9th October. Version 3.8.7 saw fixes to 34 known bugs, plus the addition of a new "Orphaned HIPO Jobs" interface, allowing orphaned HIPO jobs to be force-killed, and the Role Assignments screen is now available to LDAP users. Rolling Calendar Pages have also seen improvements, with the ability to specify rolling periods in units of weeks or months, rather than days. Version 3.10.2 contains fixes to 51 known bugs since the 3.10.1 release, plus the new features also added to version 3.8.7. Further, a new "Import Thesaurus Terms" trigger action has been added, and the Send Email action has also been improved. These versions are the best available releases to date, and users of version 3.10.1 and 3.8.6 are encouraged to upgrade to the new versions. The upgrade procedure is the standard minor version upgrade; no additional steps are required. See http://matrix.squiz.net/resources/upgrading for upgrade instructions. The next release will take place on Monday, 6th November, when versions 3.10.3 and 3.8.8 of MySource Matrix are expected to be released.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #95
The next versions on the stable branches of MySource Matrix will be released this coming Monday, 9th October. These versions are primarily bug-fix releases, however small number of minor feature additions have been added. Version 3.8.7 will contain at least 34 bug fixes, as well as the following: - A new "Orphaned HIPO Jobs" interface, allowing orphaned HIPOs to be removed from the system (see newsletter #91) - "Role Assignments" screen added for LDAP Users (see below) Version 3.10.2 will contain at least 49 bug fixes, as well as the following feature and change in addition to the ones added to version 3.8.7: - New "Import Thesaurus Terms" trigger action (see newsletter #93) - Trigger name field is now mandatory (see newsletter #92) These will represent the best available versions of MySource Matrix at the time of release, and those users running previous versions are encouraged to upgrade to these new versions when they are released.
(Issues 90 - 94) September
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #94
Usually, being the first Monday of the month, next week would normally see a MySource Matrix release, However, due to the NSW Labour Day public holiday, there will be no releases this coming Monday. Instead, the releases of version 3.10.2 and 3.8.7 will be made the following Monday.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #93
There was an upgrade script added to the design CSS File asset in the most recent releases of MySource Matrix (versions 3.8.6 and 3.10.1) - especially upgrades directly from the 3.6.x versions to 3.8.6. There have been reports of problems where "undefined index" errors - representing a missing attribute - are being reported in the CSS File Customisation asset. This was due to an issue with the upgrade script which did not call the base upgrading functions - therefore, CSS File was never actually upgraded properly, causing problems down the track. This should not have caused problems for users upgrading from a 3.8.x version or later, as the "missing" attribute has been defined in the parent Design Area asset since version 3.8.0. However, if any similar issues are found, then this news item also applies to you. Those with access to branch versions should upgrade to the 3.8.x branch version instead. Otherwise, the issue will be addressed in the next releases of MySource Matrix (3.8.7 and 3.10.2), due to be released on 9th October.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #92
This came as part of fixing bug #1214 this week, where there were problems with searching for non-ASCII content within the system. It appears that non-ASCII content entered using the WYSIWYG editor was being corrupted by the incorrect use of the Javascript escape() function. The Javascript escape() and unescape() functions are based on the ASCII and ISO Latin character sets, and as such can only be used on ASCII characters. If non-ASCII input is possible, you should use the encodeURIComponent() and decodeURIComponent() instead. This function differs from escape() in that it will encode a character using UTF-8 encoding rather than ASCII.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #91
Two new minor releases of MySource Matrix were released last Monday. Versions 3.10.1 and 3.8.6 are the newest versions of the current stable branches of MySource Matrix. Version 3.10.1 is predominantly a bug fix release, containing 48 bug fixes. It also contains a couple of new features - a new "Show Result Asset in Lineage" option in Search Page, and an update to the Set Cache Expiry trigger action. Version 3.8.6 also contains these features, as well as some Data Source Graph asset features backported from the 3.10.x branch. It also contains 28 fixes to bugs found in the previous version. Users of previous versions are strongly encouraged to upgrade to the new releases.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #90
Two new minor releases of MySource Matrix will be released to the official web site next Monday, 4th September 2006. Version 3.10.1 will be the new release on the current stable (3.10.x) branch, containing a couple of new features (a new "Show Result Asset in Lineage" option in Search Page, and an update to the Set Cache Expiry trigger action), as well as more than 40 bug fixes. Version 3.8.6 will be the new release on the old 3.8.x stable branch, also containing the above features plus fixes to more than 25 bugs. These new releases will represent the best available versions of MySource Matrix, and users of previous versions are strongly encouraged to upgrade to versions 3.10.1 and 3.8.6 when they are released.
(Issues 86 - 89) August
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #89
There is no general MySource Matrix developer news this week.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #88
There is no general MySource Matrix developer news this week.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #87
The first stable release of the 3.10.x branch of MySource Matrix, version 3.10.0, was released on Monday. Version 3.10.0 has been 5 months in the making and contains almost 90 new features. 3.10.0 also contains 34 bug fixes and 4 minor functionality improvements since the 3.10.0 RC1 release.The next stable release of the 3.8.x branch, version 3.8.5, was also released on Monday. Version 3.8.5 contains 30 bug fixes and a couple of minor functionality improvements. All users currently running 3.8.4 should upgrade to this new version.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #86
The first stable release of the 3.10.x branch of MySource Matrix, version 3.10.0, will be released next Monday. The 3.10.0 release is the first major stable release in 5 months, and contains roughly 90 new features. It will also contain more than 30 fixed bugs compared to the release candidate.The next stable release of the 3.8.x branch, version 3.8.5, will also be released on Monday. This is predominantly a bug-fix release containing more than 25 bug fixes, however it also contains a small number of new features, particularly relating to caching.
(Issues 82 - 85) July
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #85
That's right! I'm back for one week only while Luke takes a well earned break. I'm going to take this opportunity to give everyone an update of MySource 4.0 development progress, which is where I'm spending most of my time.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #84
In newsletter #82 there was a change to the data directory structure in the development (3.11.0) version to ensure that more than 32,000 of a specific asset type could be created on Ext2/Ext3 file systems. A reminder that since this changes the paths of any live and publicly readable assets (ie. those that have a __data URL on the front-end), any designs referencing those types of assets MUST be reparsed or the asset will not display. If you are having problems with images not displaying in a design on 3.11.0, try re-parsing the design first before reporting a bug. Also, in the previous newsletter, there were instructions on how to fix a system that had gained file versioning entries with double slashes. This fix is now integrated into the data directory upgrade script via a command-line option (this example should be run from your MySource Matrix system root): $ php scripts/upgrade_data_dirs.php -s . --fix-lookups --show-details As with the previous upgrade, if you are not having file versioning problems then it is not necessary to run this script.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #83
Last week's newsletter referred to a new session file garbage collection script that has been added to all currently maintained versions of MySource Matrix (3.8.x, 3.10.x and development branches). The original version was a PHP script (scripts/session_file_garbage_collection.php), however this has been replaced with a shell script (scripts/session_cleanup.sh), which should should be more portable across *nix systems. Those systems already using the original PHP script should update their crontab (or other scheduler) to use the new shell script.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #82
The new 3.10.x stable branch of MySource Matrix was kicked off with the release of version 3.10.0 RC1 last Monday. This first release candidate contains almost 90 new features and improvements over the 3.8.x branch.This release candidate is available for evaluation purposes, and current users of the 3.8.x branch are recommended not to upgrade to this version. If no significant issues are found with the release candidate, the stable version of MySource Matrix 3.10.0 will be released on Monday 7th August.
(Issues 77 - 81) June
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #81
The first release candidate of the new stable branch of MySource Matrix will be released as version 3.10.0 RC1 on Monday 3rd July. This version contains many new improvements over previous versions of Matrix, with over 90 new features and improvements. This release candidate will be released on the web site for evaluation purposes, and current users of the 3.8.x branch are recommended not to upgrade to this version. If no significant issues are found with the release candidate, the stable version of MySource Matrix 3.10.0 will be released on Monday 7th August.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #80
There is no general MySource Matrix developer news this week.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #79
There is no general MySource Matrix developer news this week.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #78
Two new stable versions of MySource Matrix were released last Monday. Version 3.8.3 contains 40 bug fixes, some performance improvements for larger sites and a small number of minor feature enhancements. Version 3.6.9 is a bug-fix only release containing 22 bug fixes. Both versions are available for download from the MySource Matrix web site. If you are upgrading to these versions, please take note of the important additional upgrade steps, linked in the description of each version.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #77
Two new stable versions of MySource Matrix, versions 3.6.9 and 3.8.3, will be released on Monday, June 5th. Version 3.8.3 is predominantly a bug-fix release, but also contains performance improvements as well as a minor functionality enhancement in the Remote Content asset. Version 3.6.9 is a bug-fix release only and contains no new functionality.
(Issues 73 - 76) May
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #76
There is no general MySource Matrix developer news this week.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #75
There is no general MySource Matrix developer news this week.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #74
Greg will be on leave for the next few weeks, so Luke is writing the developer newsletters until he returns, starting with this one.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #73
New stable releases of MySource Matrix were released on Monday. Version 3.6.8 contains 28 bug fixes, while version 3.8.2 contains 42 bug fixes and some performance improvements for larger systems. Both versions are available for download on the MySource Matrix website.
(Issues 69 - 72) April
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #72
New stable releases of MySource Matrix will be released on Monday. Versions 3.6.8 and 3.8.2 will be bug fix releases and will not contain any additional functionality.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #71
The MySource Matrix CVS address has been changed from delta.squiz.net to cvs.squiz.net for some internal network reasons. The CVS source code itself is still stored on delta and can be accessed locally. Please ensure all external systems accessing the CVS repository are changed to use the new address during their next upgrade, and that the new address is used for all new installs.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #70
The newsletter is out a day early this week because Friday is a public holiday. But it's still packed with all the normal goodness you've come to expect! Enjoy.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #69
New stable releases of MySource Matrix were released on Monday. Version 3.6.7 contains 15 bug fixes, while version 3.8.1 contains 33 bug fixes and a new system configuration option to disable the sending of cacheable headers. Both versions are available for download on the MySource Matrix website.
(Issues 64 - 68) March
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #68
New stable releases of MySource Matrix will be released on Monday. Versions 3.6.7 and 3.8.1 will be bug fix releases and will not contain any additional functionality.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #67
Some performance improvements have been made to the PostgreSQL database stored procedures that require a small amount of downtime to implement during an upgrade. For this reason, and to allow for sufficient testing, the changes have only been made to the current development version (3.9.0).
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #66
There is no general MySource Matrix developer news this week.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #65
MySource Matrix versions 3.8.0 and 3.6.6 were released on Monday. Version 3.8.0 stable contains almost 100 new features since the 3.6 branch and 21 bug fixes since the Release Candidate. Version 3.6.6 stable is a bug fix release, containing 14 bug fixes since 3.6.5.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #64
It's been 6 months in the making and contains over 100 new features. The first stable release of the 3.8 branch will be released on Monday. Version 3.6.6 will also be released for users of the current 3.6 stable branch.
(Issues 60 - 63) February
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #63
The team working on the next version of the MySource CMS have been hard at work for the last few weeks. This is what they have to say.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #62
Today we say goodbye to Dave Heppell who is leaving the MySource Matrix development team to go back to uni and finish his degree. Good luck at uni Dave and thanks for all your great work on the MySource Matrix CMS.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #61
MySource Matrix 3.8.0 RC1 was released on Monday for internal client preview only. 3.8.0 RC1 contains almost 100 new features and focuses on improved scalability, performance, searching and listings. The current development version of MySource Matrix is now 3.9.0.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #60
A release candidate of MySource Matrix 3.8.0 will be released on Monday. Version 3.8.0 adds a significant amount of functionality, especially in the areas of asset listings, searches, usability and performance. If no significant problems are found with the release candidate, MySource Matrix 3.8.0 stable will be released on the 6th of March.
(Issues 56 - 59) January
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #59
MySource Matrix 3.8 will use a third database connection in order to support replicated databases. The default connection will now be read-only and used by most frontend pages. The two connections will be used for updating the database, one for updates within transactions and one for immediate updates.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #58
There is no general MySource Matrix developer news this week.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #57
MySource Matrix 3.4.8 and 3.6.4 were released on Monday for internal client upgrades only. They were not released on the web site. Both releases contain the new URL white list security fix for the remote content page. In addition, 3.4.8 contains 4 bug fixes and 3.6.4 contains 27.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #56
A new stable version of MySource Matrix will be released for the both the 3.4.x and 3.6.x branches on Monday. Both releases only contain bug fixes and will be released internally.
(Issues 103 - 107) December
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #107
The Search Page asset now allows you to select between Standard and Custom Grouping formats, allowing you to avoid the overhead of the latter. Previously, it used the Custom Grouping format and this could not be changed. This change was made to the development version only.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #106
The Asset Tree Weightings system inside the Search Manager has changed slightly, effective from the 3.12 and development versions. Previously, when determining which tree weighting applied to which asset, the Search Manager looks through each tree for an asset type which matches (or inherits from) the asset being indexed.However, the order of which tree was searched first was flawed because of the way the getParents() function worked. The function expected getParents() to return the closest parents to the current asset first, however it now returns the list ordered by tree ID, so this assumption does not hold.The system now works the other way around - searching for each type code, of the asset type and its ancestors, across all trees. This means that an "All Asset Types" setting in a closer folder will not take precedence over a higher tree with an exact match for the asset type. The getParents() function also now orders by decreasing depth in the tree, which is still not perfect, but closer to what was expected by this function.If this change to the weightings system causes any issues elsewhere, please let us know.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #105
Last Monday saw the start of a new stable branch with the first release candidate of MySource Matrix 3.12. Version 3.12.0 RC1 contains almost 80 new features and improvements over the 3.10.x branch of Matrix.Please note that the release candidate is provided for evaluation only. Upgrades to version 3.12 will not be supported until the first stable release, version 3.12.0, which is due to be released on 8th January 2006. An upgrade guide, which is likely to be based on upgrading from version 3.10.4 (the latest stable version), is currently being developed and tested, and will be ready in time for the 3.12.0 release.For a complete list of the improvements and changes, please consult the CHANGELOG file included with the release.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #104
Next Monday, 11th December will see the release of the first release candidate of the new 3.12 branch, version 3.12.0 RC1. This new release contains more than 80 new features.Please note that this release is offered for evaluation only. There is no supported upgrade path from previous versions of MySource Matrix to the release candidate. An upgrade guide will be provided with the first stable release, 3.12.0, currently scheduled to be released on 8th January 2007.
MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter - Issue #103
Next Monday, 4th December will see the stable releases of versions 3.10.4 and 3.8.9. These will be bug fix releases only. Clients running previous versions of these branches are strongly encouraged to upgrade to these versions when released.