MySource Matrix Developer

MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter Issue 104
Friday 8th December 2006

covers versions 3.8.9 stable, 3.10.4 stable, 3.11.0 development

News

New Release Candidate Next Monday

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.

Four Versions to be Maintained

Please note that the release of version 3.12.0 RC1 will not immediately spell the end of bug fixes to the 3.8 series. Therefore, following the release, developers should have FOUR systems checked out for the time being - branch systems for versions 3.8, 3.10, 3.12, and a development version (which will become 3.13.0).

This situation will continue at least until the release of version 3.8.10, currently scheduled for 8th January 2007.

New Features

Listing Engine: Sliding Page List

Added to: 3.11.0 development

This new feature allows you to display a partial page list that displays a certain number of pages around the current page in a asset that uses the Listing Engine.

For instance, the keyword will display a total of nine pages - typically, the current page and four pages on either side. The number of pages specified in the keyword will always be displayed - in this example, if the current page is too near the first or last page, the first or last nine pages will be displayed.

It is recommended that the number of pages specified be an odd number so that an equal number of pages are displayed on either side of the current page.

Uploaded File Type Restrictions

Added to: 3.11.0 development

This new restriction allows administrators to restrict the type of files users can upload to the system. The first new option allows you to specify the file extensions that can be uploaded - this option is used in conjunction with the types of files permitted for each file type to determine whether a file upload is allowed. (For instance, TIFF files are not accepted by Image assets, and will continue to be rejected by Image assets even if ".tiff" is added as an allowable extension.)

A separate option allows or restricts the ability to upload files with no extension. Note that the current behaviour of (no global restriction) remains the default after this change.

This restriction system is implemented as a preference, and so can be set at either a global or user group level.

Maximum Pre-Uploaded File Size Setting

Added to: 3.11.0 development

This new preference restricts the size of File assets that can be created in a MySource Matrix system through the "pre-uploaded files" method. Previously, pre-uploaded files used the same preference used for files uploaded through the browser.

Note that this does not obviously stop you from uploading files to the server itself, however Matrix will not accept it if it is larger than pre-uploaded file size limit.

This setting is empty by default, which indicates "no limit".

Structured File Import Tool Changes

Added to: 3.11.0 development

This change to the Structured File Import Tool separates the "Asset to Import Under" and "New Site" options so both can now be selected at the same time. If both are selected, a new site will be created under the asset specified in the "Asset to Import Under" setting, rather than in the root folder.

Referral Asset Keywords in STAF Emails

Added to: 3.11.0 development

All keywords relating to the referral asset are now available in Custom Form's Send to a Friend emails. Keywords that normally start with "%asset_" should be referenced using "%referral_asset_" instead to refer to the referral asset.

New Features for Asset Builder

Added to: 3.11.0 development

The Asset Builder Page (and by extension, the Account Manager Page) now allows you to specify one or more metadata schemas that will automatically applied to created assets. The values for these metadata fields may be supplied by the user when creating the asset.

Also, a new type customisation feature allows you to customise the create form for an asset type. When an asset type is set to be customised, a new Layout asset is created underneath the Asset Builder, that will be used to replace the keyword. Setting up this Layout asset should be no different from setting up a Simple Edit interface, as what Layout assets are normally used for. This can be used independently of the above feature.

Proxy Config: Ignore Port Number

Added to: 3.11.0 development

A new setting has been added to the Proxy Configuration system config screen. The new "Ignore Port Number" setting can be useful if you access MySource Matrix using a specific port nunmber, and you do not wish for that port number to be seen in content generated by Matrix.

This change has also seen the "Proxy Authentication Configuration" screen renamed to simply "Proxy Configuration", since it no longer houses just authentication options.

New Internal Message Purge Script

Added to: 3.11.0 development

This new script allows you to purge internal messages according to a set of conditions defined on the command line. Its format is similar to the rollback_management.php script, and allows you to specify:

- The time period to remove messages before (in the same format as used in the rollback_management.php script),

- Which users the message were sent to/from,

- The types of messages to be removed (Read, Unread or Deleted),

- the type of internal messages to be removed.

If you are unsure of the type of internal messages to remove, visit an asset's Logs screen. The "Log Type" dropdown contains the types of messages, with each word capitalised and dots replaced with spaces. For instance, "Asset Status" log types are stored internally as "asset.status". This is what you need to send to the script. You can also use wildcards, eg. "asset.workflow.*" for all workflow messages.

For full usage details, run the script without any parameters.

Major Thesaurus Upgrade

Added to: 3.11.0 development

The Thesaurus system has been greatly revamped. Some of the new features of the new Thesaurus asset include:

- Automatic reflection: if turned on, when a relationship in one direction is made between two terms, a relationship in the opposite direction can be made automatically. This simplifies the creation of relationships such as "broader term/narrower term".

- Hierarchial or "flat" asset map display options: the system can specify a set of relations that form the basis of a hierarchy, with the top-level parents of those relations becoming the first-level children of the thesaurus. Alternatively, all terms can be listed on the top-level in an "A-Z" format. Neither effects the drill-down capability of the terms themselves.

- The thesaurus XML format has been expanded to support a "note" tag, which can be used for non-hierarchial data, such as Scope Note (SN) terms used in standard thesaurus construction guidelines (eg. ANSI/NISO Z39.19, ISO 2788).

- The Thesaurus Term asset's Details screen now has a 'Term Info' panel that allows for a quick navigation of related terms.

The process of deleting a thesaurus term is now slightly different, in that in most cases, only the link between two thesaurus terms will be trashed. Terms themselves can be completely trashed by entering "A-Z" format and deleting the link between it and the Thesaurus asset.

Missing Metadata To Block Asset Go-Live

Added to: 3.11.0 development

This new feature enforces MySource Matrix's rules that an asset's metadata must be considered "complete" - according to the definitions within the metadata schemas - before the asset can be set to "Live" or one of the two "Approved To Go Live" statuses. A message appears underneath the Change Status drop-down if incomplete metadata is blocking the ability to approve or to make an asset live.

CSV to XML Import Format Script

Added to: 3.11.0 development

This new import script allows you to convert a CSV file (containing descriptive headers) and file mapping fields to metadata into a set of import actions that can be handled by the import_from_xml.php script.

For more information about this script, please see the comment at the top of the script.

Planned Development

No new generic features are currently scheduled for development.

Upgrading

3.11.0 Development

Additional queries:

- The new Authentication Redirect feature requires a new field to be added to the sq_ast_url table, which can be done with this query:

ALTER TABLE sq_ast_url ADD auth_urlid SMALLINT;
ALTER TABLE sq_rb_ast_url ADD auth_urlid SMALLINT;

- The new Thesaurus format requires a new field to be added to the sq_thes_lnk table, which can be done with this query:

ALTER TABLE sq_thes_lnk ADD relid varchar(15);

These need to be run before step_02.php is run, otherwise it will complain while trying to place a new index on the latter.

Additional comments: 

In between running step_02.php and step_03.php in your normal upgrade, run the scripts/upgrade_thesaurus_db.php script to update the thesaurus' database structure to the new version.

New Bugs Added To Bug Tracker

Bug ID	3.8.x	3.10.x	Dev	Description
1912	Y	Y	Y	Paint layout errors in 3.10.4?
1916	N	Y	Y	Form Date Time Validation Problem
1923	N	Y	N	Search Manager fails on re-indexing certain content
1925	N	N	Y	CSS File asset, enabled Static File option generates error

Notes:

Bug #1895 (https web path/site not found) was reported by Daniel Nitsche on 29th November 2006 but was marked as not being a bug because the issue was traced to a deficiency in Apache HTTPS configuration.

Bug #1909 (Keywords in design not replaced for remote content pages) was reported by Grant Heggie but was marked as not being a bug. Regular keywords cannot be printed in designs as they do for bodycopies (apart from global keywords); they should be printed using MySource_PRINT keywords, for example.

Bug #1911 (Error in the spell checker) was reported by Deborah Sherwood but was marked as not being a bug as the issue was related to a failure to enable the pspell extension when PHP was compiled.

Bug #1917 (Committing Design Parse file occasionally generates error message) was reported by Scott Kim but was marked as Can Not Replicate after the bug was unable to be replicated by another developer.

Bug #1919 (Metadata disappears if lock is acquired in simple edit on page under workflow) was reported by miriam.clinton but was marked as Will Not Fix as the bug was reported in the 3.6 branch, which is no longer supported, and could not be reproduced in currently supported versions.

Bug #1920 (Form Validation for date time questions is working strangely) was reported by Christophe Olivar but was marked as a duplicate of bug #1077 (Blank Date fields in custom form) reported by Anthony Barnes on 9th January 2006. The duplicate bug has been closed.

Bug #1921 (Metadata field value assignment does not validate against expected values) was reported by Mark Brydon but was marked as not being a bug because the script that the problem was reported in (import_from_xml.php) runs with Matrix's security level set to OPEN, meaning no validation is done by the system.

Bug #1922 (Character entities parsing incorrectly) was reported by Kim Colbourne but was marked as not being a bug because a feature already committed to the development version (the only version this was marked as an issue in), allowing character encodings to be sent to HTML Tidy, will fix this issue.

Bug #1924 (Pasted content from Dreamweaver results in unwanted list items) was reported by Raena Armitage but was marked as not being a bug because the issue is caused by HTML Tidy cleaning incorrect Dreamweaver code.

New Feature Requests Added To Bug Tracker

Bug ID	Description
1913	Improve Password Rules usability
1914	Uneditable metadata values not displayed in editing interface
1915	"Use default" should be disabled if there isn't a default
1918	Metadata date field always has a default value
1926	Navigation Menu Accesskeys

Bugs Fixed In The Bug Tracker

Bug ID	3.8.x	3.10.x	Dev	Description
1908	Y	Y	Y	WYSIWYG inconsistent when trying to apply a class to a selected element
1912	Y	Y	Y	Paint layout errors in 3.10.4?
1916	N	Y	Y	Form Date Time Validation Problem

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