MySource Matrix Developer

MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter Issue 63
Friday 24th February 2006

covers versions 3.6.5 stable, 3.8.0 RC1, 3.9.0 development

News

MySource 4.0 Update

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.

Our first goal was to identify the functionality of systems and assets currently provided within MySource Matrix 3. This list was then filtered down to the systems that we thought were non-trivial, and would require planning. From this list we were able deduce a list of core systems that were required to form the basis of MySource Matrix 4.0.

We discussed how systems can be semi-autonomous when a relationship with one system affects how another works. We proposed that a "Business Rule" can be extracted from the two systems and applied when the two systems are installed along side each other. The dependencies of each system where identified, along with the "friendships" that may exist with other systems.

All that basically means that the MySource 4 team is hard at work trying to break MySource 3 into separate systems (like permissions, locking and linking) that can talk to each other. This will let parts of the system improve over time without having to rewrite the whole architecture again.

SQ_CONF_LOG_FILE System Conf Setting

A system configuration setting (in main.inc) called SQ_CONF_LOG_FILE. This setting is no longer in use and may be removed manually from main.inc files during an upgrade if the thought of it hanging around really gets to you.

New Features

Structured File Importer

Added to: 3.9.0 development

A new tool has been developed to import files into MySource Matrix and create a structured tree of standard pages. The tool first converts the file to HTML before creating a new page for each heading it finds (heading levels to break on are configurable). The contents of the section becomes the contents of the page and the heading levels define parent/child relationships (eg. a H3 heading is a child of a H2 heading).

The tool initially supports the importing of HTML files and Word Documents but can later be extended to other formats that can be converted to HTML, like PDF files.

New LDAP Configuration Options

Added to: 3.9.0 development

Previously, only OpenLDAP had an option to use version 3 of the LDAP protocol within the LDAP bridge. The option to select version 3 of OpenLDAP has now been removed and a new checkbox added to allow you to select to use version 3 for any LDAP system. Bridges that currently have OpenLDAPv3 selected as the directory type will be reverted to the OpenLDAP option and have the new "use version 3" checkbox selected by default.

Another new option has been added to disallow LDAP referrals. Some Active Directory installations may require this option to be set. If you have trouble connecting to a directory (eg. the system hangs when expanding the LDAP Bridge asset) you may need to select this option.

IP Condition Improved

Added to: 3.9.0 development

The current condition that allows for design and group restrictions based on a user's IP has been significantly improved. Now, the condition allows you to configure multiple network IPs and subnet masks, rather than the previous "single IP with wildcards" approach. A "grant/deny system" is used so you can grant access to some IPs and deny access to others in the same condition. Additionally, you can import IP conditions from a CSV file to make the setup of similar conditions (or very large IP rules) much easier.

WYSIWYG Indent Uses Paragraphs in IE

Added to: 3.9.0 development

Previously, Internet Explorer used <blockquote> tags for indenting paragraphs in the WYSIWYG editor. Firefox has always correctly used <p> tags for indenting. The WYSIWYG indenting plugin has now been changed to use <p> tags for indenting in both IE and Firefox.

New WYSIWYG Language Plugin

Added to: 3.9.0 development

A new plugin has been developed for the WYSIWYG editor that allows you to specify a language for a piece of text. Selecting a language from the drop-down list inserts <span> tags around the text and sets the tag's "lang" attribute.

Long Description in WYSIWYG Image Plugin

Added to: 3.9.0 development

A new field called "long description" has been added to the Insert Image plugin of the WYSIWYG editor. The "longdesc" attribute of an image is used to provide a URL or anchor that points to the text description of the image. It is not an actual text description itself. The interface for selecting the longdesc URL is the same as the insert link interface. You can select a standard page or manually enter a URL or anchor.

Editing Anchors in WYSIWYG

Added to: 3.9.0 development

Previously, you could only insert new anchors into the WYSIWYG editor. You could not delete or edit them without manually editing the HTML. The Insert Anchor WYSIWYG plugin now provides an interface for editing and removing existing anchors.

New Grouping Keywods in Listings

Added to: 3.9.0 development

Two new keywords have been added to the listing engine assets, allowing them to print the number of grouped asset below them. The keyword will print the number of assets directly in the group (which may themselves be groups of assets) and will print the number of assets in all grouping levels in the current group.

For example, the following asset listing is using two levels of parent grouping to group images by folder. The number is brackets shows the value of the keyword first and the keyword second.

- Photos (2, 3)
    - 2005 (2, 2)
         - Image 1
         - Image 2
    - 2006 (1, 1)
         - Image 3

Planned Development

Auto-teleport in Asset Map

To be added to : 3.9.0 development
Estimated start date: 27th February 2006
Estimated end date: 10th March 2006

A new preference is being added to MySource Matrix to allow you to specify an asset to auto-teleport users to when they log in. The asset map will show this asset as the root of the asset tree, just as if the user had right-clicked the asset and selected "Teleport". The preference will be configurable per group.

If a user exists in more than one group, a common parent will be found for all the auto-teleport assets and the user will be teleported there instead. Note that this may be the normal root node of the system if a common parent cannot be found.

Upgrading

3.9.0 Development

Additional queries:

Additional comments: 

No additional upgrade steps are required.

New Bugs Added To Bug Tracker

Notes:

Bug #1118 (Editor isn't saving content with right encoding) was submitted by coolvik on Feb 23rd 2006 but cannot be fixed. A workaround is available for this problem.

Feature Request #1147 (Asset listing format page using nested content) was submitted by coolvik but was marked as Not a Bug as the functionality already exists, just not in the way described.

New Feature Requests Added To Bug Tracker

Bugs Fixed In The Bug Tracker

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