MySource Matrix Developer

MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter Issue 85
Friday 28th July 2006

covers versions 3.8.4 stable, 3.10.0 RC1, 3.11.0 development

News

I'm Back

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 4.0 Update

The MySource 4.0 development team is hard at work. We are finishing off the fourth specification this week and are on schedule for our alpha release date. This week also sees the completion of our first piece of development on the project. The Channels system is now complete as per the specification.

A side project we are working on is the development of a new version of Snoopy. Called PHP_CodeSniffer, it is a PHP5 only coding standards checker. We are currently in the process of proposing that the code sniffer be included in PEAR. There is still a bit of polishing to go, but the response has been positive from the PEAR community. You can find out more about PHP_CodeSniffer on the project page: http://matrix.squiz.net/developer/tools/php_cs

Some Old Features Reported This Week

There are a couple of new features listed in this week's newsletter that were actually added a few weeks ago but were not reported. So if you already have one of these features, that's why.

New Features

Set Cache Expiry Trigger Action

Added to: 3.8.5 stable, 3.10.0 stable, 3.11.0 development

A new trigger action has been added that allows you to set the expiry time of an asset's cache entries. The expiry time is based on the current time plus a defined number of minutes, hours or days. The trigger action also allows you to set the DSN of the cache database if you want to update the expiry on a slave cache server, for example.

Default Blank Parse File for Designs

Added to: 3.11.0 development

The CVS commit message for this feature reads: "In fulfillment of an ancient dream, designs now have a default (empty) parse file so you can edit straight away without having to upload." Enough said.

Script to Clean Up Cache Dir

Added to: 3.8.5 stable, 3.10.0 stable, 3.11.0 development

A new system integrity script has been added to clean up the cache directory. The script will delete all cache files that do not have an entry in the sq_cache table (ie. they are orphaned). The script must be run as a user that has access to delete the cache files. If files cannot be removed, an error will be generated at the end of the script to let you know.

The script is run using the following command:

$ php scripts/system_integrity_clean_cache_dir.php .

Clear Cache Trigger Action

Added to: 3.8.5 stable

The clear cache trigger action from 3.10 has been backported to 3.8. The description of the trigger action from newsletter #62 was:

A new trigger action has been developed that allows you to clear the MySource Matrix cache for one or more assets when an event is fired. You may select to clear the cache for the asset that the event is fired on and/or any other assets in the tree. You can also select to clear the cache for these assets only, or their dependent assets or children. You can also select the types of assets you want the cache cleared for.

Cache Database DSN

Added to: 3.8.5 stable, 3.10.0 stable, 3.11.0 development

MySource Matrix now has a DBCACHE_DSN configuration setting. This allows you to place the cache table in a different database to your main one. For systems that have configured database replication, this can be quite useful. The cache table is the only table that really needs write access on a publishing server. By placing this table in a separate database, the publishing server can have read-only access to the main database of information (allowing for one-way database replication) as well as write access to the cache table.

Upgrade instructions were in described in newsletter #83.

Planned Development

Web Services: SOAP Application Assets

To be added to : 3.11.0 development
Estimated start date: already in development
Estimated end date: mid August 2006

Upgrading

3.11.0 Development

Additional queries:

Additional comments: 

No additional upgrade steps are required.

New Bugs Added To Bug Tracker

Notes:

Bug #1323 (Sub menus not showing intermittently) was submitted by Deborah Braithwaite on the 1st of May 2005 but has been marked as Will Not Fix. There is a workaround for this problem and the problem only occurs when customising design areas that don't need to be customised. The fix would mean a complex rewrite of the design system that could destabilise the rest of the system.

Bug #1479 (Add New Asset in IE 7 beta 3 opens in a new window) was submitted by James Hunter on the 6th July 2006 but was marked as Can Not Replicate after a new install of IE7 did not produce the error.

Bug #1490 (Image Variety Trigger generates warnings / errors / fails) was submitted by James Hunter on the 9th July 2006 but was marked as Can Not Replicate after the bug could not be reproduced by a number of developers.

Bug #1505 (Related Asset Listing not Listing Siblings) was submitted by Karl Davidson on the 13th of July 2006 but was marked as not being a bug after it could not be reproduced and it was found that the related asset listing may have been used incorrectly.

Bug #1508 (Thesaurus Tagging Problem) was submitted by lynna on 17th July 2006 but was marked as Can Not Replicate. The functionality issue reported is by design, and a developer was unable to reproduce the related performance issue.

Bug #1522 (ChangeLog should be on the Matrix website for each version) was submitted by Avi Miller but was marked as not being a bug because the issue was not related to the MySource Matrix web site, not the product itself.

Bug #1525 (Content tags automatically cascade and can't be "uncascaded") was submitted by Luke Wright (on behalf of Shane Weddell) and was confirmed in the 3.10.0 RC1 release version, however it was fixed by bug #1514 (Edit screens with partially-acquired locks are still editable) in the 3.10.x branch. The bug has been marked as Fixed.

New Feature Requests Added To Bug Tracker

Bugs Fixed In The Bug Tracker

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