MySource Matrix Developer

MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter Issue 81
Friday 30th June 2006

covers versions 3.6.9 stable, 3.8.3 stable, 3.9.0 development

News

3.10.0 Release Candidate on Monday

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 more than 90 new features and improvements compared to the current stable release.

This release candidate will be released on the MySource Matrix 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.

New 3.6 and 3.8 Stable Releases on Monday

Two new stable versions of MySource Matrix will also be released on Monday: versions 3.8.4 and 3.6.10. These will be bug-fix releases only and contain no significant functionality changes.

The 3.6.10 release is expected to be the last major bug-fix release for the 3.6.x branch, with critical bugs only to be fixed following Monday's release. Stable version testing and fixes will continue to be performed on the 3.8.x and 3.10.x branches only.

No Further Development on 3.10.x Branch

The 3.10.0 RC1 release signals the end of development for the 3.10.x branch of MySource Matrix. No new core development will be included into this version unless it adds significant performance or usability benefits. New features will be placed into the new 3.11.0 development version.

Changes to Write Access on Create

A change to the way permissions are granted on new assets has been made to the development version, and will first appear in a public version in version 3.10.0 RC1.

Currently, users are always given an explicit write permission for new assets created. Now, this permission is no longer explicitly granted if other permissions cascaded to the new asset already allow write permission for the user - whether set for the user itself, or for a user group the user is a member of. Only if the user would not have write permission for the asset through these means, will it attempt to add an explicit entry for that user.

This is a major change in asset creation, and any permission-based problems experienced as a result of this change should be reported to the MySource Matrix development team immediately.

Default Email Addresses

From version 3.10.0 RC1 onwards, the main.inc configuration file generated by the step_01.php install script will have no address set for either the default email address (SQ_CONF_DEFAULT_EMAIL) or the technical contact email address (SQ_CONF_TECH_EMAIL).

Users are advised to set these email addresses when editing their configuration file after running step_01.php, preferably to that of a system administrator. The step_02.php script will warn you if either email address is empty.

Link Creation / Deletion Changes

A scenario was found where PostgreSQL would deadlock in certain circumstances because updates on the "db3" connection were waiting for a transaction on "db2" to complete. All operations on the sq_ast_lnk and sq_ast_lnk_tree tables are now to be done via the "db3" connection from version 3.10.0 RC1 onwards, rather than the "db2" one.

New Features

'Disable Image Resizing' WYSIWYG Pref

Added to: 3.9.0 development

A new preference has been added to the WYSIWYG content type in the development version, that prevents Image assets that are included in a WYSIWYG from being resized. Users can attempt to modify the dimensions of an asset by resizing it in the WYSIWYG or modifying the source code, however the Insert Image plugin will revert the dimensions to the original ones.

This preference only takes effect on Image assets stored within MySource Matrix. It does not have any effect on images linked from outside the system.

Structured Asset Info Report Addition

Added to: 3.9.0 development

A new section has been added to the Structured Asset Info report, showing the designs that have been applied to the asset. The report will display the effective designs applied to each URL the asset is accessible from.

Access History Design Area Improvements

Added to: 3.9.0 development

Changes have been made to the Access History design area to make it more flexible. An option has been added to stop pages from automatically being added to the access history list. If this option is turned on, pages can be manually added to the history through a button, printable by a MySource_PRINT tag.

Further, users can now delete pages from the access history by clicking on a 'delete' button. This delete button is also printable by a MySource_PRINT tag within the MySource_ASSET section of the design area.

This allows the Access History design area to work, for example, as a user-customisable "my favourite links" area.

Link Manager Page Now Clears Group Cache

Added to: 3.8.4 stable, 3.9.0 development

When changes made by the Link Manager Page are committed, the user asset's cache containing the groups the user is a member of is now cleared, so it can be refreshed with any changes to group memberships as a result of that commit.

Improved 'Last Modified' CGI Mode Support

Added to: 3.9.0 development

Previously, the code that checked whether to return a '304 Not Modified' HTTP response assumed that the headers were to be taken from the Apache PHP module's request headers. This change allows the request headers to also work in CGI mode.

Multiple Thesaurus Support for Tagging

Added to: 3.9.0 development

Previously tags could only be sourced from a single thesaurus, allowing a limited vocabulary to be effectively set up. There is now an option in the Tag Manager that disables this restriction, allowing tags to be sourced from any thesaurus.

If the option is changed from "any thesaurus" to "one thesaurus", any tags set from another thesaurus will remain unchanged.

Additional Level of Keyword Replacement

Added to: 3.9.0 development

An additional level of keyword replacement is now available in the development version, which was added to satisfy the keyword replacement needs of the Bulkmail system. This final level occurs after printFrontend() has been finished, and allows keywords to be replaced after the page has been completed. Additional keywords can be passed to a new function inside the main MySource class to be replaced there. Otherwise the behaviour is similar to what happened previously.

This is not likely to be useful for parts of MySource Matrix that display content to the browser window, however in the case of Bulkmail where a page is generated and then sent by email, this will be a useful addition.

Disable Keywords Improvements

Added to: 3.9.0 development

Percent signs in a bodycopy container with "Disable Keywords" checked are now converted into their entity equivalent ("%"), so they are not replaced higher up in the keyword replacement chain.

News Item: Fields Added to Create Screen

Added to: 3.8.4 stable, 3.9.0 development

The Summary and Body attributes of the News Item asset (part of the News commercial package) have been added to the asset's create screen.

Planned Development

No new generic features are currently scheduled for development.

Upgrading

3.9.0 Development

Additional queries: No additional queries are required for upgrades.

Additional comments: No additional upgrade steps are required.

New Bugs Added To Bug Tracker

Notes:

Bug #1308 (XSS protection blocking WebTrends SmartSource code) was reported by AFP-WMT on 27th April 2006 but was marked as not being a bug after it was found that the issue was not one caused by MySource Matrix.

Bug #1420 (File versioning 'dir' not consistent between public and private folder) was reported by Wombat on 9th June 2006 but was marked as Can Not Replicate after two developers were unable to reproduce the problem in normal circumstances.

Bug #1453 (Restrict search based on metadata value) was submitted by KateN but was marked as a duplicate of bug #1452 with the same name. It is believed this duplication was accidental. The bug has been closed.

New Feature Requests Added To Bug Tracker

Bugs Fixed In The Bug Tracker

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