MySource Matrix Developer

MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter Issue 64
Friday 3rd March 2006

covers versions 3.6.5 stable, 3.8.0 RC1, 3.9.0 development

News

3.8.0 Stable Release Monday

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.

New Matrix Website

A brand new version of the MySource Matrix website will be released next week to coincide with the release of 3.8.0. The new website has a fresh new design and some great content. All parts of the site have been redesigned and rewritten to make it a much better resource for users of MySource Matrix. The new site also makes releases much easier, so all monthly stable releases of MySource Matrix will appear on the website from now on.

New Features

Auto-teleport in Asset Map

Added to: 3.9.0 development

A new preference has been added to MySource Matrix to allow you to specify an asset to auto-teleport users to when they log in. Both the administration and simple asset maps 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 is configurable per user group.

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

The "restore root" button in the asset map still allows the user to change the asset map view to the root folder. However, it will now return the user to their original auto-teleported root node if clicked while viewing the root folder.

Auto-expand in Asset Map

Added to: 3.9.0 development

Adding _admin onto the end of a URL will take you to the administration interface for the page that has that URL. The asset map will now also expand and select that asset so you can begin editing it more easily.

Control Asset Builder Form URL

Added to: 3.9.0 development

The asset builder has a new configuration option that allows you to control where the form is submitted to. By default, the form is submitted to the current page you are viewing. The new configuration option allows you to have the form submit the the asset builder's own URL, even if it is nested inside another page.

Clear Query String Design Var

Added to: 3.9.0 development

The "asset_link" design print variable currently has options to append the query string and to start the query string. This print variable is most commonly used to switch the design of a site, such as switching to a text only or low bandwidth design. If the current query string already has SQ_ACTIONs to set the design, you were not able to switch the design back without navigating away from the page as the new SQ_ACTION conflicted with the existing one.

There is now a new option for the "asset_link" design print variable to clean out SQ_ query string variables, allowing you to switch between designs freely. Example code for this new variable is:

<MySource_PRINT id_name="__global__" var="asset_link" append_query_string="true" clean_query_string="true" />

New Definition List WYSIWYG Plugin

Added to: 3.9.0 development

A new plugin has been added to the WYSIWYG editor to allow for the creation of definition lists. Definition lists consist terms and descriptions. The term is specified in a DT tag and is restricted to inline content. The description is specified in a DD tag and contains block-level content.

The user can start to type by either pressing DT or DD button. Pressing Control+D moves to the next term or definition. For example, the following sequence:

1. 1. Press the DT button in the WYSIWYG toolbar
2. 2. Type a term, 'Scott'
3. 3. Press Control+D
4. 4. Type a description, 'He is a boy.'
5. 5. Press Control+D
6. 6. Type a term, 'Scott2'
7. 7. Press Control+D
8. 8. Type a description, 'He is still a boy.'

will generate the following HTML:

<dl>
    <dt>Scott</dt>
    <dd>He is a boy.</dd>
    <dt>Scott2</dt>
    <dd>He is still a boy.</dd>
</dl>

To finish the definition list, you can press Control+D twice or press the same button from the menu as the tag name you are currently editing. For example, if you just finished entering a description, pressing DD button will finish the list.

New Citation WYSIWYG Plugin

Added to: 3.9.0 development

A new WYSIWYG plugin has been developed that allows you to wrap text in <cite> tags to indicate that a piece of text is a citation.

New Definition WYSIWYG Plugin

Added to: 3.9.0 development

A new WYSIWYG plugin has been developed that allows you to wrap text in <dfn> tags to indicate that a piece of text is being defined. A popup allows you to set the title attribute for the tag.

New Blockquote WYSIWYG Plugin

Added to: 3.9.0 development

A new WYSIWYG plugin has been developed that allows you to wrap text in <blockquote> tags to indicate that a piece of text is quoted.

New Visual Aid WYSIWYG Plugin

Added to: 3.9.0 development

A new WYSIWYG plugin has been developed that allows you to display visual indicators for hidden elements. It currently displays indicators for span tags with the lang attribute, anchors and table borders. It also shows the difference between a table header and a table cell.

Disable Caching for a System Root URL

Added to: 3.9.0 development

The cache manager now has the ability to disable caching per system root URL. If a user is viewing a page via a non-cachable system root URL, the system will behave as if the _nocache suffix is being used.

Delete Link Trigger Action

Added to: 3.9.0 development

A new trigger action has been added that allows for a trigger to be executed when a link is deleted between two assets. The "Has Parent/Child" trigger condition has also been updated to support this new action and provide some addition features and speed improvements.

By setting the advanced parameters (link type, link value, dependent, exclusive) of the condition, complex dynamic triggers can be created, such as "when a link of type NOTICE is deleted (moved to the trash), notify the editors of the major asset (the pages the link was in).".

Planned Development

No new generic features are currently scheduled for development.

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 the 2nd of February 2006 but cannot be fixed. A workaround is available and detailed in the bug tracker and the support forums.

Bug #1154 ("duplicate key violates unique constraint sq_ast_lnk_tree_pkey") was submitted by Geoffroy on the 20th of February 2006 but was marked as Can Not Replicate after a developer could not replicate the bug and the poster twice did not reply to comments asking for more information.

Bug #1161 9What's new listing date ranges don't use assets per page) was submitted by Anthony Barnes but was marked as Not a Bug because this behavior of the What's New page is intended.

New Feature Requests Added To Bug Tracker

Bugs Fixed In The Bug Tracker

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