MySource Matrix Developer

MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter Issue 65
Friday 10th March 2006

covers versions 3.6.6 stable, 3.8.0 stable, 3.9.0 development

News

3.8.0 and 3.6.6 Stable Released

MySource Matrix versions 3.8.0 and 3.6.6 were released on Monday. Version 3.8.0 stable contains almost 100 new features since the 3.6 branch and 21 bug fixes since the Release Candidate. Version 3.6.6 stable is a bug fix release, containing 14 bug fixes since 3.6.5.

New Matrix Website

A brand new version of the MySource Matrix website was released on Monday 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.

Change to LDAP Authentication

A change has been made the LDAP authentication system in 3.9.0 so that users cannot log into MySource Matrix if their LDAP Bridge is not LIVE. For MySource Matrix installations with existing LDAP bridges, set their status to LIVE to allow your users to log in.

Feature Requests Being Fulfilled

The 3.9.0 development version of MySource Matrix has only been around for a month, but it has already had 37 new features added to it. A lot of these are feature requests submitted to the MySource Matrix public bug tracker, so there you go; we really do fulfill public feature requests.

New Features

Set Content Type on Create of DIV/TABLE

Added to: 3.9.0 development

When editing content inside a bodycopy, you can now select the content type of a DIV or TABLE while you are creating it, via a new drop-down in the create pop-up interface.

Attach File Uploads to Form Emails

Added to: 3.9.0 development

Uploaded files in a custom form can now be attached to form submission and receipt emails. To enable this feature, select the new "Attach to Emails" option on your form questions and then select "Allow attachments" for the email formats. This allows you specify which file upload questions should have their files attached to emails and which emails will actually have files attached to them.

For example, you may want to attach uploaded files to the submission email (sent to a staff member) but not to the receipt email (sent to the user who submitted the form).

Cascade Current Status

Added to: 3.9.0 development

There has been a "cascade status change" option available for a while, allowing you to cascade a status change on one asset to all its children. Something you couldn't do was to cascade the current status of an asset to its children without actually changing the status of the parent.

Now, you can tick the "cascade status change" box and leave the status drop-down empty to cascade the current status of an asset without changing its status directly.

Cron Blackout Periods

Added to: 3.9.0 development

The Cron Manager's "options" screen now has a new section where you can specify blackout periods for the cron manager. Cron jobs will not be run during blackout periods. Cron jobs scheduled to run during a blackout period will be run at the next available time after the blackout period is over.

Image Variety URL Keyword

Added to: 3.9.0 development

A new keyword has been added for image varieties to allow you to print the URL for the variety. Previously, you could only print the image tag, using the keyword %image_v_<VARIETY_NAME>%. The new keyword is %image_v_<VARIETY_NAME>_url%.

Resume Stalled HIPO Jobs

Added to: 3.9.0 development

You are now able to resume HIPO jobs that have stalled within the system. HIPO jobs may stall because you accidentally closed a window, or you connection has timed out. Previously, there was no way to resume these jobs. Now, a new link is available in the HIPO Herder to allow you to resume the job and run it to completion.

Preview Screen Uses Current Root URL

Added to: 3.9.0 development

The preview screen for an asset will now automatically select the preview URL that is closest to the URL you are currently using. This will ensure that the preview is using the same PHP session information, allowing you to view a more accurate preview of the asset.

New System Conf Var for Cookie Domains

Added to: 3.9.0 development

A new system config setting called SQ_CONF_SYSTEM_PARENT_DOMAINS has been added to MySource Matrix. When setting the session cookie, MySource Matrix will look at the parent domains and if the current URL ends with a parent domain it will set the cookie on that domain (prefixed by a dot) instead, with the result that the cookie will be set (and the session will persist) across the parent domain and all sub-domains.

This is useful if your root URLs are syd.example.com and melb.example.com. You can make example.com a parent domain and sessions will persist across both root URLs without requiring Site Networks to be used.

Add Multiple URLs to a Site at Once

Added to: 3.9.0 development

When adding URLs to a Site asset, you can now add more than one URL at a time. Committing the page will apply all newly added URLs in one go.

New 'Is Posted' Condition

Added to: 3.9.0 development

A new condition asset has been added that will return true if a form has been posted. The is useful if you want to stop something in the site design from interfering with a form submission.

Asset Builder Retains Values on Error

Added to: 3.9.0 development

If the asset builder fails to create the asset due to errors (eg. missing required field) it will no longer remove the previously entered values from the create form once the page is refreshed. Previously, the user has to re-enter the information about the new asset each time an error occurred.

Planned Development

No new generic features are currently scheduled for development.

Upgrading

3.9.0 Development

Additional queries:

Additional comments: 

Make all LDAP Bridges LIVE if you use them for authentication.

New Bugs Added To Bug Tracker

Notes:

Bug #1163 (Notice links not deleted when trashing major asset) was submitted by Elden but was marked as Not a Bug because this functionality is by design.

New Feature Requests Added To Bug Tracker

Bugs Fixed In The Bug Tracker

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