MySource Matrix Developer

MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter Issue 101
Friday 17th November 2006

covers version 3.8.8 stable, 3.10.3 stable, 3.11.0 development

News

IMPORTANT: Issues with 3.11 on PostgreSQL

If you have a 3.11.0 development version running on PostgreSQL and with the Search package, that was checked out and installed between 10am October 17th and 10am last Tuesday (November 15th), and are having problems adding content to your system, please read on.

The symptoms of this problem are frequent "duplicate key" database errors when adding content. This was traced to the changes made to Search to better support Oracle - when the primary key to the indexing table was changed to suit Oracle without realising that a part of the removed index was vital to the proper operation of indexing on PostgreSQL.

Please note that this does not affect existing stable releases (3.8.x/3.10.x). Dev systems checked out and installed before October 17th should have the old index (which will work fine on PostgreSQL), and systems checked out since 10am this Tuesday will contain the fix to this issue. If your system is affected, you will need to run the queries listed in the "Upgrading" section of this newsletter.

Search: Changes to "All Words" Matching

Previously, when a search field had multiple data sources and more than one word was entered in the search, all data sources had to match all words. Now, it can be matched from any combination of data sources, so long as all words are still matched.

New Features

Require Secure Login Option

Added to: 3.11.0 development

A new section has been added to the System Configuration screen that allows administrators to set that logins to a certain root URL must be done using a secure (HTTPS) protocol. If a user accesses the login box from HTTP, the browser will be redirected to a HTTPS version of the login box, then redirected back to the HTTP version upon a successful login. This option can be set for each system root URL in the System Configuration.

Enhanced Backend Searching

Added to: 3.11.0 development

The Quick Search box, currently able to search for assets by asset ID or URL, can now search for assets by indexable content if the Search package is installed.

If a keyword is entered into the Quick Search box, any assets that match will pop up in a Search Results window, in a similar location to the New Messages popup. You can click on an asset name to go to its Details screen, while the More Info popups and "Find Lineage in Asset Map" features work as in other areas of MySource Matrix.

If an asset is matched by asset ID or URL and none by keywords, Matrix will redirect to that asset, as is the current functionality. However, if an asset is matched in both categories, the drop-down will show both.

The number of results to be shown on each page defaults to five assets, and is set as a Search Manager preference, and so can be modified globally and/or per user group.

The "Find Lineage in Asset Map" functionality has also been updated so that the backend search can be used in conjunction with asset maps in WYSIWYG popups such as Insert Link. Clicking the binoculars will find the lineage in the popup's asset map, bringing the popup to the top of your screen in the process (if your JavaScript security settings allow this - Firefox does not by default).

As part of this update, the Quick Search box has also been added to the Simple Edit interface. However, for the searching to work, a design needs to be applied to the asset being edited (which is a prerequisite for Simple Edit to work properly anyway).

Custom Form: Submission ID in Emails

Added to: 3.11.0 development

The Submission Asset ID keyword, which can be used by forms as a unique ID for form submissions, has been made available to the emails sent out by Custom Form. In 3.10.x it is currently only available in the Thank You bodycopy. The submission asset ID will be made available using the keyword , to be consistent with the Thank You bodycopy's keyword name.

LDAP Backend User Asset

Added to: 3.11.0 development

The LDAP User asset has been split into two separate types: the standard LDAP User asset and a new LDAP Backend User asset. These user types mirror the User and Backend User asset types used in default authentication - this contrasts from currently where all LDAP Users have backend access.

The option of which type of asset to create for each user can be set per bridge. However, the default will be set to LDAP Backend User, as this is closest to how LDAP User previously worked. Assets such as Listing Engine-type assets that list or search on LDAP User access will need to be manually changed to list LDAP Backend Users instead, if they are to be used.

Note that if the user type is changed while users authenticated from that LDAP Bridge are still logged into the system, their privileges will not change until they log out and log in again.

Planned Development

No new generic features are currently scheduled for development.

Upgrading

Additional queries:

BEGIN;
ALTER TABLE sq_sch_idx DROP CONSTRAINT sch_idx_pk;
ALTER TABLE sq_sch_idx ADD CONSTRAINT sch_idx_pk PRIMARY KEY (value, assetid, component);
COMMIT;

Additional comments: 

If you are listing or searching on LDAP User, you will either need to:

• change any assets in the system that may be using LDAP User as a type code (for listing, searching, etc) to LDAP Backend User, if you plan on retaining backend (Admin/Simple Edit) access for users authenticated off an LDAP Bridge, or
• change the LDAP bridge to create standard LDAP Users, if you plan on removing backend functionality for those users.

If you wish to keep the existing functionality, use the first upgrade option.

No additional steps are required for upgrades if you are not using LDAP.

New Bugs Added To Bug Tracker

Notes:

Bug #1810 (No scroll bar in IE7 when using /_edit mode) was reported by chas on 24th October 2006 but was marked as Can Not Replicate after a developer could not reproduce the issue in the final version of IE7 and no feedback was received from the original reporter.

Bug #1811 (Messages not being sent to users when up for review status used) was reported by Anthony Barnes on 24th October 2006 but was marked as not being a bug as it is believed the issue is actually being caused by bug #1864 (Altering Messaging Service Configuration Breaks Messages), which has been fixed this week.

Bug #1858 (Relevance weighting not sorting correctly) was reported by miriam.clinton on 9th November 2006 but was marked as having a workaround by setting the sorting setting to "No Sorting" instead of "Relevance". Investigation into the bug will continue.

Bug #1863 (Provide referring page's title in STAF) was a feature request submitted by Raena Armitage but was marked as a duplicate of bug #1731 (Expose referring asset's keywords to Send to a Friend email) which was submitted by Richard on 4th October 2006. The duplicate feature request has been closed.

Bug #1865 (Ampersand (&) in search query breaks results pages >2) was reported by KateN but was marked as a duplicate of bug #1704 (Search page pagination issue when query contains an "&") which was reported by Mark White on 22nd September 2006. The duplicate bug was reported in version 3.8.5 of Matrix, but was fixed in version 3.8.7. The duplicate bug has been closed and the reporter advised to upgrade their system.

Bug #1867 (Custom form bodycopy not creating) was reported by Rohini Goyal but was marked as Can Not Replicate after a developer traced the issue to one of trigger configuration and could not be replicated otherwise.

New Feature Requests Added To Bug Tracker

No new feature requests were added to the MySource Matrix bug tracker.

Bugs Fixed In The Bug Tracker

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