MySource Matrix Developer

MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter Issue 98
Friday 27th October 2006

covers versions 3.8.7 stable, 3.10.2 stable, 3.11.0 development

News

Firefox 2.0 and Access Key Shortcuts

This week saw the release of version 2.0 of Mozilla's Firefox web browser. Among its many new features and changes is a change in how access keys are activated. Access keys have been traditionally accessed using "ALT+access key", and these form the basis of some of MySource Matrix's keyboard shortcuts such as "ALT+S" for committing screens. On Unix-based and Mac OS X systems, the shortcut was "CTRL+access key".

In Firefox 2, there have been changes in the access key shortcuts on Windows and Unix-based systems, and this affects keyboard shortcuts within Matrix that depend on them. On Windows, the new combination is "ALT+SHIFT+access key", so to commit a screen the shortcut would now be "ALT+SHIFT+S". On *nix systems, the shortcut is "CTRL+SHIFT+access key". On OS X the shortcut has not changed.

Text_Diff PEAR Package Required in 3.11

The new Visual Difference feature, implemented in the development version of MySource Matrix this week, uses the Text_Diff PEAR package and therefore this is now a required package for MySource Matrix.

If you are unable to get it installed into a shared PEAR repository due to hosting or other issues, you can download the package from the PEAR site (http://pear.php.net/) and place it into the php_includes/ directory of your MySource Matrix installation.

A Note on Metadata Schema Upgrades

When changes have been made to the Metadata system, an upgrade would usually take care of upgrading all of the metadata schemas in the system. However, there have been many complaints that this automatic regeneration of metadata takes an unacceptably long time. Therefore the metadata regeneration no longer occurs during step 3.

Users performing upgrades that contain changes to the metadata are advised that they will need to regenerate metadata from the Details screen of each Metadata Schema asset in the system, through the Administration Interface. It is expected that future version upgrade guides will inform system administrators of when this regeneration will be required.

New Features

Bulk File Upload Import Tool

Added to: 3.11.0 development

Those who have implemented large systems may be familiar with the import_files.php command line script, which uploads File assets into a MySource Matrix system from a specified location on the server. Essentially, this is a back-end interface that performs similar functionality to that script.

The major difference between this and the import_files.php script is in the way it handles directories inside the import path. Like the script, this tool can accept a single level of directories which can go to different locations. However, instead of requiring that each folder's name be the asset ID of the new parent, the tool allows you to select the eventual location of each directory's files using an asset finder.

Options are also available as to whether link types, and whether they should be set to "allow unrestricted" or not.

Note that although this will be a part of the Import Tools package when released in version 3.12.0, it will be released under the Squiz Open Source licence and therefore will be available in the core download of MySource Matrix.

Visual Difference Feature

Added to: 3.11.0 development

This new feature allows users to compare a Safe Edit in progress with the last published version. When placed into Safe Edit, a "Show Diff" option will be added to the Preview screen, which when checked will show deletions (boxed in red and strike-through) and insertions (boxed in green) within the page.

Asset Remaps on Web Paths Screen

Added to: 3.11.0 development

The Web Paths screen of an asset now displays any remaps that point to that asset, thus giving a fuller view of all URLs that point to that asset, either directly or indirectly.

New remaps can also be added to the asset from the Web Paths screen and existing ones removed. Note that changing these remaps requires Administrator access to the asset involved.

'Current User' Attrs Printable in Designs

Added to: 3.11.0 development

Designs now handle the ability to print keywords from the current asset being painted (using MySource_PRINT), much like how it handles it for the current user. For example, this tag will print the name of the current asset:

<MySource_PRINT id_name="__global__" var="current_asset" keyword="asset_name" />

External Authentication Systems Switch

Added to: 3.11.0 development

A new switch has been added to the main.inc configuration file (SQ_CONF_ENABLE_EXTERNAL_AUTH_SYSTEMS) that controls whether external authentication systems are returned by the Authentication Folder. If this option is set to FALSE, the Authentication Folder will only return the default system, thus preventing logins from other systems (such as LDAP or IPB).

This has been added so that an external system(s) can be switched off in case of compromise or other problems. Note that disabling external authentication systems does not turn off usage of HTTP credentials or pre-authenticated HTTP logins, as these are not handled at the authentication system level.

Planned Development

Enhanced Backend Searching

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

Upgrading

3.11.0 Development

Additional queries: No additional queries are required for upgrades.

Additional comments: 

Front-end designs must be re-parsed before the Visual Difference feature will work.

New Bugs Added To Bug Tracker

Notes:

Bug #1808 (GUI for Mass Upload) was submitted as a feature request by nnhubbard but was marked as a duplicate of bug #1792 (GUI for file import script) submitted by Scott Kim on 16th October 2006. The feature was completed on 19th October and is reported in this issue. The duplicate request has been closed.

Bug #1812 (Selective Emails not being sent) was submitted by Deborah Sherwood but was marked as not being a bug because keyword replacements were being used to set up a "From:" field in a custom form that was not RFC 822 compliant (ie. not a valid email address or name/email combination).

Bug #1816 ("Commit" Alt+S shortcut fails in Mozilla Firefox 2.0) was submitted by Mark Brydon but was marked as not being a bug with MySource Matrix, as this is caused by a change to the "access keys" feature in Firefox 2. Read the "General News" section of this newsletter for more information.

Bug #1820 (Trigger action: while changing future lineage it gives warnings) was submitted by Rohini Goyal but was marked as a duplicate of bug #1675 (PHP error when creating future linking job) submitted by Tom Barrett, which was fixed in version 3.10.2 of MySource Matrix. The duplicate bug has been closed.

New Feature Requests Added To Bug Tracker

Bugs Fixed In The Bug Tracker

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