MySource Matrix Developer

MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter Issue 110
Friday 19th January 2007

covers versions 3.10.5 stable, 3.12.0 stable, 3.13.0 development

News

MySource Matrix 3.12.0 Released

The first new stable version of MySource Matrix's 3.12.x branch was released last Monday. The 3.12.x branch adds almost 80 new features and improvements compared to the 3.10.x branch, and this is expanded by more than 10 new features and changes between the release candidate and the stable version. The new version 3.12.0 also fixes 41 bugs found in 3.12.0 RC1.

The 3.12.0 release also marks couple of major changes for MySource Matrix. First, the 3.12.x branch is the first version of the CMS where the core is available under a dual licence, either using the GNU General Public Licence (GPL) or the commercially-supported Squiz Supported Version (SSV) licence.

Also, some assets previously only available as part of the commercial module package are now available for use as part of the downloadable (GPL) version. Now available in the free version are all assets from the CMS package (except for Remote Content), all assets from the News package, and some parts of the Import Tools package (particularly the Bulk File Upload tool). Other assets will remain available only under a SSV licensed system.

An procedure for upgrading systems to 3.12.0 is available from the MySource Matrix web site (http://matrix.squiz.net/resources/upgrading and follow the 3.10 to 3.12 link under "Major Version Upgrades"). This script has been tested on upgrades from version 3.10.4 to 3.12.0, however it will work with 3.10.5 as well. Upgrades of earlier systems should first upgrade to at least 3.10.4 before upgrading to 3.12.0.

Next Newsletter on Thursday

A small heads-up (in the absence of too much else to report) that the next MySource Matrix newsletter will be available on Thursday (25th) due to the Australia Day public holiday next Friday.

New Features

Re-Order Pages Within Multiple Page Asset

Added to: 3.13.0 development

Pages within a Multiple Page asset can now be re-ordered en masse on the Pages screen of the Multiple Page asset. The interface is similar to that used for re-ordering questions within a Custom Form.

Note that web paths are re-assigned when pages are re-ordered. This is so the first page listed in the sort order is accessible with the web path "1", the second with the web path "2", and so on.

Asset Access to List Option

Added to: 3.13.0 development

Previously, the Asset Listing Page displayed assets if the user had effective read access to the asset. Now, the Asset Listing Page now has an option that allows you to define which permission determines whether an asset is listed, and whether that permission is a simple permission or an effective one.

Note that this has been implemented in the Asset Listing Page asset only, however in the future it could be extended to other Listing Engine-type assets where appropriate.

"No Results" Bodycopy for Calendar Pages

Added to: 3.13.0 development

A new "no results" bodycopy has been added to the Calendar Page asset. When this option is turned on, the calendar view or listing will be replaced with the contents of the "no results" bodycopy when the Calendar Page would otherwise show no events within the selected time period.

Backend Search Result Limit Preference

Added to: 3.13.0 development

The Backend Search feature now has a new user preference (SQ_SEARCH_BACKEND_RESULT_LIMIT), allowing the user to limit the number of assets that will be displayed when a Backend Search by keyword takes place. By default, no limit will be applied.

User Inbox Again Paginated

Added to: 3.13.0 development

When the Inbox asset was last overhauled a while ago, the format of the Inbox screen was changed from displaying messages 10 at a time, to displaying all of them on the page at once. This has now been changed again to display 20 at a time by default.

Password Reset Page Improvements

Added to: 3.13.0 development

Each of the password fields - the new password and confirmation text boxes - can now be accessed using separate keywords (%password_new% and %password_confirmation%) respectively. Previously, both had to be printed together using the keyword %password_input%. This keyword still exists for compatibility purposes.

CAPTCHA Feature for Custom Form

Added to: 3.13.0 development

This new development adds a CAPTCHA system to the custom form - a method of asserting that submissions of forms are done by humans rather than automated systems. In practice, a similar system as used for security keys in the backend are used for the CAPTCHA. The length of the string is customisable.

Keywords to implement the CAPTCHA system include %form_captcha% to print the entire CAPTCHA section, and %form_captcha_image%, %form_captcha_field% and %form_captcha_link% for the fields to display the image, text box, and link to regenerate the image (respectively). If the default bodycopy is used, the CAPTCHA section will be displayed immediately before the Submit button.

Check for LDAP Support in LDAP Bridge

Added to: 3.13.0 development, 3.12.1 stable, 3.10.6 stable

If the LDAP extension is not compiled into PHP, a message to that effect will appear in place of the Connection Details section of the LDAP Bridge asset's Details screen.

Design Web Paths Now Customisable

Added to: 3.13.0 development

Design and Design CSS assets, as well as their customisations, now have the ability to have their web paths changed after creation, through the Web Paths screen.

Design CSS Web Path Changes

Added to: 3.13.0 development

In addition to the above feature, the method the Design CSS asset's web path is generated upon creation has been changed. Previously, it would provide a generic web path, similar to Design assets, such as "design_css_390". Now, it generates the web path based on the name given on the create screen.

The main effect of this change is that newly created assets will always have web paths ending in '.css'. This may help improve caching of CSS files by caching proxy systems such as Squid. Design CSS assets existing in your system will NOT be upgraded to the same system; however, their web paths can be edited using the Web Paths screen made available in the previous feature.

Backend History on Multiple Lines

Added to: 3.13.0 development, 3.12.1 stable

There were reports that the Backend History list - the last five assets accessed by a user from the backend - was being cut off if names were too long to display five assets without scrolling. This has been changed to again be able to display all five assets, taking two or more lines if necessary.

Asset Lineage Design Area: Print & Cache

Added to: 3.13.0 development, 3.12.1 stable

The Print and Cache options, of the Customisation screen of most Design Area assets, have been added to the Asset Lineage Design Area.

Planned Development

Import Metadata from JPEG Files

To be added to : 3.13.0 development
Estimated start date: due soon
Estimated end date: late January 2007

Comment Rating System

To be added to : 3.13.0 development
Estimated start date: unknown as yet
Estimated end date: February 2007

This development will extend the comments system to allow users to attach a rating to comments.

Upgrading

3.13.0 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 #2013 (Cloning an asset does not apply roles) was reported by Bridgy but was marked as Can Not Replicate. Attempts to reproduce the alleged bug in 3.10, 3.12 and development branch versions did not succeed.

Bug #2016 (Problems with the asset map and the Use me option) was reported by Deborah Sherwood but was marked as not being a bug. The report related to returning to a WYSIWYG dialogue box containing a Simple Asset Map, after having used it previously in the session, where the asset lineage is selected and must be clicked on with the left mouse button in order to select the asset itself, allowing the use of "Use Me". This is intended behaviour and will not be changed.

Bug #2017 (Squiz Supported Version warranty EXPIRED - Link not working) was reported by Richard Johnson but was marked as not being a bug. The underline underneath "EXPIRED" is not meant to be a link by itself. The whole line of text is still linked so that clicking it refreshes the top frame.

Bug #2022 (Squiz.net Commercial Module Licence no longer available on the site) was reported by Jeff Van Campen but was marked as not being a bug. This bug report does not relate to the product code itself, rather to the availability of the licence.

Bug #2030 (scripts/upgrade_data_dirs.php error) was reported by Justin Cormack but was marked as not being a bug. The information posted made it nearly impossible to identify the source of the bug, and was more suited for the support forums.

Bug #2031 (%*_rfc2822% keywords returning non-compliant strings) was reported by Jeff Van Campen, however the issue had been fixed by fixing bug #1983 (ISO8601 and iCal date format keywords not working) on 5th January 2007. The previous method of forcing RFC2822 dates was flawed because the format used in RSS Feed included time zone abbreviations, of which only a select number are valid. Fixing the bug to use Matrix's time formats, which correctly uses the 'r' time format from PHP to generate RFC2822, made bug #2031 redundant. It was marked as a duplicate of bug #1983 and closed.

New Feature Requests Added To Bug Tracker

Bugs Fixed In The Bug Tracker

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