Announcing CMS Made Simple 1.4-beta1

[calguy1000]

Here it is.... the first beta.

Try it out, test as much as possible.... but not on production servers please. 

Here's the list of what has changed.  I think you'll be pleasantly surprised:

Version 1.4-beta1 "Jamaica"
-----------------
- Includes a new system information page in the admin
- Smarty now works as you would expect in the admin   
    (though not much other than modules is using it.) 
    (this may break pisearch plugin, etc)
- A completely new way of page template processing.
  * We split the template into three pieces
    a) Any text ontop of
    b) The section
    c) the rest of the template (the body)
  * We then process the top section through smarty, then the body, and finally
    the head.  Then we glue it back together.
  * This may break sites that have used some of my tricks to
    change the page title based on news or other modules content
    so it will be off by default after release, and on for the beta
- Memory optimizations, and query optimizations
  (We've done a few checks, and improved a few things here and there
  that will provide a modest boost in performance.)
  - FileManager is now an admin only module
  - nuSOAP is now an admin only module (for most sites).
  - more in memory caching
- Massive improvement in stylesheet handling
  (it's now possible to allow or deny browser stylesheet caching)
  (stylesheets are now re-orderable)
- Updates to the admin menu structure
  (Main is now called CMS, and the logout and view site links are under there)
- Theme Improvements
  - Many thanks to Nuno
  - New icons for view site and logout
- Cleaned up and improved Module Manager
  It should be much faster now.
- Minor improvements to CMSMailer
- Improvements to the Installer
  - Many thanks to Alby
  - The installer is now fully translatable, so you can choose what
    language you want the installer pages to appear in
  - Many more checks have been added and re-organized to hopefully
    solve some of the issues people have with installation.
- We now ship a full distribution as well as an english only version
  and several 'language packs'.
- NCleanGrey is now the default admin theme.
- you can now specify default text for additional content blocks in page
  templates.
- A new permission that controls access to the Tags page so that
  editors, etc. can see the help there.
- Add assign parameter to numerous plugins (including all module plugins)
- adds the image_url plugin (thanks Nuno)
- Now use a wysiwyg for the sitedown message and the custom404 message.
- Added the target option to the 'content' content type.
- A general review of security checks in admin methods (thanks Nuno)
- Modifications to the group permissions, and user creation forms
  makes managing users, groups, and permissions much simpler.
  - Many thanks to _SjG_
- Updates to the embed plugin
- Add three new page attributes to content, PageLink, Link, and SectionHeader
  content types
- Modify the menu manager to export the new page attributes.  This will be useful
  for permissions, or meta data or other tags.
- FileManager gained recursive chmodding, custom sorting and saner
  permission handling in windows
- Printing updated to latest TCPDF release 4.0 including rewritten html
  rendering code
- TinyMCE got updated and some css-related issues were fixed
- Minor performance tweaks to Search Re-indexing
- Now remind the user to configure their mail settings
- Much much more

Because there are now around 40 files in each distribution, we won't be updating the downloads page any more, and it will soon go the way of the dodo.... you can download the release from here: http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org/frs/?group_id=6 (Scroll down to Unstable Releases).

[calguy1000]

Until the installation guide is updated, here's a brief set of instructions for installation:

Upgrades: 
    Untar and upload the full package overtop of you current installation, and run the upgrade routine as normal

New Installs:
  Download and untar the 'lite' package which contains only english language files
  Download and untar any langpacks that you want into the same directory
  Upload the entire directory to your webserver
  Proceed with the installation as normal.

[pkbowen]

Awesome. I'll be testing this for a good part of today, as I'm light on work right now  .

[pkbowen]

Oh, and a ZIP file would be much appreciated for us Winodws idiots. 

[calguy1000]

In an instantaneous poll in the IRC channel a while back, numerous people decided that we didn't need to do the .zip thing any more because windows can handle that now.

[factor1]

So is this to keep the 1.x versions running while the 2.0 is still in the works?

Any 2.0 updates?

[jce76350]

Hi,

Oh, and a ZIP file would be much appreciated for us Winodws idiots. 

Use  7-zip a file archiver with a high compression ratio -  open source software 

[ZYV]

Hey, looks really cool! Can't wait until I am more light on work to test it

[Colin Scroggins]

As both a Mac and PC user, let me say that I would much prefer a ZIP archive. I know that I can download additional free software to handle other archive formats, but it is nice to know that I can hop on any machine and be able to use it.

I have also noticed that since 1.3 my admin panel crawls (45+ seconds) any time I am hitting the main/home admin page (naming it CMS is stupid) or the module manager. This is due to the fact that I am on an intranet with heavy security (read no external access for server) and the way that external URL ping is being handled. This problem has continued with 1.4b1 and has expanded to the installer.

Any way to make hits to external URLs degrade a little more gracefully, or disable them altogether? This should be background stuff and should not be required for or slow down the initial page load.

[moorezilla]

I've tested this on linux, php5.x, mysql5.x, apache2.x with the following cmsms modules:

frontendusers
customcontent
quizzard
captcha
self reg
formbuilder

and all seems fine.

Calguy made a note about some old hacks perhaps not working with this version. I can confirm that the capture title tag trick no longer works... a hack to, in my case, make news entries have their own title tag info. Not a big deal... just wanted to confirm.

Great work on the release. I can't find anything not working yet.

Edit:

Tiny editing issue. On the login/logout page it reads:

From this point should take into consideration the following parameters:

  1. Cookies enabled in your browser
  2. Javascript enabled in your browser
  3. Windows popup active to the following address:

It should probably read something like:

From this point you should take into consideration the following parameters:

1. Cookies must be enabled in your browser.
2. Javascript must be enabled in your browser.
3. Popup windows must be allowed for the following address: xxx.xxx.xxx

[Jack @ PharSide]

Nice work CG - nice work!! Gonna test asap...

[rosgar]

Cool! gonna test it

[stopsatgreen]

Looking good; just done an upgrade from 1.3.1 and all seems well.

Quick question:

Add three new page attributes to content, PageLink, Link, and SectionHeader content types

What do you intend these to be used for, and how can they be called?

[Veldman]

When editing a page, the icons in TinyMce won't show up. Though the functions are working (eg. Italic, Bold...). See the attached screenshot.
It was working OK on the same server with CMSMS 1.3.1.
Problem is both in FF3 and IE6. Also tried the default theme (wich I like more) but the problem persist.

Any sugestions?


Edit: I downgraded Tiny to the version from my 1.3.1 install and now it works fine.

[jce76350]

Hello,

Using into a fresh install test on
# safe_mode: Off (False)
# phpversion: 5.2.5

all is Ok,  except
-  Install page 6  click  on Button "Install additional modules" -> Not Found
The link is  value="/admin/moduleinterface.php?module=ModuleManager" 
{$base_url} is missing into  CMSInstallerPage6.class.php, so erreur into link

- Warning: CMSMS is in need of an upgrade.
You are now running schema version 30. and you need to be upgraded to version 31
in  version.php
$CMS_SCHEMA_VERSION = "31";
but into
initial.sql and extra.sql
INSERT INTO {DB_PREFIX}version ( VERSION ) VALUES ( 30 );

If I use a web server with safe mode is On, I can't install the setup is stoped. (On other version there is just an alert )

Thanks