What's Coming in CMSMS 2.3

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calguy1000
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What's Coming in CMSMS 2.3

Post by calguy1000 »

There is always work to do on software packages. Even if they are great, there are always improvements to make somewhere, new technologies, and workflows to consider. So we're already talking about the major items we will tackle for CMSMS 2.3. Here is a brief list of the big things we're considering, in no particular order.

A. Replace UDT's
UDT's are problematic in many ways. They are improperly used, overused, and hard to debug. Additionally, they're really an application level thing, and they should be in files so that developers can save them using their favorite source code management tool and edit them with an editor designed for the task.

To that end, we think that removing the concept of PHP code stored in the database, and replacing it with a concept tentatively called 'simple_plugins' that will be stored as files beneath the /assets directory.

This would also involve removing (as part of the core) the ability to edit php code within the admin interface. A new module maintained by the Dev Team would be available to allow editing text files within the admin interface, although it may not be distributed with the core.

Of course, the upgrade process will handle converting UDT's to simple plugins.

B. Improve Module Management
We are going to move core modules into the /lib/modules directory, and addon modules will be stored in the /assets/modules directory. This simplifies the permission problems and installation routines, and allows for more easily saving a snapshot of the current working site in a source code repository.
We will also be improving the module import and export functionality, and the module loading.

C. Remove the option for mixed HTTP/HTTPS sites
Since all sites should be HTTPS already, or moving that way, we will be removing the option from the content pages to allow for mixed HTTP/HTTPS sites and cleaning up the config options. This will have negative effects for installs that attempt to manage mixed content applications, but should make things much simpler and easier for those that don't.

D: A new and improved admin theme
The OneEleven theme will be replaced with a similar, but optimized theme using font icons and cleaner code. We may also endeavor to clean up some of the admin theme API at the same time. This will help lay the groundwork for more robust admin themes in the future.

E: Easier metatags, css, and javascript.
We are exploring a mechanism to allow using smarty tags to make creating and managing meta tags easier. This is important for SEO optimization, and to simplify the logic of templates.
We are also exploring implementing an API to allow combining stylesheets and javascripts into fewer frontend requests. Fewer frontend requests can improve performance, particularly for requests from new visitors, or sites that have not properly implemented caching in their .htaccess files.

Beside the normal cleanup and minor adjustments that we make, those are the major items we have on the list so far for CMSMSMS 2.3.

As we think of more major features that we absolutely must throw in, we'll endeavor to keep you posted.
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calguy1000
Support Guru
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Posts: 8169
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 6:44 pm
Location: Fernie British Columbia, Canada

Re: What's Coming in CMSMS 2.3

Post by calguy1000 »

A couple of other things on the list that we are exploring for the next development version of CMSMS:

F: Improving the auditing functionality.
The AdminLog is a bit long in the tooth and doesn't really do all of the things it needs to do. So we are exploring a new auditing mechanism, including replacing the current admin log with a new core module.

G: Static text in the page edit form via tags in the page template.
As an aide to editors it is sometimes useful to be able to put static text into the page-edit form. We are exploring a new smarty tag that will allow app builders to put static text into the edit form.
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