Announcing CMS Made Simple 1.5-beta1
Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 11:31 pm
Here it is folks. 1.5-beta1 is available for download from the file releases page (scroll down to Unstable releases).
Release Notes:
- A new notification system in the admin
This allows module developers to notify logged in, authorized administrators of various events that should be taken care of.
For example, the News module will notify authorized users if any news articles are in need of approval.
- A new dashboard page in the admin
This allows module developers to create a dashboard mode for their modules so that they can perform some administration tasks
and view the general status of things from one page.
- The ability to copy content pages has been added
- More bulk actions have been added to the list content page
- A search-able attribute has been added to the edit content page
to mark a page as search-able
- Default content settings have been improved.
- Numerous Installer improvements
- The complete content object is now available to smarty on each page request
This allows a much greater variety of customization for page templates.
- The {content_image} tag has been added allowing numerous images to be attached to each page
Allows selecting an image from a list of previously uploaded files to display in that location of the template.
- TinyMCE changes: Updated to latest Tiny-core
Static option for some installations where config-file could not be generated onthefly
Pretty url improvements
General bugfixes and smaller feature additions and improvements
- Apply buttons on GCB's and UDT's
- Groups as additional editors on GCB's
- Add 'image' and 'thumbnail' attributes to applicable content types
(we don't permit uploading, just selecting a previously uploaded file)
- MenuManager 1.5.3
- Add raw_menutext field to the node
- Add image and thumbnail fields to the node (if they are set)
- Support syntax hilighter when editing templates
- News 2.9
- Support syntax hilighter when editing templates
- Support the notification area
- Remove all RSS Capabilities
-- Much more powerful RSS Capabilities are now available via the CGFeedMaker addon module.
There was no need to support duplicate functionality.
- Extensive modifications were made to add a session key to each and every
URL in the admin console. This prevents a medium level cross site scripting
vulnerability.
- This modification will break any existing bookmarks that you have created in your
admin section.
- This modification will now prevent the administrator from creating bookmarks in his
web browser to various actions in the CMS Made Simple admin console.
- Numerous bug fixes
The CMS Made Simple Geek Moot in august this year resulted in many bugs (some of them
very old) being fixed, or closed. There are way too many of them to describe, but
the result should be a much more stable, much more solid application.
Thanks:
As per usual, a large number of people have contributed many many hours of their time to making this a better product for everybody. They all deserve your thanks. They are:
Ted Kulp (Ted) - Our Benevolent Dictator
Ronny Krijt (ronnyk)
Nuno Costa (Nuno)
Reneh Helminsen (reneh)
Alberto Benati (alby)
Morten Poulsen (Silmarillion)
Keith Lauchlan (Utter)
Sameul Goldtein (_SjG_)
and others. If I've left anybody out, it was not intentional, and I'll add you in once you remind me
Testing:
We encourage you to test this version in as many ways as possible. Of the major things that need testing:
* Each and every link and action in the administration section (not modules) needs testing
This is because of the fix that was implemented due to the XSS vulnerability
* Login and Logout processes
* Copy Content
and of course, pretty much everything else. We also encourage you to test new installs, and upgrades of earlier version (please read the information about production sites below).
Additional Testers
We have received information that a commercial European firm with serious interest in CMS Made Simple will be allocating significant work-time resources to assist in the testing of this version. They will reportedly be preparing a testing plan, and performing complete and thorough testing of this version. This is fantastic news.
I will post more information about this, as I get it.
However, this does not excuse the community from testing as well. There is no way that a single firm can test as many permutations and combinations of scenarios that the user community can. We need as many people to test this product as possible.
Production Sites:
This is a beta version of CMS Made Simple. And we are releasing it in the hopes that the community at large will assist in testing it, so that it is stable for use on production sites once the final release is cut. We cannot, and will not support your using this beta version on production sites. If you use this version on production sites, you do so at your own risk, and we will not respond to any emergencies that this may cause you.
However, if you are in the process of building a production site, you are currently working in a 'staging' environment, and there is some time before you have to rollout the production version, then we feel that this release is suitable for building new websites with.
Beta Plan
We hope that this beta cycle will be the only beta cycle for 1.5. We also hope that it lasts no more than approximately one month. However, if significant issues are found with this release (issues that did not exist with previous releases), we may be forced to issue another beta. We will use this thread for communication of bugs, and issues, and announcements of new beta versions.
Absolutely no new features will be introduced in 1.5 from this point on, we will only be fixing bugs. The only time when a functionality change may creep into the beta process is when a situation is found where functionality in 1.5 is seriously compromised without it.
Reporting Bugs
We encourage you to report any bugs that you may find with the beta version in this thread. Please try to provide a significant amount of information so that we can try to reproduce this problem, diagnose it, and fix it.
In the past we have had some successful beta processes, and some unsuccessful ones. The successful beta programs were the ones where we had participation from a larger portion of the user community, and they communicated both their problems and their successes to us. The unsuccessful beta programs were the ones where we did not receive much feedback from the user community. Unsuccessful beta programs often resulted in our being forced to release numerous 'emergency' releases, which caused people to upgrade the same site numerous times, and caused grief to the entire community.
If we don't hear anything from the user community, we will be forced to assume that the beta package is a successful one, and that there are no new issues to fix. If we have a successful beta process we should need no 'emergency' releases after 1.5. And we will be hard-pressed to make one as we would like to focus on new development in the future.
Thank you for your time, and happy testing!!
Release Notes:
- A new notification system in the admin
This allows module developers to notify logged in, authorized administrators of various events that should be taken care of.
For example, the News module will notify authorized users if any news articles are in need of approval.
- A new dashboard page in the admin
This allows module developers to create a dashboard mode for their modules so that they can perform some administration tasks
and view the general status of things from one page.
- The ability to copy content pages has been added
- More bulk actions have been added to the list content page
- A search-able attribute has been added to the edit content page
to mark a page as search-able
- Default content settings have been improved.
- Numerous Installer improvements
- The complete content object is now available to smarty on each page request
This allows a much greater variety of customization for page templates.
- The {content_image} tag has been added allowing numerous images to be attached to each page
Allows selecting an image from a list of previously uploaded files to display in that location of the template.
- TinyMCE changes: Updated to latest Tiny-core
Static option for some installations where config-file could not be generated onthefly
Pretty url improvements
General bugfixes and smaller feature additions and improvements
- Apply buttons on GCB's and UDT's
- Groups as additional editors on GCB's
- Add 'image' and 'thumbnail' attributes to applicable content types
(we don't permit uploading, just selecting a previously uploaded file)
- MenuManager 1.5.3
- Add raw_menutext field to the node
- Add image and thumbnail fields to the node (if they are set)
- Support syntax hilighter when editing templates
- News 2.9
- Support syntax hilighter when editing templates
- Support the notification area
- Remove all RSS Capabilities
-- Much more powerful RSS Capabilities are now available via the CGFeedMaker addon module.
There was no need to support duplicate functionality.
- Extensive modifications were made to add a session key to each and every
URL in the admin console. This prevents a medium level cross site scripting
vulnerability.
- This modification will break any existing bookmarks that you have created in your
admin section.
- This modification will now prevent the administrator from creating bookmarks in his
web browser to various actions in the CMS Made Simple admin console.
- Numerous bug fixes
The CMS Made Simple Geek Moot in august this year resulted in many bugs (some of them
very old) being fixed, or closed. There are way too many of them to describe, but
the result should be a much more stable, much more solid application.
Thanks:
As per usual, a large number of people have contributed many many hours of their time to making this a better product for everybody. They all deserve your thanks. They are:
Ted Kulp (Ted) - Our Benevolent Dictator
Ronny Krijt (ronnyk)
Nuno Costa (Nuno)
Reneh Helminsen (reneh)
Alberto Benati (alby)
Morten Poulsen (Silmarillion)
Keith Lauchlan (Utter)
Sameul Goldtein (_SjG_)
and others. If I've left anybody out, it was not intentional, and I'll add you in once you remind me
Testing:
We encourage you to test this version in as many ways as possible. Of the major things that need testing:
* Each and every link and action in the administration section (not modules) needs testing
This is because of the fix that was implemented due to the XSS vulnerability
* Login and Logout processes
* Copy Content
and of course, pretty much everything else. We also encourage you to test new installs, and upgrades of earlier version (please read the information about production sites below).
Additional Testers
We have received information that a commercial European firm with serious interest in CMS Made Simple will be allocating significant work-time resources to assist in the testing of this version. They will reportedly be preparing a testing plan, and performing complete and thorough testing of this version. This is fantastic news.
I will post more information about this, as I get it.
However, this does not excuse the community from testing as well. There is no way that a single firm can test as many permutations and combinations of scenarios that the user community can. We need as many people to test this product as possible.
Production Sites:
This is a beta version of CMS Made Simple. And we are releasing it in the hopes that the community at large will assist in testing it, so that it is stable for use on production sites once the final release is cut. We cannot, and will not support your using this beta version on production sites. If you use this version on production sites, you do so at your own risk, and we will not respond to any emergencies that this may cause you.
However, if you are in the process of building a production site, you are currently working in a 'staging' environment, and there is some time before you have to rollout the production version, then we feel that this release is suitable for building new websites with.
Beta Plan
We hope that this beta cycle will be the only beta cycle for 1.5. We also hope that it lasts no more than approximately one month. However, if significant issues are found with this release (issues that did not exist with previous releases), we may be forced to issue another beta. We will use this thread for communication of bugs, and issues, and announcements of new beta versions.
Absolutely no new features will be introduced in 1.5 from this point on, we will only be fixing bugs. The only time when a functionality change may creep into the beta process is when a situation is found where functionality in 1.5 is seriously compromised without it.
Reporting Bugs
We encourage you to report any bugs that you may find with the beta version in this thread. Please try to provide a significant amount of information so that we can try to reproduce this problem, diagnose it, and fix it.
In the past we have had some successful beta processes, and some unsuccessful ones. The successful beta programs were the ones where we had participation from a larger portion of the user community, and they communicated both their problems and their successes to us. The unsuccessful beta programs were the ones where we did not receive much feedback from the user community. Unsuccessful beta programs often resulted in our being forced to release numerous 'emergency' releases, which caused people to upgrade the same site numerous times, and caused grief to the entire community.
If we don't hear anything from the user community, we will be forced to assume that the beta package is a successful one, and that there are no new issues to fix. If we have a successful beta process we should need no 'emergency' releases after 1.5. And we will be hard-pressed to make one as we would like to focus on new development in the future.
Thank you for your time, and happy testing!!
