CMSMS | CMS Made Simple

Summer is coming… and so is that time when the geeks behind CMSMS get together and swap war stories. As with last year, we plan on getting together in some unsuspecting city and causing our own brand of havoc for a weekend. We also plan to discuss the project’s direction and do some coding too…

This year, the unsuspecting city is Philadelphia, PA USA, which also happens to be my hometown. We’ve selected it because we wanted it on this side of the ocean, it’s relatively “central” to the people coming and I have a few connections for getting accommodations and other necessities.

The dates are Friday, August 22 through Sunday, August 24, 2008. Actual locations in and around the city are still sketchy at the moment, as is the exact schedule.

We are looking to have a public night one evening (probably Saturday) in which we can hopefully get some people to come out and tear up the town with us. If you’re in the area or like traveling, then stay tuned for more details on that.

We’re also going to do a donation drive similar to last year. I’d love to defer the costs for people as much as possible. We’ll discuss a goal and post that in a couple of weeks, probably around the same time as a set schedule.

I’ll keep everyone up to date with the details as I get them.

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Just because the blog has been deserted doesn’t mean nothing is happening. About 3 weeks ago, I got myself into a position where I can resume the 2.0 development cycle. Not only that, I’m starting to get to enjoy all the work I did in the beginning of cleaning up and moving code around to make a more consistent API. New features are falling into place pretty quickly and I’m making some rapid progress.

Some highlights of the last few weeks include:

* Fixed the issues everyone was having with the installer. It’s ugly, but it works.

* Added the hierarchical permissions editing for content. It still needs to be added in a few more places, but it’s a good start.

* Start adding a test suite for things that I’m working on. It’s by no means complete or even covering a major portion of the code, but it’s the direction I’ll continue down as I develop.

* Removed xajax totally from the codebase and instead made my own version that’s entirely written using jQuery. It does just what I need and nothing more.

* Added active flags to stylesheets and removed them from templates.

* Removed the built-in print functionality. It was ugly. Use print stylesheets.

* Added methods to make sure all tables created by the api make proper utf-8 collations

* Redid a lot of the Events system. It’s now easier to create and use events, and also allows for attaching to events on the fly instead of having to register in the database.

* Redid a lot of the module api. Moved the tabs to their own class. Removed methods that weren’t really used. Moved the wysiwyg and styler methods to their own subclass. Added a backwards compatibility layer for older modules that still needs some work to be fully functional.

* Created an acts_as_list dropin for the ORM system. This basically means that modules (or core items) that want to be ordered can add 2 lines of code and one field to the database and get a ton of functionality for ordering and reordering items.

* Changed the parameter sanitization methods in the module api to use the new stuff built directly into php 5.2+.

* Rewrote the menu manager to use nested templates. This basically means that menu manager templates will be MUCH easier to understand. It also means you can use different templates (or options) for children if you’d like.

* Started a brand new blog module which will be included in the default installation. It will basically have all the main blog features that people ask for and should allow CMSMS to be a viable replacement for those people use Wordpress as a CMS. This also allows me to test that all the changes to the module api are good.

* Moved all module templates to be administered in a central location. Not only that, but multiple templates for the same function are now supported by default. Modules no longer have to handle templates themselves, instead they just register the template on install and are good to go.

Needless to say, it’s moving right along. I still have no solid date for a beta, but I’m shooting for a couple of months from now. As long as I can continue at this pace, it shouldn’t be a problem.

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This is just a maintenance release to fix a couple of problems that we’re annoying people at random. If you’re not having any problems, you might not even need to upgrade. Though, it never hurts, especially if you use the diff version.

Enjoy!

Version 1.2.2 "Holetown" -- November 30, 2007
-----------------
- Fix a bug in the cms_date_time plugin that was causing random
  issues with User Defined Tags
- Fix a minor issue with the handling of the site down message

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It’s that time again. This is a maintenance release with no security fixes, so use your judgement for upgrading (just backup, please!).

Thanks go out to RonnyK, hExDj, reneh, and fransman for testing this one!

Version 1.2.1 "Bridgetown"
-----------------

- New versions of News, Search, Tiny, and FileManager modules
  - see the documentation for each module to learn what has changed
  - some of these modules may have been released seperately at an earlier date
- Fixes the issue with pages being set inactive on edit if not edited by somebody
  with the 'Modify Site Structure' permission
- Adds the cms_move_uploaded_file function that all modules should use from now
  on to assist in handling file uploads.
- Adds the ability to set a 'home page' in the user prefences to determine
  a page to redirect to upon login.
- Adds a 'Home' menu item under 'Main'
- Adds a site preference for date format
- Adds the cms_date_format modifier that reads the site preference
  as well as the user preference for date format (when in the admin section)

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I’m pleased to report that CMS Made Simple won the 3rd place prize for the Overall Open Source CMS award. I must say that this is a huge honor. I was really excited that we were nominated, but never expected to place or win anything.

I just want to thank the other developers that work on this project. You guys really help keep this project going strong. And of course, thanks to the community for not only voting, but supporting us as well.

http://www.packtpub.com/article/drupal-wins-overall-2007-open-source-cms-award

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The ChangeLog looks a little something like this:

Version 1.1.4.1 "Taga" -- October 07 2007
-----------------
- Fix one issue in adodb_lite that cropped up after release
 
Version 1.1.4 "Taga" -- October 07 2007
-----------------
- Fixes an XSS issue in the anchor tag
- Fixes an XSS issue in listtags
- Adds a permission check to adduser.php
- More fixes for potential security issues with adodb_lite
- Added a permission check to view the admin log

Sorry for everyone that got 1.1.4. Sometimes we jump the gun a little bit when there is pressure to get a security release out into everyone’s hands. It’s best that it was on a Sunday (and a holiday in some areas of the world), so hopefully not too many people were affected. If you were, I apologize.

Thanks!
Ted

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For the first time seven members of the core development met in person. Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital, was the host city of this meeting.

Core team members attending were (from top left): Samuel Goldstein (SjG), Tatu Wikman (tsw), Daniel Westergren (westis), René Helminsen (reneh), Morten Poulsen (Silmarillion), Ted Kulp (Ted), and Keith Lauchlan (Utter).

We got together for three productive days to plan the future of CMS Made Simple. Here’s an overview of what we discussed.

Organisation

First up we looked at transforming the organisation around CMSMS to give ourselves a more formal structure, enable applications for grants and loans and put the whole outfit on a more stable footing.

Many other open source groups have formed non-profit foundations and that’s the model we’re looking to.

Responsible: Samuel and Keith

Promotion and Marketing

Given how great CMSMS really is we’re way behind with getting the message out there. Keith and Daniel will be far more rigorous at targeting the online and print-based press with articles and information on our product. This involves becoming more aware of who our target audience really is and pushing CMSMS at them more aggressively.

One way of putting CMSMS on the map would be to put together a book with a publisher like Packt. Since we’re now one of the finalists in the Packt CMS Awards this may be a real possibility and will be pursued over the next few weeks.

Other topics touched on were:

• a much better themes site (Tatu will work on this) and a competition to design the new CMSMS site (already launched)
• better screencasts of important tasks on the site, as well as new features in new versions
• better feature list on the site (completed)

Responsible: Keith and Daniel

Documentation

• Ted joined the documentation team for taking the lead in core and module developer documentation.

• We will move the documentation from the wiki to CMSMS pages. We will also make use of the Comments and Questions modules. This way it will be properly centralised and easier to locate.

  Only members of the Documentation Team will be able to add and edit articles, but anyone can make comments to improve the documentation. This way we keep better control of what is in the documentation, while still letting users contribute. We’re still working on how the documentation may be multi-lingual in this system. Most likely only English, German and French will be available until CMSMS 2.0 makes multi-lingual sites easier. (Daniel)

• A new print functionality will be written that can combine pages into one page and export them to PDF. This should eventually allow for the creation of screen and print versions of docs right out of CMSMS. (Morten and Ted).

• More screencasts will be produced about how to accomplish different tasks and to present how CMSMS works for new users. All these and any other forms of media used to document the sitebuilding process could be included on CD with the book. (Tatu)

Documentation on the site will eventually be separated into 4 areas:

• FAQ
• Tutorials
• Handbook for everything
• Developer documentation (API, module writing etc.)

The new documentation structure should be up and running within three weeks.

Responsible: Gunnar

Training

There was a fair bit of discussion around how to organise CMSMS training and it was felt that we first needed to do some fairly extensive market research to determine who wanted it and where in the world they were likely to be. Amongst the suggestions were that training could be dispensed in a variety of ways such as at annual gatherings or even regularly from specific locations (say, once a month in London etc.)

It was also suggested that we could operate a sort of franchise structure so that ‘approved’ CMSMS developers or users would be recommended for training using specific training materials developed from the documentation when it was finished.

On a more advanced basis, companies could be offered commercial training packages for developers and users.

A poll will be put up on the CMSMS site to gauge the level of interest for this although nothing too ambitious is likely to be undertaken until the documentation is ready.

As with many aspects of the discussion it was felt that the organisational and promotional aspects of elements like training would become simpler when/if there was a foundation group.

This is a more long-term project.

Themes site

As was mentioned earlier in this article, the Themes site is seen as an important contributor to the success of CMSMS.

The discussion centered around how to structure the site more like the one at www.oswd.org so that themes could be better categorised, previewed, rated, commented upon and downloaded.

Responsible: Tatu

Modules and the new forge

The present forge is too inflexible and needs rewriting. Samuel is creating the new Forge in Ruby on Rails and it will hopefully be complete by the end of the year. A QA team will be responsible for testing and overseeing modules and projects

Some of the new and improved features will include:

• modules can be recommended: yes/no set by QA team (with version)
• a “works for me / doesn’t work for me” feature (along with CMS version, module version, PHP version and comments) submitted by users
• comments and ratings: specify which version of module comment and rating applies to. Admin has delete button for comments
• ability to have a matrix or some other means to say what version of CMSMS a module works with
• ability to set modules as outdated if they haven’t had activity in a certain amount of time
• Optional field for next planned release
• Modules can be tagged and categorised with a tag cloud for project category
• news, with RSS
• most recently released modules, with RSS
• a subscription feature for bugs, features and projects

In addition, there’ll be changes to the admin of a CMSMS install to reflect these improvements:

• ModuleManager will show only modules compatible to installed version
• ModuleManager will show module name, module version, last release date, recommended (or not)

Responsible: Samuel

Translations

• The translations will be stored in a database, rather than in files like now. That will make it possible to dynamically update translations from the admin panel without having to wait for a new release of the core or a module.
• The changelog will be split up, so that it’s easier for translators to see when the changelog has been updated and needs translation.
• It will be possible to change translations locally, i.e. for a specific site. When the translation is updated it will not overwrite the local translation.
• Ways for translators to be notified when there are new translations to be made, on a module-per-module basis.
• Sorting language strings by new, updated, all etc.
• Re-usable language strings from the core (submit, cancel, apply etc.)
• More tweaks to make life easier for translators

Responsible: Reneh

CMSMS Version 1.2

1.2 is going to be the last supported 1.x version. After 1.2 is released there will be a feature freeze and only bug and security fixes will be released. From now on all development will be focused on version 2.0.

Responsible: Robert

CMSMS Version 2.0

There’s been plenty written about the next version of CMSMS. These are a few extra ideas we discussed. One idea was to split the language files so as to use less memory, not having to load everything, like admin/front page. We also thought admin users can create new menus and assign to user groups. The admin theme will be an easily editable xml file.

• Module upgrade warning + automatic backups
• Roadmap for 2.0 is
• early-Dec: pre-beta
• Dec 20: 2.0 beta1
• Jan 15: Final beta
• Feb 5: RELEASE!!!

Responsible: Ted

The End

We spent a couple of hours bug-busting and then went to the pub…

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Development discussion for CMS Made Simple is still sort of scattered. Generally, the devs hang out in IRC and bounce ideas off of each other. Easy enough. However, if everyone isn’t around and it’s one of those ideas or decisions that really needs some conversation to flesh out, it usually drags out for days in a series of “@later tell” conversations.

Again, using git as a bit of a guinea pig, I’m interested in their development model. Development discussion is focused into one mailing list. New ideas are sparked up, patches are constantly submitted and critiqued, and all in all it seems very productive.

My idea is to make something similar for development. Sure, quick ideas will probably be asked, agreed upon and committed in IRC before anyone could even open up an email client… but that’s not really the point. The point is to have a place for the long conversations, the fleshing out of ideas, and contribution by other people.

There is another motivation as well. In my quest to de-centralize the CMSMS development model, this gives a perfect place for people outside of our “inner circle” (read: commit access) to contribute their patches. Using either svn or preferably git (read this for more information on that), patches can be submitted directly to the mailing list and VERY easily discussed, critiqued, and rolled in. It allows the community at large to handle patches instead of getting emailed to individual people and forgotten about.

This is also a place for people to suggest features, but to a certain extent. Prepare for constructive criticism or asked to please submit a patch. Though, don’t worry, the tone will never get nasty… it’s just not the way we roll.

Mailing list information lives here and anyone is welcome to sign up. However, keep in mind that this is a focused mailing list. If you contribute to low signal to noise ratio, you will have your posting privileges revoked.

As a side note, I’ve moved the announcements mailing list over to mailman as well. Anyone that was subscribed was re-subscribed to the new list and properly spammed with the information. Sorry about that. At least they should work again, as I believe they were broken in the server move several months ago.

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In light of recent articles, and in the interest of updating its main sites, CMSMS is holding a design competition for re-designing cmsmadesimple.org.

If you’re a talented designer and think you’ve got what it takes to take the CMSMS domains to the next level, then keep reading.

CMSMS needs you!

We can’t offer much in the way of incentive or prizes - this is an open source project, remember?! - but we can promise you kudos and praise beyond your wildest dreams. Plus the sure knowledge that your name will be up in lights across all the CMSMS domains in perpetuity, or at least until we need another re-design. Maybe we’ll even give you a free t-shirt…

Here are the guidelines:

• Edit: What we’re after is a great design for cmsmadesimple.org. So although a full XHTML/CSS markup would be preferred you can just as well submit a Photoshop image. We are aware that the timeline is tight, so if you have a great design, don’t let any details below scare you!
• Your design should preferably be provided as a CMSMS Theme. That is, export templates and stylesheets with the module called Theme Manager (can be installed through the Module Manager) to an xml file.
• You may also provide a Photoshop layered image, although that makes it more difficult to win…
• If you include images with a theme, link them to the uploads/images/<themename> folder in the stylesheets and pack the theme xml file and the image(s) in a zip or tar file.
• Themes should be valid XHTML 1.0 transitional and CSS 2.1 (minimum). That means no hacks, or as few as humanly possible, and same appearance in all major browsers.
• No Flash or other propritary technologies - avoid Java and JavaScripts to the greatest extent possible.
  • blink tag is banned
  • gif animations are just as bad as flash
• We would like to see a Web 2.0, clean and accessible layout.
• We would like you to use CMSMMS tags in the templates. These include but are not limited to {sitename}, {title}, {breadcrumbs}, {search}, {content}, {footer} etc.
• You may include content example pages in the zip file.
• The general navigation structure should be similar to the current site structure, but flexible enough to be able to adjust.
• Everything included in the theme must be the designer’s original work. No copyrighted images or template theft!

Timeline:

• Send all themes to competition@cmsmadesimple.org at the last by October 10 2007.
• include your contact details in the email and in a README.txt file in the zip package
• A jury from the core team will select which theme will be used for cmsmadesimple.org. The winner will be announced on October 15.
• Themes that are submitted as proper packages will be presented on the themes site (http://themes.cmsmadesimple.org) after the winner has been announced

Disclaimer:
CMS Made Simple claims the right to edit the winning design to fit with the site structure.

Well?! What are you waiting for? Get designing.

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CMS Made Simple has made it to the final stage in the Packt CMS Awards! And that in both classes where CMSMS could be voted for: Overall and Best PHP Open Source CMS. Voting is now open until October 26th for the five finalists in each category. Please vote for CMS Made Simple and help spread the word!

Thanks for everyone who voted to take us this far!

The link to vote: http://www.packtpub.com/article/2007-open-source-cms-award-finalists

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