YACS 6.4: subscriptors, centralised user database, aggregation, usability
The basic YACS security scheme relies on following roles: associates, members, subscriptors, and anonymous surfers. Basically, subscriptors are community members with no right to contribute. In previous versions members could be made editors of selected sections. This month we have added the capability to make subscriptors readers of protected sections. Webmasters can use this feature to better control people who are allowed to access content of their site.
YACS now supports the sharing of user information among several sites. All you have to do is to add new database settings for users in the configuration panel for system parameters. YACS will use these settings, independantly from regular database settings, while accessing user records.
YACS has allowed RSS aggregation for a long time, but only a limited list of feeds could be supported. This limitation has been removed, and YACS now features a round-robin approach to parse small batches of feeds in the background.
YACS has never been so friendly to webmasters, thanks to the feed-back of numerous testers. Images can be added to files. Click on one link to duplicate an article, or to promote a comment. Most PHP generated by YACS is now masked. The setup assistant reports on critical checks performed prior engaging the installation. Many more like these have been added, to enhance your experience of YACS.
YACS now supports the sharing of user information among several sites. All you have to do is to add new database settings for users in the configuration panel for system parameters. YACS will use these settings, independantly from regular database settings, while accessing user records.
YACS has allowed RSS aggregation for a long time, but only a limited list of feeds could be supported. This limitation has been removed, and YACS now features a round-robin approach to parse small batches of feeds in the background.
YACS has never been so friendly to webmasters, thanks to the feed-back of numerous testers. Images can be added to files. Click on one link to duplicate an article, or to promote a comment. Most PHP generated by YACS is now masked. The setup assistant reports on critical checks performed prior engaging the installation. Many more like these have been added, to enhance your experience of YACS.
228 files have been modified or created since the previous release.
The new release is available for immediate download, at [article=download]. If you are already running a YACS server we highly recommend you to smoothly upgrade your server. For further information check How to achieve incremental upgrades of a YACS server?.
Here is a list of new or updated features coming with this release:
Each section page lists editors and readers separately. See sections/view.php and sections/edit.php.
Article pages used to offer to subscriptors links to contribute. These have been removed. See articles/view.php and sections/section.php. Same thing for the main help page. See help.php.
The configuration panel for system parameters now allows for separate database settings for the table of users. See control/configure.php.
A new table has been created to store scalar values. See shared/values.php. The very first usage of this is to stamp back-end programs and batch of RSS fetches. This should proven more stable than previous
The maximum size of web objects that can be fetched by YACS has been changed from 128kB to 5MB, including RSS feeds. See links/link.php.
Basic HTTP authentication has been added to RSS feeds associated to sections, to allow for controlled access of restricted content through automated readers. See sections/feed.php.
YACS does not attempt to forward notification messages when e-mail services have been disabled. See shared/mailer.php.
Images can be added to files, either to further document file pages, or to depart from standard thumbnails. See files/edit.php.
The
Minor restrictions to editors of a protected section have been removed. See sections/view.php.
The
Any authenticated member can now contribute to the site taxonomy based on search results. Previously this was reserved to associates. See search.php and catgories/set_keyword.php.
A new function has been added to duplicate an article. This has proven quite useful for the translation of documentation pages for example. See articles/duplicate.php.
Verbosity of the Control Panel has been reduced, mainly for configuration panels; See control/index.php.
Editors can now select to avoid date stamping when modifying a page or a comment. Previously this was available only to associates. See articles/edit.php and comments/edit.php.
The form used for comments now also features the nick name of the answered member. See comments/edit.php.
Titles of lists of comments now properly designate the commented page. See comments/list.php.
The record id has been removed from the form used to modify a user profile. See users/edit.php.
The index page for users now allows for search. See users/index.php and users/search.php.
The setup script reports on system capability before starting the installation. See setup.php.
On skin derivation the cascaded style sheet file is also renamed. See skins/derive.php.
Banned users are now prevented to login. Also, a small icons is used to locate them more easily in lists.
A number of rendering bugs for the
To help on XHTML validation, the deprecated
Previously YACS listed only 20 subs-sections per section. This limit has been changed to 100.
The test page for skins has been made leaner, to make it more friendly to webmasters, and also to allow for a future CSS contest, if any. See skins/test.php.
A skin packaged as a .tgz archive can now be installed remotely to a YACS server. See skins/upload.php.
Templates of reference skins do not offer links to view source scripts anymore.
Tables generated dynamically by YACS are now of class '
The
The rendering of pre-formatted text has been enhanced. Long lines of code snippets are now folded. Long implicit URLs are shortened as well. See codes/codes.php.
The tilde char '~' is now allowed in web links. Not kidding.
Implicit bulleted lists now generate valid XHTML. Also, deprecated attributes for lists have been replaced with valid style information. See codes/codes.php.
Comments feeds are now provided, even on servers without friendly URLs. See comments/feed.php.
Configuration panels of YACS save parameters in PHP files. Now these parameters are placed in folded boxes to achieve a leaner interface to non-programmer users. See agents/configure.php for example.
In discussion forums, thresholds for hot and very hor threads have been pushed down to 10 and 20 comments respectively. See articles/layout_articles_as_yabb.php.
Because of the GMT shift calls to
The number of sections at the front page is not limited to 7 anymore. You can really put what you want, at your own risks. See index.php.
YACS now enforces access rules for collections listed at the front page. See index.php.
Some legacy additions of
The query form better processes input on error. See query.php.
If one section has the nickname 'default', it will be used as the default section for new content. A default section has been added to the populating script. See sections/populate.php and sections/sections.php.
The owner of some action can now (again) access buttons to handle it properly, even if he is not associate. See actions/view.php.
The background polling used to maintain sessions active while updating web forms has been changed from 10 minutes to 1 minute. See query.php, articles/edit.php, etc.
In MySQL version 5 dates cannot be empty. We have introduced a
A modified version of a PEAR script has been added to handle tarred and gzip archives. See included/tar.php.
Updated cascaded style sheets are provided for reference skins, to better cope with long image titles.
The size for phpDoc pages has been increased from 64kB to 16MB. See scripts/phpdoc.php.
For the update of YACS software, staging can now be achieved: against a reference server, through the direct download of some .tgz archive, or through the reference of some archive in
Also, file sizes are checked during the staging process, to locate corrupted transmissions as early as possible. See scripts/stage.php.
Labels for comments now depend on selected layout. For example with
The box that list categories attached to some article has been made more explicit, in English and in French. See articles/view.php.
Tables are now removed from teasers. See articles/article.php.
Several layouts for articles and sections have been slightly enhanced. See articles/layout_articles.php, articles/layout_articles_as_yabb.php, sections/layout_sections_as_yabb.php, etc.
The overlay interface has been reviewed, to prepare future powerful developments. See overlays/overlay.php. Reference overlays provided with YACS have been updated as well, but you may have to update yours, if any.
The new release is available for immediate download, at [article=download]. If you are already running a YACS server we highly recommend you to smoothly upgrade your server. For further information check How to achieve incremental upgrades of a YACS server?.
Here is a list of new or updated features coming with this release:
Each section page lists editors and readers separately. See sections/view.php and sections/edit.php. Article pages used to offer to subscriptors links to contribute. These have been removed. See articles/view.php and sections/section.php. Same thing for the main help page. See help.php. The configuration panel for system parameters now allows for separate database settings for the table of users. See control/configure.php. A new table has been created to store scalar values. See shared/values.php. The very first usage of this is to stamp back-end programs and batch of RSS fetches. This should proven more stable than previous touch() of selected files. See cron.php. The maximum size of web objects that can be fetched by YACS has been changed from 128kB to 5MB, including RSS feeds. See links/link.php. Basic HTTP authentication has been added to RSS feeds associated to sections, to allow for controlled access of restricted content through automated readers. See sections/feed.php. YACS does not attempt to forward notification messages when e-mail services have been disabled. See shared/mailer.php. Images can be added to files, either to further document file pages, or to depart from standard thumbnails. See files/edit.php. The compact layout for section content has been implemented. See sections/view.php. Minor restrictions to editors of a protected section have been removed. See sections/view.php. The .rmp file extension is now allowed, and associated to the Open Workbench project management tool. See files/files.php. Any authenticated member can now contribute to the site taxonomy based on search results. Previously this was reserved to associates. See search.php and catgories/set_keyword.php. A new function has been added to duplicate an article. This has proven quite useful for the translation of documentation pages for example. See articles/duplicate.php. Verbosity of the Control Panel has been reduced, mainly for configuration panels; See control/index.php. Editors can now select to avoid date stamping when modifying a page or a comment. Previously this was available only to associates. See articles/edit.php and comments/edit.php. The form used for comments now also features the nick name of the answered member. See comments/edit.php. Titles of lists of comments now properly designate the commented page. See comments/list.php. The record id has been removed from the form used to modify a user profile. See users/edit.php. The index page for users now allows for search. See users/index.php and users/search.php. The setup script reports on system capability before starting the installation. See setup.php. On skin derivation the cascaded style sheet file is also renamed. See skins/derive.php. Banned users are now prevented to login. Also, a small icons is used to locate them more easily in lists. A number of rendering bugs for the boxesandarrows layout have been fixed. To help on XHTML validation, the deprecated center HTML tag has been replaced by style information, and the p tag has been added in forms around input fields. See skins/skin_skeleton.php. Previously YACS listed only 20 subs-sections per section. This limit has been changed to 100. The test page for skins has been made leaner, to make it more friendly to webmasters, and also to allow for a future CSS contest, if any. See skins/test.php. A skin packaged as a .tgz archive can now be installed remotely to a YACS server. See skins/upload.php. Templates of reference skins do not offer links to view source scripts anymore. Tables generated dynamically by YACS are now of class 'table', to allow for further styling through CSS. See tables/tables.php. The [action=id] has been added to the rendering engine to designate a single action object attached to one user. See codes/codes.php and codes/links.php. The rendering of pre-formatted text has been enhanced. Long lines of code snippets are now folded. Long implicit URLs are shortened as well. See codes/codes.php. The tilde char '~' is now allowed in web links. Not kidding. Implicit bulleted lists now generate valid XHTML. Also, deprecated attributes for lists have been replaced with valid style information. See codes/codes.php. Comments feeds are now provided, even on servers without friendly URLs. See comments/feed.php. Configuration panels of YACS save parameters in PHP files. Now these parameters are placed in folded boxes to achieve a leaner interface to non-programmer users. See agents/configure.php for example. In discussion forums, thresholds for hot and very hor threads have been pushed down to 10 and 20 comments respectively. See articles/layout_articles_as_yabb.php. Because of the GMT shift calls to strftime() have been turned to gmstrftime(). Almost everywhere. The number of sections at the front page is not limited to 7 anymore. You can really put what you want, at your own risks. See index.php. YACS now enforces access rules for collections listed at the front page. See index.php. Some legacy additions of border attributes have been removed. See images/images.php for example. The query form better processes input on error. See query.php. If one section has the nickname 'default', it will be used as the default section for new content. A default section has been added to the populating script. See sections/populate.php and sections/sections.php. The owner of some action can now (again) access buttons to handle it properly, even if he is not associate. See actions/view.php. The background polling used to maintain sessions active while updating web forms has been changed from 10 minutes to 1 minute. See query.php, articles/edit.php, etc. In MySQL version 5 dates cannot be empty. We have introduced a NULL_DATE constant to deal with this in a bunch of scripts, such as actions/actions.php, articles/articles.php, etc. A modified version of a PEAR script has been added to handle tarred and gzip archives. See included/tar.php. Updated cascaded style sheets are provided for reference skins, to better cope with long image titles. The size for phpDoc pages has been increased from 64kB to 16MB. See scripts/phpdoc.php. For the update of YACS software, staging can now be achieved: against a reference server, through the direct download of some .tgz archive, or through the reference of some archive in inbox/yacs. See scripts/stage.php and scripts/update.php. Also, file sizes are checked during the staging process, to locate corrupted transmissions as early as possible. See scripts/stage.php. Labels for comments now depend on selected layout. For example with manual, comments are turned to 'reader notes'. See articles/view.php. The box that list categories attached to some article has been made more explicit, in English and in French. See articles/view.php. Tables are now removed from teasers. See articles/article.php. Several layouts for articles and sections have been slightly enhanced. See articles/layout_articles.php, articles/layout_articles_as_yabb.php, sections/layout_sections_as_yabb.php, etc. The overlay interface has been reviewed, to prepare future powerful developments. See overlays/overlay.php. Reference overlays provided with YACS have been updated as well, but you may have to update yours, if any.Comments
Tof on May 9 2006Hello Bernard, I use english in this post 'cause we're in the intl section
i have some ideas of features for the next release (i didnt test the 6.4 yet but i think they are not included for what i read today).the first one is the ability of manage groups of users; i thought of it while reading that you can change database settings for one user; it might be a tough task for many users...
the second one is to be notified when a comment is added to a thread that i have already comment (tell me if i'm wrong but i guess i'm notified only when i have created the thread).
the third one - i have already told Fernand about it - is an "artistic" demand : would it be possible to have a page_skeleton.php/page.php on the model of the skin_skeleton.php/skin.php ? for the moment i create an altaPage.php with a altaPage class extending the Page class but it's not very "pretty". I need this if i want to change the behaviour of some display, ie if i want to change the login or the search boxes.
I'm going to test the new version soon, since i think that the new functions would be great. Thanks for your job !
Finally, i read about a major change in the overlay function. Can you tell us more about it since i will have to use it very soon (for the display of products in a catalog website) ?
Bye and thanks again ! Tof
Tof
Bernard on May 9 2006Tof: Actually YACS support a special flavor of groups, which is blended in web spaces. I know that this sounds quite unusual, but it has proven to be very efficient because it's visual. Look at some section and you will immedialtely know who is allowed to do something special here.
Also, when you comment some page YACS will automatically add this page to your watch list, even if you have not started the thread. This means you should receive a message on subsequent comments sent to this page. And this feature does not work it's a bug...
For me, the issue for
page.php is not the same than for skin.php. Every skin is supposed to feature some skin.php, therefore the creation of skin_skeleton.php to have a nice library in the background. But within a template you are perfectly free to use, or not, page.php, or another derived script like altaPage.php. My feeling is that the creation of a page_skeleton.php would only add complexity to all skins, without a real necessity to do that. Therefore, for the third point you must admit that "altaPage.php" is a very nice name, and it is definitely pretty, if this is what you wanted to achieve. Thank you for your valid input, and interest in YACS.
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Posted by Bernard on May 8 2006, (popular)
