July-21 - import, locations, javascript, speed, and more

Don't be surprised by the high number of changed scripts. This comes from the impact of streamlining codes for error messages. This release adds to YACS the capability to import XML files. Also a couple of bugs have been fixed.

 A brand new script articles/import.php has been added. Any associate can now upload a XML file using the adequate grammar (see articles/articles.dtd) to create some articles. The target section/blogid for new pages can be selected. Also, an option exists to force the publication of new pages. The import feature is accessible from the articles index, at articles/index.php. Authenticate as an associate, select the Control Panel, then the Articles module, then the import link.

 The grammar used to export articles has been slightly changed. See articles/articles.dtd, articles/articles.css, and articles/export.php. Guess what? Articles exported from articles/export.php can be re-imported by articles/import.php. At least we have a bare system to transfer pages from one YACS server to another one...

 A map of earth is now displayed for any location. For example take a look at my own user profile to locate Paris, where i live... One or several locations can be added to any user profile, and to any article as well... See codes/codes.php for implementation details

 The hardcoded reference to the home directory has been changed to a relative one after the suggestion from Mordread. The home directory is not defined in a javascript variable in shared/global.php, and any Javascript can use it. By the way, support for smileys has been added to almost all edit forms, including articles, comments, sections, categories, user profiles, files, links. Also, a proper Mime type text/javascript is now used for the call of Javascript libraries, and adequate comments have been added for very old browsers that do not know what Javascript is about...

 Bug fixed in caching pages for IE. YACS is now faster than ever, thanks to the proper usage of HTTP ETag headers.

 The code handling error messages is now able to cope with several errors if necessary, which was not the case previously. Huu, I did know that we were generating so many error messages throughout YACS...

 Local references are now taken into account in trackback and pingback. Suppose that you reference the article #1224 in a brand new page. On publication of the brand new page, one link to the article #1234 will be added. But also, at page #1234, a (trackback) link will be added to the new page. To be efficient, the web has to start locally, and it has to be simple. Remember that to reference article #1234 you just have to type [article=1234]. No complex URL to remember... See articles/publish.php. See links/links.php

 By the way an option has been added to debug trackback and pingback operations. See services/configure.php, links/links.php, links/trackback.php, and services/ping.php

 Messages and menus to access scripts have been made more explicit and helpful to new YACS developers.

 In articles/articles.php, it is now mandatory to submit an anchor to post() a new page.

 Bug fixed in the rank setting for new categories in categories/categories.php. Weekly and monthly archives will now be sorted correctly, whatever mean (web form, Palm FTP, or w.bloggar) is used to submit new articles.

 Bug fixed in id processing in categories/edit.php. Smileys bar added to the form.

 A skin is considered valid with a simple template.php. No file skin.php is required anymore. This is to prepare the importation of skins based on existing Blogger templates, if feasible... Change impacts control/configure.php

 Numerous cosmetic changes and bug fixes