YACS 5.12 has been released: wikis, editors, threads, slideshows, performance, installation
Wikis have gained so much traction in the Internet arena during previous months, that it was almost impossible to not consider to implement wiki-like mechanisms sooner or later. With this release YACS allows for anonymous contributions to one or more sections, and this is a big change in the rights management scheme implemented previously.
This does not mean that your YACS site has to be entirely open to everybody. Actually, this new release also empowers editors in sections they are managing. This will allow you to extend your community to key contributors, while limiting the number of associates to a very minimum.
On popular demand threads of comments have been separated from main content, except in discussion boards of course. This way of proceeding, while departing from the common blogging approach, will allow for a better scalability. Also, a central place has been created to access most recent threads easily, whatever section they belong to.
Since very old releases YACS may add a web interface to a directory of files. Streaming of audio and video files has been introduced in a previous version. This release comes with a new nice feature, aiming to create automatic slideshows out of your shots and images.
A new cache strategy has been introduced for pages with a high number of components, such as the home page. Previously, every component was cached separately, and many SQL statements were necessary to retrieve them. Now the entire page is put in the cache once, and only one SQL statement is required on cache hit.
Also, a web form has been introduced to edit text files of any skin. This means that web designers can tune a new skin without any direct access to server's file system. Instead, they will derive a skin from an existing one, and then edit cascaded style sheets and templates remotely, from within their favorite web browser.
This does not mean that your YACS site has to be entirely open to everybody. Actually, this new release also empowers editors in sections they are managing. This will allow you to extend your community to key contributors, while limiting the number of associates to a very minimum.
On popular demand threads of comments have been separated from main content, except in discussion boards of course. This way of proceeding, while departing from the common blogging approach, will allow for a better scalability. Also, a central place has been created to access most recent threads easily, whatever section they belong to.
Since very old releases YACS may add a web interface to a directory of files. Streaming of audio and video files has been introduced in a previous version. This release comes with a new nice feature, aiming to create automatic slideshows out of your shots and images.
A new cache strategy has been introduced for pages with a high number of components, such as the home page. Previously, every component was cached separately, and many SQL statements were necessary to retrieve them. Now the entire page is put in the cache once, and only one SQL statement is required on cache hit.
Also, a web form has been introduced to edit text files of any skin. This means that web designers can tune a new skin without any direct access to server's file system. Instead, they will derive a skin from an existing one, and then edit cascaded style sheets and templates remotely, from within their favorite web browser.
443 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:
A new, tabular, layout is available to render articles in sections. See articles/layout_articles_as_table.php.
If the option
Previous versions of articles are automatically saved in the database, and can be restored on-demand. The second step to Wikis. See versions/restore.php.
The Content Assistant has been dramatically expanded to streamline the creation of sophisticated content. If you decide to add samples to your site, a number of items will be inserted, including: a blog, a wiki, a discussion board, a draft electronic book. See articles/populate.php.
Editors, that is, people with additional rights in sections, can now actually better manage every piece of information within their sphere of influence, including files, links, comments, and images attached to pages. See the numerous modifications of sections/edit.php to get an idea of what this really means.
New UBB-like codes have been added to YACS, to embed login/logout facility in site menu, to introduce breaks after floating elements, and to display text only to anonymous surfers. See codes/codes.php.
New smileys have been added as well. Look at the the index page of smileys. See smileys/index.php.
Post-processing options that were available only to associates can now be used by editors and by any member on new post. Use these to signal draft posts, or to preserve carriage returns, etc. Posters can also mention their source of information, if any. See articles/edit.php.
Tools aiming to complement an article (attach a file, add an image, post a comment or a link) have been grouped together in a side box (articles/view.php). These tools can be made available also to anonymous surfers by setting a global system parameter in the main configuration panel.
Except when in a discussion board (based on yabb-like layout), comments are not listed at the end of articles anymore (articles/view.php). Separate threads have been developed instead (comments/list.php). Also, YACS now features an index of most recent threads (comments/index.php), irrespective of the content they relate to. Moreover, a shortcut to this index has been added to the Control Panel. This means that, even for larger sites with various forums and discussion boards, you have a convenient central place to look globally at most recent active conversations.
Conversion tools have been moved to the bottom of articles (articles/view.php). To make them appear, either add the option
Some transformations have been improved, notably the production of MS-Word and of PDF files. Printouts have been extended as well. See articles/fetch_as_msword.php, articles/fetch_as_pdf.php, articles/fetch_for_palm.php and articles/print.php.
File sharing has never been easier with YACS. Animated icons help to focus on streamed audio and video content. Also, images and photos can be displayed sequentially in an automatic slideshow. New extensions are now supported, namely: aif, aiff, au, chm, png and swf. Cache has been reduced to one minute, to allow for rapid change of shared directories. See collections/browse.php and collections/play_slideshow.php.
Video streams are now encoded as
The holistic caching approach has been applied to the home page (index.php) and to other index pages, and also to highly demanded scripts, such as those in charge of rendering articles (articles/view.php) and sections
To improve on scalability we have used advanced MySQL capabilities to spot and re-engineer slowest SQL queries. See categories/members.php and articles/articles.php, among others.
The script that take care of the database structure has been completed to ANALYZE data files and, therefore, to optimize subsequent queries. Also, this script switches the server off temporarily during its job to prevent deadlocks. Launch it from time to time, from the Control Panel, to ensure optimum performance levels. See control/setup.php.
Previously each purge of the cache required one SQL statement. These have been combined where applicable to reduce the demand on the back-end database.
Associates can now use the general 'Post a page' link to contribute to special sections. Previously they had to browse the target section first, and to hit the 'Add a page' link there. See articles/edit.php.
Skins text files can now be modified remotely, through a web form. See skins/edit.php.
The Control Panel is now more explicit about system commands, including access to the Content Assistant, to the backup/restore facility, etc. See control/index.php.
YACS is now able to produce a sitemap, aiming to speed the referencement of your server to Google. See sitemap.php.
Minimum technical requirements have been enforced in the setup script. For example, YACS attempts to write to most salient configuration files, and complains before actual setup if any issue arises. See setup.php.
Shortcuts to the Content Assistant and to the Control Panel have been added at the end of the setup process.
Textual explanations provided with the YACS archive have been revisited. This file is also accessible from within the execution of the setup script, for further reference. See readme.txt.
RSS feeds now have the
The RSS parser now supports ISO 8601 dates and time stamps. See feeds/feeds.php.
Shortcuts have been added to the script that process errors (error.php), to help move the surfer to valid pages, such as the home page or the index of articles.
Many scripts have been modified because of the track of uninitialized variables triggered on Jan's request.
Permission assessment have been reinforced in a number of scripts, as anti-hacker protection code.
Other minor bugs have been fixed at various places. Some labels have been changed in the main help page (help.php), in the query form (query.php), in the configuration panel for agents (agents/configure.php).
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:
A new, tabular, layout is available to render articles in sections. See articles/layout_articles_as_table.php. If the option anonymous_edit is added to a section anonymous surfers will be able to post and modify articles posted to it. The very first step to Wikis. See articles/edit.php. Previous versions of articles are automatically saved in the database, and can be restored on-demand. The second step to Wikis. See versions/restore.php. The Content Assistant has been dramatically expanded to streamline the creation of sophisticated content. If you decide to add samples to your site, a number of items will be inserted, including: a blog, a wiki, a discussion board, a draft electronic book. See articles/populate.php. Editors, that is, people with additional rights in sections, can now actually better manage every piece of information within their sphere of influence, including files, links, comments, and images attached to pages. See the numerous modifications of sections/edit.php to get an idea of what this really means. New UBB-like codes have been added to YACS, to embed login/logout facility in site menu, to introduce breaks after floating elements, and to display text only to anonymous surfers. See codes/codes.php. New smileys have been added as well. Look at the the index page of smileys. See smileys/index.php. Post-processing options that were available only to associates can now be used by editors and by any member on new post. Use these to signal draft posts, or to preserve carriage returns, etc. Posters can also mention their source of information, if any. See articles/edit.php. Tools aiming to complement an article (attach a file, add an image, post a comment or a link) have been grouped together in a side box (articles/view.php). These tools can be made available also to anonymous surfers by setting a global system parameter in the main configuration panel. Except when in a discussion board (based on yabb-like layout), comments are not listed at the end of articles anymore (articles/view.php). Separate threads have been developed instead (comments/list.php). Also, YACS now features an index of most recent threads (comments/index.php), irrespective of the content they relate to. Moreover, a shortcut to this index has been added to the Control Panel. This means that, even for larger sites with various forums and discussion boards, you have a convenient central place to look globally at most recent active conversations. Conversion tools have been moved to the bottom of articles (articles/view.php). To make them appear, either add the option with_bottom_tools to one section, or configure the equivalent system parameter from the main configuration panel. Also, pretty icons for tools have been added to each reference skin. Some transformations have been improved, notably the production of MS-Word and of PDF files. Printouts have been extended as well. See articles/fetch_as_msword.php, articles/fetch_as_pdf.php, articles/fetch_for_palm.php and articles/print.php. File sharing has never been easier with YACS. Animated icons help to focus on streamed audio and video content. Also, images and photos can be displayed sequentially in an automatic slideshow. New extensions are now supported, namely: aif, aiff, au, chm, png and swf. Cache has been reduced to one minute, to allow for rapid change of shared directories. See collections/browse.php and collections/play_slideshow.php. Video streams are now encoded as .m3u instead of .pls, which has proven to be poorly supported. See collections/stream.php and files/stream.php. The holistic caching approach has been applied to the home page (index.php) and to other index pages, and also to highly demanded scripts, such as those in charge of rendering articles (articles/view.php) and sections To improve on scalability we have used advanced MySQL capabilities to spot and re-engineer slowest SQL queries. See categories/members.php and articles/articles.php, among others. The script that take care of the database structure has been completed to ANALYZE data files and, therefore, to optimize subsequent queries. Also, this script switches the server off temporarily during its job to prevent deadlocks. Launch it from time to time, from the Control Panel, to ensure optimum performance levels. See control/setup.php. Previously each purge of the cache required one SQL statement. These have been combined where applicable to reduce the demand on the back-end database. Associates can now use the general 'Post a page' link to contribute to special sections. Previously they had to browse the target section first, and to hit the 'Add a page' link there. See articles/edit.php. Skins text files can now be modified remotely, through a web form. See skins/edit.php. The Control Panel is now more explicit about system commands, including access to the Content Assistant, to the backup/restore facility, etc. See control/index.php. YACS is now able to produce a sitemap, aiming to speed the referencement of your server to Google. See sitemap.php. Minimum technical requirements have been enforced in the setup script. For example, YACS attempts to write to most salient configuration files, and complains before actual setup if any issue arises. See setup.php. Shortcuts to the Content Assistant and to the Control Panel have been added at the end of the setup process. Textual explanations provided with the YACS archive have been revisited. This file is also accessible from within the execution of the setup script, for further reference. See readme.txt. RSS feeds now have the Content-Type application/rss+xml instead of text/xml. Because this may puzzle some browsers file names are also suggested. See The RSS parser now supports ISO 8601 dates and time stamps. See feeds/feeds.php. Shortcuts have been added to the script that process errors (error.php), to help move the surfer to valid pages, such as the home page or the index of articles. Many scripts have been modified because of the track of uninitialized variables triggered on Jan's request. Permission assessment have been reinforced in a number of scripts, as anti-hacker protection code. Other minor bugs have been fixed at various places. Some labels have been changed in the main help page (help.php), in the query form (query.php), in the configuration panel for agents (agents/configure.php).
