XOOPS: XOOPS 2.3.0 Alpha 1 Is Released

Posted by: phpppOn 2008/3/6 2:27:08 16325 reads
The XOOPS development team is pleased to announce the release of XOOPS 2.3.0 Alpha.

The objective of XOOPS 2.3 releases is to merge the two existent branches of 2.0 and 2.2 and to build a bridge towards our next generation of system XOOPS 3.0.

With XOOPS 2.3 releases, users will be able to learn some of new features that will be available in XOOPS 3.0, while developers can understand better the direction of XOOPS development, and designers can learn what features will be supported in the future.

Both backward and forward compatibility will be guaranteed as much as possible. Modules written for 2.0.* and 2.2.* will work with 2.3; applications developed for 2.3 will be compatible with XOOPS 3.0 automatically.

Developers are encouraged to write their application modules on XOOPS 2.3 so they can incorporate some of the new features and ensure easy migration to XOOPS 3.0.

Download XOOPS 2.3.0 packages from Sourceforge.
More details from Changelog.

What's New for Developers
-----------------------------------

1 Improved XOOPS ORM by enabling extensible persistable object handler:
- The improved persistable object handler supports almost all common methods for database access and data treatment, so that developers do not need to write their own classes or methods;
- Custom handler is supported. Developers can add their own handler if they want more functionality or to replace XOOPS native handlers.
2 Improved text sanitizer:
- Custom extension is supported. Developers can add new filters or methods to sanitizer based on their specific needs.
- Built-in extensions, which can be disabled or enabled (e.g. for flash, youtube, image, wiki, syntax highlight, text filter, etc.)
- Combined with improved persistable object handler (see above), text input from users will be filtered automatically for security considerations.
3 Custom Frameworks support:
- Module developers can add their own library or frameworks (located in XOOPS_ROOT_PATH/Frameworks) which can be shared by other modules.
- PEAR, Geshi have been provided as custom libraries in Frameworks.
- Once the code insided Frameworks is proven stable and valuable, they will be adopted by XOOPS core and moved into XOOPS core package. This way we can build a standard, efficient channel for third-party developers to contribute.
4 XOOPS editor packages are now supported officially:
- A XoopsEditor handler is built to accept third-party editors.
- Three editors, including Textarea, Dhtmltextarea, Extended Dhtmltextarea are provied in XOOPS core. FCKeditor, TinyMCE, Koivi are now provided as third-party add-ons.
5 XOOPS CAPTCHA is built into XOOPS core:
- CAPTCHA has been added to registration and comment forms.
- Module developers can add CAPTCHA very easily to their applications.
6 XOOPS file and folder engine is added, based on CakePHP.
7 XOOPS Cache engine is built based on CakePHP.
8 Some other improvements and new resources:
- XoopsLocal for localization;
- XoopsLoad emulating SPL autoload in PHP5;
- XoopsUtility as a collection for miscellaneous methods used by XOOPS;
- Enabled character set and collation support for MySQL 4.1+;
- Upgraded Smarty to 2.6.19
- Upgraded phpmailer to 2.0.0
9 For more changes, please check changelog.txt


What's New for Users
-----------------------------------

So far the 2.3.0 Alpha 1 does not give user many new features although it has great potential of adding new features very easily.
Some of the new features that might interest users:
- Enabled "auto login" or remember me;
- Implemented new installer with user experience improvement experiments



System requirements
-----------------------------------

PHP
Any PHP version >= 4.3 (PHP 4.2.x may work but is not officially supported)
MySQL
MySQL server 3.23+
Web server
Any server supporting the required PHP version (Apache highly recommended)


Downloading XOOPS 2.3 Alpha
-----------------------------------

Your can get this release package from the sourceforge.net file repository.
Both .zip and .tgz archives are provided.


Installing XOOPS 2.3 Alpha
-----------------------------------

1. Copy the content of the htdocs/ folder where it can be accessed by your server
2. Ensure mainfile.php, cache, templates_c and uploads are writable by the webserver
3. Access the folder where you installed the htdocs/ files using your web browser to launch the installation wizard


Upgrading from a previous version
-----------------------------------

Upgrading from XOOPS 2.0.* above 2.0.14 (using the full package)
1. Move the "upgrade" folder inside the "htdocs" folder (it's been kept out as it's not needed for full installs) on your local machine
2. Delete htdocs/mainfile.php, htdocs/install/, htdocs/cache/, htdocs/extras/, htdocs/template_c/, htdocs/themes/ and htdocs/uploads/ from the "htdocs" folder on your LOCAL machine
3. Upload the content of the htdocs folder on your LOCAL machine over your existing files on your server
4. Access /upgrade/ with a browser, and follow the instructions
5. Follow the instructions to update your database
6. Delete the upgrade folder from your server

Upgrading from any XOOPS ranging from 2.0.7 to 2.0.13.2 (using the full package):
1. Move the "upgrade" folder inside the "htdocs" folder (it's been kept out as it's not needed for full installs) on your LOCAL machine
2. Delete htdocs/mainfile.php, htdocs/install/, htdocs/cache/, htdocs/extras/, htdocs/template_c/, htdocs/themes/ and htdocs/uploads/ from the "htdocs" folder on your LOCAL machine
3. Upload the content of the htdocs folder on your LOCAL machine over your existing files on your server
4. Delete the following folders and files from your server (they belong to an old version):
* class/smarty/core
* class/smarty/plugins/resource.db.php
5. Empty the templates_c folder (except index.html)
6. Ensure the server can write to mainfile.php
7. Access /upgrade/ with a browser, and follow the instructions
8. Write-protect mainfile.php again
9. Delete the upgrade folder from your server
10. Update the "system" module from the modules administration interface

Upgrading from XOOPS 2.2.* (using the full package)
To be available in the next release.


Files integrity check
-----------------------------------

The full XOOPS package is released with a script able to check if all the system files have been correctly uploaded to the server. To use it, follow these instructions:

1. Upload the checksum.php and checksum.md5 files located in the XOOPS package root to your XOOPS server folder (putting them next to mainfile.php).
2. Execute checksum.php with your browser
3. If necessary, re-upload the missing or corrupted system files
4. Remove checksum.php and checksum.md5 from your server


Revealing the blank page backtrace log
-----------------------------------

XOOPS displays a basic error page when a fatal error preventing it to run is encountered. To help you diagnose the cause of the error, this page contains additional messages that are hidden by default. To reveal them, use your browser "select all" function (for most browsers, you can use "Ctrl+A").



Modules
-----------------------------------

The packages do not contain any module apart from the system one. You are invited to browse the XOOPS modules repository to get some. Note: as a new repository is being built, the current repository is not up-to-date, PLEASE VISIT DEVELOPERS' WEBSITES TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE USING LATEST VERSION OF MODULES.

We also highly recommend the installation of the Protector module which will bring additional protection and logging capabilities to your site.