[Apc-aa-coders] Changes in AA Subversion and CVS - 2007/02/06

[Honza M. <hon...@ec...>]

Hello,

   today I submitted a lot of changes to Subversion and days before also
to CVS.

   The changes in CVS are mainly bugfixes, so the code from CVS should
be "super" stable, right now. We ran this code for months on our
production server. 
  (It was probably last changes commited to CVS. Bye bye, CVS).

   Changes in Subversion are huge. Many code inside AA was rewritten to
use new object approach in order to be more easy extensible (No, packed
ids are still not removed, but it will be next step). Also there are
some new features. However, the code is already quite stable. We are
running this SVN version of AA on our main production server for three
weeks already, we fixed all the bugs we found, so I can say it works. If
there will not be any problems with this version I will regenerate
language files and release it as AA 2.12

   There is need to update database structure using sql_update.php3
script to run SVN version, since the definition of object_* tables is
different a bit.


Current SVN state: 
   Stable - used on Econnect's production server for 22 days
            (PHP 5.2.1-dev, eAccelerator-0.9.6-svn282-dev, MySQL 5.0.27)

Last SVN Changes:

02/06/07 (honzam)
 - new possibility to grant AA permissions to only subset of users from
   Reader Slice. The "Reader Set" is defined by normal conditions, so
   it is extremely powerful - you can use any field of Reader slice
   for it. The conditions are controlled be new AA_Set feature, which
   holds set of conditions and sorts (we will use such "Sets" as named
   conditions to view.php3/slice.php3 in near future). The set is
   defined on "Slice Admin -> Design - Sets of Items".
   The "reader set" works just with LDAP permission system, right now,
   but it is very easy to adapt it also for SQL permissions.
 - image manipulation library phpThumb integrated into AA. You can use
   it by calling /img.php script:
   <img src="/aaa/img.php?src=http://example.com/img/flower.gif&w=150">
   (w=150 means that image will be converted to width=150).
   All the parameters you can see on
   http://phpthumb.sourceforge.net/demo/demo/phpThumb.demo.demo.php
   (just use img.php instead of phpThumb.php in the examples)
   The modified images are cached in <IMG_UPLOAD_PATH>/phpThumbcache/
 - new possibility to define external script as Control File for Site
   Module, so you can give this script to your users without the need to
   give them also rights to edit AA files.
      There are two possibilities, how to control the apc_state
      variable. It could be se in ./modules/site/sites/site_...php
      control file. The control file could be managed only by people,
      who have the access to the AA sources on the server. If we want to
      permit control of the site to extenal people, which do not have
      access to AA scripts directory, then it is possible to them to not
      fill "site control file" in site configuration dialog and then
      call this script from their own file, where the new $apc_state,
      $slices4cache and $site_id will be defined and passed by GET
      method. Just like this:
         $url  = 'http://example.org/apc-aa/modules/site/site.php3?';
         $url .= http_build_query( array(
                   'apc_state'    => $apc_state,
                   'slices4cache' => $slices4cache,
                   'site_id'      => 'ae54378beac7c7e8a998e7de8a998e7a'
                                  ));
         readfile($url);
   See apc-aa/modules/site/sites/external_controlfile_example.php3 for
   more info
 - Basic spam filter solution for discussions. It is based
   on the presumption, that the robots fill all the fields in the form,
   even the hidden ones. filler.php3 then never stores comment, which
   would have "answer" field filled. So if you add say:
      <style type="text/css">
          .skryt { display:none };
      </style>
      <div class="skryt">
        Do not fill, please: <input type="text" name="answer" value="">
      </div>
   to the form, then the comments form is "protected". It works quite
   well, but of course it should be improved in future.
 - stringexpand functions was converted to classes AA_Stringexpand_...,
   which is more flexible and will allow to add new custom syntaxes
   {custom_function:..} in the future.
 - the result of most time consuming stringexpand functions is cached
   now, so if you will use {ids:...} and then again {ids:...} with the
   same parameters during displaying one page, then the database is
   contacted just once. The unaliasing is faster then (thanks to new
   AA_Stringexpand class).
 - new {htmltoggle:<toggle1>:<text1>:<toggle2>:<text2>} which creates
   the link text1 (or text2) and two divs, where only one is visible at
   the time
   see http://www.actionapps.org/en/Syntax
 - new parameter <restict_ids> for
   {ids:<slices>:<conds>[:<sort>[:<delimiter>[:<restrict_ids>]]]}
   see http://www.actionapps.org/en/Syntax for more details
 - better {icq}, {skype}, {jabber} handling
 - speedup of AA unaliasing by better regular expression handling
   (x-times speedup for complicated AA expressions - like forms)
 - new {aggregate:function:ids_string:expression:parameter} which
   operates across set of items. The possible functions are:
     sum, average, concat, count
   parameter is used just for concat (concatenation) as delimiter
   expression could be field_id as well as alias
   (see http://www.actionapps.com/en/Syntax for more details)
 - new {strlen:<string>} alias function (returning length of the string)
 - new parameter "add" for {substr:<string>:<begin>:<length>:<add>}
   alias function. The <add> parameter is added to the returning string,
   but only if the resulting string is shorter than current <string>.
   It is useful if you want to short the headline to max 60 characters,
   and add three dot, in the case the headline is shorted:
      {substr:{headline........}:0:60:...}
 - new {trim:<string>} alias function - removes beginning and ending
   spaces from the <string> - see php trim() function
 - new possibility for {conds:<string>} alias function. Now you can
   create condition based on value of the field (including multivalue):
      {view.php3?vid=9&cmd[9]=c-1-{conds:category.......1}}, where
   {conds:category.......1} is expanded to something like
   '%22Squash%22%20OR%20%22Table%20Tenis%22', which is urlencoded
   "Squash" OR "Table Tenis". This way you can find all people, who have
   at least one common hobby with you.
 - new {constant:<group_id>:<value>:<what>} which allows to get
   the 'Name' of constant in <group_id> for the specified <value>
      say {constant:apc_main_categs_:ENV:name} returns "Environment".
   Default value for <what> parameter is "name", so if you want to know
   the name, then you can omit it.
 - session ids are passed by GET (again) - not by cookies, since there
   was problems with it (the tabs in firefox shares the cookies,
   so multiple tabs uses the same session id, which is still not ok
   for some pages in AA administration.
 - It is possible to specify more than one searchbar default condition
   in profiles, now; code moved to more object oriented - using
   AA_Conditions, ...
 - textareas in AA forms automatically get bigger, if it already
   contains long text
 - admin interface for discussion now contains information about
   IP address of comments writer
 - new possibility to use conds[] and sort[] also for constants used for
   displaying some Input Type. Now you are able to sort the constants
   transparently at the time it is displayed in the selectbox, for
   example. You are also able to display only constants containing
   "Nature", have value bigger than 1000, ...
 - added some classes to discussion output, so it is more skinable, now.
 - better handling of empty search row (change in inner code) in search
   bar
 - added modules/polls to SVN repository - This module allows voting
   on page - it uses "phpPolls" code and it is not completed yet.
   Anyway it is better to have it in the svn in order other can look
   and finish it since Pavel Jisl (original author) is no longer
   available for this work.
 - GUI improvement in view setting - link to view is not in popup
 - Cleanup
    - class names now uses standard naming convention - prefix AA_ and
      name with all first letters in upper case (manager => AA_Manager)
    - global functions now rewritten to static class methods, where
      appropriate (sliceid2name() => AA_Slices::getName())
    - class methods begins with lower caps letter
    - cleanup of QueryZids() parameters - fields are no longer needed,
      as well as other unused parameters
    - new AA_Object, AA_Property, AA_Widget, AA_Fields, AA_File_Wrapper,
      AA_Set classes. Many uses standard AA properties and prepared for
      easy extensibility of the code
    - regular expressions ereg functions replaced by faster preg
      functions, where possible
    - new AA_File_Wrapper class, which is used for accessing local
      as well as remote (http:, ftp:) files
    - new implementation of storable_class - more object oriented, more
      robust. It is based on AA_Object super-parent class and its
      getPersistentProperties() method, which should be overriden in all
      Child classes which want to be persistent. The objects are stored
      to new object tables (object_text, object_integer, object_float).
    - improved valiadion class AA_Validate
    - new javascript AA_Config object storing AA_INSTALL_PATH,
      ... for usage in AA javascripts
 - added "prototype" javascript library to the AA. It have some very
   nice features like function $(), which is shortcut for
   document.getElementById, DOM manipulation functions AJAX, ... We will
   use it intensively in near future.
   see http://www.prototypejs.org/
 - database structure updated - fields in object_* tables renamed to
   match common structure
 - pagecache uses REPLACE command where possible
   (instead of SELECT+INSERT/UPDATE)
 - new optimization functions in AA Optimize
    - Convert no longer used slice.category_sort to slice.group_by
    - Copy Content Table

 - fixed banner parameter and some more fixes in slice.php3
 - fixed problem with some filenames in CSV import
 - small changes and bugfixes in slice export, authentication and
   pagecache
 - fixed database structure to be compatible with MySQL > 4.1
   (binary changed to varbinary)
 - fixed sql permission system, so it works also if crypt() function
   of the system uses Blowfish encryption
 - fixed problems with charsets in AA Admin interface on some systems
   (php 5.2?)
 - the xinha (wysiwyg HTML area) do not report javascript error, now
   (dirty hack, for now)
 - fixed bug in link checking code (used in Links module) - the server
   response wasn't parsed well, when the response text contains
   apostrophe (Italian server responses for 404 uses such character)
 - fixed bug in {math} - now work again


Current CVS state: Stable
                   Used on Econnect's production servers for months

Last CVS Changes:

02/01/07 (honzam)
 - Basic spam filter solution for discussions. It is based
   on the presumption, that the robots fill all the fields in the form,
   even the hidden ones. filler.php3 then never stores comment, which
   would have "answer" field filled. So if you add say:
      <style type="text/css">
          .skryt { display:none };
      </style>
      <div class="skryt">
        Do not fill, please: <input type="text" name="answer" value="">
      </div>
   to the form, then the comments form is "protected". It works quite
   well, but of course it should be improved in future.
 - textareas in AA forms automatically get bigger, if it already
   contains long text
 - new {htmltoggle:<toggle1>:<text1>:<toggle2>:<text2>} which creates
   the link text1 (or text2) and two divs, where only one is visible at
   the time
   see http://www.actionapps.org/en/Syntax
 - new parameter <restict_ids> for
   {ids:<slices>:<conds>[:<sort>[:<delimiter>[:<restrict_ids>]]]}
   see http://www.actionapps.org/en/Syntax for more details
 - better {icq}, {skype}, {jabber} handling
 - fixed problem with some filenames in CSV import
 - small changes and bugfixes in slice export, authentication and
   pagecache

12/14/06 (honzam)
 - speedup of AA unaliasing by better regular expression handling
   (x-times speedup for complicated AA expressions - like forms)
 - new {strlen:<string>} alias function (returning length of the string)
 - new parameter "add" for {substr:<string>:<begin>:<length>:<add>}
   alias function. The <add> parameter is added to the returning string,
   but only if the resulting string is shorter than current <string>.
   It is useful if you want to short the headline to max 60 characers,
   and add three dot, in the case the headline is shorted:
      {substr:{headline........}:0:60:...}
 - new {trim:<string>} alias function - removes beginning and ending
   spaces from the <string> - see php trim() function
 - new possibility for {conds:<string>} alias function. Now you can
   create condition based on value of the field (including multivalue):
      {view.php3?vid=9&cmd[9]=c-1-{conds:category.......1}}, where
   {conds:category.......1} is expanded to something like
   '%22Squash%22%20OR%20%22Table%20Tenis%22', which is urlencoded
   "Squash" OR "Table Tenis". This way you can find all people, who have
   at least one common hobby with you.
 - new {constant:<group_id>:<value>:<what>} which allows to get
   the 'Name' of constant in <group_id> for the specified <value>
      say {constant:apc_main_categs_:ENV:name} returns "Environment".
   Default value for <what> parameter is "name", so if you want to know
   the name, then you can omit it.
 - new possibility to define external script as Control File for Site
   Module, so you can give this script to your users without the need to
   give them also rights to edit AA files.
      There are two possibilities, how to control the apc_state
      variable. It could be se in ./modules/site/sites/site_...php
      control file. The control file could be managed only by people,
      who have the access to the AA sources on the server. If we want to
      permit control of the site to external people, which do not have
      access to AA scripts directory, then it is possible to them to not
      fill "site control file" in site configuration dialog and then
      call this script from their own file, where the new $apc_state,
      $slices4cache and $site_id will be defined and passed by GET
      method. Just like this:

         $url  = 'http://example.org/apc-aa/modules/site/site.php3?';
         $url .= http_build_query( array(
                   'apc_state'    => $apc_state,
                   'slices4cache' => $slices4cache,
                   'site_id'      => 'ae54378beac7c7e8a998e7de8a998e7a'
                                  ));
         readfile($url);
 - admin interface for discussion now contains information about
   IP address of comments writer
 - fixed database structure to be compatible with MySQL > 4.1
   (binary changed to varbinary)
 - fixed sql permission system, so it works also if crypt() function
   of the system uses Blowfish encryption
 - fixed problems with charsets in AA Admin interface on some systems
   (php 5.2?)
 - the xinha (wysiwyg HTML area) do not report javascript error, now
   (dirty hack, for now)
   
11/15/06 (honzam)           
- new possibility to use conds[] and sort[] also for constants used for
  displaying some Input Type. Now you are able to sort the constants
   transparently at the time it is displayed in the selectbox, for
   example. You are also able to display only constants containing
   "Nature", have value bigger than 1000, ...
 - stringexpand functions was converted to classes AA_Stringexpand_...,
   which is more flexible and will allow to add new custom syntaxes
   {custom_function:..} in the future.
 - the result of most time consuming stringexpand functions is cached
   now, so the unaliasing is faster.
 - added some classes to discussion output, so it is more skinable, now.
 - fixed bug in link checking code (used in Links module) - the server
   response wasn't parsed well, when the response text contains
   apostrophe (Italian server responses for 404 uses such character)
 - better handling of empty search row (change in inner code) in search
   bar
 - site module now supports external control file, so the users, who
   want to use site module do not need the access to AA scripts.
   The control file looks exactly as the normal control file for site
   module but at the end we call the site.php3 with site_id,
   slices4cache and apc_state parameters, just like:
        $url  = 'http://example.org/apc-aa/modules/site/site.php3?';
        $url .= http_build_query( array(
                   'apc_state'    => $apc_state,
                   'slices4cache' => $slices4cache,
                   'site_id'      => 'ae54378beac7c7e8a998e7de8a998e7a'
                                        ));
        readfile($url);
 - fixed bug in {math} - now work again
 
10/14/06 (brazda)
 - added profile support and profile settings button also for groups

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