Sparse-PHP / News: Recent posts

Sparse, the framework that makes creating web applications easier, faster, and more robust (and throws in instant Ajax to boot) has released a new version. This update includes a new "toolbox" which allows you to create controls such as navigation, searching, and sorting in a separate area of the page or even a separate frame. Also adds support for auto-increment, and has numerous major bugfixes (update immediately!).

A big new update for Sparse, the HTML-based framework for writing CGI applications easily and quickly. Now, the generated forms output in fully degradable Ajax, meaning that if a user doesn't have Javascript available or if an error occurs, the regular functionality will still work. Documentation has also had a significant overhaul. If you haven't tried Sparse yet, now's the time!

It's been a while, but there's a new release out! Besides for the inevitable bugfixes (and there were a few embarrassing ones) you now have a button for saving as CSV, and a tag that lets the user view specific results. I've also implemented a warning log, which should help if something goes wrong.

A significant new release, which introduces some changes that are not compatible with previous versions. Upgrading isn't hard, don't worry! New features include a support for sorting data and for printing out the number of results, further useful attributes for quick templates, and a "tag referencing" system which acts similar to CSS classes in that it allows you to reuse attributes from previous tags, or to import them entirely from a separate page. You can define default attributes for all tags as well as "classes" of attributes. As usual, testers are needed!

New release of Sparse! Sparse now uses sessions, which streamlines the code and should cut down on the big forms that were formerly created. Also, a "reset" button has been added; "default" enumsets (for use in quick templates); ability to deal with tables that have no primary keys defined; and better usability of documentation.

Some great new features in the new Sparse release: removal of all external dependencies, ability to embed Sparse tags inside other tags or attributes, and the addition of a search mechanism. Please see the documentation for a fully-detailed discussion of the new features!

A new release includes a lot of code cleanup and some great new features:

* The sqlnavigation tag. You can now print a complete set of page links to navigate amongst your data, and fine-tune which links appear.
* Added the query attribute to enumsets; you can now populate them on the fly from your database.
* PHP code can now be executed whenever and wherever you like, and includes the ability to conditionally execute Sparse code.
* Added a new sqlfield calendar type and the calType attribute.

A few minor new features, code cleanup, and bugfixes.

Sparse is a new project whose aim is to allow web developers to create MySQL-backed programs without actually having to program them. Sparse takes care of handling the data, navigation, displaying errors, input validation, and caching. Using a few extra HTML tags allows surprising power, yet remains easy to use and very customizable. It can save a lot of time and effort during development!

The Sparse homepage is here: http://sparse-php.sourceforge.net/