In light of the amount of bugs in the previous beta (whoops!), I have decided to release a second beta on 23rd August 2010.

Mainly this is because not only do I plan bug fixes, but also I have to add and finish a few other features. It is not for definite at the moment, but the expected stable release date is 29th August.

Expected features are listed below from a technical perspective:

• Improved Efficiency – This will be achieved by taking a re-look at the $Page and $Template objects, primarily the inclusion of javascript on a page by page basis. Also a redo of the caching system is imperative, to enable the ability to delete certain caches rather than clearing the whole thing. On a browser-side note, all images visible on every page will be combined into one.
• User Groups and Permissions – the addition of which will complete the previously somewhat lacking users section. Permissions will be generated using a three digit system similar to UNIX file permissions. The current users section will be streamlined through the use of jQuery. Also the /_user directory will have a location determined during installation, and the /_user/settings.php file will be moved to /.settings.php
• Subdir Installation Support – support will be added for installing the CMS in sub-directories rather than exclusive support for the root directory. This will be achieved by setting a new constant during installation containing the installation URL.
• Native RSS Reading – for now this support will only be granted in reading form, but it might be extended in the future. It will consist of a class or function which will read remote RSS feeds.
• Code Documentation – the main classes and files will be documented using phpDocumentor, mainly those relevant to plugin developers.
• Streamlined Appearance – New features will be added to assure easy access to relevant sections of the CMS at all times such as pagated and re-sizable tables, expand-all and collapse-all buttons in the list pages section, a new system html email function, the retrieval of optional information via AJAX and a custom error handler for the smarty template engine. Also the Overview section will be looked at again, adding feeds from the development blog (yet to be made) and adding javascript cookies fixing the overview items in position.
• Bug Fixes – they will all be fixed hopefully!
• Plugin Architecture Expansion – a few new things to come. Watch this space!

That’s it, a lot of work involved so I better get to it!

On schedule, Furasta.Org v1.0 Beta is now available for download.

I had quite a lot of features to complete for the deadline, and I have finished most of them. You can operate a functional website with this CMS. Plugins, Templates, Users and Pages are operational. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to complete two features: Permissions and Page Order. These will be tackled before a stable release, which will hopefully happen within two or three weeks.

The website is also being launched today. You can download the beta from there and also read a load of useless information about the CMS! Most importantly, the Bug Tracker and the Forum are now available. I didn’t have time to set up a demo, but I will do so for the stable release.

With every download I have bundled two files, plugin_vars.txt ( for plugin developers ) and todo.txt, which is a list of upcoming features, bug fixes and improvements. I will show todo.txt here:

# TODO list for Furasta.Org v1.0 - General Release #

1. Combine images used on every page into one image.
2. Improve the caching system, add directories such as 'pages' and delete that dir to
restore pages cache rather than deleting all of the cache files.
3. Add pagated tables to trash and pages (only say 60 pages per page). Also make tables
resizable, and save their width.
4. Add User Groups, possibly get rid of the new user page and turn it into a jquery alert?
5. Fix page permissions, and user permissions. will be more complex with groups.
make a numbered system similar to 0700,0777 to specify permissions
6. Complete the auto-update feature, and possibly allow for system wide 'alerts'
which will appear on every page.
7. Create an email function which sends HTML emails with a default Furasta.Org
template, including images.
8. Add plugin $importance var
9. Change the pages options section to an AJAX request, most people will
not use it and it is quite intensive creating parent lists etc, yet not
enough used or large enough to be cached.
10. Develop a few plugins to test, and adjust, the plugin architecture:
File Manager (*), News Plugin (with RSS), something else..
11. Do something to solve all the javascript code, try and generalise it
somehow so it can be re-used rather than loads of 'once-offs'.
12. Add RSS to the overview page displaying posts from the furasta blog.
Save the overview layout via jQuery cookies.
13. Possibly, add an option for scheduled backups, and add a restore from
backup feature, or even better add a browse backups feature like Time Machine,
although could be some space issues!
14. add phpdocumenter to main files, classes etc
15. change the javascript validation system. the current system has too
many ifs. streamline it to a syntax similar to the jquery validation plugin
16. get rid of the admin/post dir - that was a stupid idea!
17. Finish the password reminder!
18. List Pages - add expand, contract all buttons
19. Edit Pages and New Pages, fix the url preview tree inconsistencies
20. Add custom error handler to the smarty template engine.

* figure something out about the _user directory. Maybe put it outside
the web directory, but then will have to move the settings.php file as
it must have a static location. Anyway it is required for plugins which
need to store files.

# TODO list for Furasta.Org v1.0 #

1. Add support for Template Repository.
2. Add preview Template support, including new feature preview templates from the
repository without downloading them.
3. Add support for the Plugin Repository
4. Add plugin description/about page
5. Add user description/about page, possibly frontend profile?
6. Add proper frontend editing support via frontendEditor plugin
7. Add plugin updater
8. Possibly feature that when you register a new user on your website it also
registers/allows you access to forum.furasta.org, bugs.furasta.org,
and possibly developer.furasta.org. The later still tbc

Upon downloading and installing the CMS if you have any criticism/suggestions/feature requests don’t hesitate to spew them out here, or on the Forum. You can also report any (god forbid) bugs that you find with the Bug Tracker.

C’est ça! Enjoy – and Download:

So, Furasta.Org released tomorrow.. are you as excited as I am? Probably not.. The plugin architecture is written, although it is not feature packed at the moment, it allows for easy expansion. In fact the plugin architecture can even be expanded with plugins!

Please note that the plugin architecture may change somewhat between the beta and the stable release, but from that stage on it will remain the static, using a backwards compatible depreciation scheme.

Bundled with the beta, as you will see tomorrow, are two plugins. The first is a feature-less piece of crap really! I just stuck it in because it is slightly useful for one thing. Truthfully, it doesn’t have the support from the plugin architecture to achieve exactly what it was meant to. But that will change when the architecture expands! The latter is a download manager plugin which I wrote for Furasta.Org, and which is slightly specific to my needs. But I decided to include it anyway to show how to develop plugins.

Plugin Construction

Now I’m going to explore the Download Manager Plugin, explain how it was made, and hopefully in the process offer an insight into the system. Writing a plugin for Furasta.Org is simple enough. First create a directory in the _plugins dir, a plugin file, and set the correct permissions:

mkdir _plugins/downloadManager
touch _plugins/downloadManager/plugin.php
chmod -R 777 _plugins/downloadManager

Now edit the plugin.php file. To create a new plugin you must create a new class, which has the same name as the plugin directory. You only need two things for it to register as a plugin, the name and the version number:

class downloadManager{
  var $name='Download Manager';
  var $version=1;

Then you can add different variables, so that it displays well on the admin page:

  var $description='Adds a downloads page type and manages downloads.';
  var $email='conormacaoidh@gmail.com';
  var $href='http://blog.macaoidh.name';

The $email and $href variables do not display in the admin area (they will in coming versions), but they do appear in plugin error reports, so it is important to include them if you want people to report bugs.

Now, lets add a page type for the pages section. Page types allow the plugin access to pages in the admin area. You can select a page type while editing pages by clicking on the Show Options button. There are two things you must do, declare the variable, which is the name that will appear in the page type select box and declare the function which will appear when that type is selected:

  var $adminPageType='Download';

  function adminPageType($page_id){
    require 'admin/adminPageType.php';
    return $content;
  }

Simple enough, the plugin loads a file in the admin directory, and returns the contents to be displayed. I’m not going to show the contents because it’s not entirely relevant, you can explore them yourself with the release tomorrow.

Next we add the frontendPageType() function, which displays the content relevant to that page when it is loaded in the frontend:

  function frontendPageType($Page){
    require 'admin/frontendPageType.php';
    return $content;
  }

Note: I have added the require, although it is not present in the actual plugin, for simplicity reasons. Also note that this time the $Page object is passed rather than the $page_id. You can explore the page object at /_inc/class/Page.php. Basically you can use it to get information about the page, like

$Page->id, $Page->name,$Page->content.

Below I have added a quick Overview Item, which displays information in the homepage of the admin panel.

  function adminOverviewItem(){
    require 'admin/adminOverviewItem.php';
    return $content;
  }

Finally the most important part – the plugin registration! If you don’t register the plugin it will not run.

} // close the class
$Plugins->register(new downloadManager);

That’s the basics to create a plugin. Go to the admin page, activate the plugin and try it out (they are not activated by default). Here’s the full code:

class downloadManager{
  var $name='Download Manager';
  var $version=1;
  var $description='Adds a downloads page type and manages downloads.';
  var $email='conormacaoidh@gmail.com';
  var $href='http://blog.macaoidh.name';
  var $adminPageType='Download';

  function adminPageType($page_id){
    require 'admin/adminPageType.php';
    return $content;
  }
  function frontendPageType($Page){
    require 'admin/frontendPageType.php';
    return $content;
  }
  function adminOverviewItem(){
    require 'admin/adminOverviewItem.php';
    return $content;
  }
}
$Plugins->register(new downloadManager);

Simple as that! If you develop a plugin, please send it on to support@furasta.org. A plugin repository is planned for v1.1, but until then you will not be able to distribute your plugins without going directly through me!

Some additional information below.

Adding A Menu Item

I thought I would cover this also as it is a key feature in most plugins. Simply define the function adminMenu in your class:

  public function adminMenu($menu_array,$url){

The beauty of this plugin architecture is that it works with a hook and filter system. This is a hook because you can simply return your menu added to the existing menu like this: array_merge($menu_array,$news_menu), but it also works as a filter, because you can filter through the existing menu and change things. So what I’m going to do is add a News Settings page to the Settings tab:

    $news_menu=array(
      'News Settings'=>array(
        'url'=>$url.'&page=edit'
      )
    );

    $settings=$menu_array['Settings']['submenu'];
    if(isset($settings))
      $menu_array['Settings']['submenu']=array_merge($settings,$news_menu);
    return $menu_array;
  }

Nothing too crazy there. So that’s the admin menu added!

Installation / Uninstallation

The files:

/_plugins/plugin-dir/install.php
/_plugins/plugin-dir/uninstall.php

are loaded when a plugin is activated/deactivated.

Plugin Vars / Functions

As you will see tomorrow, I have included a file in the download called plugin_vars.txt which lists all the variables and functions currently available in the architecture. I’ll also add it here just for reference:

# variables #

$name
$description
$version
$email
$href
$importance
$adminPageType
$frontendTemplateFunction

# functions #

adminMenu($menu_array,$url)
adminPageType($page_id)
adminPage()
adminOverviewItem()
frontendPageType($Page)
frontendTemplateFunction($Page)
htaccess($htaccess)
robots($robots)

Please do have a look around the CMS tomorrow, I am open to any recommendations/criticisms/requests – anything that will improve the system!

I have been doing a lot of development on Furasta recently and the project is nearing an alpha release – I hope to have it out next week at some stage.

Below I have attached a screenshot of the new admin interface.

A sneak preview of what is to come in Furasta.Org 1.0

The release won’t be feature packed, but the plugin architecture should be working. Note that the SVN has not been updated in ages, but I should get around to it next week as well.