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@Kiwi Chris @MarkE I think that probably could be achieved with a Fieldtype+Inputfield module pair. It sounds kind of like what FieldtypeCombo does except that you define the table structure in Combo, rather than Combo reading an existing table structure. No doubt it would be simpler than Combo since it would just read the table for its settings. Something like translating MySQL VARCHAR column to an InputfieldText, and a TEXT/MEDIUMTEXT column to a Textarea or CKE, and perhaps ENUM/SET columns to InputfieldRadios/InputfieldCheckboxes... that sort of thing. Could be fun to build!

There weren't very many CMS/CMF platforms either. I started out with SSIs to start reducing redundancy and duplication, then ended up starting my own CMS around 2000, but I picked a loser in terms of development language, and I realised trying to maintain a CMS for a modest number of clients on my own wasn't really efficient use of time. Someone introduced me to ProcessWire in 2015, and since then nearly all my websites have been converted to it. Web development and database development have progressed together for me, so ProcessWire's separation of content and presentation, and strong access control are critical for me. I evaluated my other CMS platforms before I settled on ProcessWire and I simply didn't like them as they either had a steep learning curve or were too output focused or both. I wouldn't use Word to try to build a relational database, nor would I use WordPress. I think if there is one major thing still on my wish list, it would be the ability to have a UI using ProcessWire inputfields to create data entry forms for arbitrary SQL tables. A common scenario for me is converting offline databases (often Microsoft Access) to cloud based alternatives. Usually it's possible to restructure everything within ProcessWire's pages model, but sometimes I just want to be able to dump the data across and build a UI quickly with no need for data to exist within a page model. I've been playing around a bit looking at building module(s). I'd love the goodness of Lister/(Pro), but instead of picking a template, pick an arbitrary SQL table and specify fields from it, set access control etc in the same way Lister Pro woks, and then have I guess what I'd call an SQLTemplate where you'd pick an arbitrary SQL table, select fields from it, and for each one specify an inputfield, within the contraints of the SQL field type. Of course none of this data would be accessible within ProcessWire's page structure out of the box, however there's already $database->query() to execute an arbitrary SQL query and return a result set, so using arbitrary SQL data within templates is already easy, so the only bit missing is a UI to manage arbitrary SQL tables as easily as ProcessWire pages in admin, but it's already halfway there with inputfields that don't care where their data comes from.

In addition to site development work and ProcessWire core development, this week I upgraded my OS X version (from Mojave to Monterey), my PhpStorm version (from 2018 to 2022), and my Apache/PHP/MySQL environment versions. I tend to wait a bit too long between upgrades on my computer and so I ended up with a lot of things to resolve, and a still few remaining. While waiting for upgrades to install, I randomly came across one of the first sites I ever designed/developed out of college, working for Grafik in the year 2000: https://americanhistory.si.edu/subs/ ... I can't believe it's still there. It looks really dated now (it's 22 years old), but reminded me of how much things have changed in web design/development. While I'd been developing sites for a few years before this, it was just a hobby, and it wasn't until this time that it was my job. Back in 2000 there weren't a lot of people that knew how to create websites and it always felt like you were breaking new ground. Internet Explorer was king (and nobody liked it then either), Google was just a small startup, but AltaVista, InfoSeek and Yahoo were big. Sites were developed in a way that would make you cringe now. I don't think we used CSS hardly at all, but we did use tables for everything layout related. There was no such thing as "mobile" (the iPhone didn't come till 7 years later). There was no such thing as "responsive" layout and accessibility was pretty much an unknown. Most of the time we used images for a lot more than was appropriate (headlines and much more) because HTML and HTML fonts were so limited. It all seems so primitive now but what's the same is that it was fun then and it's fun now, actually it's more fun now. I don't have any point here, just that it's funny to look back at how much as changed. Last week I mentioned that we're likely to upgrade CKEditor 4 to CKEditor 5 sometime in the next year. There were several comments about that and so just wanted to talk a little more about it. First off, I really like CKEditor 4, it's been a great fit for ProcessWire. If the company behind it was going to continue building and supporting version 4 after 2023 then we'd likely stick with it. But the CKEditor 4 end-of-life is sometime in 2023 and I don't think it's an option to stick with it (in the core) after the developer of it is no longer updating or supporting it... at least not long term. While CKEditor 5 is a different animal than CKEditor 4, it's also still the closest upgrade path from CKEditor 4, and I'm hopeful it will be able to serve as a near drop-in replacement from the perspective of users (only). My hope is that by the time we've completed the upgrade to CKE 5, our clients won't necessarily know the difference or have to re-learn anything, unless they want to take advantage of something new exclusive to CKE 5. From my perspective as a developer integrating CKEditor 5 into ProcessWire, the development side is not a drop in replacement for CKE 4 (not even close), as all supporting code will have to be redeveloped. By supporting code, I mean things like the code in the InputfieldCKEditor.module file, the code for our custom CKE plugins (pwimage and pwlink), as well as anything else development related that is referring to CKEditor. There's no doubt it'll be a lot of work. But the rich text editor is one of the most important input types in the ProcessWire admin, so it's fine, it's worth putting a lot of time into. As for CKEditor 5 being bloated relative to CKEditor 4, I very much doubt that's the case. It was a complete rewrite, the folks at CKEditor know what they are doing, and it's safe to assume it's even more optimized and streamlined than CKE 4. In terms of size, the download for CKE 4 and CKE 5 are both 1.7 megabytes. As I understand it, they started with a new codebase for CKEditor 5 in part to start fresh and avoid legacy bloat. So I see this upgrade as being the opposite of bloat. So what happens with CKEditor 4 in ProcessWire when it likely is replaced with CKEditor 5? So long as CKE 5 can be a near drop in replacement for our users, and for the markup it generates, then the CKE 4 module will move out of the core and into an optional module you can install from the modules directory, when/if someone wants it. On the other hand, if the transition is not completely clean between versions then we may end up supporting both in the core for a short period of time. Though I'm hopeful this won't be necessary. There are some other interesting looking editors out there that have been mentioned, and it'd be nice to have more input options available. I see something like Imperavi's Article as a good option for some but not a replacement for our current rich text editor. At least I know my clients would not be happy to have that big of a change occur from a PW version upgrade. Likewise, something like the Easy Markdown Editor is a great option for some, and I'd like to be able to install a module for that and use it in some cases. But folks used to using CKEditor 4 in their work would not be happy to have that big of a change either. CKEditor 4 works really well for what it does, and I think the goal has to be that clients using CKEditor 4 now should be able to continue doing what they are doing with as few changes to their workflow as possible. I'm hopeful we'll be able to get there with CKEditor 5, while also gaining some benefits in the process. Where other input options make a lot of sense is when building a new site where there aren't already users depending on one input method or another. And it may be that at some point (sooner or later) it will make sense for ProcessWire to have another textarea input option that's different enough from CKE to make it worthwhile. But in my opinion, that would be a potential additional option, not a replacement, as CKE is pretty well established and expected in PW.

I've been using the TemplateLatteReplace module as standard for a long time now. In fact, it's what makes Processwire usable for me, having come to it from MODX. It's no longer under development, but still working well. The only problem I've faced is converting my date & time filters from strftime() formats on upgrading to PHP 8.1. It's easy to install and set up, without having to understand the internal workings of PW or Latte/Nette. I like Latte because it keeps the HTML well separated from the logic side of templates, while still offering intelligent processing of data within the views where it helps. I found it very easy to convert my MODX templates and to use the HTML of sites built with other generators as the starting point for Latte views. I did look at other templating engines such as Twig, but found it meant more or less learning a new language for each. Latte somehow seems more natural with just knowledge of PHP and HTML. I look forward to trying out RockFrontend when it comes along!

Now in the module directory: https://processwire.com/modules/process-indie-auth/ IndieAuth lets you sign in to applications using your domain name and grant access to read/write to your site. This module adds IndieAuth support to your ProcessWire site, enabling two main things: Authentication: When you visit a site like indielogin.com and enter your domain name, you will be taken to your ProcessWire admin area to sign in and approve the request. If you approve the request, you will be returned to the site and logged in as your domain name. Authorization: When you visit an application like Quill, it needs to also get your permission to post to your site. You will be taken to your ProcessWire admin area to sign in and approve the request/scopes that the app is requesting (create, update, delete, etc.). If you approve the request, you will be returned to the app, logged in as your domain name, and the app will have an access token for your site. Features Browse the applications you have granted access tokens to. See when each one was granted, last used, and will expire. Revoke any application’s access tokens Set the default expiration period for new access tokens. The initial default is 14 days. Automatically remove expired tokens During authorization, confirm and change the scopes granted to the application. For example, an app may request “create” and “delete” scopes, but you can grant only “create.” During authorization, you can also choose to grant an access token with no expiration Installation Navigate to Modules > New. In the Module Class Name field, enter ProcessIndieAuth Copy the template files from the module’s directory /extras/templates into your site’s /site/templates directory. Verify that the plugin installed pages: IndieAuth Metadata Endpoint Authorization Endpoint Token Endpoint Token Revocation Endpoint IndieAuth page under the admin’s Access menu Look up the user(s) that you want to allow to use IndieAuth and assign them the “indieauth” role Update your home page template to add the link elements inside the <head> element: <?=$modules->get('ProcessIndieAuth')->getLinkElements();?> This should result in three <link> elements in the source HTML: <head> <link rel="indieauth-metadata" href="/indieauth-metadata-endpoint/"> <link rel="authorization_endpoint" href="/authorization-endpoint/"> <link rel="token_endpoint" href="/token-endpoint/"> </head> Sign In To test signing in with IndieAuth, visit indielogin.com and enter your domain name. Follow the prompts to authenticate and you should end up back on indielogin.com with a success message. Sign In and Authorize To authorize an application with IndieAuth, your site will first need a module that uses access tokens. I have a Micropub for ProcessWire module in development that does that. Micropub is a standard that lets you publish to your site using third-party clients. If you’d like to try it out, follow the instructions on GitHub to install it. After installing, visit Quill and enter your domain name. Follow the prompts and note the additional fields for “scope” and “expiration,” since you are authorizing an application to interact with your site. After successfully authorizing, try to post a short note from Quill. Quill should redirect you to the new post if it was successful. For a list of other Micropub clients you can try, see https://indieweb.org/Micropub/Clients. Admin and Options In the admin, you can see which applications you have granted access tokens to. You can see when each token was issued, last accessed, and its expiration. You can also manually revoke a token at any time. Navigate to: Access > IndieAuth. There are a couple options in the admin at: Modules > Configure > ProcessIndieAuth: Default access token lifetime (in seconds): This defaults to 14 days and is what appears in the authorization screenshot above. Automatically remove access tokens after expiration (enabled by default): When enabled, the site checks approximately every six hours and removes expired access tokens. Regardless of whether this option is enabled, the module will reject any application attempting to use an expired access token. Since access tokens cannot (currently) have their expiration extended, I recommend keeping this option enabled so the admin list stays tidy and current. Finally, this module writes some admin logs. Access those at: Setup > Logs > indieauth More About IndieAuth If you’re interested in more details about IndieAuth, I recommend the article “OAuth for the Open Web” by Aaron Parecki (or the video presentation). If you are interested in implementing IndieAuth in your project, see the IndieAuth specification. Originally published at: https://gregorlove.com/2022/07/indieauth-for-processwire-released/ Previously: 2021-10-07: This post was originally about alpha testing the plugin before I submitted it to the modules directory.

This week on the dev branch are several updates to the comments system including support for custom fields on comments (which we're calling comment meta data). I'm currently working on a site that uses a reviews system powered by BazaarVoice. It's pretty nice but it's also very expensive (I think at least $500/month in this case). The system powers their reviews which include not just a rating and review text, but also a bunch of other criteria that the user can provide. See an example here — click the "Reviews" tab and what you see there now is currently coming from BazaarVoice. But in a couple of weeks you should see the same thing powered by ProcessWire. Think of this like a comments system with custom fields. That's not something that ProcessWire has supported before, but now this week it does. Though I know most don't need this, so have kept it pretty simple, focusing just on adding API methods to make it possible to get and set custom field values for any comment. These include: $comment->getMeta('name'); $comment->setMeta('name', $value); $comment->removeMeta('name'); The name and $value can be whatever you decide. There's also a bonus $comment->meta() method which combines the methods, letting you get or set, kind of like the meta() method on Page objects. If you want to use comment meta data like this, it's exclusively an API feature. So if you are looking to collect custom fields from users, you'll want to implement your own comment form rather than the default. In our case, we'll be using FormBuilder to implement the comment form that includes the review and custom fields. But you could just as easily use a homegrown form. When it comes to outputting that custom data, you'll want to handle it more like you would outputting a repeater, iterating through the $page->comments and then using $comment->getMeta('name'); for each of the custom properties you want to output. Worth noting is that output formatting doesn't come into play here, so if some text in the meta data needs to be entity encoded for output (for example) then that's your responsibility. How about later editing of the meta data? Should you need it, the ProcessCommentsManager module (Setup > Comments) has been upgraded to support editing of comment meta data. Next to each comment is now a "Meta" link, and if you click it, you'll get a modal window on top of the comment enabling you to edit the meta data as JSON. That might seem a little unconventional, but I'm trying to keep it simple and flexible. Most will probably use this to view meta data rather than edit it, but the ability is there when/if needed. I didn't think it would be worth spending the significant time building a full-blown page-editor like environment for editing comment meta data, but also felt like I needed something like this for occasional editing needs. The InputfieldCommentsAdmin module was also updated to have meta data links for each comment. But the reality is if you have ProcessCommentsManager installed, chances are you aren't editing comments in the page editor anyway. So a new option has been added in the comments field configuration (Input tab) enabling you to disable comments in the page editor and instead link to the editor in the comments manager. When enabled, your Comments field in the page editor would instead look like this: This is worthwhile because the comments manager is just a better place to view/edit comments in the admin since it is paginated, supports editing of all properties, and lets you sort/filter as you see fit. Whereas a big list of comments in the page editor just slows it down. This week the CKEditor version has been upgraded to 4.19.0 (see release notes). I'm also emailing with the people at CKEditor about getting us a license to use CKEditor 5 with ProcessWire. As you may or may not know, the CKEditor 5 license (LGPL) isn't compatible with ProcessWire's license (MPL2 and MIT), so we are working on a license agreement to make it possible. Since CKEditor 4 will reach EOL in 2023 it's a good time to start planning for CKEditor 5 and I'm excited to work with it. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Note: the variable $process is undefined in my case, running PW 3.0.201. I used this instead: $page = $event->object->getPage(); // Page that was edited/saved

Hi @Jan Fromm, The Hooks are now ready per the latest release today (004). A demo implementation is here (demo 3) in the demo repo. The hooks are (per demo linked to above): PadloperProcessOrder::checkCustomOrderCustomerFormForErrors This will allow you to reject business customer form and return it to them for amendment, .e.g., in case they stated they are a business customer but did not fill in the VAT number or VAT number is invalid. It is better to hook here instead of PadloperProcessOrder::processCustomOrderCustomerForm as it gives you early access to the form. Please have a look at the demo and let me know if you have any questions. and PadloperUtilities::isChargeEUDigitalGoodsTax Please see the demo for an example. This will allow you to apply/exempt EU digital tax per line item in the order based on complex conditions as you state above. Note that this demo is not a robust solution compared to the VAT library you have linked to. For instance, the demo doesn't check for country-specific prefixes in the VAT number. Please let me know if you have any questions. Grab version 004 using your purchase link, per usual. Thanks.

Yip! But I had time this weekend and really wanted to play. Sometimes the urge should not be resisted or moved. My attention span is shorter than that of an ant. It was also a good experience to get it to work. I'm not a full time dev to say the least. ?

But he did mention that he would be releasing a module shortly.....

Have you read this @Greg Lumley?

Hey, @ukyo! I read the module description, but I can't say I fully grasp what it does) Could you please write why this module, what problems it solves, what are typical use cases. Looking forward to learn more about this one, as I already use and love other modules of yours))

Gotta be honest, I'm really excited about this! Cant' wait for RockFrontend. I just want to jump in! Are there any "Hello Worlds" or should I just be patient and wait for the module. ? Have a great weekend.

No rush @kongondo. Thanks in advance! BTW: I found a promising PHP class for VAT validation. In case you want to take a look at it.

I just wanted to mention that I hope that our new editor will still be a rich text editor and not a page builder (like the mentioned "article" editor) - imho we should not mix those two! I've done a lot of work and research in that regard over the last two years or so and I'm now very happy with my repeater based content builder. When I started I also looked at editor.js as the interface looked neat. But I couldn't even manage to build a single custom content element with it. It's an editor for JS artisans and not for PHP devs like me (us?). A repeater based content builder has the huge benefit that we can simply use all the existing fields that PW provides. If at some point someone created a new field that would most likely just work within a repeater. Having a new editor interface with a totally new storage concept would mean we'd need to build all those block's for the editor and we could not use them outside of it. What about Multi-Language? The example above shows a nice page builder, but I wonder how multi-language would work with such a field? In a repeater-based setup we can just install LanguageSupport and make those fields translatable. PS: Using a matrix based approach makes CKEditor fields usually super simple! Like this one where only bold text and links are allowed:

As far as I know CKEditor 5 is quite a different beast and transition to it would require some massive changes. But it surely could bring a lot to the table. Maybe even some basic content builder functionality.

Thx for sharing ? Just a FYI: TracyDebugger has a similar feature ?