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There isn't anything major to write about this week, so I'm just checking in to say hello and I hope that you are having a nice week, and tell you what I'm working on here. Time this week has been split mostly between working on the new PW website, working on an API project for a client, and researching and interviewing companies to replace our HVAC systems. That last one probably took the most time, as I didn't know much about HVAC before our maintenance person said it's time to replace the the heating and air conditioning systems. So I've been trying to learn all I can about HVAC in order to go about it in the most informed fashion possible. This is the sort of thing most might only do once or twice in a lifetime (it's a big expense). Usually I'm more DIY with this kind of stuff, and a lot of it is approachable. But when you get into the A/C side of things with refrigerants (R410A, R454B, R30), condensers, compressors, and coils, that's where my head spins, it's way beyond my DIY range. It really is a job for the professionals. So I'm going to leave that to the experts so I can focus on web development. On the PW website I've been working on the API reference this week, along with some final details on the modules directory. Next week I'm hoping to finish the API reference and start working on the homepage. Following that, I'll be writing a lot of new copy for the Features section (thanks for all your feedback there). Then we should be nearly finished. So it's still a few weeks out, but progress is good. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Regarding the API reference, I always wondered if there could be a way for you to add links to pages that reference a particular method and go in deeper details about its usage. One such case could be to link the blog post about output formatting in the $page->of() documentation. Maybe there’s already something in place like this and then it may just be a question of adding/updating links. Thanks and I’m (we’re all!) looking forward to seeing the new website! (and I hope all goes well for your HVAC installation)

Is your database set to utf8mb4? // site/config.php $config->dbCharset = 'utf8mb4'; If not... saving emojis and emoticons won't work as expected. Not sure about the steps to convert a db to accept it. Sorry.

Great news! @ryan, for a completely new admin project, might you consider using HTMX, or something similar? It's perfect for PHP. I've used it on a large admin project, and it works wonders with ProcessWire. I also use these libraries to complete the package: https://github.com/gnat/css-scope-inline https://github.com/gnat/surreal

I think this approach is an excellent idea and hopefully something that will be considered. In addition to the benefits @teppo described, using CSS really open things up for JS as well where getting/setting values via scripts could make admin development very dynamic. Laying some future friendly groundwork in CSS would be a major advancement.

Hey Ryan! First of all, this all sounds very promising. In my humble opinion you are vastly underplaying your own skill in terms of design, but that's also why we can trust that you'll recognize amazing design once you see it. Looking forward to seeing what the team working on the design has cooked up 😉 Now, please forgive me for jumping directly into asking for stuff, but... I know this is small thing, but it would be quite nice if the new admin made use of CSS variables wherever it makes sense; colors, font sizing, etc. (Or provided them as an alternative for non-core tools to use, in case it is not feasible to use them for actual admin styling.) The reason I'm saying this is that I've built various admin tools that I wanted to look like the admin theme, and since there is (to my knowledge) currently no simple way to access existing colors etc. in CSS, any non-Uikit elements I've had to "hard-code" to use current styles. This includes the default green/cyan/blue color theme, current spacing and font size practices, etc. As a result said custom elements may look out of place once the theme is updated 🙂 (Just for the record: SCSS/LESS might be an option, but that feels like a lot of unnecessary overhead and complexity where vanilla CSS would easily suffice. I'd really like to avoid that if possible, and to me it seems like CSS variables are an easy and well supported alternative.) Additionally: it would be awesome if accessibility was a consideration while creating this new admin theme. I know it has been considered to a point in the past, but has never been a major goal. Hopefully we can push things forward in this regard in the future. If there's something I can help, I'd be happy to 🙏

Hey @FireWire and @noodles I have a present for you: v1.6.0 now supports custom fields/values for recurring events. All you have to do is to add the field you your events' template and then tell RockCalendar to "keep" it: wire()->addHookAfter('RockCalendar::keepFields', function ($event) { $fields = $event->return; $fields[] = 'booked'; $event->return = $fields; }); See the full docs here: https://www.baumrock.com/en/processwire/modules/rockcalendar/docs/recurring/#custom-fields-for-recurring-events

Hello! I use .env files on every ProcessWire project to manage environment-specific configurations and settings. I've built a ProcessWire specific utility that makes using .env files a breeze. This post isn't intended to debate .env vs. config.php, use what you're comfortable with and prefer. That said, here are a few benefits to using .env files that may make it worth considering: Native support on web servers, including Apache, they are not served via http request by default True environment based secrets and settings management A standard file widely used and accepted as the method for managing secrets and sensitive values Able to store any value whether sensitive or not and access them globally Building a dedicated solution came from a discussion here on the forums where I threw together a rough implementation that needed little polish for real world use. It makes use of phpdotenv. This utility delivers the following: Easy use of and access to .env variables Caching the parsed .env for performance. This is a significant part of this utility and addresses a known need Automatic .env change recognition and re-caching Utilities to make working with environment variables feel ProcessWire native and a few extra nifty things What it isn't: A module. It's not possible to make a module for this need because the information kept in a .env file needs to be available before ProcessWire boots. Adding this to a new or existing project is very easy. It's designed to implement quickly and use immediately in your projects. Full documentation is provided in the Github repository. Here are a few examples of using this tool: <?php namespace ProcessWire; use Env\Env; if(!defined("PROCESSWIRE")) die(); $env = Env::load(__DIR__ . '/../'); // Make env available throughout the application $config->env = $env; $config->dbName = $env->get('DB_NAME'); $config->dbUser = $env->get('DB_USER'); $config->dbPass = $env->get('DB_PASS'); // Env::get() takes a second argument that is the fallback value if for any reason DEBUG doesn't exist $config->debug = $env->get('DEBUG', false); // Conditional values. By default, if the condition is falsey, Env::if() returns null $config->adminEmail = $env->if('APP_ENV', 'production', 'you@youremail.com'); // A fourth argument will be returned if condition is false, truthy/falsey output can be env var names or specific values $config->adminEmail = $env->if('APP_ENV', 'production', 'ADMIN_EMAIL', 'you@youremail.com'); // Conversely, you can also check if a condition is not met. $config->adminEmail = $env->ifNot('APP_ENV', 'development', 'ADMIN_EMAIL'); // Use one env value to set multiple config properties $config->advanced = $env->if('APP_ENV', 'production', false, 'ENABLE_ADVANCED'); // Never in production, change locally in env as needed $config->adminEmail = $env->ifNot('APP_ENV', 'development', 'ADMIN_EMAIL'); // Never send an email in dev, always on staging/production These helper methods make is very straightforward to implement a dynamic config file. This can be useful for using secure .env values while retaining the ability to commit and upload some types of changes to your config.php file without needing to touch .env values on the server. You can also use Env::pushToConfig(). As long as you use the "screaming snake case" naming convention for your environment variable names, type and value recognition are handled automatically. <?php $env->pushToConfig($config, [ 'usePageClasses' => true, 'templateCompile' => 'TEMPLATE_COMPILE', 'debug' => ['DEBUG', false], // Fallback to false 'advanced' => $env->if('APP_ENV', 'production', false, 'ENABLE_ADVANCED'), 'adminEmail' => $env->ifNot('APP_ENV', 'development', 'ADMIN_EMAIL'), 'httpHosts' => [ 'something.com', 'staging.something.com', 'something.ddev.site' ], ]); Using Env in your application files and templates can be very useful. In the above example we assigned the Env object to $config->env. This lets you access your .env variables globally and use some helpful methods. <?php if ($config->env->eq('APP_ENV', 'development')): ?> <script src="/some/development/stuff.js"></script> <?php endif ?> <?php if (!$config->env->exists('GOOGLE_API_KEY')) { $wire->error('A Google API key could not be loaded from the environment file.'); } try { // Do something that could fail } catch (Exception $e) { $message = $config->env->if('APP_ENV', 'production', 'Oh no. Friendly message here', $e->getMessage()); } This utility also automatically casts 'true' and 'false' values in .env files to booleans, and casts numbers to integers. It also includes several configuration options. I have been using this tool in production and have been happy with it. Maybe you might find it helpful in your projects as well. If you like it, throw a star on the repo. If you run into any bugs, file an issue on Github. I may publish it as a composer package at some point. Env utility for ProcessWIre on Github.

We've been working on a project in ProcessWire for the x time, and the more we use it, the more amazed we are by what this incredible CMS can do. From an SEO, developer, usability, and customization perspective, it’s truly outstanding. My team was deeply involved with Joomla! for 10 years - since its foundation - so we’ve seen a lot. After years of using ProcessWire, I just want to thank @ryan and everyone who has contributed - whether through code, ideas, support, or anything else. What a beauty, what a powerful CMS! 🚀

Pure gold! 😎