ryan

This week we've got several updates to the core on the dev branch. It's primarily focused on small issue fixes and optimizations. Though there's enough since 3.0.251 that I'm bumping the dev branch version to 3.0.252. Next week there won't be any new updates this time next week because I'll be traveling, but will be back right working on the core right after that. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

@Robin S I didn't intend for it to require PHP 8. I mistakenly was thinking str_contains and str_starts_with came in PHP 7.x. I've updated the download so that it replaces those function usages with strpos().

@BrendonKoz it should just be a matter of replacing the module files with the new ones. Then do a modules refresh. Then go to the module config page to setup throttling features. It should install the new ProcessRequestBlocker module automatically, which will appear on the Setup top nav menu.

@BrendonKoz I've got all those buts in our list as well, except for Bingbot. As far as I can tell, Bingbot follows the crawl delay, so is one of the good ones.

@BrendonKoz Great! Please let me know how it works for you. Any sense of which bots are causing the most trouble? The next thing I plan to build for WireRequestBlocker is a user agent counter/profiler, so that it's easier to identify problematic bots. That way you can throttle them specifically rather than throttling as general traffic.

@gebeer Throttling is what enables us to allow the AI bots, rather than having to block them for taking over the sites resources. So long as the bots adhere to the rules established in the robots.txt they'll never get throttled. But if they ignore the crawl delay, then those requests get throttled with a 429 error. We even include a retry-after header telling them when they can try again. I used to have to block these bots outright in order to preserve the resources for you and me. Now they can crawl as much as they like, so long as they follow the speed limit. The throttle feature provides a way to enforce the speed limit.

@bernhard I'm always interested in making updates to the modules directory, but over time as bandwidth is available to do so. So currently the modules directory does require a populated README.md in your GitHub repo. I'm definitely open to supporting more options, but short term you'd want to make use of what the modules directory currently supports. Any module missing a populated readme shows that message. For paid modules, that's a category called "premium modules", so if you add your module to that category it should show up as a paid module. The "since" date is the date it was added to the direcgtory.

Many websites these days are the feeding ground for AI bots. Especially this site! In this post we look at a tool for taming all the hungry crawlers and bots… https://processwire.com/blog/posts/throttling-ai-bot-traffic-in-processwire/

This week in the blog, we’ve got a new version of FormBuilder released, version 57. This new version of FormBuilder adds a lot, including… https://processwire.com/blog/posts/formbuilder-v57/

@bernhard Good find! I'm not sure I'd have ever found that. I'm still not sure what in that webmanifest file is responsible for it asking to install, or how it would even know where to get the files to install, but I'll read that link you included which I'm sure will answer it. Thanks!

Does anyone know what this "install processwire" thing is that occasionally appears on my android phone when I go to the website? (Pixel 8 pro android 16, Chrome). I've not coded anything into the site that should be showing that, nor does that text appear anywhere in site's code, so it's got me curious.

Fixed! thanks.

ProcessWire has always communicated well to developers and they typically aren't the ones that need to be convinced. We always connect with the developers. But the decision makers are more often the clients, designers, marketers, etc. They are the ones that we hope to increase visibility to. Several updates to the new site this week, various minor optimizations and improvements. The biggest additions were made in the API reference, which now covers a lot more methods and has some navigation improvements as well.

@adrian To be fair both are very nice sites. I see so many sites, and I like to look through the lens of how memorable it is. Like whether there's anything strongly unique or surprising that makes me want to click further inside, and hooks into my memory so that I can recall it later. That's what I'm missing from the Contentful site, even if it is nicely designed. As a visual learner, I'm drawn in by bold visuals and anything that makes a site different from any others. That's also what I'd like to communicate about PW, as something different from the Contentfuls, Wordpressers, and Drupals of the world. On the PW site, the large headline is unexpected/surprising, and whether one likes it or not, it's memorable, bold and stands out from the crowd. Likewise with the abstract animations, they communicate the concepts (to me and I'm sure others) in a way that text just doesn't. There's plenty to read for the book learners too. So whether one subjectively likes some of these things or not, I think it will prove to be memorable and engaging, and good for gaining new users.

@adrian It's definitely subjective. I know nothing about those two CMSs, but my impression of them is the opposite. The Sanity one draws me in and makes me want to explore. The Contentful site is a fine site, but not compelling. I would bet Contentful has a higher bounce rate than Sanity, but who knows.

@adrian Featured is a sort where modules with the "featured" toggle display before those that don't have that setting. That's correct that there aren't a lot of paid modules in the directory at present. I need to add several of mine still too.

@DV-JF I was focused on making Lighthouse happy before, but I've put in some updates to make that Wave tool that you linked happy too. I can't duplicate the flickering you saw on mobile, what device and browser are you seeing it on? I'm testing with Chrome on Android 16 and an iPad with Safari on latest iOS.

@adrian Okay I think I figured it out. The jagged text is only visible on non-hidpi screens. My dev computer (iMac 27") has a hidpi/retina display, and there was no visible jagged text in any browser. But as soon as I tried it on a non-hidpi screen, I was able to see the jagged text. I've adjusted it so that the filter is completely removed except when it's transitioning between two words. So a few jaggies when animating, but otherwise not. It seems to improve it a lot on the 72 dpi screen I'm testing with here. How about there?

@adrian I don't care for the look of that jagged text in your screenshot either, but I can't duplicate that in Chrome, Firefox or Safari. I'm running on OS X. What browser and platform are you seeing that jagged text in?

@taotoo Thanks, fixed the animation in Firefox. It turns out Firefox needs the SVG filter to be visible, so had to remove the "hidden" attribute and move it off screen with absolute position. I don't know what's up with the MS Edge appearance (I don't have that environment to test in) but if you find what it is, please let me know. @poljpocket I prefer to stick with the term CMS and guide folks into the CMF side of things, since the term isn't so widely known/used. Though I'll continue to use it, just not front and center. @adrian Blur issue should be fixed. The large text size on the homepage is intended. @Alexander That assertion is incorrect. The metrics say this redesign was long overdue. But you are right about a performance issue with the desktop version of Safari (only) related to not using the GPU, I'm working on it.

Just want to mention that none of us here is the audience for the homepage. It's for people that are not yet familiar with ProcessWire or just learning about it. Some will be developers, some won't. The animations are there to communicate ProcessWire concepts in a memorable way, for people that don't already know these things about ProcessWire. But we are the audience for most of the rest of the site, such as sections of the site like the API references and modules directory. So if you don't like animations, don't worry because we aren't adding them elsewhere in the site, but they are an important part of what the homepage is there to communicate. Fixed, thanks. I looked into this, and actually it is working, but is being affected by a feature in the new directory. The new modules directory doesn't show modules that are missing a README/description, or have one that's too short to be useful to anyone. Though they should still appear on the author's page and in search, etc. They just won't appear on the modules homepage. I looked at some of Bernhard's modules and that appears to be what the issue is (example). The directory shows an alert to communicate what the issue is. @bernhard Can you add README files to your repos for the files? There should be enough info there for people to get to know what the module does and to decide whether they want to download/install it, like a couple paragraphs or more. I probably have a few of my own modules that I need to add more info to as well. While I'm not seeing "pretty" change anything, I do like what the "balance" option is doing. I went ahead and added both though. I like how it is here, as there's no chance of visually mixing up which graphic goes with which text. But that's what your screenshot did, taking the text from one concept, and the graphic from another. 🙂 I'll pass along to the designers to see what they think though. Fixed, thanks.

@monollonom It looks like that width:100%; on the uk-card-body is something I added last minute for some reason, I don't know why. I removed it and it seems to correct that issue that was appearing for "other modules by author" list. Hopefully I didn't break something else by removing it. 🙂 I tried the CSS trick you mentioned (very cool!), but I'll have to return to it when I've got more time. For whatever reason, it added an underline to the text and no amount of text-decoration: none !important; seemed to be able to cancel it. @adrian Thanks, code examples fixed. I'll return to the image thing, I may have to cancel that rule for images in the modules directory.

Btw, the old site can be accessed just by appending ?oldsite=1 to any URL (temporarily, anyway).

@adrian Either is fine, but to start, right here is good.

This week I’m thrilled to report that we have a new website online. The site was designed by @jploch and @diogo of KONKAT Studio in Hamburg Germany. Here's a short announcement post about it— https://processwire.com/blog/posts/processwire-website-redesign/