Weekly update – 22 April 2022

[ryan]

This week on the dev branch we've got a good mix of updates and issue resolutions, though not quite yet enough yet to bump the version number just yet. But here's a few highlights:

• There's a PR from Adrian committed which adds configurable columns for Selector fields.
• System update 20 was added which fixes the "created user" for several system pages. 
• WireHttp was updated to support sending cookies in GET/POST requests powered by CURL. 
• Lister was updated to recognize non-sortable fields, preventing unnecessary error messages.
• There were also 3 issue resolutions this week.

We are getting down to the smaller stuff in terms of updates, which means it's about time to get that next master version out. I know I've been talking about it for awhile, but think we'll likely have one more dev branch version (3.0.199) and then it's looking like our 200th 3.x version will tentatively be the next master version (3.0.200). Thanks for reading, Happy Earth Day, and have a great weekend!

[szabesz]

Thank you for this quick report, Ryan!
Have a great weekend, everyone!

51 minutes ago, ryan said:

200th 3.x version will tentatively be the next master version (3.0.200)

Why not 3.1 for that matter? Are there any particular requirements that qualify for 3.1, BTW? 

[David Karich]

@ryan you wrote a while back about modules you were working on. Unfortunately, nothing has been heard since then. Can you tell us anything new about the Snapshot and Page Language/Translation Export modules?

[szabesz]

9 hours ago, David Karich said:

you wrote a while back about modules you were working on. Unfortunately, nothing has been heard since then. Can you tell us anything new about the Snapshot and Page Language/Translation Export modules?

While we are at it, I am particularly interested in possible Repeater Matrix features that were mentioned or just partially implemented:

• 22 October 2021 Blog post:
  • "...the ability to control what item types are allowed where, kind of like the Family settings on page templates."
• 3 December 2021 Blog post:
  • "...specify a background color for RepeaterMatrix item labels with a hex color code in your repeater matrix item labels."
    • Currently, getting the label of a matrix item results in the added the hex value being revealed to the user, which means that even in the admin the user sees things like "block one #FF0000", "block two #FFFF00", etc... I think Repeater Matrix should trim the color value form the end, so that this feature can actually be used.

The "Family like settings" would be especially useful for "page builder" like use-cases, but I do need it for a "product configurator" I am currently working on, where various properties of a product can be defined by organizing Repeater Matrix items. The only problem with such a setup is that currently the user can create configurations which do not make sense. I could "validate" what the user has done upon saving the page and spit out some admin message to inform the user what the issues are with what she has done, but it would be better to prevent her from messing things up in the first place, by applying "Family like settings" to repeater items.

Edited April 23, 2022 by szabesz
added links to blog posts mentioned

[ryan]

@David Karich

Quote

you wrote a while back about modules you were working on. Unfortunately, nothing has been heard since then. Can you tell us anything new about the Snapshot and Page Language/Translation Export modules?

I was working on the snapshot module for awhile, then got sidetracked on another project and lost the momentum on it. Hopefully will return to this, though now that I've been away from it for awhile, I can see I was having a lot of fun developing it but am starting to question whether it's really that useful. 

The language translation export/import module is currently in development and a sponsor split the cost of development with me. It is currently fully functional and in client testing right now. The major features are built but there's still a few smaller things I want to finish developing before it is ready for production use. This one is pretty close to being finished though. 

Quote

While we are at it, I am particularly interested in possible Repeater Matrix features that were mentioned or just partially implemented:

@szabesz The control of types is still on my radar. Are you looking for it with nested repeaters or with depth repeaters? I think depth repeaters is where people were looking for it, but wanted to confirm. The background-color for repeater matrix items was implemented last year, and should be fully functional. Where do you see the hex codes show up, in the page editor? They shouldn't be, I've not seen it, and it's not been reported before as far as I know, but if it's something you are seeing (dev branch and latest RM) please let me know. 

[szabesz]

44 minutes ago, ryan said:

Are you looking for it with nested repeaters or with depth repeaters? I think depth repeaters is where people were looking for it, but wanted to confirm.

Thank you for asking! Actually, I sometimes mix up the terminology of "nested repeaters" and "depth repeaters" by accident, or just simply forget about "nested repeaters" which I have not yet used. I need it for "depth repeaters" as that is the one which allows for free drag and drop, but for the user being totally free can be a drawback, just like in the case of a "page builder" setup.

49 minutes ago, ryan said:

I've not seen it, and it's not been reported before as far as I know, but if it's something you are seeing (dev branch and latest RM) please let me know. 

It is surely strange that no one has reported it before, but people seem to be trying/doing it differently, please see:

• https://github.com/processwire/processwire-requests/issues/440
• https://processwire.com/talk/topic/27073-colours-in-repeater-matrix-items/#comment-223553

Maybe it is me who is trying to use this feature in a way in which it should not be used, I do not know:

And the above results in the color value being seen as you can see in the screenshot I provided in the GitHub issue linked above, but it is also seen next to the fa-arrows icon of the InputfieldHeader.

 

[soyerH]

On 5/2/2022 at 5:25 PM, ryan said:

I was working on the snapshot module for awhile, then got sidetracked on another project and lost the momentum on it. Hopefully will return to this, though now that I've been away from it for awhile, I can see I was having a lot of fun developing it but am starting to question whether it's really that useful. 

Oh! Snapshot will be absolute useful! More so — it will be decision-making feature for some hard-corporate and healthcare clients, where many contents are legal-info, supervised formulations etc. That is, where every change have multiple approvement stages, but nevertheless often ends up in restoring older content versions. Especially when multiple content-managers from different departments have hands on admin, with usual corporate chaos.

Some of such clients still preferer old Typo3 instead of "some other good cms out there" solely based on "page versions" feature.

Vote up for Snapshots!