ProcessWire Weekly #100

Latest core updates: ProcessWire 3.0.14

In his latest post at the processwire.com blog, Ryan discusses the upcoming release of a stable version of ProcessWire 3.x and introduces the latest updates for the 3.x branch. The focus of ProcessWire 3.0.14 is on improving and expanding existing features:

• FileCompiler has received a new "auto" mode and various optimizations.
  This new mode is enabled by default, and makes FileCompiler skip files with a namespace already added. Thanks to the optimizations FileCompiler can make smarter choices regarding whether it needs to use a compiled file at all.
• New template-specific options have been added for required fields.
  These let you choose what should happen when a required field is blank and the page is saved: display an error message (default behaviour), restore previous value (if possible) or unpublish the page (when allowed).

Additionally the post goes into detail about the FileCompiler component – why it exists, what it does and how it does it, and whether you should be concerned about it at all – and includes best practices for handling required and/or unexpected field values.

For more details and some great tips related to developing errorproof template files, don't forget to check out Ryan's latest post at the processwire.com blog!

New module: Perfmon Debug Toolbar

Perfmon Debug Toolbar is a development tool with a strong focus on performance: it displays information about the load times, queries, and general performance of your site in order to identify bottlenecks before the site goes live.

The module has two views: a tiny, collapsed toolbar for quickly checking load times, and an expanded view capable of displaying a lot more data at once. This expanded view contains details about the current request: bootstrap times, named timers, SQL queries, hooks, and so on.

Please note that since the module is only intended for the development phase, it will not run unless the site is in debug mode. This is a safety mechanism intended to avoid accidentally running the module in production.

This module is no doubt a great addition to the collective toolboxes of the ProcessWire developers out there, either as a companion or an alternative to other solutions, such as the Tracy Debugger. Big thanks to Ben for sharing this module with us!

New module: Admin Autosize Textareas

Admin Autosize Textareas is an admin helper that adds autosize (or autogrow) support to all the regular textareas in the Admin. In a nutshell this means that these elements are no longer forced to fixed size; rather than that, they will automatically adjust their height as you type in more content.

Since we can't always guess what the actual height of the content will be and scrollbars tend to break the flow of the Admin view, the autosize feature added by this module is, first and foremost, an usability improvement. If you've used our built-in CKEditor fields in inline mode, it's more than likely that you're already familiar with the concept.

This module depends on the Autosize script by Jack Moore, was built and released as a module by netcarver, and is based on a tutorial posted by tpr. So.. big thanks to all the authors collectively!

Site of the week: Theatre de Maaspoort

Theatre de Maaspoort is, in a nutshell, a Dutch theatre. Their ProcessWire powered site was released just this week, and has both the look and feel one would expect from a modern, responsive website.

The site works wonderfully both on desktop and mobile devices, and there's just enough bling – from parallax background effects to objects resizing and/or zooming on focus – to give the site a vibrant feel without the need to sacrifice usability. Behind the scenes there's a bit more than catches the eye, as the site is tightly integrated into Itix Ticketing Solution for its e-commerce features.

Designed by De Jongens van Boven and developed by X-com, Theatre de Maaspoort is a wonderful site, and a masterpiece both in terms of technology and design. Big thanks to folks at X-com for sharing this site with us!

Stay tuned for our next issue

That's it for the 100th issue of ProcessWire Weekly. We'll be back with more news, updates, and content Saturday, 16th of April. As always, ProcessWire newsletter subscribers will get our updates a few days later.

Thanks for staying with us, once again. Hope you've had a great and productive week, and don't forget to check out the ProcessWire forums for more interesting topics. Until next week, happy hacking with ProcessWire!