ProcessWire Weekly #109

Latest core updates: ProcessWire 3.0.21 and 2.8.21

In his latest post at the processwire.com blog, Ryan introduces not just one but two new versions of ProcessWire: 3.0.21 and 2.8.21. That's right: the most important thing to note this week is that there's an update coming to the 2.x branch after all.

2.8.x and 3.x

While 3.x provides the latest cutting-edge features and aims to cater particularly for the hard-core development-oriented users out there, 2.8 is a more direct successor to our latest stable release, 2.7. Currently the main difference between 2.8 and 3.x is that 2.8 comes without the built-in namespace and Composer support found from 3.x.

In his blog post Ryan goes into more detail about how the 2.8 branch will continue to mirror the updates to the 3.x branch and explains why exactly the 2.8.x branch makes sense to some users. For the time being 2.8 is located in it's own repository, but we're still trying to figure out how to best bring it to our end users.

Stabilizing 3.x

In addition to releasing this new branch, this week the 3.x branch got a whole lot more stable. Pending issues were fixed, improvements were made, and the overall quality of the new version has been improved. This work will likely continue for a while, since we want the 3.0 version of ProcessWire to be as stable as possible when it is released.

As you probably knew, some of us are already using 3.x on live sites, but until it gains the stable status, you should be extra cautious with it. Still, if you do get the chance to test it out, please let us know how it works for you. As always, the most efficient way to report any issues is via the GitHub issue tracker.

For more details about the new 2.8.x branch and some general guidelines for choosing the right version of ProcessWire for your current needs, don't forget to check out the latest post at the processwire.com blog. Thanks!

New module: InputfieldSimpleMDE

InputfieldSimpleMDE is a brand new module by Macrura. In a nutshell it integrates the SimpleMDE JavaScript Markdown editor to ProcessWire by converting it to an inputfield module.

Markdown is fast, clean, and portable markup language for generating pretty content for end users. The syntax of the language is easy to mater, but there are cases where you wouldn't want to force content editors to learn it.

This is where InputfieldSimpleMDE comes in: by providing a WYSIWYG style editor for Markdown markup it lowers the barrier of entry significantly. InputfieldSimpleMDE also provides various advanced features, like a fullscreen editing mode, a side-by-side view with Markdown on one column and processed output on another, and a preview mode.

While Markdown is quite readable even in it's original form, usually in the web context you'll be looking to convert it into HTML. For this purpose ProcessWire comes with a built-in Markdown/Parsedown Extra Textformatter, which handles the conversion beautifully for all of your front-end needs.

For more details about InputfieldSimpleMDE please check out the dedicated support forum thread. Big thanks to Macrura for providing us with wonderful module!

Weekly links and resources

​Here we've got a collection of support forum highlights and other useful and hopefully interesting resources. As always, please let us know if we've missed anything important so that we can include it in one of our future issues – thanks!

• First of all something that didn't quite make it to our modules section this week, but is still very much worth mentioning: a new SAML SSO authentication module for ProcessWire. Hopefully we'll get to cover this one in more detail soon!
• Since our 107th issue where we introduced the AdminOnSteroids module, this module has improved a lot and gained quite a few new features. If you haven't been keeping tabs on it's development, we'd suggest doing that now!
• Another module that has been very actively developed is TracyDebugger. Some of it's latest additions, such as the Console panel, seem downright fantastic. This is definitely our new go-to debugging tool for all ProcessWire development!
• Thinking about starting a new project and not sure which version of ProcessWire to start with? Here you'll find some fresh discussion on this particular topic. With 2.8 out this week, there's now a new option on the table too.
• Finally, if you've got any ideas or opinions related to the latest bunch of core updates, you might want to check out the related support forum thread. Blog comments are one way to express your opinions, but lately we've seen some pretty awesome discussion on these threads too.

If you're interested in ProcessWire news, discussions, and updates, there's always something going on at the support forum. Since we're only able to include a tiny selection of all that in our weekly updates, head down to the forum for more.

Site of the week: The Weekender

The Weekender is a German independent lifestyle magazine, and our latest pick for the site of the week for a couple of very good reasons.

First of all, this site is just plain beautiful. Clean design, great typography, interesting use of colour – all the usual compliments apply here. Great design communicates more with less.

The site is responsive, and just about as usable on mobile as it is on large screen. Simplicity also contributes to the the site feeling quite fast to use: there are very few unnecessary assets to load, scripts to process, and so on.

Another notable thing is that while otherwise quite simple, The Weekender is actually an ecommerce site. Behind the site makes use of the Padloper module, which is by far the easiest way to set up a fully functional ecommerce site on top of ProcessWire CMS.

This site was skilfully crafted by ED DESIGN for The Weekender, an independent lifestyle magazine based in Köln, Germany. For more details we'd like to suggest checking out the case story on the ED DESIGN website.

Stay tuned for our next issue

That's it for the 109th issue of ProcessWire Weekly. We'll be back with more news, updates, and content Saturday, 18th of June. 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!