ProcessWire Weekly #131

Introducing a brand new Pro module family by Ryan: ProDevTools

Pro modules are commercial modules authored by the lead developer of ProcessWire, Ryan Cramer. They typically provide features that could be best described as advanced: things your site won't really depend on, but which can improve it's performance, etc.

If you're wondering why the lead developer of an open source platform would invest in his own line of commercial modules, consider it this way: Pro modules are one way of making the development of ProcessWire itself possible without outside funding.

ProDevTools – Pro tools for ProcessWire developers

ProDevTools was announced by Ryan in his latest post at the processwire.com blog, and it is – as the name suggest – a collection of advanced tools for ProcessWire developers. The emphasis here, as stated by Ryan, is "supporting the development and optimization process of websites, enabling you to deliver a better, faster and stronger product."

Similar in concept to the ProFields module family, ProDevTools also consists of multiple modules which can be installed separately. Upon it's release ProDevTools will consist of two modules: Profiler Pro and ProDocs. ProDevTools are not yet available for purchase, but should be pretty soon, and just like ProFields, this module bundle is also going to grow later on with additional developer-oriented tools.

Sneak peek to the Profiler Pro module

Profiler Pro is the first ProDevTools module we get to know better, and while we'll leave the proper introduction to Ryan (remember to check out his blog post for more details), here are some highlights for Profiler Pro:

• Server-side event monitoring allows you to track time spent rendering pages and files, executing hooks, making API calls, and running your own PHP code. Custom events can be tracked using the $profiler API variable.
• Client-side event monitoring adds support for tracking front-end related events, actual loading times, JavaScript events, and so on. Again, there are easy ways to track your own, custom JavaScript events.
• Event tracking and timers make it possible to display lists and graphs of events, page-specific requests, etc. complete with the number of occurrences, average and total time taken by each event, first and last occurrence, and so on.

All in all Profiler Pro is a wonderful tool for making sure that your site performs well, tracking bottlenecks, and so much more. For more details and screenshots of Profiler Pro please check out the latest processwire.com blog post by Ryan.

As you can probably guess by now, there was no new version of ProcessWire itself this week. Next week we will be getting both a new development version (3.0.41) and a new stable version (3.0.40) so stay tuned for that!

New module: Connect Page Fields is a great new multipurpose module by Robin Sallis

Ever wished you could create a two-way link between Page fields? Or perhaps had the need for a "related pages" feature that automatically updates both ways? Well, look no further: Connect Page Fields is a new module that makes it possible to connect Page fields so that changing one automatically updates the other.

The concept is pretty ingenious, really: you create pairs of interlinked Page fields, for an example "movies" and "actors", and every time an actor is added to the actors field on a movie page, that movie is also added to the movies field of said actor. As if that wasn't neat enough already, this module can also be used to set up a "related pages" feature.

For more details about Connect Page Fields and it's various use cases – illustrated by both easy-to-follow examples and GIF animations – check out the dedicated support forum thread. Big thanks to Robin Sallis for sharing this amazing module with us!

Recipe of the week: resetting the admin password via a simple API script

This week we're really going back to the basics by introducing a classic recipe that has been floating around for almost as long as our support forum itself has been up and running. This is for all of us who have, at one point or another, somehow managed to lock ourselves out of a site we've been working on.

The problem

For some reason you have managed to lock yourself out of a site you are developing or maintaining and you are not able to use the built-in password recovery feature to reset your password.

The solution

Paste the following into a file (e.g. "reset.php") in the root folder of your site of the site and run it (php reset.php):

<?php
require "index.php";
$admin = $users->get('admin'); // or whatever your username is
$admin->setAndSave('pass', 'yo123456');

The script is pretty self-explanatory really: it grabs the user by the name "admin" and sets the password of said user to "yo123456". You may, of course, repurpose the script for any user on the system simply by changing the username.

Note that after logging in, you really should a) remove this script from the disk and b) define a new, more secure password for your user. The Internet is full of guides and tools for defining secure passwords... and "yo123456" is definitely not one of those.

This week's recipe was borrowed from the ever growing ProcessWire Recipes directory. If you've got a recipe of your own that you'd like to share with others, feel free to submit it at ProcessWire Recipes.

Site of the week: Langenbachhof

Langenbachhof is a traditional farmhouse located in southwest Germany, right in the gorgeous scenery of the Black Forest.

With Centuries of history behind it, the Langenbachhof has been restored to it's original state and accepts all kinds of guests: groups and families looking to escape their busy lives into a truly peaceful location with great, natural scenery, companies looking for a place to hold a creative seminar or workshop at, and so on.

Technically speaking the site of Langenbachhof is a one-pager, though perhaps not in the most typical meaning of the word: the first thing you notice upon entering the site are the gorgeous full screen photographs, while text content is by default hidden in a separate content bar accessible via the navigation menu. While this may seem a bit strange at first, it does give the site a pretty unique look and feel.

Taking a peek under the hood, this site is powered by a recent version of ProcessWire, and has it's performance enhanced by the ProCache module. Emails are protected from nasty bots by using the Email Obfuscation module and JavaScript libraries and snippets are used for everything from auto-updating URLs to a full-blown reservation calendar.

Big thanks to designconcepts GmbH for sharing this site with us, and congratulations to the client for having such a wonderful site to showcase their services on!

Stay tuned for our next issue

That's it for the 131st issue of ProcessWire Weekly. We'll be back with more news, updates, and content Saturday, 19th of November. 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!