ProcessWire Weekly #162

Latest core updates: ProcessWire 3.0.64

In the latest post at the processwire.com blog, Ryan mainly talks about the page import/export feature, which is currently under development. At the moment it's still only partially implemented and not necessarily ready for actual use, but hopefully in the near future we should be able to give it a proper try.

The page import/export feature is going to be available both via the API and as an admin feature, and here's what it can do, once fully implemented:

• You can export/import individual pages or multiple pages from a PageArray using a JSON based file format.
• When exported data includes file/image fields, a ZIP file is created, so that all related assets can be included.
• Template, parent, and other settings of a given page can be retained or modified during the import process.
• When a page already exists, you can choose to update, skip, or create a copy of it under a different name.

For more details, please check out the latest post at the processwire.com blog. In this post Ryan talks about the implementation of the page import/export feature and explains in detail what this feature is all about.

New module: ServiceWorker

ServiceWorker is a new ProcessWire module developed by Johannes Dachsel and made freely available for anyone to download, install, use, and modify under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication license.

There are various great resources available online that focus on the general concept of service workers, so we won't dive too deep into that topic here. As a brief and possibly oversimplified explanation, service workers are a standardized way to run JavaScript code independent of pages, and they make some pretty neat stuff possible:

• An offline experience for a site or web app
• Background synchronisation
• Push notifications
• Geofencing

... and so on. Simply put service workers are an interesting new technology (emphasis on new, considering that they are not yet even supported by all browsers) that will no doubt make a lot of fun and useful stuff possible in the near future.

When installed, the ServiceWorker module itself installs a service worker that, in turn, adds offline support for your site. Though this may sound like some pretty hardcore stuff , it's really not, and this module is also really easy to use. All you need to do is install the module and include a single line of PHP in your template files:

<?php $modules->get('ServiceWorker')->renderJavaScript(); ?>

That's it, really. After those two steps you're good to go.

For those who need some extra control the module has a bunch of config settings: the amount of content that gets cached, current version number of the cache, static assets that should always be cached, etc.

Big thumbs up to Johannes Dachsel for building and sharing this module with us. I for one will be using this module in some of my own projects in the near future, so thanks again – and keep up the great work!

Site of the week: Coachy

Our latest site of the week is Coachy – an online platform that enables trainers and coaches to create their own member areas, where they can share video courses they've created. Access to these member areas is limited to paying customers, and thanks to Digistore24 payment integration, this whole process is apparently pretty much automated.

In the case of this site, big part of the "magic" actually happens behind the scenes, and thus our review here is mainly based on the summary provided by the author of the platform, Dennis Spohr, via the sites directory – and, of course, the demo course that works as a showcase of the member area feature. Nevertheless Coachy seems like a really interesting project, from both a technical point of view and as an actual product.

Technical highlights for this project include integrations with tawk.to, Klick-Tipp, AWS SES and S3, and of course Digistore24. The site is based on the Foundation front-end framework and the one and only ProcessWire module we were able to spot right away was Email Obfuscation. As one would expect from a site that includes closed member areas, all connections to this site are SSL protected, thanks to a free certificate from Let's Encrypt.

Big thanks to Dennis Spohr for sharing this project with us – it looks very interesting to say the least, and we sincerely hope that it gains proper momentum in it's intended audience!

Stay tuned for our next issue

That's it for the 162nd issue of ProcessWire Weekly. We'll be back with more news, updates, and content Saturday, 24th 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!