ProcessWire Weekly #22

Introducing ListerPro, latest commercial module for ProcessWire by Ryan

ListerPro is the latest commercial module by Ryan and an upgrade to the "basic" Lister module bundled with ProcessWire 2.5. Overall it's more feature-rich than the "basic" Lister, introducing support for things like custom Listers and content manipulation.

For a thorough introduction to ListerPro, take a look at this blog post at processwire.com. ListerPro is also already available at the ProcessWire Store.

Page Ratings is a rating system for ProcessWire pages

Page Ratings is a module that adds API level support for rating pages by extending the Page object with a new property ratings, which gives access to a bunch of new, ratings-related properties and methods:

echo $page->ratings->count; // number of votes for this page
echo $page->ratings->average; // average rating for this page
echo $page->ratings->current; // the rating current user gave to this page
echo $page->ratings->hasVoted; // has current user already voted for this page?
$page->ratings->reset(); // reset all ratings for this page
$page->ratings->add(4); // add a rating of '4' to this page

What this module doesn't provide is an out-of-the-box page rating form – it gives you, the developer, complete control over such things. One example of how your front-end rating system might look like is available at the demo site for the module.

Anyway, this seems like a really useful module for a lot of cases and is a great contribution to the ProcessWire project by the company that's quickly becoming one of the most visible benefactors of the ProcessWire community – Conclurer.

Alternative grid for multiple files

Alternate grid for multiple files is a new module by Luis Santiago, aka blad, the author of the FirstSteps module we mentioned in ProcessWire Weekly #20 and the ProcessWire trailer, that caught our attention in ProcessWire Weekly #19.

This module adds alternative view for files uploaded into ProcessWire's Admin. Since a picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth a thousand pictures, here's the YouTube video showcasing the features of this module – and outlining how it can, in some cases, really improve the way files are presented:

If you're interested in this module, you might also want to check out its sister module, aptly titled Alternative grid for multiple images. The concept is almost same, with just a few little twists, and the context is images instead of files.

Our thanks goes to Luis – your work is fantastic, and we're always looking forward to seeing your latest creation!

LDAP authentication the easy way: LDAP Sign In is a new module by Conclurer

LDAP Sign In, another new module by Conclurer, provides support for authentication users using LDAPS (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). What this means in practice is that, for an example, you can now easily integrate your ProcessWire site with Active Directory.

The module is quite simple and easy to configure. For large scale use there's still some work to be done, but if you've got relatively simple needs (mainly want to authenticate users using AD / LDAPS), this module makes it a trivially easy thing to do.

For more details, screenshots, discussion about the features of this module, possible future plans, etc. take a look at the modules directory page or the support forum thread for the module!

ProcessWire resources of the week

A short list of some of the latest and greatest ProcessWire resources. Additional suggestions are always welcome, so please post them as comments here or send them to us via the feedback form, and we'll try to get them into our future issues!

• Haven't seen the new notifications system yet? No worries – in this video Ryan demonstrates the notifications system, and especially the progress bar feature of it. That's pretty neat, right?
• In another fresh video Luis Santiago showcases his proof-of-concept PreloaderWire module. Not sure how many sites would actually benefit from this (with the blazing speed of ProcessWire and all), but.. at least it looks fun!
• Here's an article about making Horton-Stephens.com, our site of the week from last weekly issue, by Ben Byford. If you'd like to know how some of those sweet Ajax features were actually built, look no further.
• For a list of (some of) the hottest ProcessWire sites out there, check out the Featured Sites category at the ProcessWire sites directory. We've repeatedly stated that with ProcessWire only your imagination is the limit – and these sites are just one proof of that.

Site of the week: neuwaerts.de

Neuwaerts is an agency that, in their own words, specializes in change communication – and uses ProcessWire in almost all of its web projects. Also, their site was recently relaunched.. and looks absolutely gorgeous!

If your German is a bit rusty, don't worry – I don't speak German either, not a single word of it, but luckily Google translate does an adequate job at translating it to English. Either way, this site was just too good not to mention here.

In terms of content, different layouts and elements, typography and imaginative use of images this site is an endless stream of surprises. There were times when I wasn't quite sure where I was or how I got there, but in this case that didn't matter at all.

Congratulations to folks at Neuwaerts – that's one awesome site you've got there!

Stay tuned for our next issue

That's all for this week. We'll be back next Saturday, 18th of October, with all new topics. In the meantime don't forget to follow @processwire at Twitter and join the discussion at ProcessWire Support Forums.

Until next week – happy hacking with ProcessWire!