ProcessWire Weekly #34

Latest core update is built-in quality assurance for images in rich text fields

Our core update this week is a new built-in quality assurance feature for images in rich text fields. In a nutshell this update provides following new features, intended mainly for RTE fields, such as CKEditor or TinyMCE:

1. Blank alt attributes will be replaced run-time with image descriptions.
   For convenience, the MarkupQA module replaces blank alt attributes with image descriptions run-time. This also means that alternative texts can be easily updated by simply updating the image description – and the feature is, of course, multi-language aware too!
    
2. Missing size variations will be automatically created when needed.
   Even if you delete all size variations for stored images, they'll be automatically re-created if/when needed. Deleting all size variations isn't that common, but it can make sense for an example if you want to clean up non-used variations.
    
3. <img> tags pointing to missing images won't be displayed to end-users at all.
   This means that your end-users will never see broken image tags on the site, but content editors will still be able to see them in the Admin and thus can easily fix any issues.
    
4. <img> tags pointing to missing images will be logged, and admin users will be notified.
   Last but not least, missing images will be automatically logged in markup-qa-errors.txt log file. Additionally, if the SystemNotifications module is installed, admin users (and current editing user if applicable) will also be notified of such issues.

More details about this new feature can be found from the latest blog post at processwire.com, Quality assurance for images in rich text fields.

New and improved FirstSteps module by Nico Knoll and Luis Santiago

We introduced a learning helper module called FirstSteps originally in our 20th issue. Quite a bit has changed since then, and now FirstSteps – originally developed by Luis Santiago – has been reborn as a new joint project by Luis Santiago and Nico Knoll.

What FirstSteps did very well right from the start was bringing tutorials and helpful tips where they were needed. The newly updated module builds on that foundation, mainly adding new tutorials and features, such as displaying a tutorial automatically for first-time users.

On the other hand, it also provides a brand new feature, one that should really be of interest to authors of ProcessWire modules: support for being embedded into other modules. If you're a module developer, check out the code samples at GitHub – getting started with this new feature is a breeze!

Thanks to Nico and Luis for your work on this beauty – it's a great module, and your work is truly appreciated!

Introducing our current list of Top ProcessWire Developer Resources

To give your ProcessWire projects a flying start, this time we wanted to remind you of some of the most useful ProcessWire resources out there. While these might not be new to you, they're definitely worth keeping in mind – and if you do find something new here, all the better. Here's our list of Top ProcessWire Developer Resources!

1. ProcessWire Support Forum
   The ProcessWire Support Forum is still the most important resource of them all. It's by far the largest collection of ProcessWire questions and answers, snippets, tips, tutorials, case stories, and whatnot. If you're a ProcessWire developer or user, you should be there – we're a friendly bunch and you'll love it there!
    
2. ProcessWire Modules Directory
   The modules directory is where you'll find most of the publicly available ProcessWire modules. As a handy little trick, you can also sort the list of modules by number of recommendations to create a list of most popular ProcessWire modules.
    
3. ProcessWire Cheatsheet
   ProcessWire Cheatsheet is the best friend of a ProcessWire developer. This handy tool lists the API features you'll need for developing sites or modules with ProcessWire. In addition to the brief descriptions, by clicking the "more" links below cheatsheet items, you'll get more details for each specific feature.
    
4. Captain Hook
   Captain Hook, also known as the ProcessWire Hooks Cheatsheet, is another handy tool for ProcessWire developers. It contains a list of points in ProcessWire code where you can hook into. For more details about the hooks and hooking system itself, check out the Hooks page at the API documentation.
    
5. ProcessWire Recipes
   ProcessWire Recipes is a growing collection of ProcessWire tips and tricks in the form of bite-sized snippets. From resetting admin password via API to creating XML sitemaps for every language, it's a great place to find inspiration – and you can always add your own snippets too!

For learning purposes, we would like to give a special recommendation to ProcessWire.tv, which is a curated list of ProcessWire videos managed by Nico Knoll. From tutorials to module introductions, it's well worth checking out!

Additionally, if you find an interesting site and would like to know if it's built with ProcessWire, you can do that easily with isit.pw. This is more for fun than an essential development tool, though it might come in handy in some cases.

There are a lot of useful ProcessWire resources and tools out there. If you've got a favorite tool that we forgot to mention, please don't hesitate to drop us a comment!

Site of the week: Priotas

This time our site of the week is actually a slightly older entry in the ProcessWire sites directory, but definitely deserves its place here: Priotas, a change management consulting company from Cologne, Germany.

Built by neuwaerts, the site is responsive, works great on both mobile and desktop devices, and has a rather distinctive design to it – very clean and simple, with some well-placed transitions and illustrations bringing it to life.

Overall a functional and still good-looking site – just the way we like it!

Stay tuned for our next issue

That's it for ProcessWire weekly #34, thanks for staying with us. Our next weekly issue will be out 10th of January and sent a few days later to ProcessWire newsletter subscribers. Meanwhile, you should follow @processwire at Twitter for a steady stream of updates.

Until next time, happy hacking with ProcessWire!