ProcessWire Weekly #371

Latest core updates: ProcessWire 3.0.180

In his latest weekly update Ryan introduces ProcessWire 3.0.180, which is now available via the dev branch at GitHub. Some of the features included in this release — such as the $files API exists() mthod — were briefly covered in our previous issue, but here's what's new since last week:

• Bugfixes for the PagePaths module and the Admin search (ProcessPageSearch).
• New "hidden" option for $files->copy() for including (or skipping over) hidden files in the source path.
• New $database->getColumns('table') method that returns an array consisting of all the columns within the specified database table.
• New way to instantiate inputfields via the $inputfields API variable for better IDE support: $inputfields->InputfieldText for $modules->get('InputfieldText'), etc.
• Support for more fieldtypes within file/image custom fields.

For more details about this week's core updates feel free to check out the commit log at GitHub, as well as the weekly update from Ryan (at the support forum) in which he also shares some details about the forum slowdown we experienced earlier this week (which, as it turns out, was a result of a DDOS attack). Thanks!

New module: Flowti Page Serializer

Flowti Page Serializer is a new third party module developed by Luis. What this module does is that it adds a new Page method serialize(), which in turn will return serialized (JSON) data for the whole page, a single field, or multiple fields:

$page->serialize(); // serialize all accessible fields
$page->serialize('field_name'); // serialize a single field
$page->serialize(['field_name_1', 'field_name_2']) // serialize multiple fields

Here's what serialized output for a couple of Page fields might look like:

{
  "title" : "Home",
  "headline" : "ProcessWire Weekly"
}

Behind the scenes this module makes use of the Serializer component of the Symfony framework, which is also why an additional install step is needed: after installing the module by cloning or downloading from GitHub, you'll also need go to the module's directory and run composer install to get all the required dependencies.

Thanks to Luis for sharing this project — a very nice addition!

Weekly forum highlights, tutorials, and other online resources

For this week we've gathered a list of support forum highlights and other useful and hopefully interesting resources. As always, please let us know if there's anything important we've missed, so that we can include it in one of our future issues.

• First of all there's another new admin style available via the forum — this time a modification of the Reno style from matjazp along with a demonstration video of an admin style switcher.
• Another resource that should be of interest to anyone interested in modifying the admin is of course the AdminStyleRock GitHub repository. This repository contains documentation and all the necessary files (bundled as a module) for Bernhard's Rock style — a great place to start digging into this feature!
• Moving on to tutorial content, first of all we've got an extensive two-part tutorial from Horst: in the first part he explains how to add a watermarking method for ProcessWire's Pageimage object, and in the second part he explains how to add watermarking to all Pageimages on your site.
• Next up we've got a tutorial aimed at module developers — how do I make my module installable via Composer? In this one you'll be walked through the steps required to make your module play nicely with Composer, the de-facto standard a dependency management solution for PHP.
• Finally we've got a tutorial from Ryan for creating custom FormBuilder processor actions. Note that this one is only available for FormBuilder users with access to the VIP Form Builder support forum.

By the way, there's just been a new job posting at the support forum from Michelman. In case you're US based and would like to work full time as User Experience Developer for a remote-friendly, US based company that utilizes ProcessWire on their sites, be sure to check it out.

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: Klippo Kinderschutzpunkte Eutin

Our latest site of the week belongs to Klippo. Klippo is a German initiative based in the town of Eutin, started by Deutscher Kinderschutzbund Eutin e.V. ("German Child Protection Association Eutin").

The goal of Klippo is to help children find a safe space. Certified Klippo partners (shops, offices, practices, public institutions, and other facilities) help children who happen to find themselves in some sort of trouble: a missed transportation, low battery, in need of a toilet — you name it.

The website of Klippo features a childish (or perhaps child-friendly?) design, FAQ page, "KlippoMap" for viewing safe places on a map, and various general purpose info pages for potential partners, donors, and so on. All in all this is a very nice package, and the overall look and feel are definitely unique in a very positive manner.

This site was a co-project of Muskaat and Polimorf, with the folks at Muskaat handling the techy bits and Polimorf providing the design. As for behind the scene details, some of the third party modules used on this site include Google Map Marker, PrivacyWire, PageHitCounter, Changelog, Verified URL, and ProCache.

You can find more details about this project from the Klippo showcase forum thread. Thanks to the folks at Muskaat for sharing another brilliant ProcessWire site with us, and our congratulations to Klippo for their new website!

Stay tuned for our next issue

That's it for the 371st issue of ProcessWire Weekly. We'll be back with more news, updates, and content Saturday, 26th 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!