ProcessWire Weekly #376

Latest core updates: ProcessWire 3.0.182

In the latest weekly update at the support forum Ryan talks about ProcessWire 3.0.182, our current development version. We've covered a sizeable chunk of what's included in this version in previous weekly issues (#374 and #375), but here's what's new this week:

• A fix for an issue where focus points were not always handled properly when running PHP 8.
• A fix for an issue where the template of a page couldn't be changed. This issue also occurred only when using PHP 8.
• New API methods $database->getIndexes($table), $database->indexExists($table, $indexName), and $database->getPrimaryKey($table), along with some improvements to existing WireDatabsePDO methods.
• Admin UI improvements: "found new module" notifications are no longer stacked (grouped) to make them easier to notice, hidden/unpublished languages are now identifiable in the languages submenu, and rendering of non-editable PageTable fields has been greatly improved.

A couple of additions that will likely only affect power users include support for array values in Fieldtype::getMatchQuery(), and ability to force DatabaseQuerySelectFullText class to fall back to SQL LIKE when dealing with columns without fulltext indexes.

Additionally there were some comment updates and other behind the scenes updates — for a full changelog check out the weekly dev branch commit log in GitHub.

That's all for this week's core updates section. For more details and a request regarding sites directory submissions, be sure to also visit the weekly update from Ryan. Thanks!

New module: Select Images Inputfield

The Select Images inputfield module is a new addition from Robin Sallis. This module adds the ability to select and sort images added to other fields, and was primarily intended for use with the Dynamic Options fieldtype module.

The use cases for this inputfield, especially when combined with the Dynamic Options fieldtype, are many: the combination can be used to build a sort of a image reference field, useful when the site requires shared image repository or media gallery, or you could use it to pick values that are not (local) image at all.

Be sure to check out the modules directory entry for some real life examples. While a bit of code is required to get everything up and running, it's quite straightforward, and Robin has kindly provided us with some easy to follow examples.

The Select Images module can be installed via the built-in modules manager in the admin, or you can download or clone it via the Select Images GitHub repository. Big thanks to Robin for another very nice contribution!

New module: Symprowire MVC framework

Symprowire is a newly announced project that, in a nutshell, aims to combine the data management features provided by ProcessWire with the power of the general purpose PHP framework Symfony. This module was developed by LuisM, and is currently at a relatively early stage (latest update as of this writing was RC 1, or 0.6.0).

The main Goal is to give an easy path to follow an MVC Approach during development with ProcessWire and open up the available eco-system.

— LuisM

As Luis explains in the forum post introducing Symprowire, his main goal is to combine best parts of both systems: the predefined MVC structure and various general purpose components provided by Symfony, and the data management capability of ProcessWire. Symprowire is somewhat opinionated, and comes built-in with a long list of features:

• Twig for templating
• Dependency Injection
• Monolog for logging
• Support for .env files
• YAML based Configuration
• Symfony Console component and Console Commands
• Symfony WebProfiler for development and debugging
• Webpack Encore for working with the webpack bundler

Symprowire is a pretty big project, so if it sounds like your cup of tea, definitely visit the Symprowire GitHub repository to learn more. There's also a wiki where you'll find — among other things — a detailed tutorial for building a blog using Symprowire. Do keep in mind, though, that this module is currently in a rather early stage of development.

Big thanks to Luis for his work on this project. Symprowire is an interesting and unique take on combining ProcessWire with another framework, and definitely something we'll be keeping tabs on!

Site of the week: Kuntarekry

Our latest site of the week is the Finnish recruitment portal Kuntarekry. Developed by FCG, the Finnish Consulting Group Oy, Kuntarekry is a service that lists jobs and provides information for those interested in working in the municipal sector in Finland.

The main features of the site include job listings that can be filtered by various criteria, detailed employer introductions, and a news section for articles. Job seekers search for suitable jobs, browse through jobs in many different categories, set up notices when suitable jobs pop up, and save jobs to their list of favourites.

From an end-users point of view the site looks quite nice, and the user experience is top notch: searching and browsing job listings is just about as easy as it can be. While many of the job descriptions are available in Finnish or Swedish only, the site itself is available in three languages: Finnish, Swedish, and English.

One particular feature that sets this site apart from many websites we've featured in our weekly issues are usage statistics: with 3.2 million visitors and 30 million visits a year, 350 customer organizations involved, and around 3 000 open jobs at any given time Kuntarekry is undeniably a major player in local job market.

Our congratulations to the folks behind this very interesting project — always fun to see ProcessWire being used for different use cases, and from what we've seen so far this site seems like the perfect match with ProcessWire's content management capabilities!

Stay tuned for our next issue

That's all for the 376th issue of ProcessWire Weekly. We'll be back with more news, updates, and content Saturday, 31st of July. 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!