ProcessWire Weekly #535

Latest core updates: ProcessWire 3.0.241

The latest weekly update from Ryan contains a quick update about ProcessWire 3.0.241, the latest development branch version as of this week, as well as a status update regarding Fieldtype Custom, the new fieldtype that was introduced just last week.

Here's what's new in the dev branch this week

ProcessWire 3.0.241 contains a total of 29 new commits over previous version, many of which we've covered in our earlier issues, so we won't go through them all here. That being said, here's what's been updated or added within the past week or so:

• The Pageimage core class now handles invalid SVG markup gracefully, no longer allowing it to cause a fatal error, as reported in issue #1925.
• As a solution for issue #1949 where the value stored in a float field was truncated, the float field (FieldtypeFloat) now supports configurable column type. This can be either "float" or "double".
• WireDateTime core class was updated to remove unnecessary and problematic PHP version comparison from the WireDateTime::date() function when using format value with "%" in it.

As for other updates since 3.0.240, you can check our previous issues for more details, or browse through the dev branch commit log.

FieldtypeCustom storage mechanism explained

The rest of Ryan's post this week is dedicated to explaining exactly how the Custom fieldtype handles data storage and selector queries, and what kind of considerations this involves. The long story short is that data is stored as JSON in the database, and subfield queries are indeed supported, but there's a bit more to it as well, including full-text indexes and whatnot.

That's all for our core updates section this week, but be sure to check out the weekly update from Ryan for more details, especially regarding FieldtypeCustom. Thanks!

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 a new blog post from Holly Valero, showcasing a very flexible content management setup built with ProcessWire: "What about changing your mind? Web design with ProcessWire." Definitely worth checking out!
• Next up we've got a new case story, providing plenty of background information for one of our recent sites of the week — the Fugamo website, built by dotnetic. Check it out if you'd like to hear more about this project and what makes it tick.
• If you'd like to learn how to easily set up automatic language detection, there's a nifty little code snippet for that in Automatic Language Detection and Redirection in Multilingual Site — and another, quite similar approach in Localization Strategy (Country vs Language). Hat tip for this trick to poljpocket and Tiberium!
• Another handy little trick, though this one is really a new PHP feature, was shared by MrSnoozles in ProcessWire should support PHP 8.1+ only, and here's why... The label may be a bit of a clickbait, but the trick involving callables is quite real :)
• Last but not least, the PAGEGRID site builder for ProcessWire now has a Kickstarter for anyone who would like to support its development. If this is the type of feature that you'd like to see developed further, definitely consider supporting the project.

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: Copter Company

Our latest site of the week belongs to Copter Company, a Freising, Germany based company specializing in aerial photography. They have a very impressive portfolio that covers advertising and image films, concerts and festivals, sports events and live streams, and even construction — keeping tabs on progress, improving communication among stakeholders, and also generating promotional material at the same time.

They combine film-ready camera work with reliable technology and a safe production environment. With many years of experience in media production and a passion for model flying, Copter Company guarantees exceptional results.

— Sites directory entry for the Copter Company

The Copter Company website was created by typneun Designagentur. Whilst this site is relatively simple, it also has a very nice and clean design, with many interesting visual effects here and there. Content wise the site is pretty much what you'd expect from a proper business website: an introduction to the company and their team, examples of projects they've handled — grouped into categories, and coupled with explanations of the service and its benefits for the customer — and of course contact details.

As for behind the scenes details, the front-end of this site appears to be custom-built, as there are no signs of a full-blown front-end framework here. Third party JavaScript has also been stripped to pretty much the bare minimum; mainly just jQuery and Slick. In terms of ProcessWire modules, there are none that we could spot here.

Thanks to typneun Designagentur for sharing another interesting project with us, and our congratulations to the client, Copter Company, for their new, ProcessWire powered website!

Stay tuned for our next issue

That's all for the 535th issue of ProcessWire Weekly. We'll be back with more news, updates, and content Saturday, 17th of August. 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!