ProcessWire Weekly #62

Latest core updates, a new version of the ProCache module, and more!

This time Ryan's weekly blog post at processwire.com contains a lot of interesting stuff, of which we'll cover just the main points here. In addition to some new core additions (2.6.9), Ryan has also just released a new version of the commercial ProCache module (3.1), and there's also one particularly interesting community project you'll want to hear about.

New API method setAndSave() and added control over your sites URLs

This week, along with a few tweaks, fixes, and minor updates, there were two "more visible" core updates. Currently, you'll find these from the dev branch of ProcessWire.

• New API addition $page->setAndSave('field', 'value') is essentially a shortcut for setting a field value and saving it instantly, though with the added benefits of a) making sure that output formatting stays out of the way (and is later returned to the state it was in), and b) the option of padding values as an associative array (array('field1' => 'value1', 'field2' => 'value2') etc.)
• Added the ability to define whether URL segments and paginated pages (page numbers) should end with a slash. Previously only available for page URLs, this feature allows you to consistently control the way your sites URLs behave. The user is automatically 301 redirected to the correct type of URL when needed.

ProCache 3.1 contains a whole bunch of major updates for the 3.0 branch of the commercial ProCache module

In addition to the core updates of the week, the 3.1 update for the commercial ProCache modules introduces a bunch of major updates:

• Extensive improvements to the HTML minification features. Not only are these more robust than they used to be, but you're also given a lot more control over the specific rules applied – if you need that. Check out Ryan's blog post for a list of available configuration options, and a list of the new features of the minification tool!
• Probably familiar to some of you from the core template cache, ProCache now supports clearing the cache based on a specific selector, and clearing cache for pages hand-picked from the page tree.
• While in most cases it's preferable to configure ProCache site-wide, the cache clearing settings are an obvious part where template-level configuration is preferable. As of ProcessWire 2.6.9, ProCache will inject some of its own settings right next to the native page/template cache settings on the Cache tab.
• More of a SEO feature than a caching feature really, ProCache now also supports automatically adding a canonical link tag to your HTML source. If your pages can be viewed with multiple URLs, this is a handy way of telling the search engines the real URL of the page.

There were some other, minor updates to the ProCache module too, so don't forget to check those out from Ryan's blog post.

All in all, we're quite proud of the ProCache module and its set of features. From what we've seen so far, this just might be the most extensive caching and minifying solution available for any CMS product out there, and the rate at which it's been improving is mind-blowing!

Community project of the week: introducing the ProcessWire Geek Products online shop!

This week we're excited to introduce the latest of the amazing community projects out there, the ProcessWire Geek Products online shop! This store was put together by @netcarver, and features all sorts of ProcessWire apparel: T-shirts, mugs, buttons, mousepads, and more.

While we've seen some live examples of ProcessWire shirts before, this is the first time you can order all sorts of ProcessWire apparel with ease. If you're a proud ProcessWire user, this is your chance to show it – just like you might wear the colors of your favorite football or hockey team, you can now wear the colors of your favorite content management framework!

That's it for this weeks core updates section. Once again we'd like to suggest that you check out the original blog post by Ryan – you'll find a lot of additional details, instructions, etc. there.

AvbFastCache by İskender Totoğlu

İskender Totoğlu, the author of our Turkish translation pack and a bunch of other modules, has just recently published his latest ProcessWire module: AvbFastCache. In a nutshell, this handy little module integrates the phpFastCache caching library with ProcessWire.

AvbFastCache mainly functions as a loose interface between you and the phpFastCache class, while also providing some handy settings and a few extra features for your convenience. Most of the time you'll be interacting directly with phpFastCache, so if you're already familiar with that, you'll have no trouble jumping in with AvbFastCache!

If you'd like to hear more about this module, check out the forum post by İskender and the examples on the phpFastCache website, and see for yourself if this is the solution you need.

Thanks to İskender Totoğlu for sharing this handy module with us!

Dispo: a simple file downloader site profile

The latest addition to our site profiles is Dispo, an extremely simple file downloader built by Mike Rockett. The main purpose of Dispo is to provide clean URLs for downloadable files, and it's intended to be installed in a subdomain (such as files.example.com).

Dispo is installed just like any other site profile: download or clone ProcessWire, drop the site-dispo directory into the root of the site, and start the installer. You'll see an option to install Dispo next to the other site profiles. You'll also need to set two configuration settings within your /site/config.php file: $config->mainDomain is the domain that Dispo will redirect users to when no file is found and $config->title is the name of your site.

After that, you can log in to the site and create new pages with the "downloader" template. When someone hits the URL of one of these pages, the file in the "File" field will be downloaded. That's all there is to it, and that's also why we said that Dispo is extremely simple – it's an out-of-the-box solution, but also a great platform for building more complex file hosting solutions.

Thanks to Mike Rockett for making this site profile available for us. We're always happy to see new and interesting things built with ProcessWire!

Site of the week: Progenia, a company specializing in sustainable housing

This time our site of the week belongs to Progenia, an Australian company that specializes in sustainable housing. With services ranging from sustainable design, structural design, and cost planning to construction management, approval processes, and project management they're a full-service sustainable housing company.

For most parts, this is a one-page site, with the portfolio items included on pages of their own. This is a design decision that works quite well; there's just the right amount of content for this kind of site, and after the initial page load the site feels fast and snappy.

From a slightly more technical point of view the site makes use of AIOM, FormBuilder, and ProCache modules, and is based on the Bootstrap front-end framework. All of this is also mentioned in the forum post introducing the site – along with the little detail that this was originally a WordPress site, later rebuilt using ProcessWire primarily for security reasons.

Big thanks to John Redwood for sharing this site with us – we're glad to have you on board developing sites with ProcessWire!

Stay tuned for our next issue

That's it for the 62nd issue of ProcessWire Weekly. We'll be back with more news, updates, and content next Saturday, 25th 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!