ProcessWire Weekly #91

Latest core updates: ProcessWire 3.0.7

In his latest blog post, Ryan has just introduced the version 3.0.7 of ProcessWire, already available from the devns branch at GitHub for testing purposes. This version brings in a couple of new and improved features:

• Multi-language support for Page Path History. This built-in module keeps track of previous URLs of pages, and now it has full support for multi-language URLs too.
• Field level template file and rendering support has been vastly improved. New additions include support for alternative files (/fields/title.php, /fields/basic-page/title.php, etc.) and custom views ($page->render('title', 'custom')).
• Support for sorting pages by custom fields of the parent page. When querying for pages, you can now sort them based on the value of any custom field their parent pages might have: $pages->find('template=task, sort=parent.publish_from').
• The core now includes support for a Composer vendor autoloader. This was added based on a lengthy GitHub discussion, and we're likely to hear much more about the topic of Composer support in the near future.

In other news there have been numerous fixes and minor improvements on the devns branch, so if you're running it on any of your sites already, you might want to consider updating. Not urgent, but especially if you're using the new link abstraction feature in combination with multi-language support, you might otherwise run into some quirks.

As always, there's a more in-depth version of the updates mentioned here available from the processwire.com blog. If you're interested in the field rendering feature, the blog post is a definite must-read!

Early look into Jquery File Upload, a new module by Kongondo

First of all, a word of warning: we call this an early look because this module is in alpha state. This is especially important since the module is related to file uploads, somewhat error-prone and risky feature. That being said, the best way to get some testing going on is by getting the module out there, so here we go.

Jquery File Upload is a new AJAX file upload module brought to us by Kongondo. It's still in a very early state, yet appears fully functional, as you can see from the video linked in the support forum thread. In a nutshell this module integrates the Blueimp jQuery File Upload plugin and provides support for both front-end and back-end use, one example of the latter case being the authors own Media Manager project.

This module is released under the MIT license and it's feature list is long, ranging from chunked and multi-file downloads to client and server side validation. This is definitely something to keep in mind if you're interested in implementing custom file uploads on your site – it's more than likely that this module already provides what you need.

Big thanks to Kongondo for sharing your work with us – awesome as always!

A new basic ProcessWire tutorial at Tuts+: How to Develop a Processwire Theme

How to Develop a ProcessWire Theme by Ben Byford is the latest ProcessWire tutorial at Envato Tuts+. We're always happy to see ProcessWire being featured on a prominent site like this, but what's more important here is that the tutorial itself is very good.

Ben has done great work at explaining the basics of ProcessWire templating, and the tutorial is a great resource for beginners and slightly more advanced users alike.

Main focus here is on the straightforward approach known as direct output – usually best suited for relatively simple sites – this tutorial is a very good introduction to how the API of ProcessWire works, and how easy it can make developing your own templates (or themes, as the tutorial calls them).

In case you do a few moments check this tutorial out, it's also worth noting that Ryan has provided some valuable feedback on the comments section of the tutorial. Topics covered in the feedback include terminology, other output strategies, and file naming best practices.

All in all, it's great to see more ProcessWire tutorials out there, especially when they're as well-written and educative as this one. Big thanks to Ben Byford for sharing your expertise with us!

Site of the week: Chrom Records Retrospective 1988–2007

Chrom Records Retrospective 1988–2007 is dedicated to telling the story of record label Chrom Records the way it was between 1988 and 2007. In 2007 the ownership of the record label was transferred to one of the artists involved with the label, Ernst Horn.

The site boasts a clean and simple design, complemented with large images of artists and such. Especially the artist pages look – despite containing quite a bit of content – great, and the lazy loading type effects give those a rather lively look and feel. Behind the scenes ProCache is doing it's best to ensure that the site loads fast and stays small, FormBuilder is used for contact forms and such, and site usage is tracked via Piwik

This site was introduced in a recent forum thread. If you have questions or feedback for the author – or would like to share old memories about the record label, as some have already done – feel free to post a reply in said thread.

The idea behind this project – preventing something that has made an impact on many people's lives from being lost – is great, and in this case the implementation is equally great. Big thanks to the author, Carl Erling of TBA-Berlin, for making this happen!

Stay tuned for our next issue

That's it for the 91st issue of ProcessWire Weekly. We'll be back with more news, updates, and content Saturday, 13th of February. 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!