MODX Digest # 2.1 (March 11 - March 25, 2019)

Fresh selection of news about MODX. In the release: nightly builds of version 3, a new SEO Tab, a large update of components by Vasily Naumkin, references to users on MODX.pro, and some details of refactoring from Jason.

Enjoy reading!

Digest numbering is changed so as not to interfere with the series of digests ( # 1 and # 2 ) from Andchir .

News and Events

Podcast on MODX - Modcast

The MODX podcast was released a week later due to technical issues, although there are plans to release both a digest and a podcast in one day. Nevertheless, many moments have since been refined, permits obtained from services for podcasts and so on.

Small updates:

• podcast site has been updated, now everything is beautiful and in business there - https://modcast.by
• The podcast has been added to iTunes , Overcast , PocketCast , Yandex.Music , subscribe and listen to where you prefer.

MODX 3 nightly builds

About two weeks ago, the guys from Sterc asked to build a working build of version 3, since almost a year has passed since the last release of the alpha version, and quite a bit of work has been done during this time. I tried to assemble, but it didn't work out the first time, I started to figure it out, and then I decided to do it all by hand if I could automate it and made a nightly build service where builds happen every night - https://nightly.modx.by/ .

There are plans to add more language downloads directly from Crowdin , since translations are usually infused before release, and in the git-version, the actual texts are in English only. And probably, to check whether there were changes in the repository and not to produce releases without special needs (space on the server must also be saved).

MODX Development

Since the code freeze was announced and Jason prosoileril that he still does something, the repository activity in these two weeks has dropped. This is also due to the fact that many people are preparing in a mitzap in Amsterdam this Friday, so you need to decide work and household chores, and for someone else to prepare a presentation with a report. However, what did they do.

• MODX 3 now requires the minimum installed version of PHP - 7.0 . Yes, many may wonder why not something fresher, because 7.0 is no longer supported. The answer is simple, there is statistics (albeit not comprehensive), which says that about 40% of users still use version 7.0, therefore, it is unwise to deprive such a number of users of the possibility of updating without good reason.
• As part of working on the nightly build service , MODX 3 had to fix a little build script so that it did what it should. In particular, the old script could not establish dependencies through Composer, now it can.
• Mikhail Voevodsky made a good attempt to make everyone well by adding the system code , file , inline bindings directly to the kernel, so that you can write code more efficiently, as is now possible with components compatible with pdoTools. However, there are questions in terms of security and the likelihood that this pull request will be accepted while in question.

I did not include smaller fixes, they can always be found independently on GitHub. In addition to the code, work continues on a new documentation site.

Jason's refactoring

Last week I managed to talk a bit with Jason and he was pleased with the good news. There is progress in the work, the main part has already been completed, before the weekend last week it began converting processors. After he finished with them, he promised to show the draft on GitHub.

Now all classes are loaded via PSR-4, which means that no more require_once and loadClass, now it is enough to connect one autoload.php and use any system classes.

Models can now be generated and probably work on xpdo 3.0, there will also be no more string references to classes: they used to write 'modResource', now it's worth writing modResource: class. This will improve not only the readability of the code, but also will enable the IDE to more correctly analyze the code and give hints.

This is all so far in words, since there is no code yet, but let's hope that at least there will be a result by the mitap. If not, then there is plan B, listen to him in the podcast.

Interesting notes and articles

• Mention users - Vasily Naumkin on the community site added the ability to mention users through the "@". And it works both in notes and in comments. It may be convenient if you need to attract a person to some thread in which he does not participate and therefore does not follow him.
• Cleaning community users - while making mentions, it turned out that in the database with users, there was some mess that prevented normal use of the function, so that the ranks of users were thinning, inactive were removed, and the rest of them were “combed” logins so as not to fail.
• [jwtSession] Session transfer to browser cookies - an example of using JWT tokens in conjunction with MODX. As an experiment and a solution to a separate task, the piece is very interesting, but it is unlikely that it will find widespread practical application. However, it is worth getting acquainted.
• Defending the MODX Revolution - albeit not a fresh, but still relevant note on how to take care of security and protection from hacking the site on MODX.
• Good video tutorials about MODX by Coddes . And they have a pretty site .

New and updated add-ons

• Theme.Bootstrap 3.0.0-pl - update the start package with the layout Bootstrap to version 4 of the CSS framework. The update has also affected other add-ons (pdoTools, miniShop2, mSearch2 and Office), which use it as a dependency, so before updating, read more about the changes in the note -
  https://modx.pro/components/17790 .
• SEO Tab 2.2.0-pl - a big update to the component that helps with SEO. Something radical was not added, but fixed about 10 bugs and five minor improvements.
• Jevix 1.3.1-pl - typograph update for MODX. A couple of little things and engine compartments. Post in support - https://modx.pro/components/17827 .
• mSearh2 1.13.1-pl - the main update is the correct accounting of prices after applying all sorts of different plug-ins that change the price of a product (as a rule, various discounts). Now filters are able to correctly take into account such changes and show the actual numbers in the sliders and other places.
  More in the post - https://modx.pro/news/17738 .
• SeoFilter 1.6.4-beta - added support for aFax mFilter2 pagination, now compatible with MODX 3.
• ResVideoGallery 2.0.0-beta - a big update immediately to version 2. Added a bunch of events, now can in Fenom and can display photos from the miniShop2 gallery.
• cityFields 1.2.2-pl - new bootstrap chunks, the ability to change the city through a get-request and many other useful fixes and improvements.
• logRotation 1.0.0-beta - allows you to reduce the size of the log with errors by removing old records from the log when the specified file size is exceeded. Discussion and suggestions for improving the component in the post on the community site - https://modx.pro/components/17837 .
• Context Export 1.0.0-pl is a component from Sterc that allows you to export the whole context in XML format. It can also export access rights and media elements (i.e. pictures and files).
• Point of Interest 1.0.0-pl is another component from Sterc that allows you to display the points specified in MODX on a Google map. This may be resources or some other component records, or any other data. Documentation is still lame.

Thanks for attention!

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