March 2012
0 posts
Admin tip, install modules using cpanm
cpanm is a great addition to your perl toolbox. It makes installing new modules very, very easy. I’ve known about it for a while, but never really needed it until I tried to install a module that was created with a BSD tar, instead of GNU tar. cpan would die during the tar extraction stage, but cpanm just ignored the error about unknown inodes and installed the module right away.
If...
February 2012
3 posts
1 tag
Using WebGUI 8 before it's released...
If you are looking for a dead stable, slow moving branch of WebGUI to use for your website, WebGUI 8.0 is not for you. We will be pouring features into it. If you need stable, then please use WebGUI 7.10, which will only ever have bug-fixes applied to it. If you need absolutely stable, then use WebGUI 7.9, which will never have releases again.
As has been for the last several months, all of...
January 2012
13 posts
Major milestone: branching
We keep inching closer to making the 8.0 beta release. Today was a major milestone in that we created the webgui-7.10 branch, and merged in all the WebGUI code in the master branch of our git repository.
For those of you with git access, please note that from this point onward, any bugfixing in 7.10 will need to hand ported over to the master branch with WebGUI 8 code. Pay careful attention to...
WebGUI 7.10.24 released
This stable release of WebGUI 7.10.24 contains fixes for 13 different bugs in the Asset Manager, Calendar, Asset Report, Login Macros, Passive Analytics, Shop and the Survey. Gotchas
WebGUI now depends on Business::OnlinePayment::AuthorizeNet. This version should install automatically via the testEnvironment.pl script, or the perl-standard CPAN module.
Bug Fixes - fixed #12318: asset error...
wreservice shortcuts
WRE 8 still uses the wreservice.pl script for starting and stopping web processes. However, since we have new binaries, you have access to some new switches
Nginx replaces Apache/modproxy so you can use wreservice.pl —option nginx to control it. modproxy remains and is an alias for nginx for people with strong muscle memory. In addition to —start, —stop and —restart,...
YAW8 Update
(that’s Yet Another WRE 8 Update. Sorry, been reading too many YAPC posts.)
New stuff that works:
Testing logfile rotation.
Testing backups.
Testing the wremonitor.
nginx handling of static content from /extras.
Documentation, lots and lots of documentation about what’s changed and how to use the WRE now.
What’s still to be done (in rough order of decreasing priority):
The demo...
What happens to my custom code in WebGUI 8?
The simplest, shortest answer is as follows:
It will require upgrading.
WebGUI 8 has API changes to WebGUI::Session and to WebGUI::Asset, and those changes pretty much require that most custom code will need to be upgraded. Many simple macros and form plugins may not need changes, but by far and large it is safest to assume that they will.
That was the bad news, this is the good news.
We had...
WRE 8: Help with nginx configurations
There is no easy way to build good nginx configurations by translating your Apache configurations. I did find a site that offers a translator, but it often generates configs using the If directive, which can have some nasty side effects inside nginx.
The nginx wiki is a good technical reference on what nginx can do and how to set things up. It also has examples of full configuration files.
...
WRE 8 update
A quick bullet point update:
Stuff that works:
Setting up a new site with the WRE via wresetup.pl
Adding sites.
Removing sites.
wreservice can start, stop and ping nginx and starman.
starman is service up WebGUI.
nginx is passing dynamic content.
Logs are going to the correct places.
What’s still to be done (in rough order of decreasing priority):
Testing logfile rotation.
...
Learning about WebGUI 8 - Thanks Doug!
Doug Bell (aka preaction on IRC and various other places) wrote a series of articles about WebGUI 8. You’ll find them in his blog and archives at blogs.perl.org.
What do I need to learn to use WebGUI 8
If you are a regular user of WebGUI 8, then you should spend some time in the new Admin Console to get a feel for how it works. It’s always a good idea to learn how to use Template::Toolkit as it will save you time and give you more power and flexibility in your templating.
If you are a developer of WebGUI and want to work in 8, then I suggest the following list of modules:
Moose,...
What happens to WebGUI 7 bugs and RFEs
After WebGUI 8 is released, our focus will be stabilize it. We will also resume making 7.10 releases as time and resources allow so that bug fixes get out to our customers and users.
The release of WebGUI 8 will obsolete some RFEs and bugs, and they will be closed. It will also give us the chance to fix some long standing problems with WebGUI that could not be easily fixed in 7.
What are the risks of upgrading to WebGUI 8?
Hopefully, the last post whet your appetite for using WebGUI 8. You should remember that when WebGUI 8.0 is released, it will be a beta. Beta means that www.webgui.org and www.plainblack.com are using the software, and that we expect it to be usable but less stable than 7.10. This helps to guarantee that we feel your pain, even before you do.
The new Admin console required changes to the...
What are the benefits of upgrading to WebGUI 8
It’s been a long time since WebGUI 8 was initially announced, and from the postings on forums and questions on IRC I have the feeling that:
People have forgotten what WebGUI 8’s goals are.
We haven’t done a very good job of communicating the difference between where 8 was headed, and where it is today.
That changes today. This is the first in a series of posts to answer...
WebGUI 8 is ready, WRE 8 not so much
The coding for the custom apps is done. The HelpDesk, Karma Gifter, and Bazaar are all working in WebGUI 8. However, there is still one more hurdle to overcome, and that’s the WRE.
The WRE for WebGUI 8 will be very different. Instead of apache and modperl, we will be using starman, which is a small webserver written in Perl and C. Instead of apache’s modproxy, we will be using...
December 2011
1 post
2 down, one to go
There are three main custom apps used on plainblack.com and webgui.org:
The HelpDesk (used for bug reports and RFEs)
The Bazaar (so people can share their WebGUI work)
The Karma Gifter (so people can give other people karma for doing great things)
There are some custom macros, but macros only change if they use the Asset, Session or Auth APIs.
As of this evening, both the Karma Gifter and the...
November 2011
6 posts
Something to be thankful for...
Yesterday we finished the conversion of most of WebGUI’s tables from MyISAM to InnoDB. The only table that stays is the table used for doing searches in WebGUI. Someday we’ll replace out text search with a real plugin like ElasticSearch or something similar.
That means that the development part of WebGUI 8 is done. Now, we have to make sure that Plain Black’s custom code (the...
Admin tip, resetting a site.
If you have a site with its WebGUI configuration files all set up, and then you decide that you want to reset the site contents back to a default state, the wgd utility can help you with that.
You would download it, make it executable, and then run this command:
wgd -F my.site.conf reset —backup —import —starter —uploads
You should read the wgd help documents for more...
WebGUI 8, moving forward
The old style layout template work with the new Admin Console, with a few caveats:
You get two sets of editing controls.
The drag controls are displayed to everyone in the group Turn on Admin, whether you’re in the admin console or not.
The good news is that they keep the arrangement of your content, they allow drag and drop rearranging, they still allow editing of content, and to users...
WebGUI 8 update
WebGUI 8 is merged all the way up to 7.10.23, which was the latest stable release of WebGUI 7. Not only that, but the majority of the tests are passing (see footnote for gory technical details).
So, next we look at the issue of automatically upgrading templates. The issue there is that Layout templates have become remarkably easier to write, but are very difficult to automatically upgrade with...
WeatherData asset
On October 31st, Weather.com discontinued its free XML feed, which is used by the WeatherData asset as a source of information. They have replaced the free feed with a paid subscription model, which starts at $32/month for a limited number of accesses, for one city in English only. To date, we have not evaluated the new API to see whether it’s compatible with the old one.
Our current...
1 tag
Where is WebGUI 8?
A brief Q&A chat about WebGUI 8, and Wednesday and the 30-day promise.
What’s happened to “WebGUI 8 being released on September 15th”?
When that post was made, we had identified 5 hurdles for getting WebGUI into a state where it could be declared “beta”-worthy:
Finish the www_edit/www_add API change
Finish changes to the VersionTag API
Merge in all versions...
October 2011
2 posts
Customizing UI Levels
Each user on a WebGUI site can be assigned a user interface level, or UI level, in his or her user profile. Default UI levels start at 9 (guru) and go down to 0. The higher the UI level, the greater editing and site administrating capability a user has on the site. Here are some default UI levels to give you an idea of what each level can do:
UI Level 9 (guru): All options in the Admin Bar...
Configuring the Rich Editor
The rich editor is available in almost all WebGUI asset edit screens. What sometimes surprises people is that the rich editor is configurable. This allows you to configure the default rich editor used on the site, as well as create custom rich editors for use in certain assets like the Collaboration System or Wiki.
The easiest way to access existing Rich Edit assets is to enter the Asset Manager,...
September 2011
4 posts
8 tags
Resizing Images
There are a number of ways to upload an image in WebGUI, and in many cases the image becomes an image asset. A couple examples include uploading an image file to a folder or inserting an image into an article using the WebGUI Collateral Image Manager. If you forget to size an image appropriately before you upload it, you can end up displaying images that are disproportionate in size to the content...
1 tag
Separating Apps and Content Management
As we work hard to complete WebGUI 8, I’m already thinking about what we should be doing for WebGUI 9. I think one of those things should be to pair down WebGUI and separate content management from applications.
For example, the Matrix asset in WebGUI is quite good and useful in very specific contexts. However, it’s not useful to most people that use WebGUI. And if most people...
WebGUI 7.10.23 released
This stable release of WebGUI 7.10.23 contains fixes for the Stock asset, searchable content in the Thingy, Groups that have the user Visitor, AssetReport, and the Calendar. Page Layouts will now inherit the mobile style templates from their parents when they are intially added. The Shop now does a better job displaying and handling errors when the user has added recurring and non-recurring data...
WebGUI Shop: Shelf and Keywords
In WebGUI, there are container assets and regular assets. The most common container asset is a Page Layout, which creates a blank page on the site. A very generic content recipe is a Page Layout with an Article(s) on it. This gives us a webpage with written content on it.
In WebGUI Shop, the standard container asset is a Shelf. The Shelf allows you to create a “shelf” in your online shop to...
August 2011
9 posts
2 tags
Edit a Version Tag
If you are working under more than one version tag, you may want to name the tags for easy reference. This will help you, and others working on the site, stay aware of what content is stored under what tag. You may also assign a specific group allowed to work in a version tag, and a specific workflow for the tag.
An easy way to edit a version tag’s properties from the inline view of the...
3 tags
Setting Version Tag Modes
Before WebGUI 7.7x, version tags were always visible on the site by default, unless hidden by a site administrator. Now, the default version tag mode is to commit automatically, so anytime you edit and save an asset the changes are automatically committed to the site. To the new user, the fact that version tags even exist is hidden. This was done to make the content publishing process simpler for...
2 tags
WebGUI 7.10.22 released
This stable release of WebGUI 7.10.22 contains fixes for the Shop, Replacements, Passive Profiling, the CrystalX theme and Collaboration System. This is the first stable release of WebGUI in the 7.10 series. Before upgrading from 7.9.34 to 7.10.22, please read the gotchas file for a list of issues. Changelog: - rfe #12223: Add dateTime type to content profiling (metadata) - rfe #12207:...
3 tags
YAPC::NA 2012
MadMongers are hosting YAPC::NA 2012 in Madison next year. I’m wondering if we should maybe put together a Perl web development track along with Dancer, Catalyst, Mojolicious and any other web frameworks that would want to participate.
YAPC runs from June 13-15
How many of you would want to give some WebGUI development talks at YAPC next year? They could go from the simple like macros or...
2 tags
WebGUI 7.9.34 released
This stable release of WebGUI 7.9.34 contains fixes for the Shop, Replacements, Passive Profiling, the CrystalX theme and Collaboration System. This is the last release of WebGUI in the 7.9 series. From here, to recieve additional bug fixes, you will need to upgrade to 7.10. Changelog: - fixed #12206: Bad Subscription Groups in Duplicated Threads - fixed #12202: JsonTable refers to unexistent...
What's up with WebGUI 8, part the first
While work on WebGUI 8 has been going on for a while, news about WebGUI 8 has been sparse. Today we’re changing that with this first in a series of small posts.
The plan for WebGUI 8 is to get it released and into the hands of the community for testing in the next 30 days. To achieve that goal, we’re taking the following steps:
The last release of WebGUI 7.9, .34 will be released...
WebGUI 8 at the Pittsburgh Perl Workshop
Content Management Systems such as WebGUI make fantastic Web frameworks. Permissions, users, registration, groups membership, shopping, and numerous other common requirements are solved problems. WebGUI, out of the box, does most of what most Web sites need, but programmers don’t need to stop there. Entire new pieces of logic can be built, and existing pieces extended.
I’ll be...
1 tag
Welcome
Welcome to the new WebGUI Blog. We’ve been so busy toiling away at building WebGUI 8 that we have completely let news and announcements fall off our radar for the past year. We’ve decided to redouble our efforts and start up a new blog specifically for WebGUI news, tutorials, tips, and tricks.
Our goal is to publish new information here at least once per week to keep you abreast of...