Dotclear

A new version that deviates from our habits, since it is not published a 13, and ahead of schedule, since it was planned mid-February 2017. It also derogates with the habit of having a copious CHANGELOG (list of modifications / corrections).

Indeed, this version does not bring anything extraordinary except that it facilitates the use of Dotclear, and it corrects some bugs sometimes annoying on a daily basis:

• Easier access to plugin settings,
• A more advanced customization (text size, display or not of additional information, ...),
• Some additional attributes for theme developers / hackers,
• The webmentions which are added to the existing trackbacks and pingbacks,
• The Berlin theme is now based on the template set dotty, which exploits at best HTML5,
• ...

The general aspect of the administration also changes because the 2.11 uses the system font available on your machine rather than the usual Helvetica Neue. It also changes because it implements a font size that fits, between two thresholds, the space available on your screen. You can change the general font size in your preferences (3 settings are available).

Note that we have dropped the support of old browsers, especially old versions of Internet Explorer, up to version 9 included; It makes it possible to use a little more easily some innovations of CSS 3, in particular the flex system.

But I let you discover this at home, once you have made the awaited update!

PS: This version requires PHP 5.3 a minimum, but I advise you to use PHP 5.6 or even PHP 7 without waiting - the latter offers a speed gain very appreciable. It is quite possible that the next version of Dotclear requires a newer version than the already obsolete 5.3.

Some technical details for plugin developers and blog administrators:

Plugin settings

The new version 2.11 introduces a new system that allows to define and find the different places where a plugin may have settings.

Definitions

It is necessary to define in the file _define.php of the plugin an additional property, named settings and which is constructed in the following way:

'settings' => array (
    'self' => '',
    'blog' => '#params.id',
    'pref' => '#user-options.id'
)

The line with 'self' indicates that there are settings on the main page of the plugin (that is, for developers, in the index.php file).

The line with 'blog' indicates that there are settings in the blog settings, normally on the 'Settings' tab (#params is used for this) and at the first item id equal to the plugin id (you can for example position this id on the title element, h4 or h5, which precedes the options of the plugin).

The line with 'pref' indicates that there are settings in the user preferences, normally on the 'My options' tab (the #user-options is used for this) and at the first item id equal to the plugin id.

You can, and even must, specify only the lines that are relevant.

It is not obligatory to specify the id, in this case it is enough to simply specify the tab. It is also not necessary to specify the tab, in this case simply leave an empty string (").

The links will be displayed in the order in which they are defined in the 'settings' property.

Note: To this link list will be added first, if it exists, the link to the plugin's _config.php file.

Examples of definitions

Antispam plugin

'settings' => array (
    'self' => '',
    'blog' => '#params.antispam_params'
)

• self → access to main plugin settings on its own page (index.php)
• blog → access to secondary settings in blog settings

Tags plugin

'settings' => array (
    'pref' => '#user-options.tags_prefs'
)

• pref → access to keyword list format setting in user preferences

Maintenance plugin

'settings' => array (
    'self' => '#settings'
)

• self → access to the "Settings" tab of the plugin's own page (index.php)

Display

The setting URLs are displayed in two places:

• On the plugin management page, by unfolding the additional info (just click on the name of the plugin to get them)
• On each of the main pages of the plugins, provided you have the rights to access them

If you need more information on these technical developments, use the forum and/or development mailing list, or even the IRC channel #dotclear (irc.freenode.net) ...