Ever experienced trouble uploading files to wordpress (popular opensource blog platform), silverstripe (popular my favourite opensource CMS), or any application using swf upload ? Weeks after the bug has been identified, I have to admit I am wondering about the reactivity of SWFupload team : the version that fixes the bug was out a few days later but is currently still beta. And this is not some minor bug, all platforms that upgraded to flash 10 lost their ability to upload files ! Anyway, no doubt swfupload  version 2.2 final will be out before the end of the year, in the meanwhile you can try NAS UPLOADER, nice alternative that does the job too. Big plus, comes with a nice layout. Big minus, you can’t stop uploading after you’ve started and finally decided your file is too big to go through your small ADSL upload capacity…

If you’ve tried the impromptu jquery plugin, you’re probably left with some frustrating feeling, finding that  such an easy solution for javascript alert, confirm and prompt replacement, could be enhanced by a nicer graphic design. Replacing the “X’” letter by a now standard close button, just like can be found on facebox, could do the job. But then why not benefit default facebook style layout and use the whole facebox plugin, or go for another stylish modal jquery plugin, such as jModal… A few lines of javascript code will easily replace the prompt function, just like the lines of code from the example below.
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The popularity of javascript lightboxes has spread over the internet and no serious webmaster could think of displaying images without a specific thumbnailer and / or a dynamic slider of popup. The author of jQuery.popeye had  seen enough lightboxes and decided to implement his own box that features the advantage of being integrated like an image, with comments written below and navigation buttons.

We are actively testing Silverstripe 2.3 rc2, the lastest candidate for imminent new release of Silverstripe CMS / CMF. Among very efficient code upgrade and efficiency improvements, we love the following feature enhancements and definitely recommend professionnals to engage in learning this  Content Management framework that fits CMS and  website development, including the administration and layout of dynamic image galleries.

• Security new features : possibility to select multiple groups for viewing and administration privileges
  What would be nice now : integrate the user import function from the newsletter module (see our post on how to do this for version 2.2)
• Wysiwyg editor new features : possibility to insert predefined template was missing for webmasters wishing to go beyond the single layout  for each page type. Editors can now choose between predefined templates where content is structured in various configuration (read on for instructions on how to set that up).
  What would be nice now : display a small preview of the layout, like typo3 does. Or integrate on demand page component addition (example : on demand HTML editors, list types, gallery types in one page)
• Other promising features (not tested) : data CRUD scaffolding, Update to TinyMCE 3.2, HTML flash code is now full XHTML compliant!

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Prestashop is an amazing example of very specific features that benefit large audiences : the new version 1.1 is still in beta stage but the image mapping feature is really impressive.  The objective  described in the products section of prestashop admin manager,  allows the administrator to select portions of a category image, link areas to a specific product,  all this stuff is linked to the products database, in a process that saves thousands of repetitive work  : “When a customer hovers over the image with the mouse, a pop-up appears displaying a brief description of the product. The customer can then click to open the product’s full product page. To achieve this, please define the ‘mapping zone’ that, when hovered over, will display the pop-up. Left-click with your mouse to draw the four-sided mapping zone, then release. Then, begin typing the name of the associated product. A list of products appears. Click the appropriate product, then click OK. Repeat these steps for each mapping zone you wish to create. When you have finished mapping zones, click Save Image Map.” The interface uses the jquery imgareaslect plugin and the result below proves that Rich Application Interface is not any more for the rich only.

Developping new functions in Silverstripe CMS is not easy task  : documentation of the framework is good enough for most web site development tasks but when it comes to specific functions, we know the potentiality is there but lack specific API documentation. It took me a few hours and a lot of brain energy to find out how to … duplicate the newsletter recipient import function to have it work for users and groups. Objective was to let my own customer import hundreds of his own customers. Done, tested to a certain extent, click here for more on Silverstripe’s dedicated thread.

Files :

• code.zip : to place in cms/code
• templates.zip : to place in cms/templates

Screenshot

Who has code completion, CSS classes browser, Javascript function browser, PHP code browser, HTML elements browser, all together in a single interface that covers this multiple array of features in a perfectly usable environment  ?  As far as I’m concerned, the battle between Aptana and Dreamweaver is over : the eclipse extension known as Aptana Studio Community Edition performs incredibly well for me after a few months of learning which plugins are best and where different perspectives stand. The fact that Ajax development is covered does a lot : check out Spket extension, I have tested it in Aptana and it does a great job completing code with available  variables and methods from EXTJS . To be faire, Spket is available for Dreamweaver too.

remember our quest for the ideal select box plugin ? seems that Jquery can be proud to deliver one of the best select dropwon box on the opensource market. Select Box Factory covers an impressive list of options : fully skinnable, options images, list filter, first letter selection… Good work.

What is MCMS ?

MCMS is a new acronym used by the developers and marketers of osTube, a collaborative CMS that focuses on video publishing. videos, sounds, photos, documents types are supported in a portal layout that integrates user blogs and comments.

OSTube integrates encoder and flash player

Shipped with 4 or 5 available templates,  osTube featuires AJAX based portal layout manager and obviously a powerful uploader linked to command line encoders. CAn be a good application to resell but I wonder about the search engine : will that be as powerful as google ’s youtube ?

silverstripe is getting serious there : experienced website developers will be delighted to try out a new version of the famous Gallery extension that implements in site image editing for text captions, reordering and item deletion. Novice users will not get lost as this extension builds on what’s popular, with Facebook-style interface for adding captions after insite image upload. the result is wonderful as it implements one of the best modal galleries out ther, based on (commercial) Shadowbox jquery gallery plugin. Another guy is working on a Nyromodal implementation (because it’s GPL) and no doubt next time I need the stuff I’ll work on porting the front end to my own choice of jquery modal gallery plugin.