Finally the new release is out with possibility to Search modules, Shopping popular, active, rated, discussed and top items, Members Only option for Photo gallery and Shopping, Downloadable / Digital goods, API for extensibility, Picture preview slideshow, XML Sitemap, IE7+ comaptibility, Combined / Compressed JS and CSS files, Direct Upload from ckEditor with File Browser and a lot more.

It has been a long time since the last release but it wasn't in vain, with this new release we are getting more and more closer to the final state how the 1.0 will look like so no more huge coding changes will be made as we have now the new API in place which adds support for extensions on both sides (server and client) which should allow developers to implement their ideas without affecting the core codes.

With the new combined / compressed JS and CSS files the overall page load speed has been increased by 35% and JS and CSS files load speed increased by 89% as they are now cached and take only 1-3ms to load, and if reloaded and the file hasn't changed on the server a 304 Not Modified header is sent back to load faster in such cases too.

The detailed list of changes in this release

  • Added possibility for the search within modules too
  • Fixed username links to open in new window in comments when clicked
  • Fixed double start rating if item shown twice on the same page
  • Added popular, active, rated, discussed and top items to Shopping module (using content codes)
  • Partial content picture links to read more in both Shoppingitems and posts
  • Show item picture when item added to Shopping cart
  • Shopping orders show order status also payment status and let user complete the payment if they missed it at checkout.
  • Security fix, make sure valid order method selected at checkout
  • Fixed search module to work with SEO_FRIENDLY_LINKS turned off
  • Fixed search module Cross Site Scripting Vulnerability
  • Added class "rounded-corners" to make any block cornered
  • Fixed valid XHTML header for partial content posts and shopping items
  • Enable em, blockquote and code tags in comments
  • Filter out XSS attributes in all forms except Text Editor and value set to HTML (in that case is up to you to protect your dynamic form).
  • Strip html tags from emails
  • Trim spaces when generating seo friendly links
  • Added option to limit Shoppings and Photogalleries to members only
  • Added AlertPay checkout method
  • In Filesharing module changed the way we check for Members Only (it's a lot faster now) IMPORTANT: please if you have members only folders in the filesharing update them in the admin again (just click Edit and then Submit).
  • Added Downloadable/Digital Goods support for the shopping module
  • Full API implemented for every jCore class (using partial classes)
  • Code cleanups for better API support
  • Default locale can be changed in Global Settings
  • Enable login with email address too (besides username)
  • Virtual keyboard for the login system (just activate jQuery keypad plugin)
  • Simultaneous and resumable downloads implemented to attachments
  • Block caching works in admin too except for Main Content
  • When commenting in the admin notification email links point outside of the admin and also show titles in the letters and comments can be searched from admin.
  • Count picture views and download will force picture download (Save as dialog)
  • Allow limits for content codes, for e.g. {posts}menu/2{/posts} would only show 2 posts from "menu", also works for shopping, search keywords
  • Lightbox/Picture preview slideshow functionality
  • When uploading flash ad, get size automatically and write ad code
  • Administrators view all orders in My Orders section so they can comment/talk to the order owner without having to access admin
  • Show Items counter on admin icons just like iPhone icon notifications
  • Added "form-entry-required" class to required form fields so they can be easily accessed from JavaScript and CSS
  • Password trading and Brute force protection admin to unban ips/users
  • Fixed TimeStamp reset when editing Shopping Order
  • Enable empty order form for checkout (just delete all fields from the Order Form in Admin -> Dynamic Forms), this should come handy if you sell just digital goods.
  • Limit user/login system to be case sensitive (set to binary mode)
  • XML Sitemap to use at google's webmaster account.
  • Possibility to edit own Comments
  • Ajax requests rewritten so there is no need for two request to download a file (note for developers: your ajaxRequest function should return true otherwise the request will continue and show the whole website)
  • Fixed gathering mimetype for files on Win platform (will be not as detailed as on linux but at least it will be)
  • Allow administrators to view/check website even if suspended for maintenance
  • Fixed timezone warnings
  • Added "Remember me" option to the login form
  • Added item titles to shopping order methods so you can keep track of ordered item in your cc processor's system too
  • Added support to reply to comments in the admin too
  • Keywords cloud for posts and shopping items
  • Added option to define Shipping fees on orderform field status, for e.g. if ShippingState = CA have a fee of 10% and so on.
  • Added option to define Discounts on user basis so you can have different discounts for different users (this should come handy on membership systems)
  • Added option to not bind users to IPs for login sessions by user basis (should help those who have ISPs that change IPs frequently).
  • Added BMP and transparency support for thumbnails
  • CKEditor upgraded to 3.2
  • jQuery upgraded to 1.4 (removed delay plugin as already implemented), recompiled all plugins using closure and updated old jQuery plugins
  • New jQuery Plugins added: Box Slider, HowerFlow, RoundAbout, FeatureList, GoogleMaps, jqIsoText, Keyz, Nivo Slider, jQuery UI (full package)
  • Added IE7+ Compatibility
  • Changed HTML element from div to ul/li for menu items
  • Combine and compress JS and CSS files on the fly and support caching also Not Modified header commands too.
  • Added option to Upload and Browse content files directly from CKEditor

UPDATE: as of today (2010-04-15) a re-release has been made including Windows compatibility, Fix attachments for posts, set character encoding for emails, fix star rating XHTML validation and make it PHP safe_mode compatible.

API (partial classes)

For the API we use partial classes, as PHP isn't supporting this option we have to simulate this by creating a source class that it's prepended with an _ (underscore) and then there is an empty class which extends these classes so you can easily overwrite every class function without affecting the rest of the code. 

All classes have been rewritten and taken apart so you can easily add for e.g. a new link below the post without having to rewrite the whole display post function, for more please see Features -> API

Installer has been also updated to support the new versions and will chmod all files to 0644 and directories to 0755 by default.

Updating

If you used jCore the way it was planed to be used just copy over the new jCore server files to your jCore server path and that's it. It should work with all your jCore clients even if they are previous versions.

If you have installed jCore server as a standalone install it will be a bit more tricky as the way we store pictures/thumbnails and module files has been changed so you would have to copy these files to the new places but you will find an upgrade file that will do this for you also you will have to update your template css/php file to support the new changes, all the required steps are described at jCore Server 0.5 Upgrade folder.

Also I would like to thank Shon for helping with testings and ideas for compressing / combining JS and CSS files, Thanks Shon!

Hope you will enjoy the new release and please don't hesitate to share your comments / ideas / impressions in the comments below.