Nick
01-09-2010, 01:35 PM
As promised, Hotaru 1.0 is now available for testing on the SVN trunk. Thank you for your patience over the last month.
What's new?
Hotaru 1.0 has been heavily restructured since the last public release (0.8.2). If you used the previous version, you won't notice many visual changes, but under the surface the changes are significant. Here are a few of them:
1. The libs directory now contains around 30, easily recognizable classes. These libraries contain functions that plugins can use to get things done.
2. The Hotaru class in the root directory serves as an interface between plugins, themes and the class libraries above. It doubles as a contents page for finding functions.
3. All the database tables that were previously added by plugins are now added by Hotaru itself. This makes it easier to code plugins because you can be sure certain tables exist without having to check for their existence all the time.
4. Plugins and themes now access objects the same way. In previous versions, plugins would access core functions using $this->hotaru and templates used $hotaru. Now, for simplicity, they both use $h.
5. A new plugin called SB Base has been introduced to bind together other plugins for social bookmarking.
Other changes include:
A 3-column Plugin Management page; the ability to extend a plugin (http://hotarucms.org/entry.php?47-New-Super-Fancy-Plugin-System%21); an easier way to get user avatars; an easier way to style breadcrumbs, filters and user tabs; new properties to help determine the current page name, type, title, template and sub-page; and Cross Site Request Forgery checks on all forms.
Before you start...
Please note that there's no upgrade path from earlier versions of Hotaru. You will need to do a fresh install. If you're coming from Pligg or SWCMS, we have a plugin (http://hotarucms.org/showthread.php?262-RPX-0-3) for importing the bulk of your database.
Hotaru 1.0, despite its name, has had very little testing, and there are almost certainly bugs. In the space of four weeks, I reworked the core and made or converted a total of 41 plugins. That's why I need you, to help find all the glitches so we can get this thing as stable as soon as possible.
Please ask questions and report bugs in the How-to and Troubleshooting (http://hotarucms.org/forumdisplay.php?3-How-To-and-Troubleshooting) forum. I expect to spend the rest of the month bug-scrubbing, but can only do it with feedback from you.
Please also note that I'm not a security expert and can't guarantee Hotaru is safe from hackers. Please don't expect a quick fix or hold forum members responsible if you use Hotaru on a live site and it gets hacked. There are more mature CMS alternatives available on the web if this is a big concern for you. Otherwise, be sure to make regular backups if you go ahead with Hotaru.
How can I get it?
To access the SVN, you will need a Subversion client. I recommend TortoiseSVN (http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/) for Windows. It's fairly easy to set up, though this guide (http://www.bulletprooftemplates.com/using-tortoise-svn) for using it with Joomla might be helpful. The path is:
http://my-svn.assembla.com/svn/HotaruCMS/trunk/
Please keep track of SVN updates by following the Event Stream (http://www.assembla.com/spaces/HotaruCMS/stream).
What's new?
Hotaru 1.0 has been heavily restructured since the last public release (0.8.2). If you used the previous version, you won't notice many visual changes, but under the surface the changes are significant. Here are a few of them:
1. The libs directory now contains around 30, easily recognizable classes. These libraries contain functions that plugins can use to get things done.
2. The Hotaru class in the root directory serves as an interface between plugins, themes and the class libraries above. It doubles as a contents page for finding functions.
3. All the database tables that were previously added by plugins are now added by Hotaru itself. This makes it easier to code plugins because you can be sure certain tables exist without having to check for their existence all the time.
4. Plugins and themes now access objects the same way. In previous versions, plugins would access core functions using $this->hotaru and templates used $hotaru. Now, for simplicity, they both use $h.
5. A new plugin called SB Base has been introduced to bind together other plugins for social bookmarking.
Other changes include:
A 3-column Plugin Management page; the ability to extend a plugin (http://hotarucms.org/entry.php?47-New-Super-Fancy-Plugin-System%21); an easier way to get user avatars; an easier way to style breadcrumbs, filters and user tabs; new properties to help determine the current page name, type, title, template and sub-page; and Cross Site Request Forgery checks on all forms.
Before you start...
Please note that there's no upgrade path from earlier versions of Hotaru. You will need to do a fresh install. If you're coming from Pligg or SWCMS, we have a plugin (http://hotarucms.org/showthread.php?262-RPX-0-3) for importing the bulk of your database.
Hotaru 1.0, despite its name, has had very little testing, and there are almost certainly bugs. In the space of four weeks, I reworked the core and made or converted a total of 41 plugins. That's why I need you, to help find all the glitches so we can get this thing as stable as soon as possible.
Please ask questions and report bugs in the How-to and Troubleshooting (http://hotarucms.org/forumdisplay.php?3-How-To-and-Troubleshooting) forum. I expect to spend the rest of the month bug-scrubbing, but can only do it with feedback from you.
Please also note that I'm not a security expert and can't guarantee Hotaru is safe from hackers. Please don't expect a quick fix or hold forum members responsible if you use Hotaru on a live site and it gets hacked. There are more mature CMS alternatives available on the web if this is a big concern for you. Otherwise, be sure to make regular backups if you go ahead with Hotaru.
How can I get it?
To access the SVN, you will need a Subversion client. I recommend TortoiseSVN (http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/) for Windows. It's fairly easy to set up, though this guide (http://www.bulletprooftemplates.com/using-tortoise-svn) for using it with Joomla might be helpful. The path is:
http://my-svn.assembla.com/svn/HotaruCMS/trunk/
Please keep track of SVN updates by following the Event Stream (http://www.assembla.com/spaces/HotaruCMS/stream).