Latest CMS Fiona News

A Service Pack for CMS Fiona 7.0.2 under Linux has been released. It is intended only for customers running CMS Fiona 7.0.1 on Linux. It includes the following bugfix:

• In the system settings, the attribute groups of an object class can be viewed and altered again. (ID 810)

Additionally, the service pack includes the following changes:

• The Java LdapUserManager log includes additional pieces of information in case of failing connections.

• The error message has been improved for the case that data streamed between server processes (e.g. for publishing with incremental export) is rejected because of its size (due to the size limitation introduced with 7.0.2, see also maxHttpBodySize).

To install the Service Pack, please proceed as follows:

1. Download the Service Pack. It is a complete installation package for Fiona 7.0.2.

   Service Pack 2 für Fiona 7.0.2 Linux

2. Proceed with the standard installation procedures for Fiona 7.0.2.

CMS Fiona 7.0.2 includes several improvements and bugfixes relating to the user interface as well as user management and database connectivity, among other things.

For details, please refer to the Release Notes.

This release includes the following bugfixes:

• Pages with external URLs are updated again after autosaving.
  
• Changes to pages and widgets can be revoked again.
  

Please update the gem version in your Gemfile, if set, and run bundle update infopark_fiona7 to have the latest version installed.

This release includes the following changes:

• The Fiona 7 gem is now based on version 1.6.1 of the Scrivito SDK.
  
• Workflow actions in the Content Browser no longer cause the browser window to be reloaded.
  
• When logging in or off, the referrer gets evaluated.
  
• The links_to and refers_to search operators are now supported.
  
• The new Release Collector allows developers to define additional objects to be listed in the release dialog. Objects can be preselected for releasing.
  

Please update the gem version in your Gemfile, if set, and run bundle update infopark_fiona7 to have the latest version installed.

This release contains the following changes:

• Removed useless (and harmless) error message which was logged frequently in certain configurations.
  
• Updated infopark_reactor dependency of the current version 1.25.1.

Please update the gem version in your Gemfile, if set, and run bundle update infopark_fiona7 to have the latest version installed.

A Service Pack for CMS Fiona 7.0.1 / Linux has been released. For customers running CMS Fiona 7.0.1 on Linux, we recommend installing this Service Pack. It contains a CM binary and fixes the following issues related to CMS Fiona 7.0.1.

• The Download function now also works for released files. (ID 13685)

• Temporarily needed BlobFiles are removed from the instance-specific tmp directory. (ID 13700)

To install the Service Pack, please proceed as follows:

1. Download the Service Pack from our website. This archive doesn't contain a complete CMS package but only the updated CM.bin file.

   Service Pack 1 for Fiona 7.0.1 Linux

2. Extract the ZIP archive to a temporary directory on the CMS server.

3. Stop the CM.

4. Replace the CM binary in cmsDir/lib.

5. Start the CM.

If you have questions regarding the Service Pack, please contact our customer support.

This release contains the following changes:

• We reworked the task list dialog so that its behavior now exactly matches that of the classic Fiona GUI: All Tasks now only displays tasks belonging to the logged-in user or any of their groups.
  
• Fixed a rare bug that occurred when a large amount of data was indexed for the search.

Please update the gem version in your Gemfile, if set, and run bundle update infopark_fiona7 to have the latest version installed.

Thank you for using CMS Fiona!

This is a maintenance release. It fixes a rare bug that occurred when a large amount of data was indexed for the search.

Please update the gem version in your Gemfile, if set, and run bundle update infopark_fiona7 to have the latest version installed.

Thank you for using CMS Fiona!

This minor release fixes a bug that caused image transformations to not work anymore.

Please update the gem version in your Gemfile, if set, and run bundle update infopark_fiona7 to have the latest version installed.

Thank you for using CMS Fiona!

The Fiona 7 Gem for in-place editing, which utilizes the Scrivito frontend, has been updated. This release includes the following enhancements and fixes:

• Corrected permalink handling in details views
• Compatibility changes for in-place editing with IE11
• Optional garbage collection for deleted widgets

Please update the gem version in your Gemfile, if set, and run bundle update infopark_fiona7 to have the latest version installed.

Thank you for using CMS Fiona!

CMS Fiona 7.0.1 includes several bugfixes, improves the usability of dialogs, and offers an optional extension to the editorial workflow. Furthermore, this new version runs on SLES 11.

For details, please refer to the Release Notes.

Today, a new release of CMS Fiona has been made available. Again, version 6.10 offers several improvements and bugfixes. For details, please refer to the Release Notes.

RealObjects canceled the maintenance contract for edit-on Pro due to discontinuing the product as of August 1, 2014. For one thing, they think that client-side Java (on tablets & co.) is no longer in keeping with the times. For another thing, Oracle's current release and update policy makes useful Java applet development almost impossible. We also noticed the various issues with Java versions due to new and higher security settings with the last few releases.

The already widely-used TinyMCE is the alternative editor.

This contract cancelation also means that we are not allowed to ship new versions of CMS Fiona with edit-on Pro, and we will no longer receive support for it by RealObjects.

If you have questions regarding this topic, please contact our customer support.

Service Pack 2 for CMS Fiona 6.10 has been released today. For customers, running CMS Fiona 6.10 and using the Template Engine or an Oracle database, we recommend to install this Service Pack. It contains all files from the Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Fiona 6.10 and additionally a TE binary and a new Oracle database adaptor. It contains all fixes from the SP1 and the following issues relating to CMS Fiona 6.10.

• Editing content could lead to an error if Oracle is used as database. This problem has been fixed. (ID 13633)
• Renaming and deleting the same file during one export cycle doesn't cause a database error anymore. (ID 13632)

To install the Service Pack, please proceed as described below:

1. Download the Service Pack from our website. This archive doesn't contain a complete CMS package, but only the updated files.

    

   Service Pack 2 for Fiona 6.10.0 Linux
   Service Pack 2 for Fiona 6.10.0 Windows

   To download the complete CMS package, visit the download area of our website.

2. Extract the ZIP archive to a temporary directory on the CMS server.
3. Stop the CM and the TE.
4. Replace the following files in cmsDir/lib.
   Linux: CM.bin, TE.bin, libHSDatabase.so
   Windows: CM.exe, TE.exe, Oracle11Adaptor.dll, Oracle10Adaptor.dll, Oracle9Adaptor.dll
5. Replace the infopark-gui-6.10.0.jar in instance/instanceName/webapps/GUI/WEB-INF/lib.
6. Remove the parameter wantChildrenSorted in instance/instanceName/config/preferences.xml and add it to instance/instanceName/config/guiPreferences.xml:

    

   <wantChildrenSorted>true</wantChildrenSorted>

7. Start the CM.
8. Deploy the GUI.

If you have questions regarding the Service Pack, please contact our customer support.

Today, a Service Pack for CMS Fiona 6.10 has been released. For customers running CMS Fiona 6.10 we recommend to install this Service Pack. It contains a CM binary and a GUI Java archive and fixes the following issues relating to CMS Fiona 6.10.

• The language used for the Edit On Pro HTML editor (EOP) is now determined again from the GUI language selected by the user. (ID 13631)

• New file formats can be created via the GUI again. (ID 13630)

• Reminders for groups are sent to the members of the group again. (ID 13626)

To install the Service Pack, please proceed as described below:

1. Download the Service Pack from our website. This archive doesn't contain a complete CMS package, but only both updated files.

   Service Pack 1 for Fiona 6.10.0 Linux
   Service Pack 1 for Fiona 6.10.0 Windows

   To download the complete CMS package, visit the download area of our website.

2. Extract the ZIP archive to a temporary directory on the CMS server.

3. Stop the CM.

4. Replace the CM binary in cmsDir/lib.

5. Replace the infopark-gui-6.10.0.jar in instance/instanceName/webapps/GUI/WEB-INF/lib.

6. Remove the parameter wantChildrenSorted in instance/instanceName/config/preferences.xml and add it to instance/instanceName/config/guiPreferences.xml:

   <wantChildrenSorted>true</wantChildrenSorted>

7. Start the CM.

8. Deploy the GUI.

If you have questions regarding the Service Pack, please contact our customer support.

Today, a new release of CMS Fiona has been made available. Again, version 6.10 offers several improvements and bugfixes. For details, please refer to the Release Notes.

On January 14, 2014, Oracle released a new Java version, Java 7 Update 51. Several of our customers who still use the EOP editor were no longer able to edit content with this editor after updating Java.

This effect is due to increased security requirements that were already introduced in the Java 1.7.0_45 release. Since older Edit On Pro versions are not compatible with these security requirements, we recommend all customers to update their Edit on Pro to a new version.

Detailed instructions for updating the editor as well as a link to the JAR file are available in our Knowledge Base. Please take account of the notes regarding the Java versions referred to in this article.

Currently, final tests are being run with the latest EOP version, 5.3.258.337. After successfully completing these tests, this version will also be made available in the article mentioned above.

The above-said analogously applies to the dialog for editing content by means of a local application. If you use a local application that cannot be executed anymore because of security settings, please contact our customer support.

The Rails Connector is now available in version 6.9.2.1.125136549.

​This release no longer includes infrequently used features, as described in a ​previous blog post. The last version that includes these features is 6.9.1.3.2220​8381.

We have been doing some cleaning and removed a number of infrequently used features from the Rails Connector gem.
Most of the projects used to build their own version of the removed features.

The removed features are:

• Comments
• CrmFormController
• LinkHelper
• Liquid Templates
• MenuHelper
• MicronavHelper
• Ratings
• RssController
• SearchController
• SeoHelper
• SeoSitemapController
• Timemachine
• TrackingHelper
• UserController

These features are still available as source code at: https://github.com/infopark/rails_connector_legacy_features

If one of your applications depends on these features and you wish to continue using the features, simply copy their source code from the archive to your application.

The infopark_rails_connector and infopark_cloud_connector gems are now available in version 6.9.0.3.197272233.

What’s new?

A new helper for rendering CMS content, cms_tag, is now available. Example:

    <%= cms_tag :h2, @obj, :headline, class: "very_important" %>

This renders an h2 element containing the text of the headline attribute of @obj and assigns the tag the CSS class very_important.

This helper is meant to be a replacement for display_field and display_value and should be used preferably. The old helpers still work, but content rendered through display_field or display_value will not be detected by the upcoming inplace editing feature.

Inplace editing will enable your users to edit the CMS content directly inside your application (WYSIWYG). If you plan on offering inplace editing in your project, you should start using cms_tag in your templates.

If you do not yet know whether you want to offer inplace editing or not, don’t worry. Using cms_tag won’t hurt, even if you end up not making inplace editing available at all. We will introduce inplace editing more detailed as soon as it is ready for use.

Improvements and bug fixes

The caching of CMS objects has been improved, further increasing the speed of the connector in the following situations:

• Delivering content after a working copy has been published
• Delivering content from a working copy after it has been updated
• Delivering content from a new working copy for the first time

Images stored in the CMS were formerly always linked using the http protocol. This caused browser security warnings when the page itself was served via https. Now the cloud connector automatically adjusts all links to images and other binary assets to match the protocol of the page that embeds the asset, thus avoiding security warnings.

Several kinds of network errors are now better handled by the cloud connector, including Errno::ETIMEDOUT, Errno::ECONNREFUSED, Timeout::Error. The cloud connector will try to re-establish the connection if one of these errors occurs. If the error persists, it will raise a RailsConnector::BackendNotAvailable error.

The new version is more stable in the case of network outages. If the Rails Connector cannot reach the CMS backend, it will try to serve content from its local cache. This will succeed for pages where the entire content (i.e. every object needed for the page) is present in the local cache, which is usually the case if the page has ever been served before in the current revision. A warning will be logged whenever this happens.

The Rails Connector now requires the latest security releases of Rails (3.2.13) and the JSON gem (1.7.7).

A bug has been fixed that caused the Rails Connector to issue the following warning in the development environment: warning: already initialized constant.

The new Rails Connector contains a workaround for a bug in Rails 3.x. The bug causes the error cannot generate tempfile when accessing a CMS object.

We are happy to announce the release of CMS Fiona 6.9.0. The new version includes several improvements and bugfixes. For details please refer to the Release Notes.

The Rails Connector, version 6.8.3.67.110847540, comes with a new jquery-rails version. This update includes jQuery 1.9.1 instead of jQuery 1.7.1.

From version 6.8.3, the Rails Connector requires Ruby 1.9.3 or later. Ruby 1.8.7 is no longer supported.

Switching over to Ruby 1.9.3 is worth the effort not only because of the bugs that have been fixed. Also, Ruby 1.9.3 delivers web pages significantly faster. Since Ruby 1.9.3 is backwards compatible to Ruby 1.8.7, no problems are to be expected during the update procedure.

The Rails Connector, version 6.8.3 and later, delivers preview pages significantly faster. This makes working with the preview of the CMS more productive and comfortable.

The acceleration is achieved by means of caching. Now, for generating the preview pages, only a small part of the CMS object data needs to be fetched from the database. This reduces the number of requests as well as the amount of data to be transferred.

The Rails Connector, version 6.8.2, supports extending the Obj class directly. It is no longer required or even possible to use the ObjExtensions module for this.

Up to version 6.8.1, Obj could be extended by means of the ObjExtensions module as follows:

# lib/obj_extensions.rb

module ObjExtensions
  def self.enable
    Obj.class_eval do
      # Define your methods here
    end
  end
end

From version 6.8.2, the Obj model can be created and extended in the application. The model needs to inherit from RailsConnector::BasicObj.

# app/models/obj.rb

class Obj < RailsConnector::BasicObj
  # Define your methods here
end

The Rails Connector, version 6.8.1, is now compatible both with Ruby 1.8.7 and Ruby 1.9.

Ruby 1.8.7 reaches end of life in June 2013. From then on, security updates will no longer be supplied for this version. For this reason, it is recommended to switch to the current Rails Connector version and to update Ruby from version 1.8.7 to 1.9.3. The current stable Ruby version is 1.9.3.

Furthermore, the Rails Connector 6.8.1 now requires mysql2 instead of mysql. The mysql database adapter is outdated and can be replaced with mysql2 as follows:

• In your Gemfile, replace the Rails Connector version with the current version and remove the mysql gem. mysql2 is added indirectly since the infopark_fiona_connector gem depends on version 2.0.0 of the mysql_blob_streaming gem which requires mysql2.

• Execute bundle.

• Change the value of adapter in the config/database.yml file from mysql to mysql2.

In this Rails Connector version, Liquid has been updated from version 2.0 to version 2.4, too.

From version 6.8.0.539.x, the Rails Connector (as well as the Cloud Connector and the Fiona Connector) require Rails 3.2.11 or later. Previous Rails Connector versions do not require this Rails version but can nevertheless be used with Rails 3.2.11.

This change ensures that future projects do not use an older and possibly insecure version of Rails.

The Rails Connector now uses the slug of a CMS objects to compute its route. Thus, the route is no longer determined using the obj.id/obj.name scheme but obj.id/obj.slug instead.

In the Fiona Connector, obj.slug returns the name of the object concerned, i.e. obj.name, whereas the Cloud Connector uses the title and applies ActiveSupport’s parameterize to it.

The slug of objects can be overwritten in the ObjExtensions in order to, for example, use a different field as the basis for its calculation:

def slug
  self["title_en"].parameterize
end

From version 6.8.0.518, the Rails Connector no longer includes the PDF generator. Thus, the connector’s dependency of the Tidy gem no longer exists. The last version that includes the PDF generator is 6.8.0.515.

The PDF generator has been removed because better solutions with less overhead exist (e.g. PDFKit).

Until now, the cms_path helper respected options only if it was called for Obj. The options are now also taken account of for Link.

Furthermore, a new configuration, RailsConnector::Configuration.blob_cache_dir, exists that makes it possible to specify the directory to be used as the blob cache directory.

A couple of months ago, we had made the Rails Connector gems available at RubyGems.org. Now, also the API documentation of the gems has been made available on the RubyDoc.info platform associated with RubyGems.org. For details, see the Resources page.

As a central place for resources around web development, a corresponding resources page has been added to our Knowledge Base: Resources

This page also offers links to the API documentation of our gems.

The *.saas-dev.infopark.net and *.saas.infopark.net clouds have been joined. Due to this, both the CMS and the CRM are now reachable via customer.saas.infopark.net.

*.saas-dev.infopark.net will still be simultaneously available for approximately four weeks.

Furthermore, the URL of the WebCRM now ends with crm instead of omc. Example: customer.saas.infopark.net/crm.

Basic Changes

• The Rails Connector now both works with CMS Fiona and our Cloud Platform. For this reason, two Gems are now required in both environments. The infopark_rails_connector gem is required in both situations. For operating the Rails Connector with CMS Fiona, the infopark_fiona_connector gem is additionally required, whereas the Cloud Platform requires the infopark_cloud_connector gem. Thus, in the Gemfile of an application, two gems need to be configured. Note that the version of both gems must be the same.

• The Rails Connector is now based on Rails 3.2

• From now on the Rails Connector makes use of the Asset Pipeline of Rails for delivering Javascript, CSS, and image files. This has several implications for existing applications:

  • Starting with this Rails Connector version, the asset pipeline must be activated in Rails projects for being able to deliver project-specific files as well as files supplied by the Rails Connector.
  • The jQuery Javascript library is now made available by the jquery-rails gem. It is recommendable to freeze the gem version by means of the Gemfile to be able to control whether and when jQuery is updated. The jQuery version provided now is younger than the one provided before. Applications that contain individual Javascript code should be tested to ensure that they are still fully functional.
  • The directories public/javascripts/rails_connector, public/stylesheets/rails_connector, and public/images/rails_connector are ignored and can be deleted. The files are now provided by the infopark_rails_connector gem itself.
  • The remaining files in public/{javascripts,stylesheets,images} need to be moved to app/assets/, preserving the directory structure if desired. For further assistance please refer to the Rails guide mentioned above. In particular, the notes on deployment and server configuration must be observed.
  • The supplied rails_connector:install generator now also adapts the app/assets/javascripts/application.js manifest of a Rails 3.2 application to have the Rails Connector assets delivered automatically. The diff produced by the generator should be checked for duplicates (of rails_connector_header_tags, for example).
  • Other Javascript and CSS files should be placed into app/assets/ which causes them to be dilivered automatically. Note that paths contained in these files (e.g. CSS references to background images) need to be adjusted. Assets are delivered from a unique URL path (/assets, by default). The URL neither contains stylesheets, javascripts nor images.

• The Rails Connector is no longer compatible with the OMC 2. Instead, it now integrates the WebCRM into the web application:

  • The name space for the connector is now Infopark::Crm insted of OmcConnector.
  • “Omc” as part of constant names has been changed to “Crm”.
  • The contact_roles_callback has been renamed to live_server_groups_callback. Contact persons now have the live_server_groups property, the corresponding session key has been renamed accordingly.
  • The registration process has been changed. Contact persons are now created immediately in the CRM. They are given access to the CRM only after their password has been set. From the moment the confirmation e-mail has been sent, the process is identical to the process of requesting a password. Therefore, both e-mails direct their recipients to the new set_password controller action.
  • Thus, the DefaultUserController#register_via_inquiry method has been removed.
  • All occurrences of Infopark::Crm::Inquiry have been replaced with Infopark::Crm::Activity.
  • The summary property of an activity has been renamed to title, analogous to the WebCRM. Correspondingly, the helper methods has_summary_input_field? and summary_field_for have been renamed to has_title_input_field? and title_field_for, respectively, and the localizer keys have been renamed.
  • The DefaultUserController action request_password has been renamed to forgot_password.
  • The DefaultUserHelper has a new method, mandatory_user_fields, which is used by the user_fields_for helper to mark mandatory fields.
  • the DefaultCrmFormController das a new method, activity_state, which defines the initial state of a WebCRM activity.
  • The contact person field language is mandatory in the WebCRM. To not force existing applications to place a language selector on their forms, the DefaultCrmFormController has a new method, default_language. The language of a new person is set to the language in which the website is displayed (I18n.locale).
  • For contact persons, the subscriptions field as well as the encapsulated account_attributes and location_attributes fields have been removed.

• The infopark_tracking add-on (for logging page visits by means of the OMC/WebCRM) has been removed.

• The Recaptcha gem has been updated.

• The Rails Connector now uses a query cache for better performance when accessing the database. (ID 13057)

Use in Rails Projects

• The Rails Connector has a configuration option for switching the (re)captcha protection, which is part of the registration form, on and off: use_recaptcha_on_user_registration.

• A new callback makes it possible to control which page is to be delivered as the homepage, depending on the request. For this, use the following code in the config/initializers/rails_connector.rb file:

  RailsConnector::Configuration.choose_homepage do |env|
  # env is the rack environment of the current request
  # must return an Obj to be used as the homepage
  end

  The callback is executed whenever the Rails Connector is to deliver the homepage, i.e. when, for example, the URL / is requested. The callback must return the Obj to be delivered. If the callback does not exist, Obj.homepage is used by default. Obj.homepage defaults to Obj.root.

• For better performance, the supplied implementation of Obj#find_all_for_sitemap no longer returns all the Objs of the whole CMS. Instead, Obj#homepage and two further levels of folders and documents below Obj#homepage are added to the sitemap. This behavior can be altered by overwriting Obj#find_all_for_sitemap.

• NamedLink.get_object throws an exception if the NamedLink could not be found. This exception now has the RailsConnector::NamedLink::NotFound type, which makes it possible to handle it individually. Previously, its type was RuntimeError.

• The new method DefaultCmsController#use_for_obj_dispatch? makes it possible to specify whether a controller is seen as a format-specific controller. First, a controller can now be marked as not format-specific although it is derived from DefaultCmsController. Second, even controllers not derived from the DefaultCmsController can be marked as format-specific.

• The ensure_obj_is_active and ensure_obj_is_permitted filters of the CmsController were changed. If the requested Obj is not active, or, respectively, if the current user is not permitted to view the Obj, the requested Obj was previously passed as the @objvariable to the error page template (defaults to either 410_gone.html.erb or 403_forbidden.html.erb). This is no longer the case to prevent the programmer from erraneously displaying temporally invalid content or, repectively, content the user is not permitted to view. If the Obj is not active (ensure_obj_is_active), both publishing dates of the requested Obj are passed to the template by means of the @valid_from and @valid_until variables. If the current user is not permitted to view the requested Obj (ensure_obj_is_permitted), no variables at all are passed to the error template. It may be necessary to adapt existing error templates accordingly.

  Please note that the error page logic of an application can be adapted using the render_obj_error method of CmsAccessible or of the CmsController, respectively. Particularly, adapted error pages that use the layout of the application are prone to errors if the layout expects the @obj variable to exist.

• The Obj#suppress_export method should no longer be used. Instead, Obj#suppressed?, which returns true or false, should be used.

• By means of the new method Obj#body_data_url, the Rails Connector can now link to an external URL instead of an Obj to include, for example, images or PDF files from an external storage service or CDN. Please refer to the RDoc for further information.

• In previous versions, the search had to be configured manually via the Configuration.search_options. The configuration can now be stored in the file config/rails_connector.yml in the application. Use a dictionary named search to store the configuration keys that can also be set using Configuration.search_options. The Rails Connector uses the configuration from the file if Configuration.search_options has not been set. The configuration options available depend on the search technology used. For the Search Server (SES) using Verity’s search engine, please refer to RailsConnector::VeritySearchRequest.

• If the Rails Connector failed to find an Obj, an ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound exception was thrown. For this error an alias, RailsConnector::ResourceNotFound, has been added. For the ease of switching over to our Cloud Platform, we urgently recommend to use the alias in applications to handle this exception. The alias both works with the Fiona Connector and the Cloud Connector, while the original name only works with the Fiona Connector.

• In addition to dedicated controllers for specific CMS file formats, file-specific controller actions are now available. This enables every Obj to define the respective controller action to be called as the Obj is delivered by the Rails application. For further details, please refer to Obj#controller_action_name.

• The validity of licenses can now be checked with a new rake task: rake cms:license:check

• If an editor has inadvertently created more than one NamedLink objects, an error 500 is no longer thrown. Instead, the second NamedLink object is ignored, and a message is written to the log file.

Fixed Bugs

• The method Obj#reload makes it possible to reload a file from the database. This now also invalidates the custom fields. Previously, the custom field values remained the same after reloading the Obj. (No ID)

• In the case of an ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound (or RailsConnector::ResourceNotFound) error in the Rails Connector, the error can now be handled individually in the Rails application, including a dedicated error page. Previously, it was not possible to catch the error by means of the standard Rails mechanism, rescue_action_in_public. (ID 13445)

• Previously, the ObjExtensions were loaded only after the application has been initialized. They are now again available in the initialization phase. (ID 13426)