Composite 3.8 released

We are pleased to announce the availability of Composite 3.8. For Composite developers this release contains a number of enhancements including a simple, yet powerful, bridge between the worlds of ASP.NET and XSLT.

Custom XML Providers

The classic gap between the front-end and back-end developers is sealed closed with a new plug-in type called Custom XML Providers. The basic idea is simple – XSLT developers call the providers with named parameters and the result is an XML document. The provider call is defined as a Data Query Definition and seen from the XSLT developer’s point of view it looks like any other data query. XML from Custom XML Providers can be included with XML from all the other Data Query Definitions as XSLT input as seasoned Composite developers would expect.

The Custom XML Provider technology allows the XSLT developer to work with data previously visible only to ASP.NET developers. Visual logic that you previously had to implement using ASP.NET User Controls can now be implemented using XSLT as well. All you need is to expose your data through a Custom XML Provider and allow the front-end developer to take care of the markup.

Read more about Custom XML Providers.

XML debug view for XSLT developers

A new feature allows XSLT developers to attach a “show input XML” button to XSLT identifiers. The button shows up when the identifier is rendered in preview mode and will display the complete “runtime” XML input for easy reference when clicked.

The XML shown is exactly what your XSLT was handed. If your XSLT calls Data Query Definitions that react to parameters like currently logged on extranet user, user cookies, GET/POST parameters, page id, language etc. this is reflected in your XML debug view. You can “act as a normal user”, like filling in a form, logging in etc., and then request the real world XML by the click of a button.

The XML is presented in a persistent pop-up window in both a color coded format for easy reference and a raw format for easy copy/paste. This enables you to quickly move a XML result and your XSLT source into your XSLT development environment of choice.

Read more about XML debug view for XSLT developers.

A new base site

The base site (the XHTML templates, CSS and XSLT installed by default on new sites) has been updated. The DIV based XHTML templates are now structured in a classical way, instead of the previous "content first" structure. Templates utilizing TABLE tags are also available. All templates sport a search form and links to the subsite homepage and sitemap

A new WYSIWYG content editor

Composite 3.8 introduce a new content editor that replaces the existing ActiveX based editor, the IE DHTML Editing Control. The DHTML Editing Control is not supported on Windows Vista and is expected to be killed on XP/IE7 in the future.

The new editor sports the following improvements:

• More advanced table options
• The markup editor displays XHTML
• Ctrl+F works in the markup editor
• Easier access to “clean HTML” functions
• Unlink button

New Data Query Definition parameter variables

Composite 3.8 gives XSLT developers 3 new options when defining Data Query Definition parameters.

• [COM]AdminUserName yield the user name of the user in the administrative module.
• [COM]DepthNDocumentId (where N is 1 – 5) yields the document id of the parent document at level N. If N is equal to, or greater than the current document depth, the current document id is yielded.
• [COM]DepthNSortkey (where N is 1 – 5) works like DepthNDocumentId except that the sortkey is returned instead of the id.

Changes introduced in Composite 3.8 (from the readme file)

• Data Query Definitions can now consume XML from .Net class' that implement Composite.Cms.Pub.Interfaces.ICustomXmlProvider. The XML is available to the XSLT render plug-ins. 
• The default WYSIWYG HTML editor has been replaced by a TinyMCE based sollution. New sites and upgraded sites configured to use XHTML will use the TinyMCE based editor. Upgraded sites that are configured with htmlcontenttransform=None will use the classic editor for maximum backwards compability. The editor selection is controlled by the configuration files htmleditor property (TineMCE or DHTMLEdit). The classic editor, Microsofts DHTML Editing Component for IE, is not supported on Windows Vista and is expected to be killed by a future WindowsUpdate for IE7 on Windows XP.
• The base site (XHTML templates, CSS, XSLT installed by default on new sites) has been updated. The DIV based XHTML templates are now structured in a classical way, instead of the previous "content first" structure. Templates utilizing TABLE tags are also available. All templates sport a search form and links to the subsite homepage and sitemap.
• XSLT developers can put a <Debug /> element in their front-end XSL - at render time the <Debug /> element is replaced by a button that opens a pop up containing all Data Query XML that the XSL Identifier subscribes to. The XML is displayed in a color coded view for easy reference and a raw XML view for easy copy/paste. When used with the MailBuilder and Extranet Guard plug-ins, the <Debug /> element should be placed inside an <Output /> node.
• New XSL Render Identifier $$GoogleAnalyticsScript; added to base site. Will submit visitor information to Google Analytics when configured with a Google Analytics account number and placed in the templates.
• Data Query dynamic parameters expanded; [COM]AdminUserName returns administrative user name.
• Data Query dynamic parameters expanded; [COM]DepthNDocumentId (where N is 1 - 5) returns the document id of the parent document located at depth N. If N is equal to, or greater, than the depth of the rendered document, the current document id is returned.
• Data Query dynamic parameters expanded; [COM]DepthNSortkey (where N is 1 - 5) returns the sortkey of the parent document located at depth N. If N is equal to, or greater, than the depth of the rendered document, the current documents sortkey is returned.
• Base site XSLT's for textual navigation no longer emits friendly url's - the need is replaced by the "URL Filter" feature introduced in Composite 3.7.
• On new sites the MailBuilder Identifier $$FormToMail; no longer accepts "mailto" from forms. A recipient must be specified in the XSL in order to prevent the function from being abused by mass mailers.
• Data Query Definition names maximum length expanded from 50 characters to 512
• Data Query XML cache restriction on max. byte size increased to 5 MB (was 300 KB)
• Data Layer for LandingPageDataServices WebService added to database to ease doplyment of the module.
• Fix: Title based page searches on the Pages tree view now correctly support non-ASCII characters in the keyword.
• Fix: Pages saved as "For publication" now generate e-mail notifications when a user with publish access to another site branch (but not the currect) executes the save.
• Fix: "For Publications" e-mail notifications now uses CDOSYS instead of CDONTS
• Fix: Editing pages belonging to a template groups without a content area no longer display the Content fan.
• Fix: The pages and approval fans now auto update when selected, ensuring a correct view of page status in the tree views.
• Fix: The pages fan is always updated when a page is saved, ensuring a correct vire of page status in the tree view.
• Fix: MailBuilder fields like TO, FROM, SUBJECT etc. are now stripped of new line characters to prevent mail header injection from spammers.
• Fix: Tree pane tab selector now closes when focus is lost
• Fix: Erroneous reference to MSXML v.4 changed to v.6. MSXML v. 4 is no longer a requirement.
• Fix: <Debug /> usage in DataMapper applications now correctly close the debug info text areas.
• Fix: A problem upgrading from 3.5 and earlier due to missing element in administrative web.config fixed