You've unwrapped (installed) v2.3.0, and much to your dismay it looks the same!  Where are all these major new features?  One of the goals of the Exponent CMS project is to provide seamless or transparent upgrades to newer versions.  While this isn't always true (1.x code deprecation, etc...), we do try to keep your web site looking the same after an upgrade, while offering new features and improving the site management tools.  In this article, I'll attempt to show you how to activate the 'new' interface options and work around a couple minor issues.

First off, some issues which may require some editing or settings changes on your part are:

• We moved the bootstraptheme navbar/menu code from the theme template file into the navigation view template file.  Here is an article describing needed changes if you have built a custom theme based on 'bootstraptheme' (the Twitter Boostrap v2 theme)
  • This article also describes how to fix a 'jQuery' script crash/collision and solve a 'disappearing content' issue.
• If the WYSIWYG editor (CKEditor) doesn't appear, there may be a conflict between 'Minification' and CKEditor.  Several different ways to work around this issue are:
  • Turn Minification OFF using the Exponent, Super Admin Tools, System Cache menu
  • Leave Minification ON, but turn off 'Minify and Combine linked js scripts' using the 'Minify' tab of the Configure Website command found on the Exponent menu
  • Switch to begin using the new optional TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor (see below)
• Some settings/input forms may not save or close because we've added better validation of entries.  Specially, this would apply to 'url' (link) and 'email' (address) type input.  Though this is NOT the case in every place Exponent asks for a url or email, some of them require specific entry formats.  The 'url' entry may be rejected if it doesn't begin with a protocol such as 'http://'.  And an 'email' entry may be rejected if it doesn't contain the '@' sign, or it contains more than one email address (a comma is included).  We have a fix for the multiple email address entry.
• We now correctly load style sheets in an expected sequence.  The main framework library stylesheets (YUI, Bootstrap, etc...) are always loaded first, then the Exponent system stylesheets (core styles and those in the module views), and finally the theme stylesheets.  This ensures the styles cascade correctly and that the theme custom styles have 'final' say on the styling.  However, you may discover some display anomalies exposed by the correct loading order we now use, but they should easily be fixed by a custom theme style update.
• You may notice the .less stylesheet compiler takes a bit longer than before, but it is also faster than before.  As before, we ONLY compile .less files into .css stylesheets once, or when updated, so like any caching option, the first time to the page is a bit slower.  We've had to switch to a new 'less' compiler which is compatible with Twitter Bootstrap v3 (TB3), and in turn, TB3 also has some very complex stylesheets.  However, we've now sped up the less compilation cache checking.  So if you have Error Reporting turned OFF, the .less file will only be compiled/checked if the corresponding .css file is missing.  If Error Reporting is turned ON, it will operate as in the past few versions where the cache is checked for each .less file and it will be (re) compiled if the .css file is missing or any of the .less files (including those being @import'ed) or the less variables have changed.

Now, here's how to use some of the new features:

• The new 'elFinder' File Manager is activated by changing the setting on the 'File Manager' tab of the Configure Website command found on the Exponent menu.  Here is an article describing it.
• The new 'TimyMCE' WYSIWYG editor is activated changing the setting on the 'WYSIWYG' tab of the Configure Website command found on the Exponent menu.  Here is an article describing it.  Just like the CKEditor, you can create a custom configuration with an alternate skin, plugins, or toolbar, etc...
• The new 'Workflow' feature is activated using the Exponent, Super Admin Tools, Turn Workflow On/Off menu item.  Here is an article describing it.
• We've provided an initial implementation of a TB3 based theme (bootstrap3theme) which also includes a new TB3 based admin user interface (new slingbar and chrome)!  Designers can begin to develop their own custom TB3 theme(s) based on this one, though we will probably tweak the bootstrap3theme over the next six months.  We strongly recommend you move away from any Twitter Bootstrap v2 (TB2) theme development as it has been deprecated and no new features or updates to TB2 support are planned for Exponent.  However, we will still continue to support YUI3 based themes (YUI2 compatibility has been deprecated by YAHOO and is subject to breaking in the future).  We will also continue to support non-Bootstrap/non-YUI based themes (which inherit YUI2/3 widgets, etc.. at this point).
  • TB3 is the 'new interface' direction we are moving toward, and away from YUI2/3 as the primary/only user interface.  This interface is called 'NewUI'.  These themes are identified by a head config setting of 'framework=bootstrap3'.
  • TB2 development is suspended, but uses TB2 buttons and controls (though some widgets are still YUI2/3 based/styled) with YUI2/3 slingbar and chrome.  Since there are conflicts between TB2 and TB3 it will not receive any NewUI interface elements.  These themes are identified by a head config setting of 'framework=bootstrap'.
  • YUI and other non-Bootstrap themes are based on YUI2/3 (styled) buttons, controls, slingbar and chrome.  These themes are identified by a head config setting of 'framework=yui',  'framework=jquery', or no 'framework' setting.  However, these themes may be 'upgraded' to use the 'NewUI' by changing a system setting.  Once this setting is turned on, the theme will use the NewUI (TB3) slingbar, chrome, controls/buttons, and other widgets.  Since this feature is not yet fully robust/implemented, there is no user interface to turn it on or off.  However, it can be activated within your non-Bootstrap based theme by adding 'define("NEWUI",'1');' to your theme's 'config.php' file (found in the custom theme folder).
          <?php
          define("NEWUI",'1');
      ?>
• There is a new 'church web site' sample database which may be selected during installation.  This is in addition to the general site, blog site, and eCommerce site sample databases.  If you've already installed Exponent, but want to use one of these samples to 're-initialize' your site (will NOT affect current users/groups, but may affect their permissions), you can locate the /install/samples folder in the Exponent package file and do a 'Restore Database' (which will wipe-out/overwrite all/most current site content).
• If you need to move some blog, news, or portfolio items to another site, you can now export and import them, by module and by item.  Importing the export file will add them to your content instead of overwriting it as would occur with a 'Restore Database.'
• There are many more new features, most of which can be found on the module configuration setting views.  Look for a future article describing some of these.

And finally, here are some new features which are automatically implemented:

• Out of the box, you should have better Search Engine Optimization (SEO) since we now provide better, more specific meta data to the search engines.  This should appear as greater search hit detail (event & product data such as dates, cost, reviews, etc...).
• If you use a Twitter Bootstrap based theme, you should immediately notice better response on mobile and handheld devices, or even on desktops when the browser window size changes.
• On some of the management views (manage users/groups/permissions, display form data, and event registrations) we now use a 'widget' which provides for much faster paging and column sorting, better filtering (search), and options to copy/print/export.

As mentioned in previous articles the next upgrade, v2.3.1 shouldn't be expected until around the end of 2014.  What this means is that only patches will be released to address issues with v2.3.0 such as bug fixes or a 'proper' or 'broader' implementation of existing features.  Now go have fun with your 'NEW' web site!

Version 2.3.0 includes a new optional feature called 'Workflow'.  This feature allows greater control over a multi-user site, especially where there are many users adding new material which should be edited or approved prior to being visible to the public.  'Workflow' adds 1) Revisions, and 2) Approval.

'Workflow' is activated or deactivated using the 'Exponent' 'Super-Admin Tools' menu.  Workflow is currently enabled within the Blog, News, & Text modules.  A 'Workflow' enabled module can be identified on the Manage Modules view. Once 'Workflow' is activated creating or updating module items behaves differently depending on the user's permissions.

Revisions – in a very basic sense, revisioning creates a new copy or revision of a module item each time the item is edited/saved.  This affords an opportunity to ‘roll back’ or ‘undo’ an edit.

• Revisions are ‘reported’ on the standard view with a badge displaying the revision # next to the ‘Edit’ button/link.
• Revisions are ‘managed’ in the Edit item view. 
  • Revisions are initially hidden within a collapsed container below the standard edit area…with the most most recent at the top of the stack.
  • The ‘revision’ being edited will be highlighted
  • A previous revision may be activated by 1) clicking on that revision, and 2) when the display refreshes with the new data, saving the item
• Currently, old revisions can NOT be manually removed, so you will have a permanent history of all edits to that item.  However, it is possible to set the max number of revisions by manually editing the config.php file (no UI exists yet).

Approval – in a very basic sense, approval adds a layer of ‘moderation’ before content may be presented to a basic user with no permissions.

• Without an ‘approve’ permission, the user will only see (interact with) the most recent ‘approved’ item revision (if any).
• All new/edited items will be saved as un-approved revisions unless the user has 'approve' permission:
  • If a user WITHOUT 'approve' permission edits an item,
    • they will be editing the most recent approved revision which will be saved as an un-approved, but newer revision
  • With an ‘approve’ permission, the user will see the most recent item revision which may then be ‘approved’ using the new ‘Approve’ button/link.
    • Creating/Editing, then saving an item will automatically approve it
    • Turning on ‘Preview Mode’ will display the most recent approved revision (if any)
    • An un-approved item will be ‘displayed’ on the standard view with special highlighting (yellow background and red border) which disappears on ‘hover’.
    • Currently, you can NOT un-approve a revision, therefore you are required to either leave it alone (unedited, unapproved), edit it (will be saved as approved), or simply approve it as is.
• The ‘Approve’ permission is tied to the ‘edit’ and ‘create’ permissions.  It applies to ALL items in the module the user has ‘edit’ permission with…therefore the ‘create’ permission with an ‘approve’ permission only allows (automatic) approval of that user’s items, but not all items in the module, you must also grant them the ‘edit’ permission…e.g., if you can’t edit it, you can’t approve it.
• As a reminder, Admins and Super-Admins are ALWAYS granted ALL permissions, and a 'manage' permission grants ALL permissions (for that page/module).

One thing to consider before activating 'Workflow'

• Non-admin users MUST specifically be granted an 'approve' permission to create/edit items for display, otherwise that revision must be approved before it is displayed.  So, until you grant 'approve' permissions, the admin(s) may be busy approving all new content.

And a big caution before de-activating 'Workflow'

• When you de-activate workflow, ALL revisions except the most recent approved revision will be permanently removed!

In most instances, 'Workflow' may not be of use.  But if you are in a multi-user environment where you need to control what actually is displayed on the site, you now have a new tool.

 

Version 2.3.0 is the follow-up to version 2.2.3 and was given a version bump due to the many new features added.  It also marks a 'slowing down' of version releases as it's purposely been five months since the last release.  While it doesn't require as many changes as the move to v2.2.0 (which deprecated all the old 1.x code), it would still be wise to note and adhere these following changes.

The navigation showall_Flydown view for a bootstrap based theme now includes all the associated markup in the view instead of in the theme template.  Therefore if you use this view or have based your custom theme on 'bootstraptheme' (it is the default menu for the boostraptheme) you MUST edit your theme templates (including subthemes)

• The older code looked something like:
  <!-- navigation bar/menu -->
<div class="navigation navbar <?php echo (MENU_LOCATION) ? 'navbar-'.MENU_LOCATION : '' ?>">
  <div class="navbar-inner">
    <div class="container"> <!-- toggle for collapsed/mobile navbar content -->
      <a class="btn btn-navbar" data-toggle="collapse" data-target=".nav-collapse">
      <span class="icon-bar"></span> <span class="icon-bar"></span>
      <span class="icon-bar"></span> </a>
      <!-- menu header -->
      <a class="brand" href="<?php echo URL_FULL ?>"><?php echo ORGANIZATION_NAME ?></a>
      <!-- menu -->
      <?php expTheme::module(array("controller"=>"navigation","action"=>"showall","view"=>"showall_Flydown")); ?>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>
<div class="navbar-spacer"></div>
<div class="navbar-spacer-bottom"></div>
• This is simply replaced by:
  <?php expTheme::module(array("controller"=>"navigation","action"=>"showall","view"=>"showall_Flydown")); ?>
• Depending on which exponent version you created your theme from (first shipped w/ v2.2.0), you may not have all those lines above.  In fact, in v2.2.0, the menu was a theme custom menu simply call 'showall'

There may be duplicate Search Engine Friendly (SEF) URLs.  We include an optional upgrade script to correct this issue, but do NOT run it automatically.  Duplicate SEF URLs can cause issues when using the new 'Workflow' feature.

If your pages/content seems to have disappeared for non-admin users, you should first (re)run the 'Fix Sectionrefs' upgrade script.  If that doesn't fix the problem, you need to ensure the 'Disable Privacy Feature' is selected found in 'Confgure Website' Exponent menu item, under the 'Display' tab.

If you have manually loaded the 'jQuery' script, it may be colliding with the auto-loaded jQuery script.  The BEST method to ensure that jQuery is auto-loaded, is to set the theme framework (in the theme template/subtheme templates) to either 'jquery'.  jQuery is also auto-loaded with the bootstrap theme frameworks.  Documentation found here.

Again, not a lot of earth shattering changes required, but we always recommend doing a test before upgrading a production web site, just in case.

Version 2.3.0 includes a second optional What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWG) editor called TinyMCE.  While in most cases you'll probably want to stick with the venerable CKEditor, TinyMCE will work on Android devices, where CKEditor does not.

To enable the TinyMCE editor, open ''Configure Website' from the Exponent menu.  Then select the 'WYSIWYG Editor' tab and select 'TinyMCE' as the system text editor.  For the time being, the TinyMCE text editor is only an option and not the default.

In addition to working on an Android device, TinyMCE offers most of the features found in the CKEditor.  However, some features are not as advanced as with CKEditor.  TinyMCE also offers a menu bar which may contain additional commands not found in the toolbar.

You may not have a need to use the new TinyMCE editor, but we offer it for those requiring WYSIWYG editing on Android based devices.

Version 2.3.0 includes a new modern File Manager which (in the long run) will make it much easier to manage and work with uploaded files.  In general, elFinder follows an 'operating system' paradigm, so it should be fairly logical to begin using, but it is much different than the old Exponent File Manager.

Some of the (new) elFinder features include:

• True file folders for easier file organization
• Drag and Drop file upload and moving (CAUTION: while you can move a file, it may break any references within WYSIWYG text since they are embedded as hard reference links instead of as an expFile object)
• File cut/copy/paste
• Single 'pane' file management and upload, instead of the old separate file uploader
• Command toolbar to access most actions directly
• ​Item option (context) menus
• 'Touch' enabled to work with mobile devices
• Integrated file archive creation and extraction (not available on windows servers)
• Icon and details folder views

To enable the new elFinder file manager, open ''Configure Website' from the Exponent menu.  Then select the 'File Manger' tab and select 'elFinder' as the system file manager.  For the time being, the elFinder file manager is only an option and not the default file manager.

How to use these new features:

1. Basic Window Layout
   • As with most modern file mangers there are three basic areas or panes in the elFinder window
     • Toolbar - is located at the top of the window
     • Folder Tree Pane - is located to the left side of the window.  The folder hierarchy can be collapse or expanded and the pane width may be adjusted
     • File Pane - this is the largest area of the window which displays all the file in the current folder or those matching a search request
   • elFinder also uses context menus which appear on folders, files, or the File Pane background
2. File Uploads
   • ​​The easiest way to upload files into the file manager is to simply drag them from your PC desktop/file manager and drop them on/into the folder you choose.
   • You may also click on the 'Select files to upload' toolbar button, or choose the 'Upload files' context menu item from the file pane.  This will present a window to drag/drop files, to paste a file, or open a file select dialog to choose the files to upload.
3. File Selection
   • The easiest way to select a file when the file manager is opened from within an editor or edit item dialog, is to simply double-click the file.
   • You may also click on the 'Select files' toolbar button, or choose 'Select' from the context menu for the file(s)
   • You may select more than one file by using the control/shift method or a drag box.
4. File Operations/Management
   • You may cut, copy, paste, duplicate, rename, delete, or preview a file using the appropriate toolbar button or context menu item
   • You can display the files in the file pane as either large icons or a detailed list
   • You can sort the displayed files by name, size, kind, and date, in ascending or descending order
5. Image Editing
   • elFinder includes integrated image resizing, cropping, and rotation using the 'Resize & Rotate' command
   • For more advanced editing, we now use an online service called Pixlr to provide full graphics editing features.  
   • As is the case with all commands, you can use the toolbar button or the context menu which will present you with a dialog to select either the full-blown Pixlr editor or Pixlr Express which has fewer features.
6. Exponent File Management
   • The options to change file sharing, image title, image 'alt' title are now found in the 'Info' dialog of the file which can be displayed via toolbar or context menu
   • The 'sharing' status is changed instantly, but the 'title' and 'alt title' require you click on the 'update' button for the change to take place
   • You'll also see additional details such as file type, size, dimensions, file owner, etc...
   • There are also details about the file/folder found in the 'status' bar at the bottom of the window
   • There is also a 'Preview' command available to display/play images, videos, & mp3 files
7. File Search
   • There is a built-in search feature using the input box in the toolbar.  Simply enter the phrase, press 'enter' and all the files in the system matching that phrase will be displayed, regardless of their folder location.
   • Click on the 'x' button or select a folder in the folder tree pane to clear the search.
8. Transfer (back) to the Insert/Modify Link Dialog
   • If you are inserting a 'link' to a page into an editor instead of a link to a file, you can switch to the dialog with a list of pages available, the option to select a module on a page, or to switch back to the file manager.  This button is found on the toolbar to allow you to switch back to the Insert/Modify Link window.  It is located next to the toolbar 'Help' button.

Overall, we think you'll be pleased with the new elFinder File Manager and find it much simpler to use.

 

Back in version 2.0.8 we added the LESS ​stylesheet compiler to Exponent.  LESS is a dynamic stylesheet language which extends CSS with dynamic behavior such as variables, ​mixins, operations and functions.  This functionality makes it much easier to create flexible stylesheets since redundant styles and style variations can be handled by the compiler/server instead of the designer.  Though this addition to Exponent was primarily to support Twitter-Bootstrap, its use is increasing especially beginning with v2.2.3.

In this article our focus is on creating or updating .less stylesheets.  For information on how to incorporate .less style sheets into your custom theme, module, or view, please see this help doc.  The use of .less stylesheets in place of .css stylesheets is transparent within Exponent.  

In version 2.2.3 we convert all our core css stylesheets to .less, since we now also have custom 'mixins' to do some of the heavy lifting.  Mixins allow you to tie a bunch of properties and customizable values all into one nice little package.  Here’s an example:

/* Mixin */
.box-shadow (@x: 0px, @y: 3px, @blur: 5px, @color: #333) {
  -webkit-box-shadow: @x @y @blur rgba(0, 0, 0, @color);
  -moz-box-shadow: @x @y @blur rgba(0, 0, 0, @color);
  box-shadow: @x @y @blur rgba(0, 0, 0, @color);
}

This takes all of the box-shadow code needed for display on multiple browsers and wraps it up nicely into a single mixin that can be implemented with custom values (or the defaults that we used above). Now, instead of writing a huge chunk of code every time you want a box-shadow, this is all you need:

/* Implementation */
.somediv {
  .box-shadow(5px, 5px, 6px, #eee);
}

Pretty awesome right? When this code is compiled automatically by Exponent, it’ll create a the appropriate CSS stylesheet. You get a much more readable code without sacrificing browser compatibility.

In v2.2.3 we include a custom 'mixins' file which is located in /framework/core/assets/less/exponent.less.  This mixn may be included in your .less file by adding the following line to the top.

 @import '/framework/core/assets/less/exponent.less'

Here are some of the mixins found in exponent.less:

• .border-radius and .border-radius-custom
• .box-shadow and .drop-shadow
• .gradient and .quick-gradient
• .reflect
• .opacity

Take a look at exponent.less to see all the included mixins, plus some implementation samples.

I think you'll appreciate how LESS can make your work 'more' productive and will consider using it in your next project.

While v2.2.3 (when released) will focus on addressing issues in v2.2.2 and removing all the deprecated features and 0.9x compatibility, there will be a few minor new features and changes to the permissions system (final implementation will be based on your feedback to this article!).

New features include adding a 'copy' item command to the portfolio module, adding an optional 'force image resize' during a quick upload, and better theme support for mobile devices by use of optional 'touch' icons and the 'meta viewport' tag.  We may also be able to squeeze in a 'multi-day' feature to the event module along with external calendar (ical & google xml) feed caching.

However, the bigger changes will be to user/group permissions.  This will be accomplished by the addition of group global permissions (restrictions) and changing the way we deal with the 'create' permission.

Group Global Permissions - This new feature provides greater control over what basic users are allowed to do (or more accurately 'are prevented from doing').  These restrictions will be implemented within a 'User Group', therefore the 'user' must be assigned to a 'group' in order to enforce these 'global permissions'.  However, this method will ensure that upgrading from a previous version will continue to operate transparently the same as before.  But if you want to apply them to all basic users, you can set the group as a 'default group' to be assigned to all new users.  Based on user requests, Global Permissions/Restrictions already include:

• Prevent File Uploading - will prevent the user from being able to upload a new file.  They will still be able to select existing files from the file manager.
• Prevent User Profile Changes - will prevent the user from being able to change their user profile (email address, profile extensions, etc...)  This does NOT affect the user being able to change their password since we already have a global setting to 'disable user password change requests' in the Site Configuration settings.
• Disable Slingbar (Exponent Menu Bar) or Slingbar menus - will  'hide' the 'Exponent', 'Files', and/or 'Pages' menus from the user (leaving only the 'User' menu).  Or you can select to hide the entire 'Exponent Menu Bar'.  Under normal circumstances, a user with any permission on the site would see the 'slingbar.'  This feature allows greater control on preventing it's display.

Enhanced 'Create' Permission - Unlike the group global permission feature, the enhanced 'create' permission feature may affect some users ability to perform actions after a version upgrade!  Currently (v2.2.2), the 'create' permission also always implies/provides the 'edit' permission.  This means that if you can create new module items, you will also be able to edit all module items (but still requires a 'delete' permission to remove the item).  However under the new (v2.2.3) system, the 'create' permission would be separate from the 'edit' permission.  What's NEW is that the 'create' permission (without an 'edit' permission) would also allow you to edit any module item you had created (no change here), but NOT the other users' module items.  To edit other users' module items, you'd also need to have an 'edit' permission.  The same applies to deleting a module item.  If you have a 'create' permission, you may delete a module item you created, but would need a 'delete' permission to delete other users' module items.  In practice, this new feature will allow a module to have many users who are able to create and manage their own items, but not have any influence on the other module users (unless you also gave them an 'edit', 'delete', or 'manage' permission).

As a permissions primer...permissions cascade down through any child objects such as pages, containers, and the module.  The 'manage' permission implies/provides ALL permissions.  The 'configure' permission is needed to access module configuration settings (change the module's action, view, and other module settings).  The 'create' permission is needed to create new items or modules (and up to v2.2.2 also provides an 'edit' permission).  The 'edit' permission is needed to edit an existing module item.  And the 'delete' permission is needed to delete/remove an item or a module.  Admin users are always granted permission!

While this new approach to the 'create' permission should greatly enhance a multi-user site, it is not a complete solution.  There are some scenarios where a user would be allowed to 'create' a new module item, but NOT edit it (invoices, etc...).  It is recommended the developer create a new module controller method/add_permission for that instance.  Creating a stricter permission system would be very complex and time-consuming to implement.  However, there are plans to implement some 'workflow' features such as 'revisions' (allow rolling back to a previous item version) and 'approvals' (optionally require a user with approval permission to approve new or updated content).  These workflow features would not be as complex as those partially implemented in the 0.9x code, but should become very useful.  The workflow features are targeted for the v2.2.4 release.

If you have any suggestions to the above features especially the Group Global Permissions and Enhance Create Permission, please respond with a comment.

Monty Python fans will quickly recognize the title phrase and remember the scene where he's not quite dead.  So begins this article on how to remove all the old, dead stuff from your Exponent site and custom theme.  Before the end of the year (probably v2.2.3 which tentatively will be a Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday/last release of 2013) we'll have stripped out several deprecated modules and no longer support older themes (deprecated function calls).

Deprecated Function Calls

• The most prevalent deprecated call when hard-coding modules is that a 2.0 controller requires an 'action' parameter where all the old school modules only used a 'view' parameter.  The default action is ALWAYS 'showall' (if none is passed) and the default view is ALWAYS the action name (if none is passed).  Therefore if you simply updated an old function call by changing it to 'expTheme::module()' and did not ensure you passed an 'action' parameter...you may not see the correct view...especially if the view you requested was not a variant of the showall action.  
  • Take for instance, the Search module 'Show' view.  If you updated it to simply pass the 'view' parameter of 'show', it would attempt to display the 'showall_show' view with the showall action.  The easiest fix is to change the 'view' parameter to an 'action' parameter which will automatically use the same named view ('action'=>'show').
• I've previously written about the other hard-coding function calls which must be replaced.  In v2.2.1 you'll now receive a deprecated theme call warning message when logged on as an admin.  The message will contain details about what file and line the deprecated call is on and a suggestion on the fix with a link to a more detailed help page.  (updating to 2.2.0 blog post) (theme update guide)

Deprecated Modules

• The Headline module was marked as deprecated quite a while back and was fully removed in v2.2.0.  It is replaced by the Text module showall 'Headline' view.  This change is automatically accomplished in an upgrade by converting all Headline modules into Text modules with the Headline view.
• The Flowplayer module uses a non-HTML5 compliant player and was replaced by a newer Media Player module.  The new Media Player module also plays simple YouTube links using the same player (YouTube module requires using the 'embed' code) so we've also deprecated the YouTube module.  Though they still exist, they will be completely removed as stated above.  There is currently an optional upgrade script to convert all Flowplayer and YouTube modules into Media Player modules.  Currently if you run a 0.9x Migration, it will create Flowplayer/YouTube modules which you can then upgrade to Media Player modules.  This will be changed once the deprecated modules are removed.
• All the old school modules have been deprecated, replaced, and removed as of v2.2.0.  In fact, you'll notice the 'Old School' modules tab is missing from the Module Manager.  Any old school modules on the site will automatically be upgraded to work with their 2.0 controller replacement during an upgrade.

Updated Requirements?

• And now that PHP v5.5 has been released, PHP v5.3 is no longer recommended (end of life) and PHP 5.2 is obsolete, we should consider updating the minimum PHP requirement be at least v5.3.1 (or one of the more robust iterations of v5.3) to allow some of the v5.3+ only PHP features such as namespaces, etc...

The next release will introduce a new 'Facebook' module and optional Facebook 'Like' and Twitter 'Tweet' buttons to blog posts.  

The new Facebook module will allow you to insert a 'Like' button onto a page which points to the site, the page, or a custom url.  It will also allow you to insert a 'Like Box' (or timeline) onto a page.  These views interact with Facebook to display results from Facebook, and also update 'Likes' on Facebook.  There are several display options which reflect the same options offered by the widget on Facebook.com.

Blog posts may now optionally display Facebook 'Like' and/or Twitter 'Tweet' buttons at the bottom of each post.  These features should allow greater proliferation of your ideas and works.

Additionally, we've added a new optional 'Follow' button to the Twitter module view, and there will be a new (optional) user profile extension which allows creating a 'signature' which is automatically attached to the end of blog posts you create.

In this, Part V of my advanced SEO tips for Exponent CMS websites, I'll discuss a critical component for search engine marketing: Analytics.

A gigantic aspect of search marketing is measuring, analyzing, and modifying your SEO and PPC campaigns to ensure they're always performing at their best. The best way to gather this data is by integrating a comprehensive traffic analytics program into your Exponent CMS website.

One of the most popular Analytics programs available – and is 100 percent free – is Google Analytics. Google Analytics gathers detailed statistics about web traffic and its sources and measures conversions and sales. All of this data is essential for running a well optimized SEO campaign.

So how do you get Google Analytics to work on your Exponent CMS website? If you're the webmaster of an Exponent site, the process takes a few steps but it's really quite simple.

Setting Up Your Google Analytics Account

If you or your client don't already have a Google Analytics account set up, it's very easy to get a new account. Simply go to Google.com/Analytics and sign in with your Google Account. From there, you'll need to go to Accounts list and click to add a “New Account.”

Next, fill out the pertinent information about your Exponent CMS website, giving it an account name and providing your website's URL. Whether or not you choose to allow Google to view your account data is up to you.

When you're done, simply click “Get Tracking ID” and accept the Google Terms & Conditions to get the code snippet you'll need to integrate into your Exponent CMS theme files.

Installing Your Google Analytics Code

As you can see in the image above, you'll need to simply copy the code snippet tracking code found in the box that is specific to your account and paste it into each page of your site.

If you were working with a straight HTML site, this could get a little cumbersome, however because we're working with a dynamic CMS that uses themes/subthemes, you'll only need to paste it into each of your theme files.

You can access these theme files within cPanel or by pulling them down via FTP.

Within your public_html directory, you'll need to navigate into your Exponent theme folder and into the directory of the theme you're using for your website.

Within your theme directory you'll first want to edit your index.php file, inserting your code snippet just before the closing body tag of the file:

Once you've pasted in your snippet, save the file or push it back up via FTP. Go back into your theme folder and into “subthemes” and repeat this paste/save step for each of your website's subtheme files.

Once you've saved the snippet, you can verify its tracking status by going back to your Google Analytics account and into Tracking Info where you copied your code snippet. There you'll see the tracking status for your Analytics account:

Now that you've successfully setup and installed Google Analytics into your Exponent CMS website, you can now set goals, track traffic sources and gather other pertinent website data that will help you continually measure and analyze the performance of your SEO marketing strategy.

About the Author

This SEO tutorial article was written by Chris Everett, a search engine marketing consultant at Captivate Search Marketing in Atlanta, Georgia.

Chris has worked with Exponent CMS websites since 2007 and continues to help improve the system's SEO friendliness.

Connect with Chris on Google+ to learn more.