The Fabrik Blog

Fabrik 2.0b3 released

We are proud to release the next and hopefully last beta version of Fabrik, Fabrik 2.0b3. This release contains a large number of bug fixes (over 470 commits since the second beta) from the previous 2.0b2 release from June.

This release would not have been possible without the communities help in reporting bugs, suggesting fixes, posting translations and general inspiration! I encourage you all to continue helping us so we can quickly move towards release candidates and then a final version

Installation instructions

Clean installation

Download com_fabrik2.0b3.zip from the downloads site. Log into your site's administration section and select Extensions->Install/Uninstall. In the 'Upload Package File' section press the 'browse' button to locate the downloaded zip file. Once selected press 'Upload file and Install'. Fabrik is a large package and the installation may time out with this method. An alternative way is to create a folder called 'com_fabrik2.0b3' on your server in its tmp directory (e.g. /location/of/mysite/tmp/com_fabrik2.0b3) and upload the files contained within com_fabrik2.0b3.zip to this folder. Once uploaded, naviagate to Joomla's installation page as before, but this time enter the path to the uploaded files in the 'Install from Directory' section (e.g. /location/of/mysite/tmp/com_fabrik2.0b3) and press the 'Install' button.

Upgrading

First of all make a back up of all your current Fabrik files and database tables, if anything goes wrong in the upgrade process you will always be able to revert to your old files.

Now install Fabrik as if it was a new component. Your data won't be overwritten but Fabrik's files will be updated.

There are no database changes to be made.

You may have to re-edit and save date and user elements. Please note that date formatting now uses php's strftime formatting method.

Release Notes

Faster, stronger, better ! There has been a concerted effort to reduce the number of queries and memory usage. Queries have been cut down by up to 400% in certain places.
GEORSS output in RSS feeds
JACL+ integration - use groups created by JACL+ to increase the granularity of access control within Fabrik.
Experimental option to combine and compress all your fabrik javascript files into single files.

Tables

Improved administration delete table options - thanks to Cyber Fabrik
Copy row table plug-in - This simple plug-in allows your users to select and duplicate records.
Option to have a single search field that will search all of the table's data.

Forms

New group setting allowing their elements to be rendered in columns
New 'labels above' form template
Create simple interactions on your forms without knowing Javascript, e.g. fade out this group when this elements value is true.
The regex validation from Fabrik 1.0.x has been ported over, also allowing for the replacement of posted data with specified regex/text.

Visualization plug-ins

Most plug-ins have been refractored to use the MVC layout
Clustering options in the google Map visualization
Calendar - events can now have start and end dates (thx Barbara!)

CSV Export

Choose whether to apply the table's filters to the CSV data
In addition choose which fields to export

Download the full SVN log here

Download Fabrik 2.0b3

Published on Tuesday, 11 November 2008 15:40
Written by Rob Clayburn

Protonotes annotation plugin released

Need a quick way to annotate your Joomla and Fabrik pages, during the development phase? If so then look no further, I've just released a small Joomla 1.5 plug-in that allows you to use the Protonotes service to annotate your web pages. Notes can be dragged, hidden, marked as reviewed and completed. To get started, dowload the protonotes plug-in from Joomlacode and create an account on the protonotes site.

Published on Thursday, 06 November 2008 10:47
Written by Rob Clayburn

See Fabrik @ linux exop, London Olympia

I will be exhibiting Fabrik at London Linux Expo Live from Thursday the 23rd October to Saturday the 25th. Fabrik will be in the .ORG Village, sharing a stand with Joomla tools, right next door to the Joomla stand, so if you can please come along for a chat I know that its rather short notice, I only got the go ahead for this yesterday and have since been running around trying to get flyers. business cards and t-shirts printed I hope to see some of you there!

Published on Friday, 17 October 2008 15:07
Written by Rob Clayburn

igfest: The moosehunt is on!

If you are around Bristol (UK) this weekend, then you could be taking part in Moosehunt at the igfest- thanks in part to Fabrik! Huh? Moose, Bristol, surely not! Have I finally lost my mind? Not at all! Moosehunt is a location based mobile game designed by Simon Evans for Bristol's igfest:

"Moose will be making his autumn migration from the deepest Forest of Dean to Bristol over the week before the festival. Your mission is to find him and photograph him. Text 'moose' to 60300 to receive a map of the moose's current location. But be careful, the moose will be told your location and if he 'shoots' you before you 'shoot' him you are out of the game. Prizes for photographs in various categories including first sighting."

Simon asked me to collect the SMS messages and MMS file uploads and plot them onto a Google map, something for which Fabrik was ideally suited. Its been great fun working on such a off-beat project. Check out the spoof documentary video Simon produced for the game, if only to see the absurd (or perhaps slightly perturbing) costume Simon will be wearing all this weekend.