SkyBlueCanvas Lightweight CMS v1.1 Beta

We are happy to announce that SkyBlueCanvas Lightweight CMS v1.1 Beta is now available for preview. The new version includes several bug fixes as well as improved usability and a host of new features that make SkyBlueCanvas even easier to use. You can view the demo of SkyBlueCanvas v1.1 Beta at www.skybluecanvas.com/beta/.

We had planned an incremental release numbered v1.0.4 but after a lot of bug fixes, adding several new features and implementing WYMeditor v0.5, we decided that this release merited a more significant release number. A lot of work went into improving the over-all usability of SkyBlueCanvas in this release. We also fixed a lot of bugs that had previously escaped our attention.

For End Users

The most visible change in SkyBlueCanvas v1.1 is to the Page Manager including the ability to publish Collections from from the page level rather than a separate manager. In addition users will also notice that we have implemented the latest version of WYMeditor - version 0.5. The new Page Manager also includes the ability to re-order and publish/unpublish items from the list view as well as many other improvements.

The Page Manager, as well as many other Managers now has the ability to re-order and publish/unpublish items from the default list view so you do not need to open the editor to change the order of an item. Simply use the task buttons in the list view.

You can also now add page-specific JavaScript files to your skins. For instance, if you have a layout skin named skin.alternate.html, you can add a JavaScript file that only loads on this page by creating a file named skin.alternate.js in /skyblue_root/data/skins/your_skin/js/.

We also added a new Banner Ads Manager so you can place banner ads through the Admin Console. Previously banner ads were required to be added via FTP only.

For Developers

SkyBlueCanvas has several major changes to the code that will interest developers. We added 3 new classes to the OOP hierarchy: SkyBlueObject, Observer and SkyBlueError. These classes add some default shared functionality in getters and setters and most importantly add support for custom events using the Observer Pattern. We will provide full documentation for using custom events and the other new classes as soon as possible.

Upgrading From Previous Versions of SkyBlueCanvas

The upgrade process for SkyBlueCanvas has not changed. You can read about the upgrade process on the Upgrade Instructions page on this blog.

The changes in v1.1 will not affect your existing data at all. We did not make any changes to the data storage. There were changes to the logic in a few of the plugins and modules but these changes should not impact the display of the plugin or module output.