Jukka-Pekka Keisala

Into Centaurs?

I was hoping that it would happen but I never believed that Microsoft would involved themselves in OpenSource library. But luckily I was wrong. ScottGu writes:

I’m excited today to announce that Microsoft will be shipping jQuery with Visual Studio going forward.  We will distribute the jQuery JavaScript library as-is, and will not be forking or changing the source from the main jQuery branch.  The files will continue to use and ship under the existing jQuery MIT license.

It seems that Microsoft is really starting to turn their ship towards Open Source, it is great to see that they did choose best technology for developers.

Aurora explores new ways people could interact with the Web in the future based on projected technological trends and real-world scenarios. Check out this video to see it in action.

Aurora (Part 1) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

I like Tabs, Toolbars and Menus but Ribbons I just don´t get used to ribbons. I have been using Office 2007 since beta and I like interface from the visual point of view but I think ribbons drops productivity since it gives me beautifully crafted interface where I cannot find stuff I want. Somehow I personally feel that on Office 2003 I was more focusing writing content when on 2007 I am formatting texts and spending time to finding out where is the function that was in in 2003 under Edit -menu….

The annoying thing about 2007 is that since Ribbons looks nice it kind of made me think that maybe I just have to get used to it and once I am familiar on it I will never want to remember older Office GUI. However, few days ago I was writing something on Office 2003 Word and I felt interface much more nicer than on Office 2007 Word and it has been now 2 years I have had 2007 on my computer. Ribbons simply aren´t  my cup of tea.

Office 2007 ribbon

Also I am surprised about the lack of choice between “The Ribbon” and traditional menus in the new 2007 Office system. Like this guy I was planning to uninstall 2007 and reinstall 2003 but since I am not really using MS Office anymore (most of my documents are in Google Docs) I am keeping it and hoping someone at Microsoft gets rid of Ribbons on office 2009 it was nice try but doesn’t really work for me.

Maybe Ribbons are nice for new users who have no prior experience from Office platform but I would assume that power users and experienced users do like more minimalist interfaces. I would love to hear comment on this.

This is so annoying in always in Windows.

—————————
Error Renaming File or Folder
—————————
Cannot rename Readme.txt: It is being used by another person or program.

Close any programs that might be using the file and try again.
—————————
OK
—————————

Why cant it just tell which user or program is using this file?

Darren Farley, technical writer from Sitecore wrote me answers to some of my questions on upcoming features.

About 3 databases

The new version of Sitecore has significantly less databases than in previous versions. Previous versions had 7 now there are only 3. The Core, Master and Web Databases are the only databases in the latest version of Sitecore.

The “Sitecore” and “Extranet” security databases were removed as they are now handled by the .NET security model and stored in standard tables.

The “Archive” and “Recycle bin” databases were removed as each database now has its own internal archive and recycle bin storage areas. The archive and recycle bin have also been enhanced to contain a search facility similar to the content editor.

He also wrote something about “Page Editor“

The old “WebEdit” has been completely replaced with in-line editing. This feature, called the “Page Editor”, brings a whole new level of functionality and ease of use to the web site. In its simplest form it will allow users with limited It skills to directly edit text and images on a web page directly without any knowledge of Sitecore architecture, whilst in the background all the items, workflow procedures and security that goes into editing items within the Sitecore framework are all still followed. Items still get locked and unlocked, and an item will move through a workflow in the same manner as if it was being edited in the Content Editor.

Branch Templates and Command Templates, this is completely new for me.

What was referred to in Sitecore 5 as “Templates” are now called “Data Templates” in Sitecore 6. Assigning a data template to an item means that content authors will be allowed to create items directly from the assigned template. To further expand the functionality of templates and facilitate the removal of Masters Sitecore has created two new template types. The first is the Branch Template, which allows the creation of a whole series of items to create a part of a content tree when item creation is invoked. The second is Command Templates which allows a class and method to be called to invoke a programmed operation to be performed during item creation ( i.e. invoking a wizard to collect data).

More info about ASP.NET security on Sitecore six

Sitecore 6 replaces the standard Sitecore security model with the .NET security model. This provides the security infrastructure with a variety of enhancements, which are:

· The standard ASP.NET way of handling security.

· The ability to use plug and play security providers from Microsoft.

· Abstraction of data from the real data source.

· An easy option to replace or extend the default configuration with your own custom security providers.

· The possibility of using several providers simultaneously and thus keeping the accounts in identifiable storage areas.

The security model has been enhanced to allow roles in roles, a feature that is not available in the standard .NET security model.

These enhancements serve to allow the security of the Sitecore client to handle a lot more users, roles and domains than previously. Along with the new feature of roles in roles this serves to allow for scalability enhancements to support large scale security repositories.

Christopher Wojciech reveleals more details about new Page Editor in Sitecore on his blog.

The post really doesn’t tell much but definetly new inline editor is there but from screenshots I cannot really make comments if it’s good. When looking screenshots on the blog post looks like there is less changes than I though there will be. I am still looking for a comments about speed of editor rendering times and speed of changing simple things on content. I think speed in the current Sitecore is the biggest bottleneck for editors.

I have not seen V6 yet but I have been looking closely blogs and discussions on Sitecore Developer Network about the upcoming version of Sitecore 6 that will Rock every CMS developer world :O

Features known and my predections so far:

• There are only 3 databases (Core, Master and Web).
  Sitecore V5 has 7, I like this simplicity but I am curious to see solution on Sitecore Security.
• .net 2.0 to .net 3.5
  IMHO: Not a big fun on LINQ but all other updates are very welcome!
• Completely reworked webedit
  I predect this will be the biggest update of all. If they are able to roll out proper “edit in place” this product will take everyone under the table.
• New GUI
  Not really sure this will happen but I hope they have removed Vista look and goes more Office metaphor on Shell.
• No more Master templates, standard values rules.
  If you are not Sitecore developer you have no idea what the heck I am talking about but this is good.
• Security concept based on the .net membership provider.
  Makes easier implementation to LDAP’s. I have been missing that on Sitecore.
• XSLT extension controls: The WebEditRibbon and the StringUtil.
  I am not sure what are these but I am sure I will fall in love with WebEditRibbon. Please please Sitecore let me place and design my own Add/Edit/Delete buttons
• AJAX included automatically
  Not really sure which library, I hope it will be effortless to implement my own AJAX library.

ps: Just notice myself my blog URL says /v6/ that has nothing to do with Sitecore just the coincidence. This blog runs on WordPress and v6 stands for version of my website. I have had homepage since 1997 and last time I updated was in 2005 where I made Wordpress installation to to v6 folder…

John Resig (founder of jQuery) has released his JavaScript port of the Processing visualization library today using Canvas. This is an excellent addition to the world of JavaScript graphics programming, it works best on Firefox 3.0.

I am going to keep close eye on this project.