Xaraya 2.0.0 Beta 3 (Jamaica) Released

The third beta release of Xaraya 2.0.0 (Jamaica) is now available at 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xaraya/.

The recent release of the Dyn_Example module for Jamaica underlines the 
commitment to make dynamicdata the data abstraction layer of choice in 
Jamaica. User feedback and insights drawn from the rewrite of the module 
have generated a number of enhancements included in this release, 
notably the rewrite of the modvar storage functionality in DynamicData.

The changes in Xaraya 2.0.0 Beta 3 are listed in detail below.


Changes with planned further evolution in future releases

1. Cleaned up xarVarFetch calls to checkboxes to use booleans as default 
values.
2. Implemented checkbox properties as having boolean values, rather than 
integers.
3. Improved the timezone dropdown to show +/- hours
4. Rewrote the code for modvar storage in DynamicData. No more 
constraints on the dataproperty names needing to indicate which module 
to store in.
5. Defined the module_settings dataobject for "standard" module 
configuration settings and implement it in all core modules.
6. Fixed the sort attribute in the DD view tag. More work needs to be 
done here to make the view tag more powerful.
7. Lots more template cleanup.
8. Minor fixes, improved overview texts and continuing code cleanup.
9. Added a page to the installer concerning security that lets the admin 
remove or rename the install.script.


Completed changes with no currently planned further evolution in future 
releases:

1. Integrated the license and credits pages into the installer pages for 
viewing during installation
2. Allow object names in addition to object references to be used in the 
object attribute of the view and display tags.
3. Allow xarRegquest::getInfo to take a URL parameter and return the 
appropriate values for that URL.
4. Finished a consistent implementation of module overviews. When 
overviews are enabled, they are displayed; when disabled you go to an 
alternate page, but can call up the overview "manually"
5. Added the top admin menu to DynamicData module
6. Standardized the structure of the core module modifyconfig code. 
Removed the updateconfig pages.
7. Hide the Roles online block when no options are chosen for display.
8. Removed the usersettings datastore. In Jamaica we can do that as a 
special case of modvar/moditemvar store.
9. Have the links for the view tag in Dynamicdata use any tplmodule 
attribute passed and fall back to Dynamicdata module if nothing is 
passed in tplmodule. This sort of mimics the urlmodule behavior in Aruba.
10. Removed the dataobject ancestor code from DynamicData. It was a nice 
experiment that didn't meet expectations.
11. Added the getFieldList and setFieldList methods to dataobjects to 
allow easier manipulation of what properties get displayed.
12. Changed some PHP calls set to be deprecated in PHP 5.3.


The next beta release of Jamaica, which can be expected in about the 
same time frame, will incorporate:

- Further steps in the evolution of the first group above
- The probable merge of the vardirlayout scenario (currently being 
evaluated), which makes the location of the lib and modules directories 
configurable.
- Consistent implementation of server and user timezones throughout Jamaica.
- User interface enhancements to the DynamicData module.
- Further enhancements to the Roles usermenu.
- Installation load sequence improvements for the installer
- Upgrade of the version API
- Further fixes to ensure compatibility with PHP 5.3.
- Fixes and changes as per any feedback received.
- Any feature requests received will be reviewed as to their feasibility 
in the next or future releases, and feedback will be given.

Please direct all bugs to the new "App - Core Jamaica" product at 
http://bugs.xaraya.com/.