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ChangeLog.text in FeedWordPress 0.98, at ChangeLog.text

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1	FeedWordPress Change Log
2	========================
3
4	Changes from 0.97 to 0.98
5	--------------------------
6
7	* WORDPRESS 2.0 COMPATIBILITY: This is a narrowly-targeted release to
8	solve a major outstanding problem. FeedWordPress is now compatible with
9	both WordPress 1.5 and WordPress 2.0. Incompatibilities that caused
10	fatal SQL errors, and a more subtle bug with off-kilter counts of posts
11	under a given category, have been resolved. FeedWordPress tests for
12	database schema using the global $wp_db_version variable (if null, then
13	we presume that we're dealing with WordPress 1.5).
14
15	NOTE: I have not fully tested FeedWordPress with WordPress 2.0.
16	Further testing may reveal more bugs. However, you should now be able
17	to get at least basic FeedWordPress functionality up and running.
18
19	* AUTHOR MATCHING: FeedWordPress tests several fields to see if it can
20	identify the author of the post as a user already in the WordPress user
21	database. In previous versions, it tested the user login, the nickname,
22	and tested for "aliases" listed in the Profile (see documentation). FWP
23	now also matches authors on the basis of e-mail address (if an e-mail
24	address is present). This is particularly helpful for formats such as
25	RSS 2.0, in which authors are primarily identified by e-mail addresses.
26
27	Changes from 0.96 to 0.97
28	-------------------------
29
30	* INSTALLATION PROCEDURE: Some of the changes between 0.96 and 0.97
31	require upgrades to the meta-data stored by FeedWordPress to work
32	properly. Thus, if you are upgrading from 0.96 or earlier to 0.97, most
33	FeedWordPress operations (including updates and template functions)
34	WILL BE DISABLED until you run the upgrade procedure. Fortunately,
35	running the upgrade procedure is easy: just go to either Options -->
36	Syndication or Links --> Syndicated in the WordPress Dashboard and press
37	the button.
38
39	* FEED FORMAT SUPPORT: Support has been added for the Atom 1.0 IETF
40	standard. Several other elements are also newly supported
41	(dcterms:created, dcterms:issued, dcterms:modified, dc:identifier,
42	proper support for the RSS 2.0 guid element, the RSS 2.0 author element,
43	the use of Atom author or Dublin Core dc:creator constructs at the feed
44	level to identify the author of individual items, etc.)
45
46	N.B.: full support of several Atom 1.0 features, such as categories
47	and enclosures, requires you to install the optional rss-functions.php
48	upgrade in your wp-includes directory.
49
50	* BUG FIX: Running `update-feeds.php` from command line or crontab
51	returned "I don't syndicate..." errors. It turns out that WordPress
52	sometimes tramples on the internal PHP superglobals that I depended on
53	to determine whether or not the script was being invoked from the
54	command line. This has been fixed (the variables are now checked
55	before WordPress can trample them). Note that `update-feeds.php` has
56	been thoroughly overhauled anyway; see below for details.
57
58	* BUG FIX: Duplicate categories or author names. Fixed two bugs that could
59	create duplicate author and/or category names when the name contained
60	either (a) certain international characters (causing a mismatch between
61	MySQL and PHP's handling of lowercasing text), or (b) characters that
62	have a special meaning in regular expressions (causing MySQL errors when
63	looking for the author or category due to regexp syntax errors). These
64	should now be fixed thanks to careful escaping of names that go into
65	regular expressions and careful matching of lowercasing functions
66	(comparing results from PHP only to other results from PHP, and results
67	from MySQL only to other results from MySQL).
68
69	* BUG FIX: Items dated Decembr 31, 1969 should appear less often. The
70	function for parsing W3C date-time format dates that ships with
71	MagpieRSS can only correctly parse fully-specified dates with a
72	fully-specified time, but valid W3C date-time format dates may omit the
73	time, the day of the month, or even the month. Some feeds in the wild
74	date their items with coarse-grained dates, so the optional
75	`rss-functions.php` upgrade now includes a more flexible parse_w3cdtf()
76	function that will work with both coarse-grained and fully-specified
77	dates. (If parts of the date or the time are omitted, they are filled in
78	with values based on the current time, so '2005-09-10' will be dated to
79	the current time on that day; '2004' will be dated to this day and time
80	one year ago.
81
82	N.B.: This fix is only available in the optional `rss-functions.php`
83	upgrade.
84
85	* BUG FIX: Evil use of HTTP GET has been undone. The WordPress interface
86	is riddled with inappropriate (non-idempotent) uses of HTTP GET queries
87	(ordinary links that make the server do something with significant
88	side-effects, such as deleting a post or a link from the database).
89	FeedWordPress did some of this too, especially in places where it aped
90	the WordPress interface (e.g. the "Delete" links in Links -->
91	Syndicated). That's bad business, though. I've changed the interface so
92	that all the examples of improper side-effects that I can find now
93	require an HTTP POST to take effect. I think I got pretty much
94	everything; if there's anything that I missed, let me know.
95
96	Further reading: [Sam Ruby 2005-05-06: This Stuff Matters] (http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/2005/05/06/This-Stuff-Matters)
97
98	* BUG FIX: Categories applied by `cats` setting should no longer prevent
99	category-based filtering from working. In FeedWordPress, you can (1)
100	apply certain categories to all syndicated posts, or all posts from
101	a particular feed; and (2) filter out all posts that don't match one
102	of the categories that are already in the WordPress database (allowing
103	for simple category-based filtering; just load up WordPress with the
104	categories you want to accept, and then tell FeedWordPress not to create
105	new ones). However, the way that (1) and (2) were implemented meant that
106	you couldn't effectively use them together; once you applied a known
107	category to all syndicated posts from a particular feed, it meant that
108	they'd have at least one familiar category (the category or categories
109	you were applying), and that would get all posts past the filter no
110	matter what categories they were originally from.
111
112	Well, no longer. You can still apply categories to all syndicated posts
113	(using either Syndication --> Options, or the feed-level settings under
114	Links --> Syndicated). But these categories are not applied to the post
115	until after it has already passed by the "familiar categories" filter.
116	So now, if you want, you can do category filtering and then apply as
117	many categories as you please to all and only posts that pass the filter.
118
119	* BUG FIX: Other minor typos and HTML gaffes were fixed along the way.
120
121	* PERFORMANCE: get_feed_meta() no longer hits the database for information
122	on every call; it now caches link data in memory, so FeedWordPress only
123	goes to the database once for each syndicated link. This may
124	substantially improve performance if your database server resources
125	are tight and your templates make a lot of use of custom settings from
126	get_feed_meta().
127
128	* API CHANGE: Link ID numbers, rather than RSS URIs, are now used to
129	identify the feed from which a post is syndicated when you use template
130	functions such as get_feed_meta(). The practical upshot of this is you
131	can switch feeds, or change the feed address for a particular syndicated
132	site, without breaking your templates for all the posts that were
133	syndicated from the earlier URI.
134
135	* API CHANGE: if you have plugins or templates that make use of the
136	get_feed_meta() function or the $fwp_feedmeta global, note that the
137	data formerly located under the `uri` and `name` fields is now located
138	under the `link/uri` field and the `link/name` field, respectively. Note
139	also that you can access the link ID number for any given feed under the
140	global $fwp_feedmeta['link/id'] (in plugins) or
141	get_feed_meta('link/id') (in a template in post contexts).
142
143	* FEATURE: the settings for individual feeds can now be edited using a
144	humane interface (where formerly you had to tweak key-value pairs in the
145	Link Notes section). To edit settings for a feed, pick the feed that you
146	want under Links --> Syndicated and click the Edit link.
147
148	* FEATURE: The "Unsubscribe" button (formerly "Delete") in Links -->
149	Syndicated now offers three options for unsubscribing from a feed: (1)
150	turning off the subscription without deleting the feed data or affecting
151	posts that were syndicated from the feed (this works by setting the Link
152	for the feed as "invisible"); (2) deleting the feed data and all of the
153	posts that were syndicated from the feed; or (3) deleting the feed data
154	and keeping the posts that were syndicated from the feed
155	setting the Link to "Invisible" (meaning that it will not be displayed
156	in lists of the site links on the front page, and it won't be checked
157	for updates; (2) deleting the Link and all of the posts that were
158	syndicated from its feed; or (3) deleting the feed data but keeping the
159	posts that were syndicated (which will henceforward be treated as if
160	they were local rather than syndicated posts). (Note that (1) is usually
161	the best option for aggregator sites, unless you want to clean up the
162	results of an error or a test.)
163
164	* FEATURE / BUG FIX: If you have been receiving mysterious "I don't
165	syndicate...", or "(local) HTTP status code was not 200", or "(local)
166	transport error - could not open socket", or "parse error - not well
167	formed" errors, then this update may solve your problems, and if it does
168	not solve them, it will at least make the reasons for the problems
169	easier to understand. That's because I've overhauled the way that
170	FeedWordPress goes about updating feeds.
171
172	If you use the command-line PHP scripting method to run scheduled
173	updates, then not much should change for you, except for fewer
174	mysterious errors. If you have done updates by sending periodic HTTP
175	requests to <http://your-blog.com/path/wp-content/update-feeds.php>,
176	then the details have changed somewhat; mostly in such a way as to make
177	things easier on you. See the README file or online documentation on
178	Staying Current for the details.
179
180	* FEATURE: FeedWordPress now features a more sophisticated system for
181	timed updates. Instead of polling every subscribed feed for updates
182	each time `update-feeds.php` is run, FeedWordPress now keeps track of
183	the last time it polled each feed, and only polls them again after a
184	certain period of time has passed. The amount of time is normally set
185	randomly for each feed, in a period between 30 minutes and 2 hours (so
186	as to stagger updates over time rather than polling all of the feeds at once. However, the length of time between updates can also be set
187	directly by the feed, which brings us to ...
188
189	* FEATURE: FeedWordPress now respects the settings in the `ttl` and
190	Syndication Module RSS elements. Feeds with these elements set will not
191	be polled any more frequently than they indicate with these feeds unless
192	the user manually forces FeedWordPress to poll the feed (see Links -->
193	Syndicated --> Edit settings).
194
195	Changes from 0.95 to 0.96
196	-------------------------
197
198	* FEATURE: support has been added for enclosures in RSS 2.0 and Atom
199	0.6+ newsfeeds. WordPress already supports adding enclosures to an
200	item; FeedWordPress merely gets the information on the enclosure
201	from the feed it is syndicating and plugs that information directly
202	into the WordPress database so that (among other things) that post
203	will have its enclosure listed in your blog's RSS 2 newsfeed.
204
205	Note that enclosure support requires using the optional MagpieRSS
206	upgrade (i.e., replacing your `wp-includes/rss-functions.php` with `OPTIONAL/wp-includes/rss-functions.php` from the FWP archive)
207
208	* FEATURE: for completeness's sake, there is now a feed setting,
209	`hardcode url`, that allows you to set the URI for the front page
210	of a contributor's website manually (that is, prevent it from being
211	automatically updated from the feed channel link on each update). To
212	set the URI manually, put a line like this in the Link Notes section
213	of a feed:
214
215	hardcode url: yes
216
217	You can also instruct FeedWordPress to use hardcoded URIs by default
218	on all feeds using Options --> Syndication
219
220	* FEATURE: by default, when FeedWordPress finds new syndicated posts,
221	it (1) publishes them immediately, (2) turns comments off, and (3)
222	turns trackback / pingback pings off. You can now alter all three
223	default behaviors (e.g., to allow pings on syndicated posts, or to
224	send newly-syndicated posts to the draft pile for moderation) using
225	Options --> Syndication
226
227
228	Changes from 0.91 to 0.95
229	-------------------------
230
231	* BUG FIX: Fixed an obscure bug in the handling of categories:
232	categories with trailing whitespace could cause categories with
233	duplicate names to be created. This no longer happens. While I was
234	at it I tightened up the operation of
235	FeedWordPress::lookup_categories() a bit in general.
236
237	* FEATURE DEPRECATED: the feed setting `hardcode categories` is now
238	deprecated in favor of `unknown categories` (see below), which
239	allows you to strip off any syndication categories not already in
240	your database using `unknown categories: default` or `unknown
241	categories: filter`. If you have `hardcode categories: yes` set on a
242	feed, this will be treated as `unknown categories: default` (i.e.,
243	no new categories will be added, but if a post doesn't match any of
244	the categories it will be added in the default category--usually
245	"Uncategorized" or "General").
246
247	* FEATURE: You can now set global defaults as to whether or not
248	FeedWordPress will update the Link Name and Link Description
249	settings for feeds automatically from the feed title and feed
250	tagline. (By default, it does, as it has in past versions.) Whether
251	this behavior is turned on or off, you can still override the
252	default behavior using feed settings of `hardcode name: yes`,
253	`hardcode name: no`, `hardcode description: yes`, or `hardcode
254	description: no`.
255
256	* FEATURE: Users can now provide one or several "aliases" for an
257	author, just as they can for a category. For example, to make
258	FeedWordPress treat posts by "Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger" and "Pope
259	Benedict XVI" as by the same author, edit the user profile for Pope
260	Benedict XVI and add a line like this to the "User profile" field:
261
262	a.k.a.: Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
263
264	You can add several aliases, each on a line by itself. You can also
265	add any other text you like to the Profile without interfering with
266	the aliases.
267
268	* FEATURE: Users can now choose how to handle syndicated posts that
269	are in unfamiliar categories or by unfamiliar authors (i.e.,
270	categories or authors whose names are not yet in the WordPress
271	database). By default, FeedWordPress will (as before) create a new
272	category (or new author) and use it for the current post and any
273	future posts. This behavior can be changed, either for all feeds or
274	for one or another particular feed.
275
276	There are now three different options for an unfamiliar author: (1)
277	FeedWordPress can create a new author account and attribute the
278	syndicated post to the new account; (2) FeedWordPress can attribute
279	the post to an author if the author's name is familiar, and to a
280	default author (currently, this means the Site Administrator
281	account) if it is not; (3) FeedWordPress can drop posts by
282	unfamiliar authors and syndicate only posts by authors who are
283	already in the database.
284
285	There are, similarly, two different options for an unfamiliar
286	category: (1) FeedWordPress can create new categories and place the
287	syndicated post in them; (2) FeedWordPress can drop the unfamiliar
288	categories and place syndicated posts only in categories that it is
289	already familiar with. In addition, FeedWordPress 0.95 lets you
290	choose whether posts that are in no familiar categories should be
291	syndicated (and placed in the default category for the blog) or
292	simply dropped.
293
294	You can set the default behavior for both authors and categories
295	using the settings in Options --> Syndication. You can also set
296	different behavior for specific feeds by adding the `unfamiliar
297	author` and / or `unfamiliar categories` settings to the Link Notes
298	section of a feed:
299
300	unfamiliar author: (create\|default\|filter)
301	unfamiliar categories: (create\|default\|filter)
302
303	A setting of `unfamiliar author: create` will make FeedWordPress
304	create new authors to match unfamiliar author names *for this feed
305	alone*. A setting of `unfamiliar author: default` will make it
306	assign posts from unfamiliar authors to the default user account. A
307	setting of `unfamiliar author: filter` will cause all posts (from
308	this feed alone) to be dropped unless they are by an author already
309	listed in the database. Similiarly, `unfamiliar categories: create`
310	will make FeedWordPress create new categories to match unfamiliar
311	category names for this feed alone; `unfamiliar categories:
312	default` will cause it to drop any unfamiliar category names; and
313	`unfamiliar categories: filter` will cause it to both drop any
314	unfamiliar category names and to only syndicate posts that are
315	placed in one or more familiar categories.
316
317	These two new features allow users to do some coarse-grained
318	filtering without having to write a PHP filter. Specifically, they
319	offer an easy way for you to filter feeds by category or by author.
320	Suppose, for example, that you only wanted to syndicate posts that
321	your contributors place in the "Llamas" category. You could do so by
322	setting up your installation of WordPress so that the only category
323	in the database is "Llamas," and then use Options --> Syndication to
324	set "Unfamiliar categories" to "don't create new categories and
325	don't syndicate posts unless they match at least one familiar
326	category". Now, when you update, only posts in the "Llamas" category
327	will be syndicated by FeedWordPress.
328
329	Similarly, if you wanted to filter one particular feed so that only
330	posts by (for example) the author "Earl J. Llama" were syndicated to
331	your site, you could do so by creating a user account for Earl J.
332	Llama, then adding the following line to the settings for the feed
333	in Link Notes:
334
335	unfamiliar author: filter
336
337	This will cause any posts from this feed that are not authored by
338	Earl J. Llama to be discarded, and only the posts by Earl J. Llama
339	will be syndicated. (If the setting is used on one specific feed, it
340	will not affect how posts from other feeds are syndicated.)
341
342