OpenACS Release Notes

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OpenACS Release Notes

Release 5.10.1

The release of OpenACS 5.10.1 contains the 94 packages of the oacs-5-10 branch. These packages include the OpenACS core packages, the major application packages (e.g., most of the ones used on OpenACS.org), and DotLRN 2.10.1. The release is probably the most secure and with the most tested code since ever.

Altogether, OpenACS 5.10.1 differs from OpenACS 5.10.0 by the following statistics

        3038 files changed, 1291141 insertions(+), 354533 deletions(-)

These changes were contributed by 8 committers (Antonio Pisano, Gustaf Neumann, Günter Ernst, Héctor Romojaro, Michael Aram, Raúl Rodríguez, Sebastian Scheder, and Thomas Renner) and additional 8 patch/bugfix providers (Felix Mödritscher, Frank Bergmann, Franz Penz, Josue Cardona, Keith Paskett, Markus Moser, Marty Israelsen, and Monika Andergassen) - all sorted by the first names.

In terms of changes, the release contains the largest amount of changes of the releases in the last 10 years. The packages with the most changes are acs-tcl, acs-templating, xowiki, xowf, acs-automated-testing, acs-admin, and xotcl-core.

Below is a summary of the most important changes, often together with the commit references in Git. The summary was made on subjective criteria. For all details, consult the raw ChangeLog.

Changes in the acs-core packages between OpenACS 5.10.0 and 5.10.1

New Features

Security and Privacy Posture Overview: As expressed as a wish from OpenACS users at the last OpenACS conference, a “Security and Privacy Posture Overview” was added that offers a quick overview of the state of the system and eases access to the parameters scattered over different packages in the system. The page offers:
- Quick overview
- Check of security and privacy relevant package parameters
- Permission and accessibility check of mounted packages
- Response header check
- External library check (CDN vs local usage, vulnerable or outdated libraries) The page is linked from the site-wide-admin page (/acs-admin).
Stronger Password Hashes for OpenACS (commit fe2bdb547, 8eee6a932, 52d2c997e, 62d969c85): Introduction of new password hash functions alongside the pre-existing “salted-sha1”. The new algorithms are named “scram-sha-256”, “scrypt-16384-8-1”, “argon2-argon2-12288-3-1”, “argon2-rfc9106-high-mem”, and “argon2-rfc9106-low-mem”. These algorithms can be specified via the kernel package parameter “PasswordHashAlgorithm”. The algorithms require a recent version of NaviServer and a recent version of OpenSSL, which serves as a crypto library. This feature enhances security against brute-force attacks on password hashes (when db is compromised). Preferences of the password hash algorithms can be set via kernel package parameter “PasswordHashAlgorithm”, the first available algorithm is taken from the preference list, hash re-coding happens automatically at the next login.
Setting of CSP rules based on MIME types (commit 6bc253f1e, commit 94b8513ae). This is necessary to mitigate certain attacks on static SVG files uploaded to, e.g., the content repository. For example, set the following to the ns/server/$server/acs section of your NaviServer configuration file:

        ns_param StaticCSP {
            image/svg+xml "script-src 'none'"
        }

Support for generic icon names Support for generic icon names, which can be mapped differently depending on the installed packages and themes. The support provides a mapping from a set of generic names to the names provided by different libraries sich as Glyph Icons, Bootstrap Icons, Font-Awsome. The provided support can be inspected on the site-wide page of acs-templating.
The generic names can be used via the special tag <adp:icon name="NAME" title=....> in .adp-files. By using this feature, one can use font-based icons (like e.g. glyphicons of Bootstrap5, bootstrap-icons, fa-icons, ...) instead of the old-style .gif and .png images. This makes the appearance more uniform, has better resizing behavior, and works more efficiently (fewer requests for embedded resources). Most of the occurrences of the old-style images in standard core and non-core packages in oacs-5-10 are already replaced. (commit c129c89ec, 996740672, e9cae22dc, c7705c68b, a85ea7301, 58ad43055, 737da5514, a05813ec7, 110b2f5d6, 7011c8fd9, 286fd9e58, 927d9d5ef)
Better Automated Site Configurability: Support for installing themes from install.xml (commit 2f9761160).
Dynamic Cluster Nodes and Cluster Infrastructure (commit 5738761db, 7cbc3e63c, 1a7a7656c, 3faceddc4, 5fba13c0f, 7cbc3e63c, 3faceddc4, 1a7a7656c): Added support for dynamically adding and removal of nodes in an OpenACS cluster. In contrast to static cluster nodes, the IP addresses of dynamic cluster nodes do not have to be provided at startup time. The changes introduce new admin pages and further configuration options.
Optional Caching Deactivation (commit 75c3f2b25): It is possible to deactivate caching via the ns_cache infrastructure when the NaviServer configuration variable cachingmode is set to none. The change modifies per_thread_cache to behave like a per_connection_cache. This option is useful for cluster configurations, when legacy components do not handle cache coherency (e.g. via acs::clusterwide)
Support for Cloud Identity Providers (commit e506dee05, fd7af8d17, 06954d83b). Additional Identity providers can be added as secondary registries (e.g., MS Azure via oauth2), to support e.g. logins via the classical register page and via a cloud registry (requires package xooauth for full functionality)
Client-side double click prevention: This change makes it possible to provide a double click prevention for HTML elements via the CSS class “prevent-double-click”. The double click prevention deactivates a button or an anchor element after clicking for a short time (per default for 1s) and ignores in this time window further clicks. The time window can be specified via the data element oacs-timeout. (commit 5f2edeec2a9a831, 916d365aa11f2d)
Cookie Namespaces (commit ce1573ed8): Important, when multiple OpenACS instances are served from the same domain name, but different cookies have to be used.

Reforms

lc_time_tz_convert: Enforce ISO format for dates and other changes (commit 9a5b5cd97).
template::element validation reform to improve validation on fields (commit 87919f923).
Provide timeouts for caching operations to improve liveliness also when certain calls are hanging (commit 22cd530d4).
Form widget attributes reform consolidating logics for merging tag attributes (commit 3a7fc6a8e).
Streamlined resource_info handling by adding versioning and better management of external library dependencies. External libraries can be used from CDN or downloaded, the versions are checked for vulnerabilities, which are reported via posture overview and package-specific site-wide admin pages.

Configuration Changes

Set the (default) theme package on the subsite upon installation (commit 0ff7101b3).
Improved clusterwide operations with new configuration parameters (commit 5738761db).
New configuration options CSSToolkit and IconSet for acs-subsite (commit fc56a275b).
Support specification of allowed tags/attributes/protocols via global package parameters (commit 657cef99a,fc46466e3).
Made ad_html_security_check configurable (commit bc63ee424).
Support for memory units as default cache sizes (commit 68c853abd).

Bug Fixes

Fixed missing update_content-lob.set_content (commit a3effac23, 4ce8e9fae).
Fixed incorrect HTTP status code on result page (commit 636226cb2).
Fixed signature of service contract implementation (commit b9f0c541c).
Fixed implementation of ad_acs_admin_node (commit 34a823c51).
Fixed reference in doc (commit e596b46f8).
Fixed ad_approval_system_inuse_p implementation (commit bd8afdeeb).
Fixed self-inflicted bug in form variable specification (commit 79e6df943).
Fixed a bug in db_multirow_group_last_row_p (commit aafd1db58).
Fixed issue with ns_parseurl in util::split_location (commit aee571ad1).
Various fixes for Oracle 19c compatibility issues (numerous commits).
Fixed broken function_args definition and other issues (commit 83e45f9b5, d166927d2, etc.).
Fixed a bug in db_driverkey when OpenACS connects to multiple databases, involving the removal of per-thread caching (commit 18e656b00).
Fixed and generalized version_dir handling for download of external resources (commit 8e9a6a5c8).
Fixed selector for click all list callback in core.js (commit 00b9db614).
Fixed a bug in db_foreach with -column_set flag (commit 95e8970d7).
Handle null dates in core.js (commit 1dd928238).
Fixed issues in SQL function calling to avoid incorrect function selection due to typecasting issues (commit bc33e9938).
Corrected problems with session handling in cluster mode and fixed cache coherency issues in clustered environments (commit c0a1cf7b9).

Improvements

Security Improvements
- In addition to the new security features mentioned above, the new release was tested several times by different vulnerability scanners, which triggered a large number of changes as for example strengthening the input tests in page contracts, consequent use of bind variables and permission checks.
- New API ad_mktmpdir and ad_opentmpfile (commit a10b55d3d).
- Added support for elliptic curve certificates (ecdsa) when the lets-encrypt module from NaviServer is used (commit 2c40f1d9d).
- Hardened page contracts, added many constraints to address potential SQI and XQL etc. attacks (many commits, e.g. 8eee6a932, d4846d106)
- Warn warning when parametersecret is not set (commit 0ec8f0183).
- Safe creation of temporary directories (commit d25ff6593).
- Upgraded internal use of JavaScript and HTML standards to improve security and performance (commit e68a73c92).
Performance Improvements
- New partial index for a common query in acs-tcl (commit aaaf86adb).
- Implemented ad_html_security_check based on ns_parsehtml (commit 387f3de3e).
- Added support for NaviServer built-in ns_trim -prefix (commit 500099e0).
- Change in storing and displaying util user messages (commit bb0702bf3).
Additional Filters for Page Contracts
- Introduced ad_page_contract filter object type (commit 2f9d127a0).
- Introduced a new clock page contract filter (commit 5544faffc).
- Introduced new tmpfile page contract filter (commit 1a179e9bc).
- Allow more characters in argument specs (commit f952d9d5e).
Code Refactoring
- Added a new procedure ad_log_deprecated for unified logging of deprecated usages (commit 0e03b3358).
- Improved configurability of LockfreeCache (commit 9bc412576).
- Reform of site-nodes-procs for improved clarity and ease of maintenance, esp. Oracle (commit 3fe93032e).
- Update of SQL function calls via API, made it callable during initial bootstrap (commit ad97aa747).
- Modernization of idioms and cleanup of deprecated code (e.g., commit a5c537515, e68a73c92, 1d1ff8c4e).
- Improved documentation, localization updates, and typo fixes (e.g., commit 5c23325a3, f3590415f, 7a97e0ea0).
- Phased out outdated procedures and functions that were superseded by more efficient and secure implementations (e.g., commit 6272226b6).
- Deprecated old APIs that no longer align with modern security practices or performance standards (commit cd0af7373).
- Removed legacy support for certain outdated browser features and replaced them with modern alternatives (commit a1a7c22a7).
- Further reduced divergence between Oracle and Postgres SQL. Target version of Oracle could be 12.*, as Extended support ends in 2022 (see https://www.oracle.com/us/support/library/lifetime-support-technology-069183.pdf). This change implies:
  - change “limit ... rownum ...” to standard “fetch first ...”
  - use Postgres schemas where available for stored procedures so that they can be invoked with the same Oracle idiom
Miscellaneous
- Message keys for content repository (commit 2f89a971a).
- Make util::join_location usable for UDP and SMTP (commit 01b5c0d61).
- Zero-dependency implementations of Modal and Tooltip using CSS and JavaScript (commit db0f52664, 02bfffbb2).
- Deprecation of specific functions and APIs in favor of modern replacements (e.g., commit 4493f07b9, 6db041083, 94c505b01).
- Extended API: Introduced new API functions like ad_unless_script_abort, aa_silence_log_entries, and util::json2dict to enhance error handling and logging cleanliness (commit aeb027aeb, f455d60c6, e9298cf02).
- Expanded timezone data and improved internationalization features, including better locale management and updated localization data (commit 828ab0bd4, 47d478bcf).
- Added Support for listing registered URNs (per package on the site-wide admin page of a package, full set on the adm page of acs-templating)
- Added support for relative redirects (commit 867d9441e).
Regression Test:
- The regression test was substantially extended and in part overworked
- The test includes now checks for resource leaks (tDOM documents and nodes, temporary objects, etc.) and leaves less garbage in the /tmp directory
- For the major packages (core and application packages), the tests run without reporting errors.
- For the tests of the majro packages, the system.log is now free of error messages (e.g., when handling cases in the test that are supposed to fail)

Version requirements

Require NaviServer (i.e. drop AOLserver support). Rationale: AOLserver cannot be compiled with the required modules with recent Tcl versions. Trying to backport NaviServer compatibility functions seems to be an overkill for the OpenACS project.
Bootstrap 3 reached EOL in 2019, Bootstrap 4 had EOL 2022, so we should migrate to Bootstrap 5 (details: https://github.com/twbs/release)
Require Tcl 8.6.2, XOTcl 2.1, PostgreSQL 12 (PostgreSQL 11 EOL: November 23), tdom 0.9
Support for fresh installations on Oracle 19c (for details, see: oacs-5-10-on-oracle-19c)

Changes in OpenACS Application Packages

New Packages in OpenACS 5.10.1

bootstrap-icons
caldav
captcha
fa-icons
highcharts
openacs-bootstrap5-theme
For a description of all packages, see: https://openacs.org/repository/5-10/

Changes in package "attachments"

Improvements

Security Improvements
- Strengthen page contracts (3b9068ad)
Code Refactoring
- Replace handcrafted HTML icons with new adp:icon adp tag (f45e6406)
- Replace deprecated util_commify_number, with lc_numeric (518e1b34)
Miscellaneous
- Document public API (fd5b5e1c)
- Improve test suite and cover 100% of public api (3446f91c, c933a64e)

Deprecations

attachments::root_folder_map_p -> duplicates functionalities of attachments::root_folder_p (cc3177d1)

Changes in package "calendar"

New Features

Inclusion of multiple calendars (77f4db84): name calendar forms in a way that multiple calendars can be embedded on the same page (relevant in the context of .LRN portlets)

Bug Fixes

Javascript fixes (b1d49bc1)
Fix retrieval of a calendar item when a connection context is not available (772449b4, a049d806)

Improvements

Security Improvements
- Improve/harden input validation (many commits)
- Don’t expose immutable values as hidden formfields (03e3f2e7, 31955520)
Code Refactoring
- Replace deprecated API (8e6d01a0, 9cfbf8a1)
- Streamline idioms (50c5c2d3)
- Replace handcrafted HTML icons with new adp:icon adp tag (054c46cc, 8bb2cd6f)
- Replace custom calendar widget implementation with native HTML5 form fields and streamline input validation (6bd30d58, f5118fb4)
Miscellaneous
- Improve spelling in catalog files (258edac5)
- Pass properties to master template as literal according to best practices (9598e88e)
- Improve API documentation (d924a307)
- Cleanup vestigial features/dead code (various commits)
- Port of downstream localization (90dbfa96)
- Various typos and formatting improvements
- Increase test suite of functionalities and cover 100% of public api (various commits)

Deprecations

calendar::adjust_date -> inlined the one occurrence (fbd97314)
calendar::from_sql_datetime, calendar::make_datetime -> not used upstream, superseded by modern clock idioms and HTML5 features (bccd1c3a, 7264a2fe)
cal_outlook_gmt_sql -> last usage in the codebase 2002 (1ee22f96)
calendar::item::assign_permission. calendar::assign_permissions -> trivial wrappers over the permission api (a1ddaed5, f174fd12)

Changes in package "captcha"

Features

Bot protection for your form implements template::widget::captcha. This can be used in forms exposed to the public to hinder automated bots. Based on the implementation at https://fossil-scm.org/
Scalable a new captcha is generated fast, from scratch and on the fly
No external dependencies this package does not require any external commands or libraries

Changes in package "categories"

Reforms

Mark service contract implementations as private (efd3b8e5, 886068d3)

Improvements

Performance Improvements
- Create indices on FK constraints (e935a857)
Security Improvements
- Add include contracts where missing (40b5bdc3, 667d9cdf, 5d3fb337)
- Strengthen page contracts (1ad80ea6)
Code Refactoring
- Replace deprecated template::util::is_true with inline string idiom (f2604994)
- Replace handcrafted HTML icons with new adp:icon adp tag (035bd73b)
- Better qualify command invocation (a693a8be)
Miscellaneous
- Cleanup and formatting changes (various commits)
- Increase test suite of functionalities and reach 80.82% coverage of public api (various commits)
- Improved documentation of library file and public API (8da391b1)

Changes in package "chat"

New Features

Anonymous chat participants (3a73986c, 214684f3): use newly introduced support for anonymous users built in xowiki to support not logged-in users
Chat include (c2ab5967) : Move the main chat rendering in an include to allow reuse in other contexts

Bug Fixes

Fix typo in datamodel code affecting new installations (98d26cfa)
Improve/fix Oracle compatibility (d3e0d69b, cb2e52d0, 04e229f2)
Allow for arbitrary arguments to be passed when extending inherited methods (95ca0c0e)
Allow to persist chat messages also in the chat sweeper (4bf7bd59)

Improvements

Performance Improvements
- (Postgres only) Improve performances when fetching the available chat rooms using recursive permission api (56d47b31, 0b2cff50)
Security Improvements
- Improve SQL quoting (e2146673)
- Harden page contracts and use new contract features from the core (43955d16, 148be6f4, 7f6b5c92)
Code Refactoring
- Replace :xo::clusterwide -> ::acs::clusterwide for cluster-aware chaching (76fbfe1f)
- Replace ::xo::db::sql -> ::acs::dc as tcl abstraction for db stored procedures (76fbfe1f)
- Replace deprecated api (928793ce, cb2e52d0)
- Replace handcrafted HTML icons with new adp:icon adp tag (054c46cc)
- Reduce layers of redirection when accessing a chat room (4f57e272)
Miscellaneous
- Prefer message keys from core packages (943daaa3)
- Cleanup vestigial features/dead code (23fe7d3a, b8d5da6d, d7434cae)
- Pass properties to master template as literal according to best practices (98a2b1ec)
- Extend test suite to 100% public API coverage (117c66e3, 210e3f16, b2abc81c, fe60e3d1)
- Improve configurability and styling of the chat includelet (54bb236f, 289ddee6)
- Streamline idioms (2b0bd209)
- Replace legacy message keys (a465cf76)
- Improve localization (0252ed50)

Changes in package "dotlrn" and associated packages

Reforms

dotlrn:
- Deactivate obsolete SQL function in creation script (sql/postgresql/dotlrn-create.sql). This complements commit 3a280c7e in acs-kernel (commit 1b845ba0).
- Use dotlrn-bootstrap3-theme as default theme (commit c6547eb8).
theme-zen: Adapt to commit 3a280c7e (acs-kernel) and c6547eb8 (dotlrn) (commit 6d50cb9b).

Improvements

Performance Improvements
- dotlrn: Prefer APIs returning cached values before querying the DB using site_node:: (commit 4d025e63)
- dotlrn-fs: Prefer APIs returning cached values before querying the DB using site_node:: (39bcaf3f)
Security Improvements
- dotlrn: Mitigating potential XSS attacks using NaviServer own ns_quotehtml (commit 4476e815)
Code Refactoring
- dotlrn:
  - Replace deprecated notification::get_interval_id with notification::interval::get_id_from_name (commit 871dd502)
  - Replace deprecated notification::get_delivery_method_id with notification::delivery::get_id (commit a9760fc4)
  - Replace deprecated template::util::is_true with [string is true -strict $value] (commit 38981891)
  - Replace deprecated util_commify_number with lc_numeric (commit 7c14688e)
  - Replace deprecated twt::user::create and twt::user::delete with the respective acs::test::user:: counterparts (commit dea8673e)
  - Cleanup usage of deprecated API template::util::nvl (commit 0775f434, 73b52fba)
  - Cleanup usage of deprecated API acs_privacy:: (commit d31c3b6f, 9ae5aa4a)
  - Replace deprecated bulk_mail::parameter with parameter::get (commit b10c5f26)
  - Replace deprecated forum::new_questions_deny and forum::new_questions_allow with permission::grant (commit 4880f884)
  - Replace custom calendar widget implementation with native HTML5 fields (commit 113b1cb4)
- dotlrn-bm: Replace deprecated bulk_mail::pretty_name with parameter::get (commit b6b7aec1)
- dotlrn-calendar: Reform handling of admin permissions (commit ce9e27d4, 6a9ada80)
- dotlrn-forums:
  - Replace deprecated notification::get_interval_id with notification::interval::get_id_from_name (commit d77b24b7)
  - Replace deprecated notification::get_delivery_method_id with notification::delivery::get_id (commit 075b8adc)
- dotlrn-fs: Replace Naviserver ns_mktemp with ad_tmpnam (commit f5fd2c96)
- dotlrn-homework:
  - Alter reference to db-error file in acs-subsite (commit d47e5f2c)
  - Replace deprecated util_commify_number with lc_numeric (commit 990b0b0a)
  - Replace handcrafted HTML icons with adp:icon adp tag (commit 3f1557c2)
- dotlrn-news:
  - Replace deprecated notification::get_interval_id with notification::interval::get_id_from_name (commit 586cc6ae)
  - Replace deprecated notification::get_delivery_method_id with notification::delivery::get_id (28661484)
- dotlrn-static: Fix applet mount point (commit 233e0c6c)
- new-portal:
  - Replace export_ns_set_vars with export_vars (commit e8ab835d)
  - Prefer adp:icon adp tag over handcrafted HTML icons (commit 7afadf3b)
Miscellaneous
- All packages:
  - Cleanup and formatting (various commits)
  - Strengthen page contracts (various commits)
  - Document public API, e.g., in new-portal, dotlrn-dotlrn (e.g., commit 75656f6f, 05540825)
  - Improve test coverage, e.g., in dotlrn-portlet (e.g., commit dcfe916b, 712e8793, 59ec97b0)

Changes in package "faq"

New Features

faq::new API (1fc77330): an API to create an FAQ, also useful for testing

Bug Fixes

Fixes for Oracle compatibility (3e5418a3)

Reforms

Mark service contract implementations as private (987ef426)
Mark apm callbacks as private (6861af77)

Improvements

Security Improvements
- Harden page contract validation (a2904377, 87d05896, a4c9fc52)
Code Refactoring
- Replace deprecated twt::user::create and twt::user::delete with their acs::test::user:: counterpart (27286797)
- Replace handcrafted HTML icons with new adp:icon adp tag (17acc438, 5a7ce6b6)
- Replace rp_form_put with plain ns_set idioms (d7deda66)
Miscellaneous
- Cleanup and formatting changes (various commits)
- Increase test suite of functionalities and cover 100% of public api (various commits)

Changes in package "file-storage"

Bug Fixes

Make fs::get_file_package_id more robust to cases where the package_id is not set on the object itself (bbbbf93b)
Fixes for Oracle compatibility (9a5b9cf4, 0d4331cb, de75d648)
Fix regression when the files list is rendered in “list” format (d0eecbe4)

Reforms

Make oacs-dav an optional, uninstallable dependency (c8e3b5f8)
Make Service Contract implementation private and use the abstract api instead (81ef9be7, 6eee7dbd, 846b226b, f56b331a)

Improvements

Performance Improvements
- (Postgres only) Improve performances when fetching folder files using recursive permission api (02f64379)
Security Improvements
- Improve server and client-side input validation (various commits)
Code Refactoring
- Reduce divergency between Oracle and Postgres codebase (55e70c4f, 2cf7bbf5)
- Replace deprecated template::util::tcl_to_sql_list with NaviServer own ns_dbquotelist (8b1a62d0)
- Replace deprecated twt::user::create and twt::user::delete with their acs::test::user:: counterpart (cbc632d0)
- Cleanup obsolete error catching (d99eccfb)
- Replace handcrafted HTML icons with new adp:icon adp tag (602c473d, 651ab668, 53b1248d)
- Replace ad_tmpnam with ad_opentmpfile and ad_mktmpdir, safer from race conditions (576d51a1, 8a9ac2b9)
Miscellaneous
- Cleanup and formatting (various commits)
- Improve test suite and cover 100% of public api (various commits)

Deprecations

fs::add_created_version -> behavior specific to this proc was to fs::add_version, largely similar (815cbaae)
fs::torrent::get_hashsum -> superseded by NaviServer ns_md command (aaf2751d)
fs::item_editable_p, fs::item_editable_info -> Unused, unclear usefulness (86cd3917)
fs::get_archive_extension -> trivial wrapper over the parameter api (aa63e153)
fs::get_folder_contents -> Not used in the codebase, same result can be achieved with other api (72e444b8)

Changes in package "forums"

Bug Fixes

Fix broken message key (74cadd4f)
Fixes for Oracle compatibility (f5db030e)
Rely less on values provided by the connection (f85185af)

Reforms

Adapt template::element calls after replacing template::util::get_opts (16b22e9e)
Mark service contract implementations as private (bb6e3b3b)
Use UTF-8 emojis instead of actual images to render supported smileys in forum posts (335f1ede)

Improvements

Performance Improvements
- Avoid transaction when unnecessary (aeb4e876)
- Use cached api when detecting if attachments are supported (83b9a2e8)
Security Improvements
- Improve server response in error situations (b2e833ab)
- Harden page contract validation (c92794b8, 22c992f2, 655eea7b, 619b2580, c403e313, 189442f8, 0a4c5d1d)
- Increase permission checking (6ddf512d)
Code Refactoring
- Pass properties in adp consistently with @….;literal@ best practice (dc2b6f8f, 44d3483e)
- Replace deprecated template::util::is_true with inline string idiom (88c779b5)
- Replace handcrafted HTML icons with new adp:icon adp tag (1b6adbcb, 0cf9dfe4)
Miscellaneous
- Cleanup and formatting changes (various commits)
- Increase test suite of functionalities and cover 100% of public api (various commits)

Deprecations

forum::new_questions_allowed_p -> Trivial shotrhand to forum::get (5e7c3e01)
forum::new_questions_allow and forum::new_questions_deny -> Trivial shorthands to forum::edit
forum::message::get_attachments -> Unused and repleaceable by other API

Changes in package "general-comments"

Bug Fixes

Fixes for Oracle compatibility (e6fdab8b)

Reforms

Reimplement add/edit UI to use ad_form and reduce duplication (0842ac32)

Improvements

Security Improvements
- Harden page contract validation (a17a883b, 438b62a5, 150c40c4, c08961bd, 993e67b1, 026075fc, b041c11b, b6e063dc, dc08e85c, c34e943b)
Code Refactoring
- Replace deprecated export_ns_set_vars with alternative idioms (4892cc8d)
- Replace deprecated ad_convert_to_html with ad_html_text_convert (e48e5624)

Changes in package "proctoring-support"

New Features

Support for mock exams (commit 114d489e): introduce parameter record_p in the main proctoring include allowing to turn off artifacts collection. Useful FOR mock exams.
Artifacts data model (commit 9acb6bc8, f9206d9e): proctoring artifacts are now stored in actual database tables and not only on the filesystem.
Test pages (commit 30ea5f4b): the default proctoring installation provides a fully-functional test environment of the admin and regular user functionalities.
Push updates for new artifacts (commit 337d8cb6): the proctoring display UI now uses websockets to receive push updates from the server when new artifacts are available.
Artifacts review UI (commit 99cdda4a and various others): the proctoring display UI now enables admin users to review proctoring artifacts via comments or flagging.
Red border (commit d20cb434): allow one to display an additional border around the proctored window. Useful to increase the visibility of the proctored session in a classroom.

Reforms

Proctoring enforcing: captive-portal the proctoring session using a callback mechanism, rather than via includes in the master template (commit 9acb6bc8).
Stop the proctoring session from the client side when no artifacts are sent for too long (commit 0b87b9e0).

Bug Fixes

Be more robust in case of client-side error conditions (commit 64d4dde9, 2c7ff02a, 7dc4239a)
Use PiP to circumvent browser powersaving that would shut down MediaStreams when a browser is out of focus. (commit 0b87b9e0, c0d97c91)
Relax enforcing of duplicated images for proctored desktops (commit c72ddbb3)

Improvements

Code Refactoring
- Replace deprecated api (various commits)
- Modernize javascript idioms (various commits)
- Maintain an adequate look and feel using both Bootstrap5 and Bootstrap3 (70a0f52c, f07dfc06, e913ee2b, 54d4f3cc and others)
- Drop custom implementation of “lazy loading” for the proctoring display UI and rely on modern native browser features instead (commit 90d2404c)
Usability
- Improve usability of the proctoring display UI on mobile and when using a keyboard (various commits)
Miscellaneous
- Improve integration with master template (9acb6bc8, 44729649)
- Streamline idioms (various commits)
- Improved documentation
- Increase test suite of functionalities and cover 100% of public api (various commits)
- Extend package localization. Currently English, German, Italian and Spanish are supported.

Changes in package "xotcl-core"

New Features

Added value checker signed (commit 1ce581a)
Added value checker oneof (commits 58bc938, 2dbadad, 65575bf, 58bc938).
Added value checker cr_item_of_package (commit 6fc46f3)
Provided consistent sorting for Database and Tcl sorts (commit 6effe16)

Bug Fixes

Avoiding double quoting (commit 08386db).
Fixed potential memory leaks
- Free explicitly answer ns_set in database “sets” method (commit 158a831)
- Free ns_set storage more eager (when e.g. large queries are used in longer loops) (commit 3d6b05a)
Compatibility Fixes for Oracle 19c (commit de4a9a5, 88f8521, 1408e2b)

Improvements

Security improvements:
- Support for form_parameter specs with value checkers added (commit 64bb847).
- harden page contracts (commit b0c282d)
Performance improvements:
- Improved prepared-statement handling (commit fac52ce)
- Various other changes such as e.g. d22121d
Unified package parameter handing between xo* and oacs-core (commit 66ee181)
Reduced verbosity of logging for streamlined output (commit 0553811).
Stop sending messages to other (potentially stopped) thread to avoid log messages (commit 0aa8c98).

Changes in package "xowiki"

New Features

GUI improvements
- New abstraction xowiki::CSS to provide portability between different frameworks and version of frameworks (commit 99e3331c)
- Added xowiki::bootstrap::card for increased configurability (commits 97685004, 4e09efa9, 136edcc5).
- Use adp:icon for better cross framework compatibility (commits 562e9e48, 19407b34, 71606059)
- Support for Bootstrap5 (commits 97685004, ddae6214, 701612b7, a073060e, de6f0f48, 694c61b5, 48efaa9e, 57a7e91a, b71aacc0, 07be172b and several more)
- Added native CSS classes for Tree renderer and made TreeRenderer more configurable, reduce YUI (commit 83eafdcf).
- Beautify display of CSS tree renderer for deeper trees (commit ab624faa).
Chat improvements
- Reduce server-side guessing of browser capabilities and minimize mode-specific JavaScript code (commit 8d98e9bf).
- Support for anonymous users in chat class, allowing mixed participation of authenticated and non-authenticated users (commit d929ec45).
Drag and Drop improvements
- Support for drag & drop for reordering items for mobile devices (commit 4489907b).
- Extended functionality of the DropZone widget (commit d65bd411).
Added support for archiving of items (commit 4d17aa0e).

Reforms

Generalized handling of error pages in disconnected stage (commit b3b677d4).

Configuration Changes

Update CDN sources where necessary (commit d4d0d85e).
Updates of external libraries and CDN providers (commits d4d0d85e, f71db88b, 2986f329, f22f9b0b, e3b9f244, c63f61c9)
Improved Parameterization *Ability to parameterize www-delete and www-toggle-publish-status with return_url for workflow-specific behavior (commit abba6cd1).
- New package parameter: PackageInitParameter for instance-specific package behavior (commit cc5b9959).
- Added support for passing parameter specs of the form parameter_name:value_constraint to xowiki::Package.get_parameter (commit 9df95cb3).

Bug Fixes:

Test reproducing a bug in acs::test::xpath::get_form_values proc (commit f495cac3).
Fixed test case returned violation on plain instance (commit 78ec506d).
Fixed xowiki create_form_with_form_instance automated test (commit a9a37dcc).
Handle more gracefully the case of missing files on the filesystem (commit 72c1aeeb).

Improvements:

Improved autosave support (commit b373091c).
Added support to check the file types of uploaded content (commit 80756c4b).
Improved portability
- Added missing Oracle support for Oracle 19c (commit 777eadbc).
- Fix for Oracle 19c issues (commit 777eadbc).
Improved error handling
- Improved handling of pages with parent_id == 0 (commit 7637ff52).
- Improved error message clarity and handling (multiple commits).
- Improved warning message (commit 80c69179).
- Various small improvements in handling form pages and error messages (commit 1c11ce20).
Various API improvements:
- Updated interface for Page.create_form_page_instance (commit c0ee21d6).
Security improvements:
- Enhanced form and query variable validation (commit d405042d).
- Improved safety of SQL queries (commit be15be72).
Code Maintenance:
- Cleanup and modernization of code, removal of obsolete and commented code (multiple commits).
- Extended regression test (commit 8daa654b).
- Improved comments (commit 9e9a99f5).
- Improved documentation and cleanup (commit 27609be3).

Deprecations:

Cleanup of deprecated API references and methods (commit b0a9b875, commit fc1e48d1, commit 2c490318).
Logging of deprecated usages unified under ad_log_deprecated (commit 56d4b9d5).
Removal of features and scripts no longer in use (commit 726cc0dd, commit c8100365).
Added “@see” to deprecated proc (commit bb2fa23a).
Got rid of legacy message key menu-Clipboard-Copy (commit ba901036).

Changes in package "xowf"

New Features

Improved Support E-Learning applications (mostly inclass exam)
- Support for restricting access to exams based on IP addresses (7fc8473).
- Drag and Drop interface for feedback files (fd68c22).
- Support for pool questions in the test-item family (No specific commit hash related to this feature was found in the provided content).
- Improved support for viewing and downloading exam results (250d5a4).
- Added Support for viewing/altering all configuration options for inclass exams via modal dialogs (39d5063).
- Added Parameter to allow/disallow page translation and spell checker for exams (commits 97e383e, 20a2d49).

Configuration Changes

Turn off production mode by default (363c839).

Bug Fixes

Fixed achieved points in exam statistics per question (f05631f).
Fix for potential loss of statistics for auto-graded exams (fc03d5f).

Improvements

Improved Maintainability: Added Site-wide admin pages for xowf (cbb3bc8).
Improved Performance: Added support for shared workflow definitions (2628b6f).
Improved GUI:
- Improved support for Bootstrap5 (e.g. commits 8623ebd and a5e1f6c).
- Enhanced usability and styling for inclass exams and workflows (3d33b2a).

Changes in package "xotcl-request-monitor"

New Features

Ability to order by time values in long-calls listing (Commit 031ee35).
Support for ordering long-calls by start time or by end time in long-calls listing (Commit 7c9ffe9).

Configuration Changes

Added configurability to watchdog with parameters like “-maxWaiting” and “-maxRunning” (Commit 60ba4e3).

Improvements

Security Improvements
- Protect query-parameters against exceptions with empty values (Commit 176a32b).
- Added safety measures for potential DOS attacks and improved request blocking (Commit ef39b79).
- Improved strictness of tests (Commit ceb4a88).
- Improved description of package parameters (Commit ff8c44d)
- Enhanced the initial population of request-monitor counters for robustness (Commit 622d8f2).
- Switch from xo::db::sql to acs::dc interface (Commit a2d4688).

Release 5.10.0

The release of OpenACS 5.10.0 contains the 93 packages of the oacs-5-10 branch. These packages include the OpenACS core packages, the major application packages (e.g. most the ones used on OpenACS.org), and DotLRN 2.10.0.
Functional improvements
- Features:
  - Support for range types in .xql files:
    PostgreSQL supports range types since 9.5. When using range types, square braces have to be used in SQL statements. Since OpenACS uses always Tcl substitution in .xql files, and OpenACS does NOT allow backslash substitution in these files, square brackets could not be escaped and therefore not be used in .xql files so far. This change allows now a developer to deactivate the substitution by passing e.g. -subst none to the db_* command using the .xql file. Valid values for -subst are all, none, vars, and commands, default is all which is exactly the behavior of previous releases. Therefore, this change is fully backward compatible.
  - Registry for .js and .css libraries: allow besides classical URLs symbolic names for loading external resources (e.g. jquery), this makes it easier to upgrade libraries in multiple packages (without running into problems with duplicate versions) and supports switching between CDN and local pathsURN. The existing implementation is based on URNs and extends the existing template-head API to support registration for URNs. A URN provides an abstraction and a single place for e.g. updating references to external resources when switching between a CDN and a locally stored resource, or when a resource should be updated. Instead of adding e.g. a CDN URL via template::head::add_script, one can add an URN and control its content from a single place. Use common namespaces for OpenACS such as urn:ad:css:* and urn:ad:js:*.
    
    Register URNs:
    Example provider (e.g. in some theme):
    template::register_urn \ -urn urn:ad:js:jquery \ -resource /resources/xowiki/jquery/jquery.min.js
    
    The registered URN can be used like classical URL after registration.
    Example consumer:
    template::head::add_javascript -src urn:ad:js:jquery
    
    Declare composite files: Provide an interface to define that a .js file or a .css file contains multiple other .js/.css files in order to reduce the number of requests.
    template::head::includes -container urn:js::style.js -parts {urn:ad:js:jquery ...}
  - Improved API browser: Visualization for code dependencies (which procs calls what, from where is a proc being called) and test-coverage
  - Warn site administrators about expiring certificates
  - Added text/markdown to the accepted text formats or rich-text widget
  - Additional input types (and widgets) for ad_form:
    
    checkbox_text
    color
    email
    tel
    url
    number
    file (multiple)
    h5date and h5time: date and time fields using native HTML5 visualization and input normalization
  - Added additional page_contract filter: oneof(red|green|blue)
  - template::add_event_listener and template::add_confirm_handler now can target elements by CSS selector
  - Improved support for streaming HTML: The new API function template::collect_body_scripts can be used to get the content of template::script or CSP calls (template::add_body_script, template::add_event_listener, template::add_body_handler, template::add_script) when streaming HTML (incremental HTML) is used. Before, these call could bot be used for streaming HTML.
- Reforms:
  - Login:
    Get rid of bugging "login page expired" messages. The 17 years old construct was replaced by newer means to avoid caching of form values from the login form. Admins of existing sites should set the kernel parameter LoginPageExpirationTime to 0
  - Forums:
    
    Removed hard-coded dependency with registered_users group when checking forum permissions
    Don't rely so heavily on acs_permissions to model forum configuration, as this can have unexpected consequences in convoluted multi-group/multi-subsite scenarios. Prefer simpler table attributes instead
    New style of attachments to the forums, allowing multiple attachments to a single message directly from the message post page, using the multiple file input widget. Retain compatibility with old style attachments, using the new 'AttachmentStyle' package instance parameter. Currently, this supports two values: 'simple' (new behavior) and 'complex' previous behavior.
  - Chat:
    
    Revamping of the GUI
    Responsiveness
    Full screen mode
    Skins support (minimal, classic and bubbles, included): Skins are located in the new /packages/xowiki/www/resources/chat-skins/ directory. New skins can be created by just adding the css and js files in the skins directory, and naming them accordingly (chat-$SKIN_NAME.{js|css}).
    Avatars (can be enabled per room)
    Number of active users in chat
    Tab notifications of new messages
    
    Web Notifications:
    
    https://www.w3.org/TR/notifications/
    https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Notifications_API/Using_the_Notifications_API
  - acs-lang:
    
    admin pages:
    
    Added the option to unregister (delete permanently the message key from all locales) a message key that has been already marked as deleted. Useful for cleaning up old message keys.
    Added the option to undelete, using the new ::message::undelete proc.
    Made number and category (untranslated/deleted/...) of messages coherent in all pages.
    Added the columns 'total' and 'deleted' to the index page.
    
    object_id reference: it is now possible to associate a message key to an object_id in a way that e.g. when the object is deleted, so is the message key. This addresses cases such as the message keys generated by group creation or by the new XoWiki localized fields
  - Notifications:
    
    Improved scalability for notifications: One of the most expensive operations in large site is the cleanup for notification_requests in situations, where the user has lost permissions on an object, on which the user wanted to receive notifications. This check was performed previously in notification::sweep::cleanup_notifications via a permission check over all notification requests, which can be very costly on large sites. This change moves this cleanup into the actual notification sending, where the permissions have to be sent anyhow.
    When sending a notification on behalf of a person, if the system is not configured to process replies to notification, do not set the reply-to address to anything different than the sender
    Notifications: proper cleanup of acs_objects resulting from the deletion of dynamic notification requests
  - User/Person/Party API: rework and rationalize caching of all party, person and user API, create separate caches for each of these types, make the API and return dicts. acs_user::get will not fail anymore with non-existing user.
  - User Portrait: created API to retrieve and create, store and delete the user's portrait. Also address leftover child relationships from the past and delete them properly.
Non-functional Changes
- Improved automated regression test infrastructure and test coverage
  - All packages in the oacs-5-10 branch pass regression test
  - Web testing was separated from non-maintained tcltest and was built on the standard OpenACS infrastructure
  - Include web testing per default in standard regression testing
  - Introduced new test authentication authority, allowing to run many user administration tests outside the context of a "real authority": in cases where the real authority depends on external services to proof identity, (e.g. Kerberos), those tests would just fail.
  - Introduce the display of warnings in the UI of automated testing
  - Added test coverage information in the automated testing pages, using the new proc-coverage API and providing test coverage information for packages and system wide.
  - Increased overall coverage of public API
  - New tests checking various data-model properties and smells
- Improved scalability:
  - Provided lock-free implementation of ad_page_contract_filters and ad_page_contract_filter_rules. This change improves parallel processing of requests and is primarily interesting for sites with a few mio page views per days. These locks were among the most frequent nsv locks
  - Reduced locks on util_memoize_cache my more invariants values into per-thread caching (acs_lookup_magic_object, ad_acs_version, .... ) and by avoiding specialized calls, which can be realized by already optimized ones (apm_package_installed_p_not_cached ref-timezones was most frequently used util_memoize_cache entry). These changes are necessary to avoid full still-stand on the unfortunate long-time locks on util_memoize_cache stemming from permission and user management with wild-card flush operations, which require to iterate over all cache entries (which might be on a busy server several hundred thousands)
  - Added new interface for cache partitioning to reduce lock latencies on high load websites
  - Added new interface for lock-free per-thread and per-request caching to avoid scattered ad-hoc implementations
  - Better reuse of DB handles (reduced expiring/reopen/etc.), faster access to handles
- Improved startup time:
  - When the package acs-automated-testing is disabled, startup time is reduced by avoiding loading of support functions and tests; the size of the blueprint is reduced
  - xowf: loading of at-jobs is significantly improved.
- Security improvements:
  - Strengthened page contracts
  - CSP support for application packages
  - CSP fine tuning
- Better exception handling based on Tcl 8.6 exception handlers (try and throw, also available in Tcl 8.5)
  - Provided a new ad_try implementation based on Tcl's try replaces now the old ad_try, with_catch and with_finally, which are marked as deprecated
  - The new ad_try is in essence Tcl's try but with predefined handling of ad_script_abort and should be also used instead of catch, when the OpenACS API is used (which might use script aborts)
  - All core packages use the new ad_try instead of the deprecated versions.
- Connection close reform:
  - NaviServer/AOLserver continue after connection closing commands to execute a script. This is in many situations not desired, especially, when for the page as well a .adp file exists, which will try to deliver this on the already closed connection. This can lead to errors in the error.log file, which are sometimes hard to analyze
  - Due to this cleanup, developers should use in most such cases cases ad_script_abort
  - Connection closing commands are e.g. ad_returnredirect, ad_redirect_for_registration, cr_write_content, ad_page_contract_handle_datasource_error, ad_return_string_as_file, ad_return_complaint, ad_return_error, ad_return_forbidden, ad_return_warning, ad_return_exception_page, ns_returnredirect, ns_return, ns_returnerror
  - The new version has made on most occasions explicit, when the script should abort.
- API changes (new and extended API calls):
  - New API call category::get to obtain category description for a category_id and locale
  - New utility ad_pad emulating both lpad and rpad typically available in DBMSs
  - New proc lc_content_size_pretty, prettify data size given in bytes. It supports three different standards (SI base-10, IEC base-2 and the old JEDEC base-2), default is SI base-10.
  - New flag -export for ad_form: this flag uses export_vars under the hood and supports all of this API's features (e.g. :multiple, :sign, :array). This addresses a long standing TODO
  - util::pdfinfo: simple poppler-utils wrapper to extract pdf information
  - util::http: leverage new ns_http features such as request file spooling. Native implementation will now be used only on NaviServer >= 4.99.15.
  - Database API:
    
    db_foreach: queries executed inside of a db_foreach will not be issued using a different handle and will therefore be safe to use in a transaction
    db_list_of_lists: new -with_headers flag, which will make the first element of the returned list to be the column names as defined in the query
  - Groups API:
    
    Logics to delete a group type have now been included in the API
    Allow to filter group members by member_state in the API
- Deprecated commands:
  - Many deprecated API calls were included in the code (and sometimes still in use) sometimes more than 10 years after these calls have been deprecated. In case a site modification still uses deprecated code, the user is warned about this. The OpenACS 5.10 code base does not depend on deprecated code.
  - Move deprecated code into separate files
  - Made loading of deprecated code optional (can be controlled via parameter "WithDeprecatedCode" in section "ns_section ns/server/${server}/acs" of the config file. By default, deprecated procs are still loaded
  - When deprecated code is not loaded, the blueprint of the interpreter is smaller. The following number of lines of code can be omitted when loading without the deprecated procs:
    
    acs-tcl: 3178
    acs-templating: 450
    xotcl-core http-client-procs: 830
    acs-content-repository: 1717 (including .xql files)
- Bugfix and Code Maintenance:
  - Made sure all party emails are stored as lowercase through the API
  - Fixed long standing regression in template::list: we were looping through the list "elements", rather than the "display_elements". This prevents specifying different sets of columns to be returned depending on the -formats and -selected_format options in template::list::create.
  - acs-content-repository: New HEIC and HEIF mimetypes
  - acs-mail-lite: handle to_addr specified as "DisplayName <email>" without errors
  - Fixed invalidating of all existing user logins, (aka) "Logout from everywhere" feature, useful e.g. to make sure no device still holds a valid login when we change our password on a device
  - Don't lose the return URL when one tries to join a subsite before being logged in
  - Added doc(base_href) and doc(base_target) for setting <base> element via blank-baster (see issue #3435)
  - Groups:
    
    When a new group is created, flush all the group::get_id caches with the same name so that the new group can be fetched correctly in case it replaces a previously deleted one
    Cleanup message keys coming from groups in acs-translations when a group is deleted
  - acs-lang:
    
    lang::util::convert_to_i18n: do not always register a en_US translation, which would be always overridden. Instead, let lang::message::register make sure that a en_US message exists and create one only as a fallback.
    lc_time_fmt: leverage Tcl clock to address shortcomings such as handling of dates in Julian/Gregorian calendar and impossible dates such as 1999-02-29, implement missing formats, support previously undocumented formats explicitly
  - search: make sure objects in the search indexer queue still exist by the time they are swept by the indexer (e.g. items deleted before the indexer could sweep them)
  - attribute::delete: fix proc so it leverages stored procedure capability of dropping the database table as well
  - util::http: fix UTF-8 encoding issues for some cornercases
  - Localization: Complete Italian and Spanish localization for the whole .LRN set of packages (including themes). Message keys for new and previously localized packages have also been updated
- General cleanup/maintenance
  - Improved handling of server implementation-specific code: server-specific code can be optionally loaded via specifying the server family in the filename. Provided *-procs-aolserver.tcl and *-procs-naviserver.tcl similar to *.postgresql.xql and *.oracle.xql where appropriate
  - Modernization of Tcl idioms.
  - Compliance of files, proc names, ... to the naming conventions.
  - White space cleanup, indentation changes.
  - Improvement of public API documentation
  - Adjustment of proc protection levels (public, private)
  - Adjustment of log severity
  - Cleanup of obsolete files
  - Replacement of handcrafted forms by ad_form
  - Typo fixing
  - Editor hints
  - Replacement of deprecated calls
  - Addition of missing contracts
  - ...
- SQL cleanup:
  - Cleanup of obsolete nonportable SQL constructs in a way Oracle and PostgreSQL code base divergency is reduced:
    
    "nvl" -> "coalesce"
    "sysdate" / "now()" -> standard "current_date" or "current_timestamp"
    Use standard-compliant "dual" table where appropriate (required by Oracle, supported by PostgreSQL)
    Use non-dialectal cast idioms when appropriate
    Adopt CTE idioms in Oracle codebase as well (e.g. connect -> with recursive)
    ... (reference Oracle version will be 11gr2 as is oldest version officially supported by Oracle (See here and here)
  - Reduced superfluous .xql queries
    
    acs-subsite: delete 21 files with un-referenced .xql queries
    acs-tcl: delete 4 files
    news: 3 files
    file-storage: 1 file
    dotlrn: 9 files
- New Packages:
  - cookie-consent: alerting users about the use of cookies on a website
  - boomerang: performance of your website from your end user’s point of view
  - xooauth: OAuth implementation, including LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability)
  - dotlrn-bootstrap3-theme: Bootstrap 3 theme for DotLRN
  - xowf-monaco-plugin: Integration of Monaco editor with for code exercise types in xowf
  - proctoring-support: utilities and user interfaces to implement proctoring of the user session, mainly intended in the context of distance education and online exams. The main proctoring feature relies only on web technologies and does not require any plugin or additional software. Optional support for the Safe Exam Browser has also been introduced. The package is currently at the core of WU Online Exam infrastructure and is integrated in the inclass exam implementation for xowf
Require Tcl 8.6, XOTcl 2.1, PostgreSQL 9.6 (PostgreSQL 9.5 EOL: February 2021), tdom 0.9

Altogether, OpenACS 5.10.0 differs from OpenACS 5.9.1 by the following statistics

 3445 files changed, 215464 insertions(+), 193642 deletions(-)

contributed by 7 committers (Antonio Pisano, Gustaf Neumann, Günter Ernst, Hector Romojaro, Michael Aram, Stefan Sobernig, Thomas Renner) and additional 13 patch/bugfix providers (Felix Mödritscher, Florian Mosböck, Frank Bergmann, Franz Penz, Hanifa Hasan, Keith Paskett, Markus Moser, Maurizio Martignano, Monika Andergassen, Nathan Coulter, Rainer Bachleitner, Stephan Adelsberger, Tony Kirkham). All packages of the release were tested with PostgreSQL 13.* and Tcl 8.6.*.

For more details, consult the raw ChangeLog.

Release 5.9.1

The release of OpenACS 5.9.1 contains the 88 packages of the oacs-5-9 branch. These packages include the OpenACS core packages, the major application packages (e.g. most the ones used on OpenACS.org), and DotLRN 2.9.1.
Summary of changes:
- Refactoring of rich-text editor integration
  - Driving force: Debian packaging (e.g. js minified code is not allowed)
  - Moved out code from acs-templating, provided interfaces to add many different richtext editors as separate packages
  - New OpenACS packages:
    
    richtext-xinha
    richtext-tinymce
    richtext-ckeditor4 (has ability to choose between CDN and local installation via web interface)
- Improving admin interface
  - New theme manager:
    
    Goals:
    
    Make it easier to keep track of themes with local modifications
    Make it easier to create local modification a new themes and to update these
    Show differences between default theme parameter (in DB) and actual settings (in subsite parameters)
    Allow to delete unused themes
    Give site admin hints, which theme is used at which subsite
    Ease theme switching
    
    Added a subsite::theme_changed callback to be able to handle theme changes in custom themes (was also necessary for proper integration with DotLRN theming)
    Added support for these features under subsite admin (/admin/)
    Improved support for themed templates via [template::themed_template]
  - Improved (broken) interface to define/manage groups over web interface
  - Allow to send as well mail, when membership was rejected
  - New functions [membership_rel::get_user_id], [membership_rel::get] and [membership_rel::get_group_id] to avoid code duplication
  - Added support to let user include %forgotten_password_url% in self-registration emails (e.g. in message key acs-subsite.email_body_Registration_password)
  - Improved subsite/www/members
    
    Make it possible to manage members of arbitrary groups
    Improved performance for large groups
    Improved configurability: when ShowMembersListTo is set to "3", show list to members only, when this is not the whole subsite
  - Improved user interface for /admin/applications for large number of applications
  - Various fixes for sitewide-admin pages (under /acs-admin)
  - Update blueprint in "install from repository" (currently just working in NaviServer)
- SQL
  - Further cleanup of .xql files (like what as done for acs-subsite in OpenACS 5.9.0):
    
    36 files deleted
    Removed more than 100 obsolete named queries
    Stripped misleading SQL statements
  - Marked redundant / uncalled SQL functions as deprecated
  - Replaced usages of obsolete view "all_object_party_privilege_map" by "acs_object_party_privilege_map"
  - Removed type discrepancy introduced in 2002:
    
    acs_object_types.object_type has type varchar(1000), while
    acs_object_types.supertype has type varchar(100)
    ... several more data types are involved, using acs_object_types.object_type as foreign key
  - Simplified core SQL functions by using defaults:
    
    Number of functions reduced by a factor of 2 compared to OpenACS 5.9.0 (while providing compatibility for clients using old versions),
    Reduced code redundancy
    
    Affected functions:
    
    Reduced content_item__new from 12 versions to 6,
    Reduce content_revision__new from 7 to 4
    Similar in image__new, image__new_revision, content_item__copy, content_item__get_title, content_item__move
    
    PostgreSQL 9.5 supports named parameter in the same syntax as in Oracle. Further reduction of variants will be possible, once OpenACS requires at least PostgreSQL 9.5
  - Reduced usage of deprecated versions of SQL functions (mostly content repository calls)
  - Reduced generation of dead tuples by combining multiple DML statements to one (reduces costs of checkpoint cleanups in PostgreSQL)
  - Permission queries:
    
    Improved performance
    Support PACKAGE.FUNCTION notation for PostgreSQL to allow calls permission queries exactly the same way as in Oracle (e.g. "acs_permission.permission_p()"). This helps to reduce the number of postgres specific .xql files.
  - Modernize SQL:
    
    Use real Boolean types instead of character(1) (done for new-portal, forums, faq, attachments, categories, dotlrn, dotlrn-forums, evaluation)
    Use real enumeration types rather than check constraints (done for storage_type text/file/lob)
- CR hygienics (reduce cr bloat)
  - Provided means to avoid insert/update/delete operations in the search queue:
    OpenACS adds for every new revision often multiple entries to the search_queue, without providing any means to prevent this. This requires for busy sites very short intervals between queue sweeps (otherwise too many entries pile up). Another consequence is that this behavior keeps the PostgreSQL auto-vacuum daemons permanently active. Many of these operations are useless in cases where the content repository is used for content that should not be provided via search. The changed behavior should honors a publish-date set to the future, since it will not add any content with future publish dates to the search-queue.
  - Reduced number of insert cr_child_rels operations, just when needed:
    cr_child_rels provide only little benefit (allow one to use roles in a child-rel), but the common operation is a well available in cr_items via the parent_id. cr_child_rels do not help for recursive queries either. One option would be to add an additional argument for content_item__new to omit child-rel creation (default is old behavior) and adapt the other cases.
- Security improvements
  - Added support against CSRF (cross site request forgery)
    
    OpenACS maintains a per-request CSRF token that ensures that form replies are coming just from sites that received the form
    CSRF support is optional for packages where CSRF is less dangerous, and such requests are wanted (e.g. search and API-browser)
  - Added Support for W3C "Upgrade-Insecure-Headers" (see https://www.w3.org/TR/upgrade-insecure-requests/):
    For standard compliant upgrade for requests from HTTP to HTTPS
  - Added support for W3C "Subresource Integrity" (SRI; see https://www.w3.org/TR/SRI/)
  - Added support for W3C "Content Security Policy" (CSP; see https://www.w3.org/TR/CSP/)
    
    Removed "javascript:*" links (all such URLs are removed from the 90 packages in oacs-5-9, excluding js libraries (ajaxhelper) and richtext code)
    Removed "onclick", "onfocus", "onblur", "onchange" handlers from all .adp and .tcl files in the 90 packages in oacs-5-9 (excluding js libraries (ajaxhelper) and richtext code)
    Added optional nonces to all <script> elements with literal JavaScript content
  - Removed "generic downloader", which allowed to download arbitrary content items, when item_id was known (bug-fix)
  - Improved protection against XSS and SQL-injection (strengthen page contracts, add validators, added page_contract_filter "localurl", improve HTML escaping, and URI encoding)
  - Fixed for potential traversal attack (acs-api-documentation-procs)
- Improvements for "host-node mapped" subsites
  - Fixed links from host-node mapped subsite pages to swa-functions (must be always on main subsite)
  - Made "util_current_directory" aware of host-node-mapped subsites
  - Added ability to pass "-cookie_domain" to make it possible to use the same cookie for different domains
  - Fixed result of affected commands "util_current_location", "ad_return_url", "ad_get_login_url" and "ad_get_logout_url" for HTTP and HTTPS, when UseHostnameDomainforReg is 0 or 1.
  - Improved UI for host-node maps when a large number of site nodes exists
- Reform of acs-rels
  - Made acs-rels configurable to give the developer the option to specify, whether these are composable or not (default fully backward compatible). This is required to control transitivity in rel-segments
  - The code changes are based on a patch provided by Michael Steigmann. For details, see:
    
    http://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=4031049
    http://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=5330734
- Improved status code handlers for AJAX scenarios
  - Don't report data source errors with status code 200 (use 422 instead)
  - Let "permission::require_permission" return forbidden (403) in AJAX calls (determined via [ad_conn ajaxp])
- Improved Internationalization
  - Extended language catalogs for
    
    Russian (thanks to v v)
    Italian (thanks to Antonio Pisano)
    Spanish (thanks to Hector Romojaro)
    German (thanks to Markus Moser)
  - Added (missing) message keys
  - Improved wording of entries
  - Added message keys for member_state changes, provide API via group::get_member_state_pretty
- Improved online documentation (/doc)
  - Fixed many broken links
  - Removed fully obsolete sections
  - Improved markup (modernize HTML)
  - Updated various sections
- Misc code improvements:
  - 18 issues from the OpenACS-bug-tracker fixed
  - Made code more robust against invalid/incorrect input (page_contracts, validators, values obtained from header fields such as Accept-Language)
  - Fixed quoting of message keys on many places
  - Improved exception handling (often, a "catch" swallows one too much, e.g. script_aborts), introducing "ad_exception".
  - Generalized handling of leading zeros:
    
    Fixed cases where leading zeros could lead to unwanted octal interpretations
    Switch to use of " util::trim_leading_zeros" instead of "template::util::leadingTrim", "dt_trim_leading_zeros" and "template::util::leadingTrim", marked the latter as deprecated
  - URL encoding
    
    "ad_urlencode_folder_path": new function to perform an urlencode operation on the segments of the provided folder path
    "export_vars": encode path always correctly, except -no_base_encode is specified
    Fixed encoding of the URL path in "ad_returnredirect"
  - Improvements for "ad_conn":
    
    Added [ad_conn behind_proxy_p] to check, whether the request is coming from behind a proxy server
    Added [ad_conn behind_secure_proxy_p] to check, whether the request is coming from behind a secure proxy server
    Added [ad_conn ajax_p] to check, whether the request is an AJAX requests (assumption: AJAX request sets header-field Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest")
    Added [ad_conn vhost_url] to obtain the url of host-node-mapped subsites
  - Added various missing upgrade scripts (missing since many years) of changes that were implemented for new installs to reduce differences between "new"-and "old" (upgraded) installations
  - Templating
    
    Get rid of various pesky "MISSING FORMWIDGET: ...formbutton:ok" messages
    Improved support for JavaScript event handlers in template::head
    New functions "template::add_event_listener" and "template::add_confirm_handler"
    Fix handling, when "page_size_variable_p" is set (was broken since ages)
  - Improved location and URL handling:
    
    Refactored and commented "util_current_location" to address security issues, handle IPv6 addresses, IP literal notation, multiple drivers, "
    Improved "security::get_secure_location" (align with documentation)
    
    New functions:
    
    "util::configured_location"
    "util::join_location", "util::split_location"
    
    for working on HTTP locations to reduce scattered regexps handling URL components
    
    Improved IPv6 support
    Use native "ns_parseurl" when available, provide backward compatible version for AOLserver
  - MIME types:
    
    Added more Open XML formats for MS-Office to allowed content types
    Modernized entries to IANA recommendations
    New function "cr_check_mime_type" centralizing the retrieval of the mime_type from uploaded content
  - Finalized cleanup of permissions (started in OpenACS 5.9.0):
    
    Get rid of "acs_object_context_index " (and therefore on "acs_object_party_privilege_map " as well) on PostgreSQL.
    Reasons:
    
    huge table,
    expensive maintenance, used only in a few places,
  - Misc new functions:
    
    "lang::util::message_key_regexp": factor out scattered regexp for detecting message keys
    "ns_md5" and "ns_parseurl": improve compatibility between AOLserver and NaviServer
    "ad_dom_sanitize_html": allow one to specify different sets of tags, attributes and protocols and "ad_dom_fix_html", which is a light weight tidy variant.
  - Improved HTML rendering (acs-api-browser), provide width and height to speed up rendering
  - Improved ADP files (e.g. missing doc(title))
  - Added usage of "ad_include_contract" on more occasions
  - Modernize Tcl and HTML coding
  - Reduced dependency on external programs (use Tcl functions instead)
  - Improved robustness of "file delete" operations all over the code
  - Improved documentation, fix demo pages
  - Aligned usages of log notification levels (distinction between "error", "warning" and "notice") with coding-standards
  - Cleaned up deprecated calls:
    
    Removed usage of deprecated API functions (e.g. "cc_lookup_email_user", "cc_email_from_party", "util_unlist", ...)
    Moved more deprecated procs to acs-outdated
    Marked remaining (and unused) "cc_*" functions as well as deprecated.
  - Improved Oracle and windows support
  - Fixed common spelling errors and standardize spelling of product names all over the code (comments, documentation, ...)
  - Many more small bug fixes
- Packages:
  - New Package Parameters
    
    acs-kernel:
    
    MaxUrlLength: remove hard-coded constant in request processor for max accepted url paths
    SecureSessionCookie: Let site admin determine, whether or not to use secured session cookies (useful, when not all requests are over HTTPS)
    CSPEnabledP: activate/deactivate CSP
    
    acs-kernel (recommended to be set via config file in section "ns/server/${server}/>acs"
    
    NsShutdownWithNonZeroExitCode: tell NaviServer to return with a nonzero return code to cause restart (important under windows)
    LogIncludeUserId: include user_id in access log
    
    acs-api-browser:
    ValidateCSRFP: make checking of CSRF optional (default 1)
    
    acs-content-repository:
    AllowMimeTypeCreationP: Decides whether we allow unknown mime types to be automatically registered (default: 0}
    
    news-portlet:
    display_item_lead_p: Should we display news leads in the portlet? (default 0)
    
    search:
    ValidateCSRFP: make checking of CSRF optional (default 1)
    
    xotcl-request-monitor:
    do_track_activity: turn activity monitoring on or off (default 0)
  - New OpenACS packages:
    
    richtext-xinha
    richtext-tinymce
    richtext-ckeditor4 (has ability to choose between CDN and local installation via GUI)
    openacs-bootstrap3-theme (as used on openacs.org)
    dotlrn-bootstrap3-theme
  - xotcl-core:
    
    Improved XOTcl 2.0 and NX support (e.g. api-browser)
    Added "-debug", "-deprecated" to ad_* defined methods (such as e.g. "ad_instproc")
    Make use of explicit "create" statements when creating XOTcl/NX objects (makes it easier to grab intentions and to detect typos)
    Added parameter to "get_instance_from_db" to specify, whether the loaded objects should be initialized
    Added support for PostgreSQL prepared statements of SQL interface in ::xo::dc (nsdb driver)
  - xowiki:
    
    Named all web-callable methods www-NAME (to make it clear, what is called, what has to be checked especially carefully)
    Moved templates from www into xowiki/resources to avoid naming conflicts
    Improved ckeditor support
    Added usage of prepared statements for common queries
    Improved error handling
    Better value checking for query parameter, error reporting via ad_return_complaint
    Added option "-path_encode" to methods "pretty_link" and "folder_path" to allow one to control, whether the result should be encoded or not (default true)
    
    Form fields:
    
    Improved repeatable form fields (esp. composite cases), don't require preallocation (can be costly in composite cases)
    Added signing of form-fields
    Added HTML5 attributes such as "multiple" (for "file") or "autocomplete"
    Fixed generation of "orderby" attribute based on form-field names
    richtext: allow one to specify "extraAllowedContent" via options
    Improved layout of horizontal check boxes
    
    Menu bar:
    
    Added dropzone (requires bootstrap): drag and drop file upload
    Added mode toggle (requires bootstrap)
    Extended default policies for handling e.g. dropzone (file-upload method)
    Distinguish between "startpage" (menu.Package.Startpage) and "table of contents" (menu.Package.Toc)
    
    Notifications:
    
    Added support for better tailorable notifications: introduced method "notification_render" (similar to "search_render")
    Added support for tailorable subject lines (method "notification_subject")
    
    Improved bootstrap support, use "bootstrap" as PreferredCSSToolkit
    Switched to ckeditor4 as PreferredRichtextEditor
    Improved handling of script-abort from within the payload of ::xowiki::Object payloads
    Added parameter to "get_all_children" to specify, whether the child objects should be initialized
  - xowf:
    
    Added property "payload" to "WorkflowConstruct" in order to simplify customized workflow "allocate" actions
    Internationalized more menu buttons
  - xotcl-request-monitor
    
    Added class "BanUser" (use. e.g. ip address to disallow requests from a user via request monitor)
    Added support for optional user tracking in database
    Added support for monitoring response-time for certain URLs via munin
    Increased usage of XOTcl 2.0 variable resolver (potentially speed improvement 4x)
    Performed some refactoring of response-time handling to allow site-admin to make e.g. use of NaviServer's dynamic connection pool management (not included in CVS)
    Added support for partial times in long-calls.tcl to ease interpretation of unexpected slow calls
    last100.tcl: Don't report hrefs to URLs, except to SWAs
  - chat:
    
    Introduced new options to set chat rooms so login and/or logout message are not issued every time a user enters/exits a chat-room (important for chats with huge number of participants)
    Parameterized viewing of chat-logs
    Fixed cases of over-/under-quoting
    Fixed JavaScript for IE, where innerHTML can cause problems
  - file-storage:
    
    Don't show action keys, when user has no permissions
    Added support for copying of same-named files into a folder (adding suffix)
    Fixed old bugs in connection with "views" package

Altogether, OpenACS 5.9.1 differs from OpenACS 5.9.1 by the following statistics

       3548 files changed, 113292 insertions(+), 90507 deletions(-)

contributed by 5 committers (Michael Aram, Gustaf Neumann, Antonio Pisano, Hector Romojaro, Thomas Renner) and 8 patch/bugfix providers (Frank Bergmann, Günter Ernst, Brian Fenton, Felix Mödritscher, Marcus Moser, Franz Penz, Stefan Sobernig, Michael Steigman). All packages of the release were tested with PostgreSQL 9.6.* and Tcl 8.5.*.

For more details, consult the raw ChangeLog.

Release 5.9.0

The release of OpenACS 5.9.0 contains the 78 packages of the oacs-5-9 branch. These packages include the OpenACS core packages, the major application packages (e.g. most the ones used on OpenACS.org), and DotLRN 2.9.0.
Summary of changes:
- SQL:
  - Improved performance of acs-object deletion.
  - Replaced many manual referential integrity calls by built-in handing in PostgreSQL.
  - Removed various manual bookkeeping and deletion operations in the content repository by built-in handing in PostgreSQL.
  - Removed tree_sortkey on acs-objects to reduce its size and to speedup operations, where the context-id is changed (could take on large installation several minutes in earlier versions)
  - Removed several uncalled / redundant SQL statements and functions.
  - Cleanup of .xql files in acs-subsite:
    
    Some cleanup of .xql files: removed misleading sql-statements from db_* calls, which were ignored due .xql files
    Removed bug where same query-name was used in different branches of an if-statement for different SQL statements, but the query-name lead to the wrong result.
    Removed multiple entries of same query name from .xql files (e.g. the entry "package_create_attribute_list.select_type_info" was 7 (!) times in a single .xql file)
- Web Interface:
  - Improve Performance of WebSites created with OpenACS: e.g. move core.js to a body requests, provide kernel parameter ResourcesExpireInterval to specify expiration times for resources.
  - Much better protection against XSS attacks.
  - Improved HTML validity (especially for admin pages)
  - Improved admin interface:
    
    Placed all installation options to a single page.
    Added pagination to /admin/applications (was unusable for large sites)
    New admin pages for subsites linked from site-wide-admin package (/acs-admin).
    Added explanatory text to several admin pages.
  - Add lightweight support for ckeditor4 for templating::richtext widget (configurable via package parameter "RichTextEditor" of acs-templating. ckeditor4 supports mobile devices (such as iPad, ...)
- Templating:
  - Improved theme-ability: Moved more information into theme packages in order to create responsive designs, reduce hard-coding of paths, HTML etc.
  - Improved include-handling: All includes are now theme-able, interfaces of includes can be defined with "ad_include_contract" (similar to ad_page_contract).
  - Improved them-ability for display_templates. One can now provide a display_template_name (similar to the SQL statement name) to refer to display templates. This enables reusability and is theme-able.
  - Dimensional slider reform (ad_dimensional): Removed hard-coded table layout from dimensional slider. Add backwards compatible templates Move hard-coded styles into theme styling
  - Notification chunks are now theme-able as well (using ad_include_contract)
  - Complete template variable suffixes (adding noi18n, addressing bug #2692, full list is now: noquote, noi18n, literal)
  - Added timeout and configurable secrets for signed url parameters to export_vars/page_contracts. This can be used to secure sensitive operations such as granting permissions since a link can be set to timeout after e.g. 60 seconds; after that, the link is invalid. A secret (password) can be set in section ns/server/$server/acs parameter "parametersecret". For example, one can use now "user_id:sign(max_age=60)" in export_vars to let the exported variable expire after 60 seconds.
- Misc:
  - Added ability to show ns_log statements of current request to developer support output when developer support is activated (controlled via package parameter "TclTraceLogServerities" in the acs-tcl package parameters)
  - Added ability to save data sent by ns_return in files on the filesystem. This can be used to validate HTML content also for password protected pages (controlled via package parameter "TclTraceSaveNsReturn" in the acs-tcl package parameters)
  - New API function "ad_log" having the same interface as ns_log, but which logs the calling information (like URL and call-stack) to ease tracking of errors.
  - Use per-thread caching to reduce number of mutex lock operations and lock contention on various caches (util-memoize, xo_site_nodes, xotcl_object_types) and nsvs (e.g. ds_properties)
  - Improved templating of OpenACS core documentation
  - Improved Russian Internationalization
  - Make pretty-names of acs-core packages more consistent
  - Mark unused functions of acs-tcl/tcl/table-display-procs.tcl as deprecated
  - Many more bug fixes (from bug tracker and extra) and performance improvements.
  - Version numbers:
    
    Require PostgreSQL 9.0 (End Of Life of PostgreSQL 8.4 was July 2014)
    Require XOTcl 2.0 (presented at the Tcl conference in 2011).
- Changes in application packages:
  - Various bug fixes and improvements for e.g. file-storage, forums, news, notifications, xowiki.

Altogether, OpenACS 5.9.0 differs from OpenACS 5.8.1 by the following statistics

      3658 files changed, 120800 insertions(+), 97617 deletions(-)

contributed by 4 committers (Michael Aram, Victor Guerra, Gustaf Neumann, Antonio Pisano) and patch/bugfix providers (Frank Bergmann, Andrew Helsley, Felix Mödritscher, Markus Moser, Franz Penz, Thomas Renner). These are significantly more changes as the differences in the last releases. All packages of the release were tested with PostgreSQL 9.4.* and Tcl 8.5.*.

For more details, consult the raw ChangeLog.

Release 5.8.1

The release contains the 78 packages of the oacs-5-8 branch. These packages contain the OpenACS core packages, major application packages (e.g. most the ones used on OpenACS.org), and DotLRN.
All packages have the following properties:
- SQL:
  - All packages are PostgreSQL 9.1+ compatible (tested with PostgreSQL 9.3)
  - All SQL files with stored procedures use the recommended $$ quoting
  - All SQL-functions have regular function arguments instead of the old-style aliases
  - The function_args() (query-able meta-data) are completed and fixed
  - Incompatible functions (e.g. for sequences) are replaced.
- Tcl:
  - All packages were brought up Tcl 8.5, including the actual Tcl idioms where appropriate (e.g. using the safer expand operator, range indices, dict, lassign, etc.)
  - The code was updated to prefer byte-compiled functions instead of legacy functions from ancient Tcl versions.
  - The code works with NaviServer and AOLserver.
- API:
  - All packages are free from calls to deprecated code (157 functions are marked as deprecated and will be moved into an "outdated" package in the 5.9 or 6.0 release)
  - General overhaul of package management
  - Install-from-local and install-from-repository can be used to install the provided packages based on a acs-core installation. This means that also DotLRN can be installed from repository or from local into an existing OpenACS instance.
  - Install-from-repository offers filtering functions, allows to install optionally from head-channel (for packages not in the base channel of the installed instance). Install-from-repository works more like an app-store, showing as well vendor information
  - Packages can be equipped with xml-based configuration files (e.g. changing parameters for style packages)
  - Package developers can upload .apm packages via workflow for review by core members and for inclusion to the repository. The option is integrated with package management, the link is offered for local packages. We hope to attract additional vendors (universities, companies) to make their packages available on this path.
  - New management-functions for package instances (list, create, delete package instances)
  - Substantially improved API browser:
    
    Show just relevant parts of .xql files for a function
    Provide syntax-highlighting for www scripts as well
    Handle more special cases like e.g. util_memoize
    Provide links to Tcl functions depending on the installed Tcl version
    Provide links to NaviServer or OpenACS functions depending on installed version
    Syntax highlighter uses CSS rather than hard-coded markup
    Significant performance improvement for large installations

Altogether, OpenACS 5.8.1 differs from OpenACS 5.8.0 in about 100,000 modifications (6145 commits) contributed by 5 committers.

Release 5.8.0

Compatibility with PostgreSQL 9.2: The new version installs without any need for special parameter settings in new PostgreSQL versions. This makes it easier to use e.g. shared or packaged PostgreSQL installations.
Compatibility with NaviServer 4.99.5 or newer
Performance and scalability improvements
Various bug fixes

Altogether, OpenACS 5.8.0 differs from OpenACS 5.7.0 in more than 18.000 modifications (781 commits) contributed by 7 committers.

Release 5.7.0

Made changes that extend acs-kernel's create_type and create_attribute procs, so they're optionally able to create SQL tables and columns. Optional metadata params allow for the automatic generation of foreign key references, check exprs, etc.

Release 5.6.0

Added new package dependency type, "embeds". This is a variant of the "extends" package dependency type added in OpenACS 5.5.0. It allows one to write embeddable packages, with scripts made visible in client packages using URLs which include the embedded package's package key. An example embeddable package might be a rewritten "attachments" package. The current implementation requires a global instance be mounted, and client packages generate URLs to that global instance. Among other things, this leads to the user navigating to the top-level subsite, losing any subsite theming that might be associated with a community. Using "embeds", a rewritten package would run in the client package's context, maintaining theming and automatically associating attachments with the client package.
Added global package parameters - parameters can now have scope "local" or "global", with "local" being the default..
Fixes for ns_proxy handling
Significant speedup for large sites
Optional support for selenium remote control (acs-automated-tests)
New administration UI to manage mime types and extension map
Added acs-mail-lite package params for rollout support
Support for 3-chars language codes in acs-lang
Added OOXML mime types in acs-content-repository

Release 5.5.0

PostgreSQL 8.3 is now fully supported, including the use of the built-in standard version of tsearch2.
TinyMCE has been upgraded to 3.2.4.1 with language pack support.
acs-mail-lite now correctly implements rollout support.
Added new package dependency type, "extends". Implements a weak form of package inheritance (parameters and, optionally, templates). Multiple inheritance is supported. For instance, the non-core "layout-managed-subsite" extends the "acs-subsite" and "layout-manager" packages, resulting in a package that combines the semantics of both.
Added new package attribute "implements-subsite-p" (default "f"). If true, this package may be mounted as a subsite and is expected to implement subsite semantics. Typically used by packages which extend acs-subsite.
Added new package attribute "inherit-templates-p" (default "t"). If true, the package inherits templates defined in the packages it extends. This means that the package only needs to specify templates where the UI of an extended package is modified or extended. This greatly reduces the need to fork base packages when one needs to customize it. Rather than modify the package directly, use "extends" rather than "requires" then rewrite those templates you need to customize.
Added a simple mechanism for defining subsite themes, removing the hard-wired choices implemented in earlier versions of OpenACS. The default theme has been moved into a new package, "openacs-default-theme". Simplifies the customization of the look and feel of OpenACS sites and subsites.
The install xml facility has been enhanced to allow the calling of arbitrary Tcl procedures and includes various other enhancements written by Xarg. Packages can extend the facility, too. As an example of what can be done, the configuration of .LRN communities could be moved from a set of interacting parameters to a cleaner XML description of how to build classes and clubs, etc.
Notifications now calls lang::util::localize on the message subject and body before sending the message out, using the recipient locale if set, the site-wide one if not. This will cause message keys (entered as <span>#</span>....# strings) to be replaced with the language text for the chosen locale.

Release 5.4.2

This is a minor bugfix release.
Site node caching was removed as doesn't work correctly
Critical issues with search on oracle were fixed
More html strict work etc

Release 5.4.1

This is a minor bugfix release.

Release 5.4.0

New Templating API added to add scripts, css, etc to the HTML HEAD and BODY sections of the generated HTML document. Please see /packages/acs-templating/tcl/head-procs.tcl or visit the template::head procs in the API browser for details.
Templates have been modified to comply with HTML strict
The Search package's results page has been improved
TinyMCE WYSIWYG support has been added, RTE and HTMLArea support dropped
acs-mail-lite's send has been cleaned up to properly encode content, to handle file attachments, etc. "complex-send" will disappear from acs-core in a future release.

The ChangeLogs include an annotated list of changes (???) since the last release and in the entire 5.9 release sequence ???.

Release 5.3.1

Bug fixes.
New TIPs implemented.
All Core Automated Tests for Postgres pass.
New Site and Blank master templates and CSS compatible with the .LRN Zen work. Compatibility master templates are provided for existing sites.

The ChangeLogs include an annotated list of changes (???) since the last release and in the entire 5.9 release sequence ???.

Release 5.3.0

Bug fixes.
New TIPs implemented.
All Core Automated Tests for Postgres pass.

Release 5.2.0

Bug fixes.
New TIPs implemented.
This release does not include new translations.

Release 5.1.4

Bug fixes.
The missing CR Tcl API has been filled in, thanks to Rocael and his team and Dave Bauer.
This release does not include new translations.

Release 5.1.3

Bug fixes, primarily for .LRN compatibility in support of upcoming .LRN 2.1.0 releases. This release does not include new translations since 5.1.2.

Release 5.1.2

Translations synchronized with the translation server. Basque and Catalan added.
For a complete change list, see the Change list since 5.1.0 in ???.

Release 5.1.1

This is the first release using the newest adjustment to the versioning convention. The OpenACS 5.1.1 tag will apply to OpenACS core as well as to the most recent released version of every package, including .LRN.
Translations synchronized with the translation server.
Bug 1519 fixed. This involved renaming all catalog files for ch_ZH, TH_TH, AR_EG, AR_LB, ms_my, RO_RO, FA_IR, and HR_HR. If you work with any of those locales, you should do a full catalog export and then import (via /acs-lang/admin) after upgrading acs-lang. (And, of course, make a backup of both the files and database before upgrading.)
Other bug fixes since 5.1.0: 1785, 1793, and over a dozen additional bug fixes.
For a complete change list, see the Change list since 5.0.0 in ???.

Release 5.1.0

Lots of little tweaks and fixes
Complete Change list since 5.0.0 in Changelog
Many Bug fixes

Release 5.0.4

New translations, including for .LRN 2.0.2.

Release 5.0.3

Bug fixes: 1560, #1556. Site becomes unresponsive, requires restart

Release 5.0.2

Bug fixes: #1495. Croatian enabled by default, #1496. APM automated install fails if files have spaces in their names, #1494. automated upgrade crashes (halting the upgrade process)
Complete Change list since 5.0.0 in Changelog
File tagging scheme in CVS changed to follow TIP #46: (Approved) Rules for Version Numbering and CVS tagging of Packages

Release 5.0.1

All work on the translation server from 7 Nov 2003 to 7 Feb 2004 is now included in catalogs.
One new function in acs-tcl, util::age_pretty
Complete Change list since 5.0.0 in Changelog
Many documentation updates and doc bug fixes

Release 5.0.0

This is OpenACS 5.0.0. This version contains no known security, data loss, or crashing bugs, nor any bugs judged release blockers. This version has received manual testing. It has passed current automated testing, which is not comprehensive. This release contains work done on the translation server http://translate.openacs.org through 7 Nov 2003.

Please report bugs using our Bug Tracker at the OpenACS website.

You may want to begin by reading our installation documentation for the section called “a Unix-like system”. Note that the Windows documentation is not current for OpenACS 5.9.0, but an alternative is to use John Sequeira's Oasis VM project.

After installation, the full documentation set can be found by visiting http://yourserver/doc.

New features in this release:

Internationalization support. A message catalog to store translated text, localization of dates, number formatting, timezone conversion, etc. Allows you to serve your users in their language.
External authentication. Integrate with outside user databases through e.g. LDAP, RADIUS, Kerberos, MS Active Directory. Imports user information through IMS Enterprise 1.1 format. Easily extended to support other authentication, password management, account creation, and account import mechanisms. This includes improvements to the basic cookie handling, so logins can be expired without the user's identity being completely lost. You can set login to expire after a certain period (e.g. 8 hours, then password must be refreshed), or you can have all issues login cookies expired at once, e.g. if you have left a permanent login cookie on a public machine somewhere.
User interface enhancements. All pages, including site-wide and subsite admin pages, will be templated, so they can be styled using master template and site-wide stylesheets. We have a new default-master template, which includes links to administration, your workspace, and login/logout, and is rendered using CSS. And there's a new community template (/packages/acs-subsite/www/group-master), which provides useful navigation to the applications and administrative UI in a subsite. In addition, there's new, simpler UI for managing members of a subsite, instantiating and mounting applications, setting permissions, parameters, etc. Site-wide admin as also seen the addition of a new simpler software install UI to replace the APM for non-developer users, and improved access to parameters, internationalization, automated testing, service contracts, etc. The list builder has been added for easily generating templated tables and lists, with features such as filtering, sorting, actions on multiple rows with checkboxes, etc. Most of all, it's fast to use, and results in consistently-looking, consistently-behaving, templated tables.
Automated testing. The automated testing framework has been improved significantly, and there are automated tests for a number of packages.
Security enhancements. HTML quoting now happens in the templating system, greatly minimizing the chance that users can sneak malicious HTML into the pages of other users.
Oracle 9i support.
Who's online feature.
Spell checking.

Potential incompatibilities:

With the release of OpenACS 5, PostgreSQL 7.2 is no longer supported. Upgrades are supported from OpenACS 4.6.3 under Oracle or PostgreSQL 7.3.
The undocumented special handling of ~ and +variable+ in formtemplates, found in packages/acs-templating/resources/*, has been removed in favor of using <noparse> and \@variable\@ (the standard templating mechanisms). Locally provided formtemplate styles still using these mechanisms will break.
Serving backup files and files from the CVS directories is turned off by default via the acs-kernel parameter ExcludedFiles in section request-processor (The variable provides a string match glob list of files and is defaulted to "*/CVS/* *~")

($‌Id: release-notes.xml,v 1.39.2.9 2024/09/02 09:31:40 gustafn Exp $)

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