LightPress

I have just published on our Wiki the first draft of a Howto for designers: Writing Templates. Your comments are welcome. :)

In response to ru's questions in the forum, I've put together a mini plugin pack which includes the following:

• HomePage -- Simple plugin to replace the default view with a page (static context) of your choosing.

• PageTemplates -- Updated from the beta version I've been using on my personal site, this mimics WordPress' ability to allow you to use different templates for pages. Instead of using the default

  static.xml

  template, it will use an xml template of your choosing. The template can be specified using a meta value or you can use your old WordPress template names (make sure you create an xml LP version though!).

• TemplateInclude -- Allows you to include one or more custom templates, similar to the way that the built-in header.xml, footer.xml and sidebar.xml templates are included. No batteries required.

It's highly likely that these will make it into the next release unless they cause somebody's website to catch on fire.

Download here

The elves in the LightPress factory have been working overtime since the last beta, so we are very pleased to announce the release of version 1.1.0-RC1. Fred, the newest member of our development team, was instrumental in buffing this release to a polished shine.

What's new in RC1:

• A built-in caching feature (see Ludo's post on speed comparisons) which can be activated from the plugin pages

• Improved integration into the WP interface

• PostMeta plugin which auto-populates template tags using post meta data

• A regression testing framework and our first test suite, "Fred" (not part of the download)

• Minor bug fixes

The rather long Changelog is copied below can be viewed here.

Just did a series of poor man's benchmarks against beta3, using Apache Benchmark with no concurrent requests (ab -n 100):

I am too lazy to install wp-cache, but using Sencer's benchmark to do the math we should be about 50% faster than wp-cache. I will try to find the time to install wp-cache on this machine and have some real numbers, but not before we release beta3.

Beta 3 is almost ready to be released, with two new important features: a regression testing engine that Jerome is developing which will allow us to thouroughly test new releases, and a new built-in caching system.

We already had a few caching objects lying around, but were missing an appropriate hook where to plug the cache. We now have the hook, and a sketch of the supporting WP plugin to configure the cache engine. The results are not so bad, as the speed with caching enabled is 8x the speed without caching, which should make us faster than wp-cache (did you have any doubt?).

What spurred us into action is an interesting thread on the wp-hackers mailing list (take the time to read Jason Hoffman's messages as they are worth it), and particularly a phrase by Matt which we hope won't hold true for long. :)

1.1.0 beta2 fixes the paths and escaping bugs spotted by Jerome, and adds a couple of new features:

• comments are now enabled for pages (called static posts in LP)

• the new

  NestedPages

  plugin sorts and displays nested pages in the sidebar

The two above features will hopefully enable us to manage documentation and support requests without having to resort to a Wiki. As usual, the ChangeLog is available on SourceForge, and also copied below.

Just a short announcement about a few bugs in the latest beta. Most are minor and are either usability-related or affect how the plugin synchronizes WordPress and LightPress options. But there's a major one that will prevent Windows users from enjoying the new backend interface. It has to do with paths and escaping -- although that may sound like the basis for a great movie, trust me, it's not so exciting.

As the token Windows user on the team, it's normally my job to find these things and fix them. I apologize for letting you all down. If you really want to try the latest beta, why not try another OS at the same time? Or you could wait a few days until we release the next beta. [Or you can grab the wp-plugin/ folder from our anonymous CVS --ludo.] Your choice.

After more than twenty days of development, we have managed to release 1.1.0 beta1. The long wait is due to the number of new features we have added, mainly to improve WP integration, and to ease installation and management.

The most notable features added in beta1 are:

• new permalink structure that follows the WP conventions, and makes it possible to use the post_id as key

• one-way (for test installs) or two-way synchronization of the relevant WP options

• support for nested (static) pages and categories in the URL

• easier installation, everything runs from the WP plugins folder

• automatic .htaccess generation

In the next release we will concentrate on the administration UI, and will also add new plugins to manage tags and nested pages. If you are upgrading from alpha2, you might want to reset your LP options. As usual, the ChangeLog is available on SourceForge, and also copied below.

We have not disappeared. We are working on 1.1.0 beta 1 which will hopefully be released in the next few days, and will feature quite a few improvements and bug fixes over the latest 1.1.0 alpha release:

• seamless integration with WP's permalink options and automatic .htaccess generation

• support for nested pages (static posts in LP-speak) and categories

• no need to touch the filesystem (move/rename WP files, copy LP files, etc.)

There are lots of other exciting new features scheduled after beta 1. Stay tuned...

Since moving this site to TextDrive, things have progressed at an astonishing speed.

The news of the day is that LightPress is now an officially supported TextDrive project. I am very impressed by what Jason and the TXD people are doing, and becoming part of the team is both an honour, and a challenge.

As for LightPress, we have not been idle after releasing 1.1.0alpha1. Jerome has started working on our own distribution of WordPress, which will feature an integrated install for both WP and LP, and a few patches to the WP code to enhance usability.

For my part, I have put my modest web design skills to test and started work on a new template, to replace Kubrick as our default. While Kubrick is nice to stress WP compatibility, it's getting a bit old. The new template is an elastic design, and you can see a test install on my English blog. It's not finished, but I hope to be able to release it in the next couple of days. BTW, if you have web designer skills, why don't you join the LightPress development team?

I have just uploaded 1.1.0 alpha2 to Sourceforge. This new version features the much needed WP plugin that lets users configure LightPress from the admin console, and it's also the first version of LightPress to run from the WP plugins folder (well, most of it). In short, you can now try LightPress without messing with your WP files (it was possible even before, but it was much much harder to do).

We have mixed feelings about LightPress running from the WP folder, so if you have an opinion about this (and other LP features too), please let us know by commenting to this post or sending us an email. We still have lots to do (apart from spotting and fixing the inevitable bugs) before declaring 1.1.0 stable, mainly in the WP plugin (checking and setting .htaccess, checking options for consistency, etc.), so you still have a chance to ask for new features.