GroupServer 11.07 — Frozen Yoghurt Accompanied by Carols¶

Authors:	Michael JasonSmith; Richard Waid; Dan Randow
Contact:	Michael JasonSmith <mpj17@onlinegroups.net>
Date:	2011-07-28
Organization:	GroupServer.org
Copyright:	This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand License by OnlineGroups.Net.

Introduction¶

The main update that is present in the Frozen Yoghurt release of GroupServer is a new stylesheet for devices with narrow displays . There is also a new converter for HTML-formatted messages. In addition a number of minor fixes are part of this release. You can get Frozen Yoghurt immediately. Work is now starting on GroupServer 11.08 — Banana Split Eaten in a Comfortable Silence.

Acknowledgements¶

Thanks to Steven Clift for his support with the new stylesheet. Thanks also to Le Coyote and Alice Rose for testing an early release of Frozen Yoghurt.

New Stylesheet¶

Devices with narrow displays, such as mobile phones and tablets, now have a dedicated stylesheet [1]. The system uses CSS3 Media Queries to reformat the page when the browser window is narrow. Pages that have been specifically optimised for small-screen devices include

The site homepage,
The group page,
The topic page and
The image page.

Many other pages work on small screens, including the post page and the topics page.

HTML-Formatted Messages¶

Email messages can be in multiple formats, including plain text and HTML. Sometimes email messages are formatted using just HTML. When this occurs GroupServer converts the HTML version of the message into a plain-text version. It is this plain-text version of the post that is displayed on the Web pages. The code that converts the HTML-message into plain-text has been updated [2]. The updated code uses the standard Python HTML Parser library to parse the message, and also handles URLs better.

Minor Fixes¶

Minor fixes in Frozen Yoghurt include the following.

The position of the Sticky form in a topic has been moved, so it is visible when there is only one post [3].
Files that are part of hidden posts are hidden from the index of files at the top of the topic [4]. (Files that were part of hidden posts were never able to be viewed.)
A new configuration system for GroupServer is present, but not used. The gs.option product is part of an ongoing effort to move more data out of the ZODB and into the PostgreSQL relational database. The README in the base of the gs.option product has more details.
An error with the Can Post code was fixed.
The word Home has been dropped from the group page, as it added nothing and took up valuable space (which was especially noticeable with the new stylesheet).

Get Frozen Yoghurt¶

To get Frozen Yoghurt go to the Downloads page for GroupServer and follow the GroupServer Installation documentation. Those who already have a functioning installation can update an existing GroupServer system.

Update an Existing GroupServer System¶

To update an existing GroupServer system to Frozen Yoghurt you must update the database and then update the packages.

Update the Database¶

The new options code requires the creation of a new table to record information about the properties of the various parts of GroupServer (see Minor Fixes). To update the database carry out the following steps.

Log into the PostgreSQL database used GroupServer by using the following command:
```
$ psql -Upgsql_user pgsql_dbname
```
Note that pgsql_user and pgsql_dbname are the database user and database name that were set during installation. Both can be found in the instance.cfg file in the installation directory of GroupServer.

Run the following SQL to create the options table:

CREATE TABLE option (
    component_id      TEXT  NOT NULL,
    option_id         TEXT  NOT NULL,
    site_id           TEXT  NOT NULL,
    group_id          TEXT  NOT NULL,
    value             TEXT
);

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX option_idx
ON option (component_id, option_id, site_id, group_id);

Update the Packages¶

To upgrade the pages in an existing GroupServer system to Frozen Yoghurt carry out the following steps.

Download the Frozen Yoghurt tar-ball from the GroupServer download page.
Uncompress the tar-ball.
Copy the file groupserver-11.07/versions.cfg to your existing GroupServer installation.
Copy the file groupserver-11.07/buildout.cfg to your existing GroupServer installation.
In your existing GroupServer installation run:
```
$ ./bin/easy_install -U setuptools && ./bin/python bootstrap.py
$ ./bin/buildout
```
The setuptools have to be updated, and bootstrap.py rerun, because the version of Zope used by GroupServer has undergone an update.

[1]	The new mobile CSS closes Ticket 444. More information on the mobile stylesheet can be found in the topic in GroupServer Development.

[2]	Updating the converter closes Ticket 596.

[3]	Fixing the position of the Sticky form in a topic closes Ticket 705.

[4]	Hiding posts that are part of hidden files closes Ticket 692.