Roadmap
Like all software, BoltWire needs periodic updates. We are committed to providing security patches, bug fixes, and feature enhancements as needed. Plus, we are continually looking for ways to make our software both smarter and faster.On this page, we log completed changes coming out in the next release. To report a bug or request a new feature, please use our Community Mail List.
Coming Soon
Our 8.xx release proved nicely stable, as it has been out for over a year with no major bug reports. There have been numerous small tweaks and fixes on my end, so it's time for a new release. But because I'm planning more big changes to how the code is structured and organized in the core engine--I'm going to release it as 9.xx.My plans are to merge as much of my custom code with the core as possible. For me, that means more of my code will run off the core. For you, it will mean BoltWire will be more powerful than ever. However it will be a lengthy process, so expect multiple 9.00 releases as I shift over my code plugin by plugin.
The Next Release
The following changes have already been completed and will be added to the next release.I'm currently working on a major new release (version 9.00). It should be a fairly significant upgrade. Here are some of the changes:
- I've moved engine.php and all the core scripts into a "scripts" folder separate from the plugins folder. So in index.php, you'll need to load the engine script at $boltwire/system/scripts/engine.php.
- I've basically emptied everything out of the shared folder except for the subfolders. I've never been strong on skins--so all the bonus skins are out. I've moved the plugins into the system plugins folder. And I've deleted all but a minimum few img files, now in the system/files folder. There's also an empty scripts folder here now. This basically means you can now overwrite any scripts or plugin at the shared or site level. BoltWire looks at site first, then shared, then system. This allows for extremely powerful customization.
- Note, because the plugins are now called within a grabplugin function, any global variables in them need to be declared as global in that plugin.
- Another thing I've been wanting to do forever is change the commands in BoltWire to only accept and args parameter, just like the functions, and conditions. This will require a slight change to every custom command. Namely, it needs to be redefined to only have one input ($args) and if it uses the $value parameter that needs to be changed to $args[1] or defined from $args[1]. Tedious but simple.
- One of my big goals is to create a sandbox feature so I can test out changes to scripts and plugins right through my browser without having to use ftp and a local server etc. This will be similar to what I did with the skins toolbox in the last release or so. I want to be able to anything from a chromebook...
- One big (cool) change is I've deprecated all the info processors in the info function, so it basically, saves, retrieves, or deletes info values. And instead moved them into the templating process where they are called by mode=random or mode=whatever. This means query, search, and list can all tap into it. And info is more conceptually tight. For now, the info function can still use these functions, but they are deprecated, to give you time to rework them (Easy, do query mode=random instead of info random).
- There were also numerous small changes, I'll try to log on this upgrade page as I go along .
Late additions to 8.00
* A small tweak to the "if set" conditional. Now it's tied into BoltWire's built in filter engine so you can do this: [if set {var} filter=email] and it will return true only if the var matches the filter. By default BoltWire has many different defined filters, and you can easily add your own.