Zenario 7.3

Version 7.3 has been publicly released! Here are the new features you can enjoy:

Editing CSS through the browser

Zenario now allows you to edit the CSS of Plugins and Skins directly in your web browser.

When editing a Plugin that's in a slot on a content, look out for the new CSS & Framework button on the slot control. It creates a CSS editing view like this:

The editor lets you make changes and the right hand side gives a live preview of your changes (before needing to save them). There is also a full page preview button, to view the whole page.

Skins can now be edited in a similar way. Just go to the Layout tab and click Edit [skin name], and you will see a floating panel like this: 

In this split-screen view, you can edit the CSS in the lower part of the screen and preview the changes in the upper half. This is done as you type, and without saving the changes to the live site until you want to do so.

The new CSS-editing features are an exciting new feature which we have introduced after requests from many web designers who want more control over their Zenario sites.

Better support for Retina images

Banners and content summary lists now have the option to display images at double-density, so they will look crisp on Retina devices. An administrator can upload a retina-quality image to the content item, and Zenario will issue the image so it appears at the right size on the client browser.

We have also added the body.retina and body.not_retina classes (detected by Zenario according to the kind of client device). These help you switch between using retina images or normal images in your skin CSS.

New way to create content items

It's now easier to create content items using the new "Create" tab on the admin toolbar.

When using the new Create button, you can specify the title, meta data, menu node text and alias in the usual way, but it is easy to override the menu node position as you go. This means that you can click Create from anywhere at all on your site to add a content item anywhere else.

This system can also be configured in an "easy-create" set up; for example, you can pre-determine that "All new blog content items should go under 'Blog' in the menu hierarchy". This setting is made in Organizer->Configuration->Site Settings->Content types->Blog.

When determined in such a way, any author writing a blog article (or news, or HTML, etc.) will have choices to make when creating a new article.

Type-aheads in Floating Admin Boxes

Most of the "pickers" in admin mode now have type-aheads. If you know the name of the item you wish to select, then you can quickly pick it by typing some letters of its name and then selecting it from a drop-down list that appears.

Twig snippets for easy server-side scripting

Twig is a template engine for PHP, but when used in Zenario it provides the ability to write server-side executable code that can be safely installed on a site. Administrators with adequate permissions (such as authors and/or designers) can set up a Twig snippet on a content item, and edit the code that will be executed on the server. This is safe because a limited range of instructions are allowed.

To use Twig, you should initialise the Raw Twig Snippet module, and place one of its plugins in a slot on a content item. Then edit the plugin to write your Twig code.

Using Twig has been possible before but we've made it easier, and we've also greatly expanded the number of variables and functions available for your use while writing Twig code. There is also documentation here where you can learn more about how to use it in Zenario. 

Minor features

• By popular demand we have added a handy "Copy URL" button on the admin toolbar.
• Content Summary Lists can now be defined to omit (as well as include) content items in a given category.
• We've given the "Content type settings" panel in Organizer a small redesign; the new panel is a bit more friendly.
• Administrators can now set their page size in Organizer on a per-panel basis - e.g. you could show 50 images per page, 100 content items per page, 200 users per page, and the system will remember these different preferences without you needing to keep switching your settings.
• If you create a new website and wish to use Google Maps, or more an existing website with Google Maps to a new domain name, Google now requires you to enter an API key. We've added a new site setting so that you can enter this API key.

Bug fixes 

• Fixed a problem where sometimes a second "Publish" button would appear on the admin toolbar.
• Fixed several bugs in the plugin settings of the Image Container module.
• Fixed a bug where a spare alias would not work correctly if you access your site via a spare domain.
• When you run or suspend a module, Organizer now remembers the text in the search box.
• Fixed a bug when searching Organizer for a serial number that begins with a '0'.