News

Hey folks,

For those of you who choose to upgrade to 2.0.3, please read the following page. There’s one additional step:
http://docs.formtools.org/upgrading/?page=2_0_3

Also: I’ll be updated all modules this week to move to MyISAM as well.

I don’t think you should encounter any problems, but if you’re concerned you might want to hold off a week until they’re all done. [N.B. you can find out whether your modules are compatible with the new 2.0.3 version by going to the Custom Build page and selecting the 2.0.3 beta from the dropdown. Incompatible modules will be highlighted in red].

- Ben

Here’s a few screenshots from the upcoming Submission History module. It’s pretty cool – I’ve been meaning to write this for a long, long time. Nice to see it almost out the door. From the module description:

The Submission History module keeps a log of all changes made to form submissions, provides a panel on the administrator’s Edit Submission page to browse the changes, and provides options to restore older versions and undelete submissions.

It’s about 95% written. Now it’s mostly tidying up the code and testing it.

Note: this module will only be compatible with 2.0.3 – and only the latest version (not out yet!). As mentioned in a previous post, the next Core release will move to MyISAM; I’ll be coming out with new versions of all the other modules to ensure compatibility and consistency.

Hey folks,

Just a few words about some changes coming down the pipe in 2.0.3, currently in Beta.

(1) Security Updates

These changes are already available in the current build of the Beta.

1. Control over the password content: minimum length, must contain upper case char, must contain number, must contain ~!@#$%^&.
2. Password history: prevents client accounts from re-using recently used passwords
3. Auto-disable an account after an unbroken sequence of unsuccessful login attempts. You can choose the number (between 3 and 10).

(2) Database Type Change

Next, I’m converting the tables to MyISAM from InnoDB. Originally, I’d planned on using foreign keys to link the data in the various tables – a feature offered by InnoDB. But InnoDB came with some restrictions, most notably table row size. A few Form Tools users with extremely large forms have run into this limitation, which is described here. That alone is cause to move back to MyISAM. Speaking practically, this will have very little effect on you or the way Form Tools works.

The problem is that all tables will need to be moved to MyISAM – including the modules. So I’ll be releasing new versions of all modules with the updated database type. Pain? Yup! But we may as well get it out the way.

(3) Themes moved out of Settings and into root, alongside Modules

Just a bit of housecleaning. The Themes section in the Form Tools should have always been located at the same level as Modules, but for some crazy reason I put it under Settings. I was probably drunk.

This change will require a little legwork on your part – after upgrading you’ll need to update the Administrator’s menu to reorder the Themes page and stop it being a sub-page. It’s not strictly necessary, since nothing will be broken by not doing this: but it may look a little funny if you don’t.

(4) Submission History module

This new module will be bundled with the main download, but disabled by default. Right now it’s still in development and it’ll need a fair amount of testing before 2.0.3 goes out the door. But it’s an invaluable module: it tracks all changes made to your form submissions – who made the change, when, what fields changed – as well as allow you to revert to an older version of the submission, in case someone overwrites the data by accident. It also provides you with a mechanism to “undelete” submissions, which for your piece of mind alone is pretty great.

I’ll provide some screenshots of the module in the next week or so.

- Ben

Hey folks,

So I’ve (mostly) dug myself out of the deep too-much-contract-work hole I’ve been in, and I’m getting back to the Submission History module. The idea of this module is that it tracks all changes made to form submissions, providing you with a convenient paper trail for auditing purposes. This module goes hand in hand with the recently released Client Audit module – which tracks changes to client accounts.

The reason for the sudden flurry of interest in change-tracking is due to a client. They’ve been requesting these features, and I’m more than happy to oblige since I can donate the work back to the community. Open Source rocks. I’d wanted to work on these features for a long, long time – so it’s great to be provided with a concrete reason to do so.

On another topic, the next 2.0.3 beta will include a minor UI change: I’m moving the Themes section to the admin root, out of the settings section. It should never have been there in the first place: it should have had equal weight as the Modules section to reflect the folder and code architecture. My bad.

This will require a little manual updating (I’ll provide explicit instructions), but it’s really needed in order to keep the code and UI well organized.

More soon!

- Ben

Hey folks,

I’m soooo sorry I haven’t been helping out in the forums these last couple of weeks. It’s just been non-stop activity around here. Then last night, my computer found some Malware to install and bit the dust, which is something of a pain. [On a sidenote: very impressive script! It really took over my computer in no time flat. Kudos to the evildoers who wrote it - I'd love to know how it bypassed my virus tool]. So I’m going to feel like a total chump tomorrow when I take it into the shop to get fixed. Ho hum.

I have two smaller jobs to finish up this week, then I’ll have a bit more breathing space again.

Apologies!

- Ben

Hey folks,

I’ve just released a new Form Tools module for tracking changes and events on client accounts, called the Client Audit module. It was requested by a client to allow for a security audit of accounts, to provide a paper trail in case of security breaches.

It’s a pretty neat script! Here’s what it tracks:

• When clients log in and out,
• When accounts are updated by either administrators or themselves,
• When permissions change on their accounts (e.g. when they’re assigned to a new form or View)
• When their account is disabled after a series of failed login attempts

One big caveat: This module only works with the latest 2.0.3 beta. Sorry! However, there was one core hook that wasn’t in the original 2.0.0 release which the module needed, so I had to update the core. Plus it interacts with the new security code added in 2.0.3.

Second caveat: the documentation is non-existent just yet, but I’ll start on it tomorrow – as well as get back to the forums. Apologies for my absence!

Please report all issues in the forums.

- Ben

Hey folks,

As mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been off Form Tools for some time, devoting my time to another project – generatedata.com.

But, it turns out a rather high-profile client needed some additional features added for an upcoming project, so I’ll be working on a new version – 2.0.3 – over the next little while.

The main focus is security. 2.0.3 adds the following security options for client passwords (all of these features are disabled by default).

1. Control over the password content: minimum length, must contain upper case char, must contain number, must contain ~!@#$%^&.
2. Password history: prevents you from
3. Auto-disable an account after an unbroken sequence of unsuccessful login attempts. You can choose the number (between 3 and 10).

Secondly, I’ll be dusting off an old uncompleted module I was working on earlier this year called Submission History. That module tracked changes to submissions – who edited what fields and at what time.

The beta (core upgrade only – no Submission History module yet) is now available on the Custom Build page, and by upgrading. Please let me know of all bugs you run into! I’ll be updating the user documentation for the new screenshots of the pages and functionality this weekend.

- Ben

Just a minor fix: now installations that encounter the dreaded “unsupported MySQL database version” problem will be given the option to proceed with the installation, even if the PHP function returns the database version number in an unexpected format.

All the best -

Ben

Hey folks,

I’ve released 2.0.1 final today. The only changes since 2.0.0 have been a number of bug fixes, listed in the changelog.

I wanted to include a couple of others in this release, but since I’m not going to have much time for the project in the coming few weeks, I thought it better to release what fixes are completed to provide a more stable core build.

I’ll still be around in the forums, but as mentioned in another post, in the short term I’ve got to focus on another project: generatedata.com revamp.

All the best!

- Ben

Hi folks,

I just wanted to make an open apology for not being around the forums or spending that much time with the script this last month. It’s been an extremely busy month for me – I attended Google I/O in San Francisco, got sick for a week, had some family visit, was forced into renovating the house, have been forced into some contract work, and more.

And in the interests of full disclosure, I’m also busy revising another (admittedly more popular) open source script I develop called generatedata.com – a script for developers to generate custom formatted random data for testing purposes.  I’ve been putting that off for a year now, and the upgrade is long overdue!

So I’ll be back soon!

- Ben