For the moment my personal site http://johnrdorazio.altervista.org, which I use mostly for experimentation (I have not yet got around to using it as a personal archive), is not very accessible… In fact I am starting to try out the first “beta” or test versions of a new version of Flatnux that Alessandro Vernassa is developing. Not just a final update, but a real rewrite. It seems that this version will be entirely based on the new xml database engine (php class) written by Alessandro Vernassa, and should therefore offer significant improvements for flatnux site administrators and especially for flatnux developers.
The new version will use mod rewrite by default to present the end user with “nicer” URLs to look at, without all the parameters for the PHP GET variables.
It seems that it will also give the possibility of loading sections via ajax, a wise choice in my opinion because it speeds up the loading of sections by avoiding reloading the whole page every time during navigation. Of course, it will not be easy to implement it completely and reliably when there is information being exchanged between sections and blocks, for example.
Another feature is that all the CMS code has become compliant with XHTML strict, and I would say that this is an excellent step forward because web standards are always improving and people are already starting to look toward HTML5, which however is not yet fully defined. In the meantime, adapting to XHTML strict is a very useful choice, especially when using tools served by external APIs (to give one example, Google Friend Connect’s “social bar” absolutely requires an XHTML strict DOCTYPE, as do the XFBML features of Facebook Connect).
For all “Flatnuxians” this change could involve a transition period in order to update their sites to the new version, because it is not possible to install version 2 as an update from the control panel; it requires a “clean” installation, from scratch. Therefore it will be necessary to transition the content from one’s sites into the new installation. It will take a little patience, but I believe it will be worth it.
A note therefore also to the “parishioners” of San Lino: this means that in the near future the parish website too, http://www.parrocchiasanlino.org (which currently has no help for updating its content!), will undergo the transition to the new version of the CMS, so the site’s content will need to be reworked.
For my part, I too will have to review the “open social” theme that I have begun developing for Flatnux, in order to adapt it to Flatnux 2, considering that the basic functions of the CMS will also be redefined and the very structure of the CMS will undergo changes.
I will follow the development step by step in order to help Alessandro with observations on any errors / bugs / corrections to be made; we await the results with hope! The latest test versions can be downloaded from the page http://flatnux.altervista.org/download.html.