Digital Media Art || Design - Scripts

DMANews - Changelog:

About this file

Welcome to the DMA News changelog. This is where you can find information about how DMA News has changed from version to version, along with advice on how to upgrade between versions.

Sensible precautions before upgrading any script

Make backups of the DMA News scripts that you are upgrading from.
Make a backup of your MySQL database.
Carry out upgrades at a time when your site is usually quiet, and give yourself enough time to restore backups should anything not go according to plan.

Running upgrade scripts & upgrading by more than one version release

If you have skipped an upgrade you will need to run successive database upgrade scripts in the correct order, until you reach the current version. You should then replace all files apart from the 'dma_news_config.php' file. (Note the removal of the admin password section from this file when going to v0.810 and beyond).

Disclaimer

We will not engage in any form of technical support with any party that fails to take adequate backup precautions.

v0.904

1 April 2005

Changes

Corrects a problem where new comments line wrap in odd places.

UPGRADE PROCEEDURE

Make a note of the settings in the configuration section at the top of the file 'dma_news_display.php' in your current version of DMANews.
Replace all files EXCEPT the 'dma_news_config.php' file. If your FTP application has text (ASCII) and Binary modes, use binary mode to tranfer the files.
Open the file 'dma_news_display.php' in a text editor and re-enter the settings that you noted earlier.

Database changes

Run the appropriate script in the dma_news_upgrades folder. (Run upgrade script directly from this folder then delete both the scripts and the folder.)

v0.903

1 September 2004

Changes

DMANews is now totally freeware.
Users can no longer see admin and moderator options in the control panel.
Admins can post new news under any users name.
Fixed the alternative DB query in the dma_news_display.php file.

UPGRADE PROCEEDURE

Make a note of the settings in the configuration section at the top of the file 'dma_news_display.php' in your current version of DMANews.
Replace all files EXCEPT the 'dma_news_config.php' file. If your FTP application has text (ASCII) and Binary modes, use binary mode to tranfer the files.
Open the file 'dma_news_display.php' in a text editor and re-enter the settings that you noted earlier.

Database changes

Run the appropriate script in the dma_news_upgrades folder. (Run upgrade script directly from this folder then delete both the scripts and the folder.)

v0.902

6 August 2004

Changes

Added the ability to add a prefix to all tables for new installations - this enables multiple instances of DMANews to occupy the same database.
Fixed a problem where the placeholder XXX_CONTENT_XXX was showing in the admin control panel.
Fixed a problem where the navigation template could not be updated.
Fixed links to the DMANews manual in the help section.

UPGRADE PROCEEDURE

Make a note of the settings in the configuration section at the top of the file 'dma_news_display.php' in your current version of DMANews.
Replace all files EXCEPT the 'dma_news_config.php' file. If your FTP application has text (ASCII) and Binary modes, use binary mode to tranfer the files.
Open the file 'dma_news_display.php' in a text editor and re-enter the settings that you noted earlier.

Database changes

Run the appropriate script in the dma_news_upgrades folder. (Run upgrade script directly from this folder then delete both the scripts and the folder.)

v0.901

13 March 2004

Changes

Fixed a problem where admins could not create users
Fixed a problem where editing the navigation template would erase the news output templates

UPGRADE PROCEEDURE

Make a note of the settings in the configuration section at the top of the file 'dma_news_display.php' in your current version of DMANews.
Replace all files EXCEPT the 'dma_news_config.php' file. If your FTP application has text (ASCII) and Binary modes, use binary mode to tranfer the files.
Open the file 'dma_news_display.php' in a text editor and re-enter the settings that you noted earlier.

Database changes

Run the appropriate script in the dma_news_upgrades folder. (Run upgrade script directly from this folder then delete both the scripts and the folder.)

v0.900

20 February 2004

Changes

Added ability to comment on news items
News articles that are labelled as having a category which is no longer in the database no longer display a missing image
News articles with no category no longer use the category image of the proceeding article
Fixed the online version checker in the "Stats & News"
Fixed "Unable to create './dma_news_temp/index.html' " error report when editing news

New Control Panel Theme

Milk

UPGRADE PROCEEDURE

Make a note of the settings in the configuration section at the top of the file 'dma_news_display.php' in your current version of DMANews.
Replace all files EXCEPT the 'dma_news_config.php' file. If your FTP application has text (ASCII) and Binary modes, use binary mode to tranfer the files.
Open the file 'dma_news_display.php' in a text editor and re-enter the settings that you noted earlier.

Database changes

Run the appropriate script in the dma_news_upgrades folder. (Run upgrade script directly from this folder then delete both the scripts and the folder.)

v0.836

30 September 2003

Changes

Fixed problem where control panel themes displayed registration notices depite being registered.
Fixed problem where custom SQL queries did not work in registered scripts.

UPGRADE PROCEEDURE

Make a note of the settings in the configuration section at the top of the file 'dma_news_display.php' in your current version of DMANews.
Replace all files EXCEPT the 'dma_news_config.php' file. If your FTP application has text (ASCII) and Binary modes, use binary mode to tranfer the files.
Open the file 'dma_news_display.php' in a text editor and re-enter the settings that you noted earlier.

Database changes

Run the appropriate script in the dma_news_upgrades folder. (Run upgrade script directly from this folder then delete both the scripts and the folder.)

v0.835

22 August 2003

Changes

We are delighted to announce the return of a completely freeware version of DMANews
FreeWare version is a fully working time unrestricted script with only a very few advanced functions restricted
FreeWare and Pro versions bundled in one handy download, registration code unlocks the fuller feature set of the Pro version
Removal of the bulk of the old "dma_news_display.php" code to a new file in the includes directory
New version of "dma_news_display.php" contains only configuration options which looks a lot less daunting

UPGRADE PROCEEDURE

Make a note of the settings in the configuration section at the top of the file 'dma_news_display.php' in your current version of DMANews.
Replace all files EXCEPT the 'dma_news_config.php' file. If your FTP application has text (ASCII) and Binary modes, use binary mode to tranfer the files.
Open the file 'dma_news_display.php' in a text editor and re-enter the settings that you noted earlier.

Database changes

Run the appropriate script in the dma_news_upgrades folder. (Run upgrade script directly from this folder then delete both the scripts and the folder.)

v0.834

10 August 2003

Changes

Clean up of session image code allowing compatibility with earlier versions of PHP

UPGRADE PROCEEDURE

Make a note of the settings in the configuration section at the top of the file 'dma_news_display.php' in your current version of DMANews.
Replace all files EXCEPT the 'dma_news_config.php' file. If your FTP application has text (ASCII) and Binary modes, use binary mode to tranfer the files.
Open the file 'dma_news_display.php' in a text editor and re-enter the settings that you noted earlier.

Database changes

Run the appropriate script in the dma_news_upgrades folder. (Run upgrade script directly from this folder then delete both the scripts and the folder.)

v0.833

23 July 2003

Changes

Fixes for installations using GD version 1.x

UPGRADE PROCEEDURE

Make a note of the settings in the configuration section at the top of the file 'dma_news_display.php' in your current version of DMANews.
Replace all files EXCEPT the 'dma_news_config.php' file. If your FTP application has text (ASCII) and Binary modes, use binary mode to tranfer the files.
Open the file 'dma_news_display.php' in a text editor and re-enter the settings that you noted earlier.

Database changes

Run the appropriate script in the dma_news_upgrades folder. (Run upgrade script directly from this folder then delete both the scripts and the folder.)

v0.832

12 July 2003

Changes

Fixed problems with session images - DMANews now detects which GD version is installed.
Added routines to check directory permissions for 2 necessary writeable directories.

UPGRADE PROCEEDURE

Make a note of the settings in the configuration section at the top of the file 'dma_news_display.php' in your current version of DMANews.
Replace all files EXCEPT the 'dma_news_config.php' file. If your FTP application has text (ASCII) and Binary modes, use binary mode to tranfer the files.
Open the file 'dma_news_display.php' in a text editor and re-enter the settings that you noted earlier.

Database changes

Run the appropriate script in the dma_news_upgrades folder. (Run upgrade script directly from this folder then delete both the scripts and the folder.)

v0.831

25 June 2003

Changes

Fixed a problem where the file 'server_time_offset.php' was missing.
Fixed incorrect nobreak space notation in install, upgrade and reinstall default navigation scripts.

UPGRADE PROCEEDURE

Replace the file 'server_time_offset.php' which can be found in the 'dma_news_includes' directory. If your FTP application has text (ASCII) and Binary modes, use binary mode to tranfer the file.
If you are using the default navigation template supplied with DMANews, update it by logging into the admin script ('dma_news_admin.php') and going to Templates: Edit the news output templates: Navigation Template: then clicking on the option 'Click here to restore the navigation template to the default version'.

Database changes

Run the appropriate script in the dma_news_upgrades folder. (Run upgrade script directly from this folder then delete both the scripts and the folder.)

v0.830

20 June 2003

Changes

Added the ability to easily display up to three JPEG images in the news output using browser upload and storage of image in database.
Fixed a bug in the user deletion routines which caused various problems such as allowing superusers to delete themselves.
Addressed an issue in Post PHP 4.2 installations where the variable $PHP_SELF was not reporting the current page. This resulted in various problems such as bad links in the navigation code.
Added precautionary code to suppress output of files beginning with a period in the display of predefined template choices.
Removed navigation placeholder output from predefined template previews

New Predefined Templates

Modern Grey.
Snowflake.

UPGRADE PROCEEDURE

Make a note of the settings in the configuration section at the top of the file 'dma_news_display.php' in your current version of DMANews.
Replace all files EXCEPT the 'dma_news_config.php' file. If your FTP application has text (ASCII) and Binary modes, use binary mode to tranfer the files.
Open the file 'dma_news_display.php' in a text editor and re-enter the settings that you noted earlier.

Database changes

Run the appropriate script in the dma_news_upgrades folder. (Run upgrade script directly from this folder then delete both the scripts and the folder.)

v0.810

13 December 2002

Changes

Multi-level user permission system.
Individual CSS file for each Control Panel theme.
Added 2 new control panel themes, 'Maggra-X' and 'Bullet'.

UPGRADE PROCEEDURE

Please follow this proceedure carefully!

Replace all files EXCEPT the 'dma_news_config.php' file.
Open the 'dma_news_config.php' file in a text editor and remove the section relating to 'Admin Script Password'. Do not remove the PHP opening tag (<?php) from the start of the file, or the PHP closing tag (?>) from the end of the file.
Run the upgrade script '0803-0810.php' (if upgrading from DMANews v0.803) by loading it's URL into your web browser like this: http://www.yoursite.com/dma_news/dma_news_upgrades/0803-0810.php (making the necessary adjustments to the URL for your own site).
Open the control panel in a web browser ('dma_news_admin.php') and login with the default superuser: Login Name: God Password: 777
Go to the 'Users' section and edit your original login info (not the 'God' default superuser, but your regular login username) by entering your email address and giving your self the rank of 'God'.
Log out of the control panel.
Request that your password is reset by submitting your email address in the 'Lost Username or Password?' section of the login screen.
Check your email to retrieve your new password.
Login to the admin control panel using your original username and new password. (Do Not log in with the 'God' username at this point).
Go to the 'Users' section and delete the default superuser 'God'.
You can now set your own password in the 'Home' section.
In order for your other DMANews users to be able to use the new system you must use the 'Users' section of the control panel to enter their email addresses. They will then be able to retrieve their passwords from the login screen as you have just done yourself, and subsequently set their own passwords.
In order for your other DMANews users to be able to use the new system you must use the 'Users' section of the control panel to enter their email addresses. They will then be able to retrieve new passwords from the login screen as you have just done yourself, and subsequently set their own passwords.
When setting user 'Rank' please consult the permission tables in the Manual. In most cases it will be sufficient to grant users with simple 'User' status.
If everything seems to be working correctly, delete the 'dma_news_upgrades' directory and its contents.

v0.803

01 November 2002

Changes

Fixed a javascript problem that caused strange things to happen when trying to post news.

To upgrade from previous version

Replace the following files;

/dma_news_admin.php
/dma_news_includes/news_add.php
/dma_news_includes/news_addition.php
/dma_news_includes/news_edit.php
/dma_news_includes/news_edited.php

Database changes

No DB changes from previous version

v0.802

23 October 2002

Changes

Fixed a problem where the number of news articles was limited to a total of 127. The new maximum number of news articles is 8,388,607.
Updated the links to the PHP Resource Index.
Updated the license.

To upgrade from previous version

Replace all files EXCEPT the dma_news_config.php file.

Database changes

Run the appropriate script in the dma_news_upgrades folder. (Run upgrade script directly from this folder then delete both the scripts and the folder.)

Important note

The code is now obfuscated. This is due to widespread license abuse and is intended to protect our intellectual copyright.
While development of DMANews continues as before, new releases will made available to customers of DMAPro.Com only, and will require the purchase (at nominal cost) of a separate license. This will likely be the last freeware version for some time.

v0.801

07 September 2002

Changes

Fixed a major bug which deleted the news field when editing news then opting not to preview the result but to publish immediately.

To upgrade from previous version

Replace one file: /dma_news_includes/news_edited.php

Database changes

No DB changes from previous version

v0.800

30 August 2002

Changes

Added a new admin section "Display" which allows for various display preferences to be set such as the number of news items to display, and the order in which they are displayed.
Added page spanning and sorting abilities to the "Edit News" section.
Created an admin theme engine which can be found in the "templates" section.
Added a new admin theme "Aluminex" to be bundled with all downloads.
Fixed a bug which erased all templates from the DB after clicking submit when no predefined template had been chosen.
Fixed problems in the templates section where   would display as actual spaces instead of the HTML sysntax. [NBSP] is now used to show the replacements.
Fixed problems of maintaining the state of headline, category, author and time when previewing news then returning to edit.
Replaced all occurences of short PHP tags (<?=$var?>) with full PHP tags (<?php echo $var; ?>) which are compatible with all installations.

To upgrade from previous version

Make a note of the MySQL settings in your configuration file "dma_news_config.php".
Delete ALL files and subdirectories from the directory in which "dma_news_admin.php" resides (this directory will be called "DMA_News" unless you renamed it yourself).
Upload/Transfer ALL new files and subdirectories to this now empty directory.
Open the admin script "dma_news_admin.php" in a web browser to initiate the install proceedure and follow all the directions to create and upload a new configuration file. DO NOT follow the second part of the installation proceedure which is labelled "2) Auto-Configure database".
Open "dma_news_display.php" in a text editor and set configuration variables at the top of the file. Further details can be found in the file itself.

Database changes

Run the appropriate script in the dma_news_upgrades folder. (Run upgrade script directly from this folder then delete both the scripts and the folder.)

v0.710

9th August 2002

Changes

The admin password is now stored as an MD5 hash for significant extra security. There is now no need for the admin password to be stored anywhere on the webserver.
Added the ability to preview new news and edited news.
Added a javascript HTML tag helper.
Complete overhaul of the install scripts necessitated by the MD5 admin login changes. The install scripts now use the "Aqua" Admin template system.
Broke down the admin script into many different includes to reduce filesize loads by 80% on a typical admin script call.
Changed configuration information and some internal routing issues in "dma_news_display.php" to better support calling the news from an .shtml page using a virtual include. This should fix the .shtml image problems.

To upgrade from previous version

Make a note of the MySQL settings in your configuration file "dma_news_config.php".
Delete ALL files and subdirectories from the directory in which "dma_news_admin.php" resides (this directory will be called "DMA_News" unless you renamed it yourself).
Upload/Transfer ALL new files and subdirectories to this now empty directory.
Open the admin script "dma_news_admin.php" in a web browser to initiate the install proceedure and follow all the directions to create and upload a new configuration file. DO NOT follow the second part of the installation proceedure which is labelled "2) Auto-Configure database".
Open "dma_news_display.php" in a text editor and set configuration variables at the top of the file. Further details can be found in the file itself.

Database changes

No DB changes from previous version

v0.701

26th July 2002

Changes

Fixed a problem which prevented some installations from displaying category images.

To upgrade from previous version

Replace "dma_news_get_image.php"
Replace "dma_news_admin.php"

Database changes

No DB changes from previous version

v0.700

24th July 2002

Changes

Major improvement of admin script interface.
Ability to "backdate" news items in "Edit News" mode.
Fixed a problem where, when editing news, "nobreak space" syntax was displayed as the spaces themselves rather than as the syntax itself.
Added a feature for users whose PHP installations run in "Safe Mode". These users can now upload category images by FTP and associate them with new categories via a drop down list. This gets around the problem of browser file upload being disabled in Safe Mode.
Fixes to all predefined templates. If using a predefined template without edits, reinstall it after upgrade.

To upgrade from previous version

Replace ALL files EXCEPT "dma_news_config.php"
Open "dma_news_display.php" in a text editor and set path to the DMA News scripts. Further details can be found in the file itself.

Database changes

No DB changes from previous version

v0.600

9th July 2002

Changes

DMANews is now compliant with PHP 4.2+. A PHP version check is carried out automatically and variable assignments are handled accordingly.
There is much more flexibility with the date and time output. When news is written the date/time is stored as unixtime. The admin can select from a choice of predefined date/time formats or enter a custom format using PHP date() function syntax.
Going hand in hand with the new unixtime flexibility, you can now set a time offset from the time set by the server. This is useful for those with shared virtual web hosting accounts.
The way in which the path to the DMA News scripts is set in dma_news_display.php has been changed. It makes more logical sense to include a trailing forward slash in the config setting, making settings like "./" and "../" (meaning "this folder" and "the parent folder" in unix notation) look more sensible. When upgrading please re-read the comments at the top of the file before re-entering your path configuration settings.
The "configure templates" option in the admin control panel now contains the option to select from a variety of predefined templates. Installation of the templates is handled completely automatically by the control panel and previews are available by following a simple link.
Font tags stripped from the admin script and installer, replaced with span tags and CSS.
"DMA News Stats" link now gives textual advice on difference between the version being run and the latest version available from DigitalMediaArt.

To upgrade from previous version

Replace ALL files EXCEPT dma_news_config.php
Open "dma_news_display.php" in a text editor and set path to the DMA News scripts. Further details can be found in the file itself.

Database changes

Run the appropriate script in the dma_news_upgrades folder. (Run upgrade script directly from this folder then delete both the scripts and the folder.)

Special Note

For 48 hours a version of DMA News was available as a download from hotscripts.com that had a small version numbering error. If your admin control panel says Dma News v0.600 but does not have the option Configure date/time formats in the Main Menu, then it is actually DMA News v0.505. This was the only difference, and for upgrade purposes you should follow the upgrade proceedure for DMA News v0.505.

v0.505

25th June 2002

Changes

Minor changes to the CSS in dma_news_admin.css, news_display_test.php, changelog.html and readme.html for compliance with a broader range of browsers.
Numerous minor cosmetic updates to dma_news_admin.php
Fixed a minor bug in the logout routines that made it easy to log back in from a browser that has just logged out and not quit.
Fixed a problem in which everything below XXX_CONTENT_XXX in the admin template did not display when logging in/out.

To upgrade from previous version

Replace dma_news_admin.css
Replace news_display_test.php
Replace changelog.html
Replace readme.html

Database changes

No DB changes from previous version

v0.504

21st June 2002

Changes

Added basic login routine which fixes a problem where image calls to dma_news_get_image.php would prompt authentication dialog boxes when the folder containing dma_news_get_image.php was protected by an .htaccess file.
Add an index.html file to suppress direct reading of the directory structure on most systems.

To upgrade from previous version

Replace dma_news_admin.php
Replace dma_news_config.php
Add index.html
Open dma_news_config.php in a text editor and enter all database config info and an admin script password
Remove .htaccess protection from folder containing dma_news_admin.php (if set)

Database changes

No DB changes from previous version

v0.503

17th June 2002

Changes

News items can now have headlines (XXX_HEADLINE_XXX).
Categories and category images added (XXX_IMAGE_XXX).
Moved all database config info to a single config file (dma_news_config.php).
Added support for PHP installations that have magic_quotes set to OFF.
Improvements to admin file navigation. (Some 'back' links took the admin back to the main menu instead of back to the same section).
Improvements to news editing routines.
Added a selection of useful links in the admin control panel.
Limited exceptions made to the blanket FreeWare license. (See "Useful Links and © Copyright info" link in the admin control panel of the latest version of the script for further details).

To upgrade from previous version

Add/Replace all files
Open dma_news_config.php in a text editor and enter all database config info
Open "dma_news_display.php" in a text editor and set path to the DMA News scripts. Further details can be found in the file itself.

Database changes

Run the appropriate script in the dma_news_upgrades folder. (Run upgrade script directly from this folder then delete both the scripts and the folder.)

v0.502

05th June 2002

Changes

Added the ability to preview alternating row colors.
Minor modifications to admin stylesheet to make textarea look better.

To upgrade from previous version

Replace dma_news_admin.css
Replace dma_news_display.php
Replace dma_news_admin.php

Database changes

No DB changes from previous version

v0.501

05th June 2002

Changes

Alt colors will now work correctly.
Better default template created.
Some dummy news articles added.
Minor cosmetic work in admin script.
Added news_display_test.php as an example of how to display news.
Created this change log.

To upgrade from previous version

Replace dma_news_admin.php
Replace dma_news_display.php

Database changes

No DB changes from previous version

v0.500

05th June 2002

DMANews first released.