Serendipity - Infrastructure

Serendipity 1.5.1 with SQLite

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:06:07 +0100

Some SQLite upgrades from Serendipity prior to 1.5 to the current version might create a problem, that the database update cannot properly update the serendipity_authors database table structure to insert the new "hashtype" (int) column. Due to that column missing, this can lead to the inability to log in.

Sadly SQLite does not easily allow to ALTER a table structure, so unless you have a SQLite admin tool to manually that column, and until the Serendipity Team can provide a proper fix, you should not yet update. Due to Christmas 2009.1 getting released soon, this might takes us a few more extra days.

If you have NOT yet uploaded the new serendipity release and executed the update, you can simply copy the file sql/db_update_1.5-alpha1_1.5-alpha2_sqlite.sql onto your installation, which fixes the upgrade procedure.

Side information: Hashtype defines whether md5 (value '0') or salted sha1 (value '1') is used for the stored encrypted password of the serendipity_authors table. Once you login with a hashtype=0, serendipity will automatically convert your password to sha1, and adjust the hashtype column. This is why once we fix this issue in 1.5.2, we must make sure that no manuall updates you might have used are overwritten, that could lead to Serendipity no longer knowing which hashtype was used for your column. That requires some thoughtful thinking, and a bit more time instead of a hotfix that might make the situation worse.

Note that this ONLY applies to users UPGRADING and using SQLite. A fresh installation as well as using other Database types is not affected.

Mail-server problems

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:40:51 +0100

Currently the mailserver of the board.s9y.org is malfunctioning, so new board registrations and reply notifications cannot be sent. Jannis is working on migrating the Mailserver so that the unstable behaviour of the mail-sending of the board is hopefully an issue of the past quite soon.

Update 2009-20-12: SMTP should work again now! If anyone still faces problem, please contact garvin(-at)s9y(-dot)org!

Serendipity Packages for Softaculous

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:26:33 +0200

Softaculous is a provider for automatted web-application installations on cPanel/DirectAdmin environments. They have an automatted API for software vendors like Serendipity to be able to setup and install their applications.

Thanks to the hard work of the Softaculous-Team, they have created a package for Serendipity on their own efforts - many thanks for that!

So you can easily install Serendipity on a Softaculous-Platform and be able to upgrade to later installations easily. Check out their Demo site to see an auto-installed Serendipity at work. You can also use this as a free demo of Serendipity, including the backend. Also Softaculous itself has a admin-demo, if you want to have a look on how to automate your installations of web-applications.

On the Serendipity@Softaculous-Site, you can also rate Serendipity or contribute reviews. Currently there are none available, so please feel free to both vote and spread the word on Serendipity there!

Nominate Serendipity in SF.Net Community Awards

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Thu, 14 May 2009 09:40:03 +0200

The SourceForge.Net Community Choice Award Nominations are now open. Nominate Serendipity! :-)

Serendipity-Handbuch

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:20:27 +0200

(Announcement for the german book. English users have to please stay patient for a possible translation!)

Nach beinahe einem Jahr harter Arbeit kann nun die umfassende Dokumentation zu Serendipity sowohl online wie auch beim netten Buchhändler um die Ecke bestellt werden:

Serendipity: Individuelle Weblogs
für Einsteiger und Profis
(ISBN 978-3-937514-54-3, Amazon).

Das Buch behandelt auf 750 Seiten sowohl die ersten Schritte mit Serendipity (inklusive Installation und Bedienungsanleitung) als auch die Benutzung von Plugins, Templates und einer sehr ausführlichen API-Dokumentation. Ein gutes Schlagwortregister hilft zudem beim täglichen Nachschlagen.

Ein Probekapitel sowie das vollständige Inhaltsverzeichnis kann unter dem oben angegebenen Link eingesehen werden.

Kurzum, ein Buch dass sich jeder deutschsprachige Serendipity-Enthusiast einmal ansehen sollte. Leser des Buches sind natürlich herzlich eingeladen, ihre Meinung oder konstruktive Kritik zu dem Buch im Serendipity-Forum, mir persönlich oder als Amazon-Rezension mitzuteilen.

Zur Feier der Veröffentlichung gibt es ein Gewinnspiel mit 5 Exemplaren des Buches, die uns vom Verlag Open Source Press zur Verfügung gestellt werden. Um ein solches Exemplar kostenlos zu ergattern, könnt ihr folgendes tun:

Bloggen.

Wenn ihr ein eigenes Blog habt, erstellt einfach einen Beitrag bei dem ihr bitte folgenden Link einbaut:

<a href="http://blog.s9y.org/archives/195-Serendipity-Handbuch.html">
Serendipity-Handbuch
</a>

Dadurch wird, falls in eurem Blog aktiviert, auch automatisch ein Trackback gesetzt. Falls das nicht klappt und ihr eure URL hier nicht sofort seht, hinterlasst bitte hier im Blog einen Kommentar mit eurer URL (ohne HTML-Code, hier ist nur BBCode zugelassen).
Kreativ sein.

In eurem Artikel könnt ihr die folgenden zwei Fragen beantworten. Wer kein Blog besitzt, kann die Fragen auch gerne hier als Kommentar beantworten:

Aus welchem Grund sollte man sich das Buch eigentlich kaufen, wenn man es nicht gerade gewinnt?

Was gefällt euch am besten an Serendipity?
Gewinnen.

Der Einsendeschluss ist am 18.06.2008, der Rechtsweg ist ausgeschlossen. 3 Gewinner werden zufällig ausgelost, 2 Gewinner werden anhand der subjektiv originellsten Antworten auf die Fragen entschieden. Die Gewinner werden hier im Blog angekündigt und gebeten, mir ihre Post-Adresse per E-Mail zuzusenden. Teilnahme per Pseudonym ist vollkommen okay, eure Postdaten werden ausschließlich an den Verlag zur Versendung der Gewinne weitergegeben und danach wieder gelöscht.

Viel Spaß und Erfolg,
Garvin Hicking

Spamblock and blogg.de blacklist

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 10:16:00 +0100

The Serendipity Anti-Spam plugin allows to utilize the blogg.de IP blacklist service to block spam. Their service seems to have ceased existence, or at least is rejecting connections. This can lead to comments to your serendipity blog to be rejected. You can easily disable the blogg.de blacklist service in your Anti-Spam plugin configuration.

Note that this option is by default disabled in Serendipity since blogg.de announced that they are no longer actively maintaining the blacklist. A well fit alternative to this service is the Akismet API, which the spamblock plugin also supports.

Your help in sorting serendipity plugins

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:20:05 +0200

Like announced earlier on the serendipity blog, fellow usability expert Joachim Harloff is currently trying to improve the listing of Serendipity Plugins so that they are more accessible to users.

He needs your help to fulfill them. Initially he planned to personally meet with serendipity users, but this proved more complex than initially hoped. Thus he has created a smaller, text-based version of it.

You can download the file at http://www.softuse.com/serendipity_sorting.zip. It contains detailed instructions. You can also feel free to personally contact Joachim about any questions you have.

Joachim estimates this questionnaire to take you about 1,5 hours of your time. You could greatly help to improve the serendipity usability, so please participate! Joachim wants to evaluate your responses starting on September the 8th.

NetMirror.org Outage

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 10:32:01 +0200

For the time being, the Netmirror.org servers currently do not update anymore, they seem to be having a problem. We have contacted the maintainers last week and hope to get feedback soon.

Until then, download of some and new plugins via Spartacus through this mirror will not work, and you will need to configure the Spartacus plugin to use the SourceForge.Net mirror servers.

Once the problem is resolved, we will give you a status update here.

UPDATE: Netmirror.org works again, thanks to their technicians :-)

German PHP Magazine featuring Serendipity article

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Sat, 19 May 2007 12:50:51 +0200

This month's german PHP magazine features an article introducing Serendipity and its capabilities, as well as some looks into thecode- written by yours truly, Garvin Hicking. The article is titled "Blogging mit Biss"

The article was written with newbies to Serendipity in mind, but also targetted at eager developers who might want to contribute to Serendipity. When the next PHP magazine issue comes out, we'll see to publishing the article on s9y.org.

If you've read the article and want to share your opinion, feel free to comment here.:-)

Double the servers is double the fun!

jannis@gmail.com (Jannis) — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 18:27:39 +0100

The nice folks of AOE media GmbH offered to sponsor the s9y project with another dedicated server, which arrived today. I spent the day installing the base system, setting up mysql replication through a vpn between the two servers, and stuff like that. So for those of you who noticed a downtime today, it was a planned one (and also un-announced ;-), that I used to copy a snapshot of the s9y.org and supersized.org databases over to the new server. I hope it didn't cause too much trouble for you, but this made future work/load-distribution over the servers a lot easier. All the s9y.org-webserver-responsiveness-jazz of the last months should ease up a little over the next few months. Finally ;)

Spartacus is updating again

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 13:51:53 +0200

The Spartacus services, which was not updating for some time, should now be working again properly. If you still have no access to updated plugins, please let me know.

Temporary Spartacus-Update outage

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 09:24:56 +0200

UPDATE: Spartacus works again

Yesterday, my private linux development box passed away. My small EPIA ME-6000 Mini-ITX PC served me and the serendipity development several gracious coding hours. Even though its 256MB of RAM and the performance of a P2-400 was sometimes driving me insane, it had one big bonus: It was nearly fanless, and thus silent enough to fit into my combined living/work area.

And now it is no more.

Which temporarily means, as long as I get a new silent PC I cannot boot my linux system, which (apart from fetching my mail and beign my file storage) also took care of updating the Spartacus XML files every 24 hours. This means that until then, the new plugin versions are not available via Spartacus, and you must either wait or fetch them via CVS.

Since a new silent PC cuts a larger hole into the budget that I had planned for my turkey-holidays, I can't tell how long I need to gather up that new PC. If anyone here has a small project (2-3 weekends?) in his backhand, that would require a skilled PHP-developer with solid Serendipity-knowledge like myself - please raise your voice. :-)

Serendipity Interview in ITS ART Magazine

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 15:32:00 +0200

Some time ago, the publisher of the ezine called ITS ART Magazin approached me and asked to do an interview with me about programming Serendipity.

Since I generally enjoy this kind of being able to tell about Serendipity, I couldn't refuse this question of course. :-)

Thus, you can now find this interview in the latest issue #05. The interview culminated into a nice conclusion, so everyone who's interested, have a go at it.

I generally suggest you to check out this ezine, its contained images and featured artists alone are a great source of information and inspiration, and the generall layout is a pleasure to look at. Spread the word about this magazine, it's better than most printed editions you can find at you newsstands!

Also have a look at their blog!

Serendipity Debian Package

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 10:18:58 +0200

Jay took some time to create a Serendipity Debian Release Package! Go and try it out. :-)

Thanks a lot, Jay! We are also still on the lookout for volunteers helping us create a PEAR channel and PEAR packages. *g*

Serendipity 1.0 released!

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 18:40:18 +0200

The Serendipity Team is proud to announce the final release version of Serendipity 1.0, an advanced and flexible blogging/cms web application. With its comprehensive feature set, including multiple authors, internationalization, templated output, and an open plugin architecture, Serendipity's stable 1.0 release is ready to become the most popular Web application in the world!

INTRODUCTION

Serendipity is a PHP-powered weblog application which gives the user an easy way to maintain an online diary, weblog or even a complete homepage. While the default package is designed for the casual blogger, Serendipity offers a flexible, expandable and easy-to-use framework with the power for professional applications.

Casual users appreciate the way Serendipity's sophisticated plugin architecture allows you to easily modify both the appearance of your blog and its features. A single click installs any of more than 120 plugins, instantly enhancing your blog's functionality. No need to edit code! Likewise, one click installs any of more than 40 official templates, so your blog looks the way you like it. And Serendipity's SPARTACUS plugin automatically checks the central repository for upgrades and new functionality whenever you check the list.

Advanced users value Serendipity's Smarty templates for combining simplicity with well-documented web standards. It makes minor modifications trivial, but provides the power to unleash your creativity and completely customize your site! Serendipity's outstanding support gives you the confidence to be adventurous, too.

Programmers and other technical users commend Serendipity for its fast, stable, clean PHP code. While beginners can learn from Serendipity, advanced programmers can easily make complex modifications. Serendipity is programmed in PHP, long recognized for its ideal blend of power, simplicity, and speed. Serendipity's BSD licensing ensures that programmers around the world can learn from it and improve it.

Users of other blogging/CMS applications are already switching to Serendipity, thanks to its easy customization and outstanding support. Corporate users are taking advantage of Serendipity's unparalleled flexibility to set up fast, simple CMS sites.

Serendipity's basic features include something for everybody, from the personal blogger to the professional corporate web designer:

WYSIWYG and HTML editing
Built-in, powerful media database
Multiple authors, configurable permission/usergroup system
Threaded comments, nested categories, post to multiple categories
Multiple languages (internationalization)
Online plugin and template repository for easy plug-and-play installation
Cool plugins: category-based sub-blogs, podcasting, RSS planet/aggregator, static pages
Robust spam blocking
One-click upgrading from any version
Can be embedded into your existing web pages
Standards-compliant templating through Smarty, remote blogging via XML-RPC
BSD-style licensing
Multiple Database support (SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MySQLi)
Shared installations can power multiple blogs from just one codebase
Native import from earlier blog applications (WordPress, Textpattern, MoveableType, bblog, ...)

Of course, Serendipity has far too many other features to list!

NEW FEATURES / FIXES

The Serendipity team has been working hard to produce what we think is the best blog in the world. Since our most recent prerelease, we've updated the installation screens, added new languages (Polish, Turkish, and Tamil), made our RSS feeds templatized, improved the spam filters with Akismet support, and fixed every known bug.

But there's even more to like about Serendipity! Here are a few other recent improvements:

Completely new, fresh default template from the contest winner, Carl Galloway!
Fixed all known bugs, making the 1.0 release of Serendipity the most stable version ever
MORE Spamblock improvements (Blacklists, stronger Captchas, Akismet, improved ruleset filtering, bypass captchas for registered users)
Improved language handling facilities for better co-operation with multilingual entries
Enhanced templating (hiding sidebars, including extra entries anywhere in template)
One-click editing of static sidebar HTML
Full phpDoc code documentation for all Serendipity functions
New Pivot Blog importer
Bugfix: UTF-8 in permalink and markup
Bugfix: Correct comment counts
Bugfix: Recode UTF-8 trackbacks to mismatching blogs
Bugfix: Better XHTML and CSS output for internal plugins

And those are only the highlights! See the docs/NEWS file in the release file for the full list of changes.

UPGRADING

Upgrading from any version (even previous beta or alpha versions) to Serendipity 1.0 is startlingly easy: just unpack the release files to your existing Serendipity directory, go to your admin panel, and confirm the upgrade process. Serendipity automatically upgrades your database and informs you of important changes. If you are upgrading from a version prior to Serendipity 0.8, be sure to read this upgrade pointer: http://www.s9y.org/index.php?node=63

THE FUTURE

Just because we've completed the stable 1.0 release version, don't think we're out of ideas! The Serendipity Team has already been working hard on version 1.1. This huge effort has already provided a vastly improved media database, supporting ID3/EXIF evaluation, on-the-fly synchronization with the filesystem, annotations (all customizable through templates) and a new explorer-like interface to the media files. Also, all media directories can now have individual permissions.

We've also enhanced usability, so you can temporarily disable event plugins, customize theme options, like colorsets and menus, and enable or disable specific markup plugins for each entry! As well as constantly improving the user interface and adding drag'n'drop support for arranging plugin items easily.

To participate in the future of Serendipity, try out the latest Serendipity 1.1 snapshots, and visit us on the forums.

THANKS

Serendipity 1.0 marks the end of a very long development cycle that started in 2002. Many beta-releases have been issued since, keeping us closely in touch with the community, fixing bugs and offering features our users really wanted.

The team would like to thank everyone for reporting the issues they found and telling us developers what you really want form your blog. Visitors to the forums will see how much of their feedback was implemented into Serendipity 1.0!

Refining Serendipity's documentation and appearance was critical to the release of Serendipity 1.0. Thanks to the great help of Carl Galloway, David Cummins, Judebert, ceejay and Martin Jacobsen, Serendipity not only has a new default theme, but a new logo and website. We couldn't have done it without their help, or the help of the community that participated in that public process. In recognition of that outstanding community, the new logo includes multiple individual circles, grouped as a platform. From that platform, you can create anything.

Our small "1.0 Release Team" is proud with what we have achieved in our little spare time, and even though it was difficult at times, we believe that with this new logo, look, and functionality, Serendipity will continue to be the best blog engine, and grow into the most popular.

RESOURCES

The Serendipity home page: http://www.s9y.org/

The Serendipity forums: http://www.s9y.org/forums

Serendipity news from the Serendipity Blog: http://blog.s9y.org/

Serendipity plugins: http://spartacus.s9y.org/

Serendipity themes: http://themes.s9y.org/

Try Serendipity online: http://supersized.org/

DOWNLOAD

Now what are you waiting for? Download the Serendipity 1.0 release! http://www.s9y.org/12.html

On behalf of the s9y-Team,
Garvin