Squiz Labs Blog - The latest news from the R&D arm of Squiz®

How usable is MySource Mini? - Revisited

Back in January we wrote an article about the usability of MySource Mini. We asked ourselves how usable is MySource Mini based on the five attributes of usability that Jakob Nielsen listed in his book Usability Engineering - Learnability, Efficiency, Memorability, Errors and Satisfaction.

At the time we could not answer whether MySource Mini was memorable as we did not have enough data. Since this article we have conducted two more rounds of usability testing and have tested this attribute. So are users able to remember how to use MySource Mini?

At the end of the session, each participant was handed a memory test - a list of questions that they needed to answer to see how much they remembered. The average score for these tests was 80%.

As most of the participants were first time users and would be deemed by Jackob Nielsen as casual users (i.e., people who use the system intermittently, such as sales people, admin staff and upper management) we are able to say that MySource Mini is memorable.

What does this mean? Well in January we stated:

We can now also add that MySource Mini is memorable. Users are able to remember parts of the system that they have seen and used.

How much does your coding standard check?

Or maybe the title should be: How Annoying is PHP_CodeSniffer for you? or so the devs around here say. But should they be believed? Are they actually serious or just having a dig?

I've just finished adding error codes to all error and warning messages in PHP_CodeSniffer. This has now allowed me, for the first time, to really take a good look at just how many things each of the included standards are checking.

Obviously, the standards check for a wide range of different violations. Some are formatting issues. Some are performance issues. Most are a matter of preference, defined for the sake of having a standard that everyone in a diverse team can follow. The only differentiation that can be easily made is if something is serious enough to be considered an error, so that's what I'm working with.

The table below lists the complete standards that are included in PHP_CodeSniffer. The Zend and Generic standards are not listed because they are really more of a collection of tools rather than a complete and defined standard. Each standard in the table lists the number of discrete checks being made during a run and the percentage of those checks that produce errors instead of just warnings.

Interestingly, the error percentages for all the standards are about the same. So these coding standards have a few warnings, but the vast majority of their checks are considered important enough to throw errors. There is little room for variation. I personally like this in a standard. Standards that give you a few guidelines or provide you with ambiguous messages and not useful for a developer. If you can't check for it and provide an alternative syntax, save it for the formal code review process.

So how annoying is PHP_CodeSniffer for the developers working on MySource Mini? We are checking 484 different things each time they write a line of code in a PHP, CSS or JS file. So it must be really annoying!

But it's not that bad. You get used to it. You learn the standard and you naturally write code the way everyone has agreed. You make mistakes and they get picked up, but they are easy to find and easy to correct.

When used in this way, PHP_CodeSniffer is the educational tool it was designed to be. It was never intended for developers to be able to write code in whatever style they want and then run a tool to tell them how to make it conform. What a waste of developer time that would be.

As a developer, your job is to solve problems by writing code. The way you write it should be flexible enough that it can change between companies and projects. Hopefully PHP_CodeSniffer can help you learn a new style more easily than just reading a guide and let you know when you are drifting back to an old style.

Rebranding has Begun

Something changed in our MySource Mini toolbar today. Can you spot it?

Integrating MySource Mini and MySource Matrix via the EES

We gave you the first sneak peek at this integration when we posted some screenshots that showed the browsing of Matrix content within Mini back in January. Then we released the functionality to our beta testers in May, and then finally to everyone in June. But now you can take a look at this functionality without needing to install anything.

We've taken a breath and managed to push out the Matrix Integration feature page, complete with a demonstration video so you can check out how easy it is to hook these two systems together.

Despite the graphics on the feature page, Matrix integration is not magic, but it does involve some clever use of the integration features already built into Matrix, as well as the new Easy Edit Suite.

MySource Mini talks to MySource Matrix via a SOAP API asset that you create somewhere in your Matrix system. Mini uses a common username and password to fetch data from Matrix to present content to frontend users and provide a browseable asset finder to editors. We recommend you use a read-only user account for this.

Editing of Matrix content is done by embedding the EES from MySource Matrix into the MySource Mini editing interface. Unlike browsing of content, editing of content is performed as the user you are logged in as so you always have the correct permissions. A tricky JavaScript iFrame-based communication process allows us to provide single sign-on between Matrix and Mini. So if you have a user in each system with the same username and password, we'll be able to log you into Matrix using the details you provide when logging into Mini and you'll never have to see a login box. This works really well when you have an LDAP directory providing user accounts to both systems, but it's not essential.

So go check it out.

Squiz International User Conference 2010

This year's Squiz International User Conference is being held at the Sebel Hotel, Albert Park, in Melbourne between the 20th and 22nd of October. Formally the MySource Matrix International User Conference, this year's conference has been expanded to cover the whole suite of Squiz products, including Funnelback, MySource Mini and two new products currently in development; Squiz Search and Squiz Analytics.

Sounds good so far right?. But we've got something special in store for everyone this year - the Squiz Advocate election. This replaces the feature bazaar that we normally have just for Matrix.

Emphasis added by us, but why wouldn't you come and hang out with Labs anyway?

You can get more information about the conference on the Squiz website.

Or if you want something you can print out and stick on the wall next to your bed, we've got a nice promotional flyer with heaps of information, including the 3-day program and session information.

But hurry. The early bird special discount ends on the 31st of July.

EES released for MySource Matrix 3.28.1

A new version of the MySource Matrix Easy Edit Suite is now available for download on the EES download page. All the changes in this version are behind the scenes and strengthen the bridge between MySource Matrix and MySource Mini.

If you plan to use MySource Matrix and MySource Mini together, using the EES as a common interface, please ensure you are running:

• MySource Matrix 3.28.1
• EES 3.28.1 (build 477)
• MySource Mini patch 10231

New EES users can take a look at the installation guide for install and configuration steps. Existing users just need to replace their existing EES directory with the new one in the 3.28.1 download. No additional configuration steps are required.

If you have any questions about the EES, or you would like to request features or report bugs, please post in the EES phase one support thread.

MySource Mini 32-bit VM now available

We are happy to announce that MySource Mini is now available for download as a 32-bit virtual machine. Our 64-bit VM is still available for download if you need it for hosting larger systems.

Several people wrote in to let us know that they were unable to run the MySource Mini VM on their desktops and laptops because they did not have 64-bit systems. We encourage those people, and everyone else, to download the 32-bit VM and give it another go. This 32-bit VM will run on almost any desktop or laptop and provides an easy way to get MySource Mini up and running for testing.

We have committed to providing updates for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of our virtual machines via our automated update system (free for personal users), so users of our new 32-bit VM don't need to worry about reduced features or services.

We've also managed to reduce the size of the VMs by 100MB (don't ask, we aren't 100% sure of VMware's black magic) bringing them to a slightly more respectable 350MB.

Both the 32-bit and 64-bit virtual machine downloads are available right now on the MySource Mini download page.

MySource Mini patch 10231 goes live for personal users

We've just pushed MySource Mini patch 10231 from beta to RC, so personal sites should receive the update tonight.

The patch is later than expected as we found a few issues relating to server updates and patch scheduling in different timezones during our beta testing phase (thanks beta testers!). We also held it back to complete a rewrite of the permission system and interface to make it more flexible and even faster. It was important we got this sorted out so we don't need to put you through risky upgrade steps in the future.

This patch brings some really great features to MySource Mini, including contexts, safe edit, dependency publishing, LDAP integration and tight integration with MySource Matrix. You can read about the main features in the beta release notice.

As always, you can download the new version on the MySource Mini downloads page, including our new 32-bit virtual machine.

For a full list of changes, view the patch notes for patch 10231.

MySource Mini patch 9925 seeded to beta testers

We just pushed patch 9925 out to our beta testers, our first in 6 months (you may have noticed we've been a bit quiet).

So why so long between patches? We've been working on some massive new features for MySource Mini. These are definitely enterprise-level, but come with the simple interfaces you expect from MySource Mini. Here are some highlights:

Contexts

These are like contexts in MySource Matrix, but they go a lot further. Contexts allow you to create multiple versions of any asset within your system, with changes to the content, links, metadata, web paths, designs or permissions. So now you can have a German version of your content, with a new URL without having to create a second site. Or create a Mobile context and apply a design to it that makes your site mobile-friendly. Or even create a German Mobile version that takes the best of both versions.

Safe Edit

Just like in MySource Matrix, editors can create safe edit versions of pages and files, allowing them to work on a new copy while public users see the published copy. But unlike MySource Matrix, MySource Mini extends this feature to every part of the system, not only allowing content to be safe edited, but also links, metadata, permissions, designs, URLs and everything else you can think of.

Ever wanted to delete an asset in safe edit and have it approved via workflow before that change happens? Of course you have, and now you can do just that.

And the best bit is that it is all seamless. Editors are thrown into safe edit automatically while admins can choose to both safe edit and live edit a page.

(The MySource Mini team secretly hopes someone creates a German Mobile context in their system as it has been, for whatever reason, the preferred test context and has caused us much pain.)

Dependencies

A new Settings screen lets you see what assets you are using on a page and allows you to publish them at the same time as the main page. You can also see where an asset is being used, right down to the pages that just use one of the asset's keywords in their content. You'll never forget to publish embedded images or linked pages again!

LDAP Integration

A new connection has been added to MySource Mini so that you can browse an LDAP directory from within MySource Mini and then apply permissions to those users and groups. You can also link users and groups into MySource Mini user groups, allowing you to create a custom user directory from a mix of local and remote users and groups.

LDAP users can also log into MySource Mini and browse and edit content with no restrictions.

If you really really really want to, you can even apply metadata and permissions to your LDAP users and groups. We've really taken the MySource Matrix concept of shadow assets to a whole new plane that transcends the known physical universe. (Yes, we love shadow assets.)

File Connection

This connection lets you browse a local folder structure and bring the files and images you find in there into your MySource Mini system. Link them into your site to give them MySource Mini URLs, list them in asset listings to create quick content libraries, or just link them into page content. The choice is yours.

MySource Matrix Integration

This connection lets you browse a MySource Matrix system from within MySource Mini. You can bring pages and files into your MySource Mini system to give them MySource Mini URLs and apply your MySource Mini design to the content. If you have the new Easy Edit Suite installed in your MySource Matrix system, you'll also be able to edit the content of any MySource Matix page you bring in, directly from the MySource Mini editing interface.

We expect this patch to go through our normal update cycle, so it should push out to personal sites within 2 weeks. The free virtual machine download will be updated at the same time.

A full changelog will be available at the same time as the personal download.

With so many new features, we are very likely to require updates to this beta patch, so this is a friendly reminder to please not install beta patches on production systems as you will need to restore your system before upgrading to the stable release.

Progress report: Browsing MySource Matrix within MySource Mini

We are currently developing a bridge between MySource Mini and MySource Matrix so that MySource Matrix content can be brought into a MySource Mini system. When this development is complete you will not only be able to browse your MySource Matrix system from MySource Mini, but also:

• Link to Matrix pages from within MySource Mini WYSIWYG content
• Create a new link between a Matrix page and a MySource Mini page, giving the Matrix page a MySource Mini URL
• Edit Matrix pages within the MySource Mini interface via a new Matrix simple edit interface
• Apply MySource Mini metadata, designs, permissions etc. to a Matrix page through the standard MySource Mini interface

To create a connection between MySource Matrix and MySource Mini, you will first need to configure the MySource Matrix SOAP interface. Once you have the URL of the SOAP server, you can use a new Connection wizard within MySource Mini to bridge the two systems.

Along with the standard fields, the required fields for this connection are:

• The URL of the SOAP server you configured within MySource Matrix
• A username and password to use for connecting to the SOAP server
• The ID of an asset within MySource Matrix to use as the root node of the connection

Currently, development has been completed to allow you to browse your MySource Matrix asset tree from within MySource Mini. Work is now starting on the remaining features around linking and editing of MySource Matrix content.

But you want some proof of course.

This image shows a simple MySource Matrix asset tree with a number of different asset types.
Note that the number in brackets is the asset ID and not the number of children.

This image shows the asset tree being browsed from within MySource Mini, using the Site asset as the root node of the connection.

To achieve this, we've made an important addition to the MySource Matrix SOAP API. You are currently able to retrieve all the information you require to build an asset tree, but we've added a new API functionGetAssetsInfo() that allows you to pull out this information in one call to significantly improve performance.

This is an example of how you use the new API function:

<?php
$soap_url    = "http://[SYSTEM_ROOT_URL]/_web_services/soap-server?WSDL";
$authen_info = array (
                'login'    => root,
                'password' => root,
               );

$client  = new SoapClient($soap_url, $authen_info);
$request = array(
            'AssetIDs'         => [Root AssetID],
            'FinderAttributes' => array(
                                   'Children',
                                   'type',
                                   'name'
                                  )
            );
   
$assetsInfoResult = $client->GetAssetsInfo($request);       
?> 

This is what the returned result looks like:

Array (
 [0] => Array (
           'AssetID' => '90',
           'AssetType' => 'backend_user',
           'AssetTypeAncestor' => 'user',
           'AssetName' => 'Dan Green',
           'AssetChildren' =>
          array (
            0 => '91',
            1 => '92',
        ),
  [1] ......
)

Please note that this new SOAP API function is not yet available in a stable release of MySource Matrix, but will be in a future 3.26 release.