We are happy to announce that a new version of ModuleStudio is available. ModuleStudio 0.6.0 includes several new features and many bugfixes.

Here is an overview of the most important features and noteworthy things:

Product changes

• A textual syntax defines a new and more readable model file format. Also there is a migration function for converting your existing models to this new notation automatically.
• The generator has a much better performance now.
• Errors and warnings can be translated into other languages now (German is supported already).
• Validation is no longer performed automatically every few seconds, but on certain events (each model save in the main editor, after opening existing models, when starting generation) and when calling validation manually using the main menu.
• Updated to Eclipse 4.2.2 (Juno SR2) and corresponding versions of third-party components. Mac OS X builds support only cocoa now, there are no launchers available for carbon anymore.
• The example models from the MostExamples repository are now shipped in a folder named examples within MOST.

DSL / Modeling language changes

• A new property stores the vendor of an application. Usually this is the name of a company or institution. This is a preparation for future versions of Zikula as it is intended to name extensions combining vendor and name of a module. Then it becomes possible to install for example multiple News modules by different vendors concurrently.
• Another new property allows you to define the desired target core version. The default is 1.3.6 which includes the new forward compatibility layer for Zikula 1.4.0. Another current possible option is 1.3.5 for backwards compatibility and more stability.
• Basic workflow support. For each entity one of three predefined workflows can be selected and further customised by means of several options. Totally you can describe a huge number of different workflows. More information can be found in the user manual.
• Introduced support for different types of application dependencies (requirement, recommendation, conflict).
• Float and decimal fields now have a currency flag property.
• There are two properties for relationship cascade settings now, one for each relation side.
• Whitespaces and 0 values are now allowed for list field entries.
• Upload fields can optionally have also a maximal size.
• The function for orphan removal is now also available for many-to-many relationships (beside one-to-one and one-to-many).
• A new categorisable option allows for defining whether multiple categories can be selected for the corresponding entity or not.
• Datetime and date fields can now be declared as start or end.

Generator changes

• Implementation and usage of the DSL changes described above, for example a lot of workflows-related stuff.
• Entities with Geographical extension show a map in display and edit pages now (based on mapstraction which is included as a system plugin in the core, so it is easily possible to use different map vendors).
• KML export functionality for entities with Geographical extension.
• When editing entities with Geographical extension a map for selecting coordinates is provided.
• Handling of relations has been reimplemented with form plugins.
• Relationship handling is now done with dropdown lists by default. Using auto completion instead is still possible. Inline creation and editing of related items is only possible when using the auto completion approach.
• Integration for search api and your account panel.
• Support for pending content listener, moderation block and moderation panel.
• Mass handling of objects on admin view pages.
• Support for meta data for the Tag module.
• Automatic archiving if archive and end date are available.
• Actions in view and display pages are now presented with context menus (similar like in tree management pages).
• Added a quick navigation form for view pages allowing for filtering, searching and sorting the list.
• A new content type allows displaying one certain single object.
• Optional category filters for generic block and both content types.
• Possibility for entering custom templates in list block and list content type.
• For categories multiple registries/trees/properties are now considered everywhere.
• Basic Scribite integration, at the moment there are plugins generated for Xinha, TinyMCE and CKEditor.
• Client-side validation of upload file extensions.
• Default implementation for user delete event listener.
• Display and edit actions have been implemented also for ajax controllers.
• Entities with tree extension (nested set, closure) show relatives on display pages (parents, children, siblings, etc.).
• Significant performance optimisations for the shorturl support.
• Usage of prepared statements in repository classes.
• More than 300 bugfixes and refactorings.

You are recommended to upgrade to MOST 0.6.0 as soon as possible. Depending on the target core version you need either the latest Git version of Zikula 1.3.6 or Zikula 1.3.5 with this patch for the workflows.