SnowCMS 2.0 Alpha 2 and Alpha 3 to be Merged
Posted by Ian in News and updates on July 7th, 2011
Hey there, everybody!
I just committed revision 1036, which finishes the conversion to the new theme system, kind of.
The road map currently shows that this would indicate that an alpha 2 update would be right around the corner… Well, that has changed.
You see, I feel as though that many core components of the system are still — to put it bluntly — pathetic. These components include such things as: the plugin installer, updater, and manager, the theme viewer, installer, and updater, and the system updating mechanism. Interesting, last I checked, that’s just about everything!
Due to this, I have decided to move the road map around (haven’t done it yet, but will tomorrow) and merge the alpha 2 and 3 release together, and along with that, alpha 2 will be the release to include the new control panel theme I showed off a few days ago. The reason that the new theme will be included in alpha 2 is because I plan to change around the look and feel of these “cruddy” components, and I see no point on doing that if a new theme will be used which may then require some more tweaks.
In case you are wondering what the 2.0 beta milestone will contain, because it seems somewhat pointless in terms of planned updates, it is something I have yet to add to the road map as well. I will talk more about this as the time comes, but 2.0 beta will bring an overhaul to the log in system, which will no longer use a cookie containing a member ID and salted & hashed password, but an authentication token, which will completely removed any traces of your password in any form from cookies (along with being seen in clear text when logging in, if JavaScript is enabled).
Sorry about that! Though its not as if many have downloaded SnowCMS anyways 
A Sneak Peak at SnowCMS 2.0 Beta’s New Control Panel
Posted by Ian in News and updates on July 4th, 2011
Hey everybody! Yesterday I decided to take a little break from copying and pasting code (switching over to the new theme system), but I still wanted to work on something that had to do with SnowCMS.
I figured that I would work on the new control panel layout slated to be released with SnowCMS 2.0 beta, and now that I am done with the HTML aspect I decided to give everybody a peak. Check it out:
New Log In
Now you will no longer receive an error asking you to go to another page to log in, just to come back again. With 2.0 beta you will be able to log right into your account from the authentication page, if need be (if you are logged in, your user name will be filled in already, and all you will need to do is enter your password).
Redesigned Home Layout
The new starting page for the control panel takes a lot of queues from the current design as seen in SnowCMS 2.0 alpha, but I thought a little reorganization was needed, especially thinking about the possibility of people having a massive amount of plugins adding functionality and other settings within the control panel… So I decided to show navigation options in two places: the sidebar and in the middle with the icons.
As you can see, I also moved “News from SnowCMS” to a more prominent location, instead of having it crammed into the sidebar as it is now.
Right below the header, and above the middle content of the site, there is now a bar which contains two things: a link tree and notifications. Now navigating back out of “corners” in the control panel will be much easier as the link tree will allow you to jump up, if there is one (there will be a new addition to the API to allow plugins to integrate with this).
More Prominent Notifications
Right now in SnowCMS 2.0 alpha notifications are only displayed on the start page of the control panel, which is fine, but it seems logical to be able to view these notifications regardless of location within the control panel.
With 2.0 beta, all a user needs to do to view these notifications is to click “Notifications” on the right side of the link tree, which will then display a window containing current notifications.
I have yet to decide what exactly plugins will be able to display in this notifications area (presumably text and a link), so all I can show you right now is “No Notifications!”
Hope You Like What You See
Well, I hope you like what you see! I certainly look forward to reaching the 2.0 beta milestone, as we will become feature complete at that point, and we will be very close going “gold,” when I can start building plugins (and others, of course — they can be created now, it’s just that a lot things may change until then) to show off what SnowCMS is capable of doing.
Till next time, be sure to follow us on Twitter @SnowCMS, check out our Google Code Project website, along with registering at the SnowCMS Dev Forum.
An update on progress, and the domain renewed
Posted by Ian in Developer updates, News and updates on June 20th, 2011
If anyone was paying attention (which I know no one was…) you may have noticed that the snowcms.com domain had expired, and of course the website then showed a lovely GoDaddy renewal notice. I apologize about that! The domain expired right in the sweet spot where I couldn’t renew it.
Anyways, I just thought I would give an update on the development status of SnowCMS v2 alpha 2, and I have actually been working on it even when the domain was down.
We are actually very close to the completion of SnowCMS v2 alpha 2, in terms of stages. There are three stages, and two of them are already completed. I have started on the third stage, but I there is still quite a bit left to do.
The third stage is converting the system over to the new theme setup, which no longer involves calling theme()->header() and theme()->footer(), but instead calling theme()->render() instead. By doing this, embedded HTML will be removed from the core system and into separate template files, which can be easily replaced by plugins if required.
SnowCMS 2.0 alpha 1 is ready to be tested!
Posted by Ian in News and updates on June 10th, 2011
The SnowCMS Dev Team is more than proud to announce the immediate availability of SnowCMS 2.0 alpha 1, which can be downloaded from Google Code.
Please understand that SnowCMS 2.0 alpha is likely to be very unstable! Therefore it should not be used on any production site whatsoever, as this release is merely a preview.
If you would like to help us out, you can download and install SnowCMS then give it a test run, and if you find any problems please submit a bug on our Google Code project site, or the developer forum. Every little thing helps, especially seeing as right now I am the only developer, though soren121 said that he does plan on helping this summer, so I have a lot of work to do!
Seeing as SnowCMS is designed to be highly modular, there currently isn’t much you can do with the system, except logging in, registering, viewing profiles, along with messing around in the control panel. Due to this, there are no links in the template to the log in form, registration form, or administrative control panel, so for the time being, you will need to enter the URL to them directly. The log in form is available at index.php?action=login, registration at index.php?action=register, and the control panel at index.php?action=admin.
Sorry about that! But hey, it is an alpha!
Follow us on Twitter!
Posted by Ian in News and updates on June 10th, 2011
If you want to be kept up-to-date with all things SnowCMS, you should go ahead and follow us on Twitter, @SnowCMS.
I will still be posting updates to this blog, but I will be posting more tidbits more often on the Twitter account.
Thanks for your interest in SnowCMS!
Yeah, I think we are ready to roll…
Posted by Ian in News and updates on June 10th, 2011
Wow, I can’t believe I am about to say this, but: I think SnowCMS v2.0 alpha is ready-to-go.
It has been over 1 year and 7 months since development on SnowCMS v2.0 alpha began, and probably about 3 years since the SnowCMS project first began some time in early 2008, but it appears as though SnowCMS 2.0 is one step closer to “going gold.”
I will be releasing a download for SnowCMS 2.0 alpha sometime this weekend, and will begin working on SnowCMS 2.0 alpha 2 shortly thereafter. There is still a lot of ground to cover, and alpha 2 will be a big one. The alpha 2 release will comprise of under-the-hood changes, so when the update does come, don’t expect to see any changes to the way the system looks — or any new features, for that matter. If you want to see what is planned for alpha 2 more specifically, check out our road map.
Before I do release SnowCMS 2.0 alpha, I just want to test it out a little bit to make sure there are no huge problems that really need to be fixed. Sure, it’s an alpha, not even beta, but still.
For those wondering, the update process for alpha 2 will be fairly straightforward, as you will be able to upgrade through the Update component accessible in the control panel — so long as everything goes off without a hitch. I have tested the update mechanism many times, but you never know! 
More soon!
I know I have said it before, but I’ll say it again…
Posted by Ian in Developer updates on February 26th, 2011
I know, I know… Previously I said we were really close to releasing a preview of SnowCMS v2, but this time, we are really really close.
What do I have left to do?
- Some tweaks to the theme control panel, such as making the theme files checked against the security database (to see that they are safe), and to check for and apply updates to a theme.
- Remove AJAX from the plugin updater.
- Leverage the simple notification system: currently there is a way for plugins to display simple notifications in the control panel sidebar, but SnowCMS itself does not take advantage of this feature. I will make it so when there is a system update, plugin update, or theme update, you will see a notification that there is some sort of update available.
Hopefully we really are close this time, as I am really looking forward to getting SnowCMS out to the web to demonstrate what it is capable of!
Finally, a roadmap!
Posted by Ian in Developer updates on February 5th, 2011
Hey everybody… I know it has been an awfully long time since I have posted anything (or committed anything, for that matter), but I am back to work on SnowCMS once again.
I decided that it felt highly necessary that I layout a roadmap for SnowCMS, which can be found on Google Code now. Currently 3 alphas are planned, at least one beta and at least one release candidate is also planned. The alpha releases laid out are pretty much final, though another alpha or so could be added if deemed necessary.
Now we really are getting close!
Posted by Ian in News and updates on June 20th, 2010
As of last night, I have committed r991, which completes plugin management. That means now plugins can be installed, uninstalled, enabled, disabled and updated… Something I have been waiting to complete for quite some time
So now we are really close! I hope to have an alpha release soon… You can always discuss at the SnowCMS Dev Forum.
Getting closer day by day, of course…
Posted by Ian in News and updates on May 23rd, 2010
I have been doing quite a bit of work on SnowCMS lately, getting quite a bit done, of course.
Today I got quite a bit of plugin management done, so they can now be activated, deactivated and deleted, though updating them is not yet supported. I would like to get adding plugins done tomorrow as well.
All I can say is I am getting really close and I can’t wait until it’s time to release SnowCMS to the world!