Site updates

Created 4/24/2009, updated 3/5/20245 minute read

I just deployed an updated version of the site so if you notice any anomalies please let me know (either by opening a ticket or emailing me{.mailto}). A full list of changes appears below.

Changes

Most of these a code-level changes with little impact at the user-interface level for public visitors (although for admin users there are quite a few improvements, especially on the AJAX side of things).

Some noteworthy changes for public visitors are:

You can now open tickets with only a summary (no description). The intention here is to make the issue tracker much easier to use as a super-easy-and-convenient "TODO" list; I’m hoping that users won’t abuse the feature and file bug reports or feature requests without the necessary details.
I’ve jettisoned Prototype and Scriptaculous in favour of jQuery, which means a lot less JavaScript has to be downloaded on the first page-view and should result in much better load times.
A couple of bugs related to "authenticity tokens" being inappropriately included in the search form were fixed:
- The search form on static error pages like the 404 (not found) and 500 (internal server error) pages now works.
- "Authenticity tokens" are no longer leaked onto page-cached pages, effectively fixing likely breakage of the search form on all such pages.

Here is the full list of commits made to the repository since the previous deployment:

602902f Allow "body-less" issues (issues with a blank description field)
76924a6 Fix specs broken by recent changes
9a205e1 Abort if no selection found in ajax_select
de95256 Teach ajax_check_box and ajax_select to show flash messages on error
ffa1f67 Correct AJAX flash positioning
7817c6b links#update.js: render JSON rather than redirecting
449d47d Provide better error strings for failed AJAX updates
f244954 Be even more paranoid about adding new methods to ActiveRecord::Base
abf764e Use slightly safer pattern for extending ActiveRecord::Base
b7ef64a Add "flashable_error_string" method to ActiveRecord::Base and use it
17df853 Provide better error messages for failed AJAX updates in links controller
2bb4fe5 Make authentication return non-empty response text on access errors
171a9ad Make edit_in_place() show flashes for AJAX errors
355e27d Remove Affero GPL license file
7a48f63 Remove inline CSS styling on AJAX spinners
dd788d1 issues#show: include ajax.js only if admin
e482a93 CSS: change "spinner" id to "preview_spinner"
50b7919 Remove now-used "spinner_tag" helper
dfb514a Drop "refresh" text entirely for live preview
8d94471 Change "update" to "refresh" for live preview link
b4654fd Use emdash instead of brackets for live "preview" link
e88550b Drop "fieldName" parameter to setup_preview_link
bfc5483 Use setup_preview_link in posts#new and posts#edit
ab750e2 Use Haml shorthand for preview_link id
b840b18 Use setup_preview_link in articles#new and articles#edit
6d11209 Eliminate (harmless) stray slash in ajax.js
7b17781 Extract setup_preview_link function
e655c1f Migrate link_to_update_preview from helpers/tweets_helper to JS
692bf75 New "update" (preview refresh) icon
ae956ce "Unobtrusify" field observation in tweets#edit and tweets#new
dea53f7 "Unobtrusify" field observation in posts#edit and posts#new
95c04d8 "Unobtrusify" field observation in articles#new and articles#edit
9b45004 Fix stray slash in app/views/js/issues/show.js.erb
fb3156c observe_field: infer field from other parameters
930ad9e observe_field: set up "complete" function default and use it
b371281 observe_field: set up "error" function default and use it
a283c37 observe_field: set up "success" function as a default and use it
74d3b0c Rely on 30 second default to observe_field function
ebe9cbc observe_field: move interval default to top of function
c0b21ed observe_field: move default "before" setup to top of function
dc45261 observe_field: perform default "before" action if none supplied
6b8aaa3 Bring class-based flash CSS into line with id-based flash CSS
044f524 Show flash-like feedback for live preview AJAX errors
e2290f5 Return diagnostic text for 404 AJAX requests
6623b2e Comment cleanup in JavaScript files
7231f1e spec_helper.rb whitespace fix
2e9dee5 Remove dead specs for articles helper
942bdfa Use hard-coded links to work around url_for quirks (test env)
2768719 Use $ shorthand for jQuery functions
f966eac Fix "misc" controller breakage in admin namespace
aa7a7a5 Split AJAX JS into separate file, ajax.js
14f6f05 Replace Prototype gsub(), evalJSON() and round() functions
b6b6098 Show title and body in posts#new and post#edit views
8bacfcc Include title in initial preview in posts#new and posts#edit
47dbd63 Hook up title observation in posts#new and posts#edit
cecd981 Remove kludgey global in "observe_field" JS
1a7e6a9 Increase observation interval of live post previews
2584a1f Remove all references to Prototype and Scriptaculous
b9835cf jQuery live preview for posts#new and posts#edit
f35f320 jQuery live preview for tweet#new and tweet#edit
07a25b4 Use spinner_tag helper everywhere
6ccc7d3 jQuery "observe_field": only do AJAX post if content actually changed
a7772a5 jQuery version of live preview in articles#new and articles#edit
f8b7bc9 lib/sortable: don't propagate authenticity tokens
e12c8e6 Improved lock, tick and sort triangle icons
7f4dcb8 Remove default "catch-all" routes
445c0db Explicitly map route for heartbeat#ping action
f1823fc Rewrap admin issues controller for better display on narrow terminals
bb223e4 Remove unused admin/issues#update
7e9326d Update topics and comments controllers to work with new AJAX helpers
f4ee659 jQuery rewrite of button_to_moderate_model_as_ham method
09d0667 jQuery rewrite of button_to_destroy_model method
70ee8bb Special case AJAX and Atom requests in record_not_found method
7d965ff Remove various unused actions from issues controller
e9a0bc3 Cucumber: add "loose" matching of page text
545c109 Update specs for JS controller routing changes
8fdc1a8 Remove old in-place-editing plugin
2c94dac Switch to new edit-in-place for admin/forums#index
9b2191c Comment consistency fix
1d010ec Indentation fixes in admin/tags controller
f764e48 Switch to new edit-in-place for admin/posts#index
d48a285 Remove redundant comment from js/links/index.js.erb
77fa1f9 Switch to new edit-in-place for admin/tags#index
810cf7a Handle namespaced delegating controllers in JsController
5b04a2d Teach dynamic_javascript_include_tag to handle namespaces
e2bc498 Remove redundant set_issue_summary specs
8436758 Don't leak authenticity tokens onto cached pages
c753545 Partial "revert" of 6bb575b: stop using authenticity tokens in AJAX requests
ed05c94 Don't check authenticity tokens for any AJAX requests
4ef9112 Teach edit_in_place to handle multiple matching elements
0732e05 Highlight errors using red CSS after an AJAX error
3111f57 Correct description of link model
9ff49a7 Partial replacement of in-place editing for links#index
99b7f80 Correct copyright date
d386d19 Prepare links#index for dynamic JavaScript
8d6b0d5 Move AJAX JS from issues#show into application.js
6bb575b Set up authenticity token global in application layout
2445e40 Remove redundant call to in_place_edit_for
2fc98a1 Remove unused js_for_attribute method
15e7fcb Remove unused spinner_for_attribute method
16d61cf Make search field in nav bar use jQuery instead of Prototype
7313787 Make link_to_issue_search use jQuery instead of Prototype
c0c73c2 Remove the set_protected_attribute method
bb8f937 Mark set_protected_attribute for future removal
1e786dd Use set_protected_attribute to set pending tags in issues controller
64090f6 Better nil handling in set_protected_attribute method
466b735 Link to tags index from wiki index
55f15d9 Skip request forgery protection in search controller
23ccaec Clarify comments on local_request? method
bb30767 Cucumber 0.3.0: fix breakage caused by World API churn
af58be7 Make issue tags editable-in-place via AJAX
7ab65f2 Teach ajax_select helper an "include blank" option
7bb87dd Create an empty whitelist of accessible attributes for all models
eb6b7ab Add attr_accessible declarations to message, needle and tweet models
4a9f368 Document table fields for Needle model
cbcfe07 Remove references to "status" in ajax_select function
f4f903d jQuery replacement for ajax_check_box method
2e19f5a Change to BSD license in JS files
b505940 Note that can't use config.include trick with FixtureReplacement
73b4e46 RSpec: move controller helper methods into separate file
7970e94 Add FreeBSD license file and clarify licensing plans
22730ac Move dev-specific config into appropriate environment
24733b7 Update to RSpec 1.2.4
27e2bfb "Smart" capitalization for new articles
6b6ccca Revert "Capitalize article titles when not found"
4def946 Capistrano: change command order in help