Some Fixes

When static front pages were reimplemented in Breadcrumb NavXT 2.1, it seems some things slipped through the cracks. In particular there is a problem with the frontpage breadcrumb, when on the frontpage. This and the options for static front pages were never cleaned up (my bad, I know). Another, relating to a /blog/blog and // error in the hyperlink for some by date archives was reported. Both of these will be fixed in this month’s service release, 2.1.2. For 2.2 support for WPMU will be improved (the administrative interface has problems with it right now), along with a widget. That release is a few months out still.

-John Havlik

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Next Breadcrumb NavXT

A week and a day a go Breadcrumb NavXT 2.1 was released. So far only one new bug has appeared. This happens for users of PHP4, and an upcoming bug fix release, 2.1.1 will contain a fix for that. What’s in store for Breadcrumb NavXT 2.2? Officially, there is one big thing that should be implemented in it. That is support for paged pages/posts/archives/searches/etc. Currently, basic framework exists for supporting these pages, and even an option to enable rudimentary support which was added in 2.0. Full support for these page types needs to be implemented, which is the last “unconquered” frontier. A widget plug-in will also make it to 2.2. I’m setting the intended release of 2.2 to be sometime this summer, think around July. In 2.2 there will be some additional changes to the core plug-in as things are better organized and modularized within it.

The reason for placing the release of 2.2 in July is so that it allows some time for additional bugs to be caught and fixed along with allowing time to complete the documentation. If everything goes as planned, the documentation for Breadcrumb NavXT will be fully written some time in June (possibly sooner). Until then, there is always Berry to work on, which will be released at the end of this month. Additionally, WP Trainer may actually rear it’s head if time permits.

-John Havlik

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Breadcrumb NavXT Core Changes

Version 2.1 will contain some major changes to the internal structure of the breadcrumb data object. Most of the API is not changing, and the changes are transparent for users of the administrative interface. Those who directly access the breadcrumb class will need to make sure to call assemble(); before display();. Failure to do so will result in unexpected behavior. These changes should be taken note of if using the latest SVN build of Breadcrumb NavXT, as it will be updated almost daily until things are ready.

Once the currently known bugs are worked out, which for the most part they are, the next order of business is getting things working correctly for static front pages. Static front pages will be supported via only one method of implementation for the time being. That method involves using the built in WordPress triggers, setting a page named home and setting the appropriate options in the administration panel under Options > Reading.

Even though 2.0.3 should have fixed the little PHP warning, it seems to not have. Fear not, this has been fixed in the SVN trunk. The other bug, which reveals it’s hideous head when activating the plug-in may be fixed as well. The error no longer gets thrown on the testbed, and it had to do with using require_once(); or include();. If anyone still receives either of these errors with the testing build please report it.

As an aside, Attachment NavXT won’t be developed. Later this month I’ll release the old code, but with the release of WordPress 2.5 it is no longer needed. In WordPress 2.5 there are some gallery functions that work with attachments, which is exactly what Attachment NavXT does.

-John Havlik

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Breadcrumb NavXT and WordPress 2.5

A new version of WordPress is coming, and some big changes are in store for the administrative interface. This change makes some formerly good looking administrative interfaces look out of place in 2.5. On my testbed I installed the latest SVN version of WordPres, as of Sunday at 2:00PM CDT. Then I proceeded to test the latest trunk build of Breadcrumb NavXT. Beyond a doubt, everything works as it did in 2.0.0. Some things that were fixed in 2.0.2 have regressed, specifically on install no settings get set. I then went on testing Tom’s modified Administrative interface that he made look good in 2.5. The good news is that I can reproduce the odd bcn_security() can not be redefined error. The bad news is that I get that error. I’m not exactly sure how I got it to happen, but it may have to do with not disabling Breadcrumb NavXT and changing it’s files. Known things that won’t resolve the issue include:

  1. Regressing to the old file.
  2. Restarting Apache/MySQL.
  3. Commenting out the “bad” code.

I’m going to get phpMyAdmin up and running this evening and hopefully see if WordPress is doing any caching of the code or not in SQL (I hope they aren’t). Restarting Apache should have cleared any code cache PHP would have setup, but I’ll do a grep for the code to see if it’s still magically hidden somewhere. Oddly enough the plug-in is seen by WordPress as activated, and going to the administration panel for it yields the first section (fieldset) and a half of options. However these are from the old code that no longer resides on the server. What’s also odd is that PHP claims that the function is defined at the opening brace and then complains that I tried to redefine it at the closing brace.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]