Release Notes 2.3 - The most important innovations

ZMS 2.3: CSS-Tuning, WAI, SCORM2004

In a superficial view, few things changed with the new version ZMS 2.3; internally it looks different, however: Release 2.3 is characterized by a structural revision of all standard objekts. The HTML output does not contain table constructs any more and focuses on div-elements resp. CSS. As a consequence, the template concept was revised, too, to facilitate a WAI/Accessibility-conform output.
In detail the following aspects were integrated into the system:

Via the Meta-attribute "PageExt" you may define for each document arbitrary file-extensions (*.html, *.php, *.asp etc.); these facilitate the integration of ZMS generated documents in other programming environments (e.g. with the static export).

The template naming changed according to the following principle:
A so-called "pageelement" is a functional unit, a so-called "pageregion" is a layout zone. The page region model is geared to the general layout concept of XML-FO (Formatting Objekcts). Example: A template "pageelement_Menu" contains the code to generate a menue list while the template pageregionTop, e.g., calls the functional template pageelement_Menu and by this places it at he heading of the page.

Note: Generally the old templates of previous versions are of course still usable; basically it is possible to work with a completely different template nomenclature, if needed.

The new inline-elements for text objects (abbreviation, acronym, language) help to tag WAI-conform contents; this refers predominantly to character strings that should be declared for the output via Screenreader more detailed.

The configurarion of Multi-Sites (master-client-constructs) has been optimized by revised heredity of objects and attributes; this concerns primarily the heredity of language dictionaries and a restriction for deleting acquired objekt defintions.

The internal ZMS interface for maintenance of CSS definitions can process several CSS files; for this purpose any number of CSS variation can be initialized. These variations are named autonatically by a consecutive index.

The export mechanism is able to output even DTML generated supplement files; this especially is relevant for generating content streams compatible with SCORM. The mechanism in the background is rendering SpecObj-elements of type DTML-method and places the result in the accordingly exported folder enclosing the content object that is attributed with the method.

The color-objekt results from the parsing of the CSS defintitions, which elements contain a substring "Color" (like e.g. neutralColorStrong); ZMS generates a colormap consisting of the element names and the relating values. The color object can be put as data type into a SpecialObjekt, providing all colour values available in a colour scheme and selectable in a coloured list.

For the standard objekts (ZMSTextarea, ZMSTable, ZMSGraphic, ZMSTeaserelement) ZMS issues default CSS elements; these are prefixed before the CSS which can be defined in the configuration. The predefined element defintions can easily be overwritten. The naming of the CSS elementi n so far is identical with the new template name as each template code is enclosed with a corresponding functionally named div-element. Example: the functional template "pageelement_Menu" is prefaced with <div id="Menu">. This way the sub elements (ul, li, a) can be identified per CSS non-ambiguously according to the object hierachy.
If the construction of pages is completely shifted into CSS, naturally it will become more complex while the template code will be slimming essentially.

Changes.txt ZMS 2.3.2#62


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2004-08-07::zms-2.3.0-b01.tar.gz
-- WAI
* Applied changes for ZMSTextarea (according to concept revision 0.3 by fh)
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2004-08-17::zms-2.3.0-b02.tar.gz
-- WAI
* Applied changes for ZMSTable (according to concept revision 0.6 by fh)
* Added new attribute type 'color'
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2004-08-18::zms-2.3.0-b03.tar.gz
-- WAI
* Applied changes for ZMSTable (according to concept revision 0.6 by fh)
* Added support for parsing colormap from stylesheet
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2004-08-24::zms-2.3.0-b04.tar.gz
-- WAI
* Applied changes for ZMSGraphic (according to concept revision 0.8 by fh)
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2004-09-02::zms-2.3.0-b07.tar.gz
-- CONFIGURATION (for xm)
* Disable delete-button for objects with acquisitions in clients (special-objects, meta-attributes, actions)
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Fixed bug in direct-edit (utf-8)
* Fixed bug in initialization of special-objects (reported by T. Weber)
* Fixed bug in ZMI of embedded links (reported by Dr. F. Hoffmann)
* Fixed bug in initialization of new SQL-Datasource objects (reported by Dr. F. Hoffmann)
* Revised special-object newsletter (contributed by C. Meier)
* Revised display of choose-option in tabular grids
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2004-09-08::zms-2.3.0-b08.tar.gz
-- PAGE-EXTENSION (for fox)
* Added support for custom page-extensions: declare meta-attribute PageExt (select) and provide a list of desired extensions (e.g. ['.html','.asp'])
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Fixed bug in dialog-attributes (e.g. thesaurus, reported by Dr. F. Hoffmann)
* Added support for default-values in special-object attributes.
* Replaced table-tags by divs for renderShort of Link-Elements and -Containers (requested by Dr. F. Hoffmann)
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2004-09-12::zms-2.3.0-b09.tar.gz
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2004-09-20::zms-2.3.0-b10.tar.gz
-- STATIC HTML-EXPORT (for Dr. T. Fox)
* Added support for declarative urls
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Revised embedding and recursive embedding (for Dr. F. Hoffmann)
* Fixed bug in export of multilingual dictionaries (reported on zms-developers group: t. rollar & c. meier)
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2004-09-21::zms-2.3.0-b11.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Fixed bug in ftp-export (reported by Dr. T. Fox)
* Fixed umlaute-conversion in id_quote for unicode (reported by Dr. T. Fox)
* Fixed bug in multilingual declarative urls (reported on zms-developers group: a. dehnert)
* Fixed bug in xsl-processor: processFile() takes at most 4 arguments (5 given) (reported by Dr. F. Hoffmann)
* Fixed css-bugs in teaser-elements for WAI (reported by Dr. T. Fox)
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2004-09-24::zms-2.3.0-b12.tar.gz
-- STATIC HTML-EXPORT
* Added support for export of meta-object's dtml-methods (designed to export 'imsmanifest.xml' of lcms-component of ZMS eLC)
-- WAI
* Added support for multiple style-sheets
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Fixed bug for hetero-lingual delete in action-menues of special objects (reported by Dr. F. Hoffmann)
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2004-09-27::zms-2.3.0-b13.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Fixed bug in static html-export for sitemap- and printversion-urls (reported by Dr. T. Fox)
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2004-10-01::zms-2.3.0-b14.tar.gz
-- WAI
* Added support for stylesheet-selector (contributed by Dr. F. Hoffmann)
* Revised pageelement_TOC
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Modified display_icon to use root-path /misc_/zms instead of misc_/zms (contributed by D. Datzert)
* Added support for char-formatting, inserting and deleting textareas in direct-edit (utf-8)
* Fixed bug in js:getElement()-function of LMS-component (reported by M. Grueterich)
* Fixed bug in search-encoding (utf-8)
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2004-10-05::zms-2.3.0-b15.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Fixed bug in xml-import of special-objects with page-sub-objects containing page-elements (reported by C. Meier)
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2004-10-11::zms-2.3.0-b16.tar.gz
-- ZMS ELEARNING COMPONENTS
* Upgrade to SCORM 2004
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2004-10-15::zms-2.3.0-b17.tar.gz
-- WAI
* Replaced <> for images by css-class
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Fixed bug in search-encoding (utf-8)
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2004-10-20::zms-2.3.0-b18.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Fixed display bug in russian management interface (reported by Dr. F. Hoffmann)
* Fixed bug in assignment of characters-formats in table-cell editor (reported by Dr. T. Fox)
* Added support for search in subordinate www-sites.
* Fixed bug for hires-images in static html-export (reported by xm)
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2004-10-25::zms-2.3.0-b19.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Fixed bugs (reported by Dr. F. Hoffmann)
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2004-10-28::zms-2.3.0-b20.tar.gz
-- DIRECT-EDITING 2.0
* Implemented prototype
-- ZMS ELEARNING COMPONENTS
* Fixed several bugs (reported by Dr. T. Fox)
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2004-11-04::zms-2.3.0-b22.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Improved debug-trace (requested by Dr. F. Hoffmann)
* Removed width from textarea (requested by zms-developers group)
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2004-11-09::zms-2.3.0-b23.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Fixed bug for capital german umlauts (reported by Dr. F. Hoffmann)
* Fixed bug for form-artefacts in non direct-editing mode (reported by Dr. F. Hoffmann)
* Buttons for character-format in mozilla (contributed by D. Datzert)
* Select-lists selecting the wrong entry (contributed by Karsten W. Rohrbach)
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2004-11-22::zms-2.3.0-b28.tar.gz
-- SPECIAL OBJECTS
* Added support for custom dialogs in initialization of new special object (for DESY)
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2004-11-23::zms-2.3.0-b29.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Allow static html-export from any level (required for LCMS-export of ZMS eLC)
--------------------------------------------------
2004-11-24::zms-2.3.1-b30.tar.gz
-- DEBUGGING
* Enhanced logging and debugging.
--------------------------------------------------
2004-11-25::zms-2.3.1-b31.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Fixed bug for internal links in direct-editing (reported by Dr. F. Hoffmann & D. Datzert)
* Display declarative-urls in search-result (requested by Uni-Cgn)
* Applied fix for explanations and custom score in ZMS eLC (requested by Dr. T. Fox)
* Applied fix for special-object resources in static html-export (requested by Dr. T. Fox)
--------------------------------------------------
2004-11-26::zms-2.3.1-b32.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Enhanced logging and debugging.
* Applied fix for special-object resources in static html-export (requested by Dr. T. Fox)
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2004-11-28::zms-2.3.1-b33.tar.gz
-- IMPORTANT BUG-FIX
* Fixed bug for blob-fields in datatables: 1) xml-export 2) packing media-db (requested by Uni-Cgn)
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Applied fix for special-object resources in static html-export (requested by Dr. T. Fox)
--------------------------------------------------
2004-11-29::zms-2.3.1-b34.tar.gz
-- PERFORMANCE BUG-FIX
* Applied improved support for handling of broken-links.
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Applied improved error-handling to PIL python-scripts (contributed by D. Datzert)
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2004-12-01::zms-2.3.1-b35.tar.gz
-- BUG-FIX
* Applied fix for link-containers (requested by Dr. F. Hoffmann)
--------------------------------------------------
2004-12-04::zms-2.3.2-b36.tar.gz
-- BLOB-FIELDS
* Revised references and calls to blob-fields, removed blob_html
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2004-12-06::zms-2.3.2-b37.tar.gz
-- BUG-FIX
* Applied fix for broken links when leaving context with dtml-with (requested by FH-CGN)
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Applied minor changes to teaser-elements without text/title ( requested by Uni-CGN)
--------------------------------------------------
2004-12-10::zms-2.3.2-b38.tar.gz
-- SPECIAL OBJECTS
* Extended configuration of special-objects to customize access rights for inserting and editing (requested on zms-developers group)
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Applied fix for highlighting of zms-buttons in Mozilla
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2004-12-13::zms-2.3.2-b39.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Applied fix for width and enabled drag & drop for direct-edit window
* Applied fix for size of zms-buttons
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2004-12-14::zms-2.3.2-b40.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Applied fix for copying recursive inclusions (reported by FH-CGN)
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2004-12-15::zms-2.3.2-b41.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Removed default and system styles from css in non-direct-edit mode (requested by Dr. F. Hoffmann)
--------------------------------------------------
2004-12-17::zms-2.3.2-b42.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Applid fixes for direct-edit (contributed by Dr. F. Hoffmann)
--------------------------------------------------
2004-12-19::zms-2.3.2-b43.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Applied fix in access-manager
* Applied fix for TypeError: id() takes exactly one argument (0 given)
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2004-12-19::zms-2.3.2-b44.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Applied fix for utf-8 conversion from cp1252.
--------------------------------------------------
2004-12-21::zms-2.3.2-b45.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Applied several fixes.
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2005-01-06::zms-2.3.2-b46.tar.gz
-- SPECIAL OBJECTS
* Export special-objects in XML-Schema format (1st prototype)
* Moved zope-objects (DTML Methods/Documents) from document-element to zms-home (for pasc)
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2005-01-12::zms-2.3.2-b47.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Applied fix for incorrect display of centered graphics in Mozialla (contributed by Dr. T. Fox)
* Applied fix for default-style of teaser id="teaser" (reported by Dr. T. Fox)
-- ZMS ELEARNING COMPONENTS
* SCORM 2004 Upgrade (fixed internal issues 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 by Dr. T. Fox)
--------------------------------------------------
2005-01-24::zms-2.3.2-b48.tar.gz
-- ZMS ELEARNING COMPONENTS
* SCORM 2004 Upgrade (fixed internal issues 2005-01-21: 2.1, 2.3 by Dr. T. Fox)
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2005-01-26::zms-2.3.2-b49.tar.gz
-- BUG FIX
* Applied fix for teaser-elements (TypeError: len() of unsized object) (reported by jk)
--------------------------------------------------
2005-01-26::zms-2.3.2-b50.tar.gz
-- BUG FIX
* Applied fix for utf-8 conversion of actions (reported by fh-cgn)
--------------------------------------------------
2005-01-30::zms-2.3.2-b51.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Replace img-alt by img-title
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2005-02-14::zms-2.3.2-b53.tar.gz
-- INCLUSIONS
* Added support for client-exceeding inclusions (requested by fh-cgn)
--------------------------------------------------
2005-02-14::zms-2.3.2-b53.tar.gz
-- ZMS ELEARNING COMPONENTS
* Added "Score to pass"-attribute to imsmanifest.xml
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2005-02-15::zms-2.3.2-b53a2.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Removed zcat_data_$lang from indexing if TextIndexNG is not installed (reported on zms-developers group)
* Applied fix for alternate stylesheet syntax (contributed by C. Meier)
* Added support for declarative urls in client-exceeding inclusions (reported by fh)
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2005-02-16::zms-2.3.2-b53a3.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Removed support for bodyContent_PagePrePDF and bodyContent_PagePostPDF (artefacts of DOC PDF export)
* Added support for sitemap with selectors (requested by J. Klein)
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2005-02-25::zms-2.3.2-b53a5.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Added support for custom xthml-export (requested by J. Klein)
* Fixed findings: MSIE.patch, line breaks after images, included JavaScripts in headScript (requested on zms-developers group)
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2005-02-28::zms-2.3.2-b53a7.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Fixed bug in mulitlingual declarative urls (reported by Dr. F. Hoffmann and J.Klein).
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2005-03-08::zms-2.3.2-b54.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Applied fix for alternate stylesheet syntax.
* Applied fix for parsing internal urls in textareas of configuration menus.
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2005-03-13::zms-2.3.2-b55.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Applied fixes for client-exceeding inclusions (reported by fh-cgn [1, 2a, 3, 4])
* Added support for custom header and footer in xthml-export (requested by J. Klein)
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2005-03-24::zms-2.3.2-b56.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Applied fix for relative path of blob-fiels in xml-export (requested by J. Schoenfeldt)
* Applied fix sql-datasource.
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2005-04-06::zms-2.3.2-b57.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Applied fix for precondition evaluation in SCORM sequencing rules (requested by Dr. T. Fox)
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2005-05-19::zms-2.3.2-b58.tar.gz
-- INCLUSIONS
* Added support for client-exceeding inclusions of special-objects (requested by desy)
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2005-05-20::zms-2.3.2-b59.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Applied fix for bodyContent_Search (requested by J. Schoenfeldt)
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2005-06-15::zms-2.3.2-b60.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Revised ZMS eLC for easy integration of external UserDB (requested by Dr. T. Fox)
* Applied fix for resources in Spec. Objs. with MediaDB (requested by Dr. T. Fox)
* Applied fixes for Zope-2.8 (contributed by D. Datzert)
* Applied fix for Web-DAV compliance in get_size() (contributed by D. Datzert)
* Applied fix for title in manage_system (contributed by D. Datzert)
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2005-06-27::zms-2.3.2-b61.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Applied fixes for Zope-2.8 (global name 'transaction' is not defined)
* Applied fixes for html-conformance in manage_main of ZMSContainerObjects (form and tr/td)
* Applied fixes for Web-DAV compliance in (contributed by D. Datzert)
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2005-07-04::zms-2.3.2-b62.tar.gz
-- MINOR CHANGES
* Applied fix for radio-buttons in js::disallowBlank()
* Applied fix for mandatory-fields in language configuration-tab.
* Applied fix for ZMSeLC (Profile-Registration, UTF-8).
* Applied new type 'Library' for special-objects.
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