Second Site News #032

Second Site Version 2.1 (Build 0) Released

This is a maintenance release that makes Second Site 2 compatible with TMG v7. The upgrade also includes a couple new features and fixes some issues discovered since the last release. Please see the Change Log for details.

TMG v7

Note Second Site v2.1 Build 0 is compatible with TMG v7 and also works with TMG v4.0d, TMG v5.x, and TMG v6.x. Whatever version of TMG you use, you can use Second Site 2 with it!

New features added to Second Site 2 to support TMG v7 include the [+] and [:NP:] printer codes, the backslash ("\") character as an "escape" character to defeat the special meaning of other special characters, support for TMG's image exhibit modification feature, and more.

A New Way to Create Main Page Content

You can now create the main page content using a Custom Page: if you set the Filename to "index", that User Item will determine the main page content.

Using a Custom Page (and the other User Items you can add to Custom Pages) to create the main page content may be a good option for users who are not facile with HTML. You can create the content of the page by adding User Items to a Custom Page, including images, lists, tables, sub-headings, etc.

Using a Custom Page to set the main page content provides a little more control over the page content.

Please be aware that using a Custom Page to create the main page content means that the resulting page will have a PageSet equal to User Page, not Main Page, and that will affect the use of User Styles, script choices, etc. It also means that the main page will have the same basic structure as the other User Pages, which may or may not be what you want.

Update: As of version 2.2, users may choose the Page Set assigned to a Custom Page and thus may use the Main Page Page Set for a replacement of the index page.

Omit Non-Primary Parents

The new Database.Omit Non-Primary Parents property controls the inclusion or exclusion of non-primary parent tags. When checked, which is the default, non-primary parent tags are omitted. When unchecked, non-primary parent tags are included.

The new property required changes to most Formats: I added a statement that sorts non-primary parent tags after primary parent tags. Users with a custom Format may wish to update their Format in a similar manner; see the xsl:sort statement in the Format from which the custom Format was created.

Customizing Themes

I added the Stylesheets.Theme.Simple Blue.footer-text-color property to both the Simple Blue and Simple Blue with Leaves Themes to simplify changing the color of footer text in those Themes.

Other Changes

This release includes some other new features and enhancements, as well as some bug fixes. Please see the Change Log for details. Thank you.

A Note about Second Site 1 and TMG v7

Some users have asked me about updating Second Site 1 to be compatible with TMG v7. For various reasons, Second Site 1 is now obsolete, and there will be no further upgrades.

Downloads

Second Site is available via download only. See the Downloads page.

Purchases

For purchasing information, see the Purchases page.