(2011-03-09) this page is under preparation

This page lists the technical changes that may be useful for plugin and theme developpers to make their extension compatible with Piwigo 2.2.

• CSS and Javascript files are combined to reduce the number of HTTP requests
• core themes use CSS sprites for icons to reduce the number of HTTP requests
• cleaner URL for plugin administration page admin.php?page=plugin-community-pendings
• $config['local_dir'] instead of ”./local/”
• adviser mode was removed

To reduce the number of HTTP requests from the visitor web browser to the web server, we use the new “combine script” method, which merge several javascript files into a single one, minified.

{combine_script id="jquery" load="header" path=...}
{combine_script id="jquery.anything" load="footer" require="jquery" path=...}
{combine_script id="jquery.ui" load="footer" require="jquery" path=...}
{combine_script id="jquery.ui.datepicker" load="footer" require="jquery.ui" path=...}
{combine_script id="core.scripts" load="async" path=scripts.js}
{combine_script id="rating" load="async" require="core.scripts" path=rating.js}
 
{combine_script id="jquery" load="async"}
{combine_script id="jquery.ui" load="async"}
{combine_script id="jquery.ui.draggable" load="async"}
 
{footer_script require='jquery.ui.xxxx'}

• id : a string that make the javascript file unique
• load : header/footer/async. header and footer values means the javascript file doesn't need to be loaded by the web browser to display the page. For example Google Analytics javascript could be “async”.
• require : the id of the parent javascript file.
• path : relative to the “root url” of your gallery

{known_script id="jquery.fcbkcomplete" src=$ROOT_URL|@cat:"themes/default/js/plugins/jquery.fcbkcomplete.js"}
{literal}
<script type="text/javascript">
  $(document).ready(function() {
    $("#tags").fcbkcomplete({
      json_url: "admin.php?fckb_tags=1",
      cache: false,
      filter_case: false,
      filter_hide: true,
      firstselected: true,
      filter_selected: true,
      maxitems: 100,
      newel: true
    });
  });
</script>
{/literal}

becomes:

{combine_script id='jquery.fcbkcomplete' load='footer' require='jquery' path='themes/default/js/plugins/jquery.fcbkcomplete.js'}
 
{footer_script require='jquery.fcbkcomplete'}{literal}
jQuery(document).ready(function() {
  jQuery("#tags").fcbkcomplete({
    json_url: "admin.php?fckb_tags=1",
    cache: false,
    filter_case: false,
    filter_hide: true,
    firstselected: true,
    filter_selected: true,
    maxitems: 100,
    newel: true
  });
});
{/literal}{/footer_script}

{known_script id="jquery" src=$ROOT_URL|@cat:"themes/default/js/jquery.packed.js"}
{known_script id="jquery.ui" src=$ROOT_URL|@cat:"themes/default/js/ui/packed/ui.core.packed.js" }
{known_script id="jquery.ui.sortable" src=$ROOT_URL|@cat:"themes/default/js/ui/packed/ui.sortable.packed.js" }
 
{literal}
<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery().ready(function(){
  jQuery(".catPos").hide();
  jQuery(".drag_button").show();
  jQuery(".categoryLi").css("cursor","move");
  jQuery(".categoryUl").sortable({
    axis: "y",
    opacity: 0.8
  });
});
</script>
{/literal}

becomes:

{footer_script require='jquery.ui.sortable'}{literal}
jQuery(document).ready(function() {
  jQuery(".catPos").hide();
  jQuery(".drag_button").show();
  jQuery(".categoryLi").css("cursor","move");
  jQuery(".categoryUl").sortable({
    axis: "y",
    opacity: 0.8
  });
});
{/literal}{/footer_script}

No need to use combined_script, because Piwigo will automatically load jquery.ui.sortable, which automatically requires jquery.ui which automatically requires jquery. It works because jquery.ui.sortable is available in themes/default/js4

If the adminstration main page of your plugin is plugins/plugin_directory/admin.php, then you can simplify the URL of your plugin in the main.inc.php from this:

add_event_handler('get_admin_plugin_menu_links', 'localfiles_admin_menu');
function localfiles_admin_menu($menu)
{
  array_push(
    $menu,
    array(
      'NAME' => 'LocalFiles Editor',
      'URL' => get_admin_plugin_menu_link(LOCALEDIT_PATH . 'admin.php')
      )
    );
 
  return $menu;
}

into this:

add_event_handler('get_admin_plugin_menu_links', 'localfiles_admin_menu');
function localfiles_admin_menu($menu)
{
  array_push(
    $menu,
    array(
      'NAME' => 'LocalFiles Editor',
      'URL' => get_root_url().'admin.php?page=plugin-'.basename(dirname(__FILE__))
      )
    );
 
  return $menu;
}

• admin.php?page=plugin&section=LocalFilesEditor%2Fadmin.php (ugly) in Piwigo 2.1
• admin.php?page=plugin-LocalFilesEditor (nice) in Piwigo 2.2

Even better, if you have several tabs on your plugin administration screen, you can append -tabName in the “page” URL parameter.

• admin.php?page=plugin&section=LocalFilesEditor%2Fadmin.php&tab=css (ugly) in Piwigo 2.1
• admin.php?page=plugin-LocalFilesEditor-css (nice) in Piwigo 2.2

If you use the ./local directory to store your theme/plugin configuration, I suggest to move configuration to the “config” table which does a very good job. If you want to keep configuration in a separate file, don't hard code the ./local/ directory, user $conf['local_dir'] instead.

Starting from Piwigo 2.2, it is possible to run several photo galleries with the same installation of Piwigo, this is a basic multisite feature and each site has its own $conf['local_dir']