The Submission History module keeps a log of all changes made to form submissions, provides a panel on the administrator’s Edit Submission page to browse the changes, and provides options to restore older versions and undelete submissions.

It’s about 95% written. Now it’s mostly tidying up the code and testing it.

Note: this module will only be compatible with 2.0.3 – and only the latest version (not out yet!). As mentioned in a previous post, the next Core release will move to MyISAM; I’ll be coming out with new versions of all the other modules to ensure compatibility and consistency.

This will be SODDING handy.

It’s a 5-week course. This is going to suck up some of my time otherwise spent on Form Tools and generatedata.com, but what the hell – it looks fun. :)

Just a heads up.

It checks incoming form submissions to ensure that the incoming information hasn’t already been added in the database. This lets you ensure that multiple submissions don’t get registered with the same email address or username, for example. The actual criteria for uniqueness is entirely dependent on the form content.

http://docs.formtools.org/tutorials/checking_for_uniqueness/

From a JS point of view, what I find most exciting is that the new JS engine is embedded directly within the browser and can interact with the DOM “natively” (i.e. not through an API). Functionally, JS will work exactly the same way (of course), except that a lot of the bottlenecks that we get for interacting with the DOM will be lifted. Too cool.

As any client-side web developer knows, DOM scripting is inherently slow. Accessing and manipulating the DOM requires the browser's javascript engine to interface with the DOM API - which in of itself is slow: any time you have two fundamentally different components talking to one another via an interface you're going to get a bit of a bottleneck. But also, accessing and especially changing the contents of the DOM can cause reflows (the re-creation of the internal representation of the visible page within the browser) and repaints (the actual re-rendering of the visible web page to the user). And this is slow!

So what of it?

Well, here's a common scenario. Try dynamically inserting a large block of HTML into your page, then immediately accessing an element within it. Does it work? Well... sometimes it may, sometimes it may not - it can depend on the quality of the browser, how busy the CPU is, the OS, the volume of HTML inserted - a whole range of factors. From a coding standpoint (and this is what *I* find interesting!), it looks fine: on one line you insert the content, on the next you access it. What could be wrong with that? Well, this is one of those baaaad instances where you need to have an understanding of what's going on within the browser. You shouldn't, but you do.

So here's how to get around it. The following code lets you queue your DOM changes. It only proceeds to the next item in the queue when a custom assertion (e.g. "does element X exist?") is confirmed. This can ensure that regardless of browser, environment, etc. your code will execute in a sequential manner where in every step you can rely on the DOM containing the content that you expect.

The code

Usage

It works very simply. Any time you have something that could take up lots of time, just add it to the queue. When you're ready to run that code, just run() it.

The Client Audit module provides Form Tools administrators with a way to track key events / actions that occur on client accounts, such as when the clients accounts are logging in and out, when they're updated and what permission changes occur and at what time. This, coupled with a very simple but powerful search tool, provides an invaluable tool for security and auditing purposes.

Read more about the module here:
http://modules.formtools.org/client_audit/

- Now offers country-specific data for Belgium. Thanks to Kob in the generatedata forums for providing the data!
- the SQL export type now includes a “DROP TABLE” option

See: http://beta.generatedata.com

Form Tools 2.0.3 beta

The main focus on this release is security. 2.0.3 adds the following security options for client passwords (all of these features are disabled by default).

1. Control over the password content: minimum length, must contain upper case char, must contain number, must contain ~!@#$%^&.
2. Password history: prevents you from re-using a recent password
3. Auto-disable an account after an unbroken sequence of unsuccessful login attempts. You can choose the number (between 3 and 10).

See: http://www.formtools.org

Unfortunately, it's entirely lacking in documentation right now so all you have to go on is the example in the page. After I install Django tonight (for an OSCON tutorial tomorrow) I'm going to start on the documentation.

- Ben

There is *MONEY* here. I picked up my welcome package (includes a new nerd mug!). I've never seen such a level of sponsorship and advertising. It's nuts! This conference is clearly representing the right-wing side of open source of which I'm not yet familiar. I'm more of the ilk of the poor, the downtrodded, the huddled masses - programmers doing everything for free and being spat in the face for it. My impression so far is that this is more like Fuck-The-Hippies Open Source In-Your-Face FUCK YEAH! perspective. Should be interesting.

More observations on Portland
- It's really, really green. I think it's the greenest town I've ever seen. There's plants EVERYWHERE. Seriously.
- It kind of reminds me of the portrayal of Cleveland in 30 Rock. Nice people, very up-beat, with a kind of a prevailing atmosphere as though the town is under-appreciated.

More observations on my hotel
- Remember the scene in Barton Fink where the camera pans down the steaming-hot hotel hallway, showing the wallpaper peeling off the walls while John Goodman is going insane? I think that was based on my hotel.
- Remember the scene in The Shining where the little boy runs into the two twin girls who try to convince him to play with them forever? I think that was also based on my hotel.

Okay. I'm going to do a little work (generatedata.com v2.3.6) then go see Predators. FUCK YEAH!!!