http://www.plainblack.com/tbb http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-version-tag-flexibility You now have more options than ever on how to commit your version tags. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-version-tag-flexibility Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:10:38 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-survey-2.0 The survey system has been entirely rewritten from the ground up. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-survey-2.0 Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:38:21 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-account-manager There's a new way to manage your account information. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-account-manager Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:26:18 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-point-of-sale A new point of sale system was added to 7.6. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-point-of-sale Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:26:20 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/rfe-day-3 RFE day #3 is tomorrow. Help us finish out WebGUI 7.6 strong. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/rfe-day-3 Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:11:27 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-book-price-drop They just got cheaper, and more expensive at the same time. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-book-price-drop Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:02:34 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-economy-strong Even with economy's shrinking around the world, the WebGUI economy is growing. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-economy-strong Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:20:35 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-site-maps WebGUI 7.6 now conforms to the sitemaps.org specification. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-site-maps Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:37:55 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/my-fellow-americans Don't forget to vote. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/my-fellow-americans Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:05:40 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/why-so-serious Happy Halloween!! http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/why-so-serious Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:20:56 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/rfe-day-2 The world-wide RFE day is tomorrow, and we hope you'll join us. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/rfe-day-2 Mon, 20 Oct 2008 11:16:34 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-is-not-your-problem If a consultant tells you WebGUI is your problem, ask him for your money back. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-is-not-your-problem Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:17:08 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-basic-auth Web services and other machine processes can now easily log in. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-basic-auth Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:50:36 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-aspects Adding common features to assets just got easier. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-aspects Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:50:35 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-template-upgrade-protection WebGUI now warns users when they're editing a default template. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-template-upgrade-protection Sat, 11 Oct 2008 11:30:07 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/introducing-webgui-tv A whole new way to learn more about WebGUI. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/introducing-webgui-tv Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:58:45 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-new-new-content-menu The admin bar has changed a bit in 7.6 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-new-new-content-menu Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:49:50 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-pluggable-admin-console Developers have often requested the ability to add in new functionality to the admin console, and as of 7.6 they've got it. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-pluggable-admin-console Sat, 27 Sep 2008 12:48:06 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/chat-with-jt-releases-and-stability A new chat with the CEO movie is online. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/chat-with-jt-releases-and-stability Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:08:40 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/rfe-day-1 Our first RFE day is tomorrow. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/rfe-day-1 Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:40:46 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/wuc-2008-wrap-up What we did and what we learned. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/wuc-2008-wrap-up Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:30:07 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/and-the-winner-is.. Please congratulate the contributor of the year. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/and-the-winner-is.. Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:49:54 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/new-roadmap-unveiled The path for the remainder of WebGUI 7.x. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/new-roadmap-unveiled Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:32:15 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/new-karma-policy New ways to use your karma. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/new-karma-policy Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:06:17 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/jt-for-president The Dutch team had a surprise for me at the WUC this year. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/jt-for-president Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:10:49 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/the-wre-windows-and-webgui_-oh-my Read on to hear about the sordid past, and future of WebGUI on Windows. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/the-wre-windows-and-webgui_-oh-my Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:00:53 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-8-search WebGUI's search gets an overhaul. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-8-search Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:14:58 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/a-greener-wuc This year the WUC is greener than ever. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/a-greener-wuc Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:19:50 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/another-reason-webgui-is-perl One of the more common questions we get is "Why did you write WebGUI in Perl?" I've covered this before, but I just read another interesting article on the same subject and I couldn't agree more. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/another-reason-webgui-is-perl Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:09:47 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/oscon-was-a-success We're back from OSCON, and glad we went. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/oscon-was-a-success Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:33:44 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/offsite-backups Plain Black is now offering off-site backups with all of it's servers. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/offsite-backups Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:46:16 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/plain-green Plain Black is going green. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/plain-green Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:38:25 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/jm2drfndziijpuxklr89yq The creator of Perl recommends WebGUI to his friends. http://www.plainblack.com/jm2drfndziijpuxklr89yq Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:59:57 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/s5b6hi2fzphu_xcotar40w Native RPMs for Fedora and Red Hat derived systems of WebGUI are coming. http://www.plainblack.com/s5b6hi2fzphu_xcotar40w Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:07:54 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/wuc-town-hall-meeting It's a lot more than you think. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/wuc-town-hall-meeting Tue, 10 Jun 2008 09:58:59 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-webgui-shop The commerce system has been completely replaced with shop. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-webgui-shop Mon, 26 May 2008 11:40:35 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/free-developers-workshop I'll be giving a free workshop at YAPC this year on WebGUI programming. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/free-developers-workshop Tue, 13 May 2008 10:25:20 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-8-asset-collateral Proposed changes to asset collateral. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-8-asset-collateral Mon, 12 May 2008 20:39:14 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-going-into-debian-lenny WebGUI is officially going to be part of Debian Lenny http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-going-into-debian-lenny Thu, 08 May 2008 09:36:15 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/balmer-makes-me-sick How can the CEO of the largest company in the world be such a child? http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/balmer-makes-me-sick Mon, 05 May 2008 10:24:22 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-8-asset-definitions How assets will change in WebGUI 8. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-8-asset-definitions Fri, 02 May 2008 09:34:41 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/gama-trade-show-gts Plain Black is exhibiting at GTS next week. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/gama-trade-show-gts Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:26:52 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/wuc-2008---special-event Taste of Madison is right after the WUC this year. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/wuc-2008---special-event Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:09:49 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-contributor-of-the-year-nominations Here's who's up for the big award this year. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-contributor-of-the-year-nominations Tue, 08 Apr 2008 11:24:01 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/perl-myths A presentation that kills a lot of the myths about Perl. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/perl-myths Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:26:18 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/wuc-birds-of-a-feather New BOF sessions open for the WUC. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/wuc-birds-of-a-feather Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:58:26 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/tbb-is-quiet Why is it so quiet? Is JT dead? http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/tbb-is-quiet Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:07:16 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/web-standards If you've ever designed a web site you have probably said "f*** you Internet Explorer". http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/web-standards Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:48:29 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-thingy The new point and click application builder for WebGUI 7.5. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-thingy Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:04:18 -0500 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-community-calendar There's a lot going on. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-community-calendar Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:12:49 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/the-case-for-the-wre Why the WRE exists and why you should use it. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/the-case-for-the-wre Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:51:33 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/chat-with-jt Let's talk. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/chat-with-jt Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:45:09 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/one-reason-why-webgui-wins From a financial perspective, WebGUI wins. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/one-reason-why-webgui-wins Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:25:11 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/yet-another-perl-conference-yapc-2008 We're sponsors of YAPC::NA 2008. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/yet-another-perl-conference-yapc-2008 Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:32:57 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-on-vmware Now WebGUI is even easier. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-on-vmware Sun, 24 Feb 2008 16:39:27 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/scale-6x We just got back from our first trade show of the year and it was a huge success. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/scale-6x Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:13:25 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/commerce-2_0 An introduction to what commerce might look like in 7.5 stable. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/commerce-2_0 Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:56:07 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/wuc-2008---call-for-speakers Want to speak at the WUC? Let's talk. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/wuc-2008---call-for-speakers Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:50:58 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-on-linked-in Get connected. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-on-linked-in Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:52:33 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/stable-vs-beta Which to choose? http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/stable-vs-beta Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:15:59 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-vps New hosting options from Plain Black. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-vps Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:52:49 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/suns-buyout-of-mysql Nothing to fear. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/suns-buyout-of-mysql Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:20:01 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-fine-grained-exports WebGUI 7.5 will have fine grained control over HTML exports. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-fine-grained-exports Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:40:28 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-contributors We need more people to contribute, but how? http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/webgui-contributors Tue, 08 Jan 2008 09:47:07 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-photo-gallery It's ready! http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-photo-gallery Wed, 02 Jan 2008 12:09:32 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-pluggable-url-and-content-handlers Pluggable URL and content handlers have been added for the next version of WebGUI. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/next-pluggable-url-and-content-handlers Sat, 15 Dec 2007 09:25:36 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/commerce-is-difficult For the past several weeks I've been playing around with a few dozen online shops to see all of the things I need to take into account when designing the new commerce features in WebGUI. What I've found is that is that a shop is not a shop is not a shop. Every commerce system is different. I don't think that the designers of all these systems were blind to the rest of the online world as they designed them, only that they designed the systems with one specific site in mind. WebGUI doesn't need to be all things to all people. It doesn't need to be the perfect store. It doesn't need to compete with Amazon on features. It doesn't need to sell pizzas as well as Papa Johns' site does. At least it doesn't need these things out of the box. What it does need is a robust set of subsystems so that it eventually could be better at selling pizzas, and more powerful than Amazon for the specific needs of a store owner. In other words, it needs to be very flexible, and very easy to use, and then we'll leave the power to the future. As I proceed with the commerce design, I need to take into account every possible feature that anyone could want, but not build it myself. It is this level of nuance that makes commerce difficult. Everyone want's something just a bit different than everyone else. Some people want to charge for shipping. Some don't. Some don't even ship. Some want to charge based upon weight. Some based upon price. Some based upon quantity. Some charge a base fee and then a small adjustment based upon weight or price. Some charge a flat shipping fee on each item. Some need to account for shipping coming from different warehouses. Some want to offer shipping options based on speed, price, or vendor. Some just tack on a flat delivery fee plus a tip. And that's just shipping! There are so many product/service variants, discount systems, referral/affiliate systems, taxation systems, shipping systems, payment systems and more. It's enough to drive you absolutely mad. That's what's driving me mad recently. Oh well, back to it. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/commerce-is-difficult Mon, 10 Dec 2007 09:39:38 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/searching-webgui Search has been a difficult nut to crack through-out WebGUI's history. It's gone through many iterations from external programs, self-contained wobjects, and third-party providers (like google) to it's current form. Currently WebGUI's search is the most powerful, flexible, and the most integrated it's ever been. The current system can index attachments like MS Word and PDF documents, it allows you to search on small keywords down to 2 characters, and you can limit the search to specific types of assets as well as search only under a given branch of the site. And through all of that, the search takes into account the privileges of the user making the search. And finally, the search indexes content in real-time as it is committed to the system. None but the most expensive content products on the market are capable (and WebGUI) of that level of detail on search. There are currently three uses for search in WebGUI. The first is for traditional searching of content (public search). The second is application level searches (like searching the posts in a collaboration system). The third is administrative search like the one in the asset manager. Given the features and uses for search that we currently have, I'd like to start thinking and planning toward the future of search in WebGUI. I have a few ideas of my own, but I have no way to prioritize them according to what our customers and users want. I'm sure there are also features that our customers and users need that aren't even on my radar at the moment. Here are a few ideas (in brief) that I have: Add pattern filters. Pattern filters allow the search engine to be pluggable. So if someone types a phone number into the search engine, and there is a pattern filter for phone numbers then the search request will be handed off to the phone number pattern search. Maybe that's a bad example, try this one on for size. Let's say that you have a huge repository of product manuals and other documentation. These exist on a web server somewhere, and you don't want to import them into your WebGUI site. With a pattern filter you could build a search of that external repository that would be tied into the WebGUI search interface. If the user typed "docs: bowling ball 9413-3" it would only search that documentation site, or if they typed in "bowling ball 9413-3" it would search the documentation site and the WebGUI database. The point is, that you could theoretically search anything, not just assets. For that matter, you could even have a math filter (ask it what "2 + 2" means and it returns "4"), or a units conversion filter ("what is 30 pounds in kilograms" and it returns "13.6 kg"). Add term highlighting. We could add term highlighting, so that search terms in the search results would be highlighted, and when you clicked through to the page the highlighting would continue. Add relevancy rules. We could add a programmable weighting system to search results so that it could rank search results by a relevancy score, and perhaps provide even more relevant results than the search engine does now. Narrowable results. Within the result set I just got, narrow it by displaying only content created in the past 30 days, or by further searching on these keywords, or posted by user X. Keyword tags. We could add keyword tags to all assets, just like we have to the wiki. Then you could search your entire WebGUI site for things tagged with the word "truck" or you could search by a keyword cloud. In the administrative search (in the asset manager) we could make the search buildable. First search by keyword, then add a date range. Now limit by branch in the tree, and finally sort by the user that created the content. It could really help you find the exact content you're looking for. I'd like to hear what public opinion is about these things. We'll probably put up a poll about it soon. Also feel free to respond directly to my blog. But ultimately, the way to get your voice heard about this topic is to add RFE's and attach your karma to them. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/searching-webgui Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:53:19 -0600 http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/pure-perl-webgui-stack Cut the memory footprint of WebGUI to 1/10th of what it is now, allow it to run on a shared hosting environment, and run faster than it does now. Read on if you want to find out how. http://www.plainblack.com/tbb/pure-perl-webgui-stack Fri, 10 Aug 2007 10:21:50 -0500