Wagn 1.05+2 - Decko

Date:

February 14, 2011

Rendered Clean

Wagn 1.05+2+Blog

You probably know that release numbers (1.0, 2.0, etc) are as much of a communications decision as a technical one; Wagn 1.5.2 is a prime example. This new release involves some hugely important refactoring -- and lots of it. There have been 3.5 times as many code commits since version 1.5.1 (564) as there were between 1.4.0 and 1.5.0 (158).

So, you ask, why not call this wonderful overhaul Wagn 1.6? Because big releases are about new features, and this release is about refactoring -- getting things ready for new features to come. There's very little in this release that will change your end-user experience right away -- it's a little faster, we've knocked out some obscure bugs, and there are a few new behaviors for special file extensions (like .css and .txt) -- but nothing to plaster on a billboard.

It's a release that will excite developers and tease avid Wagneers and bore pretty much everyone else. But if you're reading this, odds are than you're in one of the first two camps.

So, for you, here are some of the new features that version 1.5.2 does NOT introduce but gets us much closer to releasing:

A simple Ruby API for custom views modules (more on that in a coming blog post)
A simple REST API for all card transactions
Extensive handling for mobile devices: smart phones, tablets, etc.
Rich export of any Wagn query to formats like csv, xsl, etc

There are a few minor Wagneering features that may interest you (and that 1.5.2 actually DOES introduce):

Raw Content -- You can now add .txt to a card name to view the raw content (in text/plain format) for any card that you have permission to view. For example, here's the Classic Layout on wagn.org, which "Anyone" can see but not anyone can edit: http://www.wagn.org/wagn/Default_Layout.txt learn more
CSS handling -- Similarly, you can go to /*css.css and have it return CSS in the correct MIME type. You can also make your own CSS cards without special names if, for example, you want different CSS cards on different layouts, or if you want special css for different media (print, mobile, etc).
WQL Counts — You can now use "return":"count" in a WQL query to have it return just the number of cards.

If you're interested to see details about the bugfixes and refactoring work, check the Wagn 1.5.2 card.

It should be noted that the core work on this release was unfunded, and its success has depended entirely on volunteer contributions. Gerry Gleason deserves special thanks for his work conceiving and implementing a major refactor of our rendering system, as does John Abbe for tireless organizing, testing, documentation, synthesis, and creativity. We're also grateful for the rich and growing body of feedback from our user community.