Serendipity

Serendipity at FrOsCon 2008

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:08:31 +0200

I will be holding a talk about Serendipity's Multi-User and Shared-Install-Capabilites at this year's FrOscon in St. Augustin, Germany.

I'd be happy to meet any of the fellow Serendipity user's at the weekend of 23./24. August 2008. Also have a look at the other very interesting panels at this convention!

Die Sieger des Gewinnspiels zum Serendipity Handbuch

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:20:25 +0200

(Announcement of the winners for the german book - this will be the last german entry for some time!)

Das Gewinnspiel zum Serendipity Handbuch: Individuelle Weblogs für Einsteiger und Profis ist nun beendet. Herzlichen Dank an alle Teilnehmer, die mit Interesse und Begeisterung auf das Erscheinen des Buches reagiert haben, und auch vielen Dank für die persönlichen Glückwünsche. Es freut mich sehr zu sehen, dass die neue umfangreiche Dokumentation so angenommen wird, wie ich mir das erhofft habe.

Kommen wir daher direkt zum offiziellen Teil: Die Bekanntgabe der Gewinner!

Als glückliche Gewinner eines Serendipity-Buches wurden ausgelost:

Weitaus schwerer war es, aus den vielen Beiträgen die originellsten zu bestimmen. Letztlich fiel die Wahl auf:

Alle Gewinner möchte ich bitten, mir ihre Post-Anschrift per E-Mail an gh %at% faktor-e.de zukommen zu lassen. Diese werde ich ausschließlich an den Verlag Open Source Press weiterleiten, damit die Bücher den richtigen Weg zu euch finden.

Serendipity-Handbuch

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:20:27 +0200

(Announcement for the german book. English users have to please stay patient for a possible translation!)

Nach beinahe einem Jahr harter Arbeit kann nun die umfassende Dokumentation zu Serendipity sowohl online wie auch beim netten Buchhändler um die Ecke bestellt werden:

Serendipity: Individuelle Weblogs
für Einsteiger und Profis
(ISBN 978-3-937514-54-3, Amazon).

Das Buch behandelt auf 750 Seiten sowohl die ersten Schritte mit Serendipity (inklusive Installation und Bedienungsanleitung) als auch die Benutzung von Plugins, Templates und einer sehr ausführlichen API-Dokumentation. Ein gutes Schlagwortregister hilft zudem beim täglichen Nachschlagen.

Ein Probekapitel sowie das vollständige Inhaltsverzeichnis kann unter dem oben angegebenen Link eingesehen werden.

Kurzum, ein Buch dass sich jeder deutschsprachige Serendipity-Enthusiast einmal ansehen sollte. Leser des Buches sind natürlich herzlich eingeladen, ihre Meinung oder konstruktive Kritik zu dem Buch im Serendipity-Forum, mir persönlich oder als Amazon-Rezension mitzuteilen.

Zur Feier der Veröffentlichung gibt es ein Gewinnspiel mit 5 Exemplaren des Buches, die uns vom Verlag Open Source Press zur Verfügung gestellt werden. Um ein solches Exemplar kostenlos zu ergattern, könnt ihr folgendes tun:

Bloggen.

Wenn ihr ein eigenes Blog habt, erstellt einfach einen Beitrag bei dem ihr bitte folgenden Link einbaut:

<a href="http://blog.s9y.org/archives/195-Serendipity-Handbuch.html">
Serendipity-Handbuch
</a>

Dadurch wird, falls in eurem Blog aktiviert, auch automatisch ein Trackback gesetzt. Falls das nicht klappt und ihr eure URL hier nicht sofort seht, hinterlasst bitte hier im Blog einen Kommentar mit eurer URL (ohne HTML-Code, hier ist nur BBCode zugelassen).
Kreativ sein.

In eurem Artikel könnt ihr die folgenden zwei Fragen beantworten. Wer kein Blog besitzt, kann die Fragen auch gerne hier als Kommentar beantworten:

Aus welchem Grund sollte man sich das Buch eigentlich kaufen, wenn man es nicht gerade gewinnt?

Was gefällt euch am besten an Serendipity?
Gewinnen.

Der Einsendeschluss ist am 18.06.2008, der Rechtsweg ist ausgeschlossen. 3 Gewinner werden zufällig ausgelost, 2 Gewinner werden anhand der subjektiv originellsten Antworten auf die Fragen entschieden. Die Gewinner werden hier im Blog angekündigt und gebeten, mir ihre Post-Adresse per E-Mail zuzusenden. Teilnahme per Pseudonym ist vollkommen okay, eure Postdaten werden ausschließlich an den Verlag zur Versendung der Gewinne weitergegeben und danach wieder gelöscht.

Viel Spaß und Erfolg,
Garvin Hicking

Netmirror.org Outage, Spartacus affected.

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:33:42 +0200

As of today, the netmirror.org server seems to be having a hiccup. The serendipity Plugin Spartacus by default requires this server to provide automatic plugin and theme updates and downloads. The inavailibility of this server can lead to timeouts and not being able to install new plugins.

The issue should resolve itself once netmirror.org is up again. Temporarily you can either reconfigure your Spartacus-plugin to use the SourceForge-Mirrors, or completely disable the Spartacus plugin. Using the s9y.org mirror will not help you, as this server is currently not hosting any files.

I will post an update once the server is up again. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Serendipity 1.3.1 released

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 10:37:00 +0200

Serendipity 1.3.1 has been released. This is a bugfix and security related release, basically adressing a potential XSS issue within the Top Referrers plugin as well as hypothetical XSS issues with the installer.

This release also adresses some basic PostgreSQL8 related problems, because implicit type casts have been removed from this version, causing breakage with several Serendipity core features. The fix for this is only partial and will still happen in (less common) functions of Serendipity. There is no ultimate solution to this because implicit type casts are required for certain entryproperty operations. Maybe the PostgreSQL8 team will think about if implicit type casts are not also quite helpful. ;-)

The only new feature addition is the exposition of a new smarty {serendipity_getImageSize} function.

This upgrade is recommended for users that use the Top Referrers plugin and new installations of Serendipity. Many thanks to Hanno Böck, once again, for reporting (and fixing) the two XSS issues (CVE-2008-1385 and CVE-2008-1386)!

You can find the new release on the s9y.org download page. Upgrade by simply uploading the deflated archive files to your webspace.

Serendipity 1.3 released (addresses security)

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 10:11:50 +0100

Serendipity 1.3 has finally been released. The new release is mainly a feature consolidation release, but also contains XSS security fixes:

The karma rating plugin has been upgraded to support nice, CSS-based rating graphics (see this post) and an overall rehaul on the its coding.
Make the Spartacus plugin be able to use FTP upload, a workaround for SafeMode PHP restrictions. Also add a remote backend for plugin update checks.
An importer for phpNuke and lifetype has been added.
Support for pingbacks has been improved a lot. Trackbacks can now be blocked based on Sender IP checks.
Add better CSS styling for some internal plugins and the embedding of images. Also made the Remote-RSS plugin to be capable of Smarty-Templating.
Increased Smarty templating features for the {serendipity_fetchPrintEntries} function, to be able to check for entry properties.
Add support for SQRelay.
Minor CSS and graphic updates to the Bulletproof template.

The full list of 41 changes to this release are documented within the NEWS file.

Regarding Security, the bundled Smarty library has been updated to version 2.6.19 and adresses an issue in environments where the PHP security mode is required. Also, the new Serendipity release contains tighter backend XSS checks so that environments with untrusted authors can be more secure - many thanks to Hanno Böck for addressing this. Most importantly, an issue with XSS attacks within received trackbacks has been discovered by Peter Hüwe and was fixed.

The update is easy as usual, and recommended for Serendipity users - especially if you do not regularly moderate or check your incoming trackbacks.

Upgrade pointers can be found in the FAQ and is as easy as just to upload the new files.

Have fun!

Serendipity 1.3-beta1 released

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:53:00 +0100

Serendipity 1.3-beta1 has been released. This beta is considered a release candidate before the final 1.3 release, which is scheduled to be released at the end of this month.

The new release is mainly a feature consolidation release:

The karma rating plugin has been upgraded to support nice, CSS-based rating graphics and an overall rehaul on the its coding.
Make the Spartacus plugin be able to use FTP upload, a workaround for SafeMode PHP restrictions. Also add a remote backend for plugin update checks.
An importer for phpNuke and lifetype has been added.
Support for pingbacks has been improved a lot. Trackbacks can now be blocked based on Sender IP checks.
Add better CSS styling for some internal plugins and the embedding of images. Also made the Remote-RSS plugin to be capable of Smarty-Templating.
Increased Smarty templating features for the {serendipity_fetchPrintEntries} function, to be able to check for entry properties.
Add support for SQRelay.

The full list of 35 changes to this release are documented within the NEWS file.

Please test this release and give us feedback here or on the forums so that we can further improve this upcoming version. The files are available on the s9y.org Downloads page. Upgrade pointers can be found in the FAQ and is as easy as just to upload the new files.

Freetag plugin updated to prevent XSS

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:49:00 +0100

The Freetag plugin has been updated to version 2.96 to fix a possible XSS to the tagcloud output.

XSS attacks can be used by visitors to display foreign HTML or JavaScript to visitors of the blog, if they visit specially crafted URLs. This attack basically allows for cookie stealing.

Users of the freetag plugin should upgrade to the latest version; upgrading via Spartacus-Plugin or Spartacus.s9y.org is just a matter of a few minutes. Thanks to Alex from Bitsploit.de for reporting this issue to us.

German: Serendipity-Handbuch jetzt vorbestellen

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:57:04 +0100

(This posting is written in german, as it currently only has relevance for german readers)

Wie man jetzt in meinem Blog auf der linken Seite erkennen kann, ist das von mir geschriebene offzielle Serendipity-Handbuch seit kurzem vorbestellbar.

Rund 700 Seiten liegen dem Verlag derzeit zur Korrektur und Verfeinerung vor, prall gefüllt mit ausführlichen Beschreibungen von allem, was mit Serendipity zu tun hat.

Viel Herzblut und Freizeit ist in das Buch geflossen, und ich hoffe damit sehr, den Nutzern endlich eine vollständige Dokumentation in die Hand geben zu können. Gleichermaßen ist es auch für Neulinge zum System gedacht, da alle Aspekte des Systems beschrieben werden.

Wer jetzt vorbestellt, kann dafür sorgen, dass das Buch etwas zügiger erscheint - und ihr es auch direkt in den Händen halten könnt. Der derzeitige Veröffentlichungstermin ist für Mai 2008 angepeilt. Vorbestellungen werden sowohl über Amazon, OpenSourcePress als auch bei jeder Bücherei angenommen.

Serendipity 1.2.1 released

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:33:52 +0100

Serendipity 1.2 has been well received by the community, there were only very few minor bugreports. Those have been addressed in the Serendipity 1.2.1 maintenance release, available now.

The new Serendipity version also includes some new Bulletproof Theme options (user-customized stylesheets) and addresses some very minor browser quirks. If you're using Bulletproof, it is suggested you perform the update.

Also this new version addresses a security issue in the Remote RSS sidebar plugin (reported by Hanno Böck), which did not properly treat links coming from an RSS feed, which could lead to possible XSS attack vectors, if you are showing foreign feeds that might distribute malicious content to you. If you're using this plugin with an unsafe RSS feed, you should upgrade Serendipity.

Serendipity 1.2.1 features a new WPXRSS importer and can import the new WordPress 2.3 database structure All bug fixes have also been applied to our current 1.3-release tree. This release currently features some new Smarty-Templating convenience features, a remote spartacus version information interface, full pingback support, a LifeType blog importer and support of SQLRelay.

Upgrading Serendipity is very easy, have a look at the FAQ. The new version is available on the Serendipity download page.

Enjoy Serendipity and have a nice Christmas time!

Spamblock and blogg.de blacklist

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 10:16:00 +0100

The Serendipity Anti-Spam plugin allows to utilize the blogg.de IP blacklist service to block spam. Their service seems to have ceased existence, or at least is rejecting connections. This can lead to comments to your serendipity blog to be rejected. You can easily disable the blogg.de blacklist service in your Anti-Spam plugin configuration.

Note that this option is by default disabled in Serendipity since blogg.de announced that they are no longer actively maintaining the blacklist. A well fit alternative to this service is the Akismet API, which the spamblock plugin also supports.

SEO and meta tags for s9y, updated plugin

carlgalloway@gmail.com (Carl Galloway) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 08:54:49 +0100

Recently there has been a lot of discussion about using SEO on Serendipity powered blogs, which has resulted in at least one plugin update and many suggestions for SEO improvements in templates.

The meta description event plugin has been updated by Don Chambers, Jude Anthony and Garvin Hicking, and now provides a separate title, meta keywords, and meta description on a per entry basis, as well as a default title and description for all other pages.

Previously users were only able to adjust the meta keywords and description per entry, and other pages would miss out, leading many users to install the HTML head nugget as well if they wanted meta keywords and descriptions on overview pages.

Don has written up a full description of the updated meta description plugin on his own site, and is promising to continue developing plugins and templates, so bookmarking his site might be a great idea.

Back for good!

jannis@gmail.com (Jannis) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:06:05 +0100

The nightly snapshot versions of the serendipity development branch are back (for good)! Sing along!

PHP Magazine Article (German)

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 12:25:14 +0200

Some while ago, I announced an article about Serendipity in the German PHP Magazine (read here). This article was now made available as a PDF by the publisher, so you can feel free to download and read it:

PHP Magazin Mai 2007: "Blogging mit Biss" von Garvin Hicking (German/Deutsch)

Have fun reading!

Serendipity 1.2 released

mail@garv.in (Garvin Hicking) — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 13:37:00 +0200

The Serendipity Team is proud to present the final release and immediate availability of Serendipity 1.2.

This release is a feature consolidation release and focuses on small usability improvements, a shiny new template (bulletproof) as well as backend templating and backend login mechanisms as well as some tighter security restrictions.

Some more changes in depth are:

Templates: The new bulletproof template is an awesome example to show off Serendipity's cool template options. This template allows you to easily configure the look of your Serendipity site: Place navigation links, choose sidebar layouts, indicate if you want to use/show trackbacks and comments, pick your custom header image or even custom colorsets. Don Chambers, Matthias Mees and David Cummins as well as other contributors have worked very hard on this template that provides an awesome, unified template structure. Go to their site at http://s9y-bulletproof.com to check out the details!
Templates: The admin backend (overview page and entry editor) can now be styled via Smarty and gives you the full flexibility to make a custom look of the backend. Plus, more CSS classes have been added to the default admin theme that make CSS-only changes much easier. Templates now also can have large preview images by clicking on their thumbnail.
Usability: Moved the problematic option to withdraw your own privileges from personal configuration to the user configuration panel.
Feature: Added SQLite3 and PDO:PostgreSQL support.
Feature: Allow to configure whether article overviews for a certain category should include articles of subcategories or not.
Performance: Improved SQL performance for archive overview generation and permalink lookups.
Plugins: Plugins can now hook in much earlier to make external authentication easier (like trough the OpenID plugin).
Spam: Enhanced the spamblock plugin with captcha previews, .htaccess generation and some more options.
Security: Stronger autologin cookie encryption and template option handling, thanks (once again) to Stefan Esser. Proper session fixation prevention, thanks to David Vieira-Kurz.
Bugfix: Sending pingbacks now properly works.
Bugfix: The Track-Exits plugin now properly tracks links in conjunction with the caching of the entryproperties plugin.

The full list of changes can be found in the NEWS-file of the release.

You can download the new release as always on the Serendipity homepage at http://www.s9y.org/3.html. Updating is easy: Just upload the new files, visit your Serendipity installation and let the upgrader do the rest.

After the upgrade you might want to purge your browser's cookies (due to the new authentication mechanism of Serendipity 1.2) to prevent login problems. Detailed upgrade instructions can be found in the FAQ on our website.

Enjoy Serendipity, and thanks to everyone who participated in the release process!

For the team,
Garvin.