New version of site backend

I'm currently testing a new version of the Rails application that powers this site. Once that's complete I'll be taking the site offline briefly in order to deploy to the production environment. Read on for a full listing of what's coming.

Update: The new version has now been deployed. Please let me know{.mailto} if you notice any problems.

What's new

The full list of changes is fairly long, almost 200 commits, so the most obvious user-visible highlights are:

Polish

50bb85b Use RestfulPaginator (pretty page URLs) for posts#index
b930335 Use RestfulPaginator (pretty URLs) in issues#index and support#index
3634ec5 Use orange CSS styling on hovered major headings
7ea41a6 Redesign header/navbar CSS

The visuals have been tweaked to give the site more "soul" and identity while still retaining a professional appearances.

Bug fixes

Generally fairly minor cosmetic issues; some of the more noticeable ones may be:

9009d1d Humanize issue kind in issues#show main page heading
c24c1a8 Fix issue kind capitalization in issues#show page title
7bc0cc5 Fix issue kind capitalization in issues#show bread crumbs
88841d7 Gracefully handle empty comments
a30dadd Special-case taggables_search_summary for no existing tags

Usability enhancements

These are minor tweaks intended to make the site easier to navigate and use:

fe7c48c Return date-ordered results in tags#show and tags#search
2efc9f1 Make posts#show tag display match that of articles#show
653749d Include post excerpt in per-post Atom feed
0f3bd8a Initial cut at CSS drop-down menu for products
ee84f33 Highlight selected "tab" according to current controller
2220539 Provide a link to the search form from the 404 page
330486c Make "by line" a hyperlinked email address

New features and other enhancements

These are some of the more obvious changes: things like the ability to comment on tweets and wiki articles, additional Atom feeds, tweet tagging, and <pre></pre> blocks can now optionally have line numbers and syntax highlighting.

b5792f6 Accept tag names including numbers
1ec03c8 Make tweet model taggable
647a55c Dynamically add line-numbers to "pre" blocks
811e2f0 Add CSS styles and rules for Ruby language
f972473 Initial version of Objective-C syntax highlighting
0977428 Add C-language syntax highlighting
4097261 Add "shell" syntax-highlighting
30ca917 Add UI for comments on wiki articles
55f9d22 Implement comments Atom feed for wiki articles
ac8c124 Show comments in tweets#show
c1022b2 Add per-tweet Atom feed

Miscellaneous improvements

These are changes aimed at increasing the sense of transparency, openness and dialogue:

b83b1e5 Add "speech bubble" CSS
3afbb75 Set up skeletal "About" page
1dcee43 Improve site identity by including author info
acd4a27 Make posts, articles and tweets accept comments by default

Full changelog

The full list of commits follows:

ed26e91 Set up "l" as shortcut for links#show action
f7d047c Update links routing specs
62e89c7 Cucumber: split features into "webrat" and "selenium" categories
398a63f Merge branch 'maint'
b566e90 Add bundle identifier to products table
af9a3cc Merge branch 'maint'
d624de5 Merge branch 'maint'
c48af55 Partially revert 87143a7 by turning page caching off in development
b56bc02 Fix whitespace damage in local nginx config
54b0b7a Use "_path" instead of "_url" helpers where possible
e4f9974 Note that can't roll ham logic into generic AJAX workflow
f93c469 Don't use "secure" cookies in local testing
074527f Add "selenium" environment for Webrat
db53b1d Use selenium_server_address to stop Webrat from auto-spawning
ab52015 Add script/selenium for conveniently launching Selenium server
02d9a29 Remove stale note about pagination articles#index
50bb85b Use RestfulPaginator (pretty page URLs) for posts#index
803b03b Make find_recent methods more consistent
b930335 Use RestfulPaginator (pretty URLs) in issues#index and support#index
9009d1d Humanize issue kind in issues#show main page heading
c24c1a8 Fix issue kind capitalization in issues#show page title
7bc0cc5 Fix issue kind capitalization in issues#show bread crumbs
f1babae Correct documentation for grouped_taggables_for_tag_names method
fe7c48c Return date-ordered results in tags#show and tags#search
e76c05e Rename "_preview.js.haml" templates to "_preview.html.haml"
d0ecc0b Stop abusing format.js for live previews
814b097 Update to RSpec 1.2.5
6094fdf Only show "ham" button on comments#edit if awaiting moderation
03f0b55 Only show "ham" button on issues#edit if awaiting moderation
1650aea Add view specs for topics#edit
c13dc88 Update to Cucumber 0.3.1
2efc9f1 Make posts#show tag display match that of articles#show
522f033 Use abbreviated syntax for "render :partial"
3892b31 Update to RSpec 1.2.6
90c2113 Remove unused icons and corresponding CSS classes
279adca Capistrano: check for "mkdtemp" gem
595f5fe Standard specs for RESTful routing in tags controller
866eb56 Use 1.9-style hash syntax to make shorter "it" lines in tags routing specs
b5792f6 Accept tag names including numbers
1ec03c8 Make tweet model taggable
1e5ab4a Rename and move atom_title tweet helper into application helper
003cab0 Add UI for showing/editing tweet tags
66e1084 Redirect on successful tweet update in tweets#update
0326d51 Show "status" pop-up on issues#edit and issues#new
666eab1 Remove special-casing of "status" in issues#update
3d7be04 Add CSS styles matching issue kind to issues#show, [/tags/index #index] and support#index
5c8caf7 Cucumber: Add support for generic paths
7f1c722 Initial beginnings of attachments controller
2895ff5 Require admin privileges to access attachments#new
7d5b88d Prepare "files" directory
fd506d8 Update to Wikitext 1.6
56ec636 Jump to body from "more" link in posts#index
eabc35d Update to Wikitext 1.7
3634ec5 Use orange CSS styling on hovered major headings
647a55c Dynamically add line-numbers to "pre" blocks
b37a932 CSS: make "pre" line numbers stand out more
5c27856 Update to Wikitext 1.8
cb4dfea Apply line number only to "pre" blocks with "-syntax" classes
0c0c89c First cut at syntaxHighlight function
015f237 Apply syntax highlighting repeatedly
811e2f0 Add CSS styles and rules for Ruby language
fdfa54a Ruby syntax: handle "::" namespace separator
e3fb743 Ruby syntax: add "statement" styling
df3c278 Ruby syntax: add support highlghting for numeric literals
39eb477 Treat "skip" rules specially to avoid mangling HTML tags
f165ccb Skip only anchor tags when highlighting
cc1bb50 Handle hyperlinks inside string literals
f972473 Initial version of Objective-C syntax highlighting
d1fb7d7 Objective-C syntax: handle string and char literals
dc1d108 Objective-C syntax: add more rules
3c8c3bd Objective-C syntax: highlight multiline comments
e1fd4ed Objective-C syntax: add "boolean" rule
11d2adc Objective-C syntax: fix anchoring of preprocessor directives
969fb08 Objective-C syntax: simplify preprocessor regex
ef79646 Objective-C syntax: add "statement" rule
610c341 Objective-C syntax: add numeric literal rule
0977428 Add C-language syntax highlighting
0bf1175 Base Objective-C highlight rules on C rules (clone and override)
ce4f985 Remove unnecessary temporary variables in stylePreBlocks()
4097261 Add "shell" syntax-highlighting
d13ac97 Correct typo in comment
50063f9 Ruby syntax: add some more keywords
95ddd65 Capistrano: setup symlink for "files" directory
6e2fece Add attachment_salt variable to sample config file
485d13b Clarify nature of BSD license on "legal" page
0dade6d Add Cucumber to list of test-time dependencies in "legal" page
dcb74b5 Add workaround for CVE-2009-1904 (BigDecimal crash)
fa9a6fa Add left and right margin to "pre" blocks
b83b1e5 Add "speech bubble" CSS
7e0421c Show blog post comments in speech bubbles
a6c22b0 Add supporting images for comment bubble CSS
a4f93e6 Remove "private" CSS logic from posts#show view
42ae8c6 Add supporting image for admin comment bubbles
8886d2a Add CSS for styling admin comment bubbles
94e9eee Apply "admin" CSS to admin comment bubbles in posts#show
148fba9 Remove TODO notes about data importers
5e6130b Update source graphics in others/gfx
ef5889d Remove old design prototype
b572385 Remove stale comments from posts#show template
7ce3643 Remove "Create new comment" from comments/comment partial
6773923 Note "issue #123" autolinking in wikitext cheatsheet
a2ed337 Remove © entities from the copyright and legal information template
88841d7 Gracefully handle empty comments
30ca917 Add UI for comments on wiki articles
55f9d22 Implement comments Atom feed for wiki articles
87aaef7 Clarify per-post Atom feed title
2dc6139 Fix adding a comment to wiki articles with multi-word titles
653749d Include post excerpt in per-post Atom feed
d96520d Add attachments table (migration)
1337a83 Add columns to tweets table for commentability
0dd2e35 Set up associations for tweet commentability
5e86c3c Add specs for tweet commentability
f6e0183 Add UI for setting "Accepts comments" attribute on Tweet model
ac8c124 Show comments in tweets#show
bd48a60 Update tweets and comments sweepers for new commentable tweets
4b85b81 Use non-dynamic JS for links#index
7053199 Move links#index JS into document head
11893e2 Make admin forums#index JavaScript static
3f0b143 Make admin tags#index JavaScript static
fca634d Make admin posts#index JavaScript static
e1716c2 Move wiki article JavaScript into document head
ce888c5 Move blog post JavaScript into document head
62947c1 Move tweet JavaScript into document head
07b6655 Extract get_parent method (comments controller)
339a4dc Teach nested_comment_path method about tweets
c921ac7 Use polymorphic_path method in get_parent
e6ddd0f Fix typo in comments controller (Twitter.find for Tweet.find)
f64a0d2 Teach polymorphic_comments_path helper about tweets
621302f Teach get_parent method to handle "new" action
8356a83 Set up comments#new
643a123 Teach "get_parent" method to handle "new" for forum topics
50114ee Add non-AJAX comment link to tweets#show
c1022b2 Add per-tweet Atom feed
10b2583 Extract "last_activity" helper and use it in the tweets#show Atom template
dfb3fed Teach link_to_commentable method about tweet comments
7183170 Improve fidelity of the last_activity helper method
cfd2687 Use last_activity helper in other Atom feeds
bd0a933 Pull down comment form via Ajax in tweets#show
08bc116 Extract ajax_comment_form function into ajax.js
08eed79 Use globally unique spinner id in ajax_comment_form function
cc50f50 Call clearAJAXFlash on success in ajax_comment_form
4cede83 Simplify ajax_select and ajax_check_box by using global_spinner_counter
e36c280 Rename comments/comment partial to comments/form
f6b9c10 Redirect to comments#new on failure
7ea41a6 Redesign header/navbar CSS
69d87bc Use px, not pt, in CSS rules
68128fe Add shadow under header
0f3bd8a Initial cut at CSS drop-down menu for products
3831756 Add sample text to products drop-down in navbar
22b829f Turn product names into links in drop-down menu
ee84f33 Highlight selected "tab" according to current controller
6b56deb Add supporting images for navbar selection highlighting
5ea9efe Add drop shadow and transparency to products drop-down
13f4605 Display gray color behind navbar-bg.png
0ff0cb9 Partial fix for "log in"/"log out" alignment problem in Firefox
b50cc5f Move "log out"/"log in" links back to the right
3afbb75 Set up skeletal "About" page
905261f Sync up static HTML pages with recent changes to navbar organization
f2bf875 Add mail icon to "contact" links on static pages and layouts
2220539 Provide a link to the search form from the 404 page
adf84fc Provide content for misc#about template
91c10ef Set up and use APP_CONFIG['admin_name']
3e09b76 Set up navbar search box unobtrusively
1dcee43 Improve site identity by including author info
a30dadd Special-case taggables_search_summary for no existing tags
f90de3f Use explicit parameters in post helpers
a551b0d Use explicit parameters in article helpers
584f4e7 Remove unused "editable" helper method
0912d6d Use explicit parameters in issue helpers
9811cf8 Cleanup link_to_prev_issue/link_to_next_issue helpers
287f5d6 Use explicit parameters in tag helpers
fa52b72 Patch wikitext so that "nil.w" can accept an options hash
e0128a7 Replace title_excerpt_and_body_html helper with use of partial
02f65d1 Replace "title_and_body_html" helper method with partial rendering
7e8bea9 Remove body_html helper
5b530e9 Remove excerpt_html helper
ab37cb7 Use post_path helper in comments_link helper
acd4a27 Make posts, articles and tweets accept comments by default
2369ff1 Remove special styling for links inside "when" spans/blocks
330486c Make "by line" a hyperlinked email address