Alive and kicking

01. November 2011

It's been a while since the last update. But The Secretary is still going strong. The user base keeps growing and more and more Secretary-powered websites keep cropping up. The forum has been very active and some users have even released plugins on it.

How does development and progress look? A new website is in the works (has been for a while) and version 2.3 is well on it's way, and will offer some changes to the interface and a few new features (see the 2.3 Wishlist thread in the forum). The Secretary has been used in several of my own freelance projects, and as such, has received some upgrades and modifications that will make their way to the next release. These projects are also part of the reason for slower (public)development of the site and system.

Keep an eye here and on the forums, newness soon.

Bug Fixes for 2.2 → 2.2.1

05. December 2010

A series of bugs of been fixed in this update to the 2.2 release, so especially those who have been having issues with uploads or the File Cabinet should upgrade. This is a highly recommended upgrade/patch (fixes some other issues, some core code has been re-engineered), so all users are strongly encouraged to upgrade.

The upgrade process is the same as from 2.1 to 2.2 - just replace all files with the new ones, making sure to backup any plugins or modules you have created, as well as your files folder.

2.2 Released

01. November 2010

It's been a while since the last blog post. But there has been a lot of activity behind the scenes and particularly in the forums.

Today marks the release of Secretary 2.2! A number of new features, upgrades and bug fixes make the application even more capable and easy to use.

Also, this website will be getting a much needed makeover with (finally and most importantly) complete documentation. 2.2 is being released as-is; that means minimal support for the next few weeks while the new website is being produced.

2.2 users: Please read the upgrading instructions very carefully.

Download 2.2 or check out this thread for more information.

2.1 Bug Fix

10. March 2010

There was a bug preventing the upload settings for the new File Cabinet/Media Manager from being saved properly. The download has been updated; users who have already installed 2.1 need to replace only the folder "media_manager" in the "plugins" folder.

2.1 Release!

01. March 2010

The Secretary 2.1 is officially available! Included in this update is the following:

- Blog module
- File Cabinet plugin that lets images be inserted directly into page text and blog posts
- Maintenance Mode plugin
- RSS feed plugin
- Codeblock plugin for writing and preserving HTML in blog posts and page text by way of a {code}{/code} tag
- Some new template tags, like next and prevProject(), ability to sort projects and blog posts randomly and a bunch of bug fixes.

The User Guide will be updated shortly with instructions on how to use these new features.

2.0 users: Please read the upgrading instructions.

In other news, The Secretary has a new domain: www.thesecretary.org, kindly donated by user and forum member, maxfenton. The site will be slowly transferred over to the new domain, so until then, the current secretarycms.com will continue to work.

File permissions issues

24. January 2010

The readme and installation documentation is incorrect in saying that Secretary files and folders should be set to 775 - they should be set to 777. Some users have been experiencing problems during installation due to this mistake. So, if you have recently downloaded and unsuccessfully installed The Secretary, this is probably why. Just set the permissions to 777 and you're set!

Updates soon

12. January 2010

The next major update to The Secretary will be arriving soon and will include, among a number of bug fixes, things like auto-generation of RSS feeds and the much-requested blog module. A few plugins have been planned as well, including an image library to allow easy insertion of images in text blocks and pages. Expect a new theme as well.

In addition, the User Guide is slowly being added to, so hopefully third-party developers can start contributing to the project.

Blog module: looking for feedback and ideas

21. October 2009

I am looking for feedback regarding the much-requested news/blog module. Suggestions are more than welcome, so post them up in the news module thread in the forum.

Second bug fix

06. October 2009

Another bug squashed, this time one that prevented projects from being saved properly. For those with 2.0 already installed, you need only to replace the "projects" folder in the "modules" folder of your installation.

First bug fix

05. October 2009

There was a minor bug in the default theme included in the original download, that prevented projects from being shown properly. The download has been updated, and for those who have installed The Secretary 2.0, please update your installation (you only need replace the "aplonis" folder in the ".../site/themes/" folder.

2.0 Launch!

01. October 2009

The Secretary 2.0 releases today, along with a brand new website, a new user guide and new forums. This release brings many new features and a new way of handling websites. It is much more focused on the concept of a portfolio and aims to make it as easy as possible for even the average user to install and use.

Some notable new features are: beautifully redesigned interface; pages module - create and manage pages from within the application; a design module to choose themes (there are themes now!), along with a simple theme editor that lets you edit all theme files right from within the back-end.

The Secretary has also become single user, emphasising the focus on a personal portfolio. The gallery module has been renamed to "Projects" and is included in the main download. It also has some great new features, the most interesting being file groups and text blocks, which essentially let you layout each project page through a drag and drop interface. Video and audio support is built-in.

The entire application has become much more automatic and easier to use; themes get you up and running without having to do anything, plug-and-play style; and the entire system is lighter, cleaner and simpler, making it exceptionally easy to extend.

Enjoy!