[Alex]

The last two weeks have been spent working on the following:

• 'first run'/ maintenance functionality
  
• expanding the installer for plugins
  
• improved resource caching
  
• permissions
  
• testing

We've added a functionality to the system that detects if Fruml has just been installed or updated. The maintenance page can then be run where a number of tasks will be carried out. Things such as setting permissions, scanning for events and hooks etc. Running the actual maintenance tasks takes about 20 seconds or so.

The installer (especially the SchemaManager, which handles database setup) has been improved so that it can now also be used for plugins. This means that if a plugin needs to install, populate, delete or update tables, it can use the same XML/ SQL setup routines as Fruml itself.

We've spent some time updating the way in which user-specific files (such as the language and menu javascript files) are cached in the browser. These files are now cached in the browser for the duration of the session, and this means that requesting a new page does npt require those files to be downloaded again.

The permissions system has been updated slightly, with permission-configuration data now stored in the controllers. From the controllers it is copied to the database, where it is used to assign permissions to user groups. As long as the permission settings in the controller files are correct, it means there is no chance left of having undefined controller/ action permission pairs.

We've done a lot of testing for the installer. Many, many, many times we've installed the system so far, and it seems to be working quite well whilst dealing with as many possible different server setups as possible. The installer should be ready for the first release.

Speaking of which... the first proper beta release should be happening soon. I need to spend some time updating the website and writing some documentation, but once that's done...