CMSB v3.74 Released (Oct 31) - SmartArray & Maintenance Release

Hi everyone,

Version 3.74 is now live! This maintenance release introduces SmartArray, a powerful new library we'll be using in future viewers/code generators. SmartArray makes it easier to work with arrays by adding chainable methods and automatic HTML encoding.

If you're comfortable with PHP code, here's how to try it now: 

list($records, $metaData) = getRecords(...);
$articles = new SmartArray($records); // create a SmartArray of records

SmartArray works just like an array but with additional features and automatic HTML encoding. 

// Foreach over a SmartArray just like a regular array 
// Values are automatically HTML encoded with SmartString
foreach ($articles as $article) {
    echo "Title: {$article['title']}\n"; // use regular array syntax
    echo "Title: $article->title\n";     // or cleaner object syntax (no curly braces needed)
}

Some of the available methods include: 

// Accessing articles directly
$articles->first();  // get first record
$articles->last();   // get last record 
$articles->nth(2);   // get record by position (0-based, negative indexes allowed)

// When looping over records
foreach ($articles as $article) { 

  // Array Information
  $article->isFirst();       // true if first record
  $article->isLast();        // true if last record
  $article->position();      // get position in list (starting at 1)
  $article->isMultipleOf(3); // true if position divisible by 3 (for grids)

  // Value Access 
  $article['key'];           // array syntax access
  $article->key;             // object syntax access
  $article->get('key');      // method syntax access
}

// Array Transformation
$articles->indexBy('num');          // index by a column, e.g., $articlesByNum
$articles->groupBy('author');       // group by a column (allows duplicates)
$articles->pluck('num');            // extract one column
$articles->pluck('num')->join(','); // join values with separator, e.g., "1,2,3,4"
$articles->map($callback);          // transform each value with a callback function
$articles->chunk(3);                // split into groups of N (for grid layouts)

// Converting back to regular array
$articles->toArray();               // convert back to regular PHP array

You can see more examples and the full documentation here:
https://github.com/interactivetools-com/SmartArray

The full changelog for this release is as follows:

*** October 31, 2024 - Version 3.74 (Maintenance Release)

SERVER REQUIREMENTS (Since Dec 2023): PHP 8.0+ and MySQL 5.7+ (or MariaDB 10.2+)

MINOR CHANGES
- Accounts Menu: Password fields now show ********* instead of a blank to indicate a password exists
- CMS .htaccess: Improved <FilesMatch> regex to proactively block more types of common sensitive files (*.bak, .env, etc)
- SSL Certificates: Updated CA Root Certificates in vendor/composer/ca-bundle/res/cacert.pem
- Added new SmartArray class for advanced array manipulation and formatting (beta)

BUG FIXES
- Upload Modify: Fixed "Requested key 'uploadNums' returned an unexpected array" error
- Website Membership: Fixed reset password error "_generatePasswordResetCode: User ### not found!" with non "accounts" tables
- Improved MySQL error handling and display messages for invalid columns
- Misc code and other minor improvements

You can download the latest version here: https://www.interactivetools.com/download/

Please feel free to ask any questions or post any feedback, questions, or bugs you find! 

Thank you!