CMSB v3.76 Beta Released (Performance Optimizations)

Hi everyone,

We're excited to announce the beta release of version 3.76! We're already running this version on interactivetools.com and have implemented significant performance enhancements across the board. Every aspect of the codebase has been optimized for speed.

What's New

• Performance Updates: The core CMS system now loads in less than 0.01 seconds - literally faster than a blink of an eye!
• Schema File Changes: Schema files are now stored as *.schema.php instead of *.ini.php and contain only essential information for faster loading and easier manual editing
• Menu Order: Menu order data is now centralized in /data/schema/__menu_order.php, eliminating the need to update ALL schema files when changing menu order (great news for Git/source control users)
• Field Order: Within schemas, field order is now inferred by file order, making it simpler to rearrange fields through copy/paste when needed

Before You Upgrade

To appreciate the performance improvements, try this quick test:

1. Before upgrading, reload the CMS Welcome screen a few times (click on the top-left program name)
2. Note the average seconds displayed at the bottom of the page
3. Upgrade to 3.76
4. Perform the same action and compare the results and let us know

Performance varies by server configuration, but load time decreased from 0.50 seconds to 0.01 seconds on one of our development servers.

The full changelog for this release is as follows:

*** March 11, 2025 - Version 3.76 (Performance Optimizations)

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

PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATIONS
- CMS Speed: Core CMS system loads in less than 1/100th of a second (faster than you can blink!)
- CMS Fonts: Removed old font formats and switched to faster modern ones
- Schema Files: Now load faster and formatted for easier editing (field order is now implicit for cleaner diffs)
- Plugin Hooks: Unused plugin hooks are skipped to save time
- Menu Caching: Menu data is now cached and updated on database changes instead of being rebuilt on each page load
- Database Indexes: Added indexes for dragSortOrder and commonly referenced fields
- Internal Caching: Frequently called functions now cache their results instead of recalculating them
- Autoload Speed: Optimized autoloader and manually loading essential files for faster startup

BACKWARDS INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
- Old .ini.php schema files are automatically converted to .schema.php; if you rely on direct reads/writes of `.ini.php`
  please update your code. Internal CMS functions automatically adapt to the new format.
- Plugin /language/ folders are no longer supported, use main language file for translations instead (much faster)

FOR PROGRAMMERS
- Settings _dotEnvPath key introduced for optionally storing DB and Mail credentials in .env.php file outside of web root
- Upgraded Dependencies: Guzzle, PHPMailer, Firebase/JWT, OAuth2 libraries, etc. to latest versions
- SmartArray: Additional methods (getRawValue, contains, each, smartMap, or404, orDie, orThrow) and reorganized defaults
- SmartString: Additional methods (getRawValue, rawHtml, or404, orDie, orThrow, andPrefix) and reorganized defaults
- ZenDB: Additional methods: DB::likeContains(), likeContainsTSV(), likeStartsWith(), likeEndsWith() for simplified SQL pattern searches
- CMS: Added CMS::log($message) function for logging messages to the developer log - also accepts arrays and objects
- Some older method aliases are deprecated with fallback calls

BUG FIXES
- Uploads: Fixed issue where multiple new uploads with info fields only showed edit form for the first upload
- Misc code and other minor improvements

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

Please post (or email) any feedback, questions, concerns, or bugs you find.   Your help with beta testing allows us to release new features even faster.

Thanks. We look forward to your feedback! :)