Sparse - What's New

• A new sqltoolbox tag which allows you to have a pseudo-template with controls (navigation, searching, sorting etc.) affecting another template - even in different frames or windows! The toolbox will update itself dynamically via Ajax at the same time as it updates the data.
• You can now click on the Ajax throbber to stop the request. This is pretty much exactly the same as clicking the Stop button on a regular browser. Still haven't figured out a way to get it to work normally in Internet Explorer 6.0 though.
• Sparse should now correctly work with auto-increment values and calendar types when adding rows.
• Many important bugfixes - update immediately!

• A major upgrade to Sparse has been completed: the generated HTML forms now come complete with degradable Ajax functionality! That means that a properly equipped user will get all the benefits of Ajax, but if it isn't available, the form will still work normally. You can create impressive Ajax applications without writing a single line of Javascript or PHP! Even better, if you do integrate your page with PHP, the results will be returned via Ajax as well. More information is available on the new Ajax documentation page.
• Moved around a bit of the documentation; there's now a Configuring Sparse page (which incorporates the previous Caching and Warnings page), a Linking to Templates page, and the PHP Reference page has been renamed Advanced PHP Usage.
• Several bugfixes, as usual.

• Added a warning log. This should give you a warning if an attribute isn't correct (e.g. a required value isn't given, the value isn't one of the predefined values, or a name attribute references an invalid field). The Caching documentation page has been expanded to Caching and Warnings.
• Added the csv and csv-all sqlaction tags. This allows the user to save either the current page or the entire dataset as a CSV file.
• A new sqlgoto tag. This prints out a form allowing the user to directly view specific result rows (with limits; the rows must divide into the "limit" the user is setting).
• Several bugfixes.

• There are some changes in this version which are not compatible with previous versions, so please read carefully. Upgrading isn't hard. 8-)
• The sqlsort tag has been added, and there's a new Sorting page in the documentation.
• Added the sqlresults tag, which allows you to print e.g. "Showing X to Y of Z total results.".
• Quick templates no longer use sqltemplate. Instead, sqlquick is the new tag. This eliminates some confusion that might have arisen by all the new attributes I added in (such as telling Sparse where to put sorting, searching, or navigation forms, and whether or not to print row errors).
• Introduced the new "tag referencing" system, which allows you to assign attributes to tags by referencing previous tags, or assign default values to any tag type. You can use this to e.g. include files which set the database for any template in your application, or to instantly create an add template that looks identical to an edit template you already have. See Tag Referencing for more info.
• Because of this, the enumset src attribute no longer exists. Instead, use the new sqlinclude tag.

• Sparse now uses sessions, which should cut down slightly on execution time and size of the generated page, streamlines the code, and also fixes a minor error. No sensitive data is sent through the sessions (just navigational info) so you don't have to worry about security.
• Added the sqlaction reset type.
• You can now use "default" enumsets: if there is an enumset defined with the name of your sqlfield, that enumset will automatically be used. This allows you to use enumsets with "quick templates".
• Sparse can now deal with tables that have no primary keys defined.
• Added anchors to the tag reference for ease of navigation to the attributes.

• Changed internal workings to remove XML parsing functions. This has several implications:
• Sparse now has no external dependencies at all!
• Sparse will no longer care if your HTML fragment is "proper HTML". This allows you to e.g. print out a single regular HTML tag using a Sparse tag, and to not have to enclose your template in another tag like span. Also, Sparse no longer cares if most of the tags are self-closing, i.e. you can use <sqlnavigation> rather than <sqlnavigation/>. The only one that still matters is sqltemplate.
• The error tags can now include < and > inside them and we don't have to replace [ and ].
• You can now embed Sparse tags inside other tags or attributes, e.g. to print part of a link. See this FAQ question.
• A few minor, rare circumstances may now confuse Sparse, so see the new Sparse is acting weird question in the FAQ.
• This probably needs some more testing, so let me know if anything goes wrong!
• Added full search capability! sqlfield now has an isSearch attribute, sqlaction has a new search type, and there's a new sqlsearch tag for quick usage. Take a look at the new Searching section in our documentation.

• Added the sqlnavigation tag. You can now print a complete set of page links to navigate amongst your data, and fine-tune which links appear.
• Added the query attribute to enumsets; you can now populate them on the fly from your database.
• PHP code can now be executed whenever and wherever you like, and includes the ability to conditionally execute code (see PHP Reference).
• Changed one rather silly aspect of the code which should add a lot of speed and reduce memory usage.
• Added a new sqlfield calendar type and the calType attribute.

• Added image attribute for sqlaction tag.
• Quick templates will now display all fields if no fields attribute is given.
• Cleaned up code, removed some duplicate code.
• Several bugfixes, including ensuring that filled-in data remains filled in even if an error occurs.

• First release.