06/16/2003 22:37:15

If you've been paying attention, you've probably noticed that a few backend changes have been taking place here at the site. Most notably the Presentation Engine has received a lot of backend revamping. While these changes are still in beta and not officially released... you can always email me and request the current code base. Anyway the changes are as follows:

1) The Engine makes use of the standard CSS2 for theming purposes.
2) Extra security routines have been added that prevent SQL Injection attacks.
3) The Administrative password is now encrypted using an MD5 algorithim.
4) The theme engine has been completely revamped. Themes are now controlled by a simple comma delimited (CSV) file instead of a complex ASP page. This of course meant that most of the older themes are not available as I've not taken the time to convert them to the new format. This change has resulted in better security and more ease of use for people who would like to create themes.
5) The HTML and the Vbscript ASP code has been generally cleaned up. In the two years since I first began writing the Presentation Engine, I've acquired a lot of knowledge regarding the development of web applications that I've begun putting to use here.
6) I've revamped my new personal themes so that different color combinations can be created from the same base graphic files. In otherwords new color schemes for my core theme (and any other themes that use this technique) can be created within minutes.

There is more to come so stay tuned. Right now I'm intending on versioning this release as 2.2 since there haven't been any major functionality enhancements as of yet. That may or may not change depending on what features I decide to implement into the final release version of this code. As always if there are any problems please feel free to let me know.

Thanks,

J