Dear friends,

We have completed the main stage of version 14.0 development, the release is being tested and undergoes pre-release preparation now, meanwhile we suggest that you have a look at what to expect from the new version.

We have prepared and implemented the following updates:

1. We added new video player on the website. The new player is better supported by the relevant browsers and has modern design. Apart from visual improvements the new player has new functional features: it supports "image in image" mode for browsers, and for Apple devices it supports playing videos to other devices through AirPlay. You will also be able to select among colour patterns in player settings on the admin panel.

2. Automatic plugin upgrade is aided by introduction of DLE version transfer to the server, which checks for the availability of new plugin versions. It uses 'version' parameter containing version of DLE script installed in the website. Thus plugin developer's server can check which DLE version is being used, and, depending on that, either provide information on new version availability or not. Besides, it can provide new versions and copies of plugin for different DLE versions. By this we can avoid transfer of new version of plugin to the website with an older DLE version not supported by this plugin. Information on DLE version may be transferred in the form of POST or GET request, depending on availability of certain settings on the website where DLE is enabled; for this reason, it is recommended for plugin developers to check the version using global variable $_REQUEST['version'].

3. We added native emoji smileys in news and comments editors. If you enable this setting, the symbols supported by user's operating system will be used in editor instead of images for smileys. Visual representation of emojis will depend on the device used for content browsing. DataLife Engine supports more than one and a half thousand of emojis. For your convenience we divided emojis into categories and at the top of the list user will find 16 recently used emojis. This way it is no longer necessary to search for frequently used emojis in the full list every time. Native emojis support is enabled in script settings on the admin panel. If this setting is disabled, usual emoji pool based on images, as in the previous version, is used. Native emojis support is added in all three editors of DLE.

4. We added the possibility to enable image processing through TinyPNG for images uploaded to the server. This service provides additional compression of images with no quality loss using advanced algorithms; this allows reducing the image size and consequently accelerate loading of websites. Furthermore, this service will scan images for significant objects (people faces, animals), so the fixed-size copy of this image will automatically contain the most significant information on it. This feature can be enabled in script settings on the admin panel. As this service can be used for free only for certain amount of images per month, you can disable a number of parameters in script settings in order to minimize the use of this service. For example, you can disable using this service for avatars or disable algorithms of smart scanning for significant objects.

5. We introduced new additional field type 'Date and time'. In this field you can insert date and time; you will be able to use pop-up calendar for convenient filling-in. This field has three input types: date and time, only date and only time. In the settings of this field you can also set output type of the specified date to your preference. This field has additional options of date localization, for example, translation to the language used by your website or declension of the chosen date. This field can also be used for cross reference links connecting the news at the website.

6. We have changed colour pattern of the night mode of admin panel. The new colour pattern ensures comfortable use both in the daylight and at night. This was achieved by the use of softer colours.

7. We added the possibility to enable automatic switch to the night mode of control panel through theme settings on the admin panel. Time the panel will align this automatic switch function with change of seasons and consider different time of getting dark. Besides, it will consider user's time zone set in the settings, in case it differs from the website's time zone. These functions will allow better optimization of automatic switch to the night mode of the panel.

8. We added the function of enabling and disabling categories. This function will allow you to temporarily disable a category which you do not need at the moment instead of deleting it. Deleting a category and further adding it back changes ID of the news; as a consequence, the link to previous news disappears. Enabling and disabling is an alternative way of removing a category from the website, by which, when the category is restored, it will resume its initial place and all the previous news will retain their link to this category and appear automatically as soon as the category is enabled.

9. You will be able to specify ID of related news for a post when adding or editing the post. At the same time you will be able to specify order of related news, in which you want them to be displayed. If you leave this field empty, the searched news will be displayed automatically. You will also be able to perform subsequent search of posts related to one certain news, without the need to clear cache of related posts for all the news.

10. Page navigation function was added for short news and for customised news display in a dedicated section separately from the main news section. For this reason we added support of the following tags in the main.tpl template: {navigation} displays page navigation section, [navigation] text [/navigation] displays text at the pages if there is news navigation, [not-navigation] text [/not-navigation] displays text at the pages if there is no news navigation. All these tags are optional; in case of their absence, navigation will be displayed at the news section as before, according to script settings. This way you will be able adjust customised website design in the templates in a more flexible way.

11. If you delete a user , it will be possible to appoint a new author for the user's posts. Or, as an option, you can leave the author unchanged.

12. We added the function to display user's last viewed posts. For this purpose the tag of user's news output with the parameter order="lastviewed", for example, {custom order="lastviewed"} is used. The posts are sorted in a way that the last viewed post is displayed first. For reverse sorting sort="asc" parameter is used. For example, with {custom order="lastviewed" sort="desc"} the posts will be sorted from the last viewed to the earlier ones, and with {custom order="lastviewed" sort="asc"} the posts will be sorted from the earlier viewed to the last. This feature is especially useful for websites posting catalogues, where the visitor can quickly access last viewed posts in a dedicated section. The history of viewed news is enabled and disabled in script settings on the admin panel. DataLife Engine stores 20 last viewed posts.

13. We added the function to display profile information of the user who is browsing the website at the moment in all files of the template. We introduced more than thirty new global tags containing information from user's profile, including information from the optional fields. By this you can display the data of an authorized user not only in login.tpl, but also in main.tpl and other templates, which opens new possibilities to flexible creating of templates. As the data is available for using in any template, please, be careful when using it in the templates subject to caching, for example, template of short news display. In such cases caching has to be disabled. Full list of new global tags:


14. For search template (search.tpl) we added the function of arranging search parameters table at your discretion. For this purpose, apart from general {searchtable} tag, which displays all parameters for the whole search setting, we added 15 new tags, each of them displaying only one input or selection field without reference to visual form. This way you can create customised search design, build it into any HTML-framework, remove the fields and options you do not need, etc. We added the following tags:


15. We added the function to enable or disable Yandex Zen use in script settings when exporting RSS feed. If you disable this feature, this option will not be displayed in post adding or editing.

16. We added the function to enable or disable Yandex Turbo use when exporting RSS feed. If you disable this feature, this option will not be displayed in post adding or editing.

17. We added the function of advanced search of the posts by key words from tag cloud, in post editing section on the admin panel. You will be able to choose posts for editing containing required key word from tag cloud.

18. We added the function to perform mass actions with news and enable or disable Yandex Zen for chosen posts in post editing section on the admin panel.

19. We added the function to perform mass actions with news and enable or disable Yandex Turbo for chosen posts in post editing section on the admin panel.

20. We added the function to specify whether Yandex Zen use is enabled for this category by default in category settings. If the feature is disabled, this option will be disabled by default in this category when adding news. Therefore, there is no need to disable this option every time for each news. You can enable this option anytime for any particular news, if necessary.

21. We added the function to specify whether Yandex Turbo use is enabled for this category by default in category settings. If the feature is disabled, this option will be disabled by default in this category when adding news. Therefore, there is no need to disable this option every time for each news. You can enable this option anytime for any particular news, if necessary.

22. We added support of new parameter sortbyuser="yes", which allows using customised sorting for this section of posts, for customised post displaying at the website using {custom ...}tag. If this parameter is enabled, website visitors will be able to set a convenient way of sorting news for this section at their discretion, the same way they do it for {content} tag

23. We added the function of automatic import of user's avatars, if user logs in with their Google or Yandex account.

24. In connection with new version of API 2.0 for logging in through mail.ru, and probable cessation of support of the older version of API, we added new API 2.0. support https://o2.mail.ru. Please, note that new API requires creating new application on the service. Therefore, if you use authorization through mail.ru on your website, you need to create new application https://help.mail.ru/developers/oauth/app, and then set application data in settings on the admin panel.

25. We added function of forming new meta tag og:description of Open Graph protocol in browsing static pages on the website.

26. We added support of new tags [not-image-x] text [/not-image-x], which display text included in them, in case picture under the number X is not in the news, for templates of short and full news (shortstory.tpl и fullstory.tpl) displaying. These tags will be useful when you need to display a customised substitute picture, if there is no suitable picture in text post.

27. We added support of banner tags {banner_X} for comments (comments.tpl template) from the module of advertising materials on the admin panel. You will be able to include advertising tags between comments in certain places.

28. We added support of banner tags {banner_X} in post text in displaying them on print version of the website.

29. We added new tag for post rating {ratingscore} in templates of displaying short and full news (shortstory.tpl и fullstory.tpl). This tag displays average rating figure containing fractional part amounting from one to five. For example, it may be 1.6 or 4.2 depending on evaluation. This tag allows to set customised design of rating stars filled partially, not only two or four fully filled stars.

30. We added new tag for comment rating {ratingscore} in templates of displaying comments (comments.tpl). This tag displays average rating figure containing fractional part amounting from one to five. For example, it may be 1.6 or 4.2 depending on evaluation. This tag allows to set customised design of rating stars filled partially, not only two or four fully filled stars.

31. We added use of recommended heading [b]Precedence:bulk; in letters for mass mailing on the admin panel. This feature is used to avoid directing your letters to spam folder.

32. We added support of automatic prompt search without consideration of letter case in filling tag cloud and optional fields having 'cross-reference' type. The fields themselves remember in database the case of letters as they were entered at fields filling in.

33. We added support of {title limit="X"} and {short-story limit="X"} tags for templates of displaying RSS feed.

34. We adapted prompts displaying on the admin panel, depending on screen size. Now prompts will be arranged in a way that they fit to screen correctly, regardless of screen size and resolution.

35. For optional field having 'cross-reference' type we added support of curly and square brackets and colon.

36. We reduced the time of rearrangement of posts on the admin panel, fixed the problems that could lead to incorrect symbol converting in optional fields.

37. We added case-independent control of usernames and e-mails which are not suitable for registration, written in Cyrillic or other languages; only English letters are applicable.

38. We added support of user's avatar export from Vk.com after changes of API of this social network.

39. We adapted the code and added support of PHP 7.4.xx

40. We upgraded HTML Purifier library to the newest version.

41. We added function of the second parameter transfer for GzipOut feature; this parameter will output in debugging data all information on MySQL requests, namely time of request processing and whether it was directed to the database. For example, with GzipOut(true) general debugging information on script will be output; using GzipOut(true, true) it will be possible to output additional information on each MySQL request directed to the database. This new feature will be useful for module developers and performance enhancers for problem detection and diagnostics.

42. In user editing section on the admin panel and on the website we changed type of the date display in the field indicating the date until which a user had been in temporary group, . The output type is adapted to the type used by pop-up calendar in a way, that specified date and time is displayed on the calendar.

43. We fixed the issue of dynamic comment loading failure with Ajax in jQuery 3.xx script settings.

44. We fixed the issue of impossibility to delete a user when editing their profile immediately on the website.

45. We fixed the issue of impossibility to confirm changing of e-mail when both e-mail address is changed and two-factor authorization is enabled at the same time, if the previous e-mail is not available.

46. We fixed the issue of admin panel full screen mode failure in Chrome browser.

47. We fixed the issue where the citing of a selected text could work incorrectly in publications made with Froala rich text editor.

48. The issue of incorrect tags of [sort] ... [/sort] when viewing a full piece of news was fixed.

49. We fixed the issue where the tag {THEME} could be processed incorrectly while news resorting in the admin panel if it was placed in the news texts.

50. We fixed the issue of incorrect adding of IP address blocking in profile settings on the website, when asteriks were used instead of IP address mask.

51. Minor issues in the script that had been revealed and noted were corrected.