[ZendTo] ZendTo ANNOUNCE: Version 4.27-1 released (production)

[Jules]

Peter,

On 19/04/2017 15:58, Der PCFreak wrote:
>
> Hi Jules,
>
> I tried the new version today on a blank CentOS 7 system. First of 
> all, great work. Setup was nearly perfect. Here some notes.
> I had the following error during setup multiple times:
>
> |hostname: Temporary failure in name resolution |
Looks more like you haven't got any DNS entry for the server or 
something like that.

I didn't modify anything during my test blank CentOS 7 installation. 
Mine picks up the hostname and so on via DHCP.
>
> and I think this happened because the hostname was not set in 
> |/etc/hosts| or because the hostname that the |hostname| command shows 
> is not an FQDN.
>
The hostname command should only produce the FQDN with "hostname --long" 
or "hostname --fqdn".
>
> I will verify that as soon as I can.
> Because of the name resolution error the entry for |ServerName| in 
> |/etc/httpd/conf.d/zendto.conf| and 
> |/etc/httpd/conf.d/zendto-ssl.conf| was empty and
> I had to add it myself. - Not a big problem but maybe the installer 
> could be optimized to catch that problem of an unset hostname in the 
> future?
>
On your system, as it stands at the moment, what is the output from each 
of these commands?
1. hostname
2. hostname --short
3. hostname --fqdn
4. hostname --domain


> I found a typo in |preferences.php| :
>
> |WRONG // If Windows web browsers have problems with the upload progrss 
> bar CORRECT // If Windows web browsers have problems with the upload 
> progress bar |
That's easy for me to fix! :-)
And while I was there, I noticed I forgot to remove the note about the 
"real" progress bar not working on Ubuntu 16 or PHP 7. It now works fine 
on that, so I've removed that note.

> I also think the |validEmailRegexp| could be optimized. I tested the 
> regex at regex101.com <https://regex101.com/> (btw. a very cool site) and
> it also matches when there is one or multiple dots |.| at the end of 
> the email address.
> Maybe it would be better to make it look like this:
>
> |'validEmailRegexp' => 
> '/^([a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9\.\_\-\+\&\']*)\@([a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9\_\-\.]+)([a-zA-Z0-9].)$/i', 
> |
You actually can't do it perfectly with a regexp, so don't bother trying 
to do it perfectly.
https://davidcel.is/posts/stop-validating-email-addresses-with-regex/

> or use PHP |filter_var()| function with |filter_var($email, 
> FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)|
> (found via Stackoverflow 
> <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5855811/how-to-validate-an-email-in-php>)
>
Yes, I could do that, but then people wouldn't be able to tweak it. But 
then again, they probably shouldn't be trying to, so I think I'll swap 
the regexp check to that instead.
Thanks for the suggestion!
>
> Not big stuff but I think only reporting all pieces of problems could 
> make this software better (and it is really good already).
>
Thank you! All appreciated.

> A question:
> On fully updated latest CentOS 7 the installer recompiles PHP 5.x for 
> ZendTo. Wasn’t big file support already in there in never versions?
>
No. Not properly implemented until PHP 7.
>
> And if not would the installer detect if I would enable the IUS 
> repository <https://ius.io/GettingStarted/> which provides |php71u| and
> would this make the recompiling of PHP unnecessary?
> I am asking this because I am thinking about upgrading the system in 
> the future without the need of recompiling PHP all the time.
> Maybe I get something wrong here, but please correct me, if so.
>
A lot of corporates and big organisations wouldn't encourage the use of 
3rd party repos any more than *absolutely* necessary.
If you pay for RedHat support they certainly aren't going to be keen on 
you replacing PHP with a totally different version (which is not 100% 
backward compatible with PHP 5), as you are likely to break things as a 
result.

So while replacing PHP 5 with PHP 7 might work well enough for you, it's 
certainly not an upgrade I would attempt on a production service without 
an *awful* lot of testing first. And by doing it, I know that I would 
almost certainly invalidate/damage any support contract I had with anyone.

If you really want to use the IUS version, you could add the repo before 
starting the installer, then run just stage 1, then install your 
favourite PHP including the required modules, then run the install.sh 
again and tell it not to do the "rebuild PHP" stage. You can run the 
separate stages of the installation on their own if you want to. Take a 
peek in install.ZendTo/CentOS-RedHat/ and you'll see what I mean. 
Provided your current directory is either in "install.ZendTo" or in 
"install.ZendTo/CentOS-Redhat" (or "install.ZendTo/Ubuntu") then you can 
directly run individual stages just fine.

> Hint:
> A colleague of mine does ZendTo as its project for his master’s 
> project and we will run the installer many many times the next weeks.
>
What sort of project? What is he actually doing for his Master's project 
(what is the topic of the project)?
And out of interest, what sort of Master's and where?

> I will constantly update you on anything more we find.
>
> Thank you again for your good work.
>
Thanks!
>
> Kind regards
>
> Peter
>
> PS:
> If ths email does not render correctly give me feedback. I used the 
> Toggle Markdown Extension for Thunderbird to create it.
>
It's fine, don't worry.

Cheers,
Jules.

> On 17.04.2017 17:42, Jules wrote:
>
>> Hi folks!
>>
>> I hope you have all had a good Easter/weekend.
>>
>> Enough of the betas, I've finally decided to make a full "production"
>> release of ZendTo.
>> So this is version 4.27-1.
>>
>> There are lots of improvements, changes and fixes since the last
>> production release (4.20). The full Change Log since then is at the end
>> of this email, but the highlights are:-
>>
>> * Full support for HTML email, along with TLS encryption, SMTP auth and
>> much simpler email configuration. Postfix or sendmail are no longer
>> required.
>> * Improved "New Dropoff" forms, with a new progress bar that works on
>> Ubuntu 16, PHP 7 and future versions as it is entirely implemented in
>> the browser.
>> * Reminder emails are much improved (for drop-offs that are about to
>> expire but no one has picked up). These can also be disabled.
>> * You can stop users outside your organisation sending files to users
>> inside, unless the external users have explicitly been sent a Drop-off
>> Request.
>> * 'upgrade_zendto_conf' tool added in addition to
>> 'upgrade_preferences_php' tool to make upgrading a whole lot easier.
>> Just run either of them without any command-line arguments and they will
>> show you how to use them.
>> * The installer now sets up a complete https version of the website for
>> you, with a self-signed certificate to get you started. It even sets up
>> the http->https site redirection.
>> * The installer now sets up your internaldomains.conf file.
>>
>> I strongly advise you to install it on a basically-blank Ubuntu, CentOS
>> or RedHat Enterprise system by using the installer available from the
>> downloads page:
>>       http://zend.to/downloads.php
>>
>> If you are upgrading from a previous version, you can just update using
>> apt/yum and then use the upgrade_preferences_php and upgrade_zendto_conf
>> tools in /opt/zendto/bin.
>>
>> If you are upgrading from a previous version and want to rebuild the
>> latest PHP as well, *first* upgrade ZendTo itself with apt/yum, then use
>> the installer to just run the first 2 stages (web server & development
>> tools, then rebuild PHP). If you do this the other way around, it will
>> probably try to remove your existing ZendTo installation!
>>
>> So please head over to the downloads page at
>>       http://zend.to/downloads.php
>>
>> Please do let me know how you get on. All constructive criticism,
>> suggestions and requests are most welcome!
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Jules.
>>
>> P.S. As promised, here is the Change Log since the last full release. I
>> have broken it down by topic to make it easier to digest.
>>
>> User Interface
>> - Added support for HTML email, TLS encryption and SMTP auth.
>>     NOTE: its use is entirely optional, and disabled by default
>>     (so the old email code will be used instead).
>>     Note: the HTML email templates (/opt/zendto/templates/*_email_html.tpl)
>>     are optional. If they don't exist, it will continue to send only plain-
>>     text emails.
>>     Read the docs in preferences.php just above the 'SMTPserver' setting
>>     for more information and tips.
>> - Wrote HTML versions of all the email templates for you to start from.
>>     For simplest deployment, copy www/images/email-logo.png and replace it
>>     with your organization's logo of the same height. For more details,
>>     see the templates. They all have "email" and "html" in their name.
>> - Reminder emails for about-to-expire drop-offs are now noticeably
>>     different. (There is a slight template change to dropoff_email.tpl)
>> - Improved "New Dropoff" form so it's much clearer for users.
>>     Note: addition to CSS style file swish.css.
>> - Instead of pausing at 100% while virus-scanning uploads, the progress
>>     bar now displays a 'scanning for viruses...' message. This is just a
>>     change to new_dropoff.tpl template file.
>> - Inbox now looks and behaves like Outbox, with sort and search provided.
>> - Switched over "Request a Drop-off" and "Pickup..." buttons in main
>>     menu for logged-in users.
>>
>> Internals
>> - Progress bar now works better on 64-bit browsers. Does not require
>>     APC or APCu modules. Works fine on Ubuntu 16 and PHP 7.
>>     Many thanks to Milan Babel for showing me how to do this!
>> - Changed default for 'showRecipsOnPickup' from TRUE to FALSE, and added
>>     a short description of what it does. I strongly advise you to change this
>>     to FALSE, otherwise it may/will leak information to external users.
>> - Reminder warnings can be disabled by setting 'warnDaysBeforeDeletion'
>> to 0.
>> - New setting 'allowExternalUploads' allows you to stop external users
>>     (who cannot login) being able to send files to people inside your
>>     organisation unless they had been explicitly sent a request for the
>> file(s).
>> - Logging to /var/zendto/zendto.log is now much more readable.
>> - ClamAV output now logged whenever virus check fails.
>> - Changed preferences.conf clamdscan command to enable logging.
>> - Moved a few words used in the UI out of the code and into zendto.conf
>>     so you can translate them more easily. Thanks to Thomas Texier.
>> - Upgraded to very latest version of Smarty template engine 3.1.
>>
>> Bugs
>> - Bug fixed where logout didn't, on combination of Ubuntu 16 and Chrome.
>> - Fixed bug in cron job that sent out reminders containing broken links.
>>     NOTE: There is a new setting in preferences.php called 'serverRoot'.
>>     This is the root URL of your ZendTo website, and must end with a '/'.
>> - Bug where empty email messages were sent (when 'SMTPserver' was
>>     undefined) should now be fixed.
>> - Bug fixed where pickup notification email could refer to invalid
>>     email address in very rare circumstances.
>> - Broken links on "security" page fixed.
>> - Fixed RPM spec file error. The error was actually harmless, but looked
>> bad.
>>
>> Installation, Upgrading and Tools
>> - Added 'upgrade_zendto_conf' to help you upgrade your zendto.conf file,
>>     in addition to existing 'upgrage_preferences_php' tool. Just run them
>>     no command-line options and they will show you how to use them.
>> - upgrade_preferences_php and upgrade_zendto_conf now tell you about
>>     newly added and removed settings, so you know what to check.
>> - Installer now also creates a complete SSL https version of the website,
>>     using a self-signed certificate. It will even offer to redirect all
>>     http connections to the https site automatically. All you need to do
>>     for production use is get yourself a proper SSL certificate and drop
>>     the files in the right places.
>> - Installer now sets up your internaldomains.conf file, based on the
>>     domain name (excluding sub-domains) of your server. Thanks to the DMARC
>> - Installer updated to configure PHPMailer instead of sendmail/postfix.
>> - Installer updated to not build APC/APCu module.
>> - Installer now copes with EPEL repo pre-installed but disabled.
>> - adduser.php now corrects SQLite database file ownership back to that
>>     of the web server, in case you ran it before rendering the home page
>>     to get the web server to create it with the right permissions.
>> - CentOS 5 and RedHat 5 can no longer be built as the packages have all
>>     been removed as they are end of life.
>> - CentOS have mucked up their SRPM repository for CentOS 6, so only
>>     sources for version 6.8 currently exist, despite 6.9 being the current
>>     version. I've improved the installer so it looks from the current version
>>     all the way down to 6.1 then 6, trying to find a working source repo.
>>     It then uses the latest version it can find.
>>     folks for the elegant code to calculate this.
>>
>> Jules
>>
> ​
>
>
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Jules

-- 
Julian Field MEng CEng CITP MBCS MIEEE MACM

'I never saw a wild thing
  Sorry for itself.' - D.H. Lawrence

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Twitter: @JulesFM
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