Bug Fixing
After a big release there are always a few sneaky bugs that need fixing. The Blocks 3.1 release was no different. A few of the new refinements that were made for Blocks 3.1 caused some unexpected problems and a couple things were just overlooked. Blocks 3.1.1 fixes all the known bugs. Don't expect this to be final though. There are bound to be a few more that are even sneakier.

What's Fixed
There are no new features in this version of Blocks. It's just the bug fixes:

• The Library no longer hangs when it encounters non library blocks in the Blocks Library folder.
• Using undo on a slave page no longer causes duplication of master content.
• Slave pages no longer export master content in certain situations.

For Developers
Well... OK, I lied. There is one new features. But it's just for developers of other RapidWeaver plugins. There's a simple way for developers to let Blocks know at runtime if their plugin is well-tested and working as a Page Block -- so other developers don't have to wait for a new Blocks release in order to get working in Blocks. If you're developing a plugin (and I haven't already contacted you) then drop me a line and I'll give you all the juicy technical details.

How much?
Like most updates from YourHead Software this update is free.

How do I install it?
The easiest way to install it is to:

1. Open RapidWeaver
2. Close any open documents.
3. Download the Blocks disk image here.
4. Double click on the Blocks plugin in the disk image window.
5. Quit and restart RapidWeaver

You'll need to republish pages before the new content (like the new javascripts) gets to your server, but otherwise there should be no changes required.

How do I get it?
The most recent versions of Blocks are always available (with release dates and build numbers) on our Downloads page. Or you can just click right here: Blocks v3.1.1

Tags: Release, Blocks

A long time coming
Blocks 3.1.0 is a culmination of many refinements that we've made to Blocks 3. Export methods, javascripts, page blocks, library display, and a lot more too. At first these bug fixes were intended to be just a "point release," as in v3.0.7, but after the 7th beta version and the dozens of bugs and refinements were added it became clear that this was a substantial milestone. Many changes were made to the "unfixable" (or what we had assumed to be unfixable) limitations of Blocks 3.0.

What's new
The easiest way to find out about all the bugs that were fixed is to peruse the beta release posts, but even they don't have the complete list. It's probably too many changes to show in this one post, but here's a short list of the most significant changes.

• Support for Kwix and other new plugins.
• Sidebar content now imports correctly in Page Blocks.
• Page Block links are no longer mangled.
• Blocks now reads smart blocks decompressed with Leopard's over exuberant unzip.
• And writes smart blocks that are not susceptible to that problem.
• The library now shows a wait cursor while it's busy
• Master pages no longer drop content when the using Bring to Front and Send to Back.
• The resize to fit Javascript was rewritten from the ground up...
• ... and compressed for fast loading.

How much?
Like most updates from YourHead Software this update is free.

How do I install it?
The easiest way to install it is to:

1. Open RapidWeaver
2. Close any open documents.
3. Download the Blocks disk image here.
4. Double click on the Blocks plugin in the disk image window.
5. Quit and restart RapidWeaver

You'll need to republish pages before the new content (like the new javascripts) gets to your server, but otherwise there should be no changes required.

How do I get it?
The most recent versions of Blocks are always available (with release dates and build numbers) on our Downloads page. Or you can just click right here: Blocks v3.1.0

Tags: Blocks

Blocks 3.0.7 beta 7

Short and sweet
More bugs fixed. More fixes for page blocks of various sorts and more fixes for sidebar content.

The Beta
Download it here: Blocks v3.0.7 beta 7

Tags: Blocks, Beta

Blocks 3.0.7 beta 4

This time for sure Rocky
OK, so I usually don't get all the way to a beta 4. I know, I know. But the Page Block code is not exactly straightforward. So with much less fanfare I'll just say that I've taken a week to redesign a bit of the code in hopes of minimizing that in the future. Hopefully the benefits will pay off quickly.


Sidebar content
Beta 3 did indeed fix the majority of page block, their links, and all manners of other issues, but it as a side effect it functionally disabled the "Use Sidebar" feature. I've, of course, brought this back and hopefully without hurting too much else.


Fixbox script
The fixbox javascript has, once again, been modified. Not in the way it's written, but in the way it's called from your site. In my tests it's substantially faster. For most people this will probably just be something that happens in the background of their site, but for those who have a deep understanding of how Blocks works its magic, it'll probably be much appreciated. Give it a whirl.


The Beta
Download it here: Blocks v3.0.7 beta 4

Tags: Blocks, Beta

Blocks 3.0.7 beta 3

Another Change?
I had hoped to catch all the remaining issues that modifications to Page Blocks created, but it looks like I missed one. Not half an hour after posting beta 2 I read a post and knew almost immediately what the problem was. So I've corrected that problem now too and I think, with a bit of luck, this could become the final version.

The Beta
Download it here: Blocks v3.0.7 beta 3

Tags: Blocks, Beta

Blocks 3.0.7 beta 2

One More Time
After the last beta we introduced a couple bugs. Page blocks worked wonderfully for Kwix, but not so well for some other plugins. Hopefully we've got that taken care of now.


A Little Change
With this release Blocks now uses the rw_common directory to store its scripts. That way if you have more than one Blocks page on your site people viewing your site will only need to load those scripts once. The scripts should be cached by the browser after that. It's not much, but it should make your page load a tiny bit faster.

The Beta
Download it here: Blocks v3.0.7 beta 2

Tags: Blocks, Beta

Blocks 3.0.7 beta 1

What Changed
We've corrected a number of smaller bugs, added one feature for a very determined customer, and support for some upcoming plugins, but mostly this fix is to try to solve a long standing bug.


The Bug
More than just a few people have noticed that when you import content into your Blocks layout via the Page Block feature things usually go well -- but occasionally links to other pages on your site in the imported content might not work. The workaround is simple enough -- place the imported page into the same folder (or folder hierarchy) as the Blocks page that's importing it, and voila! everything works. Since many websites fall into the workaround just because it's the most convienient -- it hasn't been a limitation for many folks. Mostly it's just confusing and a bit frustrating when you bump into it.


The Fix
I've corrected all but a small subset of the possible variations of this bug. Or at least I sure hope I have. You will still need to use the workaround when importing Blogs and Photo Albums -- their internal links are still elusive.
But the fix is less than ideal. It involves tricking the RapidWeaver export engine into generating the links appropriate for the Blocks page location instead of the imported page location. In some situations (like Assets) this can get pretty tricky. If you do import content from other pages AND that content is located elsewhere in your site then I'd really appreciate any feedback you have. I'd like to collect a bit of this feedback before blessing this one with final release status. And you never know, I might get Blog entry links to work before the beta-test is done.


The Beta
Download it here: Blocks v3.0.7 beta 1

Tags: Beta, Blocks

Blocks 3.0.6 is here: Go get your download.

New Page Blocks
This Blocks update supports using Page Blocks from a few new page styles including FAQMaker, RapidFLV, and yes, of course PayLoom. You can even put multiple PayLoom stores right on the same page.
For the technically inclined that means that Blocks now has support for the RapidWeaver 3.6 theme tag that PayLoom uses. Blocks doesn't yet use this itself for its own CSS, but Blocks 3.1 will for sure.

Image Normalization
There's a little known feature in RapidWeaver 3.6 that allows you to trim your images down to their used size. This means that if you import some of those 10 MegaPixel images from your new camera, but scale them down to 100px X 100px for your blog -- you can now get rid of the extra data that RapidWeaver had been storing just in case you wanted all that resolution someday.
Blocks now supports image normalization so any images that you've scaled will be automatically converted to their used size. Be careful, though. Once you save that file there's no going back -- so maybe test out normalization on a back up.
To use just choose "Normalise Images..." from the File menu (yep, it's the British spelling). If there are no scaled images normalizing will do nothing. The nice dialog tells you what images were normalized and which page styles support normalization.

Want to learn more about Image Normalization? Check out the RapidWeaver FAQ.

Whither 3.0.5?
It existed, but only for a short while, and not outside our secret YourHead laboratories.

Tags: Blocks, Update

Did you get it?
On Thursday Blocks was on MacZOT! -- but don't worry if you missed it -- we're not done celebrating yet. Now is your chance to complete your suite of YourHead plugins. We're running a weeklong 25% off sale on every single plugin. No bundles, no gimmicks, just a good deal.

But don't wait too long, this insanity will only last through the weekend, then we'll be back to normal.

Just use the coupon code: AFTERZOT

Tags: Blocks, MacZot, Sale

One Day Only!
Today, August 30th 2007, Blocks is on sale at MacZot! If you act fast you can get Blocks at a ridiculously low price: Half Off. MacZot! runs a 24-hour sale on something new every day, it's always a shockingly low price, and once the 24 hours are done the sale ends... no exceptions. Now is your chance to get Blocks on this 24-hour super sale, but act quick, it'll be gone before you know it.
Go Get It Quick

Complete the Zot!
MacZot is offering a half off of Blocks, so we figured we'd offer HALF OFF ALL THE OTHER PLUGINS. It's a super deal, but like MacZot! it will only last for 24-hours. If you wait until tomorrow and you'll definitely have to pay more for the same stuff. That's just the way this sale thing works.
Get More Info

Oh, and there's just One More Thing™
We've been hard at work on a super secret project with Mike from YabDab. Mike's helping me out with his web commerce expertise and I'm lending a bit of Cocoa. Together we're going to bring you a super simple way to build a web commerce site using PayPal. Things are still pretty rough around the edges, but with a bit more elbow grease we're planing on bringing you something easy to use, powerful, browser independent, and of course, bug free.
We've put together a sneak preview.
Check It Out

Tags: Blocks, Sale, MacZot, preview

Blocks 3.0.4 is here: Go get your download.

What Changed
This update cures one very nasty bug that can cause data loss if you're using master pages. It's recommended for everyone.

The Long Story
If you've been following along, this bug has been outstanding for quite a while. The reason is that it was difficult to know exactly what was going on, only a few users reported it, and until recently I was not able to duplicate the problem.

A very patient user sent me his very large file and gave me enough details about what he was doing right before he noticed the problem that I finally had the "Ah Ha!" moment. Needless to say I had been looking and "fixing" a completely different area. But less than 24 hours after I was able to duplicate the problem myself, Viola, it's fixed!

If you use master pages you absolutely should have this update. If you don't use master pages, then today is a good day to start. ;-)

Tags: Blocks, Bugfix, Update

This Time For Sure
It seems that the new xHTML strict code that we put into Blocks 3.0.2 last night is not compatible with the beta of Safari 3. Although I'm pretty sure it's a bug in the Safari beta since it works just fine in Safari 2 and all other browsers, I'd really rather not there be any problem at all. I rewrote the rollover code so that it will validate to xHTML-Strict but now it won't use the "id" property that seems to be giving Safari 3 so much trouble.

Jump over to the Download page and get a copy Blocks 3.0.3.
This bugfix is, of course, free to registered users of Blocks 3.

Tags: Blocks, Bugfix, Update

Blocks 3.0.2 is here: Go get your download.

RapidAlbum Times Two
We're releasing a new version of Blocks today. This is primarily to add support for a new version of RapidAlbum. The new version of RapidAlbum should be able to embed multiple slideshows in a single Blocks page. It's something you can't currently do with the RapidWeaver slideshow and it needed some colaborative effort between Scott Makie and I to make it work.

Bug Squashing
We're also rolling in a couple bug fixes, so even if you don't use RapidAlbum it's a good idea to grab this version. Fixed in this version:
- Blocks pages should now validate xHTML Strict again. Yeah!
This is actually two fixes. One to old-style properties in img tags and the other to to a type property to a script tag that was missing one.
- Blocks will no longer generate an error when using an empty page block from a library page.
This is a pretty exotic bug that probably would have escaped detection had I not published a tutorial that included exactly the kind of Library Page that causes it.
- A change to the way master pages are loaded when files are opened.

How Much?
This is a free upgrade for those that already own Blocks 3.0.
If you're still running Blocks 2.0, now would be a great time to upgrade (nudge, nudge). Blocks has never been more powerful and more stable than it is today. The upgrade is $9.95 and comes with some really super great features. Click here to buy the upgrade.

Tags: Blocks, Bugfix, Update

We're hunting for a really elusive bug that has popped its head up a few times now in Blocks 3.0. Unfortunately we cannot duplicate the bug here on our computers. It seems to happen only with Master Pages. We're looking for a few brave souls that use Master Pages on a regular basis. You don't have to be a technical whiz or even have experienced any problems -- we'd just like to hear from you and perhaps invite you to a little bit of Blocks beta testing.
If that sounds like you, send us an email and let us know.

Tags: Blocks, Master Pages, Beta

The guys at RealMacSoftware just updated their site showcase page. I think all of the sites use YourHead plugins somewhere, but one site in particular uses Blocks and looks really cool. Check out the simple design, inclusion of graphics, text, and white-space. Love this site.
Check it out: e-glue

Tags: Blocks, Showcase

Blocks 3.0.1 is here: Go get your download.

It's been a little over a week since we released Blocks 3.0. In that time thousands of people have downloaded it and a lot of you have written in to say how much you like the new features. But a few others have had some suggestions, and a couple of you have had problems. To the all the "thank you" messages, I say, "you're welcome!" To the suggestions, I say, "We'll think about it." And to the bugs... well... there's no time for talk, let's just fix it.

Blocks 3.0.1 is a bug fix only. It significantly reduces load times and should free up quite a bit of memory on site-files with many Blocks pages. If those things weren't really an issue for you, then this probably won't be a big change... but it might not be a bad idea either.

And one more thing...
We'll be releasing another plugin too... in less than 24 hours.
So stop back by tomorrow, or better yet, subscribe to the RSS feed.

Tags: Blocks, Bugfix, Update

Blocks 3.0 introduced 4 very large features and they've dominated most of the forum posts, screencasts, and blogging. But there were a lot of additions to Blocks 3.0 that flew in under the radar. So I figured I'd blog about a few.

First up is a much requested feature: the grid. It's just an alignment grid, but used in conjunction with the guides and the Snap-To feature it can make laying out a page a whole lot easier.

To turn on the grid, open up the Blocks Inspector and select the Settings tab. Here you can turn on the grid by selecting Show Grid and enable snapping by choosing Snap To Grid. Snapping allows blocks to jump a few pixels when they get close to a grid line. In Blocks 3.0 snapping also works when resizing with the handles. Of course you can also specify exactly how bit you'd like the grid to be. I keep mine set at 25px, but you can make it different for each Blocks page.

Want to learn more about Blocks. Visit the online manual, the detailed Library reference, or the Smart Block™ page.

Tags: Blocks, Secret, Grid

If you've been hungry for more info on Blocks 3.0 you may have noticed a few links in the sidebar while visiting the Blocks page. One of the pages has the details on Smart Blocks. Down at the bottom of the page there's even a Blocks Library block to download. It's a very simple flash embedding block, but it does show a couple of cool things: it builds a GUI for an HTML block, it alters the HTML with properties from the block itself, and it uses the GUI to replace the asset file name.

As simple as it is, however, Smart Blocks are still pretty foreign. So I decided to produce a little screencast showing at least how to USE a smart block. How to CREATE a smart block is for some upcoming screencast. But this screencast will get us halfway there.

Check it out and let us know what you think: Watch it!

NB: This library block does embed flash on a Blocks page, but this isn't really the recommended way to go about it. Building a xHTML/CSS strict version is left as an exercise to the reader. ;-)

Tags: screencast, smart blocks, flash, Blocks

A bunch of people have asked how I created the Blocks info page. And after telling them, "It's obviously a Carousel in a Page Block, can't you tell?" The befuddled emails and forum posts that I got in response, even from some of the forum pros, made me realize that it really isn't obvious. And even after knowing it WHAT it is the HOW was still elusive.

So we've made a little step-by-step guide that does just that -- tells you HOW to create a page just like that.

But we're pretty lazy here and we know you'd like to be too. So we let you download a Blocks Library Page and a Carousel Style so that all the details are taken care up front. All you have to do is create the pages, drop in the layout/style, and add the content.

Click Here to get started.

Tags: HowTo, Carousel, Blocks