Announcements of new sympa release

[David Verdin <>]

Download : http://www.sympa.org/distribution/
We are pleased to announce that a new major version of Sympa is now 
available for testing.
We hope to have beta testers for this version of Sympa that includes 
many interesting new features :


     New session management

Introduction of *HTTP session* in order to replace a lot of cookies, for 
better usability and security.
     - new session_table table
     - new SympaSession.pm module
     - new features
     - from admin page set log level for the current session
     - from admin page list active sessions
     - from admin page change user email identity
     -new task to purge old sessions from table (inactive delay to 
remove session is set by the sympa.conf parameter 
session_expiration_period (defaul 1 month)
     -session start at first hit usually with an anonymous user. The 
session continue when the user logging.
     -cookie lang replaced by a session parameter
     -cookie sympa-user removed
     -Crawler detection is controled by /etc/crawlers_detection.conf.


     Customization

   *Custom user attributes*. This contribution from /A.de Bignicourt/ 
(UREC/CNRS) allows the use of per list custom user attributes. Once the 
format of the attributes has been defined by the list owner, a form will 
be presented to new list members on the subscription web page. These 
custom attributes are either optional or mandatory. The list owner will 
then see the provided user information while taking the subscription 
decision. Custom attributes can later be viewed from the review page and 
editsubscriber page. Custom attributes are stored in a dedicated field 
of the subscriber_table DB table, as XML data.
 
   *Custom list parameters*. Owners can define their own list 
parameters and use them in authorization scenarios and mail templates.

   *Custom button in main Sympa menu.* Administrators can define their 
own tabs in the Sympa web interface main menu.

   *Improved avatars usage.* User pictures are now shown (if available) 
in the web archives. Pictures are shown to authenticated users only, to 
prevent web harvesters to get them.


     Security


   *LDAPS* This contribution by /P.Baumgart/ (British Telecom) allows 
LDAP alias manager to be LDAPS enabled and to be configured via a 
separate configuration file. We've also added a new 'alias_manager' 
sympa.conf parameter that allows to use such alternate mail aliases 
management scripts.

*    Anti-XSS protection.* Sympa escapes any HTML that is not its 
generated by its templates (i.e. contained by parameters). Some 
exceptions are the homepage file, which is filtered using  the perl 
module HTML::StripSripts.


     Internationalization

   *Online help internationalized.* The online user help found in the 
web interface (help tab and help links) has been converted to be 
translated by the same system as the user interface. These strings are 
gathered in a dedicated PO catalog ; you can translate it via our 
http://pootle.sympa.org server. Use [%helploc%] tags anywhere in the 
code to create strings that will be located in web_help.po catalogue.

   *Five new translations.* The following languages have been added to 
Sympa distribution, thanks to the recent work of contributors:
       - Korean (/Mark Smith/ and /Kang Tae-Hee/ Hewlett-Packard)
       - Simplified Chinese (/Mark Smith/ and /Xun Yan/ Hewlett-Packard)
       - Tradional Chinese (/Mark Smith/ Hewlett-Packard)
       - Russian: /Chernysh/
       - Catalan: /Jordi Deu-Pons/


     Mail

   'remove_outgoing_headers' (sympa.conf and list parameter). This 
parameter allows to define a list of SMTP header fields that should be 
removed before a message is distributed to list members. Thus it even 
makes it possible to remove the header fields that Sympa sets. The 
existing 'remove_headers' can now be set in a list config file. New 
'ignore_x_no_archive_header_feature' sympa.conf parameter ; if set to 
'on', x-no-archive SMTP header field is ignored if found in an incoming 
message (sympa will archive the message).


     Lists management

   'allow_subscribe_if_pending' (sympa.conf parameter) Contribution by 
/C. Paul/, evil-wire.org. Default value is "on". If set to "off", it is 
forbidden to add subscribers (through wwsympa) to a list whose status is 
different from "open".

   Users list is synchronized with inclusion sources (database, LDAP, 
files,...) on the fly prior to execute some actions, such as review, 
sending, which, etc. The lap between two synchronization is defined by 
the list parameter 'distribution_ttl'.


     Bug fixes

  We've done a significant effort to close most reported bugs in this 
new version of Sympa. You can check the detailed list of bug fixes from 
the ChangeLog : http://www.sympa.org/distribution/current/ChangeLog



--
David Verdin
Comité réseau des universités