Hello everyone,

Our apologies for the long gap between our last post and this one, we've been hard at work on the next versions of our programs and have not been able to put together a post till now.

Below, we've laid out a list of the new features and enhancements to the next generation of Links SQL, Gossamer Links:

Features:

• Bookmarks
• Allow users to bookmark links from the directory and to share them publicly if they wish or retain in private folders.
• Advanced Newsletter
• Users may now subscribe to individual categories, rather than just the entire directory
• Category directory naming
• Now fully configurable, including the ability to limit long category names, better optimised for search engines.
• Detailed Page naming
• Naming and location of detailed page is now also configurable, including optional support for putting detailed pages inside their respective category directories.
• Search Logger
• Search Highlighting

Enhancements:

• XHTML + CSS templates
• All the HTML in the code has been moved into the templates.
• Should allow for easier future template upgrades (much smaller template diffs)
• Quite a few changes to GT::Template, some of the bigger changes:
• Added support for hashes, so now we will be adding config and in template variables, which will allow you to access $CFG and $IN. The GT::Template syntax for this is <%config.db_cgi_url%>.
• Dynamic includes
• Allows including templates based on a variable, eg. <%include $this_template%>

Sidenotes:

• The PHP front-end is no longer supported due to miniscule usage by client base.
• Version 2.x templates and plugins should still work with 3.x
• We have built up a long list of features and enhancements that have been brought up by everyone that we will be implementing after the initial release of Gossamer Links, and thank everyone for their input, you will see a steady stream of updates.

Contest note:
Gossamer Threads will be running a design contest for 60 days from the release date of Gossamer Links. The winner will be the person or company that submits the best alternative CSS file to the default that we release along with the program. The Grand Prize and runner-up prizes have not yet been determined, we're open to suggestions.

Important License note:
Finally, please allow us to re-iterate that Gossamer Links licenses are not the same as Links SQL 1.x and 2.x licenses which allow for free updates for life.

Gossamer Links 3.x licenses _do_ require an upgrade fee when Gossamer Links 4.x is released whereas 1.x and 2.x license owners receive free updates for life. If you have projects in the pipeline that could use Gossamer Links, we highly encourage you to purchase Links SQL 2.x while they're still available to take advantage of the free upgrades for life license.

Beta release:
We're
expecting to be able to release a beta version of Gossamer Links 3.0 on
February 28th which will be very close to production standards. Stay
tuned to this forum for more details.

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Gossamer Threads Development Team