New in Version 3.1

Help

Added a new web page at www.alphatogo.com/framework.a5w as the one-stop location for everything about the Framework. This includes access to Help, updates, release notes, licensing, etc.
Built a brand new Help document. See Framework web page above.

Added a "CSS Grid Framework" to provide "responsive website" design for A5W pages. This feature allows web pages to "respond" when displayed on mobile and tablet devices. The page will re-organize and images re-size to fit the size of the web page.

Upgraded the CKEditor to version 4. See www.ckeditor.com for more information on this HTML editor.
Added a dropdown selector in CKEditor to select merge fields. (E.g., you used to manually enter ***password*** as a placeholder to drop in the user's login password in an email, but now you select that merge field from a dropdown.) The problem this solves is that "password" is not always available to the outgoing email depending on circumstances. Now the dropdown automatically includes only those merge fields that are applicable to the Framework email templates.
The dropdown (mentioned above) allows for both Framework-defined and custom-defined merge fields. These fall in to three types:

Predefined elements provided by the Framework such as First Name, Last Name, Username, Password, Application Name, etc. These official merge fields will appear/not appear as appropriate for the email template in focus at the time.
Custom static elements such as dropping in "We appreciate your business!", or
Custom dynamic elements such as pulling the past due amount from your own Accounts Receivable table using a valid sql or xbasic expression.

Added ability to ban sign-ups by user id (email address) or IP address. Options are:

tell user they cannot sign up and provide an admin-defined message, or
inhibit the confirmation email from being sent (meaning they cannot complete their registration and cannot login, and will not know why). In this case they are entered into the web_users table flagged as "Banned". Because they are recorded in the web_users table, you can, if you wish, toggle them to Active by adding a password and selecting a security group. You would need to contact the user in this case and provide them their temporary password.

Added ability to 'resend' the registration confirmation email (rather than forcing them to re-signup if they are in Pending status.)
Replaced the Flash-based banner rotator (slide show) with one that is JavaScript-based, so it will work in modern tablets and mobile devices.
Added features to design a fancy modern website footer.

Updated all components, AEX user defined functions and A5W pages so they work in both V11 and V12.
Updated all components to work with both MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server.

Changed all session variables to not include the previously required "__protected__" prefix.
External User Identifier or "Ulink" is no longer used to indicate the logged in user. Instead, the UserID is used exclusively for this purpose.
The UserID is used to link the Web_Users table to Alpha Five's Security Framework tables, and User_Guid to link User to data records.Web Page Layout Updates

Added "messages" that can appear above or below the main navigation.
Added ability to place the main navigation above or below the web page image.
Added ability to omit the header image from any web page.
Added ability to apply different header images to each page, or make them consistent across all pages.

Rewritten in native Alpha Five Version 11 with all program code, components and other project elements upgraded to latest release.
Program code has been reviewed to ensure it meet new V11 standards, replacing any functions that have been removed or depreciated, and following best practices for security framework.
Enhanced control over the look and feel of the website.
Enhanced control over Framework options.
Improved integration of CKEditor to edit content. Added "auto-save" which removes the requirement to click twice to save content.
Addition of an "Email Queue" to greatly improve outgoing email performance and reliability.
Additional CSS files added to control look of the new TabbedUI.
This version uses Alpha Five's native CSS files for controlling style for Alpha Five Components (previous Framework had a custom CSS file making it difficult to switch to a different style sheet.)
Includes new "CRON" utility to schedule repetitive actions in the Framework.
The Tabbed User Interface (TabbedUI) has been elevated as a central component and all Administrative features have been moved to a Tabbed User Interface (and all related A5W page removed).