PHP as a CGI now working with Bildy + other nice updates

If you have tried to install Bildy and came up short, it's good time to give it another go. Bildy now runs with PHP as a CGI binary.

We got Bildy working on a CGI setup. We still need your help to test it on different hosts and configurations. Your reports have helped us a lot so far, so keep it coming.

PHP version requirement lowered to 5.2.3

We also made it possible to attempt installations with PHP versions starting from 5.2.3.

PHP had a bug that was completely fixed on all PHP releases in version 5.2.6. Some packaged versions however had it patched in earlier version numbers than that, so we've made the installer to figure out if this works or not. The installer will now warn if the version is below 5.2.6 and give instructions for how to see if Bildy works with the PHP installation or not.

Customizable 404 page

You can now customize your own 404 page for your Bildy site. We recommend you do this on every site and provide a better user experience for your visitors. To customize your 404 page, just create a template with a file name "404". This template will be displayed when a requested page can't be found. You can read more about this feature in the documentation.

We will still be improving the 404 template abilities to be able to use most Bildy Engine capabilities.

Recommended reading:

Defensive Design by 37signals.
This book gives good advice how to create helpful 404 pages and other error messages. Plus it's easy to read (big font, lots of pictures).

Google has also nice article about creating useful 404 pages

Updating your Bildy

We're pushing updates out at pretty fast pace. So far your Bildy engine has been automatically updated when you login to Bildy editor. Now when a new update is available, you see information about it in your welcome screen. You can review changes. When you hit "update now" button, updates will be installed on your site.

Just as a reminder, you can also update your controls (and install new ones) through settings -> controls.

Streamlining the UI

To make your work flow nice and fluid, we've implemented new tricks. You can open template of a page for editing by double-clicking the template in page info panel.

One of the old features we already had implemented that you might not have noticed is that Control+S on PC or Command+S on Mac work for saving content. If you save with Control+Shift+S you duplicate the current content and open it and Control+Alt+S will create a new blank content with the same data model as the one being saved in the same folder and open it.

Developers can now see page's info in content navigator by doing a right-click on a page.

Hope you like these updates. As always, we'd like to hear your comments. So tell us what you think.