OpenCms 6.0 beta 1 released

Alkacon Software has finished work on the first beta release of OpenCms 6.0. This beta 1 release contains enhanced examples and an updated version of the  Alkacon Documentation for 6.0.

The most important new features in this beta 1 release compared to the alpha 3 version:

• Documentation available for 6.0 features:
  • This release contains the updated "Alkacon Documentation" for version 6.0
  • The documentation of the 5.0 release was updated
  • New documentation modules for XML content, Multisite configuration and how to use the "Direct Edit" feature are available
• Improvements and additions to the "templateone" demo:
  • The demo now features a configurable email form generator
  • The horizontal menu navigation can now show sub-levels of navigation
  • The horizontal menu navigation allows for optional images in the first level
• Redesign of the "Administration" view:
• • The "Administration" view in the OpenCms Workplace is in the process of being modularized to allow easier update of individual tools
  • First version of new API for the development of Workplace Administration tools
  • Unified the css files of the Workplace in one JSP
  • Administration is in the process of being split into separate modules
• XML content improvements and new features:
  • Added selector widget for XML content to create dropdown selections
  • Added <cms:contentcheck> tag to provide information about XML content
  • Paramaters to the <cms:contentload> tag can now be passed as macro variables, including properties, request parameters etc.
  • Added support for paging of results from <cms:contentload> tag
• Further improvements:
• • Improved performance of internal Lucene search
  • Updated PDFbox for better results searching in PDF documents
  • Static export "file scrubbing" can now be customized
  • Added logging option to site manager for debugging site configuration
  • Height of popup windows in WYSIWYG editor now automatically adjusts
  • Permission ACL for folders are not longer automatically inherited to subfolders
  • Added option to expand/collapse ACL permission dialog details
  • New module build.xml file available for easy building of individual modules
  • Modules are now distributed as .zip files to avoid issues with long path names in MS Windows
• Resolved Issues:
• • Fixed issue with stray locks of deleted new resources
  • Fixed several small issues in the static export
  • Fixed issue with http headers not being written according to http spec
  • Fixed issue with "help bubbles" hidden behind input elements

When will the "final" release of OpenCms 6.0 be available?

End of Q2/2005. You can help speeding up the process of development by providing feedback for this release and the following releases, especially regarding bugs. In case you find any bug, please use the OpenCms bugzilla to document it, or at least post a note to the opencms-dev mailing list. The more feedback and code contributions are made, the faster we can fix the issues and finish the development.

Who should use this 6.0 beta 1 version?

This is a beta version. Please don't expect it to be perfectly stable.

Having said that, we believe that this 6.0 beta 1 version is certainly stable enough to be used in a production system. It's likely to be more stable than the current "stable" 5.0.1 release. The main reason for still being in "beta" status is that we want to fully re-write the Workplace "Administration" view before we announce 6.0 as finished.

If and how you should use this version depends on what your goals are:

• If you starting a new OpenCms project, you should use this 6.0 beta 1 and not 5.0.1.
• If you are currently using any previous 6.0 development release (e.g. 6.0 alpha 1, 2 or 3), you should upgrade to this new version in case you have encountered issues with the release you are using. If this is not the case, you may as well wait until the 6.0 final release is out.
• If you are running a website based on OpenCms 5.0.1, and you want to upgrade, you should wait until the final 6.0 release is available.

TODO list to be finished before OpenCms 6.0 is released:

• The rest of the "Administration" view is to be re-implemented in the new tool API
• Writing a documentation on how to update from 5.0 to 6.0
• Testing and bug fixing - your feedback is required!

Please note: The development of JMX for OpenCms and the Content Relationship Engine (CRE), both features initially intended for the 6.0 release, will not make it in the 6.0 release. We hope to add these features in a later version.

The team at Alkacon Software - The OpenCms Experts wants to thank everyone who has contributed to this release of OpenCms.