[opencms-dev] OpenCms version 5.0 rc 2 available

[Alexander Kandzior]

Hi all,

I am happy to report that the OpenCms version 5.0 rc 2 is now
available.

This version is the second "release candidate" for OpenCms 5.0. The
core features planned for the 5.0 release are all fully implemented.
Due to some major cleanup in the Java source tree and some
improvements "under the hood" of the OpenCms core, I found that it was
better to have yet another release candidate before making the final
release. The final release of OpenCms 5.0 will be made available in 4
to 8 weeks if no major bugs are discovered.

You can download the OpenCms 5.0 rc 2 release here:
* http://www.opencms.com/download/opencms_5.0_rc_2.zip (binary)
* http://www.opencms.com/download/opencms_src_5.0_rc_2.zip (source)

OpenCms now runs with a default content-encoding of ISO-8859-1
(Western Europe). In case you do not care about the encoding, this
default is most likley what you need. The previous 5.x releases had
the encoding pretty much hardcoded to UTF-8 (Unicode). With the 5.0 rc
2 release it's now possible to select different encodings from the
default. The selected value must match the value of the file.encoding
set for the Java VM, the wizard will make sure that this is the case.

The OpenCms 5.0 rc 2 includes all features from the last "major"
release 4.6.1, the FLEX alpha 1, the 4.7.7 version and of course the
5.0 beta 1, 5.0 beta 2. and 5.0 rc 1. It's at last as stable as all of
these earlier versions. I encourage everyone to try this version and
provide feedback on the opencms-dev mailing list.

OpenCms 5.0 rc 2 supports Java 1.4. and 1.4.1. Because of required
features related to file encoding and JDBC, Java 1.3 is not longer
supported. If you run Java 1.3 on your OpenCms server, please upgrade
to 1.4.1. for OpenCms 5.0.

The almost complete list of changes in OpenCms 5.0 rc 2:

* Improved editor GUI (for both source code and WYSIWYG editor)
* The setup wizards now checks for the correct setting of the Java
  file.encoding
* The com.opencms.flex.jsp.CmsJspNavElement now provides direct access
  to all properties of a file
* Fixed issue #54 from Bugzilla (bodyselector not always working in
  editor)
* Fixed issue with download galleries not displaying the file type
  icon
* Fixed issue with cache settings causing binary document types (like
*.doc, *.pdf) not to display in an offline project
* Fixed various issues regarding the character encoding, as a result
  it is now possible to use any encoding, not only UTF-8 as with
  previous releases
* The default character encoding has been changed from UTF-8 to
  ISO-8859-1
* Fixed an issue with JSP error pages not working in Tomcat 4.1, see
  comment for the setting flex.jsp.errorpagecommit in the
  opencms.properties
* Fixed issues #43, #44 and #45 from Bugzilla
* Fixed an issue where a CmsMethodElement could produce
  NullPointerExceptions in rare circumstances
* Fixed issue with text editor not displaying the save/exit buttons in
  IE if the ActiveX control is not installed
* The "template class caching" was not longer required and has been
  removed as OpenCms 5.x uses the standard ClassLoader
* The online help is now a separate upload module (it is currently
  available only in German and needs an update anyway)
* Improved the OpenCms logfile output during startup
* The proprietary XML style localization for the workplace has been
  replaced by standard java.util.ResourceBundles and support of it is
  disabled by default (can be enabled in opencms.properties with the
  compatibility.support.oldlocales flag)
* All ResourceBundles for localization have been combined in
  com/opencms/workplace/workplace.properties for easier translation
* The Italian locale has been moved to a separate module
  org.opencms.locales.it and is no longer part of the core
  distribution
* Improved language handling in
  com.opencms.workplace.CmsNewExplorerFileList, the current Workplace
  language now stored in session
* Removed errors in JavaDocs and added a package.html file to all
  packages
* Removed unused variables and imports in all classes

Please use our Bugzilla to report bugs in this release:
http://www.opencms.org/bugzilla/

You can find the "TODO" list for the final release here:
http://www.opencms.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/opencms/todo.txt?rev=1.13
Note that all items on the list have been completed in the 5.0 rc 2
release.

Thank you for using OpenCms and have fun with OpenCms 5.0 rc 2 :-)


Best Regards,
Alex.

Alexander Kandzior
Alkacon Software - The OpenCms Experts
http://www.alkacon.com