[opencms-dev] Development on the next OpenCms version has started

[Alexander Kandzior]

Hi all,

after the successful release of OpenCms 5.0 (which was downloaded over
1000 times within 48 hours after the release) Alkacon Software has
started development on the next version of OpenCms.

The next version of OpenCms will feature substantial changes to the
database model. Please see below for more details about the changes.
Developers using the OpenCms source code from the CVS repository
should be aware that this means the HEAD (i.e. default) CVS branch
will be heavily modified within the following weeks, and will most
certainly not be usable in production environments.

Bug fixed and smaller enhancements for the 5.0 version of OpenCms will
of course still be developed and released in the "branch_5_0_x" branch
of the CVS. The version numbers for these updates will be 5.0.1, 5.0.2
etc. Developers that run OpenCms in production and are looking for
updates or improvements to OpenCms 5.0 should use the "branch_5_0_x"
CVS branch until further notice.

The current development version of OpenCms is 5.1.0. Subsequent
development releases will be 5.1.1, 5.1.2 etc. When development on the
5.1.x version is finished, the next OpenCms major version will be
released with the 5.2.0 number.

Here's what Alkacon Software will be working on in the next couple of
months:

* The OpenCms VFS will be made more scalable, so that OpenCms can be
  used better for document management
* The user OpenCms user management will be made independent from the
  OpenCms VFS, so that other user directories (e.g. LDAP) can be
  "plugged" into the system as a separate module
* In this process, we will probably re-write part or all of the   
  OpenCms publishing, link-management and export code
* Proprietary solutions (e.g. for database pooling) are going to be
  replaced with Java 1.4 / J2EE standard solutions or well known
  packages from other open source projects
* We will provide all resources in the OpenCms VFS with a UUID
* We will add interfaces to the OpenCms core that allow the addition
  of a module-based OpenCms database replication mechanism
* We will provide a mechanism to update content from a 5.0.x version 
  to the upcoming 5.2 version before this is released

Please keep in mind that contributions to the OpenCms development are
most welcome. I expect that the 5.2 release will feature improvements
in the OpenCms workplace and probably in the WYSIWYG editors,
hopefully with a Mozilla 1.3 compatible editor. The Alkacon team will
support the development of these (or other) additions as much as
possible.

At this point, I can not give any release date or even a timeframe
for the 5.2 release.

Best Regards,
Alex.

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