[opencms-dev] Roadmap to the next 'major' OpenCms release 6.0

[Alexander Kandzior]

Hi again,

as you probably know we are working hard on the next OpenCms release
version. This version will feature significant improvements in almost all
areas: usability, performance, compliance to standards, and developer API.
The current CVS HEAD already contains many of thouse improvements. I
encourage everyone who regular works with OpenCms (or even earns money with
it) to try the current CVS version to see what's coming. 

Release date for the next major relase is the second half of this year,
hopefully in Q3.

The next version will be OpenCms 6.0. We consider the current CVS status to
be 6.0 pre-alpha, the version number being 5.3.x. Until we finally publish
6.0, we will continue to use 5.x as version numbers. 6.0 alpha will have
version numbers 5.5.x, 6.0 beta will use 5.7.x, 6.0 release candidates will
use 5.9.x. I know it's confusing. 

The full set of features will (hopefully) be implemented for 6.0 beta so
that we have some time to fix issues based on your feedback. 


In addition to the features we already have in the CVS version, the
following points are planned for OpenCms 6.0: 

Workplace: 
The OpenCms Workplace will be fully rewritten in JSP, also improving
usablity.

Setup:
The setup wizard will be improved, it will also provide help for the 'known'
issues (like setting the encoding etc.). 

Package names:
The core distribution package names will be refactored from com.opencms.* to
org.opencms.*. In fact most of the are actually rewritten and not
refactored, but we will try to keep the API intact with the 5.0 version.

XmlTemplates:
Version 6 will have support for legacy XmlTemplates, but only with an
additional .jar that will not be installed by default. All classes dealing
with XmlTemplates will stay in the com.opencms.* packages where they are
now. We consider XmlTemplate a 'dead' technology and will not support it
past the 6.0 release (at last with our own resources).

JMX support:
The most important management functions in OpenCms (e.g. cache maintainance,
system status) will be exposed to allow JMX containers to manage an OpenCms
server. 

Static export:
The static export will be rewritten and feature 'on-demand' (already
finished in CVS) and also 'full static render' functionality.

New/Improved module mechanism (tentative):
We will either implement a new or greatly improve the existing module
mechanism. Not much has been decided now, and this point might be pushed
behind the 6.0 release if time gets short. I'll keep you updated.


Regarding backward compatibility, we will ensure that content can be
imported easily from a 5.0 release. Templates and classes will have to be
adjusted. Hopefully much will just be renaming of com.opencms.* to
org.opencms.*.


Best Regards,
Alex.

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