Feature
Welcome to the August installment of our what's coming from the open source projects in the next month.
If you're looking through here and feel that your project was left out, we invite you to send us an email at [email protected] with a pointer to who we should contact at your project for updates.
Alfresco
In July, Alfresco Software (news, site) opened registration for their Paris DevCon. Community Director Nancy Garrity is currently gathering community input as she works on the event's agenda. They also released alpha 3 of their Activiti Business Process Management Suite.
On August 4 at 15:00 in the UK, the company will discuss their updated WCM roadmap, which details what to expect from the next two Alfresco Web Content Management products.
Calenco
In July, Document Management vendor Calenco (news, site) released version 2.1, which adds:
- The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA), allowing users to drop DITA files and maps into Calenco, select the output format and move on
- Support for adding custom stylesheets for DITA output layout
- An enhanced and simplified UI, such as the ability to sort file lists and use the Search panel to filter the results
- DocBook 4 documents
- Online document code editing for quick modifications
An online demo is available for those who want to explore Calenco.
DotNetNuke
In July, DotNetNuke Corp. (news, site) announced that early registrations for DotNetNuke Connections '10 is open through September 1, 2010. Registering early saves you $100 off the conference fee, and those belonging to a DotNetNuke User Group can use discount code DNN2010 to receive another $50 off. The conference is held in conjunction with DevConnections at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, November 1 - 4. Registering for DotNetNuke Connections gets you into the DevConnections tracks as well. There's also a pre-conference workshop for those learning how to build DotNetNuke sites.
The company also announced four new free training webinars and released DotNetNuke 5.5 beta. The major addition in this version is a new content localization feature.
July marked the company being selected by Everything Channel as a CRN Emerging Technology Vendor. This annual list recognizes companies that deliver "high margins for solution providers with innovative and easy-to-use technology." They also announced the addition of Lee McGrath as Chief Financial Officer, and sent CTO and Co-Founder Shaun Walker to OSCON 2010 to present the session, "Open Source On the Microsoft Platform - Fact Or Fiction?"
Drupal
In July, the Drupal (news, site) project continued the long march toward version 7. Dries Buytaert recently blogged that waiting for that final version feels a lot like waiting for a butterfly to emerge from its cocoon. In the meantime, he's issued an update to the Drupal trademark policy and via interview comments has stated that a Drupal 7 beta is expected in early August, and that the full release is hoped for in the September or October time-frame.
Designer Jennifer Simmons added to the Drupal 7 run-up by releasing a new theme, Bartik, specifically for this version. Dozens of additional designers and developers participated in the theme's sprint. This theme became the default for Drupal 7 as of July 9, with the release of Drupal 7 alpha 6.
July also marked the open beta point for Drupal SaaS offering Drupal Gardens (news, site). They've also made social business software offering Drupal Commons available for testing.
Drupal SAAS company Buzzr (news, site) is preparing to debut a professional services team to help smaller clients, will be adding social features and hopes to release its paid DIY platform by the end of the summer.
Ephesoft
In July, document capture vendor Ephesoft released a beta of their Mailroom Automation Community Edition, which includes support for classifying and separating documents according to barcode, image layouts and content through OCR. These features allow users to add documents to the system without needing to use separator sheets between them or manually sort them. A version with sample configurations for Invoice Capture and Content-Based Classification for insurance documents is available for download on the Ephesoft site.
Ephesoft Enterprise Edition will include commercial OCR engines such as RecoStar Professional. Coming up on August 6, Ephesoft plans to release the next version of Mailroom Automation, which includes:
- Internationalization support
- An OCR/ICR engine supporting more than 50 languages
- A GWT-based Admin module which will make it easier to deploy solutions
Then, at the end of August, there will be another new version which adds:
- Fuzzy Database Match for scanned documents, allowing scanned documents to be matched with database entries (such as a scanned patient record mapped to the correct patient in the database automatically)
- Enhanced Free-Form Extraction to allow administrators to locate meta-data on any type of document
- CMIS support through a CMIS Export plugin
Hippo CMS
In July, the Hippo CMS (news, site) team continued their online usability testing. The gathered input was used for the 7.4 release expected on August 2, which arrives in conjunction with a new demo site (which will be live when 7.4 releases) to show off its new functionality. Features new to 7.4 include:
- Version comparison
- A goto-preview plugin
- Improved pickers
- Wide document listing
- HST page cache
- SSO support
- Multiple file upload
- An improved delete folder
Hippo CMS 7.4 preview: version compare from Arje Cahn on Vimeo.
Coming up in August, Hippo announced that at 9:00 to 21:00 Friday August 20 in Amsterdam they'll be holding a Hippo GetTogether. This event includes 12 Hippo client showcases, a Usability Track with the Hippo usability team and more.
Joomla
In July, the Joomla (news, site) project released two more beta versions as they lead up to version 1.6, sticking with their schedule of once every two weeks.
The Joomla community is also gearing up for Joomla's 5th birthday. There are a number of events in the works, such as eBay hosting a Joomla conference in San Jose, CA, on October 3 - 5, Microsoft hosting one in Washington D.C. on October 16, and events in Italy, Brazil, Costa Rica and the Netherlands.
Magnolia
In July, Magnolia CMS (news, site) released Magnolia Blossom 1.1, which integrates Java platform Spring with Magnolia CMS. They also sent out bug fix release Magnolia 4.3.5, announced their Magnolia 2010 Conference Program, announced the winner of their T-Shirt competition, released a new community-developed tag cloud module and published the 108-page "Magnolia CMS Technical Guide" for partners, hired more developers.
Coming in August, they'll continue work on Magnolia 5, announce more speakers and talks as they prepare for the Magnolia Conference in September, and work on the Magnolia Forge where the community can develop code for Magnolia. They will also add the new technical guide to the official documentation in HTML.
MODx
In July, MODx (news, site) released MODx Revolution 2.0, a complete redesign from the ground up of the MODx Evolution Web CMS. New features and improvements include:
- The ability to cache any Element, override default caching and use Memcached or another caching option
- Extend or override core features and integrate third party applications while maintaining your upgrade path
- Create Contexts allowing you to design different views of your site, have multi-sites such as versions with multiple languages and sub-domains
- Core logging for debugging and error tracking
- A new MODx Manager
- A user management and security system for fine-grained permissions and access control
- Support for add-ons using Transport Packages that can be deployed with a package manger
mojoPortal
In July, mojoPortal (news, site) released version 2.3.4.8, which dropped support for SQL 2000 and brought support for SQL Azure into their main data layer for MS SQL. The project also added a data layer supporting SQL Server Compact Edition (SQL CE), which can be deployed to budget ASP.NET 4 hosting even under Medium Trust Security, with no additional server software or database setup. For the situation where traffic outgrows SQL CE, tools are included to migrate to SQL Server.
In addition to this the team has made improvements to their Visual Studio offerings to make it easier to for developers to work with supported databases, and make it easier to publish a build. Their next online user group meeting is August 22.
Nuxeo
In July, Nuxeo (news, site) released Nuxeo Digital Asset Management 1.1 with enhanced video management functionality. They also released the new Nuxeo Correspondence Management, which is an application-specific template set based on their open source Case Management Framework. The target audience for this new offering includes government agencies and regulated industries who need to track large volumes of incoming, outgoing and internal correspondence regardless of its format.
July also brought updates to Nuxeo Enterprise Platform and Nuxeo Document Management, both of which reached version 5.3.2. New features include:
- A new configuration system
- A new Tag Service implementation with VCS backend
- Content automation integration
- VCS improvements such as better Oracle support and optimizations
- New packaging and installers
- More and improved translations
Those interested in a detailed technology audit of Nuxeo Enterprise Platform might want to check out the the Ovum research note on the topic. The company also hired Rick Dobbs as Director of Channels as part of the venture capital-supported expansion of their Nuxeo Galaxy partner program.
Learning Opportunities
Webinar
Jun
6
The Future of Social Media: Emerging Trends and How to Stay Ahead of the Curve
The impact of emerging technologies like AI on social media
Webinar
Jun
7
The Building Blocks of Personalization
This webinar will explore how personalization can create powerful ecommerce shopping experience.
Webinar
Jun
8
Attracting—and Keeping—Your High-Net-Worth Investors
Join PwC to dissect their recent survey findings on a specific customer subset — high-net-worth investors.
Webinar
Jun
13
The Future of Contact Centers with AI at the Helm
Learn how to balance human intuition and interaction with the potential uses of AI to create delightful and lasting CX
Webinar
Jun
20
3 Steps to Unlock Your Customer Data and Drive Revenue
Discover how Twilio Segment’s #1 Customer Data Platform helps implement data-driven strategies.
Webinar
On demand
AI for Marketers: Optimize Personalization Across the Funnel
Understand the benefits of utilizing AI across your entire marketing stack
Coming on August 11, you'll find Nuxeo CMO Cheryl McKinnon presenting "Enterprise Content Management Meets Open Source" at LinuxCon 2010. From there, Nuxeo's first global conference, Nuxeo World, takes place in Paris on November 17 and 18. Information on early bird registration, the call for speakers and sponsorship is all available on the conference site.
On August 24, Nuxeo will offer the webinar ECM as a Platform. Also, the company holds Nuxeo Studio demo sessions every Wednesday.
ocPortal
In July, ocPortal (news, site) announced the first release candidate for version 5.0 of their Web CMS. This version includes bug fixes, a brand new commenting interface, plus a redesigned or updated:
- Gallery system
- Member profile screen
- Member points screen to make the points system more intuitive
- Quiz screen
- Side blocks
- RSS and rating features
- Theming system
- Event calendar
- Catalog system
- Newsletter manager
- CEDI
Theming updates include the ability to preview all templates without having to switch screens, the ability to work one by one through all pages to make sure the theme looks correct, an easier process for editing the site logo across all zones and themes, and new CSS-styled buttons. Gallery updates include an improved edit screen and the ability to provide automatic video transcoding using ffmpeg. ocProducts states that ocPortal 5.0 has been thoroughly tested with IE6, but once IE9 is released support for IE6 will be dropped.
One new feature they call "Real-time rain" lets you visualize activity in real-time or through history playback.
In addition to releasing version 5, ocProducts also announced 30 new addons. Three silly ones were announced on April 1 as a "fools-day double bluff," and among the rest are:
- Three new blocks to display Amazon wishlists, affiliate sales links and items you're selling through eBay
- A new spinning tag cloud globe to replace the tag cloud block
- New mapping tools displaying member locations or locations from a catalog, such as for a store locater
- A new chat bot for the ocPortal chat rooms
- New chat rooms built on Jabber
- An adminzone search "stemmer" letting your searches match related works (such as publish if you searched for publishing)
- Add Google translate to your site
- A block allowing you to display banners for a wide range of causes
- A crossword generator
- An altered quiz module letting you set entrance costs and rewards for completing quizzes
- An enhanced shout box
SilverStripe
In July, Silverstripe (news, site) released versions 2.3.8 and 2.4.1. Both versions include bug fixes, API changes and features and enhancements, though 2.4.1's list is far more extensive, including:
- A jQuery UI date picker for the DateField and DateTimeField
- Ability for the user to set preferred date and time formatting
- The ability to switch between legacy search and the new version
- "Select all" and "Select none" checkboxes for batch handling comments
- Custom internationalization plugins
The project is also in the midst of a push to improve user experience. As the SilverStripe folks themselves migrate their site from version 2.3 to 2.4, they're turning their focus to the user help system and the public-facing part of SilverStripe.org. Toward this end, they sought user feedback through July 15 and are now implementing the change suggestions they received.
Coming up, they plan to refresh SilverStripe.org itself and are asking for community suggestions on what people want to see. They're also looking for a visual designer or interaction designer who wants to work in Wellington, New Zealand.
Squiz
In July, Squiz (news, site) added optional Memcache extension Deja Vu to MySource Matrix. This extension stores object data, expiring it only when the source data changes to improve loading times on systems with aggressive cache expiry strategies.
Squiz Labs also released a new video demonstrating how MySource Mini integrates with MySource Matrix through the Easy Edit Suite. They also sponsored a Site Search Report from Econsultancy (news, site), which states that over half of those surveyed aren't satisfied with their current site search and only 7% of surveyed companies feel they're "efficiently learning from site search and distributing these insights across the business." You can download the report soon from their Funnelback search site.
Upcoming in August, the folks at Squiz hinted that they're "continuing work on some top secret developments."
TYPO3
In July, 200 developers from the TYPO3 (news, site) community attended Developer Days in in Elmshorn, Germany. The event consisted of half-day workshops and offered a session on Phoenix, the team's next generation CMS based on their FLOW3 PHP framework. In particular, they're excited about the Aloha DOM-based front end Rich Text Editor.
This month the TYPO3 team announced that version 4.5 will be released at the end of January 2011. This version offers long term support in the form of three years' worth of bug fixes. TYPO3 4.5 will also support all commonly-used browsers, including IE6, and offer new features such as:
- A ExtJS-based Page Tree
- An ExtJS API for Context Menus
- A new toolbar with intelligent backend search
- The ability for administrators to configure a new module to place elements in a grid like they're positioned on the front end
- A face-lift for the extension manager
- An improved Install Tool
- Improvements to the usability of TYPO3's workspaces advanced versioning system
Last but certainly not least, August continues work on TYPO3'S 5 Google Summer of Code (news, site) projects.
WeWebU
In August, Enterprise Information Management (EIM) vendor WeWebU Software AG plans to release a sample Human Resources application based on the open source Community Edition of their OpenWorkdesk ECM product. According to WeWebU, this application can be deployed on any CMIS-compliant ECM repository and provides:
- HR dossiers built using OpenWorkdesk's virtual folders
- Tailored searches for dossiers and employee-related documents
- Functionality for creating new dossiers with a pre-defined structure
- Features for adding and indexing documents
To make it easier to test the application on Alfresco repositories, WeWebU provides a data loading application that creates the necessary data structures and then uploads the sample documents to the repository. When it's available, the new application will be available for free from the OpenWorkdesk site.
Also coming in August are version 3.0.0 of the commercial Pro and Enterprise Editions of OpenWorkdesk.
WordPress
In July, WordPress (news, site) announced the end of life of support for PHP 4 and MySQL 4 with the release of WordPress 3.2 in the first half of 2011. Those who aren't sure what database and language versions their hosts are running can install the Health Check plugin, which will tell you if you're ready for version 3.2. Future versions will also include more information.
WordPress 3.1 is due in late 2010 and will still support PHP 4 and MySQL 4.
