Lodz, March 8th 2005 — The Midgard Project has released stable release
version 1.6.3 of the Midgard Open Source Content Management Framework. Midgard
provides a reliable CMS framework build on top of the LAMP platform. Midgard’s
core features include internationalization, accessibility, scalability,
robust templating and PHP connectivity.
This is a maintenance release that includes some bug fixes and support for
the new Zend Thread Safety (ZTS) mode in PHP.
Major features in Midgard 1.6 include:
- MultiLang support
- Unicode support by default
- PAM authentication support
- Apache2 module
- PHP4 module ready to use with Apache1 and Apache2
- New midgard-data including MidCOM 1.4.0
- New PHP5 module
The MultiLang feature makes Midgard more flexible as it separates metadata from the current language of objects. It is easy to use with the new midgard-data package which allows server administrator to create or update databases to MultiLang very easily.
While Midgard has supported international character sets through the UTF-8 encoding since the Midgard 1.2.5 series, Midgard 1.6 is the first release where Unicode ships as the default encoding. This means that new Midgard installations can manage content in character sets like Russian, Japanese and Maori with zero effort.
PAM, or Pluggable Authentication Modules is a technology used on several Unix platforms like Linux and Solaris to enables systems to authenticate using some central authentication provider. PAM support in Midgard means that Midgard sites and applications can now authenticate with external systems like LDAP or Active Directory instead of using the local password storage.
PHP4 module may be configured with the old Apache 1.3.x or new Apache 2. Both modules have caching facilities which increase performance and reduce request time. These modules have also abilities to emulate the old mod_midgard Apache module which is now deprecated.
The revised Midgard-data package provides an out-of-the-box setup complete with Aegir and Spider administration tools and the MidCOM component framework. Aegir is a comprehensive and powerful administration tool targeted at Midgardpower users. Spider provides similar administrative features in accessible way, allowing disabled users and simpler web browsers to manage websites. In addition to the Midgard applications, midgard-data also ships several command-line utilities including the yamp packaging scripts useful to
Midgard application developers and the datagard Midgard database and virtual host setup tool.
MidCOM 1.4.0 is a full component framework which enables site builders to construct their web sites from ready-made and configurable site features, or components. All MidCOM components provide uniformal and localized ways for configuration and content management. The configuration system allows site developers to fully control the way the components behave, including their output templates and content structure and form field definitions.
For end-users the MidCOM system provides an intuitive “Edit this page” interface for editing site content. Over 20 components shipping with MidCOM include a news listing system, event calendars, product order and shipping management system, phone book
and a wiki online notebook.
PHP5 module is currently patched version of midgard-php4 module, and should be considered only for testing purposes.
Changes from 1.6.2 release:Midgard-php4
- Change in security model that prevents anonymous and unprivileged users from creating new parameters
- Support for the Zend Thread Safety (ZTS) mode in PHP
Midgard-apache2
- Fix random segfaults for hosts configured without cache directive.
Planned for next releases
- Scheduled release – March 2005
- Automated testing of release packages
- MgdSchema – XML defined objects for PHP using the GObjects system
- Apache1 module will enter deprecation cycle
- Rewritten MidCOM Component Framework no longer served from database.
- Site Creation Wizard for the MidCOM Component Framework
Download page for latest release:http://www.midgard-project.org/download/
Getting started with Midgard:http://www.midgard-project.org/documentat
Getting started with MidCOM:http://www.nehmer.net/~bergie/oscom3/
Bugs reporting:http://midgard.tigris.org/issues/report
Users and developers support:Mailing list user@midgard-project.org
About Midgard
The Midgard Content Management Framework was initially released in May 1999, and has since gathered a sizable user and developer community. Midgard powers thousands of web sites ranging from simple organizational websites to major portals like New Zealand eGovernment site and Playbill.
Midgard is being developed by an international team of professionals. Midgard’s development team includes new media designers, system integrators and content management consultants. Midgard development is being supported by several commercial and governmental entities including the European Union.
The Midgard community is committed at maintaining and developing Midgard as one of the major Open Source Content Management Systems. Key focus areas are robustness, longevity and internationality of the solution. To support these the Midgard community works actively on supporting the latest web, content management and accessibility standards. The Midgard community also participates actively in the central organization for
Open Source Content Management, OSCOM.
Piotr Pokora, Midgard release manager
pp@infoglob.pl
Henri Bergius, Midgard spokesman
henri.bergius@iki.fi
The Midgard Project
http://www.midgard-project.org/
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