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Joomla!: Joomla! Community Workgroup Report - August 2010

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 11:35:29 -0700

The Community Workgroup Teams were busy as ever during the month of August. Below are the reports rounded up from the Community Workgroup Google Group.

CMS Report: Flash Flip Book with CMS from FlashMoto: Additional Customization Options

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 08:41:37 -0700

FlashMoto.com, an advanced Flash CMS provider, managed to integrate a page flip component into their Flash CMS templates, and now FlashMoto control panel makes it possible to manage the content of a flip book without touching the source code. Users may easily update pages via intuitive and friendly WYSIWYG editor that visualizes all changes.

One of the important features of the FlashMoto Page Flip template is the scalable and flexible book: users may easily resize it according to their project needs and add as many pages as they wish. Moreover, the page background can also be customized.

The FlashMoto CMS templates with Flip Book component integrated are a perfect way to create digital editions such as any type of publications, magazines, brochures and catalogues. FlashMoto even imitates the rustle of the flipping pages.

At the moment FlashMoto launched their first Flip Book template, but in the nearest future there are more to come. The collection of Flash CMS templates from FlashMoto now counts more than 30 original modern designs.

Joomla!: PLT and Paid Contract Work

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:52:25 -0700

As many of you know, in late 2009 it was decided by OSM and the project leadership to contract with Andrew Eddie and Louis Landry and to pay them for working on the Joomla! project. This was a very big step and was only undertaken after much discussion and careful consideration. There was strong agreement in the OSM and project leadership for this decision. Formal and informal polling of community members found a substantial majority in favor of the concept, with a minority opposed to it. Some of those opposed had strong feelings against it.

From the start, the plan was for Andrew to focus on coding for version 1.6 and for Louis to help support Andrew but also to work on longer term and infrastructure projects. This general plan is still in place today, although some of the specifics have changed over time as version 1.6 has moved from alpha to beta.

The Production Leadership Team (PLT) was tasked with the role of setting the priorities for this work and providing supervision and oversight. Initially, this was done informally. Recently, we have instituted a more formal process whereby the PLT has started issuing monthly reports to OSM and the community on the work completed and goals going forward.

What does this mean to you? Just this. The PLT makes the decisions about what gets worked on and the priorities going forward. So, for example, if you have ideas or concerns about what either of these individuals is working on (or not working on), you should express them to the PLT, not to Andrew or Louis.

If you don't like the whole idea of paying them for doing this work, then you are absolutely entitled to that opinion. But again, your difference of opinion is with the project leadership and the OSM leadership, not with Andrew or Louis.

I only wish the PLT could take the credit for the fantastic work that these guys have been doing during this time. But that credit goes to them alone.

In a community as large and diverse as ours, there are always going to be disagreements. This issue is particularly sensitive and one on which people can have very strong feelings. I hope that people on both sides of this issue can work together and keep their disagreements respectful.

CMS Report: Using BPM and Workflow to Drive Work Efficiently Across the Enterprise

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 05:57:08 -0700

Do you remember the first time you rode your bike without gripping the handlebar? “Hey—look—no hands!” you probably exclaimed with excitement. If you’re lucky, you ended the trip on your bike, bearing a bright smile rather than a skinned knee.

Planning for a business process management (BPM) and workflow implementation bears some resemblance to riding hands free, only on a larger scale. Whether or not you stay on course isn’t just a matter of luck. You need to know where your business is headed; understand what you are striving to achieve; streamline your processes to ensure efficient routing; anticipate the unexpected; keep a sharp eye out for change; and make changes on the fly so you remain steady till the end.

Presuming you’ve read the first two articles in this series (Developing an Enterprise Vision for Business Process Automation and Indexing for the Enterprise: Retrieve Your Documents 100% of the Time), you already learned the importance of establishing a clear organizational vision. You also know ECM is data driven, and you learned tips for effective indexing so information can be found when it’s needed and leveraged enterprise-wide. BPM and workflow build on these successes.

Whether your processes revolve around documents, represent a series of events, or both, your data is a launching pad to drive work and decision making efficiently across your organization. If you understand the unseen as well as the obvious benefits of automation, you will visualize more clearly the long-term value across the enterprise. Knowing what questions to answer before you start helps you approach your project confidently.

CMS Report: The Plone 4 CMS

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:13:31 -0700

The Plone community has raised the bar on their flagship content management system with the release of Plone 4. With the unveiling and release announcement of Plone 4, this is proving a busy week for fans of this CMS that runs on the Python-based Zope application server.

"Plone 4 is much faster, requires less memory, and performs well even when serving up massive files. ", says Plone co-founder and Firefox User Experience Lead Alexander Limi. “They [Plone users and developers] also didn't want us to sacrifice what we do well to get there — and we haven't. Plone 4 is not just more powerful — it continues to improve in areas Plone has always been known for: usability, security, and a CMS that is easy to install, upgrade, and looks great right out of the box.”

Some of the significant changes and improvements in Plone 4 include:

Notable performance improvements
New theme
Search and indexing improvements
Group Dashboards for a Customized User Experience
Massively improved handling of large files & media
New, faster folder implementation
Improved management of users and groups
Dynamic forms framework based on jQuery Tools
Improved first-run experience
Smooth upgrade experience
Reduced memory footprint
Upgraded infrastructure

Interestingly, the announcements and even the Plone 4 download page discuss the "under the hood" improvements available in the CMS in preparation for Plone 5. That's right, they're already talking about Plone's future with Plone 5.

For addttional details about the Plone CMS be sure to visit Plone.org.

CMS Report: Tiki Receives Best of Open Source Software Applications Award

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:09:50 -0700

Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware has been awarded a 2010 Bossie award (Best of Open Source Software) by InfoWorld, in the Applications category. InfoWorld's Best of Open Source Software Awards (aka the Bossies) is chosen annually by Test Center editors and reviewers, and recognize the best open source software for business users.

The editors called Tiki "a powerful, integrated, Web-based application" that can "build and maintain websites, wikis, groupware, CMSes, forums, blogs, and bug trackers, as well as make them multilingual."

The review continues, citing Tiki's "fine-grained role-based privilege system" as a differentiating factor against classic wiki models, such as MediaWiki. Read the full article on InfoWorld.a: http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source/b... .

And don't forget to nominate Tiki for the Packt 2010 Open Source Awards (http://info.tikiwiki.org/article105).

Joomla!: Thank You

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:18:48 -0700

Today is Joomla!'s 5th birthday.

On September 1st, 2005 the joomla.org sites were launched. Until that day, the Joomla! name was completely unknown to the world. This is a screenshot of Google's results before the launch:

Joomla 5 Years Later

Joomla is now one of the most popular software projects in the world.

Approximately 2.5% of the web runs on Joomla. It is used by organizations as large as Apple, McDonald’s and the United Nations and by millions of people for their companies, hobbies and charities.

How did we get here from such humble beginnings? You.

Joomla is 100% community-owned and operated.

Joomla has no Venture Capital firms behind it. Joomla has no parent company, no shareholders and no investors behind it. Joomla has no C.E.O., no dictator and no owner. It has you.

You means the 19 members of the original development team that founded Joomla.
You means the 10s of millions of people who have downloaded or installed Joomla.
You means the 2334 developers who have written over 5500 extensions for Joomla.
You means the site builders who use Joomla to create wonderful websites.
You means the designers who create spectacular, cutting-edge templates.
You means the coders who write and maintain Joomla's core.
You means the 2348 people who have reported issues, submitted patches, and committed fixes to the core.
You means the dedicated volunteers that keep the joomla.org family of sites running.
You means the volunteers who contribute by answering questions in the Joomla! and regional groups and forums.
You means the contributors to the Joomla! Community Magazine.
You means the people who have served in the Joomla Working Groups and Teams, and on the Open Source Matters board.
You means the Development & Community Sponsors, and those who contribute financially to the project.
You means the Translation Teams who translate Joomla into 64+ languages.
You means the hundreds of 1000s of companies that build successful businesses with the help of Joomla.
You means thousands of people meeting at the 277 Registered Joomla! User Groups and Joomla! Day events around the world.

Thank you for 5 wonderful years!

Together we can keep building great software and a great community for many years to come.

Birthday News Translations

Tillykke med fødselsdagen Joomla! (Danish)
Bon anniversaire, Joomla! (French)
Joomla!お誕生日おめでとう (Japanese)
С днем рождения Joomla! (Russian)
Srećan rođendan Joomla! (Serbian)
Boldog születésnapot, Joomla! (Hungarian)
Joomla! mbush 5 vjet (Albanian)
Buon Compleanno Joomla! (Italian)
Hartelijk Gefeliciteerd Joomla! (Dutch)
Joomla! 5 нас хүрлээ (Mongolian)
Joomla 5 år senare (Swedish)
วันนี้ เป็นวันเกิดของจูมล่า ซึ่งครบรอบ 5 ขวบแล้ว (Thai)
Hoy es el quinto aniversario de Joomla.org (Spanish)
Khmer (Cambodia)
Lekker verjaar Joomla! (Afrikaans)
Hoje é o quinto aniversário de Joomla.org (Portuguese - Brazil)
Среќен роденден Joomla! (Macedonian)
Gratulerer med dagen Joomla! (Norwegian)
Joomla! sai viieaastaseks (Estonian)
Joomla! 5 Tahun Kemudian (Malay)
Joomla! Ad günü (Azeri)
Joomla!五歲了感謝各位 (Chinese - Traditional)
ولد 5 سالگی جوملا (Persian)

More Birthday Celebrations

5 anos de Joomla (Portuguese)
عيد ميلاد جوملا! الخامس (Arabic)
Happy 5th Birthday Joomla! Video (Made by the worldwide Joomla! community)
5 Years with Joomla! (InfoGraphic by Kristoffer Sandven)
Joomla 5th birthday cards making (Video by JoomlArt)
Happy 5th Birthday Joomla! (thanks from the Dutch community)
Happy 5th Birthday, Joomla! (blog by Jen Kramer)
Happy 5th Birthday Joomla! (blog by Brian Teeman)
Happy 5th Birthday Joomla! (blog by Steve Burge)
Happy birthday, Joomla! (blog by Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos)
5 Fantastic years with Joomla. A nostalgic look back... (Techjoomla)
JoomStew Podcast (with Andrew Eddie and Brian Teeman, 2 Joomla founders)

CMS Report: Content Management System Built for Cities to have Presence at NAGW Annual Conference

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:51:49 -0700

Auctori:city, a web content management system designed for municipalities and built for SEO, is a sponsor of the National Association of Government Webmasters (NAGW) National Conference which will be held at the Millennium Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri September 22-24, 2010.

A silo of the search engine optimization friendly web content management system, Auctori, an innovation of Unidev, the Auctori:city solution provides cities with the opportunity to strengthen their Internet presence and their overall brand reputation by giving users a professional city website design and the power to maintain their web content in real-time.

“We are looking forward to attending this highly anticipated conference and introducing Auctori:city to the NAGW community,” said Andrea Bemis, Brand Manager, Auctori. “Our unique CMS integrates controls that give individual departments the power to edit components of their website, such as news, community calendars and business directories, making the general maintenance of a city website very straightforward and less time consuming for webmasters."

CMS Report: Ruby on Rails 3.0 is available

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:46:12 -0700

I'm not much of a programmer but I can appreciate the value of a good programming language when I see it. While I know Python and dabble with PHP, I've always appreciated Ruby and Ruby on Rails. There is something about the Ruby development scene that perks my interest in this programming language.

Ruby on Rails 3.0 was just released this week. The development of Rails 3.0 has been two years in the making. David August writes:

Rails 3.0 has been underway for a good two years, so it’s with immense pleasure that we can declare it’s finally here. We’ve brought the work of more than 1,600 contributors together to make everything better, faster, cleaner, and more beautiful.

Some of the biggest changes and additions in Rails includes:

New Active Record query engine - makes it easier to build complex queries over several iterations.
New router for Action Controller - the syntax has been modified to to favor the REST style
New Action Mailer
Manage dependencies with Bundler - Bundler allows you to specify the libraries, frameworks, and plugins that your application depends on.
XSS protection by default
Encoding issues resolved
Active Model: Validations, callbacks, etc for all models
Official plugin APIs
Documentation

If you're interested in Ruby on Rails 3.0, check out the download page at RubyonRails.org.

Drupal: Our new Drupal Code of Conduct

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 11:49:51 -0700

As our community grows, it is imperative that we preserve the things that got us here; namely, keeping Drupal a fun, welcoming, challenging, and fair place to play. The new Drupal Code of Conduct (DCOC) states our shared ideals with respect to conduct. Think of this as coding standards for people. It is an expression of our ideals, not a rulebook. It is a way to communicate our existing values to the entire community.

Our friends at Ubuntu have blazed a brilliant trail in this area. They use Drupal as their CMS, and in turn we have embraced their Code of Conduct. This code of conduct is essentially identical to that used by Ubuntu, except that the name of the project has been changed, and the conflict resolution process has been removed since we don't have one.

The DCOC has been under discussion for several months on groups.drupal.org and discussed further at Drupalcon Conpenhagen. Folks who are interested in talking more about the DCOC should do so in the Drupal.org Policies group.

The short version:

Be considerate
Be respectful
When we disagree, we consult others.
When we are unsure, we ask for help.
Step down considerately.