From: Ken Pooley <kpooley@sewanee.edu>
To: "'midgard@greywolves.org'" <midgard@greywolves.org>,
Subject: MWS for 18th of August, 2000 (#43)
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 13:26:53 -0500

Greetings!

This is an abbreviated version of the Midgard Weekly Summary. There has 
been a lot of news since the last MWS including a reorganization of the 
documentation efforts for Midgard. Ron Parker did a great job in the 
keeping the news flowing at a crucial time but his greater involvement with 
the profound rewriting of the documentation for Midgard 1.4 has 
necessitated an editorial change for MWS. I will be taking over the MWS for 
the near future and I am more than happy to accept suggestions, help or 
contributions.

Next week the MWS should return to a full featured publication.


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Current versions:

        Stable: 1.2.5 'Mad King'

        Devel.: 1.4beta.5

	Oracle: 1.2.5 Oracle 8i



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1.4 is coming!



I.4b5 should be out soon after the release of this newsletter. The 
subsequent turnover from b5 to a final version should come fairly quickly 
by the end of September.

1.4 includes a number of new features as well a new administrative 
interface. The new admin interface will, as with previous versions, both 
implement and demonstrate the new features in 1.4.  Major new features in 
this release include Repligard, a utility which facilitates the movement of 
data within the database structure. 1.4 also includes the addition of a 
means, known as CodeSnippets, by which code can be shared within an 
application or across applications.

1.4 also includes new security architecture called SiteGroups. Previous 
security implementation tended to have some inefficient elements though it 
was fundamentally secure. SiteGroups harden the divisions between groups 
and allow for a more selective security strategy.

In general Midgard 1.4 increases the flexibility of the Midgard application 
and its underlying data structure. This increased flexibility will allow 
administrators, designers, and content contributors to work more 
efficiently while still extending the functionality of their site 
implementation.



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2.0, Midgard: The Next Generation



Midgard 2.0 represents a significant rewrite of the core of the 
application. The goals of this rewrite include expansion of the available 
back-end databases available as well as a great deal more flexibility in 
the data structure. In many ways Midgard 2.0 completes the process, started 
with 1.4, towards a dynamic, flexible data and content management system. 
2.0 also will be based on an extensible code architecture, similar to 
Apache's Dynamically Shared Object model, allowing third party developers 
to write their own features in a modular form.

Currently there are still discussions which are pointed towards arriving at 
a final requirements document before subsequent code structures are begun. 
Emiliano Heynes is the primary keeper of the 2.0 effort and is open to 
input.

Midgard 2.0 should develop fairly rapidly given the community's active 
participation in it as well as the support that Aurora, of Paris, has 
committed to the project.



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Contributions to the Midgard Directory



I would like to work on putting together a more comprehensive list of sites 
that use Midgard in some form or other.   There is a list on the 
Midgard-Project.org website and it is a great resource for the whole 
community. If you want to add your website let me know and I will pass the 
information on and get it on the list.

In conjunction with this I would like ask for volunteers who would be 
interested in being "interviewed" for a series of case studies concerning 
their use of Midgard and what it brings to their enterprise.



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About Midgard



Midgard is a freely-available Web application

development and publishing platform based on

the popular PHP scripting language. It is an

Open Source development project, giving you the

freedom to create your solutions in an open

environment. Midgard is the tool for creating,

modifying and maintaining dynamic

database-enabled web services.



  -> http://www.midgard-project.org



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About MWS



The Midgard Weekly Summary is a newsletter

for the Midgard user and developer community.



The MWS is currently being distributed in

following mediums:



 -The Midgard Project's Web site

   -> http://www.midgard-project.org



 -Linux Weekly News

   -> http://www.lwn.net



 -Linux Today

   -> http://www.linuxtoday.com



 -Linux Developer's Network

   -> http://linuxdev.net



 -LinuxProgramming

   -> http://www.linuxprogramming.com



 -Midgard mailing list



If you would like to release it elsewhere,

please contact Henri Bergius

(Henri.Bergius@iki.fi).



Previous issues of Midgard Weekly Summary can

be found archived at the Midgard web site.

  -> http://www.midgard-project.org/topic/169.html



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