From: "Ken Pooley" <kpooley@sewanee.edu>
To: <midgard@greywolves.org>, <lwn@lwn.net>, <marty@linuxtoday.com>,
Subject: MWS for 14th of September 2000 (#47)
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 03:09:11 -0500

Greetings!
It has been a slow week for big Midgard news. We are working on upgrading
the Midgard website and looking forward to the last beta of 1.4 in the next
few weeks. There is a 1.2.5 to 1.4 migration newby note in the works with a
site groups note to come soon after.


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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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E-mail the webmaster
As we work towards making the Midgard-project.org website more accessible
and reliable, a number of changes are being contemplated. I have
volunteered to act as the webmaster for the site, providing a contact point
for the community as well as a content watch dog to make sure we keep
information current. We are discussing a number of additions and redesign
projects. I specifically want to renew my call for sites to be
listed as examples of Midgard in action. I also want to start to collect a
reference list of ISPs, programmers, and consulting firms that provide
Midgard-based solutions. If you are currently using Midgard for customers,
or want to be included in a service provider directory, please e-mail me
with a contact name and e-mail address, as well as a short description of
the services you provide. If you have other features you would like to see
included in a new Midgard site drop me a note. I can be reached at
kpooley@sewanee.edu




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Alan Knowles, HKLC, and a new administrative interface.

While most of our attention has been occupied with the completion of
Version 1.4 and plans for V2, there is a lot of other work going on across
the Midgard landscape. In Minsk, Alexander Bokovoy is polishing off a new
administrative interface named Asgard which will see its debut in the next
few weeks with the last beta of 1.4. On the other side of Asia, Alan
Knowles independently introduced a new administrative interface that
should do a lot to redefine how we think about interacting with Midgard.

Alan Knowles is a principal with Linux Center HK ltd. of Hong Kong. HKLC is
a Linux consulting and services group that tries to make a living out of
GPL. Like many who have moved to use Midgard, Knowles' interest in the
project started about a year ago when he started looking at content
management systems to drive his website. Using a strong content management
system usually leads to the realization of the potential of such software
in real-world applications, HKLC was no different. The experiences that
Knowles and his organization had in the field informed the direction they
felt the software needed to go. One of the goals of HKLC is to encourage its
members to become involved in the software projects it uses. The Hong
Kong team put together a good "Introduction to Midgard" presentation
for marketing and general education purposes. True to the GPL spirit the
presentation is freely available as long as it retains the HKLC logo. It is
available at: http://www.hklc.com/images/midgard_movie.swf

Driven by idealism -- and, in part, by customer demands -- Knowles took on
the
challenge of putting together a new backend interface for Midgard.
Currently available as a beta, the new interface is a great addition to the
ongoing dialog about the development of the new Midgard versions.

"The admin site started of as a result of a meeting where we demonstrated
the current admin site; although the more technical people could understand
the
power it offered, it was a hard sell to the more non-techy, content people.
Our idea was to go up against the big boys, vignette storyteller, etc. So a
more attractive, quick, and powerful interface was needed."

Visually the interface is very appealing and easy to understand. It also
reflects the new features found in Midgard 1.4 like blob serving for
attachments and images. Perhaps most interesting is the inclusion of a
WSYWIG in-line text editor with basic formatting functions. Anyone who has
dealt with a wide range of content contributors, who often have vastly
different experience levels, will appreciate the opportunity to give those
editors the type control they demand while allowing them to remain
blissfully ignorant of basic HTML.  The current implementation of the
editor is based on a Microsoft DHMTL editor which works only with IE 5.01.
Knowles is hopeful that a Mozilla DHTML implementation will prove more
reasonable and more ethically acceptable.

Aside from bringing a new take on the way endusers can interact with
Midgard, Alan Knowles and his crew have brought a wealth of real world
experience with Midgard and its applications in new contexts. Contributions
like these are coming from all over the Midgard community and bode well for
the future of the project.

The HKLC Midgard Framed Admin beta can be found at:
http://www.hklc.com/projects/


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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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