From:	 "Ken Pooley" <kpooley@sewanee.edu>
To:	 "Midgard User" <user@midgard-project.org>, "MWS" <mws@midgard-project.org>
Subject: MWS 64, Scripting, New Development, Nemein, Php International
Date:	 Fri, 2 Nov 2001 09:49:26 -0600

30th of October 2001

Greetings!

There are a number of new developments in the world of Midgard and they are
all pretty interesting. Nemein Solutions is moving to diversify its approach
to making a business based on Open Source technologies. The strength of
Nemein’s approach is important for all of us who need to justify using Open
Source in our work, especially for those who might want to look for
successful business models. On the software development front there is a new
FAQ system, the start of a new administrative system for Midgard and the
discussion of a new scripting interface for Midgard. Last, but not least, if
you are in the Frankfurt area next week stop by and see Philipp and Torben
at the Php International Conference!

Contents:

Scripting foundations discussed
Other Midgard Services announced and planned
Nemein announcements
Philipp and Torben at International Php Conference


============================
Scripting foundations discussed
----------------------------
Emile and Alexander initiated a discussion on the list about a new scripting
extension for new versions of Midgard. The goal of this project is to
streamline the interaction between the various parts of Midgard; Midgard-lib
and Midgardp-php for example, and Mysql. Using a scripting language like
ruby allows a reduction in the amount of C coding by relying on
functionality built into the scripting environment.

There is an e-mail from Emile on the list archive which sums up his
reasoning for choosing Ruby as well as an “RFC: Midgard Scripting Core”. The
RFC says, in part;

[The] Scripting core is aimed to expose high-level view of the data storage
to a scripting language. It seemed most convenient to implement that
high-level view in a scripting language, only dealing with C where we
absolutely have to.

Scripting core language should conform following requirements:

- Fit for embedding (obviously)

- Real garbage collection. We've suffered PHPs reference counting long
  enough. This disqualifies Python and the Javascript engine from
  Mozilla, for example.

- Tolerable footprint and speed

- A decent OO system with introspection from C (we will use this to
  bridge functions and methods into PHP)

- Thread-safe or planned to be thread-safe, for whenever Apache 2.0
  and PHP4 are stable enough to mandate us to go there too. Not a
  short-term goal, in other words.

- Easy to extend in C

The RFC goes into a great deal more detail and is a worthwhile read for
anyone who thinks that they may want to participate in future development of
the core Midgard application, or experiment with the flexible functionality
that this change should bring. Comments should be addressed to the Midgard
dev list.


============================
Other Midgard Services announced and planned
----------------------------
Armand has implemented a FAQ system for Midgard. The fruits of his labor can
be found at http://www.midgard-project.org/faq/  . The FAQs are a
collaborative effort between Midgard Users and Developers. The questions
currently address issues such as, where are the mailing list archives? What
are some typical problems that arise in installation? Tips for Solaris
installation.  How do I use Midgard? Contact Armand if you want to add
questions you think need to be addressed on the FAQ page.

Other developments include early development of a new command line interface
for client/server administration from David Geuerzeric. The new admin
application may have both a text based and a gui interface but will provide
an alternative to the purely web based administrative interface we use now.
The admin application would allow for greater access to the Midgard database
as well as remote access directly to the database. There would also be a
provision for an ssh connection for secure administration.

Armand also e-mailed me that he has uploaded Mandrake 8.1 RPMs to the site,
though there is not yet a data package to download.

============================
Nemein announcements

Nemein Solutions, of Espoo Finland, has undertaken two initiatives to
broaden its customer base and advance business applications for Midgard.

Nemein has organized itself into two distinct business units, a Content
Management Services unit and a Solutions unit.

The Content Management Services unit will continue Nemein's commitment
of providing cost-efficient content management solutions to the
enterprise. The unit has formed partnerships with several key
companies in network services, hardware, new media and advertisement
industries. In the last month, the unit has signed six new content
management projects, continuing its aggressive market entry strategy.

The Solutions unit focuses on Nemein's own software development and
will operate as a competence center for the Midgard Open Source
application server. The current product line of the business unit
includes project management, document management and customer
management systems. During autumn 2001, the unit has started three
pilot implementations for its enterprise automation software in
Finland and France.

Nemein has also opened a public telephone based support number for Finnish
Midgard and Nadmin users. The new support number is available to all Finnish
users of the Midgard application server and the Nadmin Studio content
management system at 0600-1-2552.

"There is a tremendous level interest for Open Source solutions in the
market today. The lack of professional support has so far prevented
businesses from widely deploying these solutions. By opening a public
support number we continue our commitment in bringing the Open Source
Midgard application server to the enterprise", says Henri Hovi, the
director of Nemein's Content Management Services business unit.




============================
Philipp Rotmann and Torben Nehmer Frankfurt Php Kongress

----------------------------
Philipp Rotmann and Torben Nehmer will present a Power Midgard Workshop at
the International Php conference 5-7 Nov. 2001 in Frankfurt/Main. The
schedule on the website (www.php-kongress.de ) lists Philipp on Monday, Nov.
5 for the whole day, in a session called Professional Web-publishing with
Midgard.



============================

About Midgard



Midgard 1.4.2 is a content publishing tool for small and medium sized sites.
It is based on Apache, MySQL and PHP. The application and its documentation
are licensed GPL, LGPL and GFDL. This licensing strategy guarantees that
developers, webmasters, ISPs, and business managers are investing in a
strategy where they're free to share solutions and participate in the
application design.

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



----------------------------



About MWS


The Midgard Weekly Summary is a bi-weekly newsletter

for the Midgard user and developer community,

as well as the extended web community.

If you would like to release it or publish it,

please contact Ken Pooley

(kpooley@sewanee.edu).


Previous issues of Midgard Weekly Summary can

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



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----------------------------

============================