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Midgard2 9.09 "Mjolnir" released

Posted 4 days ago by piotrek...@gmail.com (Piotr Pokora)

Lodz, November 18th 2009 -- The Midgard Project has released stable release of Midgard2 9.09 "Mjolnir" - second release of the new generation of the Midgard content repository.

About this release
Midgard2 9.09 is targeted at web ... [More] framework and desktop application developers. It provides a comprehensive set of content repository APIs that can be used to build replicated information applications that share their information using a common storage layer and replication tools.

In this release we provide Content Repository API bindings for the following programming languages: C, Python, PHP and Objective-C. D-Bus signals are used to inform different Midgard2 applications about things happening in the repository, enabling for example a PHP website and a Python background process to communicate with each other.

New functionalities in this release:
Database views
MgdSchema classes are extendable or might be duplicated
New authentication system with stack support and multiple authentication methods per user
Optional metadata for MgdSchema classes
User defined, reflectable fields in MgdSchema
Database transactions
Main changes from Midgard 9.03:
Removed sitegroups and multilang (#1340)
New midgard_storage class for storage management (#1136)
Fully functional D-Bus support (#986)
Midgard2
Midgard2 is a content repository. It provides an object-oriented and replicated environment for building data-intensive applications. This provides several advantages

Common rules for data access mean that multiple applications can work with same content without breaking consistency of the data
Signals about changes let applications know when another application using the repository modifies something, enabling collaborative data management between apps
Objects instead of SQL mean that developers can deal with data using APIs more compatible with the rest of their desktop programming environment, and without having to fear issues like SQL injection
Data model is scriptable when you use a content repository, meaning that users can easily write Python or PHP scripts to perform batch operations on their data without having to learn your storage format
Synchronization and sharing features can be implemented on the content repository level meaning that you gain these features without having to worry about them
Midgard's philosophy includes building on top of a well-known and supported GNOME libraries like glib and libgda on the system end, and connecting with popular programming languages like PHP and Python. Data storage can utilize SQLite with desktop and mobile applications, or a database server like MySQL or Postgres for web application storage.

The Midgard2 platform enables developers to define a storage structure once and use it on both web and desktop applications, with the possibility of easy data replication between the two.

Read more about Midgard's content repository approach:

http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/why_you_should_use_a_content_repository_for_your_application/
http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/midgard2_at_fscons-your_data-everywhere/
http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/midgard_and_jcr-a_look_at_two_content_repositories/
http://teroheikkinen.iki.fi/blog/midgard_workshop_at_fscons/
New Midgard architecture
Language independence
Midgard is also language independent and due to its powerful architecture has proven as stable, secure and flexible solution implemented in various environments:

PHP5 extension for web application and CMS development
Python module for desktop application and background process development
Objective-C package for Mac OS X and GNUstep developers
Database independence
The Midgard 1.x was heavily coupled with the MySQL database. The new Midgard2 architecture is instead built on top of libgda, the GNOME database abstraction layer. This enables Midgard to be used with various storage engines, including:

MySQL
Postgres
SQLite
Microsoft SQL Server
Oracle
DB2
Built-in replication and metadata
All Midgard objects are automatically equipped with a consistent set of metadata properties that can be used for access control and workflow.

In addition, Midgard provides an API for serializing and unserializing stored objects in XML format that can be used for replicating data between different systems. The replication architecture can be used for staging/live web environments or mobile applications that synchronize between each other or a web back-end.

Planned for next Midgard2 releases
Midgard MVC, an elegant PHP MVC framework written for Midgard2
New installer for database and web server deployment
Midgard2 Runtime for integrating Midgard web applications to the desktop
Midgard resources
Download page and changelog for latest release
Bug reporting
User and developers support:
Users' forum
Developers' forum
IRC: #midgard on irc.freenode.net
#midgard on Qaiku
MidgardProject on Twitter
About Midgard
The Midgard Framework development started in 1997 and it was initially released as free software in May 1999. Midgard Project has since gathered an active user and developer community, powering thousands of web sites ranging from simple organizational intranets to large community portals.

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 has been supported by several commercial and governmental entities including the European Union and the Swedish Internet Foundation.

Midgard2 is free software available under the GNU LGPL license.

http://www.midgard2.org

Contacts
Piotr Pokora, Midgard release manager piotrek.pokora(at)gmail.com

Henri Bergius, Midgard spokesman henri.bergius(at)iki.fi

The Midgard Project http://www.midgard-project.org [Less]

Midgard Weekly Summary #80: November 18th 2009

Posted 4 days ago by henri....@iki.fi (Henri Bergius)

Welcome to Midgard Weekly Summaries, the weekly newsletter of happenings in the Midgard Project. This MWS covers the last two weeks as Henri has been busy conferencing.

Midgard 8.09.6.1 hotfix is now available. This fixes the segfault ... [More] happening in end of PHP command-line scripts
Midgard2 Runtime is now working on Linux with MidCOM3 on Midgard 9.09. A screenshot is available
Midgard OBS nightly builds are now using the OBS REST API
Qaiku benchmarked on Mjolnir. Same PHP MidCOM3 code runs 20-60% faster on Mjolnir than Ragnaroek
New Midgard authentication API in Mjolnir is now being used by MidCOM3. This allows multiple authentication methods and access levels for same user, simplifying implementations like OpenID and OAuth
$_MIDCOM and $_MIDGARD PHP superglobals are now available only if enabled via the midgard.superglobals_compat ini setting
Object properties in Mjolnir are now returned in same order as defined in MgdSchema. This makes generating documentation and forms by reflection easier
Mjolnir is nearing release. Most of blockers are now done, and the stable should be out soon
Ragnaroek net.nemein.registrations can now send email to event attendees
TinyMCE has been upgraded to version 3.2.7 in Ragnaroek. This will come in 8.09.7
About Midgard
Midgard is a persistent storage framework built for the replicated world. It enables developers build applications that have their data in sync between the desktop, mobile devices and web services. It also allows for easy sharing of data between users.

Midgard does this all by building on top of technologies like GLib, libgda and D-Bus. It provides developers with object-oriented programming interfaces for C, PHP and Python. Web service developers also benefit from MidCOM, a modern MVC framework for PHP development that utilizes all the advantages of the Midgard storage framework. MidCOM helps web production also by shipping a set of content management tools.

About MWS
Midgard Weekly Summaries is a newsletter for keeping up with the happenings in the Midgard community. Notices about new published summaries will be sent to the Midgard user mailing list, Qaiku #midgard channel, and are available via RSS.

The new MWS editions are edited collaboratively to make the editing burden easier. To suggest stories here bookmark them with del.icio.us tag "midgardweeklysummary". [Less]

Ragnaroek midgard-core 8.09.6.1 hotfix

Posted 12 days ago by piotrek...@gmail.com (Piotr Pokora)

A hotfix for midgard-core in stable LTS branch - Ragnaroek, has been released.
It includes fix for random crash which used to happen at the end of HP script.

Midgard download ... [More] page:

http://www.midgard-project.org/midcom-serveattachmentguid-19a2c770ce0811dea4b9233b51a481a081a0/midgard-core-8.09.6.1.tar.gz

OBS build system with binary packages:

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/midgardproject:/ragnaroek/

 

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Midgard Weekly Summary #79: November 2nd 2009

Posted 20 days ago by henri....@iki.fi (Henri Bergius)

Welcome to Midgard Weekly Summaries, the weekly newsletter of happenings in the Midgard Project. This issue comes a bit late as Bergie has been busy in The Open Web of Ede, the Netherlands.

Midgard 9.09 nightly builds are now also available ... [More] for RPM-based distributions like Fedora, RHEL and OpenSUSE thanks to jval. It is now a good time to test them before Mjolnir goes stable!
MidCOM3 is switching to Pake as the automation tool. Pake can be used for things like packaging, static file installation and scaffolding new components
Midgard2 URL parsing will be moved to be completely handled in PHP code in MidCOM3. This will enable greater flexibility with host setup and better caching. There is an experimental Mjolnir dispatcher to use this
Midgard 8.09.6.1 MidCOM hotfix was released, fixing issues like object labels in Asgard Trash and undeleting object attachments
zend_mm_heap corruption in Mjolnir PHP extension has been fixed
Midgard deletion vote on Wikipedia. A big discussion last week was the deletion vote on the Midgard page on Wikipedia. The vote result was to keep the page, with some suggestions to improve the article
About Midgard
Midgard is a persistent storage framework built for the replicated world. It enables developers build applications that have their data in sync between the desktop, mobile devices and web services. It also allows for easy sharing of data between users.

Midgard does this all by building on top of technologies like GLib, libgda and D-Bus. It provides developers with object-oriented programming interfaces for C, PHP and Python. Web service developers also benefit from MidCOM, a modern MVC framework for PHP development that utilizes all the advantages of the Midgard storage framework. MidCOM helps web production also by shipping a set of content management tools.

About MWS
Midgard Weekly Summaries is a newsletter for keeping up with the happenings in the Midgard community. Notices about new published summaries will be sent to the Midgard user mailing list, Qaiku #midgard channel, and are available via RSS.

The new MWS editions are edited collaboratively to make the editing burden easier. To suggest stories here bookmark them with del.icio.us tag "midgardweeklysummary". [Less]

Midgard Weekly Summary #78: October 25th 2009

Posted 28 days ago by henri....@iki.fi (Henri Bergius)

Midgard Gathering fall 2009 special

Welcome to Midgard Weekly Summaries, the weekly newsletter of happenings in the Midgard Project. This weekend has been busy with the Midgard Gathering for fall 2009 in Helsinki, Finland, and so there are ... [More] many things going on:

Midgard 8.09.6 "AmsterGard", the latest iteration of the Ragnaroek LTS series was released. This includes  some 180 fixes and improvements, and is recommended to all Ragnaroek users
In addition to all the Linux distributions catered by OBS, Midgard 8.09.6 is also available in MacPorts
Alexey ran Midgard2 Mjolnir through the clang static analyzer to find lurking bugs before the release. See the report
Midgard2 installation directories were changed to "midgard2" throughout the system
Midgard photo galleries can now generate square thumbnails thanks to Solt
Work on Midgard Runtime has been started by MDK. This new revision of what was formerly known as App Builder is using Qt and can be ported to both Linux and Mac. With the Midgard Runtime you can deploy any Midgard-based web application as a local desktop app
Photos from the Midgard Gathering are already available on Flickr
Midgard2-Python-Qt4 tutorial was held to Tero Heikkinen. The example app code is available on GitHub
MidCOM3 switched to Pake from Phing that was formerly used for setup and scaffolding
Midgard2 10.03 will be developed with codename "Ratatoskr", the messenger squirrel that scampers around the tree of life in Viking mythology. Ratatoskr is small and fast
About Midgard
Midgard is a persistent storage framework built for the replicated world. It enables developers build applications that have their data in sync between the desktop, mobile devices and web services. It also allows for easy sharing of data between users.

Midgard does this all by building on top of technologies like GLib, libgda and D-Bus. It provides developers with object-oriented programming interfaces for C, PHP and Python. Web service developers also benefit from MidCOM, a modern MVC framework for PHP development that utilizes all the advantages of the Midgard storage framework. MidCOM helps web production also by shipping a set of content management tools.

About MWS
Midgard Weekly Summaries is a newsletter for keeping up with the happenings in the Midgard community. Notices about new published summaries will be sent to the Midgard user mailing list, Qaiku #midgard channel, and are available via RSS.

The new MWS editions are edited collaboratively to make the editing burden easier. To suggest stories here bookmark them with del.icio.us tag "midgardweeklysummary".

Permalink [Less]

Midgardians gather in Helsinki this weekend

Posted about 1 month ago by henri....@iki.fi (Henri Bergius)

Midgard Gathering, the meeting of Midgard users and developers that is arranged twice every year, will be in Helsinki, Finland this weekend.

More information from the agenda.

Midgard 8.09.6 "AmsterGard" released!

Posted about 1 month ago by piotrek...@gmail.com (Piotr Pokora)

Lodz, October 20th 2009 -- The Midgard Project has released the sixth maintenance release of Midgard 8.09 Ragnaroek LTS. Ragnaroek LTS is a Long Term Support version of the free software content management framework.

The 8.09.6 "AmsterGard" ... [More] release focuses on API stability and provides improved Midgard installer.

Stable 8.09.6 release is recommended for all users of Midgard.

Main changes from 8.09.5:

Fixed multilang content replication (#1392)
Improved performance of some multilang SQL queries
New datagard options to install Midgard or PEAR packages (#1204, #1352)
New datagard option to install full OpenPSA application instead of a Midgard CMS site (#1204)
Midgard now ships with SElinux setup files
Fixed SG0 authentication issue (#1390)
Several optimizations when querying multilingual objects
There is a new optional object cache (#1256)
There is a new view for displaying a deleted object in Asgard
More than 180 feature requests or bugs have been handled in this release. See the Midgard issue tracker for a full list.

Planned for next maintenance release:
More performance tuning
Unit tests for midgard-php and MidCOM DBA layers
New Midgard visual guidelines deployed more widely
Filesync git integration for collaborative site development
See the full list.

Source downloads
http://www.midgard-project.org/download/

Binary packages
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/midgardproject:/ragnaroek/

Getting started
http://www.midgard-project.org/documentation/getting-started/

Issue tracker
http://trac.midgard-project.org/roadmap

More information
Piotr Pokora, Midgard release manager piotrek.pokora(at)gmail.com

Henri Bergius, Midgard bug master henri.bergius(at)iki.fi

The Midgard Project http://www.midgard-project.org/ [Less]

Midgard Weekly Summary #77: October 16th 2009

Posted about 1 month ago by henri....@iki.fi (Henri Bergius)

Welcome to Midgard Weekly Summaries, the weekly newsletter of happenings in the Midgard Project.

SElinux support is now available and will be installed by default in Midgard 8.09.6 packages. This will be very useful, especially with Red Hat ... [More] Enterprise Linux installs
Midgard's Python bindings now use standard setuptools instead of autoconf to fit the rest of the Python ecosystem better
Multilingual Content Replication has been fixed in the Ragnaroek series. The fixes will be in 8.09.6
Midgard cron service will be run for each Midgard host, not only for each sitegroup from now on
Indexing of net.nehmer.blog entries can now be disabled per folder
$_MIDGARD and $_MIDCOM superglobals are again registered by the Midgard PHP5 extension for compatibility purposes. By default they are not used, but are useful for Ragnaland
Midgard attendance in Maemo Summit was pretty good. See the group picture!
Midgard Gathering for fall 2009 will be held on October 23rd - 25th in Helsinki, Finland. See the Facebook event.
About Midgard
Midgard is a persistent storage framework built for the replicated world. It enables developers build applications that have their data in sync between the desktop, mobile devices and web services. It also allows for easy sharing of data between users.

Midgard does this all by building on top of technologies like GLib, libgda and D-Bus. It provides developers with object-oriented programming interfaces for C, PHP and Python. Web service developers also benefit from MidCOM, a modern MVC framework for PHP development that utilizes all the advantages of the Midgard storage framework. MidCOM helps web production also by shipping a set of content management tools.

About MWS
Midgard Weekly Summaries is a newsletter for keeping up with the happenings in the Midgard community. Notices about new published summaries will be sent to the Midgard user mailing list, Qaiku #midgard channel, and are available via RSS.

The new MWS editions are edited collaboratively to make the editing burden easier. To suggest stories here bookmark them with del.icio.us tag "midgardweeklysummary". [Less]

Midgard Weekly Summary #76: October 9th 2009

Posted about 1 month ago by henri....@iki.fi (Henri Bergius)

Welcome to Midgard Weekly Summaries, the weekly newsletter of happenings in the Midgard Project.

Ragnaroek MultiLang query optimization has been a big topic this week, with Piotras, Niels and Rambo focusing on it. Some queries have gotten ... [More] 300x speed-ups in a big production databases. The optimizations will be released in upcoming 8.09.6
This weekend many Midgardians are attending the Maemo Summit 2009 in Amsterdam. With the N900s handed out during the event expect to see many Midgard tools hit Maemo-land soon
Datagard has now a command for installing Ragnaroek components
Authentication signals are now used in Mjolnir's Midgard-MVC to let different authentication handlers know if a login or logout happens
Midgard Gathering for fall 2009 will be held on October 23rd - 25th in Helsinki, Finland. See the Facebook event.

About Midgard

Midgard is a persistent storage framework built for the replicated world. It enables developers build applications that have their data in sync between the desktop, mobile devices and web services. It also allows for easy sharing of data between users.

Midgard does this all by building on top of technologies like GLib, libgda and D-Bus. It provides developers with object-oriented programming interfaces for C, PHP and Python. Web service developers also benefit from MidCOM, a modern MVC framework for PHP development that utilizes all the advantages of the Midgard storage framework. MidCOM helps web production also by shipping a set of content management tools.

About MWS

Midgard Weekly Summaries is a newsletter for keeping up with the happenings in the Midgard community. Notices about new published summaries will be sent to the Midgard user mailing list, Qaiku #midgard channel, and are available via RSS.

The new MWS editions are edited collaboratively to make the editing burden easier. To suggest stories here bookmark them with del.icio.us tag "midgardweeklysummary". [Less]

Midgard Weekly Summaries are back

Posted about 1 month ago by henri....@iki.fi (Henri Bergius)

Midgard is a very active free software project, and it is quite difficult to keep up with all the changes, decisions and discussions happening around it. Therefore Henri Bergius decided to bring the Midgard Weekly Summaries back.

Midgard ... [More] Weekly Summary #75: October 2nd 2009

MWS has been running before, with 66 issues released between 1999 and 2002, and 8 issues in 2007. This time we follow the idea of a Collaborative MWS.

Notices about new published summaries will be sent to the Midgard user mailing list, Qaiku #midgard channel, Twitter @MidgardProject and are available via RSS. Enjoy! [Less]