Announcement: Midgard2 9.03.0beta2 released!

1. Piotr Pokora

   Announcement: Midgard2 9.03.0beta2 released!

   Wed April 01 2009 10:20:10 UTC
   Lodz, April 1st 2009 -- The Midgard Project has released a second beta
   of Midgard2 9.03 "Vinland" - the new generation of the Midgard content
   repository.
   
   ## About this release
   
   The second beta of Midgard2 9.03 is targeted at web framework and
   desktop 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.
   
   Vinland series of Midgard2 is not intended to act as a content
   management system, and so no CMS tools are shipped with the release.
   Midgard2 Vinland however can be used to build a CMS, or to refactor
   existing CMS tools to work with a repository-centric model.
   
   In this release we provide Content Repository API bindings for the
   following programming languages: C, Python, PHP. 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.
   
   ## Midgard2
   
   Midgard2 is a content reporitory. It provides an object-oriented and
   replicated environment for building data-intensive applications.
   
   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/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
   * Mono module for desktop application and background process development
   in C#
   
   ### 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
   
   * MidCOM, an elegant PHP MVC framework written for Midgard2
   * Objective-C bindings and native Mac packages
   
   # Midgard resources
   
   * [Download page and changelog for latest release][1]
   * [Bug reporting][2]
   
   ## User and developers support:
   
   * [Users' forum][3]
   * [Developers' forum][4]
   * IRC: #midgard on irc.freenode.net
   
   ## 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.
   
   Midgard is free software available under the GNU LGPL license.
   
   ## 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>
   
   [1]: http://www.midgard-project.org/download/9-3/
   [2]: http://trac.midgard-project.org/report
   [3]: http://www.midgard-project.org/discussion/user-forum/
   [4]: http://www.midgard-project.org/discussion/developer-forum/
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