4Ever XML Framework

File Release Notes and Changelog

Release Name: v3.3.4

Notes:
Readme.txt for the 4Ever Framework 
==============================================================================

WHAT IS IT?
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Submitted Description: This is a Java-Framework for a generic object-oriented
dataaccess layer to access XML files. It can be used to generate a 
large variety of XML applications. 

WHERE IS IT?
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The most current version of 4Ever can be found at sourceforge:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/fourever/

REQUIREMENTS
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4Ever requires a couple of libraries which can all be found in the 
lib subdirectory. Please have a look at the corresponding license
information.

DISTRIBUTION
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3 files can be downloaded from the project site:
fourever-x.y.z-bin.zip      : contains only the 4Ever jar file
fourever-x.y.z-src.zip		: contains the sources of the project
fourever-x.y.z-site.zip		: contains api and plugin documentation
					     
Develop with 4Ever
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- Checkout out the package from subversion
 Follow the instruction on the sourceforge homepage to get the recent 
 version.

- Compile 4Ever
 Use mvn compile to compile the project
 
- Test 4Ever
 Following some test first approach, almost every method is tested using
 a junit test case. You can run all tests using the "mvn test" target.
 Keep in mind that the junit library needs to be included in the classpath.

DOCUMENTS
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Right now, there is no documentation whatsoever.


CHANGES SINCE LAST VERSION:
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Changes since v3.3.0:
- various changes  

Changes since v3.2.12:
- locking issue resolved
- jdk1.5 incompatibility resolved 

Changes since v3.2.11:
- switched to maven for build management
- switched to sourceforge subversion repository (restructured source tree
  accordingly)

Changes since v3.2.10:
- switched to jaxp 1.3.1 reference implementation (xalan/xerces)
- handling of xml-file referenced files improved
- bug with german umlauts in path names solved 

Changes since v3.2.9:
- a couple of minor changes

Changes since v3.2.8:
- export interface slightly reworked
- xerces library removed from deployment
- xalan updated to version 2.6.0
- minor improvements
- interface jar introduced

Changes since v3.2.7:
- migrated to newer versions of xalan and xerces
- some minor issues
- deployment packages reorganized

Changes since v3.2.6:
- memory consumption reduced
- export interface enhanced: export can now be observed and 
  canceled
- small bug fixed

Changes since v3.2.5:
- more convenience methods
- new event INSTANCE_RENAMED introduced

Changes since v3.2.4:
- small bug fix

Changes since v3.2.3:
- Convenience methods added to easily access id and name of a complex instance

Changes since v3.2.2:
- sorting is now really fast as linking/unlinking of each element is avoided
- event mechanism improved
- some convenience methods moved from the editor to the objectmodel 

Changes since v3.2.1:
- fixed a memory leak 

Changes since v3.2.0:
- lock files are now created for all fragments of a document 
  (if locking is configured to be used)

Changes since v3.1.7:
- only small cosmetics for the major release

Changes since v3.1.6:
- helper class introduced to automagically print configuration information

Changes since v3.1.4:
- workaround realized for bug #1356569
- interface for the new consistency component included

Changes since v3.1.3:
- the objectmodel manager is now allowed to store no configuration object

Changes since v3.1.2:
- the configuration component was replaced by another mechanism which provides
  configuration objects to the manager of a component during initialization

Changes since v3.1.1:
- when a document is added as a subDocument, the references in the SubDocument 
  to outside the subdocument are now correctly resolved.
- Incorrect or empty Date or Integer instances no longer lead to file reading 
  crashing

Changes since v3.1.0:
- Temporary rollback files now removed (bug #1266082)
- Multiline log attributes now configurable (bug #1262292)
- smaller bugs fixed (#1266966, #1262161)

Changes since v3.0.9:
- Fixed a bug which converted unicode characters wrong.

Changes since v3.0.8:
- Fixed a bug which prevented the undo of a sorting operation
- Fixed a bug concerning ampersands in simple text attributes
- Fixed a bug that prevented internal links to be removed.

Changes since v3.0.6:
- file locks sometimes weren't removed - fixed.
- memory management improved.

Changes since v3.0.5:
- lock files introduced to coordinate working on the same file.
- Undo sometimes failed. Fixed.
- a configuration component was created which takes care of variant
  management.
- exporter interface now works on generic Resource interfaces. That means, 
  however, that you have to create classpath or filesystem resources within
  beans.xml

Changes since v3.0.4:
- bug fixed which flagged fragments dirty immediately after loading
- some smaller changes and fixes included.

Changes since v3.0.3:
- the history can now be enabled and disabled. Enabling a history removes its
  content to avoid side effects.
- XMLFileIOManager has a new setting which allows to save references (to other
  XML files or to schemas) in newly created XML files using absolute or relative
  path names.
- Sourceforge distribution now includes a source zip file. 
  
Changes since v2.1.4:
- Project moved from the NOW open-source portal to sourceforge.
- The architecture is now much better modularized into components 
  (thanks to the spring framework).
- The API was pretty much completely redesigned to better match
  XML specifics.

Changes since v1.0.9:
- initial released version

OUTLOOK
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-

CONTRIBUTION
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If you have a bug fix or feature enhancement you would like to 
contribute, we would be happy to consider it for inclusion. Please
use bug and feature request trackers as offered by the sourceforge
project infrastructure.

                                                              
LICENSE
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This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the terms 
of the Apache License Version 2.0 which accompanies this distribution, and is 
available at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation 
(http://www.apache.org/). 

Lincense information regarding those libraries 4Ever relies on can be
found in the development/lib subdirectory.


Changes:
- minor changes