[Hypercontent-developer] HyperContent 2 development update

[Alex V. <av...@co...>]

Hello all,
	I wanted to give a status update on HyperContent 2 development.  The 
current CVS code was distributed as a preview release at the JA-SIG 
conference this last weekend, and the foundation is pretty solid:

- HTTP 1.1 web server with context-mapped projects and pipeline-driven 
content processing, as described in the last update
- Form handling framework for interactive screens (tied into pipelines 
for wiring GUIs to processors)
- Persistence layers on top of the basic filesystem API providing 
transactional characteristics and temp file management
- Persistent user history (recently viewed & saved, unsaved documents)
- DHTML GUI built on pipeline and form handling frameworks
- GUI enables search, edit, view, save and delete functionality, with 
browse by directory structure or browse-in-place using site navigation
- All editing functionality from version 1.4 available in edit modes
- Complete backwards compatibility with 1.x projects

The big missing piece is Workflow; I'll be posting in a few days with 
the candidates for workflow engine libraries after I weed out the 
nonstarters (many require EJB or RDBMS).  Other basic missing functions 
that need to be implemented before a final 2.0 release:

- groups configuration
- copy/move at GUI level (filesystem level is implemented)
- rebuild & optimize search index
- upload/download zip
- localization of velocity templates
- wire in user feedback throughout

Build and publish, as known in 1.x, will be batch activities within the 
new workflow engine, and will be able to be scheduled or set up as 
automatic actions when content is changed.  Manual workflow activities 
will include 'approve for publication' and 'request content update'. 
Please post other workflow scenarios!  My goal is to adopt a workflow 
engine which will allow extensible workflow construction, but I'd like 
to support a good set of basic activities out of the box.

The current estimated release date for 2.0 is March, allowing time for 
remaining development, testing and some documentation.   Andrew Petro 
of Yale has offered to help with development of JUnit tests, which will 
be very helpful in keeping the system stable moving forward.  Any other 
contributions would be most welcome; just reply to the list if you're 
interested in lending a hand with anything I've mentioned here.

Alex