Author: JT Smith
The Midgard Community has released a new version of the Midgard Application Server. The release contains Midgard core libraries, scripting language bindings for PHP4, Web application server for the Apache platform and Asgard, the Web-based administration interface.
The 1.4.2 release provides major bug fixes to the Midgard platform, and is recommeded as an upgrade to all production servers. New features in 1.4.2 include: * Handling of article objects has been improved on both sorting and event management * The new mod_midgard2 Apache module now supports caching of PHP-generated pages * Installation is improved by usage of the midgard-config tool for universal configuration management * The PHP3 bindings have been rendered obsolete The key features of the Midgard 1.4 Application Server include: * Easy and well documented Application Programming Interface (API) * Efficient management of Web content using a hierarchical topic system * Separation of layout, content and site logic * Support for editorial workflow and approval mechanisms * Attachment of metadata to all content objects * Multilingual support and localization * Replication for clustered setups and staging * Flexible user and group management ABOUT MIDGARD Midgard is a freely-available solution for managing content on Web, Extranet and Intranet services. It is also a toolkit for building dynamic applications to power eBusiness and Information Management processes. Midgard has been built and is actively maintained a global group of software professionals working together in this Open Source project. Midgard is a powerful toolkit for managing online information. Writing applications and functionalities to the platform is done using the easy-to-learn PHP scripting language. All interfacing with the system is done via standard Web interfaces, and no special tools are needed for developers or content authors. Midgard works on most common UNIX platforms, including Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and Solaris. Prebuilt binary packages are available for some Linux platforms (including Red Hat, Debian and Mandrake), and the system can be installed from sources to most other environments. Commercial support, applications and services for the platform are available from a range of companies worldwide. LICENSING The Midgard core libraries are distributed under the GNU Library General Public License, a license which permits the software to be freely used so long as it is dynamically linked or the user can relink it to new versions of the libraries. This is the same license used by the Linux C libraries. This licensing scheme qualifies Midgard as free software developed with an Open Source model. The Midgard-based administration tools and usage examples in the Midgard packages are distributed under the X Consortium license, which doesn't impose any conditions on modification or redistribution of source code or binaries other than requiring that copyright/license notices are left intact. The new administration site, Asgard, is licensed under GPL. Official Documentation is licensed GFDL which supports the Free Usage principles defined by the GPL for code. COMMUNITY Bug reports and enhancement requests on Midgard 1.4 can be submitted to the Midgard Bug Tracker at: http://bugs.midgard-project.org Users are also encouraged to join the discussion on the Midgard user mailing list. To subscribe, send an empty email message to: user-subscribe@midgard-project.org CONTACT INFORMATION Alexander Bokovoy, Midgard 1.x branch manager a.bokovoy@sam-solutions.net http://www.midgard-project.org