Coming January 24th, starting at 11:00 AM, is the first Dutch-speaking CMSMS users workshop. The location chosen is Rosmalen, which lies in the center of Belgium and the Netherlands. The agenda will be quite diverse, from the explanation of the last release, SEO, module creation and more. For the forum-post (in Dutch) with the full agenda and the list of registered users, check the following post of Duketown (Dutch module-developer and organizer of the workshop): The post in the forum For those that want to join in, just leave a reply in the thread. Ronny

As I've worked on CMSMS 2.0, I've run into a few recurring issues that I didn't quite have an answer or reason for yet... 1. I wrote a lot of very generic pieces of code in order to make 2.0 easier to develop in the long run. I think I might've gone overboard a bit. I wasn't ever sure why. 2. As a professional developer, I kept running into issues where I wanted to use some of that code for other stuff. And it was too difficult to just pull out the piece I needed and didn't do it. When talking to my friend, Greg (who, incidentally, helped push me to launch CMSMS as a project), I was telling him about some of the things that 2.0 could do. I said something along the lines of, "Really, except for some routing and a few other little things, 2.0 could be a full development framework for other applications." And, in my typical way, I thought about this for a few days... and didn't do much else. So, I've decided to use my week off from work to put together the basics of a PHP5 based web application framework. This framework will then become the base of CMSMS 2.0 (it's less work than it sounds -- trust me) as well as any other application you might want to develop. It's a generic framework that builds on some of the key ideas we've had in CMSMS all along -- it just makes those tools easier to setup for whatever you'd like to develop. Who is this aimed towards? Professional PHP5 developers, plain and simple. If you know what a framework is and why you'd need one, then you're probably the correct candidate for this project. If this just flies over your head, then it's probably safe to skip to the next post in your news reader. :) What's the name mean? It's smooth. It's strong. It's a nice foundational material... Really? It's a short name that fits well when you put it in every class name and it'll also make for a nice logo someday. Calguy said "smooth" and it just went from there. What are the requirements? PHP 5.2+ on any compatible web server. A database of some sorts -- MySQL will be tested heavily. PostgreSQL and SQLite should also work fine. Development and documentation will be targetting developers on Unix based systems... Windows users might have to do a little bit of investigative work to develop with the system. What do I get?

• ADODB5 - The standard in database abstraction. Silk uses it throughout.
• The Silk ORM - Built on top of ADODB and uses the ActiveRecord pattern. Cuts down lines of code and makes basic database access very simple and OO.
• Smarty - Uses the power of smarty throughout. Smarty templates are used for all templates and layouts, as well as smarty plugins created for all form and navigation elements.
• Magic MVC - Using file naming conventions, new actions, controllers and views can be added with very minimal work. Everything is customizable afterwards.
• jQuery - We've standardized on the jQuery javascript framework. Used throughout, we've included some javascript helpers to make Ajax simple to use.
• Events system - Stateless event handling system based on the one from CMSMS 1.x -- without the database. (coming soon)
• Unit testing - Ability to have unit tests on models, views and controllers. (coming soon)
• Users, groups, permissions - Have a basic system for handling these 3 things that fall into almost every web application. CMSMS 2.0 will use the same system, so applications will be able to share login information directly with CMSMS. (coming soon)
• OpenID - Logins will support the OpenID protocol and standard using the php-openid library. (coming soon)

License? Silk is licensed using the MIT open source license. It's both GPL compatible (for release with CMSMS) and also able to be used in commercial/proprietary applications without question. This will allow people to use Silk for practically anything. How do I get involved? Silk isn't really "there" yet. It's still in the early phases of development, though, it's been moving pretty fast and working out above expectations. The source code is hosting on github: http://github.com/tedkulp/silk. If you'd like to make contributions or play with the code, fork a copy and play away. If you feel that something is patch worthy, send me a pull request and I'll take a look. In the near future, I will post some HOWTO's and API docs to silkframework.com. After I feel that things are stabilized a bit, I'll write up a HOWTO on how to write a simple application using Silk that hints the major points and gets people on their way. How does this affect 2.0? Only a bit. The admin will be rewritten to use the new MVC system, events will have to be changed a bit, and well as a few other changes. But we're still moving forward without having to throw away a lot of code. This is still a positive step forward with only a few small steps back. --- Thanks, folks! Let me know if you have any questions or would like to get involved.

It never fails.... even though we have a lengthy beta cycle, and we try as hard as we can to get people to test there are always a few things that just don't get tested. So though 1.5 was largely stable, we've fixed a handful of things (most of them were one line fixes), and fired out 1.5.1. We had a minor emergency. We found another bug just minutes after we released the original 1.5.1, so we quickly took down the announcements, removed the files, fixed the bug, and started again. What a panic that was!! Here's a brief list of what has changed: - News 2.9.1 - Fixes to permissions checks - Additional help about the dateformat and formatpostdate stuff being removed - Fix sql error in listcssassoc - Fix missing username in admin header on login of new session. - Fix to expand all/collapse all icons in listcontent. - Fix to the edit tag. - Fix to the cancel button in user preferences - Minor adjustment to security key checks. - Fix bug in stylesheet associations. This release does include diff packages. Please use the base diff package if you downloaded and installed the base package. use the full-diff package if you downloaded and installed the full package. You are also encouraged to update the language packs that you may need (with the base version), as a few things have also been translated. Even though there are no database changes in this release, as always, you are encouraged to do a full backup before you upgrade. Enjoy!

I'm very happy to announce the release of CMS Made Simple 1.5. Calguy and crew have done an amazing job keeping the CMSMS core chugging along and getting more stable and feature rich. Unless you're totally locked into an older version, I recommend upgrading your site as soon as possible. Some key points from the changelog:

• A new notification system in the admin
• A new dashboard page in the admin
• The ability to copy content pages has been added
• More bulk actions have been added to the list content page
• Numerous improvements to the installer
• Apply buttons on GCB's and UDT's
• TinyMCE changes: Updated to latest Tiny-core
• Extensive modifications were made to add a session key to each and every URL in the admin console. This prevents a medium level cross site scripting vulnerability
• Much, much more

As always, check out the full changelog for details on what has changed. For a concise description on upgrading, take a look here. Downloads for 1.5 can be found here. Thanks again to all the CMSMS team: devs, translators and testers alike. You all seriously rock and here's to another fine release.

The results for the Packt Publishing Awards are out and CMS Made Simple has hit the number 2 spot in both the Best PHP Based Open Source CMS and Most Promising categories. Last year we came 3rd in the Overall category, which in itself was an achievement given how shy and retiring we are when it comes to self-promotion. This year we came joint 2nd with Joomla, a move which shows how the ever-improving code and an increase in community involvement have solidified our status as a rock-solid choice for professional web development. So a huge thanks to all those who voted for us and an even bigger thanks to everybody who has contributed time, money code and resources and helped us to make CMS Made Simple the great piece of software it is. And let's make sure we're a smash hit at No.1 next year!

During the discussions at this years' GeekMoot, one recurring item that came up was the issue of resources -- specifically the need for people. The good news is that while we were webcasting, we had a few people step up to the plate and offer to help out which was great but we're still on the lookout. I think a lot of us on the developer team take it for granted that we welcome volunteers. However, we thought we'd make a formal announcement to that effect. So ... if there's something that you want to improve, something that bugs you and that you can fix, please jump in and do it! To be effective, you should coordinate with us. Generally, the best way to do that is join us in the IRC Channel (also accessible via the Forum. For even more information, take a look at the IRC Support Page. If you know you want to help, but don't know what needs doing, we're always looking for people to help on:

• Documentation
  • Tutorials
  • How-Tos
  • Screencasts / demos - show people how to solve common problems, or show the clever ways you accomplished something cool on your site
• Design
  • Themes (both user-facing and admin)
  • Logos and promotional items, for T-Shirts, mugs, etc.
  • UI / interface designs - got ideas for an easy way to improve usability in modules, the admin, or the default templates?
  • Powerpoint or other marketing materials to use to demonstrate or promote CMSMS (e.g., to conferences or users groups)
• Coding
  • Bug Fixes - send your patches to the forge!
  • Features - have you added functionality? Got ideas you'd like to implement?
  • Modules - writing modules is fun, useful, and oh-so-profitable! Here's your chance to get in on the action.
  • Demos - are you willing to set up a Virtual Appliance demo? A bootable demo CD image? Some other cool way of showing off CMSMS?
  • Core/2.0 - are you a database optimization expert? A top notch coder? Here's your chance to help us make this the best system ever.
• Other Stuff
  • Promotion - demo CMS MS to your local classroom, user's group, or boss. Write articles or letters about it.
  • Nominate CMSMS for awards, or vote for it where it's already been nominated.
  • Donate money.

So there you are: a lot of opportunities to make your mark, and to make CMS Made Simple even better!