Midgard 1.7 alpha 1 is available

Midgard 1.7alpha1 "Leoni & Akseli" released.

Lodz, April 11th 2005 -- The Midgard Project has released the first alpha release
version of the 1.7 Midgard Open Source Content Management Framework.

Midgard provides a reliable,  carrier-grade CMS framework build for the the LAMP platform.
Midgard's core features include internationalization, accessibility, scalability and PHP
connectivity.

This development release includes a Midgard2 technology preview.

Major features included: 
  
  * New Midgard Site Wizard for easily setting up websites
  * Multilang support 
  * PAM and NTLM support
  * New midgard-data 
  * Improved Datagard Midgard database installer
  * MgdSchema , GObjects and XML defined PHP objects  

  Multilang feature makes Midgard more flexible as it separates metadata
from the current language of objects. Now is easy to use with the new 
midgard-data package which allows to create or update databases very easily 
even for Midgard beginners.

  PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) lets applications authenticate with 
external password repositories. NTLM, single sign-on solution used in Windows
(NT4 and Active Directory) networks. Both solutions allows to use typical
Midgard
applications with transparent  person's authentication. 
  
  Midgard-data provides latest file system Midgard Component Framework - "MidCOM" ,
and its over twenty ready to use components. User-friendly "Aegir" and admin 
interface "Spider" are also included in midgard-data. All Midgard applications
may be easy imported to database with new tool "datagard" which is also responsible
now to make updates from previous installations.

Changes from 1.6 releases:

  Midgard-core
  * MgdSchema ( global types information storage )
  * New internal types builded with GObjects and GType system
  * Xml based types definition
  
  Midgard-apache modules
  * New MidgardSchema directive for pointing correct MgdSchema path.
  * Page and style elements are handled by midgard internals data instead of 
     Apache tables.
  
  Midgard-php4
  * Classes are defined in XML file
  * New API methods for new MgdSchema objects
    - get_by_id
    - update
    - create
    - find
    - fetch
    - is_in_tree
    - is_in_parent_tree
  * All new objects has path created or updated during update or create 
  * Initial ability to run midgard-php from command line
  * API changes:
  	- mgd_auth_midgard does not send cookie anymore

http://www.midgard-project.org/documentation/reference/ot...
  	- mgd_set_style works with mgd_preparse

http://www.midgard-project.org/documentation/reference/st...
    
  Midgard-data
  * New file system based MidCOM
  * MidCOM 2.x component system located in file system for better  performance
  * New midcom-template package
  * Site creation Wizard
  * Datagard's update changed to make update from previous midgard
installations

Planned for next releases
  
  * Final 1.7 release in May 2005
  * Next Sheduled release - August 2005
  * Automated testing releases
  * Automated database MgdSchema management 
  
Download page for latest release:
http://www.midgard-project.org/download/1.7.html

Getting started with Midgard:
http://www.midgard-project.org/documentation

Bugs reporting:
http://midgard.tigris.org/issues/reports.cgi

Users and developers support:
Mailing list user@midgard-project.org


About Midgard

The Midgard Content Management Framework was initially released in May
1999, and has since gathered a sizable user and developer community.
Midgard powers thousands of web sites ranging from simple organizational
websites to major portals like New Zealand eGovernment site and
Playbill.

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 is
being supported by several commercial and governmental entities
including the European Union.

Piotr Pokora, Midgard release manager
pp@infoglob.pl

Henri Bergius, Midgard spokesman
henri.bergius@iki.fi

The Midgard Project
http://www.midgard-project.org/