Schema.org and HTML5 in ocPortal 7.1 Beta

The ocPortal development team is pleased to announce that ocPortal 7.1 has now entered beta.

ocPortal 7.1 brings full support for HTML5 and for the schema.org meta-data initiative that Google/Yahoo/Bing jointly announced on Thursday 2nd June. This article explains how we have received schema.org, and how we have implemented it into ocPortal.

We feel that schema.org is a very important project, and is perfectly aligned with the goals and nature of ocPortal, so we have scrambled to release a solid implementation (achieved within 3 days).

Not only should schema.org support enhance the Search Engine Optimization of ocPortal websites, it really opens up new interoperability possibilities. For example, look at how Microsoft have been using 'tiles' in  Windows Phone, and the recent Windows 8 demo. This is a great example of how semantic markup can be used to create rich interfaces from website data. Because ocPortal now provides this data automatically, in the standardized schema.org microdata format, ocPortal webmasters need not do anything to enable these kinds of interoperabilities.

Specifically, we have implemented the following into ocPortal from HTML5:

  • Use of the XHTML5 doctype
  • Use of HTML5 semantics tags: header, footer, aside, nav, article, time, output
  • upgraded/changed HTML4 functionality that is no longer valid HTML5
  • workarounds to make Internet Explorer display pages reliably when HTML5 tags are present
  • (We already supported, and continue to support, HTML5 video)
  • (We already supported, and continue to support, HTML5 drag and drop upload)

And the following from schema.org:

  • WebPage (the default, and we properly support marking up elements such as breadcrumbs, and what the prominent navigation links are)
  • ProfilePage (authors, member profiles)
  • ContactPage (various contact blocks, support tickets)

Introduction to Percussion CM1 CMS

Buried deep in a month's worth of unread emails was a request for me to take a look at Percussion Software’s CM1 web content management system. The claim is that "CM1 transforms the content management experience for organizations with complex content requirements, who lack the scale required to deploy and maintain a traditional WCM". CM1 was designed to allow marketing teams to quickly build and manage highly interactive, social, scalable websites, and open up content contribution to users across their organizations.

Nuxeo Releases New Version of Open Source Document Management Software

Boston – June 1, 2011. Nuxeo, the Open Source Enterprise Content Management (ECM) platform company, released a new version of Nuxeo Document Management and Nuxeo Enterprise Platform today. Nuxeo DM 5.4.2 offers a host of usability and social features to make the user experience even smoother and more streamlined. Key contributions highlight the value of community involvement in the strategy of continuous innovation for the Nuxeo platform.

The release of Nuxeo DM 5.4.2 and its underlying platform, Nuxeo EP, demonstrates execution on a vision of ongoing innovation, community engagement, and open standards support, delivered to content management application architects and developers. Driven by community feedback, many of the new features and enhancements improve usability of the application, using state-of-the-art technologies and standards, such as OpenSocial, OAuth, HTML5, WebDAV, and CMIS.

The new WSS connector was contributed by Nuxeo partner Gagnavarslan, an ECM solution provider in Iceland. The Nuxeo and Gagnavarslan teams collaborated to integrate this new component after passing the Nuxeo QA process. With this connector, the Nuxeo repository can be mapped as a drive under MS Windows or Mac OS X. "We are building a range of ECM services based on Nuxeo, and our clients need a smooth desktop integration into an existing Microsoft Windows infrastructure," said Jónas Sigurðsson, Development Manager at Gagnavarslan in Iceland. “Our group of developers in Kiev reverse engineered the existing WSS protocol to support Windows 7, Windows XP and the latest MS Office versions directly in Nuxeo EP. We support the open source paradigm and are happy to contribute our work back to the Nuxeo community."

The 2011 Tiki Summer Tour

This summer promises to be jam-packed with Tiki Community events. With TikiFests planned for Brazil, France, United States, Israel, Germany and Pakistan, there's likely an event near you! Be sure to review the Tiki Community Calendar for full details.

Many of these code sprints ares organized to coincide with other open source conferences at which Tiki Community members will be attending. Be sure to join us at:

  • RMLL (Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre) in Strasbourg, France
  • OSCON 2011 in Portland, Oregon, USA
  • Wikimania in Haifa, Israel
  • WikiFest in Berlin, Germany

About Tiki

SubHub Launches World's First Drupal-Powered App Store

SubHub.com today launched its new Drupal 7-based Content Monetization Platform (CMP), featuring the world’s first Drupal-powered app store.

SubHub's new CMP enables anyone to design and launch a content website in under five minutes, and make money from their content by incorporating optional apps such as paid membership.

The app store -- the first of its kind for Drupal modules -- enables website owners to add functionality simply by selecting an app and adding it to their SubHub website. Initial apps include MailChimp, Google Analytics, content feeds and YouTube. Some of the apps are free (e.g. Google Analytics) and some of them will carry a small recurring charge (e.g. paid membership functionality).

Any developer can submit an app to the SubHub app store to be made available to SubHub’s growing network of website owners. New apps will be added regularly. SubHub will share revenues with the app developer.

“We have two core objectives. First we want to give non-technical people the opportunity to build an outstanding website using Drupal, one of the leading open-source content management solutions," said Evan Rudowski, co-founder of SubHub. "Second, we want to give Drupal developers the opportunity to make money from the modules they have spent hundreds of hours building.

"Our customers gain great functionality, and developers make money -- it's a win all around," Rudowski said.

ocPortal 7: A CMS for custom social websites

This week ocProducts released version 7 of the Open Source CMS, ocPortal, making rapid improvements based on feedback from user testing.

ocPortal 7 builds on the user-experience work that has also driven the previous three releases, with the aim of making it easier to build highly sophisticated social web-sites that can be fully customized by regular users.

In addition to implementing user feedback, the developers have enhanced ocPortal further by optimizing how long the simplest common administration tasks take. These have now made things even easier, and more manageable, than in the past.