Apache News Online : Apache Forrest

18 April 2007 - Apache Forrest 0.8 Released

The Apache Forrest Project is pleased to release the new version: apache-forrest-0.8 http://forrest.apache.org/mirrors.cgi

Apache Forrest is a publishing framework that transforms input from various sources into a unified presentation in one or more output formats. The modular and extensible plugin architecture is based on Apache Cocoon and relevant standards, which separates presentation from content. Apache Forrest can generate static documents, or be used as a dynamic server, or be deployed by its automated facility.

New features in this version include:

• Locationmaps define the mapping from requests to locations, which enables content and resources to be located at various different sources. The advantage of this is that the URL seen by the user need bear no relation to the location of the source document, thus Forrest can separate the client URL space from the source document URL space. Thus, using the locationmap it is possible to pull together documents from many different locations into a single uniform site. In addition, since the user URL space is now unconnected to the source URL space it is possible to move source documents without breaking any existing user links.
• Existing core plugins and sitemaps have been refactored to take advantage of locationmaps. Some core functionality has moved to plugins.
• Prototype of new xml-based properties system. Projects and plugins can use a forrest.properties.xml file. At this stage, it supplements the existing forrest.properties file.
• Some new documents to explain certain core aspects. Documentation menu navigation changed to provide clearer structure for Forrest project versioned product documentation grouped into howto and background sections. Better layout of the Developers tab into Getting Involved, Resources (mail lists, SVN, Issue Tracker) and Best Practices sections. See also the "linkmap" for an automated Table of Contents ability.

Full list of changes: http://forrest.apache.org/docs/changes.html

See also lists of changes in each plugin's documentation.

Upgrade guide: http://forrest.apache.org/docs/upgrading_08.html

See the issue tracker for known issues: http://forrest.apache.org/issues.html

Download: http://forrest.apache.org/mirrors.cgi

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-- The Apache Forrest project

24 June 2005 - Apache Forrest 0.7 Released

Apache Forrest Community is pleased to release the new version: apache-forrest-0.7
http://forrest.apache.org/mirrors.cgi

Apache Forrest is a publishing framework that transforms input from various sources into a unified presentation in one or more output formats. The modular and extensible plugin architecture is based on Apache Cocoon and relevant standards, which separates presentation from content. Forrest can generate static documents, or be used as a dynamic server, or be deployed by its automated facility.

Full list of changes: http://forrest.apache.org/docs_0_70/changes.html

Upgrade guide: http://forrest.apache.org/docs_0_70/upgrading_07.html

Thanks for your interest, from the Apache Forrest community.

15 October 2004 - Apache Forrest 0.6 Released

Apache Forrest is pleased to release the new version: apache-forrest-0.6
http://forrest.apache.org/mirrors.cgi

Apache Forrest is an XML standards-oriented documentation framework based upon Apache Cocoon, providing XSLT stylesheets and schemas, images and other resources. Forrest uses these to render the source content into a website via command-line, robot, or dynamic application.
http://forrest.apache.org/

New features in this version include:

• Uses all resources in-place. No more copying to a separate build space and so no need to back-copy your changes.
• This provides workflow and productivity improvements.
• Project sitemaps get first chance processing, then pass-through to core sitemaps. This simplifies management of project sitemaps.
• Project sitemaps provide easy access to the power of Apache Cocoon.
• New skins use CSS rather than tables. Old skins are deprecated.
• Skins are configurable, e.g. with colours and optional features.
• DTD improvements, especially addition of ubiquitous class attribute.
• Forrestbot, robotic build and deploy, has been entirely re-written.

Full list of changes: http://forrest.apache.org/changes.html

Upgrade guide: http://forrest.apache.org/docs/upgrading_06.html

Thanks for your interest, from the Apache Forrest community.

31 May 2004 - Apache Forrest moves up to Top Level

The board of the apache software foundation approved the resolution to move the Forrest project up to its own top level project (from its current home within the Apache XML project). David Crossley will be the Chair of this new top level project. This is one of the first steps of the Apache XML Project to promote its projects upwards and become a federation, or a central information repository, of all the XML-related projects at the ASF. Look for more promotions over the next few months.

New Infrastructure

URL: http://forrest.apache.org/

Mailing lists:
For Users: user@forrest.apache.org
For Developers: dev@forrest.apache.org

Downloads:
http://forrest.apache.org/mirrors.cgi

06 October 2003 - Apache Forrest 0.5.1 Released

The Forrest team is pleased to announce the release of Apache Forrest 0.5.1. The release is available at
http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/forrest/

Blurb
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Forrest (http://xml.apache.org/forrest/) is an XML standards-oriented project documentation framework built on Apache Cocoon, providing XSLT stylesheets and schemas, images and other resources. Forrest uses these to render the XML source content into a website via command-line, robot (see http://forrestbot.cocoondev.org/), or a dynamic web application.

Status
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Forrest 0.5.1 is a bugfix release over 0.5. Most notably, it comes with an updated Cocoon (2.1.2) which fixes a bug in the command-line where certain pages in a site weren't rendered (FOR-66). Other bugfixes include:

1. Added obfuscate-mail-links skinconf.xml option, on by default (FOR-67)
2. Fix forrest-site tables bug that broke Opera (FOR-65)
3. Fixed URLs for comma-separated bug keys in status.xml
4. In skinconf.xml, made project-description optional to keep compatibility with 0.4.
5. forrest.antproxy.xml script now properly fails when Cocoon fails
6. Fix bugs in forrest.bat|sh scripts encountered when used in odd environments (perl and Win9x). (FOR-47, FOR-48)
7. The 'forrest' command no longer sources /etc/antrc and ~/.antrc, which solves problems on some *nix distributions.

The full list of changes for 0.5 and 0.5.1 is viewable at:

http://xml.apache.org/forrest/changes.html

For current 0.4 users, an Upgrade Guide to 0.5 is available at:

http://xml.apache.org/forrest/upgrading_05.html

Please send feedback to forrest-dev@xml.apache.org (after subscribing).

The Apache Forrest team

14 September 2003 - Apache Forrest 0.5 Released

The Forrest team is pleased to announce the release of Apache Forrest 0.5. The release is available at http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/forrest/

Blurb
-----

Forrest (http://forrest.apache.org/) is an XML standards-oriented project documentation framework built on Apache Cocoon, providing XSLT stylesheets and schemas, images and other resources. Forrest uses these to render the XML source content into a website via command-line, robot (see http://forrestbot.cocoondev.org/), or a dynamic web application.

Status
------

Significant progress has been made in the seven months since Forrest 0.4. New features include:

* 70%-300% faster, thanks to the new command-line interface in Cocoon 2.1.1
* Ability to generate a single PDF/HTML of the entire site
* New flexible tab/menu system [1]
* Numerous skin improvements, including Javascript-controlled menus, handling of and , configurable mini-toc depth, menu tooltips, and a new pure CSS variant of standard skin.
* DTD improvements (v11 replaced with v12, and v20 in development)
* Rudimentary Docbook support
* Wiki support [2]
* Improved PDF output

Under the hood, the monolithic sitemap has been divided into functional categories and logical layers [3], with the aim of making Forrest sites easier to maintain, and new features easier to add.

The full list of changes is viewable at:

http://xml.apache.org/forrest/changes.html

An Upgrade Guide is available at:

http://xml.apache.org/forrest/upgrading_05.html

Please send feedback to forrest-dev@xml.apache.org (after subscribing).

For more information on the Apache Forrest project, please see
http://xml.apache.org/forrest/

- The Apache Forrest Development Team