Friday, June 06, 2008

eZ Publish News: "No he's not dead, he's restin'!"

No no he's not dead, he's, he's restin'! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage! from Monty Pythons "Dead Parrot" sketch.

Given that there hasn't been a release for the eZ publish 3 series since October 2007 and December 2007 for the initial eZ publish 4.0 release, coupled by the lack of any concrete information regarding new releases, one may be forgiven in thinking that eZ Publish had been consigned to the great bit bucket in the ether. Fortunately it appears that unlike the Norwegian Blue, eZ was actually restin'! (Actually I suspect they have been working very hard, just not telling us)

I'm not sure how many people are downloading and reading eZ's SHARE! magazine PDF but if you're not then you would have missed this news regarding eZ Publish 4.1 from the June issue:

eZ Publish 4.1 - what’s new?

The next version of our flagship product eZ Publish 4.1 will be released with an improved kernel and several extensions providing new or enhanced features. Highlights include:
  • A new Online Editor with support for more browsers and platforms (including IE7 on Vista, Safari)
  • A new extension providing multiple file upload from within the browser
  • Oracle support (from version 8), including support for the current cluster configurations
  • An extension providing functions for password expiry (typical use for intranets and extranets)
  • Solaris 10 support
  • Performance enhancements
In future releases, most new features will be made available through extensions as we are aiming more and more for a microkernel approach for eZ Publish.
No official word on release dates but forum posts seem to indicate that release candidates are possible for next week.

On Communications

I must admit I'm at a loss as to why the SHARE! magazine PDF is the primary communication method of a company that's flagship product is a Web CMS. It doesn't show off their "product" (now, if the PDF was produced out of the CMS that would be a different matter), and seems to be a quite outdated communication methodology in a time of microblogging, RSS feeds, social networking and content aggregation.

One the the main issues is that you can't link to specific information in a PDF (thats why I've reproduced the relevant information here) and it's a pain to have to download to view. This could be solved by simply adding the content to the eZ web site...it does use a CMS right? Isn't utilising the eZ site for this information a great advertisment for the product?

Perhaps it's aimed at a difference audience than me but then I'm not sure what that leaves me with...subversion comments?

Anywhoo after that rant you might need something to put a smile on your face. If you're not familiar with Monty Pythons famous "Dead Parrot" sketch or simply need a laugh here it is. Enjoy!
Labels: , ,

6 comments:

  1. It is all about communication and being open and sharing with the information.
    ReplyDelete
  2. Great rant Bruce, and some really good points regarding communication from eZp.

    Like you, I do not get the idea behind the SHARE! magazine... are we supposed to print and share this? Btw: Have you tried printing the last edition to check the conference schedule? Good luck with reading that…

    I have been to a couple of seminars where we were recommended to wait for 4.1 before we upgrade to eZ4 (by eZ employees). This was in mid-april and the release was hopefully ready in April, definitely early May. Today its June 10th, and still no sign.. a quick post about the delay would have been nice?

    Anyway, like you I wanna end on a positive and I really hope eZ get their act together. Who knows... Maybe they’re trying to copy Apple and save all the info for the Keynote at the eZ conference... ;-)
    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the comment jagels.

    we were recommended to wait for 4.1 before we upgrade to eZ4 (by eZ employees This is quite disturbing news given I'm about to go live on a eZ 4.0 site that's been in the works for about 6 months.

    Do you recall the explanation for holding off?

    I can understand not wanting to release software until you are ready and that there are often events beyond your control that will cause delays.

    I don't understand why we haven't seen point releases of 3.10 & 4.0 that fix the many bugs that have been fixed.

    I don't understand why advice to "hold off until 4.1" is given at seminars to a limited audience and not made via the web site so everybody can benefit from the information.
    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Bruce

    I enjoy reading your blog posts. Unfortunately I also have to agree with most of what you're writing (trying hard to push some improvements in eZ though).

    Regarding the advise to wait for 4.1 instead of using 4.0: as what I know so far myself, is that 4.1 will not contain any giant improvements or fixes that won't be in 4.0.1, except for the new Online Editor based on TinyMCE. So unless the user experience while editing articles is a showstopper, I don't see any reason for not using 4.0(.1) in favor of 4.1.
    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Kristof

    Thanks for the info. It helps to clarify the options, at least in my situation.

    Looking forward to discussions at the conference regarding how the eZ community can better promote eZ Publish both within and outside of the existing user base.

    cheers
    Bruce
    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Bruce and Kristof,

    Just to clarify: I think the recommendation was regarding upgrading from 3.x to 4, not a fresh install of eZ 4. Apparently there were some bugs/issues with url translators and updateniceurls.php? At least I was left with the impression: “don’t upgrade yet unless you really have to”...

    Regarding the versions, I wrote 4.1 in the previous post, but the message was actually wait for 4.0.1.

    Sorry about that. I see this has caused some confusion here! (and I just saw your updated blogpost regarding this).

    Henrik
    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)