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Silva 2.1 Released

Publication date: 27.August.2008, 13:57

27 august 2008 – Infrae is pleased to announce the final release of Silva 2.1. This release adds a range of features for both Author/Editors and Site Managers, as well as performance and technical improvements such as functional tests.

New features

  • A quota subsystem has been added. It lets Managers set a quota on a publication (which can also be a virtual host root). Containers within the publication acquire the quota. The quota does not count the space used by the xml of documents but tallies the assets. The space utilized is tracked on every container and displayed in the settings screen. Quotas can be set by Managers in the settings screen of the publication. The quota subsystem is off by default.

  • The Zope Pluggable Authentication System (PAS) has been integrated into Silva. This means a whole range of existing plugins are available to integrate Silva with different authentication services. In addition to LDAP, we have integration with Radius working, and we've written a plugin for OpenID Authentication.

  • We’ve added infrastructure for ‘elaborate’ Code Sources, where the parameters form appears in a pop-up window, instead of a Kupu toolbox.

  • A new “Editor Comments” toolbox in Kupu displays the contents of the comments metadata field. This promotes the visibility of internal/editor comments so anyone editing the document will see them. The toolbox only appears if there is a comment.

  • The Automatic Table of Contents is much more configurable, with the following new options:

    1. choose which Silva types will be listed (any Silva type, including Assets)
    2. change the depth of the AutoTOC
    3. optionally display the metadata description of content
    4. optionally show the icon of each content type
    5. specify sort order: alphabetical, modification date, or Silva folder order

  • Several lookup window improvements:

    1. the lookup window will now always list containers which you can click to ‘drill down’, in addition to navigating with the sidebar. 
    2. a “place reference to this container...“ button was added, so you don’t have to use the sidebar to navigate up one level 
    3. as soon as a radio button is selected, the lookup window is closed and the reference is placed automatically
    4. the lookup window returns to the last visited location

  • When adding a new item in a folder with existing content, you can choose the location at which it should be inserted by selecting the corresponding checkbox. No need to create and then move.

  • The preview screen in the SMI now previews using the public layout.

  • We’ve realized a significant performance improvement in converting folders to publications and vice-versa.

  • The user interface has been modernized with new buttons and navigation.

  • All assets used in the interface are now aggressively cached.

Silva 2.1 includes functional tests! We’ve collaborated on the Funittest project (http://www.openplans.org/projects/funittest) and written a whole battery of tests for the Silva interface. Based on Selenium Remote Control, Funittest makes it possible to test all actions performed in the SMI in a browser (developers should run both the unit tests and the functional tests before checking in new code).  

What is Silva?

Silva is a powerful CMS for organizations that manage multiple or complex websites. Content is stored in clean and futureproof XML, independent of layout and presentation. Features include versioning, workflow system, integral visual editor (Kupu), content reuse, sophisticated access control, multi-site management, extensive import/export facilities, fine-grained templating, and hi-res image storage and manipulation.

For more complete information, see the Silva Product Pages at https://infrae.com/products/silva.

Install

The package can be downloaded from: https://infrae.com/download/Silva.

For the technically inclined a buildout is the easiest way to install Silva 2.1 and all dependencies, see an explanation.

Contact

Links to developer mailing lists, the Silva bug tracker, and info about svn access can be found on the Silva intro page.

FMI contact Eric Casteleijn, eric at infrae com, +31 10 243 7051.