[OFBiz] Users - would like to change the content management component of OfBiz

[Arash Kaffamanesh]

Hi,

 

has anybody tried to change the content management module of OfBiz with other CMS system, if yes how hard is it?

I'm thinking about the Integration of OfBiz and OpenCms 6.0, the leading Enterprise Level OpenSource Java CM System available on the net today ;-)

 

Kind Regards,

Arash Kaffamanesh

 

http://www.pomegranate.de

Portal & Content Management Solutions

 

 

 
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[Andrew Sykes]

Arash,

I suspect this would be far from easy!

--
Andrew Sykes <[hidden email]>
Sykes Development Ltd

 
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[Andrew Sykes]

I got the following error when creating a new account in the webstore

${requestParameters.category_id} [on line 31, column 52 in
productreview.ftl] ---------- Java backtrace for programmers: ----------
freemarker.core.InvalidReferenceException: Expression
requestParameters.category_id is undefined on line 31, column 54 in
productreview.ftl. at freemarker.core.TemplateObject.assertNonNull
(TemplateObject.java:124) at freemarker.core.Expression.getStringValue
(Expression.java:118) at freemarker.core.Expression.getStringValue
(Expression.java:93) at freemarker.core.DollarVariable.accept
(DollarVariable.java:76) at freemarker.core.Environment.visit
(Environment.java:196) at freemarker.core.MixedContent.accept
(MixedContent.java:92) at freemarker.core.Environment.visit
(Environment.java:196) at freemarker.core.IfBlock.accept
(IfBlock.java:82) at freemarker.core.Environment.visit
(Environment.java:196) at freemarker.core.MixedContent.accept
(MixedContent.java:92) at freemarker.core.Environment.visit
(Environment.java:196) at freemarker.core.Environment.process
(Environment.java:176) at freemarker.template.Template.process
(Template.java:231) at
org.ofbiz.base.util.template.FreeMarkerWorker.renderTemplateAtLocation
(FreeMarkerWorker.java:166) at
org.ofbiz.widget.screen.HtmlWidget.renderHtmlTemplate
(HtmlWidget.java:81) at org.ofbiz.widget.screen.HtmlWidget
$HtmlTemplate.renderWidgetString(HtmlWidget.java:109) at
org.ofbiz.widget.screen.HtmlWidget.renderWidgetString
(HtmlWidget.java:72) at org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget
$PlatformSpecific.renderWidgetString(ModelScreenWidget.java:730) at
org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget.renderSubWidgetsString
(ModelScreenWidget.java:131) at
org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget
$DecoratorSection.renderWidgetString(ModelScreenWidget.java:476) at
org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget$SectionsRenderer.render
(ModelScreenWidget.java:153) at
org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget
$DecoratorSectionInclude.renderWidgetString(ModelScreenWidget.java:494)
at org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget.renderSubWidgetsString
(ModelScreenWidget.java:131) at
org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget$Container.renderWidgetString
(ModelScreenWidget.java:266) at
org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget.renderSubWidgetsString
(ModelScreenWidget.java:131) at
org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget$Container.renderWidgetString
(ModelScreenWidget.java:266) at
org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget.renderSubWidgetsString
(ModelScreenWidget.java:131) at
org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget$Section.renderWidgetString
(ModelScreenWidget.java:214) at
org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreen.renderScreenString
(ModelScreen.java:101) at org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget
$DecoratorScreen.renderWidgetString(ModelScreenWidget.java:448) at
org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget.renderSubWidgetsString
(ModelScreenWidget.java:131) at
org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget$Section.renderWidgetString
(ModelScreenWidget.java:214) at
org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreen.renderScreenString
(ModelScreen.java:101) at org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ScreenRenderer.render
(ScreenRenderer.java:78) at
org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ScreenRenderer.render(ScreenRenderer.java:63) at
org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ScreenWidgetViewHandler.render
(ScreenWidgetViewHandler.java:107) at
org.ofbiz.webapp.control.RequestHandler.renderView
(RequestHandler.java:542) at
org.ofbiz.webapp.control.RequestHandler.doRequest
(RequestHandler.java:345) at
org.ofbiz.webapp.control.RequestHandler.doRequest
(RequestHandler.java:283) at
org.ofbiz.webapp.control.ControlServlet.doGet(ControlServlet.java:186)
at org.ofbiz.webapp.control.ControlServlet.doPost
(ControlServlet.java:85) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service
(HttpServlet.java:709) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service
(HttpServlet.java:802) at
org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter
(ApplicationFilterChain.java:252) at
org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter
(ApplicationFilterChain.java:173) at
org.ofbiz.webapp.control.ContextFilter.doFilter(ContextFilter.java:237)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter
(ApplicationFilterChain.java:202) at
org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter
(ApplicationFilterChain.java:173) at
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke
(StandardWrapperValve.java:214) at
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke
(StandardContextValve.java:178) at
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke
(StandardHostValve.java:126) at
org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke
(ErrorReportValve.java:105) at
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke
(StandardEngineValve.java:107) at
org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke
(AccessLogValve.java:526) at
org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service
(CoyoteAdapter.java:148) at
org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process
(Http11Processor.java:825) at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol
$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11Protocol.java:738) at
org.apache.tomcat.util.net.PoolTcpEndpoint.processSocket
(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:526) at
org.apache.tomcat.util.net.LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.runIt
(LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.java:80) at
org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run
(ThreadPool.java:684) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:534)

--
Andrew Sykes <[hidden email]>
Sykes Development Ltd

 
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[Arash Kaffamanesh]

Andrew,

First of all many thanks to you for your reponse to my last post.

> I suspect this would be far from easy!

I know :-)

Therefor it would be very usefull if the View of OfBiz Platforms could
be managed through OpenCms, I could imagine to integrate OfBiz into
OpenCms and not OpenCms into OfBiz. The integration shall be done on the
presentation layer with some snipping / clipping technics.

If the community is interested to have such an integration (OpenCms <->
OfBiz), I would do my best to acquire some sponsors, which shall pay for
the development and give it back to both communities.

Any ideas are more than welcome.

Br,
Arash

http://www.pomegranate.de
Portal & Content Solutions


-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Andrew Sykes
Sent: Dienstag, 30. August 2005 18:54
To: OFBiz Users / Usage Discussion
Subject: Re: [OFBiz] Users - would like to change the content
managementcomponent of OfBiz


Arash,

I suspect this would be far from easy!

--
Andrew Sykes <[hidden email]>
Sykes Development Ltd

 
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[Andrew Sykes]

Arash,

This sounds like an interesting idea.

I guess the obvious question would be why look for sponsors to create a
hybrid rather than just to get the OfBiz CMS working?

What would be the advantage of this combination over a pure OfBiz
solution?

Kind Regards
--
Andrew Sykes <[hidden email]>
Sykes Development Ltd

 
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[Arash Kaffamanesh]

Andrew,
Dear All,

> I guess the obvious question would be why look for sponsors to create
a hybrid rather than just to get the OfBiz CMS working?

I had the chance 1 1/2  years ago to setup an OfBiz installation with
the standard look and feel and I must admit that I liked it, but I was
somehow disappointed and got stuck to change the view, because of the
very poor fuctionality of its cms at that time (no wysiwyg editing, no
content import / export functionality, etc..) and the fact was (perhaps
still is) that the frontend couldn't be changed through non-programmers,
right?

I don't know realy how the latest cms functionality works in OfBiz at
meanwhile and how the templating technic works for creating nice and
user friendly sites. If possible to go with the current cms
implementation, I would prefer to don't use any hybrid technics too, as
it could become also a nightmare ;-)

I don't know realy myself if this idea is realy good or interesting
enough to make this combination at this time and therefor I'm asking
such professionals as you and other gurus on this list if it makes any
sense to get such a combination to work.

The advantages which I think would be nice to have with a CMS driven
OfBiz would be the ease of authoring, content syndication and
user-friendlines, not only for non-programmers :-)

Now I'm going to checkout the latest 3.1 release from CVS / SVN and
start discovering the new features.

Thanks again for your good comments.

Kind Regards,
Arash

--
http://www.pomegranate.de
Portal & Content Management Solutions

   

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Andrew Sykes
Sent: Dienstag, 30. August 2005 22:22
To: OFBiz Users / Usage Discussion
Subject: RE: [OFBiz] Users - would like to change the content
managementcomponent of OfBiz


Arash,

This sounds like an interesting idea.

I guess the obvious question would be why look for sponsors to create a
hybrid rather than just to get the OfBiz CMS working?

What would be the advantage of this combination over a pure OfBiz
solution?

Kind Regards
--
Andrew Sykes <[hidden email]>
Sykes Development Ltd

 
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Users mailing list
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Users mailing list
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[Andrew Sykes]

Arash, Everyone,

I think you've probably hit on one of the major hurdles to adoption of
OfBiz for a lot of people.

I know that in my own experience people have taken a look at the CMS and
either said "how the hell does this work" or worse "this doesn't work!".

I know we could make much more use of OfBiz here if there was a more
mature CMS.

What sort of functionality are you looking for?

Would you be interested in helping raise funding to develop a pure OfBiz
CMS?
--
Andrew Sykes <[hidden email]>
Sykes Development Ltd

 
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[Rohit Rai]

I guess that thread answer my long running question about themes? Correct me if I am wrong.

 

I was wondering since the begining, Can I change the Ofbiz look and feel / Theme it.

 

As per the discussion between Arash and Andrew, the look and feel thing of Ofbiz lies in its CMS component & currently a non programmer cannot modify it and even it would take quite effort for programmers to modify. Does that apply only to the CMS (Website & Webstore) or the whole Ofbiz package.

 

Rohit

 
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[Andrew Sykes]

Rohit,

You are correct that look and feel is a programmer-only job at present.

I'm currently working with Si to create a new look and feel though!

Check out Sequoia in a month or two.
--
Andrew Sykes <[hidden email]>
Sykes Development Ltd

 
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[Arash Kaffamanesh]

Andrew, Dear all,

> What sort of functionality are you looking for?

The main things, which I would like to have is:

The CMS should provide a wysiwyg editor with direct edit function (make
use of existing wysiwyg editors like HTMLArea or fckEdit, Kupu).
All articles shall be listed in a hierarchical tree (explorer like
tree).
The CMS should provide a templating engine.
The CMS should provide a cms taglib library.
The CMS shall be able to export / import articles in RSS format (nice to
have).
The CMS should provide pre defined, easy to change templates.
...

> Would you be interested in helping raise funding to develop a pure
OfBiz CMS?

Yes, but I think developing a pure CMS Solution from scratch is not a
trivial task and therefor it would be wise to use existing components
from other mature CM systems like OpenCms or Magnolia (JSR 170
compliant) or think about integrating Jakarta Slide, JackRabbit
(http://incubator.apache.org/jackrabbit/) into OfBiz :-).

May be the existing OfBiz CMS component could be developed further
through core developers or other solution providers, who have enough
experience with these frameworks.

I would like to know how the OfBiz core developers think about this
issue.

Best Regards from Berlin,
Arash




-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Andrew Sykes
Sent: Mittwoch, 31. August 2005 00:26
To: OFBiz Users / Usage Discussion
Subject: RE: [OFBiz] Users - would like to change the
contentmanagementcomponent of OfBiz


Arash, Everyone,

I think you've probably hit on one of the major hurdles to adoption of
OfBiz for a lot of people.

I know that in my own experience people have taken a look at the CMS and
either said "how the hell does this work" or worse "this doesn't work!".

I know we could make much more use of OfBiz here if there was a more
mature CMS.

What sort of functionality are you looking for?

Would you be interested in helping raise funding to develop a pure OfBiz
CMS?
--
Andrew Sykes <[hidden email]>
Sykes Development Ltd

 
_______________________________________________
Users mailing list
[hidden email] http://lists.ofbiz.org/mailman/listinfo/users

 
_______________________________________________
Users mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.ofbiz.org/mailman/listinfo/users

[Rohit Rai]

Andrew & Si,

After a long time being here ith you people I have found a project hat raises my intrests. I have worked on various CMS on different platforms including Java, PHP & even made one of my own in ASP.NET. I would really be intrested in contributing to your efforts. Can I? may be I am not much helpful with Ofbiz as I am new I can always be helpful in testing and troublkeshooting.

 

Rohit

 

Rohit,

You are correct that look and feel is a programmer-only job at present.

I'm currently working with Si to create a new look and feel though!

Check out Sequoia in a month or two.
--
Andrew Sykes < [hidden email]>
Sykes Development Ltd

 
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[Jacques Le Roux]

>Andrew & Si,
>After a long time being here ith you people I have found a project hat
raises my intrests. I have worked on various CMS on different platforms
including Java, PHP & even made one of my own in >ASP.NET. I would really be
intrested in contributing to your efforts. Can I? may be I am not much
helpful with Ofbiz as I am new I can always be helpful in testing and
troublkeshooting.

Rohit,

Do you really like open-source, and why ?

Jacques


 
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[byersa]

Arash and others,

I apologize for not getting involved sooner; I have had my head down and
will for a little while longer. Having coded most of the CMS (using
David's design), I am the first to admit that it needs a lot of work and
functionality added. There is more there than it might seem and I
strongly reject the idea of trying to integrate third-party packages.
While OFBiz embraces many foundation technologies, trying to integrate a
non-native application would be both difficult and would negate so many
of the advantages of having an app built from one cohesive framework.

Much of what you want is there, though not documented and not fully
developed. The widget-tree components are there to provide a flexible
tree structure environment. It is used in the Community specialized app.
The CMS tools have strong templating capabilities built in. See the
ecommerce app for an example. Look at the webapp/ecommerce/content dir.
The tpl_mb_content.ftl is a good example of using the XSL-like
capabilities of FreeMarker to format content. I admit that it is complex
- I can't even tell you how it is called without spend considerable
amount of time looking thru the code -, but it is powerful.

We did have some template construction pages working at one time. I
think they have lapsed when we moved from JPublish to "widget"
technology. The extent to which the CMS has been integrated with the
widget technology and the possibilities that still exist there, is very
promising.

The "Community" app has a rough example of trying to use CMS for
blogging. I would love to see RSS added to it.

I have been away from CMS for awhile and have forgotten quite a bit (at
my age, that does not have to be a very long time), but I am getting
some work that should reacquaint me with it. I don't think it could be
used to fill in the CMS holes, but it should allow me to make more of a
contribution.

I don't think that I can contribute much to the effort without funding -
I got tapped out with the previous effort. But I would be willing to
explain how things should work to anyone that wants to get involved.

-Al Byers
Arash Kaffamanesh wrote:

>Andrew, Dear all,
>
>  
>
>>What sort of functionality are you looking for?
>>    
>>
>
>The main things, which I would like to have is:
>
>The CMS should provide a wysiwyg editor with direct edit function (make
>use of existing wysiwyg editors like HTMLArea or fckEdit, Kupu).
>All articles shall be listed in a hierarchical tree (explorer like
>tree).
>The CMS should provide a templating engine.
>The CMS should provide a cms taglib library.
>The CMS shall be able to export / import articles in RSS format (nice to
>have).
>The CMS should provide pre defined, easy to change templates.
>...
>
>  
>
>>Would you be interested in helping raise funding to develop a pure
>>    
>>
>OfBiz CMS?
>
>Yes, but I think developing a pure CMS Solution from scratch is not a
>trivial task and therefor it would be wise to use existing components
>from other mature CM systems like OpenCms or Magnolia (JSR 170
>compliant) or think about integrating Jakarta Slide, JackRabbit
>(http://incubator.apache.org/jackrabbit/) into OfBiz :-).
>
>May be the existing OfBiz CMS component could be developed further
>through core developers or other solution providers, who have enough
>experience with these frameworks.
>
>I would like to know how the OfBiz core developers think about this
>issue.
>
>Best Regards from Berlin,
>Arash
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: [hidden email]
>[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Andrew Sykes
>Sent: Mittwoch, 31. August 2005 00:26
>To: OFBiz Users / Usage Discussion
>Subject: RE: [OFBiz] Users - would like to change the
>contentmanagementcomponent of OfBiz
>
>
>Arash, Everyone,
>
>I think you've probably hit on one of the major hurdles to adoption of
>OfBiz for a lot of people.
>
>I know that in my own experience people have taken a look at the CMS and
>either said "how the hell does this work" or worse "this doesn't work!".
>
>I know we could make much more use of OfBiz here if there was a more
>mature CMS.
>
>What sort of functionality are you looking for?
>
>Would you be interested in helping raise funding to develop a pure OfBiz
>CMS?
>  
>

 
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[David E. Jones]

This bug was fixed a while back in the main OFBiz code base, if I  
remember right. The Undersun Store just hasn't been updated for a while.

-David


On Aug 30, 2005, at 6:10 PM, Andrew Sykes wrote:

> I got the following error when creating a new account in the webstore
>
> ${requestParameters.category_id} [on line 31, column 52 in
> productreview.ftl] ---------- Java backtrace for programmers:  
> ----------
> freemarker.core.InvalidReferenceException: Expression
> requestParameters.category_id is undefined on line 31, column 54 in
> productreview.ftl. at freemarker.core.TemplateObject.assertNonNull
> (TemplateObject.java:124) at freemarker.core.Expression.getStringValue
> (Expression.java:118) at freemarker.core.Expression.getStringValue
> (Expression.java:93) at freemarker.core.DollarVariable.accept
> (DollarVariable.java:76) at freemarker.core.Environment.visit
> (Environment.java:196) at freemarker.core.MixedContent.accept
> (MixedContent.java:92) at freemarker.core.Environment.visit
> (Environment.java:196) at freemarker.core.IfBlock.accept
> (IfBlock.java:82) at freemarker.core.Environment.visit
> (Environment.java:196) at freemarker.core.MixedContent.accept
> (MixedContent.java:92) at freemarker.core.Environment.visit
> (Environment.java:196) at freemarker.core.Environment.process
> (Environment.java:176) at freemarker.template.Template.process
> (Template.java:231) at
> org.ofbiz.base.util.template.FreeMarkerWorker.renderTemplateAtLocation
> (FreeMarkerWorker.java:166) at
> org.ofbiz.widget.screen.HtmlWidget.renderHtmlTemplate
> (HtmlWidget.java:81) at org.ofbiz.widget.screen.HtmlWidget
> $HtmlTemplate.renderWidgetString(HtmlWidget.java:109) at
> org.ofbiz.widget.screen.HtmlWidget.renderWidgetString
> (HtmlWidget.java:72) at org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget
> $PlatformSpecific.renderWidgetString(ModelScreenWidget.java:730) at
> org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget.renderSubWidgetsString
> (ModelScreenWidget.java:131) at
> org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget
> $DecoratorSection.renderWidgetString(ModelScreenWidget.java:476) at
> org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget$SectionsRenderer.render
> (ModelScreenWidget.java:153) at
> org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget
> $DecoratorSectionInclude.renderWidgetString(ModelScreenWidget.java:
> 494)
> at org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget.renderSubWidgetsString
> (ModelScreenWidget.java:131) at
> org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget$Container.renderWidgetString
> (ModelScreenWidget.java:266) at
> org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget.renderSubWidgetsString
> (ModelScreenWidget.java:131) at
> org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget$Container.renderWidgetString
> (ModelScreenWidget.java:266) at
> org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget.renderSubWidgetsString
> (ModelScreenWidget.java:131) at
> org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget$Section.renderWidgetString
> (ModelScreenWidget.java:214) at
> org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreen.renderScreenString
> (ModelScreen.java:101) at org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget
> $DecoratorScreen.renderWidgetString(ModelScreenWidget.java:448) at
> org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget.renderSubWidgetsString
> (ModelScreenWidget.java:131) at
> org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreenWidget$Section.renderWidgetString
> (ModelScreenWidget.java:214) at
> org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ModelScreen.renderScreenString
> (ModelScreen.java:101) at  
> org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ScreenRenderer.render
> (ScreenRenderer.java:78) at
> org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ScreenRenderer.render(ScreenRenderer.java:
> 63) at
> org.ofbiz.widget.screen.ScreenWidgetViewHandler.render
> (ScreenWidgetViewHandler.java:107) at
> org.ofbiz.webapp.control.RequestHandler.renderView
> (RequestHandler.java:542) at
> org.ofbiz.webapp.control.RequestHandler.doRequest
> (RequestHandler.java:345) at
> org.ofbiz.webapp.control.RequestHandler.doRequest
> (RequestHandler.java:283) at
> org.ofbiz.webapp.control.ControlServlet.doGet(ControlServlet.java:186)
> at org.ofbiz.webapp.control.ControlServlet.doPost
> (ControlServlet.java:85) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service
> (HttpServlet.java:709) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service
> (HttpServlet.java:802) at
> org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter
> (ApplicationFilterChain.java:252) at
> org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter
> (ApplicationFilterChain.java:173) at
> org.ofbiz.webapp.control.ContextFilter.doFilter(ContextFilter.java:
> 237)
> at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter
> (ApplicationFilterChain.java:202) at
> org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter
> (ApplicationFilterChain.java:173) at
> org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke
> (StandardWrapperValve.java:214) at
> org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke
> (StandardContextValve.java:178) at
> org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke
> (StandardHostValve.java:126) at
> org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke
> (ErrorReportValve.java:105) at
> org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke
> (StandardEngineValve.java:107) at
> org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke
> (AccessLogValve.java:526) at
> org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service
> (CoyoteAdapter.java:148) at
> org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process
> (Http11Processor.java:825) at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol
> $Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11Protocol.java:738) at
> org.apache.tomcat.util.net.PoolTcpEndpoint.processSocket
> (PoolTcpEndpoint.java:526) at
> org.apache.tomcat.util.net.LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.runIt
> (LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.java:80) at
> org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run
> (ThreadPool.java:684) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:534)
>
> --
> Andrew Sykes <[hidden email]>
> Sykes Development Ltd
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.ofbiz.org/mailman/listinfo/users
>

 
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[Arash Kaffamanesh]

Al,
Dear All,

Thank you for the clear explanation.
I have to apologize for my silly suggestions, at meanwhile I'm
convinced to let the CMS as it is and improve it as you've suggested.

But my problem is that I've no FreeMarker experience and have been away
from OfBiz for more than 1 1/2 years, therefor I'm going to outsource my
current OfBiz projects to solution providers and core developers and it
would
be grate if I could manage raise funding the further development of the
current CMS,
as Andrew wisely suggested.

Thanks to you, Andrew and all of you oversees nice guys ;-)

Kind Regards from Berlin,
Arash





-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Al Byers
Sent: Mittwoch, 31. August 2005 20:24
To: OFBiz Users / Usage Discussion
Subject: Re: [OFBiz] Users - would like to changethe
contentmanagementcomponent of OfBiz


Arash and others,

I apologize for not getting involved sooner; I have had my head down and

will for a little while longer. Having coded most of the CMS (using
David's design), I am the first to admit that it needs a lot of work and

functionality added. There is more there than it might seem and I
strongly reject the idea of trying to integrate third-party packages.
While OFBiz embraces many foundation technologies, trying to integrate a

non-native application would be both difficult and would negate so many
of the advantages of having an app built from one cohesive framework.

Much of what you want is there, though not documented and not fully
developed. The widget-tree components are there to provide a flexible
tree structure environment. It is used in the Community specialized app.

The CMS tools have strong templating capabilities built in. See the
ecommerce app for an example. Look at the webapp/ecommerce/content dir.
The tpl_mb_content.ftl is a good example of using the XSL-like
capabilities of FreeMarker to format content. I admit that it is complex

- I can't even tell you how it is called without spend considerable
amount of time looking thru the code -, but it is powerful.

We did have some template construction pages working at one time. I
think they have lapsed when we moved from JPublish to "widget"
technology. The extent to which the CMS has been integrated with the
widget technology and the possibilities that still exist there, is very
promising.

The "Community" app has a rough example of trying to use CMS for
blogging. I would love to see RSS added to it.

I have been away from CMS for awhile and have forgotten quite a bit (at
my age, that does not have to be a very long time), but I am getting
some work that should reacquaint me with it. I don't think it could be
used to fill in the CMS holes, but it should allow me to make more of a
contribution.

I don't think that I can contribute much to the effort without funding -

I got tapped out with the previous effort. But I would be willing to
explain how things should work to anyone that wants to get involved.

-Al Byers
Arash Kaffamanesh wrote:

>Andrew, Dear all,
>
>  
>
>>What sort of functionality are you looking for?
>>    
>>
>
>The main things, which I would like to have is:
>
>The CMS should provide a wysiwyg editor with direct edit function (make

>use of existing wysiwyg editors like HTMLArea or fckEdit, Kupu). All
>articles shall be listed in a hierarchical tree (explorer like tree).
>The CMS should provide a templating engine.
>The CMS should provide a cms taglib library.
>The CMS shall be able to export / import articles in RSS format (nice
to

>have).
>The CMS should provide pre defined, easy to change templates.
>...
>
>  
>
>>Would you be interested in helping raise funding to develop a pure
>>    
>>
>OfBiz CMS?
>
>Yes, but I think developing a pure CMS Solution from scratch is not a
>trivial task and therefor it would be wise to use existing components
>from other mature CM systems like OpenCms or Magnolia (JSR 170
>compliant) or think about integrating Jakarta Slide, JackRabbit
>(http://incubator.apache.org/jackrabbit/) into OfBiz :-).
>
>May be the existing OfBiz CMS component could be developed further
>through core developers or other solution providers, who have enough
>experience with these frameworks.
>
>I would like to know how the OfBiz core developers think about this
>issue.
>
>Best Regards from Berlin,
>Arash
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: [hidden email]
>[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Andrew Sykes
>Sent: Mittwoch, 31. August 2005 00:26
>To: OFBiz Users / Usage Discussion
>Subject: RE: [OFBiz] Users - would like to change the
>contentmanagementcomponent of OfBiz
>
>
>Arash, Everyone,
>
>I think you've probably hit on one of the major hurdles to adoption of
>OfBiz for a lot of people.
>
>I know that in my own experience people have taken a look at the CMS
>and either said "how the hell does this work" or worse "this doesn't
>work!".
>
>I know we could make much more use of OfBiz here if there was a more
>mature CMS.
>
>What sort of functionality are you looking for?
>
>Would you be interested in helping raise funding to develop a pure
>OfBiz CMS?
>  
>

 
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[Andrew Sykes]

Al,

Thanks for your input, I think this makes things a lot clearer.

Regarding the CMS. Are there designs in place that have yet to be
implemented?

If so, where can we see them?

Kind Regards
--
Andrew Sykes <[hidden email]>
Sykes Development Ltd

 
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[Andrew Sykes]

Arash,

Don't let ftl put you off!

It isn't too hard to get your head around, and is really worth the
effort!

Kind Regards
--
Andrew Sykes <[hidden email]>
Sykes Development Ltd

 
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[byersa]

Andrew Sykes wrote:

>Al,
>
>Thanks for your input, I think this makes things a lot clearer.
>
>Regarding the CMS. Are there designs in place that have yet to be
>implemented?
>
>If so, where can we see them?
>
>Kind Regards
>  
>

Andrew,

To be quite honest, I don't think I have the full picture of what CMS
can or should be. That is why Arash's input was nice - the foundation is
there; it is good to think in terms of features.

One obvious implementation that is needed is a strong content editing
facility. It seems like this is a place for a pilot project involving
widget technology, AJAX and Web 2.0 (whatever that is). It seems like it
would involve having widget style templates that get processed
differently by a different screen handler. It would put borders around
all content areas and populate them with placeholders if empty. Then
AJAX could be used to pop up entry areas, send them to the server for
storage and display them in the template instantly. Any other ideas here?

The ContentAssoc entity with its from/thru dates lends itself to
scheduled content display. While I have done a few sites  using OFBiz
CMS (my site will be back up soon), I still don't think I have a clear
view of what a "general" CMS site should do or what tools it needs. In
particular, I can't picture a tool for designing layouts or if it is
even needed.  With the move to CSS control of layout, more things should
be possible. It is probably true the the OFBiz is much closer to being a
general tool for doing CMS sites than I see and it just needs some usage
to polish off rough edges. Another thing that it has is a strong
permission system for allow only authorized personnel to perform certain
functions. I suppose the OFBiz Ecommerce site is not a bad example of
CMS, but it might be a place to expand and enhance.

As Arash said, adding RSS capability would be nice. That would involve
someone else getting involved in the code, as I don't see myself ever
having that time. CMS needs a new, strong "owner". I could work  with
anyone that is interested. I still have content commit privileges, but
not widget. But I could run submitted code by David and generally give
that person the help needed to come up to speed. OFBiz only has a
handful of core developers and it is not practical to let there be many,
but the CMS is one area where a strong, steady member is needed.

The folks at Integral are going to be sponsoring some work that should
strength the document management features ending in a system that will
allow digital signing of PDFs and workflow control for signing off on docs.

-Al
 
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[Andrew Sykes]

Al,

Thank you for the thorough response.

I guess one of the biggest problems with taking on further development
of the CMS is actually assimilating what is there already.

The AJAX idea seems sensible, but I can imagine it would be very easy to
get bogged down with this. Perhaps it would be more sensible to follow a
more traditional route in proof of concept and adding AJAX style
features later. The reason I suggest this is that there would be a
mountain of javascript involved (I assume) but javascript on it's own is
not going to get the job done. I would imagine it would be easier to
write javascript once it was more apparent how the CMS actually
worked...

>From my experience of CMS systems, it would be adequate to leave
template design as a programmer job. I have recently been looking at
Mambo with Si, although not the most exemplar CMS it does seem popular
despite requiring the user to resort to code for a new template (there
is a Dreamweaver plugin to make the job a little easier though).

In terms of providing users with a WYSIWYG editor, there are a few out
there and indeed I have already added FCKEditor to the catalog for one
client.

As you mentioned, the document workflow and security permissions
features of OfBiz would be a real asset, and I would imagine would set
OfBiz CMS above the crowd!

I think RSS is a 'nice to have' feature at this point, but by the time
some more of the core work was done would be fairly trivial to
implement. What do you think?

I'd be really fascinated to see exactly how you have implemented sites
using the existing CMS and for that matter would appreciate any
resources you could point me in the direction of so that I could better
understand how everything is currently hanging together and what is
possible with OfBiz CMS at the current time.

Again thank you for your time, this is most appreciated.
--
Andrew Sykes <[hidden email]>
Sykes Development Ltd

 
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