Another Year for MODx and a New Release
Another release of our platform is a great way to cap off the year. With some key fixes and several important security updates, the MODx project is proud to announce the final release for 2008: 0.9.6.3.
While the version bump would seem to indicate a minor update, it actually contains more than 100 improvements, important security updates, usability tweaks and bug fixes. As a project, we're paying a lot of attention to non-English languages, particularly multi-byte and RTL languages. While we're by no means close to perfect on those fronts, this release should be the best to date, and we will continue to improve. Without boring you to tears reciting the change log, a few highlights include:
- Revised installer that helps to properly set database charsets and collations while maintaining compatibility with upgrades for existing installations. This should help with non-English multi-byte languages.
- Updated core components including Ajax Search, TinyMCE rich text editor and TVs.
- Improved diagnostic reporting and Manager checks.
- Addressed multiple potentially exploitable security concerns.
This release also marks our final release as the "old MODx". In 2009 you're going to see Evolution and Revolution take over as the MODx platforms. Evolution will surface a cleaned up code base sharing the legacy parser, Manager and core with which you're already familiar. Revolution is a ground-up rewrite of everything MODx. And yes, Revo will include tools to help you import your existing sites.
Evo and Revo will also do a better job of separating the core MODx platform from the add ons that everyone loves. This is an important distinction to help us make MODx a more maintainable, robust and agile platform for the future. There will still be helpful and instructive demo content available from a dedicated installation, it's just no longer "part of the core". In Revo the installer has transformed into an amazing web based system your can run right from your Manager. We think both the community and developers will love it.
Behind the scenes a lot of things have been going on with the day to day project maintenance as well. Most are probably not aware, but MODx has for months now had several long-standing community members working full time on code. We're hard at work on crafting some strategic relationships with other projects and services too that can benefit the MODx community–including shared, VPS and dedicated hosting partners that we thoroughly vet and test. 2009 should also see at least two books on MODx published in English, joining the one from 2007 in Japan. And there's also the completely new MODx support site due out soon. Let's just say 2009 will be a milestone year for MODx.
If you're new to MODx or have been sitting on the sidelines for a while, I say now is the greatest time ever to get involved in MODx and the community. Here's some helpful links to get you started:
- Latest Install
- The forums
- The old wiki
- The new Confluence wiki with the official MODx documentation – please help us make it better
- JIRA bug tracker
- Bob Ray's MODx for Newbies guide
- Susan Ottwell's MODx from the Inside articles
- MODx source code feed
In closing, I'd like to thank the community for making MODx what it is. Without it, there'd be no reason for me writing this post and getting to live out my MODx-dream each day of changing the world one website at a time. Here's to 2009 and the future of MODx!
Comments (0)
Thrilled to hear MODx is going to super-saiyan itself in 2009, I didn't imagine so much was happening behind the curtains...
Happy New Year to the team and our great community!
Viel Innovation, Programmiergeschick, Freude am Weiterentwickeln....
Merci!
Thank you.
Looking forward revolution!
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