7.5.2010 von Sascha Kersken.

Wikis have turned out to be one of the best means of documentation for open source projects. We at papaya CMS have been knowing this for quite a while — and now we’ve finally put the theory into practice. So here’s the English papaya CMS wiki, and we’ve also got a German one. The latter has got more content for now, because a colleague has written some great scripts to import docbook documentation into wikis, but we’re still working on more content for the English wiki. For example, I’ve started to write a tutorial on developing papaya modules using test driven development.

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24.2.2010 von Sascha Kersken.

Yesterday, the Apache HTTP Server officially celebrated its 15th birthday, even though the “date of birth” has been chosen somewhat randomly, according to this (German) Heise Online article ;). I am happy that I have shared most of its life; my first Apache installation dates back to 1997. Since then, the “Native American” has been a good companion in all business and private projects. Although I have tried alternatives like Tomcat (from the Apache Software Foundation as well), lighttpd, Zeus, or even IIS, I have never had the urge to use anything else than Apache httpd in production.

What many administrators and developers like particularly about Apache, even after all those years, is its unmatched stability as well as its flexibility — beside the numerous (now dynamically loadable) modules that are delivered with the server, there is an even larger number of third-party modules that expand Apache beyond its core competence (which is, of course, its high-capacity and RFC-compliant delivery of websites): Programming web applications in dozens of different languages, authentication against virtually every database or service, security extensions, and many more.

In 2004, the first edition of my (German) textbook about this unusual piece of open source software was published. Although version 1.3 — that even now does not seem to vanish completely — still had a considerable market share, I decided — with the publisher’s consent — to concentrate on the new and extremely improved version 2.0. Writing the book was of course an ideal way to intensify my Apache knowledge, because every solution presented in it had to be practically tested and optimized. About one year ago, the third edition was published, now fully concentrating on the still current version 2.2.In a few months, version 2.4 (which is still 2.3-alpha) will be published; while in version 2.2, the authentication modules were extended and improved, the next version will especially feature a rework of the authentication — the well-known  Order/Allow/Deny directives will be given up for good and be replaced by more flexible solutions. Despite of growing competition, it is still fun to use Apache, and I’m looking forward to seeing another 15 years with my favorite Indian.

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1.11.2009 von Sascha Kersken.

On Monday, October 26, 2009, it was finally done: The Cologne-based papaya Software company (where I’ve been working as a senior developer since 2007) has published the final release of version 5.0 of the open source content management system papaya CMS. This version has already been in use in customers’ projects for quite a while. You can download the PHP-based, enterprise-ready CMS at http://www.papaya-cms.com/download.71.html. On the same page, you can find the 1,300-page manual that tells you all about installation, configuration, and practical use of papaya CMS.

The most important features of the new version include the following:

- Multilevel caching system to increase performance, now including caching of XSLT templates using xslcache
- Clustering and cloud computing abilities (papaya is an  Amazon Web Services Solution Provider)
- Mutlilingual websites
- Numerous new and improved modules (most of them are free and included with the basic package, only a few are commercial), e.g. community (a large part of which is my baby ;)), media database, forum/BBS, calendar, multi domain support (VHosts within the CMS), and many more

Apart from the new features, all the strengths of previous papaya CMS versions have been preserved. For example, it consequently uses open standards — especially neither a custom nor a PHP-based templating system, but the W3C standard XSLT: All content is generated as media-neutral XML and then rendered into valid (X)HTML, PDF, or any other output format using XSLT templates. But papaya is not limited to its CMS abilities; it also works as a powerful framework for web applications of all kinds. For instance, it contains a well-designed interface for several databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite) including debugging and logging functions for developers, as well as numerous standard classes that cover any important tool you might need to build websites.

Here is an excerpt of the media coverage for the release (most of it in German):

- papaya CMS at heise.de / c’t
- papaya CMS at t3n.de
- papaya CMS at contentmanager.de
- papaya CMS at internet-professionell.de
- papaya CMS at PHP Magazin
- papaya CMS at it-chuiko.com
- papaya CMS at it-administrator.de
- papaya CMS at entwickler.de

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12.3.2009 von Sascha Kersken.

My result:

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24.9.2008 von Sascha Kersken.

I’ve been a bit too slow to register the domain “open-source-blog.de”. At least it’s in good hands — two of my colleagues from papaya Software GmbH are doing a nice German-language blog about Open Source stuff, as you can easily see for yourself in my blog roll or right here.

To avoid confusion, I’ve decided to rename this blog to “Free Software Blog” (free as in freedom, not as in free beer, mind you). And I’ve just registered the domain “free-software-blog.de” under which you will soon find this humble blog.

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13.3.2008 von Sascha Kersken.

Just two weeks ago, hobnox.com launched their portal site. Hobnox is an innovative online community service that aims to interconnect musicians and other creatives as well as their fans. The site is completely based on papaya CMS 5. As the first live papaya-based website it contains all of the new community features including user connections, dynamic profile data, and much more. You can use most of these features for your own website as they are included in papaya CMS’s base community module.

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4.12.2007 von Sascha Kersken.

If you want to look at what we’ve been busy with during the last few months, you can now check out the first Release Candidate of papaya CMS 5.0. Besides, the (German) documentation has been published. Download and more information: http://www.papaya-cms.com/

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4.10.2007 von Sascha Kersken.

(Saying hello in my favorite programming language, Ruby, which of course is open source.)

Why an Open Source Blog?

Open Source, or Free Software, is more than just something you don’t have to pay for. More importantly, it grants you the freedom to use software the way you need to and not the way its vendor wants you to use it. This freedom for developers, administrators, and users needs to be extended and to be defended: against attempts of politics and economy to ban it or to threaten its users, against commercial abuse, but also against too naive and optimistic fans who believe that the mere growth of open source usage would automatically create a more liberal society. Though the idea of open source was linked to a more political world improvement movement of the 1970s, it has steered away from that during the last few years. The advantage of this fact is that open source is being used by more and more people who are not deeply into IT, and even by corporations, politics, and administration. The downside of it, though, is that a decreasing part of the open source community thinks about political implications. Only few people are able to recognize threats against free software and even against free society — such as some important politicians’ Big Brother mentality, data-hungry corporations, or lobby pressure to start software patents in the EU.

With this blog, I’d like to keep you up to date about new and exciting open source tools, but also keep a look at the state of society — software development, like any other human activity, rather takes place in the real world than in an ivory tower. In this respect, I will ignore any “What’s this got to do with open source/software/computers/IT?”-style comments.

Why am I doing an Open Source Blog?

Since 1995, I’ve been using open source software for nearly every task where there’s a free alternative available. For me, the Linux operating system, the Apache web server, the MySQL database server, and the PHP web scripting language (yes: LAMP) are the most important of these tools, my everyday toolbox. To help other developers to get used to these programs and to persuade them of their advantages, I wrote a few (German language) textbooks and articles about them.

I put my own little tools and teaching programs under open source licenses, usually under the GNU GPL. Since April 2007, developing open source software has even been my main profession: I’m working for papaya Software GmbH in Cologne, Germany, as a developer of the PHP-based web content management system papaya CMS.

Please note that I’m not an open source dogmatist but an IT pragmatist. I do know Windows and work with it, I’m the author of a textbook about Adobe Flash, and I do use commercial programs when they are useful. To create an open and just society with equal chances (in which free software licenses are only one small aspect of many) and to find a future worth living for all mankind seems far more important to me than to fanatically adore open source software.

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