Montag, 28. März 2011

Alkacon Software launches OpenCms 7.5.4

Alkacon and OpenCms logo

Version 7.5.4 of OpenCms is now ready and available for download.

OpenCms is one of the most popular Open Source Content Management Solutions. This new version was developed by Alkacon Software GmbH with the support of the international OpenCms developer community.

OpenCms 7.5.4 is a maintenance release that fixes a number of issues that persisted in the 7.5.3 version. Some new features have been added as well.

Main fixed issues and improvements in OpenCms 7.5.4

  • Fixed issue #1717: DB deadlock if OpenCms hits db.pool.default.maxActive when db.pool.default.whenExhaustedAction=block
  • Fixed issue #1900: Performance Patch for OpenCms
  • Fixed issue #1901: Workplace login page security issue
  • Fixed issue #1909: Internet Explorer crashes after saving structured XML content with image added from gallery into HTML field
  • Fixed issue #1942: Publish scheduled jobs are missing after server restart
  • Fixed issue #1945: Avoid reflected XSS on some authenticated resources (provided by Michele Orru)
  • Fixed issue #1949: Database size does not decrease after (completely) deleting resources
  • Fixed issue when creating a new user or editing an existing user using an Oracle database
  • Fixed issue using delete and lock resource when called without path parameter
  • Fixed issue in galleries: Broken layout with long item file names or titles
  • Fixed premature publish thread interruption within CmsShell
  • FCKEditor compatible with Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 4
  • Added new optional CmsShell start parameter to load additional commands

 Please check out the release notes for further details of the changes in this release.

General Features of OpenCms 7.5

  • "Direct Edit" allows editing of content directly from a web page.
  • Structured contents can be defined using a simple XML schema.
  • XML content Editor for structured content / pages generated automatically from an XML schema.
  • Support for grouping of content in tabs in the XML content editor.
  • Includes editor with syntax highlighting functionality for all text based files (e.g. XML, HTML, JSP)
  • WYSIWYG editor available for unstructured pages.
  • Easy to use "Online / Offline" workflow.
  • All changes or new pages must be approved / published first before they become visible "Online".
  • Our "Content Relationship Engine" (CRE) allows management of relations / links in the system.
  • Full internal link management for all resources.
  • If files (or folders) are moved, all links to these files are kept intact.
  • Native support for WebDAV access to the OpenCms VFS.
  • Integrated image processing / scaling and cropping.
  • Images and other content are organized in galleries with advanced AJAX features.
  • Gallery dialogs support grouping of content by category or based on folder.
  • Integrated full text search for web pages, but also in PDF, MS Office documents etc.
  • Offline search indexing for changes that are not published.
  • Full featured internal user management that supports the concept of "Organizational Units" (OUs).
  • It is possible to delegate management of users / groups in OUs to Sub-Administrators.
  • User permissions based on a complete set of system "Roles".
  • Extensions can be added through a full featured module system.
  • A "time warp" feature in the Workplace allows users to view resources with date expired / date released settings.
  • JSP integration allows standards based creation of dynamic functionality in templates, dynamic forms etc.
  • Support for Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS SQL Server, DB2, AS400 and HSQLDB databases included.
  • Distribution includes a complete demo website "Wonderful World of Flowers".
  • ... and many more

OpenCms 7.5.4 is fully backward compatible to all prior 7 versions. We recommend everyone who uses an earlier version of OpenCms to update to the 7.5.4 release. OpenCms 7.5 is largely backward compatible with version 6. An easy to use update wizard for OpenCms Version 6 and prior 7 installations for MySQL, Oracle and PostgreSQL is available.

Notice for users of Alkacon OCEE: OpenCms version 7.5.4 requires Alkacon OCEE version 2.1.4 or later. In case you want to update your OpenCms installation to 7.5.4, please make sure you update Alkacon OCEE to 2.1.4 or later first!

About OpenCms

Independent research has shown OpenCms to be a market leading solution amongst Open Source CMS systems. The software has been in continuous development for the last 9 years and has an active community of Open Source developers.


More than 100 international IT companies have been registered as official OpenCms Solution Provider on the OpenCms website. A steadily growing list of reference sites also shows the increasing use of OpenCms.

OpenCms is an enterprise - ready web content management solution build in Java and XML from open source components. OpenCms can easily be deployed on almost any existing IT infrastructure and provides powerful features especially suited for medium and large enterprise internet or intranet applications. OpenCms is open source software distributed under the LGPL license.

Alkacon Software GmbH is the company responsible for the development of OpenCms. Today OpenCms is a leading open source CMS solution in widespread use all over the world. Many businesses and organizations use OpenCms as a cost effective, professional alternative to expensive license products.

Alkacon Software GmbH offers its customers training, support and add-on products for OpenCms. This gives our customers a layer of security and convenience often required for mission critical OpenCms installations. Please see the Alkacon product overview for more details.


The team at Alkacon Software - The OpenCms Experts wants to thank everyone who has contributed to this release of OpenCms.

Donnerstag, 17. März 2011

OpenCms Days 2011 - Complete conference program available


OpenCms Days 2011 will take place from Monday, May 09 to Tuesday, May 10 in Cologne, Germany.


The complete conference program for OpenCms Days 2011 is now available at the conference website. The program features 16 sessions with numerous high-profile speakers from all over the world. OpenCms Days 2011 will be the largest event for the OpenCms community this year.

Register your ticket now - only a limited number of seats are available!

Regular conference registration price: 200,- Euro

The OpenCms 8 User Experience

OpenCms 8 will bring a major update of the content manager user interface. The new Advanced Direct Edit feature will allow content managers to create, modify and publish new pages directly with drag & drop on their web pages, making OpenCms much more user friendly.


The final version of OpenCms 8 will be made available for public download on the first day of the conference. A release candidate version of OpenCms 8 will be downloadable earlier.

The conference will provide a unique opportunity to learn about the new features of OpenCms 8 directly from the developers.

OpenCms Days 2011 conference will feature 2 parallel tracks with Showcase and Workshop sessions:

  • Showcase track sessions will present a variety of OpenCms show cases and best practices from OpenCms projects all over the world.
  • Workshop sessions for developers provide in-depth, hands-on presentations and workshops about the new technical features in OpenCms 8.

At the OpenCms Days 2011 conference expo, OpenCms solution providers will exhibit their OpenCms business solutions and enhancements.

OpenCms Days 2011 is targeted towards an international audience. The language spoken at the event is English, and all presentations will be held in English language.


OpenCms Days 2011 conference and expo is an event organized by Alkacon Software GmbH. The goal of the event is to promote OpenCms and strengthen the OpenCms community.


Mittwoch, 2. März 2011

Alkacon Software releases OAMP HtmlCleaner Module for OpenCms


Alkacon Software - The OpenCms Experts

Using the new OAMP HtmlCleaner Module an OpenCms content manager gains full control of the usage of HTML tags and attributes. The HtmlCleaner removes or replaces tags and attributes in HTML documents fully automatic in compliance with the freely configurable preset.

HtmlCleaner eliminates unnecessary white space from HTML code. Compact file-size of HTML sources could help increase website performance through optimized page response time. Once configured the module works stealthy and helps observe coding standards and naming conventions.

Now available for download from www.alkacon.com.

The Alkacon OAMP HtmlCleaner Module features:

  • removes invalid tags and attributes from HTML.
  • can be applied to selected single files or folders or even up to complete folder structures and sites.
  • complete configuration of an Alkacon HtmlCleaner is done in one file.
  • ability to process HTML and non-validating XML.
  • removes unnecessary white space.

The module is available with full source code and documentation.

All Alkacon OAMP modules are released as full Open Source under the GNU GPL version 3. The source code of the modules is freely available in the public CVS of cvs.opencms.org.


Go to the Alkacon OAMP download page