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Preview to SilverStripe 2.4 - Support for SQL Server and other improvements with Microsoft technology
In the countdown to the SilverStripe CMS 2.4 release, we'll be running some interviews with people involved in key aspects of our upcoming release.
First up is Sean Harvey, one of SilverStripe's early employees. Sean has been working for more than a year now on various improvements in SilverStripe to do with the Microsoft platform, and answers some questions put to him below:
SilverStripe is an open source software written in PHP. Why is it important to support Microsoft technology?
SilverStripe v2.4 progresses to release candidate 1
Today we've moved significantly closer to a final and stable version of SilverStripe v2.4. You can now download SilverStripe v2.4 Release Candidate 1, which fixes bugs and incorporates feedback from the community since our Beta releases.
We'd appreciate you testing this release, and seeing whether your existing sites upgrade smoothly to this version.Version 2.4 does represent a major version update, providing a number of new features needed to run larger and more complex websites. Whether you're needing to run on SilverStripe on another database, make use of nested URLs, or keen to take advantage of improved performance or wider unit-test coverage, there's something in this release that will help everyone who uses SilverStripe.
Now that we've reached Release Candidate 1, the features in SilverStripe 2.4 are finalised. We have described the major features in earlier posts, but you can look forward to hearing about them in much more depth as we head towards the final release.
SilverStripe 2.4 beta release brings hierarchical URLs, SQL Server support, and much more
We're extremely excited to announce SilverStripe v2.4 is now at beta release stage!
This means it's ready for testing by our community. We've made a number of changes since the 2.4 alpha release in November, and we're continuing to polish the intended features in preparation for the stable version. We do not recommend using this version of SilverStripe for production sites yet unless extensive testing is done.
250,000 downloads
2009 was a very positive year for our download statistics: we surpassed 250,000 downloads!
In 2010 we look forward to growing that number significantly.
Our work on SilverStripe v2.4 is almost complete and many of its new features are designed to make our software even more attractive in an even wider range of uses and environments. For instance, supporting SQL Server and Postgres databases significantly improves on SilverStripe's compatibility, and makes it an attractive option for customers who have not previously considered it. We look forward to maintaining our focus on the needs of our users and increasing market share accordingly.
SilverStripe 2.3.5 released
Yesterday we released an update to the SilverStripe CMS. As it fixes security vulnerabilities in our software, we recommend that production websites should upgrade to this version.
No API changes are generated in this release, so existing modules and websites should upgrade easily. Related to this release, we also issued a security update for the SilverStripe forum module.
Join us at Linux.Conf.Au Open Day
A free event for people interested in open source software will be held at the Wellington Town Hall this Saturday, 23 January. Running from 11am to 2pm, the open day is a rare opportunity to meet key people from around the world committed to the open source movement.
The day comprises exhibition booths showcasing open source software, a number of talks, and fun activities for kids as well as hardware and software hackers. The open day is the final event in the week-long Linux.Conf.Au conference, which has placed Wellington at the epicenter of the global open source movement. We hope to see you there - you'll find us at table number 15.
SilverStripe recognised in global software award
Every year Packt Publishing, a tech book publisher, runs a global award for the best open source CMS. In 2009, SilverStripe had its best result yet.
The Packt CMS Award is a major award: many thousands of people around the world rate their favourite CMS, before judges thoroughly evaluate the most popularly voted software. There is no more significant worldwide competition that rates open source or proprietary content management platforms, so we're very proud of our year-on-year progress:
Microsoft WinCache benchmarks show 2x performance boost
Running SilverStripe on your Windows environments has just become faster!
Benchmarking done by our European partner iBuildings shows some dramatic performance improvements with Microsoft's new WinCache 1.0 PHP bytecode cache. The release of WinCache means that the past performance disadvantage of running SilverStripe on the Windows IIS web server (as opposed to Apache on Linux) has been largely eliminated. Microsoft describes the tool as containing three caches:
SilverStripe 2.3.4 released
SilverStripe v2.3.4 has just been released! This is now the best version of our software to use. This version solves a number of bugs, some of which relate to security vulnerabilities. Thanks go to community members who identified bugs and contributed fixes to them!
Download SilverStripe-v2.3.4.tar.gz
English SilverStripe book now in Wellington libraries
The English edition of the SilverStripe book is now in libraries in Wellington, the home of SilverStripe.
Due to popular demand the books are already on loan, but you can reserve the book online through both the Hutt City Libraries and Wellington City Libraries websites, as seen below:
On to “The news!” - News via the ModelAdmin
Simon 'Sphere' Erkelens is a freelance developer, fulltime employee of We::Code in the Netherlands with a tertiary background in applied physics. Before that, Simon worked for Squal Media. He started using SilverStripe at the end of 2009. Simon has given multiple presentations on implementing...
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