The ocPortal development team is pleased to announce that ocPortal 7.1 has now entered beta.

ocPortal 7.1 brings full support for HTML5 and for the schema.org meta-data initiative that Google/Yahoo/Bing jointly announced on Thursday 2nd June. This article explains how we have received schema.org, and how we have implemented it into ocPortal.

We feel that schema.org is a very important project, and is perfectly aligned with the goals and nature of ocPortal, so we have scrambled to release a solid implementation (achieved within 3 days).

Not only should schema.org support enhance the Search Engine Optimization of ocPortal websites, it really opens up new interoperability possibilities. For example, look at how Microsoft have been using 'tiles' in  Windows Phone, and the recent Windows 8 demo. This is a great example of how semantic markup can be used to create rich interfaces from website data. Because ocPortal now provides this data automatically, in the standardized schema.org microdata format, ocPortal webmasters need not do anything to enable these kinds of interoperabilities.

Specifically, we have implemented the following into ocPortal from HTML5:

• Use of the XHTML5 doctype
• Use of HTML5 semantics tags: header, footer, aside, nav, article, time, output
• upgraded/changed HTML4 functionality that is no longer valid HTML5
• workarounds to make Internet Explorer display pages reliably when HTML5 tags are present
• (We already supported, and continue to support, HTML5 video)
• (We already supported, and continue to support, HTML5 drag and drop upload)

And the following from schema.org:

• WebPage (the default, and we properly support marking up elements such as breadcrumbs, and what the prominent navigation links are)
• ProfilePage (authors, member profiles)
• ContactPage (various contact blocks, support tickets)
  

Version 6.0.3 of ocPortal was released over the weekend. This version is a patch release that introduces a number of bug fixes since the last release. Although th focus of this release is to fix software bugs, there are some new feature included in this latest release.

New features included in ocPortal 6.0.3 are:

• Automatic backup of edited language files against the latest edited version, in case a developer uploads their own local changes on top.
• Support for favicons, iOS icon, and system avatar, in debrand tool.
• Support for Facebook's Open Graph Protocol to the default theme (so Facebook links get a nice thumbnail and caption relevant to the page being linked to).
• The ocf_rules script can now show site rules as well as forum rules; useful for themers themeing the signup form who want rules in a popup.

Upgrading is suggested by the ocPortal developers due to large number of fixes. See the release announcement  at ocPortal.com for additional details and upgrade procedures.

Open source ocPortal 6, a Web content management system, was recently made available to the public. ocPortal 6 is a major new version that incorporates many improvements and improves ocPortal's usability. Despite the significant changes in ocPortal 6, compatibility is expected to remain high with previous versions. The developers of ocPortal strongly advise upgrading to this version of ocPortal due to the significant performance and stability improvements.

Some of the new features and improvements in ocPortal 6 include:

Usability:

• Install profiles built into the Setup Wizard now allow you to set up a new site really easily. Choose from: blog, community site, info site, portfolio and shopping site.
• A smaller core. Many former 'core' addons are no longer core, meaning you can strip back and simplify your ocPortal site more than ever (don't worry though, they are still bundled and there by default, nothing is removed). Simplifying ocPortal for new users and small sites is a critical part of our strategy to increase ocPortal adoption.
• A new Add Comcode Tag button has been placed on forms, which allows you to fill in a simple form to add any Comcode tag rather than typing it by-hand. This brings into the open a lot of very rich functionality that existed in ocPortal that many users won't have realised was there (for example, carousels, or tab navigation).
  

Following ocPortal's new feature tracker becoming established we wanted to make this announcement to a wider audience outside of our forum. Since the news item below there have been 11 new features added for discussion and 37, almost 20%, have been resolved.

Since the original release we are now working on Version 5 rather than 4.4 due to the amount of changes made. You can expect an announcement about this in the next few days.

Original news forum article:

Preceding the expected release of ocPortal version 4.4,  we are pleased to announce a new feature tracker which we will be using to plan future features. The tracker shows all 177 feature areas we currently have for consideration for future versions of ocPortal, laid out for anyone to see and comment on. In the past we have planned ocPortal in private so this is a huge change for us and a huge release of what were previously private plans.

The purpose of the feature tracker is to highlight current and future developments within ocPortal and allow the community to have a say and make suggestions. Each issue or feature in the database has a description of the intended functionality, a time estimation, and a clear layout of dependencies and risk management data (which gives an impression to how the developers likely see it in terms of schedule for implementation).

We hope the new feature tracker helps foster a greater feeling of inclusivity amongst our community and a real foundation for transparency and engagement. You shouldn't expect everything on this list to be "around the corner" but it does give everyone a chance to have their say, and help foster a shared vision.

The ocPortal feature tracker can be found here:
http://ocportal.com/tracker/my_view_page.php