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• upgraded/changed HTML4 functionality that is no longer valid HTML5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

ocProducts would like to announce the development of three new free addons for the ocPortal CMS which will be added soon to the ocPortal addon catalogue.

The first addon is entitled “ocPuurrrrr”. This addon automatically populates your image of the day with 40 images of LOLcats. We realised everyone loves images of funny cats and decided to make it easier for our CMS users to be able to show their affection.

While ocPortal is, as ever committed to being completely 100% Virus free our second addon, ocDeadpeople, allows you to release rampant plagues (such as "Zombieism" & "Vampirism") among your members. The plagues cause your members to lose site points and can be cured by buying a cure from the point store. Obviously if you have lost too many points you will have to generate more by posting and interacting on the site. We aren't completely heartless as each ocDeadpeople addon comes pre-packaged with both a cure and a vaccine for every disease which can be purchased from the site point store.....for the right price of course.

Our third new addon is entitled ocJester. Every site needs its own comedian and now you have the chance to be that very person. With ocJester you get to play pranks on your members, such as making all the emoticons follow them around the page or changing all appearance's of it's to appear as its and vice versa.

We think these are 3 new fun things for your site & these addons will soon appear in the ocPortal addon gallery for you to download.

We are offering an opportunity, available to all, to come and spend a day with us in our office, to see how we work and spend the day using ocPortal. ocPortal is an open source CMS with many features and benefits. We believe this will be fulfilling both for those people who can make it, as well as for us…

• You get to spend a day in our office and have questions answered relating to ocPortal, (and maybe a cup of tea/coffee or ten, bring your own red bull though .

• We get some help with our documentation and help finding where it could be clearer. This is really important to us which is why we're opening our doors for what is effectively free informal training (for a limited time only).

The ocPortal office is located in Sheffield (England) and is about 25 minutes walk from the train station but it is easy to find. Sheffield is located just off the M1 (Junction 33). We can arrange parking if you are driving as long as we have enough notice. Please note that we cannot provide traveling or accommodation costs.

You can either reply to the topic on the ocPortal forum, send me a Personal Topic on the ocPortal forum or email me on steven@ocproducts.com.

ocPortal 4.3 was released this week. The new version of ocPortal introduces a number of "bug fixes, performance improvements, and usability improvements". However, ocPortal also introduces some new features to make upgrading to the new version more enticing.

The new features that have been implemented in ocPortal 4.3 include:

• Wordpress, Joomla, and HTML website importers
• iCal exporter
• Quiz results CSV exporter
• New Comcode 'pulse' tag
• Improved shared-install functionality
• ocPortal can now run without a database (the inbuilt database is now a bundled feature, although not completely supported or recommended for production sites)
• New developer feature for the quick addition of language strings, written (temporarily) in-line into the code
• Support for running a server behind a proxy server

Additional details regarding ocPortal 4.3 can be found in the official ocPortal news announcement.

With a release candidate out for ocPortal 4.3, you can expect a number of improvements in the upcoming official release of ocPortal. This version is a feature release that introduces a number of bug fixes since the last release as well as performance improvements and new features.

The new features expected to be included in ocPortal 4.3:

• The "What's new" newsletter feature now allows you to easily re-order categories, change what categories are used, is better presented, and allows you to choose the reference date
• Added link to ocPortal's bookmarks feature on the screen-actions block (commented out by default though)
• Added Guest forum searching to OCF
  

By now, many of us are excited to see the finalists for this year's Packt Publishing Open Source CMS (Content Management System) Award competition, the annual contest in which dozens of companies compete to be highlighted as the year's finest Content Management System.

Entering its fourth year, this competition has grown nearly five-fold and is widely regarded as the most prestigious award available in the CMS industry. But as successful as the competition has become, it sadly suffers from inherent issues which prevent it from truly presenting today's gamut of CMS choices in a valuable way.

Here is the reason: to even be considered as a finalist in the competition, each CMS is judged on exactly one condition: community vote counts. Granted, this can be a valid measure of a CMS's success, however today's CMS environment is very polarized. We see large majorities of people using Drupal, Joomla, and Wordpress, often simply because those are the CMSs in the headlines.

As a result, these CMSs are naturally going to have far more votes in every competition - they are votes from people who already use these CMSs and who rarely branch out to explore alternatives. This self-fulfilling cycle ensures that these few CMSs continue to dominate our headlines, simply because they were the early winners and can rely on their present install-base for votes, rather than relying on the merits, features, and usability of their own systems in comparison with other CMSs.