Giancarlo Berner wrote:
Hi Andy
In a way I am surprised to read your E-mail. Especially since you
claim to be a contributor to JBoss and XDoclet. I would imagine that
you have a deep knowledge into Java/JSP and App Server in general.
Each Community, as the Magnolia one, NEEDS people like you to help
them go ahead. So it's really sad you want to jump off.
I was a former JBoss contributor:
http://www.cenqua.com/clover/eg/jboss/report/org/jboss/management/
j2ee/RMI_IIOPResource.html
Well, I did contribute to Magnolia see:
http://www.magnolia.info/wiki/Wiki.jsp?
page=InstallMagnolia21OnJBoss4
Still, I cannot work on all open-source projects and so I have to be
picky about that. Being burned by "who made the money" when JBoss was
sold I am especially worried how a commercial entity that control the
project is handling the community and that is the fact that let me
jump off.
But what really surprises me is that with your undoubtedly qualified
developer knowledge, you did not seem focused enough to find the few
reasons for Magnolia to move from 2.1 to 3.0. You definitely would
have separated the Magnolia APPLICATION from the Jackrabbit
REPOSITORY. Yes, the guys at Magnolia did a tremendous job in
updating
the Magnolia CMS. You will not find anything similar and as easy to
use (and for free!). Magnolia would definitely be up-dateable easily,
if it was only for Magnolia! But the reason why Magnolia 2.1 and 3.0
are not compatible is the CONTENT REPOSITORY API FOR JAVA TECHNOLOGY
(aka JSR 170 standard). So unfortunately the reason for not being
compatible is NOT the CMS, but the changes the repository had gone
through! On the other side you also must accept (in fact, we all
appreciate that) that Magnolia is growing up. Magnolia is very common
among large enterprises and therefore has to meet the according
requirements. These enterprise specific enhancements ("Modules") have
been separated from the Community Edition, simply to not confuse the
Community. The core is absolutely the same for CE and EE!
If that is the case I don't see the point why Magnolia Ltd. is
charging
for the migration tool. The company already did the job so why
should I
do it again. If you really want to get me to contribute then make my
life easier so I might have some time to contribute back.
I am not confusing the CC and the EE. I, you and Magnolia Ltd.
wants to
make money and I have no problems with that. But going to charge the
open-source community and all its users for a simple and one-time
migration tool is telling the community that "we got your balls and
now
we can squeeze you". Maybe not that malicious but that is the general
direction.
I myself was also disappointed that I could not migrate easily from
2.1 to 3.0 (and I got many projects of all sorts of sizes) but we
really can't blame Magnolia International for that. In fact, we can
not blame the guys from the JSR 170 project either, since the changes
to the repository were necessary and important (but made it
incompatible to prior versions).
Still, Magnolia Ltd. has a tool and takes advantage of it. Changes
happens and I don't mind it. But if Magnolia Ltd. wants to keep the
community alive to give the tool away for free is a small price to
pay.
However, Andy, if I would have invested all the work you did for your
company's website (seems like 2 years) I would not give up that
easily. In our business we know that there are fifty ways to solve a
problem! One solution would be getting the "Packager" from Ralph
Hirning, another one, what I have done, is to write a small "Node
Transfer" servlet. The servlet simply reads from one repository and
writes into the other. Most websites I migrated where done in 4 to 8
hours... Knowing, that the "incompatibility" is due to the repository
might help you figure out a migration path. If not, just drop me an
E-Mail and I gladly will help you find a way.
Again, that is the point. I am not happy that a commercial entity that
controls the project is taking advantage of the fact that I have
either
to scrap my investment or to pay for a tool. Of course I could go
ahead
and write it myself but I do not get it that if it is already done why
do it have to waste my time with it.
Currently I am working on fixing bugs in the JDK that goes into 1.7
and
that is satisfying but not writing a stupid tool to migrate.
But what I don't agree with, is your assumption that Magnolia "has
lost touch" with the community! Magnolia has still one of the largest
communities! There are more than 150'000 Magnolia downloads
worldwide.
So assuming, that a quarter of the downloads have turned into
projects, results in more than 37'000 installations. Magnolia is
really very easy to use and therefore users do not have many reasons
to write to the user list. On the other hand the repository and
Magnolia have been packed with so many features and utilities,
that it
reached a degree of complexity which does not anymore allow a
developer to just quickly dig into some source and develop a web
site.
BTW: there were several discussions and suggestions in the dev and
user list on how to migrate to Magnolia 3.0!
Well, I don't know how you know that there are 37k installations
because
at JBoss we never knew who many installation of JBoss there out
there. I
am just wondering where is an integrated Wiki, Blog etc because
that is
what the other open-source CMS provide. Finally I could not find any
discussion in the users list on how to migrate to 3.0.
Well, too bad you want to leave the community. But take it as a
personal advise: I would reconsider your decision. There is no Open
Source CMS out there which comes close to the "dream-team"
Magnolia/Content Repository. The power is in the integration of an
easy to use CMS and a powerful, hierarchically organized, repository.
Maybe you should get a reality check. The only reason I am still with
Magnolia is the fact that it runs fine in JBoss, that it is Java and
that it is website focused in contrast the other open-source projects
are more portal focused. So far Magnolia did fine what I needed it for
but any migration was a hassle. This time it lost faith in the
Magnolia
Ltd. as the controlling entity and so I cut my looses now rather than
being charged again and again down the road.
One personal advice from me: please check out the other open-source
CMS
applications just to get a feel for the reality. It is great to
believe
in a project one is working for but one should never forget to look
over
ones shoulders.
-Andy
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