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OS History   (Content)

See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html for more explanation of the difference between the two movements.

The basic philosophy behind open source is very simple: When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it, people adapt it, and people fix the bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing.

There are many active Open Source Software projects but some may be thinking you get what you pay for, so if it's free there must be something wrong with it. Sometimes this is true but there are open source software projects providing stable, scalable applications. The key is to know where to look and what to look for when evaluating the stability and scalability.

Here are a few interesting facts and examples of Open Source projects:

Apache is the number one web server at nearly 62% of all installations. Second place was help by Microsoft at just under 27%. (Source: Netcraft)
GNU/Linux is the number two operating system at nearly 30% of all servers behind Microsoft operating system at nearly 50%. (Source: Netcraft)

Sendmail (a mail transport agent) sendmail has become one of the standards of the Internet's infrastructure (TCP/IP, Apache, sendmail).

BIND the Berkley Internet Naming Daemon responsible for mapping domain names to IP addresses ran on 95% of all public reverse DNS servers. (Source: Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California).
MySQL founded in 1995 by two open source veterans, Michael "Monty" Widenius and David Axmark, with the help of Allan Larsson and claims 4 million installations worldwide and 30,000 downloads of the software per day making MySQL by far the planet's most widely distributed open-source database. (Source: mySQL)

PHP is a widely used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML and as of May 2003 it was being used on 12,487,030 domains and 1,321,203 IP addresses. (Source: PHP)

Linux Operating System is over three years old and has grabbed 13.7 percent of the $50.9 billion market for server computers, and that figure is expected to jump to 25.2 percent in 2006, putting Linux in the No. 2 position. (Source: IDC)

SourceForge a site providing support tools and resources for the OSS/Free Software movement recently announced a major two year

Generated on February 27, 2009.

Going OpenID   (News)

(if you already know OpenID then jump directly to the last section about
OpenID in PostNuke)
OpenID - a Free, Decentralized Online Identity
OpenID is a relatively new web-technology for managing your online identity. It's primary purpose is to facilitate Single Sign On across independent websites. This means you can create yourself an OpenID identity and use that for login in to different websites without having to retype your password over and over again.
Your OpenID consists of a URL, e.g., http://jornwildt.myopenid.com, and the OpenID technology makes it possible for you to prove that you own this URL. So, when you want to log in to a website supporting OpenID, you type this URL and then the website takes care of the rest (almost). EnThinnai Blog compares OpenIDs to credit cards: credit cards are issued by someone, it proves your identity at the issuer, you can have as many cards as you want, and in OpenID's case you can even use them to get access to places.
You can also use your OpenID to sign a weblog comment without the need to register as a user on that website. No one else can do that with your URL so your comments cannot be spoofed by anyone.
Take a look at these demos of how it works in some applications: OpenID for WordPress.
OpenID on blogger.com.
OpenID at
plaxo.com.
On Simon Willison's website you can also see some good examples of what OpenID can be used for.
One very interesting thing is that OpenID has just been adopted by Yahoo! So now each and every one of the 250 million Yahoo! users have their own OpenID identity. Even Google, IBM, Microsoft, and VeriSign have signed up to support the new technology. With that kind of backing OpenID is no more a kids toy.
OpenID is of course not the perfect solution for everything
(see for instance idcorner.org) but I would say it is close to perfect for Single Sign On and signing comments in the web/PostNuke world I live in.
If you want to start using your own OpenID then get one at
myopenid.com - it's free and it's all you need.
OpenID in a PostNuke world
PostNuke should of course also have such a thing as OpenID for Single Sign On, user registration, signing comments and so on. So a new OpenID module for Single Sign On and user registration is on it's way (expected release in March or April). Have fun with it.
An OpenID implementation with PostNuke should also enable you to use your PostNuke installation as an Identity Provider, meaning that your OpenID could be YourName.YourSite.com. Hopefully the OpenID module will support this.
Other uses for OpenID in PostNuke could be to sign comments using the ezComments module or pre-allow access to certain Mediashare photo albums through your friends OpenIDs. Only the sky is the limit and OpenID is free for you to use and invent with.
Regards, Jørn Wildt

Generated on February 29, 2008.

A quick module 'til the end of 07 ?   (News)

generate it. Different validations call attention to incorrect or missing elements, so that always runnable modules are produced.

The module is completely separated from its technical realisation, the whole development cycle can happen on an abstract level. When new versions are released, pressing a button is sufficient to update a module.

This preview version only provides necessary means and should really be taken for a preview. There is much planned and there are also some messy bugs, but with some excercise one can do work of weeks in ten minutes already :-)


Download
Examples


You can find further information on the project homepage as well as in the application itself.

Have fun and a nice Christmas

Generated on December 21, 2007.

pnMeeting 2007: Jørn Wildt explains pnForms   (News)

ith pnFoms looks like: Automatic input validation, standardized feedback in case of invalid input and standardized form look & feel.

In the second part of his presentation Jørn looked into the code behind CoType - most of the examples came from the Wiki and made clear that pnForm will save a lot of work and take away the responsibility for usable forms a bit away from the programmer.

If you missed the broadcast, wait a few days for us to upload the videos to the noc

Generated on September 9, 2007.

How you can help Postnuke - Part 1   (News)

There are many general CMS, Coding, PHP aso communities all over the web. Tell them what we are doing.

Some examples:
Ohloh.net is an open source network that connects people through the software they create and use. This is were you can meet other developers and see what they are doing. The registered projects are analyzed and can be compared. On the Postnuke project homepage you find some very interesting information about Postnuke. Ohloh.net regards not only the Postnuke core but also some of the better known modules. Thus the statistics reflect the development of Postnuke as a whole. You can add your own repositories there and claim your code. Show those other devs, that you are there and what you are working on.

cmsshowcase.com collects websites and sorts them by the used CMS. There's not one Postnuke site in that list. You should take 2 minutes to submit your best Postnuke work.

If you are registered at xing.com you find a Postnuke Group with more than 50 professional Postnuke users - join us there.

Give presentations about Postnuke at Web Mondays or at BarCamps.

When you look for other CMS at youtube.com you find a load of tutorial videos - why don't we have any of those for Postnuke?

If you have a personal blog: write about Postnuke and what you do with it.

Maybe you have some ideas of your own that you like to share with us. Simply add a comment here!

Generated on September 5, 2007.

Jørn Wildt Proposes New Content Module   (News)

For the discussion see: http://community.postnuke.com/module-Forum-viewtopic-topic-53152-start-0.htm

Here is what Jørn has in mind:

[quote=Jørn Wildt]Dear PostNuke community

One of the things that always comes up when comparing PostNuke to other Content Management Systems is its lack of real content management. All we have is some old News, Pages and FAQ (and some more) management modules - nothing really fancy. You can add fancy modules like PagEd, Pagesetter, pnWiki and others but somehow they all lack, well, something - something which I find rather difficult to pinpoint. They are either too complex, too simple, impossible to extend and do not integrate well with each other.

I have been doing some thinking about this issue and would like to present some ideas for a new Content system in PostNuke. A framework that newbies can work with right out of the box, an extensible framework, and a framework with well integrated components that are aware of each other. My ideas are by no means rocket science and most, if not all, have been implemented else where - just not in PostNuke.

If you ask me then PostNuke is going to dwindle away unless something serious is done to add a good content framework. Here is my suggestion.

[b]Content Types[/b]
The core component is the "Content Type". For those of you that knows Pagesetter this is exactly the same as Pagesetter's Publication Type. This will be a separate module that takes care of defining content types, editing and displaying content items - but without user navigation! Think of an Article, with it's title, lead-in text, main text and image, as a content item of the type "Article". The type specifies the fields that are available for a single instance of the type - a single content item - a single Article.

Content Types are management by the site administrator (but can also be created by other modules). The admin can choose from an extensible (through plugins) list of field types. Here are some examples (mostly copied from Pagesetter):

- String (one line text), Text (non-HTML), HTML (using Scribite!)
- Number, checkbox, date
- Media files (using Mediashare)
- File uploads
- URL, email
- Computer code (text displayed with line numbers in mono spaced font)
- Category (using PN .8 categories), both single and multiple select.

Now you can create an article as a title (string), lead-in (text), main text (html) - and many other types of content. But there is still no navigation - neither on the admin side nor the user side. All you have is a Content module that allows you to create content types, content items and then display these - assuming you now the URLs. Navigation is delegated to other modules - more on that later on.

The core framework does also handle input form generation: it will auto-generate input forms (using pnForms in PN .8). These can then be copied to another location and re-designed using the standard Smarty templating system.

The core content module handles a few other things: for instance revision history (who changed what and when).

[b]Content Management[/b]
So far there's nothing new compared to Pagesetter. So lets take a look at the admin side of navigation - how to store and locate your content items. I suggest that all content items are stored in a folder structure identically to your standard disk drive. On the harddisk you manage folders and store files in them. In the CMS you also manage folders - but now you store content items in them - indifferently of the content type.

The first challenge is how to handle user contributed content since normal users don't have access to the administrative folder system. Now remember that the core Content system allows anyone (with the right permissions) to add content, but where should it be stored? I suggest a standard "incoming" folder is created for this purpose (much like your mail system). The editors can then keep an eye on this folder and move new content to the right folders.

Actually there should be one "incoming" folder for each content type and it should be possible to specify which it is. In addition to this the system should have a flexible workflow system a'la Pagesetter (now already in the .8 core). So that different editors and authors and admins can be notified when new submissions arrive.

[b]Content Structure[/b]
But there's still not much difference from Pagesetter. So what's the point? Well, enter CoType - this little module, which I'm rather proud of, has some nice layout features that I would like to copy. First of all you have Boxes - elements that can be floated left/right/top/bottom relative to the current content. In CoType you have boxes for media items, program examples, and general text. I would like to extend this so that you can put any content item inside a box. So you can display and Article and put one or more Media type items in boxes as illustrations.

Another thing to copy from CoType is the use of nested content - sections in sections. This concept should be extended, just like the boxes, with the ability nest any content item inside another item. The only problem here is how nested content should be displayed? In CoType you always have sections in sections (in a document) - and there's a well defined standard way to display this. But what happens if you sudden nest a Music album inside a FAQ inside a Media item ... and then box it? Well, that will have to be solved as we go.

I suggest the Content Type configuration lets the admin specify which types of content you can nest inside another.

The system could also enable boxing of other modules contents - assuming some kind of API/interface the external modules have to implement (just like PostNuke's search API).

[b]Content Layout[/b]
The proposed layout scheme is so far rather fixed - something like this:

- Top content item title is displayed inside ... tags.
- Nested content title is displayed in ... (and so on for further nesting).
- All nested content is displayed on one page.
- A small table-of-content is displayed at the top (linking to sub-content anchors).
- Each (nested) content item is displayed with a standard auto-generated template.
- Boxes floated to the left/right are displayed in 50% width (like CoType)
- Top/bottom boxes are displayed in 100% width (like CoType)

This will allow newbies to quick and easy created new content without having to also design their own templates. Assuming of course that the system comes with a suitable default set of content items.

Experienced users can edit and change the auto-generated templates. But these will be recreated everytime the administrator changes the Content Type configuration. So experienced users must copy the templates to another location and then edit them to fit their own needs.

[b]Navigation[/b]
So far I have ignored the concept of navigation between different content items completely. This is because it can be done in so many different ways - and this is mostly where the different types of PostNuke modules distinguish themselves. A media gallery has a completely different navigation paradigme than a News list, a Wiki and a Weblink collection.

So I propose to delegate navigation to other modules. This has already been done with success with a calendar (pgcalendar) and a news archive (pgarchive) for Pagesetter. These two modules takes a specific Content Type and displays it's items a calendar view and a monthly listing view. This combination is extremely strong - you can add all the fields you want on a Calendar item - and still display it using the standard calendar view. Throw in the nested content and the boxing ability and you get an extremely flexible and yet simple Content Management System.

[b]List Navigation[/b]
The basic navigation is simple a pageable list of items ordered by some criteria. You create different lists and then refer these in the URL. For each list you configure which content type(s) to include, the default sorting order, the display template to use for each item - probably more. Including more than one content type gives some problem with respect to sorting.

This implements the typical News list on the frontpage.

[b]Catalog Navigation (collections)[/b]
This is the typical Weblink and File Up/Download navigation through a collection. The hierarchy is mirrored directly from the content folders.

[b]Calendar Navigation[/b]
Displays content items by date in a calendar (see for instance [url=http://www.fgc.dk/index.php?module=pgcalendar&tid=40]http://www.fgc.dk/index.php?module=pgcalendar&tid=40[/url]). You need to specify which date fields to use as start/end date of the entries.

[b]Archive Navigation[/b]
Displays content in lists organized by month (see for instance [url=http://www.fjeldgruppen.dk/arkiv.html]http://www.fjeldgruppen.dk/arkiv.html[/url]).

[b]Menu Navigation[/b]
On thing that frustrates me with PostNuke is the horrible way you edit menus through the Block interface. No - lets allocate a complete module for menu editing and then just select which menu to display in which box (I believe Content Express does this). With the integrated content framework you can now let the editor select content items from dropdown lists or similar - and avoid having to copy/paste raw URLs into the menu editor (this has always been a intellectual bottleneck for the people I have created websites for).

I would also like to see editing of the menu directly in the front-end. The editor should always have an "add current page to menu" icon in the menu. He should also be able to drag and drop menu items without having to jump to the admin interface.

[b]Frontpage Setup[/b]
This is just another idea of what you can do - not necessarily something to actually implement. But the frontpage need not necessarily be a list of latest items as on most portal websites. It might also be a fixed setup based on a grid where you can assign different content items to different locations. For instance Articles to the left, Banners to the right, and a few images at the bottom.


[b]Where to go now?[/b]
Now who's going to implement all this? Good question considering the speed of the core development. I would love to be on the team (and will be) but my time is restricted (especially now that I got my first kid) so I work rather slowly.

Any volunteers?

There's also the question of organizing the code - we cannot have much more than one or maybe two developers on the core Content module. But as soon as that is ready we can take more people in - one for each kind of navigational scheme. Other people can then work on the default content types.

We also need to consider how a system like this fits into the PostNuke distribution. Does it have it's own release cycle? Is it integrated with the core?

Enjoy 8-)

/Jørn[/quote]

Generated on September 4, 2007.

New Shop, New Calendar - Postnuke Community gains speed again   (News)

New Community Modules
Have you seen Florian Schliessl's modules? The central module is pnProfile - an alternative profile module similar to the new core module or AdvProfile (which actually has become the new core profile module ;-) ). pnProfile offers dropdowns, textfields aso.
Demo: technobilder.de.

Another nice community module is Florian's UserPictures. It allows users to keep their own personal gallery.
Demo: technobilder.de

I personally very much like Florian's ClickedMe which displays all the people who checked out you profile. Every user can choose for himself if he wants to be seen or not.
Download: ClickedMe.

To cut a long story short: Florian has released a bunch other modules. A list can be found in his NOC profile.

PostBuddy is a module that copies a very popular function of mySpace aso - you can make people your friend and display a list of your friends in your profile. Cool, eh?

Has anybody tried pnConnections? It sounds like a cool module.

Shops!
Did you see that Bernd Plagge adopted pnCommerce and released a working version? Contact him, if you are interested in cooperating with him! pnCommerce could use some cool new templates.

And pnCommerce has a young competitor! The development team has released a first beta of ShoppingKart. They are very active and keen on making ShoppingKart a cool module. IMHO their templates also lack beauty - but it's a first beta. ;-)

New Calendar
Robert Gasch and a user named "bones" announced to start working on a successor for PostCalendar - I'm really looking forward for that one.

But the grandmother of all calendar modules also has a competitor: crpCalendar. A neat little modules that's made to display a list of event dates - if you don't have too many of them it could fit your needs.

What else?
Did you see that Treverj is working on a cool Postnuke based Web 2.0 community site? Read: Project Updates.

The Spanish community released a Karma Addon for pnForum. You only need dpGraph for it.

Mark West released a new version of EZComments and added Akismet support. Akismet is the spam detection API of Wordpress. So EZComments sends all comments and trackbacks through Akismet to find out if it's spam or not. If you are working on any module that's been spammed - check out the Akismet module API and integrate its features into you module.

InvalidResponse released a first final version of his ElementBB forum. It's a nice and slim forum with great templates. Check it out at his homepage.

Jørn Wildt released a new content module that keeps content in a book like way and is made for team work. It's called CoType and should also serve as an example for a .8 implementation.

Hilope's Scribite is not only a module that adds the WYSIWYG editor of your choice to Postnuke modules. If you look deeper into the possibilities of for examples Xinha you will certainly never work on any site without this module. BTW: The initial development of Scribite was sponsored by the German Postnuke foundation. ;-)

Forgive me if I forgot your cool new module - this article wasn't meant to be complete. I wanted to give a little overview o

Generated on June 7, 2007.

First supported version of CoType released   (News)

A document consists of nested sections, so you always end up with a
structure like this:

Document
+- Section 1
| +- Section 1.1
| | + Section 1.1.1
| +- Section 1.2
+- Section 2

You can also add "boxes" to your sections. These boxes contains images
(references to multimedia files from Mediashare), program examples, or simply
some text. Boxes can be positioned in various places of their containing
sections - top left, top right, above and bottom.

CoType is designed to cover the grounds between a Wiki and a single document.

Wiki elements:
- With CoType you can collaborate on document creation since every person can edit their own sections (can also be open to anonymous users).
- With CoType you can easily link different sections and boxes (there is a toolbar button for this in the editor).
- CoType has a complete revision history for each section and you can see who edited what, when and from where.
- Everything is instantly online.

Single document elements:
- All sections in a CoType document can be printed, exported or downloaded as
one single document for off-line use (not feature complete yet).
- You get a nice structured table of content.
- You can read the text linearly from section one and forward.


Features:
- Create unlimited number of documents
- Add unlimited number of sections to documents
- Add floating figures with images and text
- Organize sections hierarchically by drag-and-drop
- Automatic table of contents
- HTML WYSIWYG editing using FCKEditor
- Insert cross references
- Support for PostNuke .8 search API
- Complete revision history
- Only one person at a time are allowed to edit the same section. No more
overwriting of other peoples work (depends on PostNuke .8's PageLock
mechanism).


Download here.

Support site: www.elfisk.dk.

Enjoy, Jørn

Generated on May 24, 2007.

Google Summer of Code 2007: This Year We Want to be Part of the Party!   (News)

Program Schedule and Deadline Dates

March 5: Mentoring organizations can begin submitting applications to Google
March 12: Mentoring organization application deadline
March 13: Google program administrators review organization applications
March 14: List of accepted mentoring organizations published on code.google.com; student application period opens
March 23: Student application deadline
Interim Period: Mentoring organizations review and rank student
proposals; where necessary, mentoring organizations may request further
proposal detail from the student applicant
April 2: List of accepted student applications published on code.google.com
Interim Period: Students learn more about/integrate with their project communities
May 28: Students begin coding for their Google Summer of Code projects;
Google begins issuing initial student payments
Interim Period: Mentors give students a helping hand and guidance on
their projects
July 9: Students upload code to the Google Summer of Code project
repository; mentors begin mid-term evaluations
July 16: Mid-term evaluation deadline; Google begins issuing mid-term
student payments
August 20: Students upload code to the Google Summer of Code project
repository; mentors begin final evaluations; students begin final program
evaluations
August 31: Final evaluation deadline; Google begins issuing student and
mentoring organization payments


This schedule is subject to change and taken directly from Google. For the latest schedule please see Google SOC 2007 Wiki

PN Project Goals
The general goals of Google are recognized and extended with our own goals. In short, we want to improve the innovation within the project by offering students the opportunity to propose PostNuke related topics. We aim to offer students an inspiring environment to do research, access to field experts, the ability to create proof-of-concepts and the opportunity to create working functional tools that can be used with PostNuke.

There is a limited list of program goals defined below. Please keep in mind this is an initial list of subjects we would like to shoot for and the final projects are open for discussion. It's important to understand we need guidelines for project proposal evaluation otherwise we'll end up with all nice initiatives, but no choice between the individual project.

The following are a few examples of the types of projects we'd like to see during the SOC 2007.

Here are a few suggested project examples:



Version management of content. Add features to PN, either via hooks or extensions to DBUtil, to allow control of versions of content items. Additionally add workflow processes via the existing workflow module
Translation management. Currently a translation of a content item is an entirely different and un-related item. A project to introduce a method of translating content while keeping the the relationship to the original item (and hence related content e.g. comments, ratings etc.).
Loudblog rewrite based on PostNuke's API
A second project could be the implementation of a better language system + the import of the old system.
OpenID Implementation
Universally implemented content versioning such that it's possible to revert back to old versions of specific content items. DBUtil contains a feature called object-logging which basically gives you the ability to log all changes to objects as they are altered (and even revert back to old versions of an obejct), but a proper GUI with some nice administrative features would be nice.
Integration of the categories system with the nested-set algorithm. The current implementation is path-based which works and carries with it some proper semantic information, but for performance reasons integrating the nested-set algorithm would probably be a good idea.
Implementation of additional features to the category system on the GUI side. This could be advanced AJAX controls, a better user-side editing system, etc.
Integration with Lucene and other search engines ideally through a generic search-engine interface which can then be extended to other backend systems.
A proper universal web services interface for PN.
A proper test suite including a performance testing framework.
A proper data import/export system with the ability to generate multiple data formats (CSV, XML, etc.) including a proper control GUI.


Project Organization
There will be two program guides (admins) that will provide all mentors and students with help and guidance throughout the project. The structure will be flat so there won't be a lot of red tape in the process. The mentors are expected to work closely with each student to accomplish each project's goal and objectives.

For each accepted project into the SOC program there will at least one mentor and one student. Along with the one-to-one support the student will have access to the developers list so they have access to the entire team to bounce ideas off of in the process.

Overview of Mentor Selection Process
The general "criteria" for mentors are:


Mentor is familiar with the PostNuke project and API.
Mentor is expected to work well with others.
Mentor should have knowledge about the topic he/she is going to mentor.
The mentor is responsible for working directly with the student.


Note, before volunteering you should be aware there is a time commitment. We estimate it will take at the minimum 3 to 5 hours per week of your time over a 3 month period. Mentors should also expect to encounter cultural and time zone differences making this a challenging experience on many different levels especially since this will be a virtual mentor/student experience.

Expectations
Commitment to the goals/objectives of your project, your time, mutual respect, and open communication.

Remember when you were a student -- you were there to learn. This is the same thing -- students are here to learn and may not be experienced in working on a team, and will less likely have experience working with someone virtually so as a mentor you're expected to introduce the student to the protocals of this environment.

Students, remember, no question is stupid, don't expect to know everything, and if in doubt ask! Communication is key in a virtual environment and never take anything for granted especially in text based communication since things can often be mis-read or interpreted.

If you are chosen a mentor then what do you get? You get to contribute to a great project, experience working on a virtual team with an international team of great/inspiring people.

Team/Mentor/Student Communications
This is most likely the most important part of the process -- communication is key especially in a virtual environment. And communicating/sharing will be important to the success of each project. So students are expected to put together a weekly report -- it doesn't have to be anything fancy -- just an email updating your mentor about your progress and any problems you working on or having. Mentors are expected to take the lead in solving any problems that might arise with timing, language or cultural barriers. Note, the default language for the program is English so all mentors and students are expected to be able to communicate clearly and effectively in English. When disagreements or conflicts arise within a project team members are encouraged to resolve disputes amongst themselves. If they can't resolve it between themselves then you can ask a program mgr to get involved to mediate the dispute.

Project Tools & Support
You will have access to the following software tools:


The PostNuke NOC (Network Operating Center) where all project related
resources will be housed
Google Project Page (including wiki)
Mentor Application from Google
Developers Mailing List



Student Info
Google provides some time to allow the student to familiarize themselves with the project and tasks. During this time the mentor can prepare the stucture and any documents that will help the student in the goals and objectives of the project.

Some examples include:


Action/Tasks planning so the student will have a clear idea of milstones
for the project.
Provide the student with your communication expectations - i.e., how can
the student communicate with you, skype, instant messenger, email etc.
Review time committments and goals/objectives for the project.
Model good behavior -- take the lead when you see the student needs the
extra encouragement and guidance.

Generated on March 7, 2007.

Development Update, January 2007-01   (News)

be productive and succesfull for all of us. And of course: a finished .8 version of PostNuke is something we are all waiting for.
MileStone 3 is waiting around the corner: A feature freeze so far has speed up the progress and only a few bugs are blocking a release. The next development update will probably be submitted after the MS3 release.
OK, here goes!

API functionality
Introduced is a pnShutDown function to gracefully terminate the application framework. This now replaces all use of exit or die and also fixes some oddities caused by PHP's shutdown process.
Mark has replaced all old themesideblock function calls with newer API call pnBlockThemeBlock. Furthermore, he has added a raw text option to the PageUtil::registerVar (former pnPageRegisterVar) system.
The AjaxUtil is now using internal json_encode() if PHP >=5.2.0.

Object Library and classes
For the SessionUtil / RandomUtil, Drak has put his hands on improving the randomness in the generation of the AuthKey and passwords. This is done by extending the possibly characters used, and the length of the key (length also now being random).
Also, the AuthKey generation makes now use of the (updated) RandomUtil class. A big advantage is that the random data generation is done in one place, so a change will affect the complete system. This is actually with the complete Object Library: changes can be made in one place with the benefit that all calls are updated.
The DBUtil has now a renameTable method and a renameColumn method for easy manipulation of table properties without having to worry about SQL code. The latter (renameColumn) is a quite new function, so there may be some adoDB bugs.
Finally, pnPage.php is converted to the PageUtil class. This means that any 3rd party module developers should update their modules to make use of the new class. A call to (for example) pnPageSetVar('title', $title_var) must be updated to PageUtil::setVar('title', $title_var). The pnPage.php does not remain for backward compatibility. Examples for the needed changes can be found in SVN submission 21099. The Wiki documentation for Page variables still needs updating however.

pnForms: functionality and documentation
Jørn has been updating the pnForms toolkit extensively. Most important is hat the documentation in the files is more complete, and the Wiki documentation page has been updated. A summary:

Added authkey checking to pnForms.
Added min/max validation for integers.
Changed "classHtml" to "cssClass" in "pnForm" plugin for consistency with the other classes.
Added a language selector "pnFormLanguageSelector".
and much more...

All plugins now render unknown parameters "as is", so you can add "onclick" and such like that the system doesn't know of.

System modules: Categories, Search and Blocks
In the Categories system, there has been added support for a 'field' parameter.
The search module is as good as finished, and also displays a sum of all search hits too. An additional parameter is added to allow for searches that aren't going to be performed on a DB. Finally, it is now possible to search in RSS feeds.
The Blocks module has been updated, and now has a user friendly functionality for drag-drop between block positions and placements in one screen. This is done with Ajax technology (thanks Frank for simplifying and enhancing this), so javascript should be enabled to use this (non-js fallback available). Furthermore a XML/XSL block has been added (a generic xml/xslt block and modifier).

ValueAddons modules
Faq: implemented custom short url handler and permalink structure
News: implemented cache handling
Feeds (was RSS): implemented categorisation in admin panel, added short url handler, added title field.
Also, the RSS module is renamed to Feeds to better reflect it's purpose and to prevent clash with rss theme when using directory based URL's.
TinyMCE: Upgraded tinymce to v2.0.9
Reviews, Referers, Stats: Converted to API and pnRender compliant module, updated table management code.

pnRender Plugins
Mark has added an output filter in order to auto-magically title the administration pages, which makes navigation a bit easier.Also, A

Generated on January 21, 2007.

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