News

Enhancements to Open Source Java Content Management System Aimed at Enterprise

• By John K. Waters
• July 28, 2010

The latest version of dotCMS, the open source, Java-based Web content management system (WCM), is all about the enterprise. This version sports a totally re-built user interface designed to provide data and HTML-driven commands, as well as a number of enterprise-grade enhancements.

The dotCMS pitch is an unusual one for a Java tool: If you use it, you won't have to hire so much Java development talent. dotCMS is an enterprise-grade open source J2EE/Java Web Content Management System. The system is designed to allow "those with moderate or no technical capability to make massive changes in a site," which "allows corporations, institutions and organizations to move at a quicker pace by removing the need for Java development talent within a Web Team."

"No one in the WCM market combines full enterprise strength with such presentation layer flexibility -- all without the need of a Java developer," said Will Ezell, CTO of dotCMS and creator of the system, in a press release. Ezell characterizes the Java developer as "a resource bottleneck" that companies need to minimize to stay competitive. Better to shift the job of making common site changes, such as new templates, page layout modifications, and the creation of a custom data type, to the Web developer, which he said is the "more readily available and less expensive resource on the Web team."

By addressing this "talent gulf," Ezell stated, "our clients can close the gap between the speed of business and the speed of online change."

dotCMS 1.9, released Wednesday, comes with a bunch of new features with that mission in mind, including multi-site/multi-tenant support; a new integrated form builder; an enterprise grade database and app server support; conversion to the Dojo JavaScript framework for Ajax functions; support for the PHP, Groovy, Python, and Ruby scripting languages; and compliance with the CMIS (Content Management Interoperability Services) 1.0 spec.

The 1.9 version of dotCMS is available in a Community Edition, as well as three enterprise editions (Standard, Pro and Prime). The Community Edition is licensed under GPL 2.0; it's available for download here.

The dotCMS Enterprise products are covered by the dotCMS Open License, which provides access to the source code and updates, and also waives the requirement to return or share any modifications to code with the community. A 90-day trial of the Enterprise Prime edition is also availed for download.