blob: bdfe1e237ec2f36bb3563d28da02cb8e2ef1fa85 [file] [log] [blame]
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?><!--
Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
(the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
--><!DOCTYPE document PUBLIC "-//APACHE//DTD Documentation V1.2//EN" "http://forrest.apache.org/dtd/document-v12.dtd">
<document>
<header>
<title>Welcome to Apache Forrest</title>
</header>
<body>
<section>
<title>Introduction</title>
<p>
Apache Forrest is a publishing framework that transforms
input from various sources into a unified presentation
in one or more output formats. The modular and extensible
plugin architecture is based on Apache Cocoon and relevant
standards, which separates presentation from content.
Forrest can generate static documents, or be used as a
dynamic server, or be deployed by its automated facility.
</p>
<note>
Please realise that Forrest is still pre-1.0 release version.
It is certainly usable for those who are prepared to move with it.
See more notes about <link href="#status">status</link> below.
</note>
</section>
<section>
<title>User-friendly</title>
<p>
Forrest is designed with the new user in mind. Much effort has gone
into making the process of generating a new site <strong>easy</strong> and
<strong>simple</strong>:
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Step 1</strong>: Do <code>'forrest seed'</code> to populate
the directory with template site structure and contents.</li>
<li><strong>Step 2</strong>: Add content by editing docs in
task-specific, presentation-neutral XML.</li>
<li><strong>Step 3</strong>: Do <code>'forrest run'</code> then use
the web browser to immediately review
changes at <code>http://localhost:8888/</code>
</li>
<li><strong>Step 4</strong>: Do <code>'forrest'</code> to generate the
complete website from the XML sources.
Various styles (known as skins) are available. Custom skins
can be developed.</li>
<li><strong>Step 5</strong>: For more information about installation
and use, see the
<link href="site:v0.70//your-project">Using Forrest</link> guide.
</li>
</ul>
<!-- FIXME: Needs review for 0.8 -->
<note>
The first time you run Forrest it will attempt to retrieve some plugins
from the Internet. This will happen whenever a new plugin is specified. For more
information see the <link href="site:pluginVersions/overview">plugins documentation</link>.
</note>
<p>
Forrest's focus on low "startup cost" makes it ideal for rapid
development of small sites, where time and budget constraints do not
allow time-wasting HTML experiments. Of course, that same methodology
can scale up to large projects.
Your development team does not need Java experience, or even XML skills,
to use Forrest. The framework lets you concentrate on content and design.
</p>
<p>
By <strong>separating content from
presentation</strong>, providing <strong>content templates</strong>
and <strong>pre-written skins</strong>, Forrest is unequalled at enabling
content producers to get their message out fast. This separation of
concerns makes Forrest excellent
to publish <strong>project documentation</strong> (notably software projects),
<strong>intranets</strong>, and <strong>home pages</strong>,
and anything else you can think of.
</p>
</section>
<section>
<title>Powerful</title>
<p>
Forrest is far from a quick and dirty solution however. Forrest is
built on the world's leading XML application framework,
<link href="ext:cocoon">Apache Cocoon</link>, which provides advanced
users with extremely powerful publishing capabilities.
</p>
<ul>
<li>Multiple task-specific source XML formats can be used
(<link href="site:write-howto">How-To</link>,
<link href="site:v0.70//faq"><acronym title="Frequently Asked Questions">FAQ</acronym></link>,
<link href="site:v0.70//changes">changelogs</link> and
<link href="site:v0.70//todo">todo lists</link> supported natively).
Source formats include: Apache xdocs xml format, plain html
documents, some Wiki formats, a subset of DocBook, ...
</li>
<li>Multiple output formats supported, for example HTML and PDF (using
<link href="ext:fop">Apache FOP</link>).
</li>
<li>SVG to PNG rendering (using <link href="ext:batik">Apache
Batik</link>). Simply drop the SVG in the appropriate directory
and it will be rendered as PNG.</li>
<li>
Transparent inclusion and aggregation of external content, like
<link href="site:v0.70//changes-rss">RSS feeds</link>.
</li>
<li>
Anything else possible with the
<link href="ext:cocoon/sitemap">Cocoon sitemap</link>. Using database
queries, <link href="ext:apache-stats">charting</link>, web services
integration; the possibilities are constantly growing as Cocoon grows.
See the <link href="ext:cocoon/features">Cocoon Features</link> list
for the full suite of capabilities.
</li>
<li>
Based on Java and XML standards, Forrest is platform-independent,
making for a documentation system that is just as portable as the
XML data that it processes.
</li>
</ul>
<section>
<title>Static or Dynamic</title>
<p>
Unique amongst comparable documentation tools, Forrest generates
sites that can run both <strong>interactively</strong> as a dynamic
web application, or as statically rendered pages.
</p>
<p>
This provides a path for site growth: start off small and static, and
if dynamic features (user login, forms processing, runtime data, site
search etc) are one day needed, these can be accommodated by switching
to webapp mode.
</p>
<p>
Running as a webapp has a major advantage during development:
content can be written, and
then the rendered output viewed almost instantly in a web browser.
This <link href="site:v0.70//your-project/webapp">webapp technique</link>
enables Forrest's edit/review cycle to be faster than command-line
transformation tools.
</p>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<title>History</title>
<p>Apache Forrest was started in January 2002, with the major use-case being to
create a consistent and efficient
<link href="http://xml.apache.org/">xml.apache.org</link> group of project
websites with a
uniform, lightweight, easy-to-navigate layout and structure. In
addition, Forrest was to be a Sourceforge-like project management
tool, complementing <link href="ext:gump">Apache Gump</link> (hence
the name 'Forrest').
</p>
<p>
The focus shifted for Apache Forrest to primarily be a generic documentation
tool capable of meeting many needs. Certain relevant project management
facilities are being added.
</p>
</section>
<section id="status">
<title>Project status and website status</title>
<p>Apache Forrest is currently progressing rapidly through a series of 0.x
releases. It is certainly usable now (despite not yet being version 1.x).
See the growing list of
<link href="site:live-sites">example sites</link> including
many Apache sites.
</p>
<p>
In general, prior to 1.0, ensuring quality of design will be considered
more important than retaining backwards-compatibility. Users
(particularly those with custom sitemaps and skins) should be aware that
this is evolving software, and read the release notes carefully before
upgrading. That said, we appreciate the commitment in time that
adopters make, and will not make capricious or undocumented
backwards-incompatible changes.
</p>
<p>
Documentation on the Apache Forrest website exists for various versions
including the latest release, the current development, and past releases.
All versions of Forrest include their own copy of the documentation.
To view it, do 'cd site-author; forrest run' and visit
http://localhost:8888/ in your browser.
The <link href="site:forrest">Apache Forrest website</link> is updated
manually as needed, while we develop the
<link href="site:asf-forrestbot">forrestbot</link> deployment facility.
</p>
</section>
<section id="news">
<title>News and events</title>
<p>See the <link href="site:events">events</link> list for more detail.
</p>
<ul>
<li>
<!--
<link href="http://apachecon.com/">
<img src="http://apache.org/images/ac2005eu_135x50.gif"
alt="ApacheCon Europe 2005" width="135" height="50"/>
</link>
<link href="http://apachecon.com/2006/EU/">ApacheCon EU 2006</link>
- Please make plans to join us for the conference in
Dublin, Ireland on 26-30 June 2006.-->
<!--
See our <link href="site:events">events</link> list for the schedule
of Forrest meetings at ApacheCon.
-->
</li>
<li>Apache Forrest 0.7 was released on 2005-06-23.
An architecture for Plugins which enables a smaller Forrest
core and the ability to add new features in a modular way.
</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="help">
<title>Help Wanted!</title>
<p>
Apache Forrest is fairly new, and is in need of developers.
If you know (or want to learn) any of XML, Ant, HTML, XSLT, or CSS,
then you are qualified to help.
</p>
<p>
As with all Apache projects, Forrest is a meritocracy; the more you
put in, the more you get to define the project's future. See the
<link href="site:contrib">"contributing"</link> page for more
information.
</p>
</section>
</body>
</document>