etc/RELEASE-NOTES-0.4.txt

                               Apache Forrest 0.4
                                 Release Notes

                         http://xml.apache.org/forrest/
                          ============================

$Id: RELEASE-NOTES-0.4.txt,v 1.1 2003/02/12 13:16:30 jefft Exp $

1) Introduction
---------------

This document describes the 0.4 release of Apache Forrest, how to get started,
known bugs and any other issues.  Please send all feedback to
forrest-dev@xml.apache.org

2) Status
---------

Forrest 0.4 has a number of important skin bugfixes over 0.3:

 - krysalis-site now works with multi-level site.xml (fixes
   http://issues.cocoondev.org/jira/secure/ViewIssue.jspa?key=FOR-29)
 - krysalis-site #N12345-style fragment identifiers have been replaced with
   something more stable and user-friendly.
 - avalon-site no longer halts with an error after rendering (fixes
   http://issues.cocoondev.org/jira/secure/ViewIssue.jspa?id=10048)
 - site.xml-generated menus are now limited to pages in or below the
   current directory.  Eg, see:
   http://forrestbot.cocoondev.org/sites/xml-forrest/community/index.html
 - The HTML DOCTYPE has been fixed to get out of browser quirks mode.  This
   fixes cross-browser issues in all skins.
 - A <credit role="pdf"> skinconf entry no longer cause a broken image in
   HTML if <url> and <image> are omitted [3]


Plus a number of enhancements:

 - All skins validate as CSS2.
 - book.xml files in subdirectories can now use site: URLs, removing the
   hassle of updating adding/deleting ..'s.
 - The Cocoon log level is now set to ERROR, to reduce log verbosity.
 - Some small PDF improvements.

The full list of changes is viewable at:

http://xml.apache.org/forrest/changes.html

Forrest 0.4 is (to our knowledge) backwards-compatible with all previous
releases.


3) What is Forrest?
-------------------

Forrest is an XML standards-oriented project documentation framework based on
Apache Cocoon, providing XSLT stylesheets and schemas, images and other
resources. Forrest uses these to render the XML source content into a website
via command-line, robot, or a dynamic web application.  For more details,
please see the website at http://xml.apache.org/forrest/

4) Requirements
---------------

- The Forrest binary distribution requires a Java Runtime Environment (1.2 or
  higher) installed.  This can be obtained from
  http://java.sun.com/j2se/downloads.html

- The Forrest source distribution requires a Java Development Kit (1.2 or
  higher) to build, obtainable from the same URL.

Ant is not required: Forrest uses its own stripped-down, souped-up Ant in
tools/ant/


5) Installing Forrest
---------------------

Depending on which distribution you downloaded, one of these sections will
apply to you.

o 5.1) Source distribution
  ------------------------

  The source distribution contains static Forrest resources (skins, XSLTs,
  images, schemas), source code and Forrest's own website.

  - To build the Forrest binary distribution, type:

    build.bat    (Windows)
    ./build.sh   (Unix)

    (if Ant 1.5+ is installed, typing 'ant' works just as well)

    A binary distribution will be built in build/dist/shbat Add the path to
    build/dist/shbat/bin to your PATH environment variable, and you have
    Forrest installed.  Windows users (esp. 95/98) may need to set FORREST_HOME
    to point to the build/dist/shbat directory.

o 5.2) Binary distribution
  ------------------------

  The binary distribution contains a static reusable Forrest ready for use.
  
  - Copy somewhere permanent, like /usr/local/forrest or c:\forrest.
    Support for installation on Windows systems into directories containing
    spaces is very new, please report back on your success or failure.

  - Windows users should set the FORREST_HOME environment variable to point to
    where Forrest is installed.
  - Add $FORREST_HOME/bin (Unix) or %FORREST_HOME%\bin (Windows) to the system
    PATH environment variable.


6) Getting Started
------------------


Having installed Forrest, here is a little test sequence to validate that
everything works, and to get you started.  For more information, see
http://xml.apache.org/forrest/your-project.html

 - Type 'forrest -projecthelp'.  This should list the available Forrest
   commands.
   NOTE: use the 'forrest.bat' version when running under Cygwin!

 - Create an empty directory somewhere, and change cd to it.

   [ e.g. mkdir /tmp/mysite ; cd /tmp/mysite ]

 - Type 'forrest seed'.  This will create a template site in the current
   directory, ready for you to edit or render.

 - (optional) Edit the XML content in src/documentation/content/xdocs
   Have a look around, familiarize yourself with the structure.

 - In your new project root [ e.g. /tmp/mysite ],  type 'forrest validate'.
   This will check that all XML files are valid.  Actually Forrest does this
   automatically for the next step, but we're proud of our validation :)

 - In the project root, type 'forrest' or 'forrest site'.  This will generate
   HTML for your project in build/site

 - (optional) Type 'forrest run'.  This starts up an internal webserver
   displaying the project contents rendered at runtime.  Point your browser at
   http://localhost:8888/ to see your site.  Edits to files in build/webapps
   are instantly rendered.  See the site docs for more info on how to exploit
   this capability.


7) Issue tracking
-----------------

If you notice what appears to be a bug, please report it on Forrest's JIRA bug
tracking installation:

  http://issues.cocoondev.org/

Known issues are summarized at:

  http://xml.apache.org/forrest/forrest-issues.html

(a nice example of RSS syndication)


8) Feedback
-----------

Feedback, feature suggestions, bugs and any other issues can be discussed on
the forrest-dev@xml.apache.org mailing list.



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$Revision: 1.1 $ $Date: 2003/02/12 13:16:30 $