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| <!DOCTYPE document PUBLIC "-//APACHE//DTD Documentation V2.0//EN" "http://forrest.apache.org/dtd/document-v20.dtd"> |
| <document> |
| <header> |
| <title>Apache Forrest: documentation framework</title> |
| </header> |
| <body> |
| <p> |
| Apache Forrest™ software (<a href="site:forrest">forrest.apache.org</a>) |
| is a publishing framework that transforms |
| input from various sources into a unified presentation in one or more |
| output formats. The modular and extensible plug-in architecture of |
| Apache Forrest is based on Apache Cocoon and the relevant industry |
| standards that separate presentation from content. Forrest can generate |
| static documents, or be used as a dynamic server, or be deployed by its |
| automated facility. |
| </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>. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| Forrest is built on one of the world's leading XML application frameworks, |
| <a href="ext:cocoon">Apache Cocoon</a>, which provides advanced users with |
| extremely powerful publishing capabilities. |
| </p> |
| <ul> |
| <li>Multiple task-specific source XML formats can be used |
| (<a href="site:write-howto">How-To</a>, |
| <a href="site:faq"> |
| <acronym title="Frequently Asked |
| Questions">FAQ</acronym></a>, |
| <a href="site:changes">changelogs</a> and |
| <a href="site:todo">todo lists</a> 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 |
| <a href="ext:fop">Apache FOP</a>). |
| </li> |
| <li>SVG to PNG rendering (using <a href="ext:batik">Apache |
| Batik</a>). 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 |
| <a href="site:changes-rss">RSS feeds</a>. |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| Anything else possible with the |
| <a href="ext:cocoon/sitemap">Cocoon sitemap</a>. Using database |
| queries, <a href="ext:apache-stats">charting</a>, web services |
| integration; the possibilities are constantly growing as Cocoon grows. |
| See the <a href="ext:cocoon/features">Cocoon Features</a> list |
| for the full suite of capabilities. |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| Based on Java, Forrest is platform-independent, making for a |
| documentation system that is just as portable as the XML data it |
| processes. |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| Your development team does not need Java experience, or even XML |
| skills, to use Forrest. The framework lets you concentrate on |
| content and design. |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| <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. 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 |
| <a href="site:your-project/webapp">webapp technique</a> enables the |
| edit/review cycle to be faster than command-line transformation tools. |
| </p> |
| </body> |
| </document> |
