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| --><!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> |