Announcing: SiteMesh 3 preview

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I'm pleased to announce a preview of the next generation of SiteMesh.
Before I go on, here's a big disclaimer: This is not a stable release
version yet... it's not even a beta... it's an alpha... a first alpha.

But anyway, I decided to launch it in this state, as I think it's a huge
improvement over SiteMesh 2, and I'd like to get your feedback earlier so it
can be fed into the final product.

-----------------------------------------------

Quick links, for the impatient:

* What's new? http://www.sitemesh.org/new-in-sitemesh3.html
* Download: http://github.com/sitemesh/sitemesh3/downloads
* Getting started: http://www.sitemesh.org/getting-started.html
* Feedback: http://groups.google.com/group/sitemesh3-users

-----------------------------------------------

So what's new? Well, everything. The 10 year old code base has been thrown
away and rebuilt from the ground up. At the core of it is a new content
processing architecture that performs roughly three times as fast as
SiteMesh 2 with half the memory usage.

Along with that:
* Decorator chaining. Compose pages from multiple layouts and decorators.
* Decoupled from templating systems. Decorators can be produced with any
technologies - you are free from JSP.
* Offline site generation. Apply decorators as part of a build step.
Accessible through Java API, Ant task and command line tool.
* Simplified configuration. Use XML, Java or plug in your own system.
* Clean API provides extension points for adding custom processing rules
(e.g. on the fly page transformations).
* Relicensed under Apache Software License v2.0.

So what's the same? The values of SiteMesh have not changed - simplicity,
robustness and performance.

You can learn more about SiteMesh 3 on its new website:
http://www.sitemesh.org/

-----------------------------------------------

What about compatibility with SiteMesh 2?

This was a hard decision to make, but SiteMesh 3 is not backwards compatible
with SiteMesh 2. Upgrading will require work beyond just upgrading a
library. Over the coming weeks, I shall produce some guides and tools to
make this transition easier. Though this may be frustrating to many users,
it was becoming too hard to make changes to SiteMesh 2 based on limitations
to its design. SiteMesh 3 addresses these and will make way for a lot of
great features and improvements in years to come.

Meanwhile, SiteMesh 2 will continue to be supported until 2011 - though this
will mostly be critical bug fixes only. The majority of development effort
will be focussed on SiteMesh 3.

-----------------------------------------------

So give it a go, and give us feedback. But please remember that it's only an
alpha!

thanks
-Joe and the SiteMesh 3 team.

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I&#39;m pleased to announce a preview of the next generation of SiteMesh.<d=
iv><br></div><div>Before I go on, here&#39;s a big disclaimer: This is not =
a stable release version yet... it&#39;s not even a beta... it&#39;s an alp=
ha... a first alpha.</div>
<div><br></div><div>But anyway, I decided to launch it in this state, as I =
think it&#39;s a huge improvement over SiteMesh 2, and I&#39;d like to get =
your feedback earlier so it can be fed into the final product.</div><div>
<br></div><div>-----------------------------------------------</div><div><b=
r></div><div>Quick links, for the impatient:</div><div><br></div><div>* Wha=
t&#39;s new? <a href=3D"http://www.sitemesh.org/new-in-sitemesh3.html">http=
://www.sitemesh.org/new-in-sitemesh3.html</a></div>
<div>* Download: <a href=3D"http://github.com/sitemesh/sitemesh3/downloads"=
>http://github.com/sitemesh/sitemesh3/downloads</a></div><div>* Getting sta=
rted:=A0<a href=3D"http://www.sitemesh.org/getting-started.html">http://www=
.sitemesh.org/getting-started.html</a></div>
<div>* Feedback:=A0<a href=3D"http://groups.google.com/group/sitemesh3-user=
s">http://groups.google.com/group/sitemesh3-users</a></div><div><br></div><=
div><div>-----------------------------------------------</div><div><br></di=
v>
<div>So what&#39;s new? Well, everything. The 10 year old code base has bee=
n thrown away and rebuilt from the ground up. At the core of it is a new co=
ntent processing architecture that performs roughly three times as fast as =
SiteMesh 2 with half the memory usage.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Along with that:</div><div>* Decorator chaining. Compos=
e pages from multiple layouts and decorators.</div><div>* Decoupled from te=
mplating systems. Decorators can be produced with any technologies - you ar=
e free from JSP.</div>
<div>* Offline site generation. Apply decorators as part of a build step. A=
ccessible through Java API, Ant task and command line tool.</div><div>* Sim=
plified configuration. Use XML, Java or plug in your own system.</div><div>
* Clean API provides extension points for adding custom processing rules (e=
.g. on the fly page transformations).</div><div><div>* Relicensed under Apa=
che Software License v2.0.</div><div><br></div></div></div><div>So what&#39=
;s the same? The values of SiteMesh have not changed - simplicity, robustne=
ss and performance.</div>
<div><br></div><div><div>You can learn more about SiteMesh 3 on its new web=
site: <a href=3D"http://www.sitemesh.org/">http://www.sitemesh.org/</a></di=
v><div><br></div></div><div><div>------------------------------------------=
-----</div>
<div><br></div><div>What about compatibility with SiteMesh 2?</div><div><br=
></div><div>This was a hard decision to make, but SiteMesh 3 is not backwar=
ds compatible with SiteMesh 2. Upgrading will require work beyond just upgr=
ading a library. Over the coming weeks, I shall produce some guides and too=
ls to make this transition easier. Though this may be frustrating to many u=
sers, it was becoming too hard to make changes to SiteMesh 2 based on limit=
ations to its design. SiteMesh 3 addresses these and will make way for a lo=
t of great features and improvements in years to come.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Meanwhile, SiteMesh 2 will continue to be supported unt=
il 2011 - though this will mostly be critical bug fixes only. The majority =
of development effort will be focussed on SiteMesh 3.=A0</div><div><br></di=
v>
<div><div>-----------------------------------------------</div><div><br></d=
iv><div>So give it a go, and give us feedback. But please remember that it&=
#39;s only an alpha!</div><div><br></div><div>thanks</div><div>-Joe and the=
 SiteMesh 3 team.</div>
</div></div>

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