Alpha 1 launched
Everyone on the team is really pleased to have launched the
Umbraco Jupiter Alpha 1 release which you can find on CodePlex
here. This is the first v5
release since we launched the CTP (Preview) at CodeGarden 2011. We
are planning on putting out a new Jupiter version on CodePlex about
every 2 weeks (approximately), so be sure to watch this space for
new and exciting updates!
In fact, don't just take our word for it - to celebrate the
milestone we decided to put together a "Road to Jupiter" page
which outlines our progress with Umbraco 5 and upcoming tasks.
It's the first time we've done this at Umbraco and we'd love your
feedback!
What is Umbraco v5 (aka Jupiter)?
In a nutshell, Umbraco v5 is a ground-up rebuild of your
favorite CMS and is built on top of ASP.Net MVC 3. It will look the same and
have all of the same great Umbraco ideas powering the new CMS but
the underlying architecture has been completely upgraded. During CodeGarden 2011 this year we had a
stream dedicated to discussing & presenting Umbraco v5. If you
missed out on CodeGarden this year, or didn't get a chance to check
out all of the v5 sessions, we've got them all recorded for you!
Each session contains a ton of information about Umbraco v5: what
its all about, why its is being built from the ground up, how its
being built and the architecture behind it: Keynote, File,New, Mvc
Application, Get
Plugged in to Umbraco Jupiter, Deep
Dive in to Jupiter Architecture, Awesome
Hidden Gems in Jupiter, Panel: Why not to use
v5, 0 To Hive in 45, Localization in
v5
What is an Alpha release?
An Alpha release is the first release to come out in the
software cycle that is not a 'Preview' (CTP). It's intended for
developers looking to become familiar with the codebase and
architecture, or for those who would like to help us identify bugs.
It can also be used by those interested in developing plugins for
the final release. An Alpha build will contain bugs (some of which
maybe security issues), and will not contain all of the features
expected in the final release, it is therefore not to be
used for production use.
The underlying framework, architecture and codebase will
change between this release and the final release as we refine it,
so although it is recommended for developers to start making
plugins for v5, please know that you will need to update your code
for future builds.
Getting started
Getting started with Umbraco v5 is the same as v4: you'll need
to download the zip file from CodePlex, unzip the contents to your
desired location, then point an IIS/IIS Express instance at that
location. Don't forget to set your app pool to .NET 4 Integrated
Mode! Note: Before unzipping, you may also need to
right-click the zip, go to Properties, and click "Unblock"
depending on your Windows security settings and chosen unzip
tool.
Once you have IIS running, just visit the install page to begin
the installation: http://localhost/install (where
localhost is the host name of your instance). Be sure
that you have the correct IIS file permissions setup just like in
v4. When the installer begins you can then choose to use
SqlCe embedded database or enter details to
connect to a Sql Server 2008 instance. (MySql
support is not tested in the Alpha 1 but is coming!)
After the database has been installed you can optionally install
the 'DevDataset' package which will just pre-populate the Umbraco
instance with some sample data that we've been using during
development.
One installed, the default username and password for the
backoffice is "admin" and "test" but you can change and edit this
in the User section once you're in.
We've included the templates from the 'DevDataset' package in
the default install even if you don't choose to install that
package, for easy reference to some of the Razor syntax available
in the Alpha 1. As this syntax improves in later releases and gets
closer to 4.7.1 we'll be doing some more blog posts to give
examples!
One other thing - we're focussing our development on the
Chrome browser at the moment, so you may find
major snags in browsers like IE9 - but don't worry, that's
something we'll be focussing on fully in time for the Beta.
Technical documentation
The Jupiter Alpha release comes with all the APIs you'll need to
start creating back-office plugins and we've even got some
documentation already written to help you get started. Please note
that much of this documentation is in its early stages but should
be enough to help you get started creating plugins and learning a
bit about the API. We urge developers interested in making v5
plugins to get started now so we can hear your feedback, comments
and suggestions as we progress towards the 5.0 release of
Umbraco.
Known issues / limitations
The
CodePlex release page lists the known issues and limitations.
Please note that as this is an Alpha, there are many features not
included in this release that will be included in future releases.
We've only mentioned the known issues/limitations regarding what is
actually shipped in this release, not what is missing... we know
what is missing :)
Cheers and happy bug-hunting!
Everyone on the v5 team