The Rich Men's Document Management System

A free document oriented 99% pure XSLT application server.

The primary purpose of rm -d ms is to run Internet sites.

The rm -d ms project will provide a comprehensive environment for interactive sites. It can handle sites with mainly static content as well as extensive web applications like internet shops or auction houses.

Due to the XSLT centered approach, rm -d ms is extremely flexible. You can adjust the tools to the requirements of your editors and your artists. You can plug your existing code into rm -d ms. And of cause you can change the design of a whole site by editing a central stylesheet.

The fundamental cornerstones of rm -d ms are:

• Server side application logic is implemented by XSLT stylesheets.
  • XSLT is an appropriate programming paradigm for frameworks.
  • XSLT like languages with less limitations are on the way.
  • The stylesheet may call hard coded 'legacy' components.
• An application operates on one comprehensive persistent XML document.
  • You will be able to use an XML view on an ordinary relational database as a document.
  • You can use XPath syntax to combine XML from different sources.
  • The management system hides the storage model.
• Write access is logged, old versions are archived.
  • The user may take back any operation.
  • The units of work are not limited by database transactions.
• The System uses the transaction and the recovery facilities of relational database systems.
• The prototype is implemented in Java.

The project focuses on merging different open-source components into a practical development and runtime environment.

Getting started

The current release was testet on a Linux environment. You can download the distribution from http://sourceforge.net/project/?group_id=2677 and unpack it with tar -xzvf rmdms-03.tgz.

You will find a rmdms-0.3.2/index.html. The first link of this page points to the documentation. This one describes how to set up a server resp. the cocoon processor. The other links allow you to call up the tools and the samples.

Current state of the project

Although rm -d ms is already used by small real world project, it is still a plan-to-throw-away implementation. It depends on standards, which are not fixed yet and the tradeoffs are not discussed as deeply as they ought to.

At the moment it comes with a chunk database, that can handle any well formed XML, but it uses a hard coded table layout. As soon as the castor XML-SQL bridge will be released, you will be able to run rm -d ms applications on your existing databases.

Only intrinsic features are implemented yet. You can't use your favorite xml editor yet. The performance is poor and the administration is a nightmare. The interface specification is a moving target and even the fundamental position may change.

But it's already possible so see the thrilling possibilities of the XSLT paradigm in action.

This implementation is the third redesign of our XML/XSLT tool. The first system generates the pages of http://www.nuremberg-tradefair.com. The second is used by the Internet shop http://www.fbf-frankenbett.de. It generates the catalog and runs the basket.

Further plans

• Implement a nifty workbench, based on XSLT and the brainjar DHTML library.
• Collect a reusable library of XSLT templates.
• 'Borrow' interesting extention elements and add a common debug/profiling tool.
• Add WebDAV hooks to the workbench.
• Plug the castor XML-SQL bridge into rm -d ms.
• Look for XSLT like languages without limitations.

If you would like to implement these features or if you think other points are more important, do not hesitate to join the development team. If you would like to contribute, there is a lot to do.

News

2000 Jun 23
Version 0.3.2 released.

Works as a Cocoon Processor
WAP Demo added

2000 Jun 4
Version 0.3.1 released.

Released under the terms of the GNU LGPL
XMLDatabase improved

2000 May 7
Version 0.3 released.

Implementation of the content editor started.

2000 Apr 24
Version 0.2.3 released.

Ad hoc database interface added.
File upload and sending mail implemented.

2000 Apr 11
Version 0.2.2 released.

This release includes a debugger.

2000 Mar 19
Version 0.2.1 released.

This release includes xml-apache bindings.

2000 Mar 13
Version 0.2 released.

Rudimentary interface for legacy databases added.
Shop demo implemented.
Bug fixes and improvements.
Internal format of the chunk databases changed.

2000 Feb 18
First release.

How to submit a bug report

Please post your reports or suggestions to the rm -d ms mailinglist rmdms-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
If you would like to subscribe, please go to http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=2677.

Legal stuff - open source

This package is released under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License.

• This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/).
• It also includes components of saxon. Copyright by Michael Kay, Microstar Software Ltd and James Clark.
• It comes with the opus5 servlet, GNU Lesser General Public License by Frederik Dahlke.
• It comes with DHTML scripts, copyright by Mike Hall http://www.brainjar.com
• Today, the included OROMatcher library it is binary only, copyright by Original Reusable Objects Inc, but they prommised to contribute the sourcecode to the apache project.
• The moebius logo was taken from http://cut-the-knot.com/do_you_know/twoPieces.html with permission of the copyrightowner Alexander Bogomolny

Other

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    The primary purpose of rm -d ms is to keep the fun in the house :-)
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