That’s not a secret, we’re working hard. Today, 9 months after our last release “Danube“, our next release code named “Europe” is ready to test.

What’s new?

User Interface

As always the UI has been heavily enhanced. The bottom bar is gone, and the top bar has been updated with a very handy global menu.

A new login box let you sign in more easily by remembering recently used identities:

You can now easily customize the global colors of your La Distribution installation, and define colors application by application. We also added an online CSS editor for advanced customizations.

The News Feed

La Distribution can now merge the content generated by all the installed applications to produce:

• a Public Feed: that help you consolidate your online activity and let everyone subscribe to it.
• a Personal Feed: that let you read everything you want to be notified about.

Using RSS/Atom and Activity Streams, every developer can write simple web applications that will fuel content into this news feed: RSS, Statuses (Twitter, Identi.ca, Status.net), Bookmarks, Photos and everything that can be imagined.

Data Freedom

La Distribution had always let users generate and download a backup of their applications in one click. This backup could be restored or used to create a clone in just one other click.

Now, we’re going one step further, you can backup / and restore your entire site in one click. Migrating to another web server is just a matter of uploading an archive.

Miscellaneous

It’s difficult to integrally cover 9 months of hard work in a single blog post. But we’ll try to at least to mention the other important changes:

• we updated all supported applications to their latest versions: WordPress 3.1, DokuWiki 2010-11-07a, Firefox Sync 1.5, Status.net 0.9.6
• we added some new useful libraries to the system: Limonade, a micro-framework for rapid web development and prototyping, and CodeMirror for “in the browser” code editing.
• package downloads are more reliable, as we now check their integrity before installing it.
• as experimental feature, you can activate Multi Domains support. It’s not ready for prime time but it’s definitely usable and we need feedback on it.
• another experimental feature, Multi Sites, let you create “children” La Distribution installations into your main La Distribution install. For example, this is useful if you want to use La Distribution for a group and want to easily create one La Distribution web site for every user.

How to get it?

We hope you’re now convinced that Europe is our best release ever. Maybe you’re now wondering how to get it? There is two options:

On your own server

As always, if you have your own web server, you can install it very easily with our installer. Check out the install page on our wiki.

And if you’re already using La Distribution, no worry, you should already be using the latest version!

AppSlots

If you don’t understand how to install it, or are too lazy, or want the most simple experience, we have something for you.

AppSlots, the hosted service powered by La Distribution is about to open. With AppSlots, users get a subdomain in username.appslots.com with La Distribution pre-installed, perfectly configured and optimised.

At launch, AppSlots will feature two offers:

• AppSlots Beta: Available in very limited quantities, AppSlots Beta will be for people who want to help us test La Distribution. It’s totally free (for at least 1 year) but we’ll expect some feedback from you to help us understand your needs and improve the service.
• AppSlots One: Also available in limited quantities, AppSlots One is the premium service we were dreaming about. For 14,99 euros / month, you will get a (virtual) dedicated server, automated backups, your own domain name, and more goodies over time.

To be the first to get an account with one or the other offer, we recommend you to subscribe on the AppSlots home page.

Looking forward

We believe “Europe” will be our most important release to date, and really hope it will bring more people to La Distribution.

Following current trends, there is good chances our next updates will be more frequent and incremental, and so “Europe” may be the last big release of its kind.

We really hope you’ll like it!

Today, Danube, our new release is officially ready for prime time.

It’s obviously our best release to date, and it’s amazing, you should definitely try it!

The new features were covered in an earlier blog post, here are the most interesting improvements:

• Status.net package
• Firefox Sync package
• WordPress 3 package
• Global Plugins: Akismet, reCAPTCHA, Gravatar, Memcache, …

We plan to cover most of this features in separate posts, so keep an eye on this blog in the next days.

I wish you a nice summer and long life to La Distribution!

How to get it?

Fresh install

To do a fresh install, retrieve the web installer, upload it on your server as installer.php, then execute it through your web browser. You can find more detailed instructions on our wiki.

Upgrade

“Concorde”, our previous release, is now discontinued and you are encouraged to upgrade as soon as possible.

To upgrade, retrieve the updated web installer, upload it on your server as installer.php (replace the earlier one if you haven’t erased it before), then execute it through your web browser. It’s still that simple!

Sandbox

Finally, for the lazy guys (yes, you), we set up a sandbox to quickly test La Distribution. It’s available over this URL http://sandbox.appslots.com/ with sandbox/sandbox or demo/demo as login/password. Warning, having multiple users playing with it at the same time can result in strange things, and we’ll reset everything on this install as necessary.

Thanks !

Thank to this people for their nice support during Danube development cycle: RETFU, keusta, François Bureau, Charles Nepote, Pierre-Antoine Champin, dcoeurjo, the Upian team and especially Hans Lemuet, Maxime Q., Krome. Be sure your feedback is always appreciated!

Photo: Mode2 Mural Art by urbanartcore.eu (licence CC BY-NC-SA)

Today, we think it’s time for beta testers to start giving it a try! Help us hunt bugs, use it in improbable environments, give it a hard time :-)

So, what’s new in this release? First, as always, ton of bug fixes, performance enhancements and UI tweaks. But also:

Plugin support

Instead of bloating La Distribution with functionalities not everyone needs, we implemented a very simple plugin support. This simple plugin API is inspired from the one WordPress and allow developers hooks into La Distribution using actions and filters.

7 plugins are already bundled with the default install covering features like antispam (akismet, recaptcha), security (bad behavior, ssl) and performance (memcache).

As a developer, if you wonder how to plug into La Distribution, or you’re missing something, let us now! We’ll keep adding new hooks based on real world scenarios.

New Applications

I will not enter into details there because i think this new applications deserve a proper blog post, but here the info: Mozilla Weave and Status.net will join WordPress, Dokuwiki and bbPress as stable supported applications. That’s a big step forward, as we think Microblogging and Browser syncing are very important features of a personal information system.

How to give it a try?

For new installations, install the edge version of La Distribution, grab the latest version of the installer, upload it as installer.php, adjust directory permissions and run it through your web browser.

For existing installations, if you’re using the edge version, just update everything using the web interface. If you’re using the concorde version, update to edge using the latest version of the installer.

So, if you’re reading this, please, please, give it a try, send us your feedback, and help us make D****E a better release. Thank for your time!

In October/November, i was very occupied relocating from Paris to Berlin, and December was all about family and friends. In January, back on track, i didn’t work on a new major release but small updates on top of Concorde: package updates, security, performances, stability.

The name for this release is Concorde 2 and you’ll find a detailed changelog on an external page.

La Distribution is currently used in production on a few websites, and I’m learning a lot from this experience. Near all latest improvements come from real world usage and that’s a terrific thing.

For the future, Concorde will continue to be maintained, and if needed we’ll release a third version. Also, as soon as possible, we’ll start working on the next major release.

The focus of this next release is to code what we need to deploy our appslots.com service, which represents what we think a mainstream hosting provider should be in 2010. To achieve this goal, the main features will be ‘multi domains’ support and hackability (through plugins, hooks, filters, …). Cool uh?

La Distribution is an open project, so feel free to join the fun :-)

Happy New Year !

Last night, our last release Concorde (aka 0.3-42-3) was pushed to the stable repositories. It’s now officially available for everyone !

The new features were covered in an earlier blog post, but for the end user, quickly, the 3 most interesting improvements are: Localization (french now available), OpenID (consumer and provider) and UI enhancements.

Upgrade

July release, “Barbès”, is now discontinued and you are encouraged to upgrade as soon as possible.

To upgrade, retrieve the updated web installer, upload it on your server as installer.php (replace the earlier one if you haven’t erased it before), then execute it through your web browser. It’s just that simple!

Fresh install

To do a fresh install, retrieve the updated web installer, upload it on your server as installer.php, then execute it through your web browser. You can find more detailed instructions on our wiki.

Sandbox

Finally, for the lazy guys (yes, you), we just made available a sandbox to quickly test La Distribution.

It’s available over this URL http://sandbox.appslots.com/ with sandbox/sandbox or demo/demo as login/password. Warning, having multiple users playing with it at the same time can result in strange things, and we’ll reset everything on this install as necessary.

Thanks!

Thank specially to this people for their support: julie, srcmax, krome, benfle, abrachet, CharlesNepote, bblfish, karlpro, davidbgk, rgaidot, xibe, greut, sunfox. Be sure your feedback is always appreciated!

Photo: CC BY-NC-ND DarkB4Dawn Concorde, Paris

La Distribution current policy is to release a new version every three months. This allow us to regularly showcase our progress, giving opportunity to testers and enthusiasts to submit their feedback and influence the roadmap.

The end of September approaching, it means a new release is coming its way. It will be named Concorde, after the Parisian Metro Station, no link with a defunct aircraft ;-)

So, what’s new?

Localisation

The localisation strategy is now in place. The first language officially supported is French and everything should be correctly translated en français. If not, it’s a bug!

You just have to add the French repository to your Repositories:

Then enable the locale in the Locales panel:

CLI

A good one for advanced users or system administrators, you can now control your La Distribution install from the command line. A detailed documentation is available on Trac.

Here is an example of how to install the command line with SVN:

And then, we use the new command line to init La Distribution in a new folder and install WordPress as our first application:

OpenID

The OpenID strategy has slighty changed. Now, applications are encouraged to share the same login interface in which users are being able to login using their standard credentials (login and password) or their OpenID.

There is also an OpenID provider included by default into La Distribution, you can now log in everywhere with your LD account. How cool is that?

Default application

Now, you can define a default application that will be used as the homepage of your website. A dokuwiki, a wordpress, the administration panel, you choose!

UI Refresh

Covered in a blog post a few weeks ago, the UI had been refreshed to look more polished and professional. Of course, it can still be improved in many aspects, but it’s an interesting step forward.

How to install it ?

The Concorde beta version is currently available through the Edge repositories.

So, to update from Barbès (release from July), you have to change the repositories to:

Another option is to test a fresh install using the web installer: drop it in a folder, fix permissions and launch the script in your web browser.

Finally, for advanced users, you can try the subversion install covered in an earlier blog post or on the development wiki.

Please!

If you find the time, please test the new features, send your feedback, and help us make Concorde a better release. Thanks!

Except the clone feature, this is mostly a bug fix release, so there is nothing huge to expect, only stability improvements and little UI touches to the admin.

On the package side, bbPress is promoted to the main repository, this mean it’s now sufficiently stable, fully featured and supported. Two new packages make their apparitions in the contrib repository: moonmoon (a feed blender application) and gallery3 (the new version of the popular photo gallery application).

To get this new release, just update your current install, or if you don’t have one yet, maybe it’s time to install one with the web installer in a few seconds.

On the development side, a branch was created to help maintain this version while we’ll be moving fast forward on trunk with the development of the new major version. An interesting point is that the now famous 3 flavors of La Distribution are at the time of writing exactly identical. This will not last long!

Bellow you’ll find a more detailed changelog for this release:

Install

• more solid web installer
• SVN restructured to allow easy install for developers
• support for environments without mod_rewrite

Admin

• repositories are now sortables (useful because the firsts have the priority over the later)
• nicer HTML tables
• file older than 12 hours are purged from tmp repository
• ability to clone an application from a backup (beta)

Packages

• enforce new feature/quality guidelines for all ‘main’ applications

  • custom css (ability to add some custom css rules somehow)
  • registration (ability to register from the application)
  • topbar/superbar (ability to disable bars)

• packages upgrades

  • bbpress 1.0-2 (and now in main repository)
  • wordpress 2.8-2
  • habari: support for configuration and backup/restore

• new packages

  • moonmoon (feed blender) in contrib repository
  • gallery3 (photo gallery) in contrib repository
  • geshi based code colorer plugin for wordpress (in contrib repository)
  • jQuery table drag’n'drop plugin (in main repository)

Libraries

• major refactoring pass, cleaner interactions between classes. [179]
• SQL backup now handled by default. [185]

Photo: CC BY-SA Gilles Klein Barbes, les gens sont noirs les murs en couleurs