OXID Community Newsletter (1)

Welcome to this first issue of the OXID Community Newsletter. Lots of exciting things have happened since we went open source in October: OXID eShop 4.0.0.2 has been released; the bug tracker has been made available to the community; the development source code can now be obtained through the public subversion repository; the documentation explaining how to change the design of OXID eShop has been published; and much more.

OXID eShop 4.0.0.2 released
About six weeks after going open source, a second version of OXID eShop has been made available. This release introduces significant new features and some minor glitches have also been fixed. We recommend that all users update to the new release.

You can download OXID eShop 4.0.0.2 at http://www.oxid-esales.com/en/download/open-source-ecommerce-solution-oxid-eshop-community-edition

A full change log with all detailed changes is available at https://bugs.oxid-esales.com/changelog_page.php

For detailed update instructions, please check the INSTALL file inside your patch.

Bug tracker and subversion repository now available
We would like our community to be an integral part of our release process. Therefore, we've made the bug tracker and our subversion repository available to the general public.

The bug tracker is our main tool for coordinating issues (“bugs”) and associated patches or fixes. All users can register for free and have a look at issues currently open, or create new issues themselves. OXID developers permanently monitor the bug tracker. Should you want to support us in quality assurance and in the release process, or should you encounter a bug, feel free to have a look at https://bugs.oxid-esales.com

Those of you who are even more interested can access our subversion repository. It contains the most up-to-date source code of OXID eShop Community Edition. You can check out current or earlier releases in the /tags/-folder, and also snapshot and nightly builds in folder /trunk/ for testing purposes. As of now, the access is limited to read-only. You can access our subversion repository at http://svn.oxid-esales.com/

Template documentation available
Now you can easily learn how to develop individual designs of the visual appearance of OXID eShop. Find more information in the recently published template documentation which explains how to adopt the default design or create a set of completely new templates: http://www.oxid-esales.com/de/resources/help-faq/eshop-manual/template-documentation-eshop-40

Community project: OXID Webservice Connector
Some OXID community members teamed up to start an outstanding open source project that intends to bring a webservice connector to the OXID eShop Community Edition. Take a look at this community effort and consider joining it at http://code.google.com/p/oxid-webservice-connector/

OXID at PHP Conference 2008
Roland Fesenmayr, CEO OXID, and Erik Kort, OXID Head of Development, presented “Extending an enterprise PHP shop solution” at International PHP Conference 2008 where they broke the news about OXID going open source.

Read about this exciting moment in the words of Roland Fesenmayr: “And really, as I presented the chart we got some really warm and honest applause for being Open Source now. Thank you! It was another clear sign (after a completely exciting first day at all for us), that we are on a very good way with our strategy.”

Read more about OXID at PHP Conference in these two blog entries:


 * http://www.oxid-esales.com/en/news/blog/ipc-mainz
 * http://www.oxid-esales.com/en/news/blog/oxid-php-conference-2008

German live presentations on OXID eFire
Since December 2nd, we started again to offer our live presentations on OXID eFire on a weekly basis. While the slides and live demos are being shown on your screen, you and other viewers are connected to us via phone and can ask questions and join our discussion. Especially for new members of our community, this is a fantastic opportunity to get to know all those great features OXID eFire offers.

Each presentation lasts about one hour, and is available every week. Please note that presentations are only available in German at the moment, but English versions will be available soon, so stay tuned!

Registration and participation in our presentation is completely free: http://www.oxid-esales.com/de/service/academy/termine/efire

New forums functionality and design
The community forums are constantly being improved. For example, you can now rate threads and subscribe to RSS feeds for each forum. Just recently, the enhanced forums design has been introduced.

To keep track of changes or if you want to let us know your suggestions, please visit http://www.oxid-esales.com/en/resources/forum/general/forum-improvements

To fully benefit from the new forum features, we recommend you log in or create a new account at http://www.oxid-esales.com/user

Russian forums
With the help of our partner TASCSOFT, various forums are available where you can discuss all things OXID eShop in Russian. If you are able to communicate in Russian, feel free to join at http://www.oxid-esales.com/de/resources/forum/russkii-forum/

Vote for OXID eShop
OXID eShop has been added to some software listings, where you can vote for it and leave a comment:


 * http://opensource.yeebase.com/project/oxid-eshop/
 * http://www.eosdirectory.com/project/567/OXID+eShop+Community+Edition.html

Merry Christmas
We wish all members of the OXID community a merry Christmas and a happy new year!