jLibrary 1.0beta4 has been released. jLibrary is an Open Source Document Management System created with the Eclipse Rich Client Platform and that uses Apache Jackrabbit as data backend, making it a JSR-170 compatible tool.

Library 1.0beta4 is a great step forward in jLibrary history. I have migrated the old hibernate based backend to a new one based on Apache Jackrabbit. This makes jLibrary JSR-170 compatible, as all the repositories are JSR-170 repositories. In addition, jLibrary has now better performance, is now more robust and solid, and is also less buggy. Apache Jackrabbit gives also new features like the possibility to access jLibrary repositories through other JSR-170 compatible products or through a Web-DAV interface.

So, as you can imagine, there are several changes:

• Migrated the home-made backend to Apache Jackrabbit, yielding jLibrary has JSR-170 compatible repositories.
• Updated several libraries to more recent versions.
• Added Axis 1.3 compression support to web service endpoints, so messages are supposed to be 90% smaller.
• Added SOAP+Attachments support for binary content transport which increases performance considerably.
• Added a new WebDAV interface that allows you to access jLibrary through a standard WebDAV client.
• Multiple database support with great flexibility. Possibility to store contents on file system or database storage. Version storage decoupled from standard storage and also very configurable.
• Text extraction filters provided by Jackrabbit (In fact, jLibrary has contributed some of them to Jackrabbit project).
• The security perspective has been refactored and now is more intuitive, with new editors for users, groups and roles, and with drag and drop support.
• Improved locking and version management systems thanks to Apache Jackrabbit.
• Added support for orderable nodes.
• Added new editors for repositories, directories and categories.
• Experimental JCR browser that allows browsing of Jackrabbit-based repositories even if they are not created with jLibrary.
• New French translation
• New web page, and new templates.
• Fixed and improved English documentation, including the tutorials.
• And many more. Do not forget to take a look on the new and noteworthy to see more improvements.

To download jLibrary, you only have to go to the downloads page . Currently, there are two different versions: one for Windows platform, tested against Windows XP and Windows2K, and another one for Linux platforms with GTK installed. The recommended platform is Windows. This recommendation is only because Windows has been the platform used for developing and testing, and so I suppose that jLibrary would be more stable in this platform.

VERY IMPORTANT: jLibrary needs a JDK 1.5 compatible to run.

jLibrary's user interface is internationalized in English, Spanish and French. If you want to translate jLibrary user interface to another language (only one resource file has to be changed) contact us- well, you can also contact if you want to help with the project. :-)

After you have downloaded jLibrary, remember to follow the installation instructions. jLibrary will run without any settings, but be careful, reading this information is very important to do tasks as changing the jLibrary backend database.

There is also a new jLibrary server .WAR distribution that allows easy deployment on your web container. You can see instructions about how to install the WAR based jLibrary server distribution.

Don't forget to check this release's new and noteworthy changes. Also don't forget to read the documentation, and to read the tutorials (this is highly important).

Also, don't forget that there is an online help, a help presentation, an internal help with search support, and a bunch of cheatsheets. All of this will help you to use this tool.

And finally, don't forget that this is a beta version. jLibrary, as you will see, is a very big project, and so it will have some small bugs. If for any reason you find some of this bug, please let us know about it. By the way, have I said that jLibrary is looking for collaborations? Yes, any help would be good. Even for the most complex development things as for the most simple things, like translation.

We really hope that you like jLibrary.

Runs better on windows becuase it was developed on windows?
Should I read that funny JSR?
Ahh.... it's the JCP-EG people, and it's got French, ok. I am supposed to laugh. Got it. ha, ha, ha.

.V

If people helps with Linux support, it will have better Linux support. jLibrary does not have any enterprise behind, and so its development is time comsuming. Things like add client-inside Microsoft stuff editing support or ActiveX editing support under Linux, should require a good amount work, and are examples of things that work on Windows version that don't work on Linux version.

Runs better on windows becuase it was developed on windows?Should I read that funny JSR?Ahh.... it's the JCP-EG people, and it's got French, ok. I am supposed to laugh. Got it. ha, ha, ha..V

I don't get the link with french.

it seems each thread needs its troll/flamebait, and Victor C. volunteered eagerly

Nicely presented. What's the storage engine and versioning? Does it support CVS or SVN ?

The backend is Apache Jackrabbit, so it uses Apache Jackrabbit provided versioning system. Currently, Jackrabbit ( and so jLibrary ), allows different persistence mechanism for your documents. The default configured is simple file system Object storage, XML version storage and Database version storage are also supported.

I have read on their mailing lists of people trying to implement version system with SVN but it seems a difficult task.

Good luck. There are a lot of people interested in open source document management.

Ive been working with PLM (product lifecycle management) systems for about 5 years, and have yet to see a workable open source alternative to the unbelievably clunky proprietary systems out there. Companies are throwing tens of millions out for these products and services, and a lot of that is wasted on software that cant be easily configured or extended. An OS project of this nature would be very welcome.

From the screenshots, this looks like a client-server app, though. Using eclipse RCP? Would prefer a web application for this sort of endeavor.

Well, the idea behind jLibrary was and is to build a desktop based DMS, oriented both for final users that want to manage their home documents, and for enterprises that want to build big intranet repositories, or handle their internal information.

Now the core is done. The tool allows to do multiple things to manage that information. So, it would be very easy to create web applications over this jLibrary backend, and use the tool to manage that information. You can imagine almost anything: blog management, enterprise web portals, wikis, etc... It's only a matter of interest.

Common web DMSs just are lacking that part. They have great web interfaces, but they don't have an agile way to manage that information.

Well, the idea behind jLibrary was and is to build a desktop based DMS, oriented both for final users that want to manage their home documents, and for enterprises that want to build big intranet repositories, or handle their internal information.Now the core is done. The tool allows to do multiple things to manage that information. So, it would be very easy to create web applications over this jLibrary backend, and use the tool to manage that information. You can imagine almost anything: blog management, enterprise web portals, wikis, etc... It's only a matter of interest. Common web DMSs just are lacking that part. They have great web interfaces, but they don't have an agile way to manage that information.

I think a web cms would be a great fit to create web applications over this jLibrary backend. You should take a look at Apache Lenya. They are implementing the JCR API in the 1.4 version wich hasn't been released yet.

Well, jLibrary offers its own set of interfaces to obtain directories, documents, comments, favorites, categories, authors, users, bla bla bla... So web applications should use that interfaces to get increased productivity.

But, if you want going standar, you can also use the Jackrabbit JCR taglib to build web UIs over a JCR complaint repository as jLibrary. :-)

...you can also use the Jackrabbit JCR taglib to build web UIs over a JCR complaint repository as jLibrary. :-)

Always wanted a repository for complaints.

...you can also use the Jackrabbit JCR taglib to build web UIs over a JCR complaint repository as jLibrary. :-)

Always wanted a repository for complaints.

I thought that's what Sun's Bug Parade was for! ;D

First of all, congrats to the move to JSR-170!

Of course you can dream of a CMS added on top of jLibrry, but whats the point? A great open source CMS based on JCR (and not only the Jackrabbit flavour) has been available for more than 2 years now and is doing fantastic. Check out Magnolia -> http://www.magnolia.info

Ah, and it also has a JSR-170 DMS, although commercially licensed

Boris, sure that having Magnolia over jLibrary would be great. I have written something about that here: http://jlibrary.sourceforge.net/11/magnolia.html