We’re proud to announce today the first beta release of the Web:Extend framework. This release is an important milestone because it marks significant progress since the project was started about three years ago. It’s also been almost a year since the last alpha release and a lot has changed.
The project is expected to stay in beta stage for at least a few months. At this time it is not stable enough for production, but it is stable enough to begin to learn about it and even to use it in small personal projects you might have. Most of the changes planned for the next releases do not change the API, with the exception of one or two function name changes. And although it’s a beta release, about 75% of the code is estimated to be covered by unit tests – and this will only improve with each new beta releases.
The documentation is becoming pretty good. A few chapters are still missing but they will be written shortly. All the essential chapters are available so learning the basics shouldn’t be a problem. A tutorial is even available (more will follow). You can also use the API viewer for fast lookup of classes or functions; once it’s loaded it runs locally.
This release introduces a few important features.
This last item is pretty exciting, especially if you pair it with the upcoming UI Module, planned for the next release, 0.4 beta. It is scheduled to be released in about a month. We follow a 5-weeks per release cycle.
You can download the source code at sourceforge. It is licensed under the LGPL.
If you wish to help us, there is a lot you can do. The most important thing is to proof-read the documentation or the API and to forward us any problem you might have with it. Typos, invalid code, comprehension problems or anything else. You can also discuss the various RFC or try to learn how to use the framework and report bugs you may find. At a later time you will also be able to translate it in your language.
Please leave us any comment you might find relevant, as we will use your input to improve the framework.
Thanks for your interest.
January 15th, 2009 by Loïc Hoguin · Tags: PHP5, Release, Web:Extend