December 8th, 2008
Microsoft develops open-source content-management system
Microsoft has developed and released via its CodePlex site an alpha version of a new open-source content-management system, codenamed “Oxite.”
Microsoft made the Oxite source code available for download on December 5. Oxite is available under the Microsoft Public License (MS-Pl), one of its OSI-certified open-source licenses.
From Microsoft’s description of Oxite:
“Oxite provides you with a strong foundation you can build upon - pingbacks, trackbacks, anonymous or authenticated commenting (with optional moderation), gravatar support, RSS feeds at any page level, support for MetaWebLog API (think Windows Live Writer integration made easy), web admin panel, support for Open Search format allowing users to search your site using their browser’s search box, and more - so, you can spend time on designing a great experience.”
Microsoft is positioning Oxite as more than just a blogging engine, claiming it can support even large Web sites. The company also is positioning the platform as customizable, allowing users to swap out Microsoft technologies, like database and search providers — specifically, SQL Server and Live Search — for non-Microsoft ones.
The Oxite content-management platform is “built to take full advantage of ASP.NET MVC but broken into assemblies so that even ASP.NET WebForm developers can use the data backend and utility code, supports use of Visual Studio Team Suite (DB Pro, Test, etc.), and Background Services Architecture (sending trackbacks, emails, etc. all done as a background process to prevent delays on the web site itself),” according to the Softies.
In searching for information on Oxite, I noticed a few folks wondering aloud why Microsoft felt a need to develop another content-management system, given that SharePoint Server provides content-management functionality. One obvious difference is the open-/closed-source aspect of the projects.
Any interest out there in an open-source CMS from Microsoft?
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