eZ Publish (pronounced "easy publish") is an
open-source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
enterprise
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared toward web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group ...
content management system
A content management system (CMS) is computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content (content management).''Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy''. Ann Rockley, Pamela Kostur, Steve Manning. New ...
that was developed by the Norwegian company Ibexa. eZ Publish is
freely available under the GNU
GPL
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general us ...
version 2 license, as well as under proprietary licenses that include commercial support. In 2015, eZ Systems introduced
eZ Platform
eZ Platform (pronounced "easy platform") is an open-source enterprise PHP content management system (CMS) and Digital eXperience Platform (DXP) developed by the company Ibexa (known previously as eZ Systems), which has headquarters Oslo, Norway ...
to replace eZ Publish with a more modern and future-proof solution.
Areas of use
eZ Publish supports the development of customized web applications. Typical applications range from brand sites, news sites and intranets to e-commerce, collaboration portals and iOS/Android apps. eZ Publish provides role-based
multi-user
Multi-user software is computer software that allows access by multiple users of a computer. Time-sharing systems are multi-user systems. Most batch processing systems for mainframe computers may also be considered "multi-user", to avoid leaving t ...
access, multi-site management and multi-device delivery to desktops, tablets, phones and the Internet of Things (IoT) such as Smart TVs and digital kiosks.
The software is widely used in web applications of varying type and size worldwide.
Handling
eZ Publish is managed via a
Web browser
A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...
, and additional local software is not necessary. It also features a
rich-text editor that allows formatting content similar to a
word processor
A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features.
Word processor (electronic device), Early word processors were stand-alone devices ded ...
. This enables content editing and contribution without
HTML
The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScri ...
skills. Content management can also be done through the eZ Publish
front-end.
Dual-licensing
The software is provided for free, and may be used and modified according to the GPL license. In addition, paid professional support is available with the eZ Publish Enterprise Edition. Furthermore, a commercial license is also available, granting the right to use eZ Publish under license conditions different from the GPL.
Functional range
The eZ Publish range of features includes professional and secure development of
web application
A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection.
History
In earlier computing models like client-serve ...
s. Functional areas include content versioning, media library, role-based rights management, mobile development, sitemaps, search and printing.
Additionally, the system includes extensions, which contain individual functions. This allows for the
upgrading
Upgrading is the process of replacing a product with a newer version of the same product. In computing and consumer electronics an upgrade is generally a replacement of computer hardware, hardware, software or firmware with a newer or better ver ...
of components while preserving compatibility with customized parts.
Technology
eZ Publish is written in
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared toward web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group ...
. Certified webservers on *nix systems are
Apache
The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...
and
nginx
Nginx (pronounced "engine x" ) is a web server that can also be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy and HTTP cache. The software was created by Igor Sysoev and publicly released in 2004. Nginx is free and open-source software ...
.
Some alternatives, such as
Lighttpd
lighttpd (pronounced "lighty") is an open-source web server optimized for speed-critical environments while remaining standards-compliant, secure and flexible. It was originally written by Jan Kneschke as a proof-of-concept of the c10k problem ...
,
Hiawatha
Hiawatha ( , also : ), also known as Ayenwathaaa or Aiionwatha, was a precolonial Native American leader and co-founder of the Iroquois Confederacy. He was a leader of the Onondaga people, the Mohawk people, or both. According to some account ...
,
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
, may also work.
On Windows,
IIS is the preferred webserver.
It is very common to use
Varnish
Varnish is a clear transparent hard protective coating or film. It is not a stain. It usually has a yellowish shade from the manufacturing process and materials used, but it may also be pigmented as desired, and is sold commercially in various ...
for caching high-performance sites that use eZ Publish.
The
database abstraction layer
A database abstraction layer (DBAL or DAL) is an application programming interface which unifies the communication between a computer application and databases such as SQL Server, IBM Db2, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle or SQLite. Traditionally, al ...
enables the use of most common databases, i.e.
MySQL
MySQL () is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius's daughter My, and "SQL", the acronym for Structured Query Language. A relational database o ...
,
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL (, ), also known as Postgres, is a free and open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) emphasizing extensibility and SQL compliance. It was originally named POSTGRES, referring to its origins as a successor to the In ...
,
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system developed by Microsoft. As a database server, it is a software product with the primary function of storing and retrieving data as requested by other software applications—which ma ...
, and
Oracle
An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination.
Description
The word '' ...
, without changes to the core system, by using drivers.
The software is
cluster-ready and enforces the separation of content and presentation via
XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...
storage of all content.
eZ Publish features:
* User defined content classes and objects
* Role based permissions system
* Template engine
* Version control
* Workflow management and task system
* Image conversion and scaling
* Database abstraction layer
* Multi-lingual support, with Unicode
* Libraries for
XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...
,
SOAP
Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are use ...
, localization and internationalization
* Search engine support
eZ Components
eZ Components was a library of standardized modules for speeding up application development. It includes functions for compressing binary files, optimizing performance through
caching, connecting to several databases, debugging,
RSS
RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...
, generating
graphs
Graph may refer to:
Mathematics
*Graph (discrete mathematics), a structure made of vertices and edges
**Graph theory, the study of such graphs and their properties
*Graph (topology), a topological space resembling a graph in the sense of discre ...
for analysis, converting images, supporting email and validating user input.
In an effort to transition the development from a company-driven to a
community-driven model, the whole source of the eZ Components were donated to the
Apache Software Foundation
The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is an American nonprofit corporation (classified as a 501(c)(3) organization in the United States) to support a number of open source software projects. The ASF was formed from a group of developers of the A ...
,
relicensed from the
BSD
The Berkeley Software Distribution or Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) is a discontinued operating system based on Research Unix, developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Berk ...
to the
Apache 2 license and renamed to
Zeta Components.
Replacement with
eZ Platform
eZ Platform (pronounced "easy platform") is an open-source enterprise PHP content management system (CMS) and Digital eXperience Platform (DXP) developed by the company Ibexa (known previously as eZ Systems), which has headquarters Oslo, Norway ...
In December 2014 the last version of the eZ Publish software was released. The work on the code base continued in the form of
eZ Platform
eZ Platform (pronounced "easy platform") is an open-source enterprise PHP content management system (CMS) and Digital eXperience Platform (DXP) developed by the company Ibexa (known previously as eZ Systems), which has headquarters Oslo, Norway ...
. This new version is dropping all the legacy code from the software and transitioning to a complete new code base built on the Symfony Full Stack Framework. This allows the developer team to share components and documentation with the underlying framework, while adding functionalities such as content and media management. eZ Platform is one of many CMSs using Symfony PHP components.
The initial version of eZ Platform was released on December 15, 2015 and the latest stable version, v2.5, was released in March 2019. The product is a fully functional Open Source CMS. Beyond the open source version of the software, users have also the option to choose eZ Platform Enterprise Edition which is a commercial Digital Experience Platform built on the eZ Platform core.
Further reading
*
*
*
References
External links
*
{{Application frameworks
Free content management systems