OpenCms

Last updated
OpenCms
Developer(s) Alkacon Software and the OpenCms community
Stable release
19 [1] / 2025-04-02 [±]
Repository
Operating system Cross-platform
Platform Java, XML
Type Content management system
License GNU Lesser General Public License
Website www.opencms.org

OpenCms is an open-source content management system [2] written in Java. [3] [4] It is distributed by Alkacon Software under the LGPL license. [5] OpenCms requires a JSP Servlet container such as Apache Tomcat. [5]

Contents

It is a CMS application with a browser-based work environment, asset management, user management, workflow management, a WYSIWYG editor, internationalization support, content versioning, and many more features including proxying of requests to another endpoint. [3]

OpenCms was launched in 1999, [5] based on its closed-source predecessor MhtCms. The first open source version was released in 2000.

OpenCms is used or has been used by large organizations such as WIPO, the LGT Group, the University of Stuttgart, the Archdiocese of Cologne, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. [5]

User interface

The OpenCms user interface runs in a web browser, placing control elements directly on the web page that is edited. Content on a page can be modified by drag and drop. [6] Text can be edited "inline" directly on the web page, or in an alternative form based editor.

Web pages and their navigation structure are managed in a dedicated sitemap editor. Content elements are stored in galleries and can be reused between different web pages or web sites. An additional "power user" interface for Administrators provides role and permission management. Since version 9.5 OpenCms has offered layout and template creation without coding. [7]

Editing a web page in the inline editor of OpenCms 10. OpenCms 10 - Editing a web page.png
Editing a web page in the inline editor of OpenCms 10.

Technology

OpenCms runs on the Java platform as a servlet. It uses several libraries provided by the Apache foundation. The user interface has been developed using Vaadin and the Google Web Toolkit.

The OpenCms content repository is stored in a database, with MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, HSQLDB, Oracle, MSSQL and IBM Db2 being natively supported. It can be accessed with CMIS, WebDAV as an SMB network share or through the native web interface.

Text content in OpenCms is defined using an XML schema. The user interface for the content managers creates XML files based on these schemas, which are stored in the database repository. A template system based on JavaServer Pages then creates web pages from the XML.

Versions

OpenCms has been under continuous development as an open source project since the year 2000. Currently a major version is released every 6 months in April and October. The revision control of the OpenCms source code is done using Git on GitHub. [8] The following table provides an overview of all major OpenCms releases. [9]

Overview of major OpenCms releases
VersionRelease dateImportant new features
Unsupported: 4.02 Feb 2000Online / offline workflow, WYSIWYG editor for web pages, explorer, user management
Unsupported: 5.05 May 2002Page templates in JSP with own <cms:> tag library, extended caching and static export of pages
Unsupported: 5.311 Dec 2003Full text search using Lucene, direct edit of web pages
Unsupported: 6.030 Jun 2005Updated user interface, storage of content in XML files based on XSD, management of multiple sites
Unsupported: 6.231 Mar 2006Integrated image scaling, visual comparison of document versions
Unsupported: 7.004 Jul 2007Support for WebDAV, automatic link management, category tags for all content files
Unsupported: 7.515 Jun 2009Content galleries, extended support for creating JSP using expression language
Unsupported: 8.08 May 2011Enhanced user interface allowing drag and drop of elements in the page and sitemap editor, support for mobile devices
Unsupported: 8.524 Sep 2012"Inline" editing of web pages, integration of Apache Solr, CMIS support, SEO features
Supported: 9.008 Nov 2013Preview for mobile devices, accessing the content repository using a network share, visual site management interface, demo template based on Bootstrap
Supported: 9.503 Nov 2014Nested containers allow template and layout creation with drag and drop, user generated content, PDF creation, extended editor roles, spell checking in the WYSIWYG editor, visual management of galleries, categories and templates
Supported: 10.023 Mar 2016Modernized administration workplace, added Apollo Template, new file explorer, Identicons for users, direct commit of changed templates to Git, drag and drop of images, enhanced Solr based content search
Supported: 10.515 Feb 2017Improved localization tools for side-by-side comparison of sitemaps, support for generating pages as JSON fragments, asset connection for external data sources, font icons in the user interface
Supported: 11.030 Apr 2019Redesigned user interface, meta mappings for SEO, new Mercury Template, default content list generation with predefined Solr searches, bookmarks in the explorer, new apps for resource type and sessions management
Supported: 12.012 Oct 2021 Headless JSON API for REST content access, greatly improved Mercury Template, template variants, updated WebDAV implementation.
Supported: 13.003 Apr 2022New plugin system, search by geo coordinates, extensions to template variants, improved Mercury template.
Supported: 14.011 Oct 2022XML schema versioning with automatic content rewrite, two factor authentication (2FA) in the user login, source code editor widget for multi-line text inputs, Mercury template updated to Bootstrap 5.2.
Supported: 15.025 Apr 2023Role-based control for sitemap access and new editor for modifying selected sitemap attributes, app "Person data search" reveals personal user data in the VFS, improved Mercury template.
Supported: 16.002 Oct 2023New app "Unused contents" finds and deletes content not actively used, individual detail pages based on categories, option to reset the password for all content managers, improved Mercury template.
Supported: 17.009 Apr 2024New app "Date search", export a selected site for archiving, hide "sensitive" content in the Offline project, support for Java LTS 17 and 21, improved Mercury template.
Supported: 18.008 Oct 2024New “Place element” mode in the page editor, markers for reused content, automatic typographical correction of quotation marks, improved Mercury template.
Latest version:19.002 Apr 2025New tools for website translation, image preview and filename validation in the upload dialog, improved content validation, fast access to categories.
Legend:
Unsupported
Supported
Latest version
Preview version

Further reading

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Release OpenCms 19.0 · alkacon/Opencms-core". opencms.org. Retrieved 2025-04-02.
  2. ↑ Rähm, Jan (2007-06-26). "OpenCMS 7 kurz vor Veröffentlichung" (in German). Retrieved 2009-01-23.
  3. 1 2 Asipenko, Slava (17 Sep 2006). "OpenCms 6.0: A Review". CMS Watch. Archived from the original on 2009-02-09. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
  4. ↑ "Quelloffenes Content-Management". 2002-04-26. Archived from the original on 2009-02-17. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
  5. 1 2 3 4 McGrath, John (28 November 2002). "Open-source CMS: On the rise". ZD Net. Archived from the original on October 22, 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
  6. ↑ OpenCms release notes describing drag and drop editing features
  7. ↑ OpenCms release notes describing template and layout creation without the need to code
  8. ↑ OpenCms source code on GitHub
  9. ↑ Overview of all OpenCms releases in the history.txt file on GitHub
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