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Feature Roadmap

Notice: This page has been moved to our new documentation wiki on http://www.orchardproject.net.*


In October 2009 the project team began working on our first application, the Orchard CMS. We are following a three week iteration model, using an agile, test-driven approach to software development. In the near term, we’ll be implementing the features below. The feature roadmap is subject to change as the project evolves, and we welcome your input.
Currently implemented
  • Basic admin panel and login
  • CMS page creation and management
  • Page templates and content zones within pages
  • Content editing and publication (drafts, scheduling, preview)
  • Extensibility - Initial content type and composability infrastructure (based on MVC2 areas)
  • Media management (basic support for uploading and rendering images in content)
  • Users, roles, membership and profile data (Users/Roles/Permissions, Mgmt)
  • XML-RPC (Live Writer, MetaWebBlog) support for pages
  • Basic blog (create and manage blogs and posts)
  • Comments – Associate comments with content types, manage comments, spam protection
  • Tags – Associate tags with content types, browse by tag
  • Settings – App-level, extension-level settings definition and UI/management
Priorities for the current iteration [ends 1/4, due to holiday]
  • Application front-end
  • Themes – Theming model, UI to install/remove themes
  • Widgets – UI components mapped to content zones
Areas of focus for future iterations (backlog, not in priority order)
  • Pages – Creation of pages, layout of content on pages (zones), page templates
  • Blog - RSS/Atom, XML-RPC, trackbacks/pingbacks, multiple authors, archive, etc.
  • Content – Different content types/metadata, viewers and editors for content
  • Publishing – Workflow/permissions, draft approval, history (restore from)
  • Media Gallery – Media gallery and media management improvements, insertion to content while editing
  • XML-RPC – MetaWeblog (Live Writer), WordPress API
  • Votes/ratings – Associate ratings/rankings with content types
  • Comments/Moderation – Comment/content moderation and queue management
  • SEO – Semantic URLs, metas/keywords, Web standards, sitemap
  • Search – Ability to easily search application content using local and external engines
  • Navigation – Navigation management, front-end UI (menus, breadcrumbs)
  • Syndication – RSS and Atom Feeds (in-bound, out-bound), Email subscriptions
  • Setup – In-browser, Web PI, and hoster control panel
  • Admin – UI improvements, dashboard, notifications/email, validation and error handling
  • Database – Database configuration (local in-memory and server), import/export
  • Users/Roles – Authentication/permissions, users and role management
  • Profiles - User profiles, avatars, reputation system
  • Themes – Additional themes improvements (in-browser editing, etc)
  • Plug-ins – Extensibility model for event handling and filtering hooks
  • Widgets – Admin UI and management for widgets, widget groups, mapping to zones
  • Packaging – Extension packaging and installation UI
  • Servicing – Update notifications, in-place and non-destructive updates
  • Performance – Caching, optimization, script combining/minification
  • Logging – Trace, debugging, profiling, error handling
  • Analytics – Reporting, site-use statistics
  • i18n – Localizable, time zone and calendar aware
  • Marketplace – Ability to browse/install extensions from online gallery
  • Mobile - Support for management, moderation, publishing from mobile device
  • Other Domain-specific Modules – Commerce, Wiki, Forums, Ads, etc

Last edited Dec 9 2009 at 6:10 PM by bradmi, version 10
Comments
findbug Nov 20 2009 at 3:38 AM 
I do not know what is the reason for guys from ASP.NET team to create another CMS. There are already Umbraco and Kooboo CMS or even Share point, which almost does anything you described here. Why didn't your guys choose something that is new and niche?

This is great for end users, because end users will get more choices, good for developers to learn coding as well.

However this will seriously discourage developers like me to write another CMS in ASP.NET MVC. Something directly come out from ASP.NET team will have unfair advantages on the competition.

ScottGal Nov 20 2009 at 10:02 AM 
I don't believe that Orchard is designed to compete with those platforms, it's more about building a framework which anyone can use. There's a ton of plumbing that has to go into building things like CMS applications / even forums and ecommerce sites. Personally I'm delighted that the team (disclaimer, I was on the ASP.NET team, but not the Orchard team which is distinct) are building a totally open, extensible framework that I can frankly steal for my own apps; or even just steal ideas.

BertrandLeRoy Nov 23 2009 at 8:29 PM 
@Findbug: hopefully, this can encourage you and others to contribute :)

findbug Nov 29 2009 at 6:08 AM 
@ScottGal,
I am afraid that this seems like exactly the intention of Orchard project. Check the statement on the home page. The difference between a framework and a CMS application is very clear.
>> the Orchard project is focused on delivering a .NET-based CMS application that will allow users to rapidly create content-driven Websites, and an extensibility framework that will allow developers and customizers to provide additional functionality through extensions and themes.

This is also exactly what the DNN is doing. This really bring alerts to me what the ASP.NET team want to do and how should I position myself in the future. In my opinion, the ASP.NET team should be focusing on providing a good framework on which the community can build applications. The new ASP.NET MVC and the entity framework is great enhancements to the ASP.NET framework. I am expecting to see something like those more from ASP.NET team. ASP.NET team can also try to provide some sample projects which is also great. However if ASP.NET team is going to build real business application to complete with ASP.NET community driven projects, this will hurt the community a lot.

ShannonJiang Nov 30 2009 at 3:59 PM 
This is a great news. Actually I was looking for a CMS based on asp.net mvc, with extensible module architecture. DNN has the great extensibility, but it's very poorly architected and based on webform. Umbraco also is based on webform and uses xlst as rendering engine, which I've hated. N2CMS is more a lightweight framework than a CMS product.

findbug Dec 1 2009 at 6:06 AM 
@ShannonJiang, didn't you look at Kooboo CMS? ASP.NET MVC based CMS with a very easy extension framework. It is built on the ASP.NET MVC 1.0 which at that time did not have the ASP.NET MVC area yet.

Ja, this is really great news for end users like I said above, people like more choices, better choice. But what about developers of DNN, Umbraco and Kooboo? what do you think what they are thinking about?

poretti Dec 1 2009 at 9:57 PM 
True opensource project are collaborative by definition, not contending for clients …
In my opinion complains for more choice come from people that is actually selling something (skill, services, products) based on opensource project. But this kind of people always have the possibility to focus also on Orchard.
I think company like Kentico, Telerik (just to name a few) have more to complain about a full flagged Orchard CMS than DNN developers.

kooboo Dec 2 2009 at 3:31 AM 
@poretti,
Based on what you said "But this kind of people always have the possibility to focus also on Orchard". It seems like you are suggesting that developers of other open source CMS stop their own communities and join Orchard project.

Unfortunately, this is NOT an option of those developers, especially for people who spent huge amount of hours on their current CMS or modules. We should repost this discussion to DNN forum and see what their response is.

From what I see now, I did not really see anything special or creative of this project other than it is directly come out of ASP.NET team.

More choices is good, competition is good. But Orchard is using Microsoft official channels to promote this product. That gives Orchard unfair advantages over competitors and is misleading end users. Unfair competition is what is hurting, no others.

And how come the ASP.NET team has time to build application like this? Don't they have anything else to do at the framework?

digory Dec 2 2009 at 5:57 AM 
>> We should repost this discussion to DNN forum and see what their response is.

Their response should be that they were very grateful that Microsoft gave us IBuySpy ;-)

zoroastro27 Dec 5 2009 at 11:24 AM 
It's understandable that kooboo is angry. He sees danger in his business and is intimidated by the ASP.NET Team.
But, I think ASP.NET Team is beatable, if kooboo's product is good then will be succesful.
Maybe he could use some orchard's bits, or give his product the ability to use orchard's modules, maybe orchard's publicity will expand market share for an ASP.NET CMS. He could make more money than proyected.

fredyfl Dec 6 2009 at 8:45 PM 
It is the current iteration finished?

kooboo Dec 7 2009 at 8:14 AM 
I should clarify some points.

1. This is a great project that many people can make sure of. We hope that Orchard will be a project like Petshop or Ibuyspy.

2. We hope to have more communication with ASP.NET team. We do not want to invest a lot of hours on features that will be provided by future version of ASP.NET. It is very important for ASP.NET team to show us a clear roadmap and the future planning from ASP.NET team. I think this will be very important for many developers.

3. Orchard team made changes on their homepage description, which make things more clear right now compare with when I read it several weeks ago. I removed my previous comment because I am not able to modify part of it. Kooboo is in no way competing with or worrying about Orchard.

4. .NET framework still has too much to be improved. That should be the focus and main task of ASP.NET team. Projects like this should be a community driven project.

BertrandLeRoy Dec 7 2009 at 6:09 PM 
@kooboo: please, by all means, contact me about any possible Orchard interaction (we want to HELP the community any way we can, not harm it in any way) or about possible improvements to ASP.NET that would help the project. bleroy at you know where.
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