Java Apache Jyve

What is Java Apache Jyve?

Jyve is a Java Servlet based FAQ-O-Matic system built on top of the Turbine framework. It uses Element Construction Set for Html generation and Village for JDBC access. Currently, Jyve directly supports the MySQL database, but others can be easily support by creating custom schema's for the appropriate databases (interested parties should subscribe to the mailing list and post code there).

STATUS OF JYVE PROJECT

Jyve currently depends on a fairly old version of Turbine and Jyve is currently out of sync with the latest Turbine developments. There are instructions for building Jyve with the latest version of Turbine, but they are not perfect and may cause headaches and nausea. Please do not operate heavy machinery while attempting to install Jyve. :-)
We are working on updating Jyve to support the latest Turbine, but we are also working on updating Jyve to be based on Velocity so that it will be a template based solution instead of the currently hard coded ECS HTML.
We have no estimated timeline for when this will be ready, so we recommend that you join the Jyve mailing list (see below for instructions) and listen on the mailing list for a little while to see what is going on. At some point, we will be at a place where we will accept comments and feedback on certain parts of the system as well as asking for help with development. At that point, you should speak up and volunteer if you wish to help speed up the development process. This process is very typical of most of the projects on Java Apache as well as Jakarta projects, so if you are new to these projects, you can pretty much apply this process to the rest of the projects. :-)
Jyve does depend on Turbine however, they are separate projects. It is not recommended that you post to the Turbine mailing list with Jyve questions. Please keep all the discussion on the Jyve mailing list.
Thanks!

Features

Defined system flow: Project[s] -> FAQ[s] -> Topic[s] -> Question[s] -> Answer[s]
Items stored in the FAQ are defined as HTML or Plain Text
Items can be shown in a specified sorted order by number
In Topic view, each question displays the number of answers it has. This way, one can easily determine if a question already has an answer or not.
All aspects of the content in the system can be modified via the website
When modifying something, it remembers where you were and sends you back to the previous location. For example, if you are browsing the FAQ and you wish to change something, clicking the [Show Edit Commands] link will take you to a login screen. After you have succesfully logged in, you will be returned to the item that you wanted to edit.
Tight integration with Turbine, ECS and Village
User login and authentication and tracking
Security. Users can be assigned to roles that have defined editing permissions.
New accounts need to be confirmed with a proper email address before they are allowed to modify/add entries to the system.
Localization. Includes English, German, French, Chinese, and Korean localization strings. Easy to add any other language support.
Can potentially be used with any RDBMS. MySQL is the tested database. Schema included with distribution.
Captures the date/time items were modified and who made the last modification.
Extremely Fast. Uses built in caching systems to enhance the user experience.
Runs on any servlet engine that supports JSDK 2.0 and higher and on any platform/OS. The application was developed on NT/98 and has been successfully deployed on FreeBSD without a single line of code changed.
Authors of items in the FAQ can be easily emailed specific quesitons by clicking on their usernames. The email address is never revealed within the system in order to prvent spammers from indexing the site.
Fast, easy to follow search interface finds results in all portions of the system.
When used with Apache JServ, it can take advantage of Apache JServ's load balancing features to allow N-Tier scalability. Excellent for extremely high traffic sites.
Easily enhanced/modified. We have a TODO document of things that we would like to see implemented. Do not be afriad to make further suggestions and/or implement these features yourself.

Example Site

We use Jyve as our FAQ system. We strongly believe in eating our own dog food. ;-) You can see and use it online.

Documentation

We are just getting started with the documentation. There is the install document and the Javadoc for the source code which you can get by reading the INSTALL document. In the document Visitors, Roles and Permissions in Jyve you can find more about visitors, roles and permission as well as the connections between those. In the document Packages used by Jyve you can find name, URL, a short description and some installation hint of packages used by Jyve; also some URLs to JDBC drivers can be found there.
Contributions towards more documentation are appreciated. There is also a TODO document available if you are interesting in finding ways that you can contribute to Jyve.

Where do I get releases?

We have not created a release yet, so it is only availble via CVS. Please note that the Jyve code is currently very stable. We highly suggest that you pull a snapshot and install it on your server and see how it works for you. If you have problems, please subscribe to the mailing list and post a detailed description of the problem there.

Where do I get CVS daily snapshots?

From here!

How do I contribute, give feedback, fix bugs and so on?

We really need and appreciate any contributions you can give. This includes documentation help, source code and feedback. The TODO document details areas in Jyve that still need improvement or work. Please do not hesitate to jump in and help out with development. This is your chance to contribute something to Open Source.

We have a Jyve mailing list for discussion.
Access to the CVS "jyve" repository is available both online as well as with a cvs client.