But first, Servoy 5.2: What’s new?

Servoy 5.2 builds on the Servoy 5.1 and can be considered the maintenance release for 5.1. We gave is a new version number, mainly to ‘celebrate’ the fact that with this release we open sourced Servoy Developer and the Smart and Web Client. Additionally we now bundle PostgreSQL as the default database engine.

Open source
Servoy 5.2 is Servoy’s first open source release. This release makes all the source code of Servoy Developer, as well as the Smart, Web, Headless and Batchprocessor client available under the Affero General Public License.

PostgreSQL
Servoy 5.2 ships with PostgreSQL as the default database.

Window support
Besides dialogs, Servoy also allows the developer to show forms in windows. Each window shows up in the system bar individually, can be minimized to the system bar and can move behind other windows. Read all about it here.

Enhanced security
To further improve client security, Servoy 5.2 provides even more robust authentication. Read more about it here.

View the full list of things new in Servoy 5.2 here. The complete Release Notes can be found here. Information on upgrading from earlier version of Servoy can be found here.

What else is new?

New web site design & content
It was time to overhaul the design of the web site once again. We designed the main page to help people new to Servoy find the best way possible through their discovery of the Servoy eco-space, using direct links to the most interesting bits, a good overview of what Servoy is, its main features etc.

Servoy MarketPlace
One of the prominent links on the homepage is a link to the Servoy MarketPlace, the place for all Servoy Alliance Network members to showcase their product - whether complete solutions, modules, bits of documentation or plugins/beans, to the general (Servoy) public.

More open support system
By popular request, we have been working on selecting a new support system and we have found it in the form of Atlassian’s Jira. We still have to work out some details, but Jira seems to be offering all that is required. As migration from our current support system to Jira will take some time, we modified the existing support system so you can at least view cases created by others.

New Quickstart Guide
Also by popular demand: new and up-to-date Quickstart Guide. Besides just the text, the authors also recorded their material in video format!

Updated Reference Guide
As with every release, the Programming Reference Guide has been updated to match the new version. Besides just adding the new functions, properties, etc., many descriptions and samples have been updated.

So, what’s next?

So, are we done? No, we are moving full steam ahead.
Codename Kamili
The guys from R&D are already working on the next version of Servoy, codename “Kamili”. The clever people of Servoy Forge already hooked up their systems to the Servoy SVN to track all the updates that are being done by the R&D team. Want to know more about it? Stayed tuned on this channel, as we will blog on Kamili’s roadmap soon.

Servoy Developer Center
To further streamline the “Servoy Experience”, we are working on the Servoy Developer Center (SDC). The SDC will be the new main page for the Servoy Wiki. It will be a developer centric page with an overview of the latest news for developers, links, tutorials, etc. It will replace iServoy.

ServoyWorld 2011: Bigger, better, faster and …
Our team is finalizing the arrangements for the next ServoyWorld, which will be held in Q1 2011 in the Netherlands (so, besides your laptop - bring your ice skates!)

Migration of our support system to Jira
As mentioned above, we’ll be working hard on figuring out the last details and then migrate the current support system over to Jira.

More docs and tutorials
You can never have enough, can you? Tthere’s the new Quickstart Guide now, but that is just the start. More is slated to come your way.

More stuff to support our open source supporters
Now that large parts of the Servoy codebase are open source, we will provide the tools for the people who are interested in contributing. Not that you can’t already though. First patches from some Servoy Open Source-enthusiasts have made it into Servoy 5.2 already!

Providing single sign-on for the Servoy Talk forum, Servoy Wiki/SDC and other Servoy sites
With the growing list of sites we supply to you, we though it would be a good idea to provide you with a single sign-on function (and it’ll make our lives easier as well )

And yet there’s more…

Besides us, others have been busy too.
pgExperts Sybase > PostgreSQL migration service
pgExperts Inc. offers a special migration service for Servoy customers to automatically migrate Sybase databases to PostgreSQL. Just upload your Sybase database files and get back the same database, but then in PostgreSQL! Read all about it here.

Servoy University
Servoy University, or ServoyU for short, is an online portal providing Servoy training videos and certification. It has gathered all the existing videos and put them all nicely together in one spot - versioned and tagged for your convenience. More importantly, it also hosts a range of new, up-to-date videos on Servoy 5.2.
As of today, you can sign up for access to its premium videos which will be available at a yearly subscription fee. The first premium series available is the Servoy Developer Certification series, over 40 videos totalling 10 hours of Servoy 5.2 training material!  By August 9th, the Developer Certification series will be completely finished.
In September, ServoyU will launch the Servoy Certification program.  This will allow you, your team, and your employees to receive official Servoy Certification.  More information about certification will be available soon.
The team behind ServoyUniversity is devoted to continuously bring you more videos and series, on new topics or Servoy versions.

ServoyForge
In the wake of the announcement that Servoy would go open source, some long-time Servoy enthusiasts joined forces and (re)launched ServoyForge: the place for open source projects related to Servoy - whether they be beans, solutions, plugins or modules - you’ll find them there.
As Servoy, we have already launched 2 new project there (ServoySecurity & ServoyCommons) and more will follow shortly, including the Servoy JasperReports plugin.

Paul Bakker
Product Marketing Manager
Servoy