Announcing eZ Publish Basic: Revitalizing a Classic Open-Source CMS with Full PHP 8 Compatibility

We are thrilled to announce a new project to breathe new life into eZ Publish 2.x, the community-supported CMS that served users for nearly a decade. With PHP's evolution over the years, the original eZ Publish has faced compatibility issues. But now, 7x is leading an open-source initiative to bring eZ Publish 2 into 2025 with full PHP 8 support.

Introducing eZ Publish Basic (Version 2.4.0.0.0)

Launched on GitHub on November 1, 2024, "eZ Publish Basic" marks the first step in our mission to modernize this reliable content management system. Our goal is to retain its core functionality while updating the codebase to work seamlessly with PHP 8. By addressing major changes, such as replacing the outdated "register globals" setting, we aim to ensure that developers and community sites can continue to use and customize eZ Publish Basic with confidence.

The Power of Open Source and the Choice of the GNU GPL License

From the start, eZ Publish was built to be adaptable, transparent, and community-centered. In keeping with that mission, we’ve chosen to update eZ Publish Basic under the GNU GPLv2 (or later version). This choice is central to our commitment: the GPL not only allows everyone to access, use, and modify the software freely but also ensures that improvements remain open and available for all. The GNU license strengthens eZ Publish as a platform by safeguarding both the community’s and developers’ contributions, creating a CMS ecosystem where freedom, adaptability, and innovation flourish.

A Fresh Start for New Developers and PHP Enthusiasts

eZ Publish Basic is designed to be more than just a CMS upgrade—it’s an invitation for new end users or developers to experience the capabilities of a powerful, well-structured CMS that offers a breath of fresh air compared to writing vanilla PHP. This project provides a unique entry point for aspiring developers, where they can learn core CMS concepts that make eZ Publish worth using and adapting in 2025. By working with eZ Publish Basic, developers can gain foundational skills and insight into a robust CMS structure that emphasizes freedom, scalability, and practical solutions.

An Educational Tool for Students and New Developers

This project is intentionally educational, crafted with students and beginner developers in mind, even as it retains the power for production-grade tasks. eZ Publish Basic allows newer developers to learn the fundamentals of PHP and CMS design in an open-source, collaborative setting. While it’s accessible to those still learning PHP, it remains fully functional and ready for any production environment. This approach empowers emerging developers to build real-world skills while contributing to a larger, impactful project and experiencing the value of community-driven software.

Why Join the eZ Publish Basic Project?

For developers, historians of the open-source world, or anyone who used eZ Publish 2 or subsequent versions (eZ Publish 3, 4, 5, and the Netgen or Ibexa OSS adaptations), this project is a chance to support and preserve a piece of open-source history. The open-source community has always been a critical part of eZ Publish’s journey, and we are inviting contributors to help complete this PHP 8 migration and keep eZ Publish Basic as a useful, adaptable solution for years to come.

Project Details

• Repository: GitHub - eZ Publish Basic
• Current Version: 2.4.0.0.0
• Planned Release for Full PHP 8 Compatibility: Q2 2025
• License: GNU GPLv2 (or later version)

Whether you’re a seasoned developer, an advocate for free software, or someone who used eZ Publish 2 in its early days, we invite you to join us. Your contributions—whether in code, testing, feedback, or ideas—will help ensure that eZ Publish Basic thrives as a resource for anyone seeking a robust, open-source CMS. Let’s preserve the values of openness and collaboration while creating a tool ready for today’s web.

Help us keep eZ Publish Basic open, accessible, and adaptable for years to come. Join us today on GitHub and be part of the journey to make this legendary CMS a modern, powerful solution for all.

Together, let’s keep the spirit of free software alive and well in eZ Publish Basic!

This is interesting to others who always wanted to provide more similar features the eZ Publish Information Collection System implementation of php + templates + settings that collects information about content objects. I wanted to use the system of features for collecting voting information so I created a duplicate implementation using the core kernel of eZ Publish as a reference while extending it to provide more features unique to the use case of generic content object voting collection and display functionality.

Digg [Sigma] is an idea. A re-implementation of digg.com during it's early php website implementation at v1 through v3 era. A website that promoted small business, group efforts, social networking, social interaction, social bookmarking, web promotions and loads of exciting stories, reading and voting through their implementation of digg.com. Well digg.com got sold, voting and social aspects were shelved and that abruptly ended an era of social news voting and bookmarking from a once prominent source online.

Digg [Sigma] is the engine that is added to any eZ Publish 6 (required) compatible website software installation, when properly configured, provides amazing additional features to your eZ Publish Website like display of content with voting information and functionality from the moment of creation of new content.

Currently there are a lot of configuration and usage requirements changes to be made to the Digg [Sigma] engine implementation for eZ Publish. We aim to simplify this in the future though continued development and abstraction of common themes into better customized templates, settings, views (module/content), php and documentation with usage examples.

To help speed things up for everyone we have quickly assembled the DiggClone Project to help spin up more eZ Publish based websites with the Digg [Sigma] engine built in using composer, default settings, default content (using a full dump of database content to sql file, and all website code files configured) to host clone.digg.one project homepage implementation example zipped up and ready to change the hostname, logo and defaults to meet your own unique needs and you too can host your own digg.one (our project turned into a social bookmarking website) based website using the stable eZ Publish System we live problem free lives knowing our pages are stable and reliably serving the public.

The DiggClone Project serves as a ready to use solution. The DiggClone Project provides a easy to use, reliable and up to date build of the latest digg [Sigma] software (as made available on digg.one social bookmarking and networking website (Example Project #0)) that can be used or merged into your existing eZ Publish website. This gives you the inner workings of the engine working for your needs.

(Primary Package to Install (Project) - This contains everything required save composer + php + web server + database server + some assembly required ;) called 7x DiggClone (Example Project #1): https://github.com/se7enxweb/clone.digg.one

(Core : Front-end : Information Collection Attribute) eZ DataType For Content Voting called 7x Digg: https://github.com/se7enxweb/sevenx_digg

(Secondary : Front-end : Digg Design + Module Views) eZ Design Extension called 7x DiggClone: https://github.com/se7enxweb/sevenx_diggclone

Really quickly now this is exciting a previous customer of 7x who also wanted a content voting and ranking features for their website already in eZ Publish, Global Mandates sponsored the development and refinement of the very first diggClone example implementation actually implemented in a real copy of any existing eZ Publish website. Now available at globalmandates.org home page. This work will be released in time at (Example Project #2): https://github.com/se7enxweb/sevenx_globalmandates on GitHub as well to provide another even faster starting point for end users to use to create their own copy of a digg [Sigma] and DiggClone based website using eZ Publish.

In the future we will reduce the amount of work needed to simply start using the templates and settings provided in a meaningful way. Currently the bindings between default structure content IDs, Identifiers, templates all lack settings support to store this information in an abstraction that allows for easier setup in seconds vs hours.

In the future we will focus on 7x Digg extension development to contain the refined templates of the diggClone extension as well as the module views and settings. This will reduce our need for the diggClone extension to just use the solution more efficiently.

In the future we will implement the example of Global Mandates implementation of a Digg (Clone/eZ) website like enhanced templates and home page design (unique from digg.one domain) into DiggClone repositories. These changes will provide a much faster starting point as they will also include written documentation and key instructions for getting started in minutes vs days without help. This documentation will help give a centralized place to explain in greater detail problems or issues which might arise while working with eZ Publish + 7x Digg based projects which will incentivize solving problems before they become real.

This should by the near future result in a consolidated, documented, and quick to implement starting point for any end user to clone this project software for any need like hosting your own digg based social network platform of websites.

Digg.one is a fun place to share information and make a searchable record of your own information that matters to you the individual.

eZ Publish is a fun website framework that makes publishing to the web a dream come true!

Together they form the DiggClone Project resulting in 7x Digg, DiggClone, clone.digg.one and GlobalMandates.org

Who can say what the future will hold for what started out as a simple test of what was possible with a little focused interest while developing with my favorite cms.

What do you think? Should I have based this solution on the eZ Star Rating DataType System implementation instead? I chose the Information Collection System because I felt it would offer more in the short term faster than the most obvious alternative.

Happy Hacking!

I’m please to note here the release and availability for download and installation and usage to update your installation of eZ Publish 6 (composer based installs+) to further improved releases in the future.