Dave Burke - For me and my house, we await Morpheus

For me and my house, we await Morpheus

All signs point to an impending CS2007 release. If the April 16th date for RTM is still a go, then we're only a week away!

The Community Server Core Team has done a killer job in moving CS to the next level, as always. There will be a slew of new features revealed after CS2007 goes RTM I'm sure, as developers and site administrators will start getting down to business with the new version and start posting about their discoveries.

A lot of attention has been paid thusfar to Ben Tiedt's phenomenal Chameleon Theming Engine, and rightly so. But I realized today how valuable Morpheus is going to be as well. Morpheus, José Lema's baby, is the new Membership architecture that allows you to break out ASP.NET Membership data from your Community Server SQL database, and where several CS databases can share a single Membership datastore. Not only that, but other non-Community Server applications will be able to use the shared membership data as well.

Consider the ability to share CS and non-CS application membership data for instance. I was playing with some of the Microsoft Starter Kit applications recently. Within the Starter Kit apps you can specify a location for membership and for the application data, which can be in separate databases. I don't use SQLExpress, the Starter Kit default configuration, so I used two SQL2005 databases. With Morpheus, I could use that ASP.NET Membership database in CS and build other .NET 2.0 apps that I could integrate into CS using the same ASP.NET Membership database.

I've not played with Morpheus, but given that extensibility, if I'm planning a new Community Server site with legs, I'd think I would want to break out ASP.NET Membership from the start and get to know Morpheus sooner rather than later.

Comments (9) | Post RSS RSS comment feed

Posted on 4/9/2007 2:24:06 PM by Dave Burke
Categories: Community Server
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4/9/2007 4:15:52 PM Permalink

Some examples as to how this will make life easier for non-developers would be appreciated. Where can I find the basics about ASP.NET Membership for beginners?

Does this mean that it will be easier to run non-CS applications on the same website using the same login functionality - without being a hardcore developer?

For example would it be possible to run a real CMS alongside CS?
For example Umbraco - www.umbraco.org

Thanks.

Worldview |

4/9/2007 4:36:01 PM Permalink

Hi, Worldview! Extending ASP.NET Membership is pretty much a developer thrill. Easier to run non-CS applications and with the same login? Definitely! But for non-developers? I wouldn't think so. Not in 2007 A.D. anyway, on any platform. I'm going to keep an eye on Umbraco though. Thanks for your comments.

daveburke |

4/9/2007 7:53:19 PM Permalink

Now if only CS 2007 would support OpenID. The proliferation of usernames is crazy. Looking forward to the release, will be interesting to see how it stacks up against DNN's just released 4.4.5.

David Mackey |

4/9/2007 8:46:56 PM Permalink

David, not really fair to compare it to DNN (or maybe it is now? I haven't done any DNN heavy lifting in a while). They've always been complimentary in my view, i.e. they both do what they do well w/ not much overlap.

Waiting with baited breath...the 16th won't get here soon enough!

jayson knight |

4/10/2007 4:40:17 AM Permalink

I haven't looked at DNN in a while myself, so I can't comment either. I share your feelings about the 16th though. I'll finally be able to go through the ritual of upgrading dbvt.com to the next generation.

4/10/2007 8:31:07 AM Permalink

From your point of view do you think CS2007 justifies a major version release rather than calling it CS2.2 ? As far as I can see (looking at CS2007 beta2) there is nothing significantly new in terms of 'end-user' functionality over that of CS2.1, ie if you give a non-tech user a CS2.1 and a CS2007 install they would be hard pushed to tell the difference. CS2007 just seems to be a release focussed on making development easier. What happened to the promise of the CMS integration in this version?!

Dave |

4/10/2007 9:47:20 AM Permalink

Dave, That's a good question. From a pure technical perspective, IMO, a major version release is justified. Chameleon is pretty extensive, so there will be a lot of theme UI management that wasn't available before. But from a pure non-tech perspective and what the user sees on the screen, then you've got a good argument. I wouldn't say CS2007 is focused on making development easier though, but rather making site management and customization easier. Pure CS development is no "easier." I can't respond to the CMS integration, since I don't know. It will be interesting to get answers to this question from those who upgrade to CS2007. Thanks for the comments.

4/11/2007 12:28:35 PM Permalink

Hmm...if you think about it, Morpheus would now also probaly be able to integrate with the same user db as Sharepoint 2007. In Sharepoint 2007 you can now use for example the ASP .NET Membership provider instead of Active Directory and NT accounts.

J-O Eriksson |

4/11/2007 12:39:14 PM Permalink

J-O, Great to hear from you! Yes, maybe Sharepoint integration is in the minds of those crazy CS core devs! I think its cool just to add Starter Kitlets! I didn't think about Sharepoint.

Dave Burke : Freelance .NET Web Developer specializing in Online Communities

For me and my house, we await Morpheus

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