The Radiant CMS project passed a major milestone this week. We now have the plumbing for installation of extensions from the command line. Since extensions will be registered in a global web-service (soon to be deployed at ext.radiantcms.org), all of the information about how to install them will be available and editable in one place, and the scripts just use that to figure out how to install. The part I’m most excited about is that Radiant Machine will be able to run its own registry with no code modification, serving only vetted extensions that we select.

Here’s some features the extension registry may also see soon:

• Import a list of extensions from GitHub
• Dependencies on gems and other extensions, possibly with the option to auto-install them
• A ratings system for extensions (like Agile Web Development)

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This is the official blog of Radiant Machine, and I’m happy to be inaugurating it. We intend to use this blog to inform you about our progress and keep ourselves on track. We’re very excited about getting this project off the ground.

What is Radiant Machine? I’m glad you asked. Radiant Machine is a full-service hosting solution for Radiant CMS. What does that mean? First of all, here’s what will be included:

• Radiant CMS pre-installed and running on your own “virtual appliance”
• Best-of-breed, vetted extensions with features the core of Radiant doesn’t provide
• First-class, friendly support from the Radiant developers
• Fully automated backups and comprehensive monitoring
• Beautiful templates from top designers to get you started

We aim to make starting a new site with Radiant as simple and seamless as possible. You won’t need to use a terminal or SSH to do anything, simply sign up and get your new Radiant site right away!

So when can I get one? We’re not sure of an exact date, but we will likely be opening up the system to beta testers in the fall of 2008. Keep tuned to this blog to find out more!

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