OpenStar is a value-added PostNuke distribution. Our aim is to deliver a more complete eBusiness/CMS solution while still remaining compatible to the proven core PostNuke distribution.

The current OpenStar release (3.0) is based on PostNuke 0.750 and is compatible with this PostNuke version.

Yes. We plan to upgrade OpenStar to the latest stable PostNuke release within a few weeks of the release of such a version, provided that said version proves itself to be stable.

We have added additional functional components which cover the following areas:

• Calendar and AddressBook (integrated)


• Media- and Contentmangement (integrated)


• Project Management (integrated with AddressBook)


• Event and Ressource Booking


• Helpdesk and Service


• and many more ...

We provide an advanced development kit which greatly simplifies module development:

• Object Persistence Layer


• Component Architecture


• Integration of other 3rd party components

Our software is available for free via download and is distributed under the GNU GPL. As such it is freely redistributable and can be reused by developers in their own projects subject to the terms of the GNU GPL. This means that modules developed on the basis of v4blib must be GPL licensed.

Given that PostNuke has as its goal to produce a lean and stable core engine, some of the changes we have introduced are too far-reaching to be readily incorporated into the PostNuke core. As such it makes more sense to develop OpenStar as a PostNuke add-on. When appropriate, we supply selective fixes and patches back to the PostNuke team. We would like to stress that we do not intend to fork PostNuke and will continue to build on it's proven core engine. We have spent significant effort ensuring that OpenStar remains 100% compatible to PostNuke and intend to keep it that way. You can read some of our ideas which lead to the OpenStar distribution starting here

Our development libraries and components (called v4blib) are the result of our experiences writing custom modules for our customers. We have been using these abstractions in various forms for more than a year by now and have encountered no significant problems to speak of. Since they have been in use for this extended period of time, you can be quite confident that they are relatively bug-free and their existing interfaces will not change significantly anymore.

First of all, please take a look at the Developers section on our site. It contains some basic info about the features provided by our library as well as the automatically generated documentation (which is also provided in the includes/v4blib/html directory of the OpenStar distribution). If this still leaves you puzzled, take a look at any of the v4b modules (in the modules directory) for some examples on how to use the features provided by our development kit. If this still leaves you puzzled, you are more than welcome to use the Development Forum to ask your specific questions.

We ship with all modules at least providing full English and German language support. Selective module which come from the PostNuke community may support more languages.

First of all you need to download and install the PostNuke language kit for your (new) language. Then you need to either chase down language kits for the 3rd party modules we bundle. Finally you need to translate the language files for the v4b modules to your (new) language. As you can see, this is a somewhat complicated and labor-intensive process; unfortunatey there's nothing that can be done about that. Contact us at the Forums and we'll try to guide you trough this (and help you out) as much as possible.

If a module's name starts with "v4b", then it was written by us and uses the features provided by our development library (v4blib). Any other module can be assumed to be written for the general PostNuke platform.