After a long period of development, the second iteration of the Apache Cocoon XML-based application platform has been released.

The second version is a complete rewrite of the original Cocoon which, while popular, had several design limitations that could not be circumvented. The Cocoon team describe their open source, Java-based, product:

Apache Cocoon is an XML framework that raises the usage of XML and XSLT technologies for server applications to a new level. Designed for performance and scalability around pipelined SAX processing, Cocoon offers a flexible environment based on the separation of concerns between content, logic and style. A centralized configuration system and sophisticated caching top this all off and help you to create, deploy and maintain rock-solid XML server applications.

More detail, and downloads, can be found at the Apache Cocoon web site.