Version 0.20 is finally here! This is one of the most substantial updates in the history of the Accord Project. Below are some of the improvements in version 0.20:
Write templates in the new CiceroMark syntax
We have fully redesigned the Accord project template syntax, for flexibility and expressiveness.
The new syntax is called CiceroMark and version 0.20 ships with a brand new template library which includes all previously published Accord Project templates as well as new templates which take advantage of the new CiceroMark capabilities.
The main new features are:
- CiceroMark can be any markdown documents (including headings, lists, quotes, links) based on CommonMark. So your contract can now be rendered and edited in a Rich Text editor.
- CiceroMark extends markdown with template expressions to handle variables, conditional text, lists, clauses, and more.
- CiceroMark supports dynamic text generation by letting you write Ergo expressions within your template text.
New improved documentation
With the help of Accord Project intern Katie Sa, the Accord Project documentation has been rewritten and reorganized. The new documentation not only documents all the new features available in 0.20, but also includes new Sections to make it more comprehensive for developers and more accessible to non-developers such as business owners and lawyers.
Please feel free to contribute or suggest ways to improve our tech docs.
Migrate your templates to 0.20 using the migration guide
Templates built on Cicero Version 0.13 will need to be migrated to Version 0.20 to take advantage of the new functionality and be compatible with the latest Accord Project tools. Follow this migration guide to migrate your template to V 0.20.
Other improvements in 0.20:
- Better support for Windows platforms
- Ability to work on your templates while offline
- More consistent command line interfaces across all of the Accord Project
- New Ergo features such as better support for enumerated values, contract state management, and for integration with CiceroMark
New projects
In addition to this new release, the Accord Project has taken ownership of the Concerto Modeling Language from Hyperledger, and developed a new library for markdown transformations, both of which power Cicero 0.20.
Concerto
Concerto enables the content of machine-readable and smart agreements to be modeled in a technology-agnostic manner. Concerto models can be used to define concepts, transactions, assets, and participants for agreements.
The Concerto language is widely extensible; supporting new class declarations and reuse of models across namespaces that are used across different smart legal contract templates. For example, an intellectual property assignment template may utilize a model for defining a patent.
Acquiring Concerto affords the Accord Project greater control in adding functionality to templates. Stay tuned to see how Concerto develops under the Accord Project banner.
Markdown Transform
The Accord Project has created the Markdown transform, a transformation framework for converting markdown content to HTML, Slate (for rich-text editing), and other domain object models (DOMs).
One part of the Markdown Transform is the CiceroMark DOM, which extends the CommonMark DOM, defining nodes for Clause, Variable and ComputedVariable. CiceroMark enables templates to have formatting such as bold, italics, and lists.