A simple question Topic is solved

[koehler]

Great, 0.9rc1 was released. A class concept for modules was invented. Now i have to rewrite 4 modules. My project will delay 1-2 weeks and i was already near the final milestone. Thank you guys!

[size=18px]Question:[/size]
Will this be the last unheralded major change in concept, or should i be prepared.. maybe a new pluginn design which will cause some more sleepless work-nights with my 6 pluginns ?

Guys .. beside the missing api documentation, please announce your upcoming changes and discuss this with your users or this cms will render useless to me.


regards,

michael

[Ted]

I realize that it sucks having deadlines and rewriting code and all that...

But this has been floating around for WELL over a month now.

http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/viewtopi ... hlight=api
http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/viewtopi ... hlight=api
http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/viewtopi ... hlight=api
http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/viewtopi ... hlight=api
http://wiki.cmsmadesimple.org/pmwiki.ph ... APIRewrite

I'm not going to provide a rejustification of why this was done, as it's in the posts above. I KNEW going into it that it was going to ruffle some feathers, but it had to be done sooner, rather than later. Plus, it's pre-1.0...

And, really, the module API is self-documenting if you run it through phpdoc AND there is an introduction to it that I rewrote several weeks ago so that it was done in time for the rc1 release. That would be here.

*sigh* And to answer your other question... I don't have any other major architecture change plans in the near future. Plugins are an extension of smarty, so they're not changing unless smarty get's dumped. So far, CMSMS has upgraded almost seemless from 0.1 to 0.8.2. That's a pretty damn good record if you ask me... I'd like to see software with licensing fees and a big budget give you the same respect.

[koehler]

I'm not going to provide a rejustification of why this was done, as it's in the posts above. I KNEW going into it that it was going to ruffle some feathers, but it had to be done sooner, rather than later. Plus, it's pre-1.0...

I felt very surprised about the change because i expected more than a forum thread about upcoming changes. I excepted something like a deprecation warning within the code like for example SUN do this within the java source code and YES, sooner is better.

*sigh* And to answer your other question... I don't have any other major architecture change plans in the near future. Plugins are an extension of smarty, so they're not changing unless smarty get's dumped. So far, CMSMS has upgraded almost seemless from 0.1 to 0.8.2. That's a pretty damn good record if you ask me... I'd like to see software with licensing fees and a big budget give you the same respect.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I'm working on my own project for about 6 month after i installed this CMS for a friend, who is very satisfied with version 0.6 and i started to work with this version also because it has a small FP and the module concept is better than other things i tried (phpbb and other open source CMS's etc.) I upgraded all the times and i'm really grateful for all the improvements you guys made since then. Unless other people i didn't read the forum frequently because i could not imagine that this is the only way to keep on track.

You should not compare this CMS with a CMS/Portal Software with licensing fees like Vignette. The gap is to big to fit. For example, when Vignette changes API, there will be always be an 2nd API to get old sites on track and it is just recommend to use or mix the new API with the old. Anyway, this CMS is FAR from a CMS like Vignette. Maybe, that is a plus

I guess .. no, i hope that your comment about 'smarty gets dumped' is just a joke.


Regards,

Michael

[Ted]

Yeah, the smarty thing was a joke, though with recent security problems with it, it almost makes you wonder. I'm not about to rewrite my own templating system...

I would love to support both module APIs, but it's basically a one man development team, particularly with core related stuff. It was talked about in the beginning, but then people wouldn't have updated their modules and I would be stuck supporting both APIs and changing code in both if there was a problem.

To be honest, there really isn't any other major forms of communication for this project. The forum replaces the mailing list, basically. I feel it's more personable, anyway. Email lists always seem so, well, emaily. Too easy to ignore email (or maybe it's just that I'm bad at email in general). Filter it somewhere and forget about it.

If you have suggestions on better ways to annouce changes, please let me know. I'm sure the cmsmadesimple.org website could use some improvements and there could be a way to handle these announcements there. The development and communication model seems to work pretty well, and everyone that is interested in the project seems plugged into the changes. Maybe I'm missing something?

[Anonymous]

I would love to support both module APIs, but it's basically a one man development team, particularly with core related stuff. It was talked about in the beginning, but then people wouldn't have updated their modules and I would be stuck supporting both APIs and changing code in both if there was a problem.

I would implement new feature only with the new api, and let a wrapper or something for old modules, so your old users could decide for themself. New and/or wise' users will take the class model then. At least a transition time is necessary in my opinion.

For me this is hard, because all of my module will immediatly stop to work and i have less things to show to people who are important to my project. On the other hand the new class model is great and i love it since i ported the first modul.

If you have suggestions on better ways to annouce changes, please let me know. I'm sure the cmsmadesimple.org website could use some improvements and there could be a way to handle these announcements there. The development and communication model seems to work pretty well, and everyone that is interested in the project seems plugged into the changes. Maybe I'm missing something?

When downloading things here, i get a note that development snaps could be broken. This is a good way to get users on track and prevent the 'new user gets frustrated with unstable versions' disaster.
At least, on this page there should be something which points to important notes, like upcoming changes and release notes. A 'please visit the forum!' link could also be helpful and a rss feed from your phpbb on your cms project homepage would be the dot on the i.


Regards,

Michael