Module Preview

[Vin]

One potential user in Module/Addons looked for some kind of preview of the modules without having to install them:

I conclude from the responses that I couldn't find what I'm looking for because the functionality doesn't currently exist.  I was simply looking for the equivalent capability that can be found when reviewing "Module" repositories for other CMSs (i.e. e107, Joomla, etc.).  These "Module" repositories all provide demos of modules which are either hosted at the module developer's site or some central hosting facility.  This is infinitely more efficient than requiring than anyone curious as to how a particular module is going to appear or perform independently set up a test environment for the purpose of such.

Actually, that would be a great feature on the module pages. You know, I've seen there some links to the cmsms demo sites that showed some third-party extensions and allowed to use them, but Google search shows me nothing up-to-date. If there were some link to the online admin for demonstration in the Forge, it would really help (besides the rating of the modules and version compatibility, that was already discussed some time ago).

What do you think? Of course, it would have to be optional...

[Duketown]

Vin,

Personnaly I belief that the project owner is responsible for marketing his/her module. Hence he/she should provide the material for a potential user of the module/tag to read/view features and screenshots before installing and trying to find out what the options/possibilities of the module/tag are.
It would be of great help if the forge allows for an easier method to show off the options/screens. Now it is a one liner that doesn't tell the whole or even a part of the module (I don't have an idea to open the project page and edit it. I mean the default supplied url and not one prepared by the project owner). Maybe the QA team can volunteer to write something on about a module/tag (whilst they are testing) and that material can be added to the project pages. In that way it will be easy to read a QA review and understand the status of the module/tag.

[calguy1000]

I agree, it's up to the module developer to market his module.... if he wants to.

Personally, I develop modules to fill a need (either mine, or somebody else's) and I put them on the forge for a few reasons:
  1) so that somebody else might get some use out of it
  2) So that users that do use it might help me find, reproduce, and fix bugs... thereby helping me and/or my customer

I have no time, or interest in maintaining a website or websites where people would be allowed to go and mess with my modules just to kick the tires.  I don't have the time to maintain it/them.... what with in excess of 50 modules that I've developed and work on.

[LeisureLarry]

I agree that it´s up to the developer to market his modules, but I don´t think that CMSMS Forge is useful for this at the moment.

There was some brainstorming in the blog some months ago:

http://blog.cmsmadesimple.org/2007/08/1 ... g-reviews/

But I´ve found this discussion today and I don´t know the decisions.

In my opinion the forge should be there and used as a central storage for the existing modules, but I don´t think it should be used by end users who are searching for new modules.

There should be a complete new section where modules are presented to the public. Something like the jQuery plugins section or even better something like the system the curse gaming guild is using for presenting addons for WoW.

http://plugins.jquery.com/project/jquerylightbox_bal
http://wow.de.curse.com/downloads/details/2983/

As you should always use the newest stable release of cmsms, the author would only mention with which version he tested his module, present a description, the changelog, some screenshots and decide in which categories he wants to present his module.

The way its done in the moment is nothing for end users and therefore not simple enough for cms made simple!

Greats from Germany
LeisureLarry