Zikula Community

• **unknown user**
  
  

  • Rank: Softmore
  • Registered: Mar 16, 2002
  • Last visit: Oct 21, 2009
  • Posts: 153

  Posted: Jul 12, 2005 - 11:37 AM

  Is it me or has the pace of development significantly slowed over the last year or so? We used to get really good module launches every month, now it's rare to get a good one every 2 months. I can't remember the last time I downloaded anything from the PostNuke site.
  
  Is PostNuke dying slowly? Has there been another fork? Has the dev team split? What's going on?
  
  Cheers,
  
  mac

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• **unknown user**
  
  

  • Rank: Softmore
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  • Posts: 152

  Posted: Jul 12, 2005 - 02:15 PM

  There seems to be a lot of work going on behind the scenes. Much of it seems to be focused on producing a stable 0.760 release. This is a good thing. I'm keen to try a new RC if there have been lots of changes since the last RC. I've thought about taking a copy from the CVS, but then its difficult to report back issues and patches against a known baseline.
  
  I'm not aware of any new forks but only the old ones.
  
  The lack of topic reply notifications is an issue at the moment. This has a big impact on activity in the forums.

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• craigh
  
  

  • Rank: Developer
  • Registered: Jun 16, 2003
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  • Posts: 1966

  Posted: Jul 12, 2005 - 02:41 PM

  PostNuke is not dying! Have you been reading the modules.postnuke.com site? There are all kinds of things going on with great modules! Maybe nothing "brand new" but modules maturing and becoming even more great. Postnuke is VERY close to a .760 release and this will be the second major release in less than 12 months! Come on - Windows gets updated once a decade - this is FAST!
  
  I don't know what mrmuttley is referring to about "topic reply notifications" - ?!?!?!?

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• **unknown user**
  
  

  • Rank: Registered User
  • Registered: Mar 16, 2002
  • Last visit: Jul 19, 2005
  • Posts: 16

  Posted: Jul 12, 2005 - 02:50 PM

  Topic reply notifications are emails received once a reply is made in a topic that a user has subscribed too.
  
  They help to stimulate activity alot by providing ease of access, and by serving as a reminder to return. They are often over looked but are one of the most valuable features in keeping a forum active which is why most forum systems have branched out this feature to provide instant notifications, daily summaries, reply through mail and all sorts of other options.

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• **unknown user**
  
  

  • Rank: Softmore
  • Registered: Mar 16, 2002
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  Posted: Jul 12, 2005 - 03:35 PM

  Less forum activity means fewer questions and fewer solutions. This all leads to less of the discussion that inspires development and innovation to some extent. That's how I see the it impacting the buzz in the community.

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• **unknown user**
  
  

  • Rank: Softmore
  • Registered: Mar 16, 2002
  • Last visit: Oct 21, 2009
  • Posts: 153

  Posted: Jul 12, 2005 - 10:15 PM

  There's nothing wrong with my Topic Reply notifications - I posted the original question and as soon as a reply was posted I got an email to tell me so. That's how it's always worked AFAIK. Of course, you would have to have this switched on in your Profile first...
  
  But my main point was not really so much about the Core (but what DID happen to the 0.8 release for instance? LarsNeo posted a roadmap type of post about that over a year ago now and we are still messing with versions of 0.7) but about useful modules that enhance the useability and function set of PN as a CMS.
  
  Things like podcasting, or even just being able to provide an RSS feed, and of course a usefully working iCal compatible Calendar. PostCalendar is useful, but development of that was moved to the Core Developers and AFAIK no more releases of that have come out - I'm still on 4.0 although I think that is out of date I can't find the new site for it anymore. OK, I didn't look hard.
  
  I do understand it is not necessarily the Core developers jobs to develop satellite modules - other than those they have taken over - but the fact that there seem to be fewer 3rd party module releases does tend to indicate that 3rd party developers have moved on to other projects.
  
  I was asked if I kept an eye on the Modules site, I do. I use the main PN page with what used to be a nice simple four section layout to keep up to date with what is going on, but it is getting busier and more complex in design terms and also harder and harder to read.
  
  It's becoming a mess graphically, but that's nothing compared to the new Forums main page. So many categories only point to a poor search function, and PN has a good one so there should be far fewer sections here: more just aren't needed, unless the intention is to confuse the casual reader and reduce the number of people that read each individual post.
  
  The fact remains that new releases are fewer and farther between, and interesting releases worth downloading are rare. Unless you're into gaming. Its the same with Themes - there's hundreds of dark flavours, but few that look in any way profesional AND that work.
  
  It's almost as if PN 3rd party development has lost a lot of serious developers and gained a load of script kiddies. Then you have really neat and tidy CMS systems like Typo3 taking the small business type of user - they want something that looks intereresting and professional, not something cumbersome and old fashioned.
  
  And where does the money from the google ads go? Into whose pocket? I hadn't realised that the main site had turned into a money making scheme for any individual or cabal. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not intrinsically anti-PN, but I have been using it for over three years and the philosophy does seem to have come adrift somewhere along the way... it now feels like too much detail and not enough strategy. Does anyone have a Big Picture view anymore? I don't think so.

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• **unknown user**
  
  

  • Rank: Helper
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  • Last visit: Oct 21, 2009
  • Posts: 877

  Posted: Jul 12, 2005 - 10:37 PM

  There actually was a recent fork. It is called MDPro and it resides at http://www.maxdev.com

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• Simon
  
  

  • Rank: Legend
  • Registered: Dec 11, 2002
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  Posted: Jul 12, 2005 - 10:47 PM

  MDPro is hardly recent - its been around for a while now. Plus, it never impacted the development of PN as none of the core team, to my knowledge, joined the MDPro team.
  
  Anyway, that's off topic. I'll reply to the actual points raised later this evening ;)
  
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• markwest
  
  

  • Rank: Team Member
  • Registered: Mar 18, 2002
  • Last visit: Oct 21, 2009
  • Posts: 6606

  Posted: Jul 12, 2005 - 10:53 PM

  To give a quick overview answers to some of the points raised.
  
  The development of the .8x range continues. What .75 and .76 have allowed us to do is get some of that code tested and into a production environment now. To have not done so would have meant that .80 would have been a major leap (and possibly to bigger step for many). These interim releases make that migration easier. In .76 the modules Admin, Admin_Messages, Autolinks, AvantGo, Blocks, Censor, Credits, Ephmerids, Example, Groups, Header_Footer, legal, Mailer, Members_List, Messages, Modules, Permissions, pnRender, Quotes, Ratings, RSS, Sniffer, typetool, Wiki and Xanthia are all directly taken from the .8x codebase.
  
  The money from the google ads goes to the postnuke foundation (which hasn't been formally announced as yet) rather than directly into anyone's pocket.
  
  RSS feed are handled nicely by the rss module (.76) or rssdisplay. Postcalendar could do with someone working on it as a sole project (it's now on noc.postnuke.com) but so far no-one has stepped up to the plate. The main problem with postcalendar is the approachability of the code. It's a lot of code that need a lot of time spent tidying it and removing certain functionality that is not core to a calender (e.g. overlib etc.).
  
  There are some interesting modules that are ready to appear once .76 is released (security issues have kept this one back a little e.g. XML-RPC flaws, pnsa2005-2). For instance I know that there's a new enhanced release of EZComments (that will take over all PN commenting for .8x) ready, I have trackback and ping modules just about ready. I also have a cross-lnkable (transform hook) glossary module just about done. Other side projects of mine include pingback (an extension of trackback), fckeditor and textile modules.
  
  -Mark
  
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• Lobos
  
  

  • Rank: Expert
  • Registered: Dec 02, 2002
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  Posted: Jul 12, 2005 - 11:04 PM

  SwissMac

  Its the same with Themes - there's hundreds of dark flavours, but few that look in any way profesional AND that work.

  
  
  Well come over to www.webvida.com - I have been told that my themes look pretty cool and all the newer ones are coded to XHTML strict and CSS w3c compliancy.
  
  Frankly SwissMac, I find much of your post to be founded on ignorance... sorry.
  
  -Lobos
  
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• craigh
  
  

  • Rank: Developer
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  Posted: Jul 12, 2005 - 11:21 PM

  markwest

  There are some interesting modules that are ready to appear once .76 is released

  An update to pnBloodhound is also in the wings.

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• **unknown user**
  
  

  • Rank: Softmore
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  • Last visit: Oct 21, 2009
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  Posted: Jul 12, 2005 - 11:23 PM

  markwest

  
  There are some interesting modules that are ready to appear once .76 is released (security issues have kept this one back a little e.g. XML-RPC flaws, pnsa2005-2). For instance I know that there's a new enhanced release of EZComments (that will take over all PN commenting for .8x) ready, I have trackback and ping modules just about ready. I also have a cross-lnkable (transform hook) glossary module just about done. Other side projects of mine include pingback (an extension of trackback), fckeditor and textile modules.
  

  
  
  I'm looking forward to trying out these modules and seeing how EZComments has been enhanced.
  
  Some people have reported problems with the topic replies on this forum. I stopped receiving them a few weeks ago. I've just reset my by toggling the settings and changed e-mail address to see if there was some problem or corruption in a setting in my profile. I'd appreciate it if someone could send me a PM so that I can see if I get a notification.

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• markwest
  
  

  • Rank: Team Member
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  Posted: Jul 12, 2005 - 11:26 PM

  I also forgot to add that some of the focus of the core team is not on new, fancy code or features but on enhancing what we have to be stable, secure and compliant to all published standards. A lot of work has gone into the current codebase to ensure that PN is XHTML compliant, produces semantically correct markup and conforms to accessbility guidelines.
  
  While this may not have a 'wow factor' we feel that it's a vital requirement for a CMS solution and one that not all CMS's fufill.
  
  -Mark
  
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  Visit My homepage and Zikula themes.

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• markwest
  
  

  • Rank: Team Member
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  Posted: Jul 12, 2005 - 11:28 PM

  mrmuttley

  Some people have reported problems with the topic replies on this forum. I stopped receiving them a few weeks ago. I've just reset my by toggling the settings and changed e-mail address to see if there was some problem or corruption in a setting in my profile. I'd appreciate it if someone could send me a PM so that I can see if I get a notification.

  
  
  I'll have this looked into as i've not been getting them too - but my mailbox managed to fill up while I was on vacation so I thought that may have been related.
  
  -Mark
  
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  Visit My homepage and Zikula themes.

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• **unknown user**
  
  

  • Rank: Softmore
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  • Last visit: Oct 21, 2009
  • Posts: 152

  Posted: Jul 13, 2005 - 12:11 AM

  The XHTML-based markup will be great. The extensive templating in the 0.760rc's looks really useful. I've been wanting to template the "Problem in Database" connection message for a long time. I think for security, it is best to try and hide the underlying software being used. To this end, have the devs considered removing the postnuke version number from the meta fields in the HTML header of the standard templates.
  
  I think the version information should only be visible to admins via the admin panel and / or settings and modules pages.

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