Zikula Community

• dreamingmonkey
  
  

  • Rank: Softmore
  • Registered: Nov 25, 2007
  • Last visit: May 30, 2010
  • Posts: 166

  Posted: May 16, 2008 - 04:55 PM

  Well, I've built a site from top to bottom using RC4 now and even threw together a quick and dirty module from scratch to see how that went. I'd say that we're getting pretty close. I haven't run across any errors or problems [OOPS...I spoke too soon. The authkey bug isn't totally solved. Details to follow in the bug tracker shortly]. I think now we just need to get the documentation up to speed. Here are a couple points for the documentation team to think about:
  
  1. The categories setup is apparently quite powerful and robust, but I'm only figuring it out by digging into category-aware modules. I don't mind, because I'm a developer and I need to dig into that stuff anyway, but it might be a little daunting for the causal user. That needs, in my opinion, to be a priority topic for someone.
  
  2. I've run into a few problems related to the php_flag directives in the .htaccess file and the short URL issue I brought up in another post here. It wasn't any problem for me because I knew to expect those problems and I fixed them quickly. But it would probably be a good idea to add to the documentation a page that discusses potential problems with shared hosting and how to work around them.
  
  While I'm on the subject, is there a way to ignore the Security Analyzer warnings? I'm perfectly aware of the ramifications of having register_globals and magic_quotes_gpc on and I can't do anything about it in my current hosting environment. I'd like that box to just go away. If it were me, I'd add the option to turn it off to the Security Center or the Security tab of Settings. If such an option exists, where is it? If not, then I'll just dig into the code on my installation (once the final version is out) and strip it myself.
  
  Finally, the thing I love most about 0.8 so far is the ability to use the e-mail address for login credentials. I hacked 0.764 and xuser to do that on a few sites I've built in the past. It's a great feature and I'm really glad it was included. Thanks guys and keep it up.
  
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• espaan
  
  

  • Rank: Developer
  • Registered: Aug 23, 2003
  • Last visit: May 31, 2010
  • Posts: 1428

  Posted: May 21, 2008 - 08:43 PM

  dreamingmonkey

  Well, I've built a site from top to bottom using RC4 now and even threw together a quick and dirty module from scratch to see how that went.
  1. The categories setup is apparently quite powerful and robust, but I'm only figuring it out by digging into category-aware modules. I don't mind, because I'm a developer and I need to dig into that stuff anyway, but it might be a little daunting for the causal user. That needs, in my opinion, to be a priority topic for someone.

  
  I second that. To make the full use of the categories (and the new subcategories) some more docs would be very welcome
  
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• Simon
  
  

  • Rank: Legend
  • Registered: Dec 11, 2002
  • Last visit: Oct 21, 2009
  • Posts: 11674

  Posted: May 21, 2008 - 11:22 PM

  One of our google summer of code projects is a reworking of the categories system, which will hopefully make it both perform better and easier to use. In the meantime, we will see what we can do about documentation.
  
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• dreamingmonkey
  
  

  • Rank: Softmore
  • Registered: Nov 25, 2007
  • Last visit: May 30, 2010
  • Posts: 166

  Posted: May 22, 2008 - 03:04 AM

  Thanks Simon. How fully are categories going to be reworked? Is the API going to remain the same? In other words, If I write a categories-aware module based on what I've learned by digging through the code, will it need major modifications to work with the re-worked system?
  
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• dreamingmonkey
  
  

  • Rank: Softmore
  • Registered: Nov 25, 2007
  • Last visit: May 30, 2010
  • Posts: 166

  Posted: May 23, 2008 - 04:01 AM

  Following up on my previous feedback...
  
  As a module developer, I love the new API. It took a while to figure out how everything works, but once I got the hang of it, I was really impressed. My current project is very complex and could never have been tackled in .764 without hiring help. In a matter of 3 days, I was able to get 90% of the project done myself.
  
  The new theme management rocks. I love the way content wrappers are now handled. Coupled with block management, it really does give total control over the site layout to the webmaster.
  
  My final evaluation is this. 0.8 was worth the (very long) wait. Once the documentation is up to par, you'll start seeing high-quality third-party modules and themes flooding in. This is a very different project now, ladies and gentlemen. I applaud the core developers who have poured so much effort into making this happen. Thank you all and I'm looking forward to seeing what you have in store for the next version.
  
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• Simon
  
  

  • Rank: Legend
  • Registered: Dec 11, 2002
  • Last visit: Oct 21, 2009
  • Posts: 11674

  Posted: May 23, 2008 - 05:23 AM

  The advantage of the API is that your view of it doesn't ever change, even if the backend implementation does ;) We are looking at template / interface changes in addition to the more fundamental change of switching to the nested set arrangement for the category tree. This will bring performance improvements, but without actually changing anything about the APIs you as module developers use day to day.
  
  Unfortunately as we're an open source project composed entirely of people who volunteer documentation is a bit of a problem, because nobody wants to do it. At the moment, we're trying to make as much of the core self-explanatory as possible (you'll see new hints next to fields in .8 and so on). Further improvements in this area are planned, and we do have a documentation team plugging away, however we have nothing concrete to show yet.
  
  The best answer is that now you've spent the time to get to know the APIs, contribute just a little back and write documentation for a few of the functions you've used, a mini tutorial on DBUtil or using categories in the Wiki. It only takes 50 people to do that before we have complete API documentation and helpful tutorials for new developers to use.
  
  PostNuke is still changing and evolving, and there's a lot to do yet. .8 represents a development leap that hopefully catapults us into the group of leading frameworks/CMSs. The next challenge is to encourage more people to use PostNuke and reduce the barriers to entry so that the system becomes more and more popular.
  
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