[week 50] Is Mambo loosing the feature battle?

[solsikkehaven]

What Mambo needs is stability, clean and bugfree code.

When 4.5.1 was released, it was still bug-infested. But what can one expect - if you release new features alongside bugfixing, there's gotta be bugs in the new features and then the circle goes on and on and on.....

What I need is a bugfree mambo - there's a lot of 3rd party developers out there that make good products/plugins for Mambo.

So the move to make 4.5.2 bugfree and implement new features later is OK with me (but you've already guessed that, right *smile*).

Morten Knudsen AKA Solsikkehaven
Forum moderator - danish forum @ forum.mamboserver.com
Project Admin - danish language translation project @ mamboforge.net

[MasterChief]

eyezberg, much of what you are suggesting is currently being worked on but it probably won't be until the new year is in that we'll get a chance to finalise this sort of stuff.

[eyezberg]

Master,
appreciate your response,
sounds great as new year is in a mere 4 weeks..

[chris97]

In my opinion, Mambo is on the right way to offer a stable, easy to use and cool CMS for its users. We don'n need another overloaded CMS with steep learning courve to just setup a website.

Most of the features, mentioned in your post, are nice to have but, in fact, who missed them really. Me not. I'm very happy to setup full featured mambo websites in no time.

And I think, the decision to concentrate the new features in a new major release is good, because I don't want to update all my sites for every new Version of Mambo just to get some new features.
Better supply a major release with a good easy to use update function

[eyezberg]

Most of the features, mentioned in your post, are nice to have but, in fact, who missed them really. Me not.

Which features are you refering to? multilanguage? userhandling? documentation? These are some of the most requested features if you browse the forums a bit, both here and on mamboserver... So good thing for YOU if YOU didn't miss them, lots of other users sure do

And I think, the decision to concentrate the new features in a new major release is good, because I don't want to update all my sites for every new Version of Mambo just to get some new features.
Better supply a major release with a good easy to use update function

1. Everyone agrees it is a good decision.
2. You don't HAVE TO update if you don't need the new features...
3. Who said the next major release version (5) will have an update function? That'd be great, but 1st time I read that.. AFAIK, there'll be so many changes in the way content elements are used/organised, that I'd be very much surprised to see an update possibility..

[argie01]

I think Mambo realize the "power of simplicity".
Mambo is great for not so-geek users, too.

The problem is lately Mambo hasen't a poor stability-on-the-time component/modules development. I mean, most of components are out of compatibility after launching Mambo 4.5.1
And if you see mamboforge.net, much projects are only "beta", less than 1.0 version. And the best components/modules I found are made for some members of core team
For example: Remository is a great component. But when its developments stopped, Arthur has to continue it. And this is not the right way to do it.
So, I think should be a better and accesible documentation, to make even more easy to develop components/modules/mambots.

I think shouldn't compare T3 with Mambo. Because the target of T3 is similar to Drupal: a lot of members making news/articles, etc. So, they need a great ACL component.
I really don't know wich is "the mission" of Mambo, and this is a big problem too. Certainly, "The power of Simplicity" is a way to work, but not a real "mission".

bye.

[cyvan]

DOCUMENTATION - A BIG PROBLEM !

A CMS needs to be easily extendible !

Setting up a website always means writing some additional functionality for the specific client. That can be done only if cms features are well documented.

Developer documentation is probably one of the most neglected features of Mambo.
For me this is THE issue which Mambo dev team should focus on.

[eyezberg]

cyvan, you didn't read:

Originally Posted by stingrey

Documentation is a completely seperate area and is handled by the Documentation Team superbly led by Michelle Bisson. The Development Team are coders, not documentation writers. you dont want coders writing how to manuals or tutorials, especially those most familiar with the product. The Development Team helps the Documentation Team in certain areas from time to tim, but to have programmers write proper readable and understabable documentation for novice users is a misallocation of resources.

[stingrey]

Originally Posted by eyezberg

I'd volunteer, but have no idea where to start (now threads have been posted, thx Michelle), no intention of looking for which documents are needed (yes, I am lazy!).
There should be (is there?) a list of people you can sign up for, state your preferences (like: general/components/modules/templates/frontend/backend/...) and then Michelle just sends out tasks to all involved, or someone else from the doc team does. I don't want to submit doc. projects, I want to be told what's needed.
It should really be centralized so one or two (how many are there on the doc team?) have and keep a full overview at all times about what is completed/what remains to be done/what should be next etc..
I just had a look at that "Wiki Wacko" thing on http://docs.mamboserver.com/HomePage, it looks like I have to read documentation on this .. thing.. to be able to help out writing documentation!? Sounds counter-productive to me, sorry. If you want help, make it easy on us. Lower the geek factor a bit.

If you want to help the doc team than post in the Documentation Team forum or email Michelle.
All the centralized overviews and task lists are not for public viewing and are managed by Michelle, who assigns Tasks based on peoples availability and any indicated preferences or skillsets.

Wiki was chosen as a centralised area for communication for the documentation team. For those wanting to become fully involved in the documentation team will probably have to learn hwo to use the Wiki site. But if your prefence is not too, than I'm sure Michelle will happy to accomodate you. For example, if you just want to writeup in a word document, than this can be handled.

But the best advice is to speak to Michelle and she can outline how the Documentation Team works.

Originally Posted by eyezberg

stingrey, thanks really a lot for the list of !
I don't know if you dev/core team guys (and gals) realise, but for the average user, it is not easy to find information, spread out on a few sites, in weird formats (I've NEVER used CVS and don't plan to anytime soon, so no idea what has been coded already (or tested), many people I'm sure don't know what a wiki is/how to use it, same for the doc/roadmap output etc..), so this is indeed helpfull. And it adresses finally the "Mambo most wanted" features.

The thing is, that's the roadmap for v5.
Is there also a more general "objective" idea floating around or written down as to what Mambo is to be in the future (power in simplicity, yes I know...), if it's aiming to be more of a community portal, a business interface, a.. dunno, no need to limit this to any particular drawer, just a general idea about where this is heading in the long run..?

Yes we are aware certain information about Mambo is missing - we do have a vision statement:
http://mamboserver.com/Mambo_Knowled...ion_Statement/
http://mamboserver.com/Mambo_Knowled...ponsibilities/
This should alleviate as we upgrade the mamboserver.com site with more content/information

Also people must be mindful of the fact that things like the CVS and the freemind roadmap are tools for the Development Team.

Originally Posted by eyezberg

Next suggestion: could we (users) get some sort of "family tree" of the Mambo team (who does what etc..), a bit like the profiles on "Meet the team" here: http://mamboserver.com/cat/Meet_the_team/ where we get a look at some pics of 8 or so of you, what about the rest (doc team, MT, close Component Devs, advisors whatever..?)

We will be looking to have more content on mamboserver.com in these areas in due course.

For a full list of respective Team Members:
http://forum.mamboserver.com/showgroups.php?

[eyezberg]

Rey, thanks (again) for these links, especially the last one was very enlightening!

Also people must be mindful of the fact that things like the CVS and the freemind roadmap are tools for the Development Team.

I guess so, still referals to both are commonly used on the official forums as answer..

If Mambo N°5 (should be bundled with the Lou Bega song!!) comes with all the announced features, as a stable version, by mid-next year, then I will be more than happy to play around with 451 in the meantime. Thanks to all dev team members for dropping by and shedding some light.

(edit: well this last post there while I was writing mine should provoque some reactions, I think..
Please, for once, spare us the comment about "with only X posts, how dare you.." as you never know who/what is behind a first/second/... post, ok?!)
(ain't me! )