idigital

Well, today marks the day many Mambo developers have been waiting for in anticipation: the release of the preliminary roadmap for the future of Mambo up to 4.6.

It was released with a small announcement in this thread on Mamboserver, in the FreeMind format which is a great tool for such planning. For those of you that don't want to install FreeMind, I've exported it to HTML for discussion here.

I'd like to begin this discussion with the unadulterated roadmap that we can all read without bias:

Mambo Project Roadmap

• Disclaimer
  • The following is the proposed Roadmap for Mambo 4.5.x and 4.6. It is likely to change depending on the features implemented in previous versions and other features requested during development and use of previous versions.
• 4.5.2
  
  
  
  • Fix bugs reported in 4.5.1
  • Translator class
  • Implement single getItemid process with no URL passing
  • Drop RTE editor from distribution
  • Merge com_registration and com_user into a single component
  • Frontend Language Support
    • Language constants will move into a class and a global variable ($_LANG) rather than many individual defines. This improves performance, security and coding. Backwards compatibility can be supported for this change.
      • At present the language files in Mambo use the define method e.g.
        
        
        PHP Code:

        <?php   
   DEFINE (‘_ADD_CONTENT’, ‘Click here to add new content’);  
          ?>
        By moving to a class based method will provide a speed increase in the general operation of Mambo e.g.
        
        
        PHP Code:

        <?php 
       class mamboLanguageEN extends mamboAbstractLanguage { 

       /** Common Language variables */ 
 
                                   var $ACTIONS = 'Actions';  
  var $BACK = 'Back';  
  var $LOGIN = 'Login'; } 
 $_LANG =& new mamboLanguageEN();  
  ?>
• Backend Language Support
  
  
  
  • Language constants will move into a class and a global variable ($_LANG) rather than many individual defines. This improves performance, security and coding. Backwards compatibility can be supported for this change.
    • See Frontend Language Support for more information
    Add support for Backend language installer
    
• Configuration
  
  
  
  • Move to .ini style
    • The current configuration syntax found in configuration.php is not really human readable and is also not broken down into sections so that users can easily understand which part of the configuration file is doing what.
      
      In order to simplify the configuration.php file it is proposed to move to a ‘.ini’ style e.g.
      
      
      PHP Code:

      [Database] 
       database_type = mysql 
 database_name = mambo 
 database_user = mambo 
   database_password = abc123     
 
          [Server] 
       hostname = jarjar 
       url = http://jarjar.domain.com 

      
      
      The configuration.php file should also be able to be added to by 3rd parties. For example:
      
      
      PHP Code:

      [Simpleboard] 
          Forum = “Test Form” 
          Style = “default” 
 
          Etc… 

• Moveable administrator directory
  
  
  
  • Allow for the Administrator directory to be placed in a different location on the same server for security reasons.
  
  
• Soft Port to ADODB
  
  
  
  • To facilitate future cross-database support and the the phpGACL library.
• RBAC
  
  
  
  • All of the role based permissions like an author can edit/own can be configured
    
    
  • Add the ability to edit user groups

• 4.5.3
  • Fix bugs reported in 4.5.2
  • Drop Banners Component and module
    • Banners component and modules. There are better systems are available such as phpAds.
  • Drop Polls component and module
    
    
    
    • There is an existing project called PollXT. This project already provides many enhancements over the core poll component/module today.
      
      ~ http://mamboforge.net/projects/pollxt/
  • Web Services
    
    
    
    • In order to provide a better mechanism for adding content to Mambo outside of administration it is proposed to remove the editing feature from the frontend content component and move it to a web services based external application. This application could be a separate PHP install or a 3rd party Java, Perl, Python etc. application. The gains from this proposed moved will be plenty. Firstly security will be improved as the worries about XSS or SQL injection will be further removed. Performance of the content component will be enhanced as the component will be drastically reduced in size.

• 4.6
  • Fixed bugs reported in 4.5.3
  • Authentication
    • Develop Mambots to allow for other Authentication models (for example, via LDAP).
  • Web Services
    
    • Allow for the Administrator to connect to a remote site. Components must have the ability to expose certain calls for this protocol.
  • xHTML compliance (xMambo)
    
    • All output will be redesigned to conform to X-Mambo principles (that is, xHTML, more layout styling via css rather than tables). This puts Mambo on track for more easily complying with Accessibility Issues (like tablet screen readers, etc) and for alternative stylesheets for printing, etc.

---ends---

BTW, you can get the Freemind version of the roadmap from here, and you can download Freemind from the Sourceforge project here.

idigital

Ok, well I just whipped up a nice colourful and easy to read version of the roadmap as a PDF, you can download it here.

Just thought some mambers might like a nice pdf version with colours and a mamboflower

Freemind is a great program as well, I'd fully recommend downloading it as it allows you to see the roadmap in a completely different and intuitive way.

Cheers,

Damian

SvenErik

I like the look of this! Especially the solutions for frontend and backend language. But I feel there is one "small" item missing to complete the picture, and that is a unified language solution that includes third party components and modules!

As it is now, Mambo admins have to manually upload languagefiles for those, and it is fairly easy for those who knows their ftp, and can find out where the different components store their languagefiles; usually one of four locations: /comp.../com_xxx/ , /comp.../com_xxx/languages/, /admin.../comp.../com_xxx/ or /admin.../comp.../com_xxx/languages/.

But for those with less knowledge, it is not that easy!

Most people understand how to install a component or a frontend language file. So why not make languagefiles for thirdparty components be installed the same way?

And to make it more standardised, install them in /languages/components/com_xxx/ or /languages/modules/mod_xxx/ .

Anyone in the core dev team or developers of thirdparty components who has any thoughts about this?

__________________
"Every demand is a prison, and wisdom is only free when it asks nothing."
Sir Bertrand Russell

trizock

Looks like i should use a 3rd party poll component now so i dont loose stats when they drop it?

ChipMonk

when it will be released? year has been changed for a week now.

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wasexton

Let me start by saying that I have been happy with Mambo so far. That said, however, I have to agree with another thread in this area that contents that these "small releases" will kill the product. One of the things that makes Mambo attractive are the multiple templates, modules, components, etc by third parties. By releasing these changes so quicky, you both discourage development and confuse users as to which add-ons will work with which versions. I think that, other than secruity releases, Mambo should plan on a yearly release schedule.

I know everyone has their own set of "features" they would like to see added, but most of what is being added above, like the php to ini for the config file, are just fluff and should wait to be released in the next major release (and why you would want to make the config file more human readable at the cost of processing time is beyone me).

Again, this is all just my humble opinion. Thanks for a great product, but slow down on the release rate...we can either wait for it or someone will develop an add-on for that functionality. If a patch is necessary for security, just release that.

Art Sexton

SebberJUZ

I agree with that, but the yearly rythm is a bit too long. but its true, pushing out so many small releases really gives webmasters the creeps. everytime an update comes out you have to check out if your templates still work, your components, your mambots and your modules.
its like with the Simple Machines Forum software, where you have the same problems with the template and the Mods everytime an update comes a long.

dont get me wrong, i love having software that gets updated regularly, but i agree with the post above, that those rather "small" but frequent releases can not "kill" but "decrease" the popularity of the software.

just a thought: maybe the mambo team should think about some kind of easier updating (auto updating or step by step stuff whatever) and planned releasing. if you let webmasters know when they have to consider upgrading they can plan better in terms of schedule and working hours.

just a though :-)

oh another thing: i think the XHTML compatiblity is one of the most important things, i am surprised that its not already planned for 4.5.2 :-)