Domi on 23-04-2013 00:39 | 197 Reads

Hello everyone!
We know that many people have been questioning our current development progress.

In order to simplify and speed up our progress we have started to get Github up and running.

With Github initiated everyone can see what's been done and what's left to do, naturally also help out with detecting optimizations and errors in published codes.

As a result of this we will start to shut the V8 site down and move all needed tools to the UK Main site in the development section there.

We have made one important structural change in order to become more efficient.The role as Lead Developer have been removed as a whole and Christian will be one of our Senior developers instead.
The Management Team will setup milestones of what we want developed to the core and pass the task down to our developers who whishes to help out.We will try to assign a dedicated developer to each task we agree upon.The developer responsible for that task will be the current task´s team leader and have it´s own dedicated thread to follow it through.

These are some of the key milestones we whish to achieve before a PHP-Fusion V8 beta can be released.

• Make everything possible to infusions, We need to lift it out of the core but remain as supported by core, (Shipped with pack if you will). This development step was decided a long time ago, but no list was created, thus causing some confusion.We do not make a MCS (Mass Content System), we make a CMS. It is time we prove it once and for all and focus our efforts on the core and it´s functions rather than our community plugins.New, improved and very light core which will be able to handle all sorts of Addons a lot better and easier.Community plugins are better handled and maintained by the community that requires it, if we receive good mods we will naturally use them.Here are some examples: Articles, FaQ, Forums, News, Photo Albums, Web links, Polls, Downloads. 

• Rewrite of setup.php to match the above changes ( Selectable setup of what to include in your installation )

• PHP Data Objects (PDO) - Will need to find someone who knows how this works and how to make it work within our current framework.

 • SEO friendly URL rewriting layer. - Ankur.

• A general approach to subcategory structures. -  Matthew.• New shiny admin interface. - Hal´s project completed and implemented. - Halisson Ricardo

• Theme engine improvements. - We will focus on Hien´s core engine.

It is our intentions and hopes that this somewhat altered structure of doing the actual coding will speed up the whole process as such and we hope that after the initial getting used to Github, you will all be able to contribute to rewrite this CMS to become a major player on the market.

Simple, intuitive, fast and finally, easy to understand and adjust for our users. After all, they are the ones we develop for!

For further details, keep an eye open for more details to come.

Regards, PHP-Fusion Management Team

  Richard Ainz on 23-02-2013 20:15 | 896 Reads | 13 Comments

I am experimenting a bit with external monitor software of this site, you know some server somewhere checks if this server reponds on http or ping requests, to verify that the site is running. Currently testing Pingdom (Swedish excellent stuff ;-) ) and the public result is visible in this link. (Click on "History" up right.)

What seems a bit strange is that the site has begun to misbehave a bit. I have noticed timeouts on loading and as you can see via the Pingdom link, every 2-4 hours some minutes are dropped. Can you please verify this behaviour? If so post a comment below.

Thanks

  Richard Ainz on 30-01-2013 13:01 | 744 Reads | 7 Comments

Ankur: Team Leader for Infusions

I think there are rather few people in the PHP-Fusion Community who has not heard of, or been helped by, our indian friend. Impressed by his consistent work, kind and patient explanations, no matter the issue, Ankur has always been a low-profile, helpful and caring member of this Community. As such he represents some of the values I consider extremely important in any Opensource Community; loyalty, selflessness and collaboration.

Please welcome him as Infusions Team Leader!

Public

  Richard Ainz on 28-01-2013 20:44 | 764 Reads

Craig has left us since the pressure got to him, he feels he had issues with leading and motivating a team and does not want to further jeopardize the development of infusions for 8 by poor or unmotivated contributions.  This does not change anything on Craigs contributions part, he does and will continue to follow, support and develop PHP-Fusion's addons and themes.

I will accept your suggestions for a new Team Leader for Infusions (via PM), and MT has been informed of this situation and a suggestion from them might be relevant and forthcoming.

  Richard Ainz on 23-01-2013 11:50 | 914 Reads | 9 Comments

Our lead developer and trusted friend has become member of MT!

I remember a number of times when PMM was almost new in our community (he joined 8 months after me) I asked for advice with some piece of code (in those days I actually made an effort to produce some PHP). It was a bit of a miracle, some few complementary questions and, swish, PMM figured out the code in almost an instance.

After a long journey through many versions of PHP-Fusion and literally miles of code, I would assume, PMM is finally rewarded for his loyalty, cunningness, skills and helpfulness. Of course not everything went as a breeze or as smooth as we all would like, but in my opinion, perseverance and loyalty often overcomes many, smaller, issues.

Congratulations PMM!

  Domi on 22-01-2013 12:50 | 801 Reads | 6 Comments

I am honored and proud to get the responsibility as Project Manager for PHP-Fusion!

  Richard Ainz on 31-12-2012 16:55 | 824 Reads | 2 Comments

I am pleased to be able to wish you all a Happy New Year!

We did not make it for an Alpha or Beta version of PHP-Fusion 8. This is sad, but it is also a "reality check", if you like. Our dependency on a few dedicated developers and their free time is unconditional and absolute. Is this a good thing? Yes and no. Yes, because we can be sure that we get quality code with focus on security. No, because more people can do more. The issue is "control". It is not that simple, guys.

What can we expect for 2013?

It may not be up to me to make promises for PHP-Fusion in 2013. I do know this though:

• We migrate this site to a VPS during the first week of January (this will bring in some more serverside possibilities)
• From the 8 of January a new coding push is expected
• The Theme Competition will be announced and start before or around mid January

This is what I know today and what I am able to control.

Speech

On a more general approach I would like to see more involved people in development. As mentioned earlier, this is no easy task to control, but I figure we need to put the Team Leaders for Development and the Senior Developers back in a supervising role and have them check what others do with friendly, constructive corrections. Their knowledge must be spread to other community members and we need to build a broader developer base, both in regards to Themes and Core as well as Infusions. In short, we need to build our future.

Should we fail to do this as needed, PHP-Fusion will have no future. We can no longer depend on 2-3 people to do the job for 30-50.000 or more. You need to come forward, to show us and yourself that PHP-Fusion has a strong community of developers. Even if you are not a developer you may have ideas. You may spread PHP-Fusion among friends and colleagues.

Maybe I just need to become tougher. To demand more. To start sending angry PM's to people on diverse lists. To set up deadlines and to force coders to uphold them "or else!". Ban more members, denounce more sites for closure to their hosts and generally speaking, become a meaner person.

That is not my way. I believe in the Community. I believe that each one of you, taking the time to read this, have a genuine interest for PHP-Fusion and in helping us all to shape a better, richer CMS. That is my hope for PHP-Fusion. That is my wish for the Community. That is my goal as one of your leaders.

SCORE!

/Richard

  Richard Ainz on 20-12-2012 09:44 | 1086 Reads | 6 Comments

From me to you. A very merry Christmas with loads of PHP.

  Richard Ainz on 19-12-2012 10:21 | 1044 Reads | 0 Comments

Greetings!

We are preparing the Infrastructure for Themes Submissions and Themes Guidelines, but, before we start accepting submissions, and thus also actually announcing and starting the contest (this may be viewed as a small heads-up) we need JUDGES.

JoiNNN is in, he is our Theme Dev, but I want four more. A total of five Judges. So I need your suggestions for the remaining four (4) Judges.

The person you suggest:

• must have been an active member for at least 18 months.
• must have insight in Themeing and Layout for PHP-Fusion.
• must be open for new layout solutions for PHP-Fusion.

• Send your suggestion to me via PM.
• You may not suggest yourself. Other than that all, and I say ALL, members are elegible.

Again, all members are elegible, you may suggest a Dev, an MT, or even me.

You must have permission from the person in question before you submit the name.

I will review the names continously and publish a decision when I have at least eight (8) names to choose from (twice as many as needed). I will not decide alone. Maybe even a vote if we have time.

Please do this as fast as possible. I will stop admitting submissions on dec 23, midnight, Central European Time.

Thank you, Richard

  Richard Ainz on 18-12-2012 07:20 | 1080 Reads | 3 Comments

Considering moving this site to a VPS hosting (virtual private server) puts me in the awkward position of not knowing anything. Well, that ain't new, I run the 8 Project and I don't know much about coding either, so well. I tend to fall into these things.

I am considering a few different hosts, one in particular might be www.linode.com, but regardless of host I will end up with some kind of *nix based administration. AND I SUCK AT *NIX. However, I am not without a plan. This news item is part of the plan. Setting up a test server on a DMZ at my home server farm is another part of the plan. I just need to figure out what distro might be relevant for this.

Please get back to me via PM.

A Warning. This is UNPAID work on your FREE TIME. No one will thank you for it, people will complain about just about everything they can think of, you might have to share access with other idiots like myself and we will  often conjure up some werd feature we may want to see on the server for hardly any good reason at all. Those are the burdens of having/running a community based server. You have been warned.

  Craig on 14-12-2012 19:47 | 643 Reads | 0 Comments

The PHP-Fusion 8 Team would like to wish all our users a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We may not see a live version 8 within 2012, but we are working on it. Remember that our lives do not circle around PHP-Fusion only. Illness, tragedies, workload and other real life events affect us all.

From all of us, to all of you, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!