Dreaming, thinking and doing

Written by Wilco Jansen Friday, 02 January 2009 14:00

A guy thinking on Joomla! 1.6, 2.0

I spend a lot of time with family and friends during past Christmas. These days are traditionally very relaxed, and at the end of a year I always tend to look back on what has been done and what I would like to see happening for the upcoming year. As with many others people I use the brand new year to look ahead and share my dreams for what I would like to see happening in 2009 for the Joomla! project. Let's start with looking back from the perspective of a development coordinator.

I have published this article also on the Joomla! community site. Having spend the whole morning drafting it I decided to post it also on JFoobar because I think our readers will find it of interest.

Joomla! in 2008

2008 was a big milestone for Joomla! The fully refactored 1.5 was released on January 22nd of 2008 and we have seen 8 maintenance releases afterward.
The Joomla! bug Squad has matured. This team, set up in late 2007 has been working hard to be the cornerstone of the group that drives Joomla! maintenance. When I created the bug squad I was dreaming of a more open organisation. The bug Squad now has around 70 members, and is organized around two team leaders (Ian MacLennan and Mark Dexter) and two co-maintainers (Ian MacLennan and Kevin Devine) who are responsible for committing the provided (and tested) patches.
During this years Summer of Code (SoC) we had 15 projects, of which 10 finished successfully. Again we have to thank Google for the great support they have given again to the Joomla! project, a big thanks also goes to the SoC participants. I hope we can have at least the same amount of projects going this year.
Development of Joomla! 1.6 has started. We had a slow start, but as Andrew mentions in his happy new year post on the developer site things are shaping.
The sites where redesigned into a new look an feel.
End of life for Joomla! 1.0.x has been announced. Support of this version will end at June 22nd 2008 as announced in the "An old friend comes of age" blog.
In August of this year I resigned from the core team, and in September I joined the board of OSM.
On December 21th the JED team announced they will phase out all 1.0.x extension.
Two days later the JED team also announced they are going to be full GPL on the extension directory.
JED passed the 4.000 extensions marker, and we also went passed the 7.000.000 download marker (not counting the localized versions).

Dreams for 2009

The release of Joomla! 1.6 and the start of development of Joomla! 2.0. The most important feature for Joomla! 1.6 will be the new ACL, but also the update logic, (partly) refactoring of the code-base, addition of new triggers, implementation of object level and module position caching are features that most likely will go into 1.6.
Move to a developers eco-sphere that is more open. Currently we are struggling with creating new versions of Joomla! This is because we have a shortage of developers actually being active on the core code-base. During the development work-group summit in January we will certainly discuss this and see how we could move to a more open model of development, feedback/input is welcome (just mail or leave a reply in this topic).
Opening of a Joomla! laboratory. An open environment where people can join in and work on cool new, innovative Joomla! solutions.
See applications being build on top of the application framework. Joomla! is known as a content management system (CMS), but not everyone is aware that the CMS is basically build on top of the Joomla! application framework. I would like to see people start developing web applications on top of this application framework.
Release of the application framework (separately from the CMS part). See also the previous topic. I would love to see the future CMS versions being just an application on top of the application framework.
A full rewrite of com_content and addition of new (must have) features like RDF, micro-formats and a fully accessible back-end.

Thoughts for 2009

Most of the topics mentioned in the previous paragraph will most likely be on the agenda of the first Development Coordinator Summit in Australia in January 2009. Along with Andrew, Anthony, Louis and Sam we are going to discuss for sure the 1.6 finalisation approach and hopefully be close to the first alpha after the summit. I am pretty certainly we will discuss the other topics also.

Looking at the bigger picture we see a shift in the market. Content management systems are getting main stream, and the top class projects (Wordpress, Drupal, Alfresco to name a few) will have the attention of the bigger professional companies. Wordpress, Drupal and Alfresco are project that have some big names supporting them, and with that they are able to move very fast implementing new versions and features. Not only are these projects able to move fast, there will also be professional services surrounding these projects. I personally think we will see companies move in exactly the same direction with Joomla!

The project has become incredible big, and to sustain the growth and position we are in currently we need to work on enabling people to contribute more. Progression is slower then we would like to see because the failure to execute many of the ideas and plans that we have. First of all I would like to see the number of SoC project grow, and also see more community involvement in mentoring and student involvement so that more of the final results will go back into the Joomla! project. Let's not forget that this project exists because of the people who contribute, and for that all of us should strive to remove barriers to participation and single points of failure. On to many areas we rely on individual contributors that spend countless hours to keep things running. Let's prevent these people from burning out. For that I urge companies that use Joomla! to contribute back to the project in substantial ways, not only with financial donations but preferable offer manpower to work on Joomla! tasks.

Events for 2009

Having visited 8 Joomla!days in 2008 and some other events I don't have the full agenda plotted yet, but the first quarter of the year is pretty filled already. I will visit the following events:

Development Coordinator Summit in Australia from 22 to 26 of January. As mentioned before we discuss 1.6 and other topics related to Joomla! development. We will try to send out at least a summary of what we discussed, even try to blog on it on a daily basis.
Fosdem 2009 in Belgium (Brussels) on 8 and 9 February. We will have a booth there and I have applied for a session there. Please meet us there, or if you have time help out with manning the booth. We already have an exciting crew lined up (Alex Kempkens, Arno Zijlstra, Antonie de Wilde, Peter Martin, Marijke Stuiverberg) but we always can use more people.
Joomla!day United Kingdom (Oakwood House, in Maidstone, Kent) on 13th and 14th March. There will be participation of a number of well known Core Team members, Open Source Matters Board members, and other Joomla! community members. The agenda for the Joomla!day is put together based on an overview of topics, if you can go there this is a must go event for Joomlers.
Joomla!day United States (Las vegas) on 3, 4 and 5 April. The Friday will be spend on professional training, I will do a training on securing Joomla! (including extensions), Andrew will cover design and deployment of extensions and Anthony will cover the Joomla! framework. The Saturday will be a community day and the sunday most likely will be a developers meetup.

About the author Wilco Jansen

Wilco was born in 1967 in the Netherlands where he still lives. After years of being a programmer Wilco has worked as project manager and IT manager. Discovered Joomla! when he was creating his own content management system, and never lost focus after then. Joined core team as development coordinator in May 2006 just helping to make Joomla! even better then it is already. Wilco has been deeply involved in the Joomla project as Google summer of code program manager 2006, 2007 and 2008 editions, co-organizer of the Google Highly Participation contest in 2008, first ever development coordinator, creator of the Joomla bug squad, member of the board of Open source matters, regular speaker on world wide conference advocating Joomla and much, much more. Wilco has a bachelor degree in business and information engineering and studied Master of Science knowledge and information engineering at the Middlesex University in London.

More about Wilco Jansen

There are 17 comments posted.

Re: great news

# 1 - Posted by: Brian Teeman on 2009-01-02 13:10:19

I particularly like the sound of new ways to enable developers to contribute directly to joomla.

One possible improvement here would be for a way for developers not only to see what people want to see in future versions of joomla, the White Papers, but also to see which of these are being worked on, by whom and where they are upto. This way they will be able to more easily see if there is something that scratches their itch that they can contribute to

I also look forward to accessibility and usability improvemennts in the administrator interface.

# 2 - Posted by: Wilco Jansen on 2009-01-02 13:42:16

Hi Brian,

My thoughts on opening up go way further then what I post here. Maybe it is not obvious for everyone, but it's becoming a burden for the happy few that spend 30-60 hours per week to contribute.

I also want to get rid of the "we versus them" feeling. Let's not forget what "Joomla!" was ment to be...all together, and I certainly want to see 2009 to be an example to open up more then we did. The bug squad was just one of the first steps, I am confident we can find more who start helping out on the coding area.

I am also totally with you when we need to show what's being worked at by who. This is our on the top of our agenda for the development summit, because not many people know exactly who is working on what.

Comments are greatly appreciated Brian, thanks for taking the time to respond.

Regards, Wilco

Re: mailing list

# 3 - Posted by: Brian Teeman on 2009-01-02 13:55:35

The developer joomla group used to be a great resource to see what is happening but sadly it's been a bit quiet over the last few months. Although the joomla commit mailing list has gone some way to show whats happening.

Perhaps one option would be to open up the cvs so that more people can sandbox there. There are lots of very talented accessibility and usability people in the project and if they had a platform to develop and showcase ideas it might help.

You're quite correct in saying that leaving development to a small group of people who commit 30+ hours a week really is untennable. We've been very lucky so far.

Re: Interesting ideas

# 4 - Posted by: Ivo Apostolov on 2009-01-02 14:11:33

Some interesting ideas around. In order to move forward, I think the project should pay less attention to the bureaucracy, which now a days appears to be the preferred area for some people :)

I think I should starting the preparation of the branded underwear for 13-14 of March :)

Re: confused

# 5 - Posted by: Brian Teeman on 2009-01-02 14:52:09

have to au gree with you Ivo about all the bureaucracy. It does "appear" to be the mosst important thing tight now.

Roll on with the underwear - just no y-fronts please - thats one open source too far

Re: contributing code?

# 6 - Posted by: Brian Teeman on 2009-01-02 14:58:44

On a more serious note - how are people supposed to be contributing code to joomla 1.6?

I keep hearing people moaning (not here) about the lack of contributions but I struggle to find out how to.

I don't mean how to join the dev team as thats a time commitment people may not have I just mean contributing individual code improvements.

Re: Open Up the SVN to others...

# 7 - Posted by: Phil on 2009-01-02 16:55:58

Personally, If I had write access to the SVN for Joomla! My staff and I, would gladly dedicate time to bug fixing and coding for Joomla - for free.

However, we are not going to waste my time creating "patches" that take ages to go through a huge process of discussion and then are not even used by a "submitter" as they do their own "fix" anyway. (OpenID fixes as an example).

When I offered to help "the last time" my motives were questioned. At the end of the day, if you dont like the code changes made by developers - then peer review of the svn allows for these to be reversed...

For too long now Joomla's development has been slow because of a lack of developers developing. A lot has been done on the "community" site - but development is still slow, and by a few individuals.

If you are serious about losing the "we versus them feeling." then maybe you should not shout "Bravo" at posts that call "them" parasites and leeches - just a thought.

Re: Forgiveness sought...

# 8 - Posted by: Phil on 2009-01-02 17:14:13

Forgive my last comment - when I checked again - I attributed the "Bravo" comment to you when infact it was "Wilco" and not you :-) Sorry about that. I get confused sometimes - its the lack of coffee :-)

However it doesn't bode well that a Core Developer and Amy Stephen (What ever her role is at the moment) both support such comments as "parasites" and "leeches".

# 9 - Posted by: Wilco Jansen on 2009-01-02 17:14:58

@Phil: I have never called anyone a parasite, and will never do. Everyone has his motives to do what they do, I don't judge that, fact is that we still have to little people helping out on the real development. Do you have any idea how many patches of me where denied in the past 2,5 year. One denial does not make me stop trying (teasing you of course, but you will know what I mean).

The situation you refer to is known to me. The way the bug squad works is that they take every patch into account. We have improved dramatically if you take the period into account prior to the bug squad where no patch was ever taken. There is a quality mechanism in place to make sure the proper code goes in (at least 2 people test, and at least 2 people do a code review). The last patch you provided - and this is not meant to blame or shame you - was simply not good enough. We welcome people into the bug squad, we already have 70 people around. Maybe not clear enough, but my concerns are no longer on the area of fixing bugs. This process is in place and works very well.

@Brian: you point to a very serious problem, I am in no way denying that this is in perfect shape (on the contrary). I am open to suggestion and community feedback as I pointed out in my blogs. Just that you are aware, the reason we planned the development coordinator summit is just to discuss possible resolution strategies to open up. Yes, I have a lot in mind, but rather see people providing feedback in this stage then again "dictating" the change. More then happy to have an open discussion on that (IRC? UK Joomladay?)

Re: IRC

# 10 - Posted by: Brian Teeman on 2009-01-02 17:23:13

The idea of a moderated IRC chat would be a positive step.

If you have a look at how the debian project leader irc chats are run then I believe it would be productive.

Definitely no harm in giving it a go. Cant be any worse than now.

# 11 - Posted by: Barrie North on 2009-01-02 18:00:26

@Wilco

I think Phil is referring to this blog post and its comments

http://www.ambitonline.com/nextrelease/archives/117-More-Controversy-the-Joomla-Extensions-Directory-JED-and-the-GPL.html

I don't think you were the commenter :)

# 12 - Posted by: Amy Stephen on 2009-01-02 21:46:51

I am encouraging everyone to read and re-read Fogel's Producing OSS, like I am. There are some things we do very well in the Joomla! project, and other times we are "the poster boy of what not to do."

Enough said.

For the record (speaking into the microphone) - when I speak, I speak for myself. That includes blogs, comments, forum posts, and phone calls with my mother. If you are interested in promoting openness and honestly, then please do not discourage people who are known in the project from speaking their mind. Check out Fogel's section entitled "Appear as Many, Not as One" http://producingoss.com/en/appear-as-many.html

I hate this fighting. I don't sleep well. It really bothers me and I'm guessing everyone feels that way. But, it's been 18 months since the "Open Source Does Matter" piece was written and the path described has been followed. The direction is not going to change.

I encourage people to read Alan's well written, be it punchy, self expression and think about his perspective as a contributor on the project. I thought he landed some well considered points and he is certainly entitled to speak his mind, especially on his own blog. http://tinyurl.com/gplrok

I want the Joomla! community to come back together. Time to start anew. Who else is interested?

Re: what?

# 13 - Posted by: Brian Teeman on 2009-01-02 22:13:48

@amy its simple - there are some people who just cant resist name calling. you're right it was alan's own blog and he is perfectly entitled to his comments. but when you call people names you have to accept it if they are unhappy. thankfully you dont see petty name calling on this blog and i hope you dont see it on mine. discussions like this should be about joomla and not about individuals.

@jfoobar i wont comment on this isssue again

# 14 - Posted by: Amy Stephen on 2009-01-02 22:46:13

It is not any more helpful to dismiss the entirety of a well considered, thoughtful reflection of a contributor then it is to use unfriendly terms.

Who takes a step forward? I will. What do you want from me? I'll try to deliver it.

Re: Re: #12

# 15 - Posted by: Robin Muilwijk on 2009-01-03 08:08:53

@ Amy: I might just go and re-read the Fogel's Producing OSS. At days like this, where community members don't like "to play the game" but only question it's rules it crosses my mind to drop the ball on all stuff I do for the project as well...

# 16 - Posted by: Amy Stephen on 2009-01-03 15:57:58

Robin - you are a cornerstone for the Joomla! project and one who I do not think *ever* has had a bad word to say to or about anyone, but shows up and contributes, nearly every day. We put quite a weight on you. Stay encouraged. You are valued - very likely even by those who are questioning the rules, right now. Sincere thanks, Robin, for keeping peace and order.

# 17 - Posted by: pc-spiele on 2009-11-06 12:23:04

Hello...

I would like to thank you for sharing this post.Actually when I speak for myself it includes blogs, comments, forum posting with my friend. I am interested in honestly,promoting my openness and then please encourage people who are known in the project from speaking their mind.

Thank you very much for sharing this.

Help for creating beautiful comments.

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