I want to explore where we have been, where we are at right now, and where we are going. I feel to get somewhere, we need to know why and how, just like if we were jumping in our car and going out for the week end. We need to know why we are going, what the goals are, and how we are going to get there, maybe by using a map.
<font class="pn-title">Where we have been</font>
This project started sometime in May. I don't know the exact date, sorry. I was frustrated with the direction that I saw PHP-Nuke headed in. I really thought that we weren't making some of the necessary changes to make Nuke a CMS system that was really universal in scope and vision. It seemed to me that the project was continuing down a spiral of self-destruction because of many factors. Some of which I have explained already in the previous posts on the subject, and I see no reason to bring back up.
What was missing in my opinion was the true vision of what could be. Now, I don't claim to be the sharpest guy in the world, nor do I claim to be the best coder. What I do have are ideas on how things can be universally better for all of us.
I made a post on my site, expressing some of my thoughts, desires, and motives. This started the ideas in a few people. About the same time, Francisco Burzi, made his infamous post about open development, and so the ball started rolling from there. From that post, I was fortunate in finding three other like minded individuals, that shared the same concerns, and the dedication needed for a project this big that is released free of charge.
We spent the next month or so planning where we wanted to go. We also worked on some things that we knew could be done in the short term, and tried to get those together while we talked about the project. We also looked at some of the things that others were working on, to get even more ideas. All of this time was spent planning. We would be no where near the point we are now if we hadn't used this time wisely.
We spent quite a bit of time defining what we thought was the core. I wrote something up at the very beginning of the project that I thought was the core, but you know what? I was way off.
<font class="pn-title">Where we are at now</font>
Some of you might recognize that are project development status is Alpha. Some of you might also ask why we are in Alpha when we are forking from a supposed stable version ( PHP-Nuke 5.0 ). We are taking this time in Alpha status to explore some avenues that we can try to reach our goals. So what does Alpha mean to someone that just wants to install this ap on their website, and let it run? Well, it means that at times, we may release something that is not meant to be released. It also means that a feature that we are looking at might not work as well as we had hoped, or it worked worse than in our dev sites.
It also means that you might be inundated with releases. We will make every attempt possible to release code that is sound, but in Alpha status, you have to keep in mind that we are testing things.
We are trying to also build a community. Everyone is welcome here. Although, the current climate might be more suitable for some one that is accustom to a development atmosphere, I think that we are also doing our best to build up the community. Without the support of everyone that reads this document, we could well loose focus of where we want to go, and in the end we would all loose out. We want to build a better website. Obviously you want to see if there is something better on the horizon, or you would never visit.
<font class="pn-title">Where we are going</font>
Well, here it is in a nutshell of where we want to get to. We want a division of Core to Plugin files ( I'll get to this in a minute ). We want a system that installs without a hitch, that allows you to choose what you want to install to make your website run better and faster. That is what is on our mind. We also want to maintain some semblance to PHP-Nuke in terms of adding abstraction layers to allow you to be able to use all of its add-ons and themes if you so desire.
What's the core?
Quite frankly, the Core is the users system. My original thoughts had the core defined with many things including the content management. However, after our planning and discussions, we concluded that not every site absolutely wants even that. So what does that mean? We are going to shift very soon to focusing on what we have defined as the core of the system, and the rest of the system will be plugin based.
Let's say you want to run a site with just news and links. What we want to do, is allow the core script manage the user portion (which includes your administration functions) and allow you to decide what is right for your website. What is envisioned is that you upload the Core files to your web directory, and then run the install script to install the rest of the plugins. So the install script will install your news files and your link management.
Let's say instead, you want to run a forum, news and reviews. Well then, you will install the Core script, and then run the install file to install the rest. Starting to become clearer to you?
Now there will be other functions that the core will provide, such as the theme for the site, the administration, etc., but as far as managing something, the script will basically manage the users to your website. We want to allow everyone to install a website that is very easy to tailor to your own needs instead of having a ton of extra features that you don't use, or don't even understand why anyone would use them.
So what will this give us? It will give us the ability to have a rock solid stable core to the script, and then focus on the added feature that may not be suited to your needs, but someone else may have. This will allow everyone to enjoy the benefits of a high-end web site application that won't cost a cent to buy. We also hope that by having an open development model, this will speed us to fixing problems, and coming up with solutions to some of the challenges we face.
I hope this shed some light on our focus and objectives. If you have any suggestions or comments, let them be heard.
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