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Fundamental problem with Vanilla add-on system

RaizeRaize ✭✭
edited September 2008 in Vanilla 1.0 Help
It's surprising to me why some of the most basic features such as "who's online" and "private messaging" are not included with the basic vanilla installation. I understand that the whole concept of vanilla is so that people can download it and customize it according to what features they need, but this creates a major problem.

It's the add-on's that give each Vanilla installation it's personality and it's life....but the add-ons aren't updated nearly as often as the actual Vanilla software. I understand that it's open source but this is a definite downside...you can't even upgrade your forum out of fear that some of the addons might not work...and who knows when they'll be updated if at all...so their is a big compatibility issue that exists between the add-ons and the base Vanilla software and will exist in the future. I guess if your a coder you can do all this stuff yourself...but then again you could also code your own forum could you not? Just some thoughts, hope no one is offended...I recently switched over from vBulletin so I'm having to learn a whole new way of doing things but I'm enjoying learning and I think Vanilla is a much better choice in the long run (much more potential in this software). My experience so far has left me with a desire to learn coding and programming in the appropriate languages so that I can give back to the community as well as continue to develop personal projects.

Thoughts on this compatibility issue?

Comments

  • SubJunkSubJunk ✭✭
    To address your point about breaking the extensions when it updates, that's exactly why you should always test it before you put it live. There is always a chance an update will break something, it happens no matter how big or small a company is, or how open or closed the code is.
    The problem is developers can't read people's minds. If you want a feature to be added to an extension then tell the author of the extension, usually their website or email address is in ExtensionName/default.php, and if they don't respond fast enough you can always post on here that you want the feature added.
    For example with my extension Notifi I took the old extension Notify and improved it, because it had been causing problems for lots of people and was incomplete and buggy and most of all, hadn't been updated in a long time. If you make suggestions for extensions you'd like to see, or improvements to existing extensions, I will be happy to either provide you with code tweaks to make to the existing extension or release a new one, depending on how actively updated it is and if the original author's opinion if they can be reached.
    Open Source does rely on an active community, the more people there are the faster it will improve and the more dramatic the improvements will be, and I know that other people are here to give support when they can too.

    So I guess the real question is what would you like your forum to do now that it doesn't currently do?
  • palmdocpalmdoc
    I don't think it is a fundamental problem. I think the system is brilliant. A simple "plain Vanilla" base forum which you can really customise with add-ons to your heart's content. Of course there is some risk with rogue add-ons but with backups I don't think it is a big issue. Vanilla is really great for tinkerers!
  • miquelmiquel
    the main problem comes when addons don't get updated as the core do.

    example:
    some extensions in firefox when ff3 was launched.

    It has been suggested to take a community effort with these addons that are long-ago unsupported and I think is a good way to go.
  • palmdocpalmdoc
    I agree.. wish I could help but I don't know zilch about PHP programming
This discussion has been closed.