The lack of publication about a new XOOPS version for month now is worrying some members of our french community, and the french speaking XOOPS Team has decided to share his thoughs about it.

Facts

At the beginning of the year 2006, Skalpa, a frenchie, has taken the leading of the XOOPS Core development, with our support.

Article : http://www.frxoops.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=938

We have met him at spring 2006, in Auvergne (just in the middle of France), so we could have more lights on the roadmap he had published on january. The result of this meeting can be read in this article: http://www.frxoops.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=962

Next to this, two new versions labeled 2.3.0a1 et 2.3.0a2 have been published on the svn (http://xoops.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/xoops/XoopsCore/releases/) along with two new 2.2.5 Release Candidate versions.

Since then, no more communications have been realised, and the questions which have been asked about this subject on the xoops.org website have got no official replies or have been censored.

Causes

We admit that in the person of Skalpa, we have certain competences and high qualities regarding the goals we have to reach, code purity to be used, along with security concerns. Although, regarding project mangement and communication, the deception was even greater, which is not without consequences about the current situation.

Of course, we have to admit the chalenge was not easy to face, as the final objective was to publish à 2.3.0 which could, starting from intermediate versions, ensure an ascending compatibility with existing versions, while the amount of developpers was to start "from scratch again" with php5 only, even with we had to create migration scripts.

En now?

We have to relativise things : a website may normally work with a 2.0.16 version, and our concern is more to be attentive about the futur and study possible solutions.

In our forums (french ones) some have proposed the possibility to realise à 2.0.17 fr version. The idea is interesting, but we don't have today enough competencies in numbers and qualities allowing to produce reliable code in object coding. Even more, walking on a 2.0.17 would be a short term view and woul not allow to take in account the most important evolutions.

We have been announced the release in a short term of a new version which would merge the 2.0.16 and 2.2.5 versions, but we don't see anything on the svn. As for the date, we have been told "very soon"!!! (not everyone has the same timing notion).

A japanese guy (Minahito) and some other xoops.org members have created XOOPS Cube for month now. We could summarize this solution defining XOOPS Cube has a web application base, allowing, through XOOPS Legacy, to emulate XOOPS (most of XOOPS modules would work with XoopsCube). It's ready for php6, uses design patterns( http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motif_de_conception) and has naming rules, along with an extension system preventing the core hacking.

Conclusion

While we are waiting for an hypothetical official version, we will in a few week, open our website a XOOPS Cube oriented place where we could let you know about our first analysis, propose support for this version. As we want to publish a french documentation, we are looking for english-french translators.

The French Speaking XOOPS Team (http://www.frxoops.org)
Original message can be found here

mmmm

this is not a good news for the XOOPS world... but i understand you at 100% ....

the situation of XOOPS is ridicoulous....

Very sad. No doubt XOOPS France allways was one of the pillars of Xoops.

Good luck!

This is clearly disturbing news but totally understandable given the fact that XOOPS turned from Open Source to Foggy Source where only the devs know about the path ahead.

Is one thing when isolated members leave the project and is one thing when a whole regional community leaves the project leaving us with a huge hole that i doubt it will be be filled .
Are the devs as big to fill this void?...I personally doubt it

Maybe this will be a wake up slap for XOOPS that things are really that bad as they seem and something will actually be done. Please don't insult our intelligence and give delay reasons such as users didn't submitted bugs or users didn't submitted good pieces of code as one can easily point out few threads regarding both that lead to not even an answer from the devs...it might be a huge forum here but the important threads are easily standing out.

Good Luck XOOPS(Cube) France

@solo71

I cannot critizice your choice, i do respect you.
The problem with XOOPS core development is not the lack of a public roadmap (even drupal hasn't one, but they are very productive) but the fact that no code is really written and (possibly) improved.
I don't trust XOOPS any more, as it is now, that's why i suspended the development of tinyeditor module.
I honestly don't want to put my efforts in a project that's clearly decading.
ralf57

This is of course very disheartening, whilst at the same time very understandable.

There have not always been International support sites in so many languages, however time goes on and these positions were filled, as I'm sure they will be again.

Solo, thank you for all your work and all your dedication, you will sadly be missed.

just a little precision... We (frxoops) are not leaving XOOPS but we open our support to XOOPS Cube which is the only true project alive today.
We lose our best members due to the lack of visibility and community spirit. Who can do something here ? Is it one guy right now how having the authority and the skills for giving a new way to the project ?
I know just one guy : Onokazu, the founder XOOPS.
He is the owner of the xoops.org domain and work with the japanese team.

It's just my opinion.

Is it possible to put x.org through to xc.org?
IMHO sooner or later it will be indispensable.

Quote:

there are many guys for the contributions... but is necessary ONE LEADER... is necessary early!

best

Quote:

I don't think that XOOPS Cube is the only project alive. There are indicators that point to significant work being done on XOOPS. Tom's article is a good summary of what is being worked on.

We just need to be patient. There is a lot that needs to be done, but only a small group of people taking on the work. Considering that it is all volunteer work, I'm very grateful regarding their efforts. In the long run, XOOPS is going to be one of the best content management systems available. It is already far beyond other systems in many respects.

Dave