[Darth-Apple]

Many people have recently asked me when the next POC/Alpha release will be out. To be honest, I keep thinking it is only a couple weeks off, but every time I think it's close, I find something else to rewrite. The simple answer is that I'm basically recoding the whole thing one step at a time. I've implemented several new features, including hookable menus and notifications, hookable action, page, and form handlers, modular addons, templates, lang systems, and more to come. This is a pretty in-depth framework overhaul, and not only that, but I need to replace some DB classes, etc... as well. And I haven't even touched the ACP yet.

Given all of the framework changes, the majority of the existing code needs to be reworked. I'm already well into getting the pages for uploads, categories, etc... and I'm also in the process of rewriting the user management module. I've come to the conclusion that while I won't be doing a complete rewrite from scratch, I will need to take each module and rework it individually. The entire project could take a month or longer to complete, and the actual feature improvements will be marginal. However, once that's done, the code will be much easier to extend, and that is something I'm excited about.

Another concern is with security. Earlier on in the project, I wasn't quite sure whether or not I wanted to use mysqli, or PDO. After having coded much more into the project, I've decided that while PDO might be the smarter approach nowadays, that mysqli is something I am simply more familiar with, and I will thus convert all PDO code into mysqli code for the sake of simpler code and faster development. PDO is gaining popularity for a number of reasons, but mysqli is not deprecated and is still in popular use. Using consistent database methods will make it easier to keep the code secure and consistent.

As for where the alpha stands, once the code is reworked, I plan on finishing a few core features, such as comments, etc..., then on releasing a proof of concept release. It's still a ways off, but I'd like to go ahead and get some code out in the open once I'm able to. Of course github is also probably coming in the future. I'm hoping to complete this sometime in May, but we shall see how it works out. In addition, I plan on launching an official website for it as well. This is something I'm uber excited about planning.

Anyway, stay tuned for more! I'll keep you guys updated as more progress is made.

[Darth-Apple]

I've just stripped out a significant amount of unused or incomplete code, and am in the process of rewriting a good portion of the API. I've also cut down on the size of the project quite a bit, as it is now down to 5,268 lines of code (excluding CSS). I expect to reclaim that higher linecount very shortly, but for now, getting rid of messy code was a good step in the right direction.

[Darth-Apple]

I just reworked the tempalate engine slightly, and reworked a considerable amount of code to work with a much neater framework. In addition, I reorganized core functions to use better naming schemes, so the code as a whole is much more organized.

I also implemented tinyMCE, a nice little editor that will begin to pave the way for better forms, etc...





Once again, the theme isn't final, and will be improved. This is still very much a pre-alpha build.

[simlink]

Looking awesome, Darth!

[Acko]

Yup, I agree! Can't wait for it

[Darth-Apple]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

I'm currently working on the comments and feedback framework, and will soon expand basic CMS features after that. I'm getting pretty excited about where this is going, and I'm starting to make better use of my brand new template system.

[Darth-Apple]

Using my new API is getting confusing even for myself, mostly due to the time between days when I can actually spend several hours on end developing. I've spent several hours over the past couple of days in development, and I am working hard on getting the actual comments system to work. Unfortunately, this one may take a little while, as I'm still trying to figure out how to use the ajax involved. However, it is in progress, and will make designing a future forum module much easier.

[Darth-Apple]

For the first time since development began, I am officially redoing the Database API and gutting out all current database related code and reworking it completely. Needless to say, the old code got messy as I was experimenting with different setups to see what would work best, and I ended up with a PDO based connection and a mysqli based connection that both had to be maintained. No solution really worked out the way that I had hoped, and it only ended up adding dependencies and creating unneeded complications.

The new database class will be based off of pure mysqli, and many simple queries will have functions for them to avoid having to actually write the queries in code. For example, a simple function call is all you need to make a simple query to a table. Given that I'm not particularly great at mysql and database design, this will help prevent me from having to dig up mysqli syntax every time I need to do something simple.

MOre importantly, this gives me an opportunity to go deep into Filecave's code and to remove some bugs and stabilize some of the core code base, and also allows allows me to secure more code that has been left insecure for a while. It may be only one step, but this will hopefully pave the way for more advanced data structures, which will in turn allow me to develop more advanced content management features.

Stay tuned for more. I'm slowly getting back into this project yet again, so development may be slow for a bit while I get back into the flow of gutting the old code out and turning it into a framework driven script.

[CapTon]

The template looks very nice so far I hope everything works out and that the final result is as good as it appears it will be.

[Thomas]

Any updates?